(by Collin R. Skocik)
The galaxy is rocked by a series of calamitous events, “disruptions of physical law on an immense scale,” all of them centralized on the planet the Enterprise is now exploring. On the planet, Kirk and Spock find a humanoid named Lazarus, a raving maniac who claims to be chasing a “beast” capable of destroying worlds, and it is he who has caused these interstellar events.
One aspect of physics that has always fascinated me is the many-worlds interpretation of the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle—the genuine scientific possibility that there are other universes, perhaps an infinite number of them, couched in higher dimensions, and that they may be accessible through wormholes. It sounds like fantasy, but it’s possible, at least mathematically. So far there’s no observational evidence of parallel universes or wormholes, but the mathematical and indirect evidence is compelling enough that many scientists take them very seriously.
“The Alternative Factor” deals with exactly that possibility. Lazarus’s people discovered the existence of a parallel universe, an identical one, though with an opposite electrical charge. Lazarus was unable to cope with the fact that there was another version of himself in the multiverse, and in his madness he destroyed both versions of his own world, and has subsequently chased his double through time in a mad quest to destroy him—even if the encounter destroys the entire universe.
It’s a dead, bleak, hopeless story, very atypical for Star Trek. Also atypical is that this episode is a complete mess—confusing, muddled, scientifically absurd, inconsistent, repetitive, it seems to belong in the second season of Buck Rogers rather than in the magnificent first season of Star Trek. Nevertheless, like an artifact from a parallel universe, here it is.
Why do Starfleet—and Kirk—assume that a series of cosmic events indicate an impending invasion? An invasion from where? By whom? Using what weapons? Isn’t it more likely to be a natural phenomenon? How does “sane” Lazarus take the dilithium crystals to his ship when he keeps switching places with “crazy” Lazarus? How exactly do the Lazari keep switching universes aboard the Enterprise when the alternative warp is located on the planet? Does the antimatter universe also have a starship Enterprise, and is it orbiting the same planet at the same time? Why does Lazarus have free run of the Enterprise? Why in the world does Lazarus keep climbing cliffs when he always falls?
But if you stretch your nerdy legs you can answer those questions. Worse are the violations of physics. Spock says that the planet has an “oxygen-hydrogen atmosphere.” WHOA! Be careful down there! Don’t fire a phaser! How is it a matter Lazarus—or matter Kirk—can enter an antimatter universe without causing an explosion? Doesn’t that negate the whole point of the episode, that the conflict between matter and antimatter Lazari endangers the universe?
Kirk and Spock state that “matter and antimatter tend to cancel each other out—violently.” If two “identical” particles of matter and antimatter meet, they will annihilate…everything. Everywhere. All universes, everything. What are they talking about? Matter and antimatter don’t “cancel each other out,” they annihilate. And what’s this about two identical particles? It seems to me a hydrogen atom and an antihydrogen atom are…identical. They don’t destroy the universe, they annihilate and release some radiation. So the whole episode is meaningless. I’d like to make excuses by assuming new scientific information will come out between now and the twenty-third century, that there are things about antimatter that we don’t know today. But that doesn’t fly—we have collided matter and antimatter in laboratory experiments. Identical particles. The universe is still here.
So the best I can nerd my way out of this is to assume maybe when Kirk and Spock use the word “antimatter,” they’re not necessarily referring to the antimatter we know today. Or they’re applying a more complex principle than we’re told in the dialogue.
The dilithium crystals seen in this episode are unlike those seen in other episodes.
We also see a different section of engineering, which appears to be located in the Enterprise’s saucer section. This supports the notion that the saucer section and engineering hulls can detach, as they do in Star Trek: The Next Generation.
Kirk mentions Starbase 200. This is by far the highest-numbered Starbase mentioned in the series.
(Collin R. Skocik is a fan of the Star Trek franchise and has written synopses of all 79 episodes of Star Trek’s original series and the first six Star Trek films.)
Principled Thoughts 