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| Kirk and Spock join a quest to prevent a war! |
The Vedala, the oldest-known race in the galaxy, call on Kirk and Spock to join an expedition of highly skilled members of disparate alien races on a perilous mission. They will be transported to a world known as "the mad planet," to recover a stolen artifact belonging to the Skorr.
The Skorr are a bird-like race of warriors, who turned to peace thanks to the efforts of the philosopher Alar. Alar's thought patterns were preserved in "The Soul of Skorr" - the very artifact which has now been stolen. If it is not retrieved before its theft is discovered, then it will drive the Skorr back to their warrior roots, into a holy war against the entire galaxy!
CHARACTERS
The child-friendly animated series has afforded Kirk very little chance to flirt with "Space Babes." This episode remedies that, as Kirk enjoys some nicely suggestive banter with Lara (Jane Webb), a scout who flatly tells him that she finds him attractive. Kirk only allows things to go so far. When Lara suggests they take a rest to make some "green memories," as she puts it, Kirk declines, telling her that he's already made quite a few such memories... an unusual exchange to find in a Saturday morning cartoon!
THOUGHTS
The animated series' first season finale is also one of the better episodes, thanks largely to sheer momentum. The Jihad would probably play quite well to gamers, given a plot that teams Kirk and Spock with a set of characters who owe more than a little to the heroic fantasy tradition. With their comrades including a thief, a scout, and a warrior, all on a quest to retrieve a precious item, it's practically a Star Trek/Dungeons & Dragons crossover!
I found it rather fun to watch. Trek veteran Stephan Kandel writes a fast-paced story in a reasonably imaginative setting. He moves the characters swiftly from one peril to the next, but doesn't make the mistake of pacing it too frenetically. Each crisis is given enough time to register with the viewer before it gets resolved, and the script allows for character moments (notably between Kirk and Lara) in between action bits. A late-in-the-day twist is not hard to spot, but was probably quite surprising to the child audience of the day.
On the whole, an energetic episode which passes in an eyeblink. Deduct at least one point from my score if you're particularly bothered when TAS episodes just don't feel much like Trek. But otherwise, this is definitely entertaining viewing.
Rating: 8/10.
Previous Episode: The Eye of the Beholder
Next Episode: The Pirates of Orion
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I thought this exchange was even better than the banter between Kirk and Lara:
ReplyDeleteEM-3-Green: We'll all die here.
Mr. Spock: A statistical probability.
Lara: You ever quote anything besides statistics, Vulcan?
Mr. Spock: Yes. But philosophy and poetry are not appropriate here.
One of the best Spock zingers ever!
Yes, there was a lot of good dialogue in this one. A good, fun episode. Thanks for all your comments, by the way - Even when I disagree with you, I enjoy reading your take on the shows! :)
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