of the show but also the last appearance of regular background actors David L. Ross (Lieutenant Galloway), William Blackburn (Lieutenant Hadley and DeForest Kelley's stand-in), and Roger Holloway (Lieutenant Lemli and James Doohan's stand-in). Blackburn had appeared in more episodes than cast members George Takei and Walter Koenig, and Holloway's appearances were only two episodes short of Koenig. Ross had been a background actor since the first season. Nichelle Nichols (Lieutenant Uhura) was absent from this episode. The position of Communications Officer was played by Barbara Baldavin who had previously appeared in two first-season episodes of the show, "Balance of Terror" and "Shore Leave". As noted in the 1975 book Star Trek Lives! by co-author Joan Winston, William Shatner was sick with flu during the filming of the episode (Winston was on set for six days of filming). Filming of the episode was completed on January 9, 1969 having gone one day over schedule; a few days earlier, the crew had been notified of the cancellation of the show. The episode aired in the United States on June 3, 1969. Reception The episode drew Nielsen ratings of only 8.8, in contrast to rival shows Lancer on CBS and The Mod Squad on ABC, which gained ratings of 14.7 and 15.2 respectively, a drop of over fifty percent since the show premiered. Cultural theorist Cassandra Amesley states that this episode is "agreed to be one of the worst Star Trek episodes ever shown" by Star Trek fans. David Greven has a more positive view of the episode, even referring to it as "moving." He calls it the "infamous last episode" of the original series, in part because of the "campiness" of Shatner's performance when portraying himself as a female in a male's body, but also because of the sexist premise that "female desire for power was a clear sign of insanity." In 2016, CNET ranked this episode as the 4th worst episode of all Star Trek, based on rankings between an audience and discussion hosts at a 50th anniversary Star Trek convention in Las Vegas. In 2017, this episode was rated the 4th worst episode of the Star Trek franchise including later spin-off series, by ScreenRant. A ranking of every episode of the original series by Hollywood, placed this episode as worst. In 2017, Den of Geek ranked this episode as the 7th worst Star Trek episode of the original series.