… Incredibly a pilot was shot of a series that would be about a Swede and an Irishman who immigrate to the U.S., God knows when it was set, but the series had William Shatner as the Swede. His Swedish accent exists out there someplace and we’ll never hear it. Remember, there is also an episode of Mission: Impossible that is called “Cocaine” and features Shatner. The mind reels at the possibilities.

The actor in question for this episode replaced John Barrymore Jr. at the last minute because Barrymore flaked. The incident is described in Inside Star Trek. Barrymore was Drew Barrymore’s fucked-up father.

What a dreadful beard on that poor guest lead. The optic effects in this episode are also a drag, the big light blobs or inflamed trip-adelic screen transformations or whatever. This is one of the episodes I have trouble remembering, even now that I’ve gone back to watch it a second time. The show goes beyond being a snooze and starts hazing you. You get so many recurring reasons not to look at the screen.

The beard: