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| Kirk attempts to reason with a god-like alien. Again. |
THE PLOT
When a mysterious alien probe examines Earth and then moves on, the Enterprise follows. What they find is a massive alien ship, home to a being that announces itself as Kukulkan. Kukulkan visited Earth long ago, presenting itself as a god to various peoples, from the Egyptians to the Mayans to the Aztecs. Now it has come back. Appalled at the results of its probe, which showed it that humanity evolved on a warlike path, it is determined to establish itself once again as mankind's master - unless Kirk and his crew can stop it!
CHARACTERS
Sulu is MIA this week, his part taken over by a Comanche named Walking Bear (voiced by James Doohan, who also plays Kukulkan and, of course, Scotty - big week for him!). This substitution exists solely to tie in with the episode's themes, and Walking Bear's recognition of Kukulkan seems somewhat crowbarred in. The rest of his part could be summed up as "scratch out 'Sulu' in the script and pencil in 'Walking Bear.'"
Kirk is in full-blown sermon mode, getting up on his soap box and speechifying to Kukulkan at least three different times. Picard and his sledge-hammer would be envious. Kukulkan eventually gives in, I suspect just to make Kirk stop excreting cliches about how "children need to grow up." Spock shows resourcefulness in breaking free of Kukulkan's forcefield, while Scotty and McCoy are glorified extras.
THOUGHTS
This episode is essentially TAS' version of Who Mourns for Adonais. It treads the same ground, with much the same conflict between a superbeing who wants to be a god to humanity and Kirk, standing up for humanity's right to rule itself. I enjoyed the earlier episode, which managed to balance its themes with action, some genuine poignancy, and just the right dose of camp silliness. But I didn't care much for How Sharper Than a Serpent's Tooth.
The episode isn't completely uninteresting. There's an amusing set piece involving a city, with a solution that seems like a natural template for a videogame level, and the animation in this sequence is noticeably better than this series' average. Even in the cheaper-looking moments, which sadly include the climax, the script is clearly an earnest and thoughtful effort.
But it's earnest and thoughtful to a fault. Save for a bit of manufactured conflict at the very beginning and end, the episode basically consists of Kirk and Kukulkan making speeches at each other. The story is predictable, and its execution is simplistic, preachy, and dull.
Yet this was apparently the episode that won the series its Daytime Emmy! I can only figure that the judges were impressed that a morning cartoon would tackle serious themes. Unfortunately, without some drama to support the ideas, the results are hollow. Not to mention boring - and as I've mentioned before, "boring" is the one television sin I simply can't forgive.
Rating: 3/10.
Previous Episode: Albatross
Next Episode: The Counter-Clock Incident
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