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| The Enterprise crew are displayed in an alien zoo! |
When a six-member science crew vanishes on the planet Lactra VII, the Enterprise is sent to investigate. Kirk, Spock, and McCoy beam down to the planet's surface. They encounter strange creatures, all of whom seem to have been transplanted from other worlds. It's a puzzle, one that is solved when they are captured by the dominant life form - a telepathic race that looks on them as curious animals. The Lactrans treat the landing party accordingly, putting them on display in a zoo.
United with the surviving members of the science crew, Kirk and Spock must hatch a plan to either communicate with the Lactrans or escape their imprisonment. But with every effort thwarted easily, Spock fears that they may be on display for life!
CHARACTERS
Kirk is subjected to a mental attack, allowing William Shatner to unleash the full force of his ham - a formidable spectacle, even in voice over. Leonard Nimoy gets a rare chance to indulge in ham as well, as Spock uses his Vulcan Voodoo to form a telepathic shield around Kirk.
THOUGHTS
Eye of the Beholder is a bizarre episode, even by the standards of the often weird animated series. Unfortunately, it is also a dizzyingly stupid one.
The Lactrrans are hyper-intelligent, or so we are told - but they are also utterly idiotic, depending on the needs of the plot. My favorite example of this is that we are specifically told that the Lactrans have identified the purpose of every piece of equipment the landing party brought with them. Nevertheless, when Kirk feigns illness (surely unnecessary when one of the science crew is genuinely ill, but why get in the way of some Shatner!Ham!), the brilliant plan is to focus on the communicator as the means to cure him.
This plan... works. On creatures who have already identified the purpose of the communicator, and so know that the device is not medicinal. Also, on creatures who are stated to have an IQ of 6,000 - itself a meaningless statement, apparently the result of a writer simply thinking that a really big number would sound impressive.
The artwork is among the series' worst. Not only is the leader of the scientific team clearly just a duplicate of Kirk with a few added wrinkles, but there is one scene in which Kirk and the scientific team leader have a conversation - in which Kirk's giant head is framed opposite the guest character's full body. There's not even a cursory attempt at perspective, so the visual effect is of Kirk's head expanding to truly staggering proportions.
(Maybe not such a stretch, come to think of it...)
The conflict, such as it is, ends up being quickly resolved through the magic of plot convenience. I'd complain about it being rushed, but at least this allows a bad episode to come to a rapid end.
Despite all the problems, though, I'm not going to give this a rock-bottom rating. It's a bad episode, but it's also so utterly bizarre that it never gets a chance to be boring. Besides, it's the first episode of the series to have human casualties. Off-screen, but it's still left in no doubt that some of the science team died. Now if only we can get an on-screen redshirt death before the series' conclusion!
...Not to sound bloodthirsty. But what's Star Trek without the zapping of the occasional redshirt?
Rating: 3/10.
Previous Episode: The Slaver Weapon
Next Episode: The Jihad
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This was one of those episodes that Alan Dean Foster expanded into a full-length novel.
ReplyDeleteNow remember the alien manipulated by Scotty is a child, so its not as evolved as its adult counterparts.....
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