1-12. The Time Trap.

Kirk and Commander Kor learn the rules of Elysia.

THE PLOT

The Enterprise is investigating The Delta Triangle, an area of space in which an unusal number of ships have disappeared. As soon as they reachit, they are attacked by three Klingon ships. Kirk's old adversary, Commander Kor (this time voiced by James Doohan), is in the lead. The battle begins... but ends abruptly, as Kor's ship vanishes before their eyes.

Kirk orders the Enterprise to those exact coordinates and finds his ship following Kor's into a pocket universe. Here, races from various ships that disappeared in the Triangle have learned to live in harmony. Kirk and Kor are welcomed into the community, known as Elysia, and are even welcome to attempt escape. But there is one rule which they cannot countermand, on penalty of being frozen for 100 years - no violence of any kind, from any member of their respective crews!


CHARACTERS

Spock behaves with excessive friendliness toward the Klingons in order to use his Vulcan Voodoo on them, tipping him off that they are planning some sort of sabotage. When one of Kor's men breaks the Elysians' non-violence law, Kirk gets to make a speech championing home over the Elysians' perfect society, showing (not for the first time) that even cartoon Kirk can always find a soap box to climb.


THOUGHTS

Coming on the heels of two stinkers, The Time Trap is a relief.  Well put-together and entertaining, this riffs on Lost Horizon to pretty good effect.  The concept of the Elysian society is intriguing, and sufficiently thought-out that it fits within the Trek universe.  Good character moments are given to Kirk and Spock, and it's fun to see Kor again, even if James Doohan's Kor bears no vocal resemblance at all to John Colicos' original.

 It is another episode that's kept short of its potential by the short running time, though. There's no real chance to really explore the Elysian society, meaning that after a couple of brief scenes establish it, Elysia basically exists as a backdrop. There is also potential for suspense in Kor's plan to sabotage the Enterprise.  Spock's atypical behavior, a cover for his attempts to figure out and stop the sabotage, is a plot turn that could be a lot of fun.  But Spock's ruse is a strand that ends up being dropped, with the resolution of the sabotage subplot coming from the Elysians at the eleventh hour.

Given the strength of the concepts, this should have been a 2-parter.  An extra 22 minutes would have allowed the breathing space the various plot strands require in order to properly develop. It also would have made good economic sense - a 2-parter would offer Filmation even more opportunities to recycle shots and artwork than is already the case! 

Even with the rushed pace and the dropped Spock subplot, this is still a decent episode. The ongoing pacing issue is aggravating, though. By this point in the series' run, the writers and producers really should have a stronger sense of how much story can fit into 22 minutes. As it stands, we seem to move back and forth between episodes with virtually no plot and episodes with too much plot, with only an elite handful of shows managing to strike the balance just right.


Rating: 6/10.

Previous Episode: The Terratin Incident
Next Episode: The Ambergris Element


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