One of the worst episodes of Star Trek was written by one of the most loved television puppeteers

In the episode “Star Trek” “The Lights of Zetar” (January 31, 1969), the USS Enterprise meets a mysterious drop of lights – perhaps a itinerant cosmic storm – while being on the way to the Alpha memory. The storm is capable of infiltrating the interior of the company and has just infects the brain of a Roman mira lieutenant (Jan Shutan), hitting his unconscious. When she arrives, Lieutenant Romanie claims to have had a vision of death and destruction; She knows that alpha memory will be destroyed and that the staff working there. Its premonition is correct.

It will finally be revealed that the storm is, in fact, a group of psychic life forms that attack the company, perhaps involuntarily. Captain Kirk (William Shatner) is trying to shoot weapons on the cluster, but that seems to injure the Roman lieutenant. Dr. McCoy (Deforest Kelley) notes that Roman brain waves are the same as the cluster and that they are probably intended to take possession of his body. While developing a plan to set up the romanty body of invasive psychic lights, the forms of life manage to take control of his voice and to announce that they are the non -corporal survivors of a dead planet for a long time called Zetar. Using a pressure chamber, however, life forms are driven from the body of Romania. It is immediately recovered and is returned to work.

“The Lights of Zetar” is one of the least remarkable episodes of “Star Trek”, and its generic history often has trekkies declaring that it is one of the worst episodes of the series. The concept of a form of non -bodily life had already been explored on “Star Trek”, and nothing novel was done here. The effects of the titular lights represent a spectacle of psychedelic light from the 1960s, and are not very frightening. No one has this episode listed as their favorite.

The most notable thing about “Les Lumières de Zetar” is that it was written by Jeremy Tarcher and Shari Lewis’ duo. Shari Lewis was, of course, the longtime creator and puppeteer of the beloved character of the character of Lamb.

Shari Lewis’ performance career dates back to the 1950s when she placed her natural talents for narration, ventriloquism, song and artisanal instructions. She won a talent program on the air in 1953, which led directly to the accommodation concert of the children’s program “Kartoon Klub”. Lewis was such a success that the show was withdrawn “Shariland” in 1956. She also began to seize guest spots on successful programs like “Captain Kangaroo” and “Hi Mom”. It was on the latter that she introduced a puppet with slightly sassy lamb -shaped socks. Lamb Chop has become a power of children’s television, and Lewis would continue to marry lamb (and any other animal character based on socks) for decades.

From there, Lewis was an omnipresent presence on Kids TV. “The Shari Lewis Show” took place from 1968 until 1975, which was in turn followed by “The Shari Show”. In 1992, she launched “Play-Along de Lamb Chop”. Shari Lewis was a prolific author of children’s books, having written more than 60 of them in his career. There are many people of a certain generation who appreciate Shari Lewis in the same way as one could admire Fred Rogers. She was clay, funny, nourishing and talented. Lewis, however, was mature and was not afraid to work in blue from time to time. She played once with the lamb chop after the Chop lamb had had a few people. She died in 1998, and the world lost a glorious human being.

A new documentary on Lewis called “Shari and Lamb Chop” is currently playing in some rooms, and it is really worth exploring. If you know it, you like it. If you don’t know it, prepare to become obsessed.

Lewis’ involvement with “Star Trek”, it turns out that was a favor by producer Fred Frederer. It seems that she was a fan of the series – “The Lights of Zetar” comes from the third season of the show – and proposed to write and play in an episode. She designed “Zetar” with her husband, also a long -standing collaborator, writing for a series that was out of her hungry hoard. Lewis wanted to play the character of Lieutenant Romanie, but the casting directors refused her in favor of Shutan. All of this was covered on the special characteristics of “Zetar” VHS cassettes from the 1980s.

The story tells that Lewis presented the idea “Zetar” to Freiberger, but he rejected it, saying that a very similar episode had just been scripted. Lewis, determined to work on the final border, wrote a second script and also launched this. As she finished script No. 2, however, Freiberg said that the production calendar had changed, the “similar” episode had been scrapped and that he would very much like to buy the n ° 1 script.

The Romania character was presented as a romantic interest in Scotty (James Doohan), the ship engineer who generally does not get his own love stories. Lewis said Captain Kirk already had too many love stories and deliberately gave Scotty for a moment “Get the Girl”. It was very generous on his part to think of Scotty, and Doohan was probably grateful to receive something other than shouting on the engines of the company.

As indicated above, “The Lights of Zetar” is not one of the most respected episodes of “Star Trek”, often feeling generic and artificial. But it may be because it was, in his heart, a fan script. Shari Lewis, not known for science fiction, has always estimated that she had an ear for the “Star Trek” dialogue and for exhilarating, science fiction concepts. “Zetar” did not succeed, but fans of Shari Lewis can admire that “Star Trek” at least gave him a chance.