History Recap / StarTrekS3E24TurnaboutIntruder

* PeripheryDemographic: As noted above the episode is popular among some fans who like the idea of Kirk and Spock romance but who also view their canon genders as a stumbling block. More broadly it is also of interest to general fans of GenderBender stories.

* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: Despite being the last episode in the Original Series, the episodes apparent sexism regarding women not being captains is this for the rest of the franchise given the numerous female captains which have turned up in both films and spin-offs, even those set ''before'' [=TOS=].

Alternatively, you may regard it as the ''Star Trek'' version of ''Film/FreakyFriday''.

* {{Transsexual}}: Lester, [[AlternativeCharacterInterpretation maybe]].

In any case, the idea that women can't be starship captains is [[CanonDiscontinuity never mentioned again]], a female starship captain was seen in ''Star Trek IV'', there was later [[Series/StarTrekVoyager an entire series about one]], and both ''[[Series/StarTrekEnterprise Enterprise]]'' and ''[[Series/StarTrekDiscovery Discovery]]'' featured female captains ''predating'' this episode.

In any case, the idea that women can't be starship captains is [[CanonDiscontinuity never mentioned again]], a female starship captain was seen in ''Star Trek IV'', there was later [[Series/StarTrekVoyager an entire series about one]], and ''[[Series/StarTrekEnterprise Enterprise]]'' featured a female captain ''predating'' this episode.

-->'''Lester:''' Your world of starship captains doesn't admit women. It isn't fair.\\

[-''Turnabout Intruder is not embarrassing in hindsight. It is an episode that embarrassing from the very moment that the story was developed, that continued to be embarrassing through production, and which will be embarrassing until the moment that either people stop watching Star Trek or mankind goes extinct.'' -- Reviewer Darren, writing in [[https://them0vieblog.com/2016/09/09/star-trek-turnabout-intruder-review/ the Movie Blog review of this episode]]-]

[[caption-width-right:300:Apparently, Lester-in-Kirk has just realized that [[Series/StarTrekEnterprise Captain Hernandez]] existed.]]

Hey, you know how this episode has clearly portrayed Lester as an insane, power-hungry mass murderer? Well, forget about that. She's in a pretty body now and FemalesAreMoreInnocent. The episode wraps up with an AlasPoorVillain ending, in which we learn Coleman was in love with Lester. (So he helped the woman he was in love with turn into a man? [[HoYay What does that say about him?]]) Kirk delivers the last line of the series: "Her life could have been as rich as any woman's, if only... if only..." The meaning of this line is debated almost as much as the one from earlier. Does "if only" mean "if only she kept to her proper gender role" or "if only society hadn't forced her into a gender role she hated"? Make up your own mind.

This episode's title is a play on the title of ''Turnabout'', a body swap comedy about a husband and wife. For many years, it was a popular bit of ''Star Trek'' trivia that Sandra Smith (Dr. Lester) was the only person other than Creator/WilliamShatner to officially portray Captain Kirk. This remained true [[Film/StarTrek until 2009]]. In the world of fanfiction, Dr. Lester would find a niche in SlashFic, her story providing a canon setup for JumpingTheGenderBarrier. Slashers have also had a lot of fun imagining what Spock saw in his mind meld to convince him Kirk was in Lester's body.

* [[WordOfDante Word of Nimoy]] states unequivocally that Gene Roddenberry intended for this to mean women can't be captains.

The last episode of the original ''Star Trek'' series. It's known for being the most overtly sexist episode of the show and certainly not a worthy SeriesFinale, and many fans prefer to think of the previous episode, ''All Our Yesterdays'', as the true finale. But hey, it's not the last we'll be hearing from these characters.

This episode's title is a play on the title of ''Turnabout'', a body swap comedy about a husband and wife. For many years, it was a popular bit of ''Star Trek'' trivia that Sandra Smith (Dr. Lester) was the only person other than WilliamShatner to officially portray Captain Kirk. This remained true [[Film/StarTrek until 2009]]. In the world of fanfiction, Dr. Lester would find a niche in SlashFic, her story providing a canon setup for JumpingTheGenderBarrier. Slashers have also had a lot of fun imagining what Spock saw in his mind meld to convince him Kirk was in Lester's body.

[floatboxright:
Series:Series/{{Star Trek The Original Series}}\\
Episode: Season 3, Episode 24\\
Title:"Turnabout Intruder"\\
Previous: All Our Yesterdays\\
Next: ''Film/StarTrekTheMotionPicture''\\
Recapper: Hello999]

In any case, the idea that women can't be starship captains is [[CanonDiscontinuity never mentioned again]], a female starship captain was seen in Star Trek IV, there was later [[Series/StarTrekVoyager an entire series about one]], and [[Series/StarTrekEnterprise Enterprise]] featured a female captain ''predating'' this episode.

** This does raise the question of why Kirk agreed with her. Given that she's an old flame who went crazy when ''she'' didn't become a captain, the answer might be subtextual: He's not agreeing with her, but rather saying her mental illness and delusions are "not fair"; she did not deserve this fate. He chooses to be ambiguous in order to tactfully avoid arguing with her.

* OutOfCharacterAlert: For numerous things, actually. First, "Kirk" hits "Lester" hard enough to knock her down. Then he disintegrates into screaming hysterically at Spock and accusing him of mutiny. When he orders the "traitors" executed, it completely cements the suspicion in every officer's mind. Sulu and Chekov flat out refuse to follow his orders after a while.
** Scotty even tells [=McCoy=] while trying to convince him to side with Spock that he has seen Captain Kirk in all sorts of moods, but never "red-faced with hysteria".
* PlotHole: Not counting the ones listed in the summary, there's one that became famous due to being cited in the book ''Star Trek Lives'' - at one point, Kirk leaves the bridge ''going the wrong way''. (The door is in the opposite direction.) When the episode was filmed, Shatner joked with the director about how, even if it's the last episode, there was no need to throw Kirk into the vacuum of space, and then tried to have the blocking changed (unsuccessfully, though he did accurately predict that the fans would notice).

* SanitySlippage: Not that Lester was playing with a full deck to begin with, but she becomes increasingly unhinged as the episode goes on, due to Spock and [=McCoy=] foiling her attempts to get rid of Kirk.

* [[WordOfDante Word of Nimoy]] states unequivocally that Gene Roddenberry intended for this to mean women can't be captains; he actually believed women wouldn't have the mental and emotional stability to command a starship, and in the final line he implied that she went insane because she wanted to do something she wasn't by nature suited for. Statements made by the Great Bird on other occasions [[note]]including a little-remembered dismissal of Nichelle Nichols' protest when he rewrote a scene so that Uhura wouldn't take the helm -- ''"You can't have females running a man's ship!"''[[/note]] seem to bear this out.