actreal

G:   2 stars  - The premise and plot is stupid, really stupid, especially the start. There are some good moments and some ideas that could have been quite fun. The brain being removed is what happened to the team writing this episode. The crew get to do some fun problem solving and talking in the middle third of the episode which on it's own would be 4 stars, it's just sandwiched by an 0 star beginning and end in which Kirk yells about how things are wrong and the story focuses too much on the stupid time limit and brain removal. Instead it should have had more interaction with the weird advanced/regressed civilisation and had more meaningful engagement from the antagonists in the ethics of their behaviour. It also seems like the writers/Kirk wanted to prove how women need men and can't have a functioning society without them, but just couldn't actually think of something useful for men to provide. Another episode that could have been good if they had put a bit more thought into it, and took out the really stupid stuff.