The Alternative Factor
The Enterprise is rocked by an phenomenon of unknown origin that almost destroys the universe. Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock descend to the planet they were observing when the phenomenon occurred to investigate something that appears to have materialized on the planet at the same that the phenomenon occurred.
Kirk and Spock find Lazarus, an injured man on the planet. They take him back to the Enterprise where he is attended to by Dr. McCoy. Once the man has recovered he explains to Kirk what he was doing on the planet, about his fight with a thing that destroyed the world from which he came.
Kirk and Spock return to the planet with the man. Kirk asks for more details when everything goes crazy once again. The craziness eventually stops. Lazarus is injured. Kirk and Spock take him back to the Enterprise again for treatment.
Doctor McCoy treats a wound on Lazarus' forehead but minutes later it has vanished. McCoy and Kirk find Lazarus but once again he has the abrasion on his forehead. Kirk thinks that McCoy was playing a joke on him and takes Lazarus to the bridge.
Lazarus tells Kirk that he needs the Dilithium Crystals aboard the Enterprise to lure his opponent into a trap. Kirk refuses to give him the crystals. Lazarus leaves the bridge, loses the security crewman following him, and heads to Engineering. There he knocks out Lieutenant Masters and another crewman but Kirk gets wind that something is wrong because Masters was talking to Kirk over the ship's communication when Lazarus knocked her out.
The two unconscious crewmen recover but Lazarus claims to know nothing about what happened in Engineering. Kirk, Spock, and Lazarus return to the planet's surface. Lazarus gets injured falling from a great height but he recovers once they take him back to the Enterprise.
Lazarus escapes from Sick Bay, again. This time he starts an electrical fire that impacts Engineering. He steals two Dilithium Crystals and then uses the transporter to beam down to the surface of the planet. Kirk comes after him. He reaches Lazarus in his travel device just after he has installed the stolen crystals in his ship.
Kirk reaches out to grab Lazarus and is transported to the anti-matter universe. He meets Lazarus' double. The double has a plan to stop his counterpart from destroying both universes. He sends Kirk back to his own universe. There he pushes Lazarus into the corridor between the two universes and then, after removing the Dilithium Crystals from his ship, he returns to the Enterprise and has the Lazarus ship blasted into oblivion.
Thoughts
Scotty and Sulu are not in this episode.
I don't recall Lazarus ever introducing himself properly. It isn't until they return to the planet for the second time, bringing Lazarus with him, that Kirk starts to refer to him by name.
Lazarus' beard is bit inconsistent. There is at least one scene where it is almost nonexistent. I would like to say that was intentional but I think it's more likely that it was not done intentionally.
There are more details that I could have written in my summary but chose to skip over. There are definite inconsistencies in the plot.
This episode is a little wacko and somewhat lacking. There isn't enough to it. It gets fairly repetitive, what with the trips back and forth from the Enterprise to the planet and then back again. I don't understand why the one Lazarus is such a basket case and the other is so calm and rational. I also don't get why sane rational Lazarus was so quick to offer to spend eternity locked in combat with crazy pants Lazarus. I think there's potential with the ideas in this story but this is not a good episode as it was written and produced.
Notes
Robert Brown played the part of Lazarus, both of them. This is the only episode of Star Trek in which he appeared. He was in one movie that I have watched, Tower of London (1962). He appeared in an episode of Dick Powell Theatre with William Shatner that aired a few years before this episode and can be found on YouTube.
Janet MacLachlan played the part of Lieutenant Masters. This is the only episode of this show in which she appeared. I saw her most recently in a couple episodes of Wonder Woman, 1.09 Judgment from Outer Space Part 1 and 1.10 Judgment from Outer Space Part 2. She also appeared in episodes of Moonlighting, The Invaders, and The Alfred Hitchcock Hour.
Gerd Oswald directed this episode. This is the second of two episodes of this show that he directed. The first was 1.13 The Conscience of the King. He also directed 14 episodes of The Outer Limits including 1.09 Corpus Earthling.
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