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| Spock, under the influence of the sirens' call. |
THE PLOT
The Enterprise investigates a region of space in which ships have disappeared at regular, 27-year intervals. The latest interval is closing, and the starship is deliberately acting as bait. It isn't long before they receive a signal - a literal siren call, lulling all the men aboard into a euphoric state.
Kirk, Spock, McCoy, and a redshirt beam down to the planet that is the signal's source, and are greeted by several beautiful women. They are treated to a feast, in which they are (apparently) drugged. They wake up with headbands that drain their life energy, feeding it to the women. If they cannot escape soon, they will be dead within four days!
CHARACTERS
Uhura takes command of the Enterprise for what I believe is the only time ever (unless she gets to do so in a later animated episode). Kirk retains enough sense of duty that, even under the sirens' spell, a word from Spock is enough to get him to battle their influence. Spock's magical Vulcan Physiology enables him to retain enough strength to retrieve a communicator and call for an all-female rescue party, while his Vulcan Voodoo lets him telepathically communicate with Nurse Chapel.
THOUGHTS
Guuuhhhh...
A mind-numbingly dumb episode, this makes some of the stinkers from mid-Season Three look almost respectable. I won't comment too much on the obvious over-doubling of Majel Barrett's voice, given that the doubling-up of voices was just a function of the show's thin budget. Besides, half the cast having the same voice is the least of this episode's problems.
The basic idea of patterning a Star Trek story after the sirens from Greek mythology is not a bad one. But even though the script is by yet another TOS veteran, this time that veteran is Margaret Armen. In fairness, Armen did write one good episode - but she was also responsible for a couple of real stinkers. The Lorelai Signal belongs squarely with the stinkers.
Idiot Plotting is a major factor here. Spock gets to the communicators and requests an all-female rescue party, who then have to search for Spock. Too bad the Enterprise doesn't have some handy technology that could just whisk Spock away from danger and back onto the ship, isn't it? Meanwhile, the Song of the Space Sirens has no effect on women. So we are to believe that every starship that has been lured to them prior to Enterprise has had an all-male crew? All righty, then.
The Space Sirens are thuddingly stupid adversaries. My favorite scene involving them has to be Kirk's grand escape. Kirk, Spock, McCoy, and Random Redshirt (who gets to live, this being a family cartoon) take refuge in the only cover available - a big urn. The women run after them, only a few steps behind... and standing in the middle of a deserted landscape, with the urn literally right in front of them, not one of them thinks to look inside the big giant piece of obvious cover.
Nor do they think to use their handy-dandy viewscreen, a device we repeatedly see will show anything upon request. In fact, Uhura finds them at the end by having the lead Space Siren ask the viewscreen to show the men. I guess asking on their own initiative was beyond the Space Sirens' ingenuity.
Bad, boring, and insultingly stupid. "Only a kids' cartoon" or not, they should have been embarrassed.
Rating: 2/10.
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