Product Details

• Actors: William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, Robert Brown, DeForest Kelley, Janet MacLachlan
• Directors: Gerd Oswald
• Writers: Gene Roddenberry, Don Ingalls
• Producers: Gene L. Coon, Gene Roddenberry, Robert H. Justman
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, HiFi Sound, NTSC
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: CBS Paramount International Television
• VHS Release Date: April 15, 1994
• Run Time: 46 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 2.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6300213242
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #225,953 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

"The Alternative Factor" is a minor episode in which Kirk encounters two versions of a fellow named Lazarus (Robert Brown), one from our own dimension and the other from an antimatter cosmos. The latter Lazarus intends to create an opening between worlds, potentially causing an intergalactic Armageddon. Though directed by Gerd Oswald, an interesting feature filmmaker from Hollywood, "The Alternative Factor" has to work a little too hard to make its point. Still, it isn't boring, and the theme certainly fits that long-standing Star Trek obsession with dualities. --Tom Keogh

From the Back Cover

The Enterprise takes on board a man with a dual personality. It is soon discovered that there are really two of them-one with the power to destroy the universe!

TREK TRIVIA
Robert Brown (Lazarus) began work the same day he was hired because the actor previously cast in the role, John Barrymore, Jr., hadn't shown up! Brown later starred in Here Come The Brides with Star Trek alumni Mark Lenard ("Balance of Terror," "Journey to Babel") and David Soul ("The Apple").
The bubble-top of Lazarus' ship was later used as the dome over "The Gamesters Of Triskelion."

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Take That David Deutsch, January 8, 2009

By 

John A. Bailo "Texeme Construct" (Kent, USAWA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Star Trek - The Original Series, Episode 20: The Alternative Factor [VHS] (VHS Tape)

I find the other reviews here...amusing, as Spock might say. I just got through watching this episode and was spellbound. First of all, I might agree...there was less of note here to hook my memory around, so although I have watched the series several times in reruns, this episode appeared somewhat new to me. In flavor, it almost reminded me a bit more of the Outer Limits (classic) than Star Trek, but really, I found it was Star Trek at some of its best. Best because it did not cheat the science...it struggled with it. You could see Kirk and Lazarus groping with the concepts of parallel universes. And so they should! These ideas have just recently entered mainstream physics and popular science (not just science fiction). This episode was not the be all and end all, but offered a plausible scenario and set of circumstances within an explanation...but no, there was no boisterous "oh, aha, that's what a parallel universe is...".

So, I liked this episode because it showed a brainier side of Kirk for one, in which Spock was bit more aggressive (wanting to destroy Lazarus, perhaps he had been around humans too long(!)) and Kirk was trying -- in a very energetic way -- to wrap his mind around the concepts, the paradoxes!

This episode really spoke not just to the "Trekkies" who came much later after the series was aired, but to the sci-fi buffs...the original fans, who were there not just for the music, the crew women in miniskirts, the characters and the fights (all good reasons) but for the introduction of science concepts that challenged and expanded our mental horizons. There was no www or http in 1967 for me to look up parallel universes, but I thank Mr. Roddenberry for putting the concept on the television so I could watch it in Queens and have this knowledge...even if not complete...

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Good idea, poor execution., July 18, 2010

By 

Gorn (San Diego, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Star Trek - The Original Series, Episode 20: The Alternative Factor [VHS] (VHS Tape)

The concept here is good; it is the execution that is a complete failure. The episode explores some interesting ideas about madness, duality, parallel universes, altruism, and sacrifice. That's all good stuff, so where can it go wrong?

The plot, screenplay, effects, and direction are all a complete mess. Where to start?

- Kirk (and independently, Star Fleet Command) conclude on the basis of one strange phenomenon that it is a "prelude to invasion". What? Where did THAT come from?

- The phenomenon has universe-wide implications and threatens to destroy all existence, everywhere. Yet, Star Fleet Command inexplicably decides to evacuate 100% of their resources and leave the fate of the universe in the hands of one ship. Also, if all existence is threatened, then clearly invasion is not the issue, unless the invaders are suicidal.

- I had to watch this multiple times in order to determine which Lazarus was on screen at any given time, and which was the sane one and which the insane one. I'm still not entirely sure in all cases. Sometimes the switch happens with no special effects.

- Lazarus is allowed to wander around the ship without a guard even though he seems quite crazy, and he has threatened to steal the dilithium crystals. The crystals are not guarded even though two have already been stolen and Lazarus has openly threatened to take the others. The ship can't function without the crystals. For that matter it has already been stated that the existence of the entire universe is at stake, and Lazarus is clearly the key to the puzzle (and a proven liar), yet he wanders about the ship unattended and, surprise, surprise, easily flips a jumper switch to sabotage the engineering room.

- The insane Lazarus "saves" Kirk's life, which I guess is to show he is insane rather than evil, however it only adds to the confusion about which is which. Not a good idea for a plot that cries out for some clarity.

- Spock and Kirk realize there are two versions of Lazarus, even though they have only seen one of them. Spock mentions the disappearance then reappearance of the bandage though neither he nor Kirk witnessed it, and Kirk had dismissed McCoy's story. Off screen, McCoy briefly saw the sane Lazarus, and he appeared briefly in a rec room and in Engineering to steal dilithium crystals. Otherwise he was never seen by anyone until Kirk meets up with him in the other universe.

- The science is nonsensical, which is ok up to a point, this being fiction. But all the babble about matter and antimatter is just utter nonsense and hard to ignore. It's true that matter and antimatter "cancel each other out violently", but the destruction of the entire universe is silly. Well, that's ok for fiction. But how is it possible for the antimatter Lazarus to walk around the Enterprise without any destruction? They try to explain this away that the antimatter and matter must be identical, which is already silly. But, hey, sane and insane Lazarus are not identical. Their behavior is different, for one thing, and one is sporting a gash in his head that the other is missing.

- Lazarus has a space ship that does not move through space. He calls it a time machine but it does not move through time.

- How does Lazarus manager to live on a desert planet totally devoid of life? Doesn't the man need to eat?

- Lazarus needs dilithium crystals to move into the corridor and to get to the other universe, yet without having the crystals, or his portal/ship, he moves freely back and forth at least a half dozen times.

- Sometimes when Lazarus hops into the corridor, the entire known universe winks. At other times nobody even notices.

- The special effects, if we can call it that, are just irritating. The first corridor-struggle-in-negative-while-superimposed-on-nebula-picture-then-spinning-"newspaper"-effect was plenty, but we have to sit through it several times. Really awful.

- Speaking of irritating, don't you just want to reach out and yank that sad excuse for a beard off of Lazarus' chin? And don't they have showers in the 23rd century? What about medical hygiene? Twice, the man is laying in bed in sick bay covered with dirt and with blood all over his mouth.

I read somewhere that the reason for at least some of this mess is that a major plot point was removed after the fact. It involved a romantic interest between Lazarus and the engineering lieutenant. But because southern stations were worried about offending their Bible Belt viewers with an interracial romance, there was last minute editing to replace what may have been a coherent plot with a redundant and confusing mess. If so, then the greatest value of this episode is to provide a testament to the stupidity of racial intolerance and religious fanaticism.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars How does this great episode get such negative reviews!, July 14, 2009

By 

Obiturized "Metal fan" (New Hampshire) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Star Trek - The Original Series, Episode 20: The Alternative Factor [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Honestly, what is so wrong with this episode to make it get such negative reviews! I will never understand why this episode gets shot down all the time.

Is it because theres no 'real' fight scenes, if so, that's bogus, the storyline is great, and one of the best of the series, I'm not going to ruin it, but I will tell you that you have to pay attention to this one, or you won't get it, maybe thats what more people should've done with this episode, anything that deals in time, or parrallel universes requires paying attention, because the two genres are tricky, and is one aspect of sci-fi that makes it so great!