The third season over, we present our summarized ratings and reflect on that which was:
Title | Eugene’s Rating |
Torie’s Rating |
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1. | ![]() |
3×06 | “Spock’s Brain” Aired: September 20, 1968 |
Impulse Power |
¼ Impulse Power |
2. | ![]() |
3×04 | “The Enterprise Incident” Aired: September 27, 1968 |
5 | 5 |
3. | ![]() |
3×03 | “The Paradise Syndrome” Aired: October 4, 1968 |
3 | 1 |
4. | ![]() |
3×05 | “And The Children Shall Lead” Aired: October 11, 1968 |
1 | 2 |
5. | ![]() |
3×07 | “Is There In Truth No Beauty?” Aired: October 8, 1968 |
4 | 5 |
6. | ![]() |
3×01 | “Spectre of the Gun” Aired: October 25, 1968 |
4 | 3 |
7. | ![]() |
3×11 | “Day of the Dove” Aired: November 1, 1968 |
2 | 2 |
8. | ![]() |
3×10 | “For the World is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky” Aired: November 8, 1968 |
5 | 4 |
9. | ![]() |
3×09 | “The Tholian Web” Aired: November 15, 1968 |
6 | 3 |
10. | ![]() |
3×12 | “Plato’s Stepchildren” Aired: November 13, 1968 |
Full Stop |
Full Stop |
11. | ![]() |
3×13 | “Wink of an Eye” Aired: November 29, 1968 |
3 | 3 |
12. | ![]() |
3×08 | “The Empath” Aired: December 6, 1968 |
2 | 2 |
13. | ![]() |
3×02 | “Elaan of Troyius” Aired: December 20, 1968 |
4 | 3 |
14. | ![]() |
3×16 | “Whom Gods Destroy” Aired: January 3, 1969 |
3 | 2 |
15. | ![]() |
3×15 | “Let That Be Your Last Battlefield” Aired: January 10, 1969 |
2 | 4 |
16. | ![]() |
3×17 | “The Mark of Gideon” Aired: January 17, 1969 |
2 | Impulse Power |
17. | ![]() |
3×14 | “That Which Survives” Aired: January 24, 1969 |
3 | 2 |
18. | ![]() |
3×18 | “The Lights of Zetar” Aired: January 31, 1969 |
2 | 3 |
19. | ![]() |
3×21 | “Requiem for Methuselah” Aired: February 14, 1969 |
Full Stop |
5 |
20. | ![]() |
3×20 | “The Way to Eden” Aired: February 21, 1969 |
Warp Core Breach |
Warp Core Breach |
21. | ![]() |
3×19 | “The Cloud Minders” Aired: February 28, 1969 |
3 | 3 |
22. | ![]() |
3×22 | “The Savage Curtain” Aired: March 7, 1969 |
2 | 1 |
23. | ![]() |
3×23 | “All Our Yesterdays” Aired: March 14, 1969 |
4 | 5 |
24. | ![]() |
3×24 | “Turnabout Intruder” Aired: June 3, 1969 |
Full Stop |
Full Stop |
Are there any ratings you would change?
Eugene: To start off on a positive note, I’ll bump “Requiem for Methuselah” up to a Warp 1, slightly narrowing the yawning gap between my rating and Torie’s. I agree that I was far too harsh on it, and it certainly rates much better than the other episodes I rated at a “Full Stop.” And though I re-watched “All Our Yesterdays” not too long ago, the discussion that ensued and Torie’s observations have convinced me to promote it to Warp 5. Finally, I almost gave “The Enterprise Incident” a Warp 6, and I think I’m gonna do it… Yeah, I’m changing it to Warp 6. In retrospect, it was really very good, and I’m now convinced it’s one of the best in the series. There’s no question that it’s the best of the season, and as other pointed out, it kind of marks the downward trajectory of the writing and progressiveness of the show when you compare it to “Turnabout Intruder.”
My memories of “Plato’s Stepchildren” have plagued me since I re-watched it, compelling me to drop it to a “Warp Core Breach.” Really, it was the very definition of terrible. What’s worse then a warp core breach? Because it might deserve that.
Torie: “Plato’s Stepchildren” is getting marked down from “Full Stop” to “Warp Core Breach.” With the perspective of the rest of the season, it is by far the worst episode in Star Trek, period. Likewise, “The Way to Eden” is revised upward from “Warp Core Breach” to “Full Stop.” It’s kind of fun in a silly way, but more importantly it doesn’t approach the devastating new low set by “Plato’s Stepchildren.”
Best episode? Favorite episode?
Eugene: I only rated two episodes a Warp 6, which makes this easy: “The Enterprise Incident” is the best, but my favorite is “The Tholian Web.” If I can mention a runner up for my favorite, it would have to be “For the World is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky,” which had big ideas and touching, believable characterization. And one of the best episode titles in the entire franchise.
Torie: Best is a tough one, even if this is a season without a single Warp 6. I think it’s a dead tie between “The Enterprise Incident” and “All Our Yesterdays.” However, I think my favorite was “Is There In Truth No Beauty?” It’s just such an intriguing idea, beautifully brought to life by Diana Muldaur.
Most disappointing episode?
Eugene: That has to be “Requiem for Methuselah.” Somehow I had fond memories of it, but I can’t imagine how I ever could have liked it, even if it has a nifty title. As you may remember, this one actually made me angry, and I found it ludicrous in every way.
Torie: Can you be disappointed with no expectations? I guess “The Tholian Web,” which had been talked up a great deal and utterly failed to capture my imagination.
Eugene’s final thoughts on Season 3: As hard as it might be to believe, I was pleasantly surprised by season 3. Of course, I was prepared to re-watch a lot of rotten episodes, and many were much, much worse than I feared, but it also had better offerings than I remembered. In my final tally, I gave two Warp 6 ratings, which is two more than I would have thought possible. The season is every bit deserving of its reputation, given that most of the episodes hovered in the 1-3 range–but you can’t completely write it off. Were those handful of solid episodes worth the twenty awful ones? I don’t know. Out of seven seasons of Star Trek: Voyager, there are about seven hours of television that I’m really glad I saw. So this at least has a better ratio of good to bad, and surely the world is a better place with “The Enterprise Incident” than without.
The thing is, I can’t quite pinpoint why it failed so spectacularly. Fred Freiberger is the obvious scapegoat, but how did his influence actually manifest? Even with a smaller budget, the show’s effects were not noticeably worse than the previous seasons, except in isolated cases, like the man falling from Stratos in “The Cloud Minders” and the time lapse photography in “The Empath.” The acting was fairly standard, with some amazing performances by regular cast and guest stars alike. The costumes were perhaps more ridiculous than usual, but that was always true, especially when beautiful women were in them. On the other hand, the direction and cinematography were markedly awful, in part because of the departure of Jerry Finnerman, who had shot the show since season 1. But what was Marc Daniels’ excuse for his incompetent direction in “Spock’s Brain”?
We can’t even attribute the poorer quality to Roddenberry’s diminished involvement. It’s easy to imagine that the show would have fared better if its captain had gone down with the ship, but he contributed to some of the worst atrocities of the season, and it didn’t help matters when he tried to use the show to peddle trinkets. Overall, I think the biggest issue was a lower caliber of writing, for whatever reason, and an inconsistency in both episode plots and the show’s tone and philosophy, which all of these problems likely factored into. This could be due to a rushed schedule, or sloppiness because the show was cancelled, or bad rewrites… or maybe the writers were already burned out and didn’t quite know what to do with what they had. Hey, the latter happened even when later series had both money and network support.
What’s most frustrating is that nearly every third season episode had potential for greatness, and viewers were taunted by the memories of the show that was. If there’s any consolation, it’s that it could have been even more of a disaster, without the actors defending their characters and fighting to keep the show more or less on track. Even Freiberger probably did his best in a thankless job with one hand tied behind his back and no chance of a series renewal.
And let’s not forget, the series couldn’t have gone on to success in syndication without the third season to fill out the number of episodes so it could be “stripped” for daily broadcast on local stations.
Kirk: My God, Bones… what have I done?
McCoy: What you had to do. What you always do: turn death into a fighting chance to live.
Syndication is where Star Trek found its core audience and gained enough popularity to spawn a fan culture and franchise that includes five television shows, ten movies, hundreds of media tie-in books, dozens of games, and a whole kit and caboodle of parodies. So I guess the third season was good for something after all, huh?
Then again, by that argument, season 3 is responsible for the existence of Star Trek: Enterprise. Now it all makes sense…
Torie’s final thoughts on Season 3: I was prepared for this from the beginning. Everyone warned me that the third season was awful, but I kind of brushed it off. I figured there wouldn’t be many warp 6s, but none?!
For better or worse, the show has never sustained itself on mediocrity. Most episodes inspired some kind of reasonably intense intellectual or emotional response: reflection and awe at the great ones, or anger and sadness at the terrible ones. But with few in-betweens, the highs are so much higher and the lows are so much lower. This is new to me–I’m used to a steady flow of mediocrity in my television–and it winds up being all the more disappointing to see garbage like “The Paradise Syndrome” branded with the same franchise label as, say, “Balance of Terror” (or even the slightly more similar “This Side of Paradise”). I don’t think I ever felt so unmotivated and depressed as when we hit the halfway mark of the season. I actually went back to read old episode reviews and remind myself that the show was worth watching at some point. This might be a side effect of how the trade-offs shook out. (How is it that I got “The Paradise Syndrome,” “The Empath,” “The Mark of Gideon,” “The Way to Eden,” “The Savage Curtain,” AND “Turnabout Intruder”??) I began to dread these weekly reviews. How could a show that brought me so much become this soul-sucking experience?1
I didn’t mind the budget cuts or the crummy special effects. What bothered me was the sense that the show had lost its coherent vision of what the future represented. We’d flip back and forth from “Plato’s Stepchildren,” with a lengthy speech about inclusiveness, to something like “Turnabout Intruder,” a propagandist indictment of career women. Kirk will go from intense compassion for others in something like “For the World is Hollow” to a complete refusal to help (easily help!) a troubled and suffering race (“Wink of an Eye”). It feels sloppy. The inspiring, can-do, progressive, and adventuring spirit was chucked between drafts 2 and 10, and all that’s left is a skeletal plot, some hammy performances to pick up the slack, and maybe a silly costume or five.
It feels like a parody of itself. The actors can put on the outfits and go through the motions, but the heart and soul of the show–the steadfast belief that mankind can accomplish great things–is shallow, or worse, cliche. There’s no one to blame here but the writers. This is perhaps best illustrated by the third season’s attempts to rip off its own recent stories, forcing otherwise serviceable episodes (say, “Miri”) into a negative feedback loop of absolute dreck (“And the Children Shall Lead”). It’s like they started with a meaty science fictional idea and then crushed it beneath the bootheels of Fred F. to collect the ground-up byproduct that drained through the sewer grate below. Mash that into a patty and ta-da! “The Empath” is served.
It wouldn’t be half so upsetting if there weren’t diamonds in the rough (“The Enterprise Incident” and “All Our Yesterdays” being the obvious examples). The former gives us a Star Trek first: a bona fide spy mission, complete with a competent female commander (sadly both nameless and the enemy); and a last, the final appearance of the Romulans. It’s strongly plotted, sharply penned, and exciting to watch. “All Our Yesterdays” is, again, among the best the show has to offer: an elegant, if terrifying solution to a science fictional problem. Both happen to involve Spock love stories, which is probably a coincidence. But they also both involve well-rounded characters trapped in difficult situations who find a way to succeed and prove their mettle in the process. Some episodes are so close, too. What if “Spectre of the Gun,” or “The Lights of Zetar,” had been just a little bit better?
Watching the third season of Star Trek is kind of like running into your high school’s Most Likely to Succeed at McDonald’s. Behind the counter. I mean, what the hell went wrong that this happened? You were gonna be great.
1 Cue flashbacks to a similar experience watching the downfall of my first favorite show, The X-Files.
I think the biggest surprise for me was that “Spock’s Brain” was slightly less bad than it’s reputation. Maybe that is the result of it coming in such close proximity to the other awfulness of the 3rd season, rather than mixed in with earlier episodes as it usually was in syndication. There were certainly a lot of WTF decisions made over the course of the season, but that seems to have been characteristic of Fred Freiberger throughout his career.
Eugene tries to put some of the blame on writer burnout, but I’m afraid that’s not going to work. The idea of a show having a set team of writers is fairly new and it’s only been standard practice for 10 or 15 years. In the 60s shows either solicited scripts or accepted pitches. After all both “Tribbles” and “The Empath” essentially came in over the transom from fans. What is noteworthy for this season is that there were no episodes from major SF writers and two from Jerome Bixby, who had some credentials, but certainly wasn’t an Ellison, Sturgeon or Spinrad. I suppose you put the blame on the script editors and whoever else was responsible for choosing the scripts to shoot.
Torie comments on the loss of optimism. That may have been reflective of American society as a whole. There had been an awful lot that made the show’s earlier bright future seem less and less likely. Two major political assassinations as the third season was going into production and people were starting to see Vietnam rather differently than they had to that point. Mind you, the show should have been a beacon of hope working against that loss of optimism, but writers are people too.
I think DemetriosX has a good point in suggesting that some of the loss of hope in the 3rd season may be a reflection of the time. 1969 had a lot of crazy shit going on. The assassinations, Vietnam had no end in sight and what may have been the most hopeful event of the year, the moon landing, wouldn’t happen until after the show had been shut down.
I think the general morale must have been in pretty bad shape as well. These people had been in the business long enough to know that they were not likely to have a job anymore at the end of the year and with the lack of executive support, crappy scripts, no budget and their creator selling out, I’d imagine it’d be pretty hard to go to work day after day.
Anyway, I’m glad that even with the crap that aired that season we still had a few gems and they got enough episodes to syndicate and live on through everything else that has come after. On my way into work this morning, I was flipping through XM radio stations and turned on the soundtrack to Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. No only does it still get played almost 30 years later, I was enjoying it so much I didn’t want to turn it off and come into the office. I would have stayed out there listening to the whole thing if I could have.
So even in the worst of times, I’m glad those folks kept going to work.
All of the above. But, the influence of the time and the lack of willingness and leadership in fighting against that influence may be the biggest problem. Maybe that’s where the burnout was – not in coming up with ideas but in fighting the influence. Or, was it self preservation? Everyone knew there would be no fourth season so they had to have been already thinking of what was to come next. Why risk being branded a maverick by pushing to break new ground when you know that you’ll soon be looking for new employment?
So what did we get in season three? Mostly a string of episodes that fit in nicely with everything else running on TV at the time. (Not just Lost In Space.) While it is true that they touched on some hot button issues they did not elevate and examine those issues to the extent possible in both the Star Trek franchise and in science fiction in general. What we got were trite solutions designed, I believe, to upset the least possible number of viewers. Take the kiss in Plato’s Stepchildren. Yes, it did – and still does in come circles – raise anger in some but not as much as it would have had it not been staged as forced with neither party wanting to do it. The problem of children feeling ignored by their parents who are busy meeting their own obligations and interests could not have been addressed outright on TV in 1969 when the networks relied (and still do) on revenue from sponsors pushing the American Dream (American Nightmare?) of using credit to buy happiness with their products.
I think that even with the overall low quality of season three episodes, we have to judge Star Trek (The Original Series) as a success. Star Trek episodes still get mentioned in discussions of certain issues. Star Trek references still work in comedy – South Park’s red-shirted kill-off character in the stranded school bus episode and a black comedian (I can’t remember who it was) using the phrase “The ni****’s a cube, Jim.” in a stand-up routine are two examples that come to mind.
Lost In Space, Land of the Giants and Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea have not held up in the public culture. I believe that is because they didn’t challenge the system. They didn’t address the hot button issues. They gave us episodes the sponsors could feel comfortable with. Even Time Tunnel. That series stayed the course by showing us that a pair of white guys were solving history’s problems.
Now I’d like to cite a later series that was more successful in addressing hot-button issues and, I believe, based some of its successes on the ground broken by Star Trek. M*A*S*H, as a series set within a historical context, couldn’t solve the country’s problems within its stories but it was able to bring those problems into public thought and discussion again. It did in the comedy setting what Star Trek (at its best) tried to do in the science fiction setting – get the viewers thinking rather than telling them what to think.
I could go on but I’ve probably rambled too long already.
@ 1 DemetriosX
I can’t agree with you on “Spock’s Brain,” but that may be because I had to watch it a thousand times.
As for the loss of optimism, I don’t feel like the show tried to engage in a meaningful way with many of the cultural issues we saw in earlier seasons. Rather than reflecting a coherent lack of optimism, it just felt sloppily put together and not deeply considered either this way or that way.
@ 2 Toryx
I am grateful for that, too.
@ 3 Ludon
You hit the nail on the head here. I think the episodes were made to be like other television airing at about the same time rather than made to be like the Star Trek that came before. That would explain the conflicting value judgments, at least.
Also, we will do a Series Wrap-Up eventually, so we’ll get back to some of the bigger picture stuff you touch on later.
@1 DemetriosX
I was also really surprised at “Spock’s Brain.” It’s kind of the poster child for the awfulness of the season, but it was better than I expected. Actually, it was more boring than I expected. I thought it would have some laughs at least, but Torie and I had to add those ourselves.
Re: writer burnout, I knew they didn’t have writing staffs as we know them, but it could be that the writers just didn’t know what to do with the series anymore. They had already been repeating themes and plot elements before the third season, but they became even more blatant about lifting whole stories and making them worse. Roddenberry used to rewrite episodes heavily, but I don’t know if his replacement did or not. Even if Roddenberry didn’t always do a good job, at least it added to a little of the consistency of writing and characterization.
@2 Toryx
I think the low morale was probably more about the fact they were losing their jobs than Vietnam, but I suppose it all affected them. Last night I read about the series wrap party following “Turnabout Intruder,” and it sounded like the lamest thing ever. I suppose it makes a difference whether you’re being forced off the air or leaving when you always planned to.
@3 Ludon
Do you think the show got away with more in the last season because the network or the sponsors were paying less attention? It was buried in the Friday night 10pm death slot and preempted three times, so three months passed between “All Our Yesterdays” and “Turnabout Intruder.” If so, more’s the shame they couldn’t do more with the opportunity and actually say something worthwhile instead of merely suggest that there was something interesting to say.
Re: Time Tunnel, I assumed that show didn’t take off very well because there were so few episodes. If they only had 30, I imagine it didn’t get broadcast in syndication, or at least not very often. I watched Land of the Giants and Lost in Space on USA Network when I was a kid and really enjoyed them, but I haven’t taken the time to look at them more closely since. I know they won’t hold up, but maybe they’ll still be mostly fun?
And you make an excellent point about the cultural significance of Star Trek, which is perhaps rivalled only by The Twilight Zone. I was watching an episode of Gilmore Girls the other night, and a character referred to adults as “grups.” A few episodes later, a major plot point revolved around a rocket ship from TZ’s “The Long Morrow.” This tells me the writers of Gilmore Girls are huge nerds, and that these shows have had a lasting impact that continues today. And maybe Torie can speak to this, but how different would Futurama have been if Star Trek had simply disappeared into obscurity?
@5 Eugene
You’re still watching Gilmore Girls? Do the piles of other DVDs that are sitting unwatched in your home ever give your Gilmore Girls box sets angry looks?
@Eugene #5
Simply put, without Star Trek, Futurama would not exist. Pre-zombie Futurama mined a lot of sources, but the most consistent and fertile vein, offering practically the whole plot for several episodes, was original-series Trek. I’d guesstimate at least half of those episodes are Trek-influenced in some way or another.
That’s without even taking into account that without Trek birthing passionate underground love for science fiction, a nerd like Matt Groening would probably have been into Tolkien or something. I disagree with an argument I’ve seen elsewhere that Trek was the foundation of fandom — that would be tLotR, if not The Sorrows of Young Werther — but it was essential in shaping the character of fan culture that came after it, and Groening is definitely a product of that culture.
Hi guys and gals: Been sick and been busy so my online presence has been thin.
You want a single identifiable cultural marker of the influence of the original series?
You counter-universe evil twin has a goatee.
People will do that gag in twenty years with no conception where it started,
@6 JohnSteed7
Most of the other DVDs were boxed up until recently. They’re happy just to be out in the open again. Gilmore Girls counts as quality time with my fiancee, as opposed to me sitting in front of the TV watching almost any other show by myself. Most of my TV watching these days is online, and the rest of it’s pretty much Star Trek.
@8 bobsandiego
Hope you’re feeling much better now! You’re absolutely right–that’s probably the most significant example, though I think the fight music from “Amok Time” is a close second.
And I think people are doing the goatee gag now without realizing where it came from, or they probably attribute it to Futurama. Just like a lot of people know episodes of The Twilight Zone only through the Treehouse of Horror parodies on The Simpsons.
@9 Eugene You are too true about the battle music from “Amok Time”. We were playing D&D a couple of weekends ago and during the fight I whipped out my iPhone and played that very piece. NASA used it recently as the wake up music for the Shuttle.
Recovering from a cold. Not enough to stop me for going to my day job, or editing my novel, but aside from that it’s been Dr Who and the Daily show for my mental needs.
Third season has come and gone and yea we had to endure quite a bit of dreck in our trek, but there were nuggents of gold here and there. I’m surprised though that Torie was so hard on The Tholian web. When I rewatched that one I thought it was better than I had remembered. Also I thought Eugene was far too harsh on “Requiem for Methuselah” while Tori was too kind, it was a middlin’ episode in my humble opinion. (And if you think my opinion is humble can I interest you in some stocks?)
Still even with Shoot-outs in the old west, Space Lincoln, Brainless Spocks, and even Charles Napier as a space Hippie., I am glad I traveled this path.
I was surprised at most of these. They’re either better than I remembered (or at least, like Spock’s Brain, more fun) or worse (I’d actually managed to repress memories of The Empath almost entirely, so thanks for that…)
@10 bobsandiego
I just replayed the clip they had of Shatner providing a new narration for the Star Trek theme wake up call, here in case anyone missed it.
He also just narrated a space shuttle documentary.
And did you guys hear that the Intrepid Museum is getting the Enterprise OV-101, the first Space Shuttle Orbiter? Just my luck, right after I move out of NYC. But of course I’ll make a trip back to visit it…
@12 ChurchHatesTucker
Yeah, “The Empath.” At least we suffered together on that one.
Eugene,
I saw Enterprise sitting atop the 747 Shuttle Carrier at an open house at Scott AFB (Illinois) many years ago. An impressive sight. (At least I remember it as being Enterprise.)
To everyone. If you have any interest in space or aviation and if a Shuttle is going to a museum near you (or within easy travel distance) watch for announcements of when and where it is to arrive. the sight of the 747 / Shuttle combination is a sight worth making an effort to see.
I’m really excited about the Enterprise shuttle going to the Intrepid Museum. Ironically, just when I moved to NYC they moved the Intrepid out to do some work on it so I never got the chance to visit it.
Now I have double the reason to go check it out next time I’m in town.
@ 13 Eugene
Let the two minutes of hate begin.
I have seen, live, both an Apollo and Shuttle launch so seeing a grounded shuttle is somewhat anti-climatic.
@12 Churchhates tucker
I *wish* I could repress the Empath. shudder. I still prefer my childhood interpretation that they were naming here ‘Jim’ and not ‘Gem’.
@14 Ludon
I didn’t even think about how they would get the shuttle there. That would be amazing to see! I’ll try to keep an eye out for that schedule.
@15 Toryx
Maybe we can coordinate that trip. What better excuse for a Star Trek Re-Watch meetup?
@16 bobsandiego
I’d assumed that they would let us walk around in the shuttle. No?
Good thinking, Eugene. That would certainly be a good activity, so long as beers can follow after. (or before, I’m not picky)
@ 11 bobsandiego
I was surprised, too. But The Tholian Web just didn’t add up to me.
@ 12 ChurchHatesTucker
We live to serve?
@ 13 Eugene & toryx
It’s just a prototype. I’m not sure why NYC is getting it–it’s not like we have a robust space history? But I never did make it out to that museum, so we should totally arrange a meetup. :)
All:
I may have exaggerated last week’s delay for April Fool’s purposes, but I am sincerely drowning in work, hence the delay this week. I suspect that after the series wrap-up next week we’ll be doing some light posts only for a few weeks.
@19 Torie
“Just a prototype”? Well, it did make some flights and they used it to run tests on other shuttles. I’m more interested because I think it’s remarkable that a fan campaign to get it renamed Enterprise was actually successful, and Roddenberry and the cast were there at its inauguration. Pretty impressive for a failed television show.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Shuttle_Enterprise
Eugene @20: Actually, the Enterprise had no engines and no heat shield. It never made any actual flights, they just took up high on the back of a 747 and dropped it to test landing capabilities. There was a big fan push to have one of the orbiters named Enterprise and when NASA picked this vehicle for the name it was generally considered by fans to be an insult.
Even though Enterprise didn’t go (and wasn’t able to go) into space it still played an important part in the program. The shuttles would not be cleared to fly into space unless Enterprise proved that the design would fly safely in the atmosphere and land without difficulty. Remember the shuttle was designed in the 70s when computer modeling of flight regimes was still mostly just a dream. Wind tunnel testing of models had a greater reliance but there was – and still is – the need to have a full size vehicle prove the concept. Additionally, every action and every fitting used for the first few shuttle flights were first tested with Enterprise. Even procedures that were not used, such as stringing a net across the runway to catch an out of control orbiter were tested on Enterprise. Usually, an airframe used for such testing – destructive testing in some cases (the net tests) – gets scrapped long before the operational vehicles are retired from service. I can’t help wondering if the strength of the fan’s campaign and the popularity of Star Trek in general played a part in Enterprise being preserved.
Well I still want to see the Enterprise someday, the same way I enjoyed seeing everyone’s handprint in from of Mann’s Theater on Sunset Blvd. Silly, yet satisfying.
By the way, I imagine this is too soon to actually see the exhibit but it looks like there’s a good chance I’ll be in the city on May 7th.