Watch the final episode of 'Star Trek' this weekend

September 18, 2015, 1:56PM By MeTV Staff

On March 28, 1969, the final episode of Star Trek's third season was scheduled to air. Early that Friday morning, however, former President Eisenhower passed away. News coverage of the historic death preempted that evening's lineup on NBC. Over two months later, the network kicked off summer reruns of the sci-fi series on Tuesdays. "Turnabout Intruder," what would be the last episode of Star Trek's original series, finally premiered on June 3, 1969, the only fresh story amidst the batch of repeats.

Star Trek

11/23 11:00PMThe Enterprise Incident
"Captain Kirk becomes increasingly erratic and orders the Enterprise into Romulan space where the ship is captured by a beautiful Romulan commander."
11/30 11:00PMThe Paradise Syndrome
"Stardate 4842.6: Kirk, Spock and McCoy beam down to a planet to inform any inhabitants that they must evacuate the planet due to an approaching asteroid's imminent collision. A society similar to Native American Indians has arisen on the planet, but near their villages, the landing party finds a strange obelisk whose design and construction is far beyond the capabilities of the planet's natives. Kirk finds that the monolith can be opened by the combination of sounds found in the order "Kirk to Enterprise," but when he enters the obelisk, he is attacked by waves of energy that erase his mind. With no time to spare, Spock and McCoy have to return to the Enterprise without Kirk, and begin trying to use the ship's tractor beam to divert the asteroid. Meanwhile, Kirk becomes the tribal chief, takes a wife and even expects to become a father, but the Enterprise may not be able to save her former captain's future."
12/7 11:00PMAnd the Children Shall Lead
"The Enterprise travels to a planet where a scientific team has killed themselves except for the children, who began to act oddly."

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At this point, the writing was on the wall for fans — despite the writing of thousands of fan letters begging for a fourth season. The show had been canceled in February. Gene Roddenberry had already stepped back from his baby, defeated after the network dumped it in an unfavorable time slot on Fridays at 10pm. The budgets had been trimmed, though remained high, and the ratings had dipped.

When "Turnabout Intruder" was filmed at the start of the year, the cast and crew were not certain it would be the final voyage. So we get no closure in this episode. But that's not a bad thing. It must have been somewhat comforting for fans to imagine the Enterprise continuing its mission long after its stop at Camus II. After all, it eventually did in several big screen movies.

Tomorrow evening at 9PM | 8C, you can catch "Turnabout Intruder" as part of MeTV's Super Sci-Fi Saturday Night. The final lines, spoken by Kirk, were perfect and eerily prophetic, as the captain muses, "If only… if only…"

Fortunately, in the universe of MeTV, the Enterprise enters a time loop. The first episode of the series, "The Man Trap," boldly goes (again) where no man has gone before on Saturday the 26th.