2-6. The Counter Clock Incident.

Commodore Robert April, first captain of
the USS Enterprise, with his wife.

THE PLOT

The Enterprise is escorting Commodore Robert April, the ship's first captain, to a reception on Babel to commemorate his mandatory retirement. The journey is interrupted by the appearance of a strange vessel moving at incredible speeds - headed straight for a supernova! Kirk attempts to warn the other captain, then attempts to divert the ship's course using a tractor beam. What he ends up doing is allowing the faster ship to tow the Enterprise into the heart of the nova!

The ship survives, but the crew find themselves in a parallel universe. Parallel, but opposite. Black stars interrupt a ceaseless white void, while time runs backward. Kirk, Spock, and Commodore April hatch a desperate plan to return home by forcing the birth of a new star - thus creating a simultaneous nova in both universes. But, as Kirk observes, any miscalculation will prove fatal. And he and his crew are growing steadily younger by the minute...

CHARACTERS

In a situation that's basically the reverse of the The Deadly Years, Spock's long natural lifespan means that he grows younger at a slower rate than the rest of the crew. This means he is able to remain useful longer than Kirk, Uhura, Sulu, or any of the others. Despite his interest in the ways in which the alternate reality differ from their reality, Kirk keeps everyone focused on solving the problem at hand.

THOUGHTS

The Counter-Clock Incident is the Animated Series' final episode, making it the final televised adventure of Kirk's five-year mission. It would be nice to say that this is one of the best of the series, but I'm afraid I'll have to settle for calling it about average. Which still makes it a better final televised voyage for the TOS crew than Turnabout Intruder was.

As with most of Season Two's offerings, the episode benefits from an appropriate pace. By the second season, the writers seem to have figured out how to structure their stories for the 25-minute format, and the rushed pace of many of Season One's offerings has not been a significant issue. The effect of the Enterprise flying through the white void with black stars is visually arresting, even if it's very basic in its realization. The story itself is engaging, even if it has a few spaceship-sized holes in it.

The "growing younger" aspect of the plot was probably the high concept on the writer's mind when pitching the story, but it ends up being the weakest element. It's barely dealt with until the climax. Kirk and his crew remain entirely themselves until the final minutes, when they suddenly grow from full adulthood into childhood in about 2 - 3 minutes' screentime. A steadier and more gradual process would have been more dramatically consistent, though it would doubtless have been much trickier both to write and animate.

As with The Deadly Years, there is little consistency in how the crew "de-age." For example: McCoy and Scotty are both older than Kirk; shouldn't they retain their competence past the point at which Kirk loses his?

Despite this, I still found this to be a decent episode. It may not be the ideal series finale, but at least it's enjoyable.

Rating: 6/10.

Previous Episode: How Sharper Than a Serpent's Tooth?

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2-5. How Sharper Than a Serpent's Tooth.

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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2-4. Albatross.

Kirk is feeling a little blue...

THE PLOT

The Enterprise is delivering medical supplies to the distant Draman system. The ship is about to leave when one of the Dramians serves Kirk with a warrant for Dr. McCoy's arrest - for murder! McCoy had been to Dramia II, another world in the system, 19 years before, to perform a series of innoculations. After he left, a plague wiped out the entire planet. The Dramians blame him for the plague, and have convened a trial. 

Kirk investigates, and manages to find a witness: the planet's sole survivor, who is willing to testify on McCoy's behalf. But on the way back to the Draman homeworld, the unthinkable happens: the entire Enterprise, save for Mr. Spock, becomes infected with the plague!


CHARACTERS

A strong episode for the Big Three, though there's only minimal moments for the rest of the cast. Kirk is determined to save McCoy, certain that he could not be responsible for the plague. McCoy has doubts, fearing that he may have made a horrible mistake in his inocculations, and spends the episode paralyzed with guilt. Spock is the voice of caution and reason, while his Vulcan Voodoo grants him a plot-required immunity to the disease.


THOUGHTS

Another good episode. The Dramians are an interesting alien design, humanoid enough to be relatable as characters but alien enough to be visually different from our regulars.  One difference I am seeing between the first season animated episodes and the second season - The second season does seem to use its visuals far more effectively.  The pigmentation changes caused by the disease create a strong visual, its colorful nature very appropriate to the animated series' strengths.

Albatross is very much a TOS episode, right down to ending with a lame, would-be humorous exchange between Spock and McCoy. The characters' behavior and concerns are completely consistent with their live action personalities. The structure is relatively simple: Problem - Travel to a location - Travel back - Complication. But it's enough to keep the pace lively throughout, while the complication of the plague creates a dramatic shift at the midpoint, raising the stakes for our characters and providing an opportunity for Spock and McCoy to shine.

Once again, the short running time may result in some rushing.  The plague is resolved a bit too simply and neatly for my tastes, with no sense of ongoing consequences. But overall, the structure utilizes the animated series' limitations well, leaving an episode that's tightly-paced without being stuffed to bursting.


Rating: 7/10.

Previous Episode: The Practical Joker
Next Episode: How Sharper Than a Serpent's Tooth

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2-3. The Practical Joker.

Trapped in the holodeck (sorry, "recreation room").

THE PLOT

After a narrow escape from a Romulan ambush, the crew of the Enterprise finds itself subjected to a new ordeal: a run of practical jokes. They start small: Trick glasses that splash everyone's uniform when they drink, some food and laundry mishaps. But as the jokes become steadily more regular and destructive, Kirk and Spock realize that they have a serious problem on their hands.

Spock determines that, somehow, the jokes are being created by the Enterprise's main computer. Kirk calls all officers to quarters, intending to run a full diagnostic on the ship. But McCoy, Sulu, and Uhura have just stepped into the ship's rec room to enjoy some holographic leisure time... and the latest practical joke has blocked them from hearing Kirk's summons, as the three crew members find themselves the target of a potentially deadly game!


CHARACTERS

Shatner is allowed to unloose Capt. Ham, as Kirk tricks the computer by feigning terror. Shatner really goes for it. It's a pity this is animated, as I'm sure his facial expressions and bugging eyes (not badly replicated by the artwork) would have been priceless. Beyond that, this episode is one of the better ensemble pieces of the series, with all of the regulars getting something to do.


THOUGHTS

So Kirk's Enterprise now has a precursor to TNG's holodeck? Well, I suppose that's fair enough. This series precedes TNG by more than a decade, after all, and it's certainly believable that the basic technology was introduced during Kirk's time and refined over the following decades. An early Enterprise episode would later establish that holodeck technology existed among other spacefaring races long before Kirk, making it easy enough for me to accept Starfleet adding something along those during the original five-year mission.

I also find it particularly appropriate that the franchise's first ever "holodeck episode" involves it malfunctioning and putting crew members in danger.  From one generation to the next, some things just never change :)

Holodeck or no holodeck, I enjoyed The Practical Joker.  This is a particularly well-paced episode. It moves briskly, but spaces out the action just enough for some nice character bits. The rec room scenes provide strong visual moments as well, with the moment when a holographic blizzard fades into a springtime hedge-maze sticking in my mind.

I've noted in previous reviews how much the animated series has struggled with comedy. The lack of the actors' physicality plus the often stilted voice track editing has led to gags being both mispaced and mistimed, leaving episodes that might have been enormous fun in the live action series falling flat. Here, that manages not to be a problem. Comedy is a strong part of this episode... but this time, the comedy works. The timing is on, the actors are giving their all, and the situations play out in such a way that the incidents are genuinely amusing.

I could carp about the convenience of Spock resolving a nitrous-oxide crisis offscreen in the captain's voice-over, but I'll let it slide. This is a good episode, one where the elements really come together. With a perfectly-judged pace and some terrific character interaction (not generally the animated series' strong suit), this may be one of the most purely enjoyable entries presented.


Rating: 9/10.

Previous Episode: Bem
Next Episode: Albatross

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2-2. Bem.

Alien observer Bem is unimpressed with Kirk and Spock.

THE PLOT

For diplomatic reasons, an observer has been assigned to Enterprise for a series of contact missions: Bem, an honorary commander from the recently-contacted planet Pandro. Bem has behaved quite strangely for an observer, sitting out several missions in his quarters. When the Enterprise reaches a planet with a potentially dangerous aboriginal population, however, Bem insists on accompanying the landing party, overriding all of Kirk's objections.

On the planet, Bem detects life signs - then bolts, evading Kirk and Spock long enough to be seemingly deliberately intercepted by the aborigines. Kirk and Spock attempt to free him, only to find themselves captured. When they try to force their way out, they discover yet one more player they hadn't planned on: a superpowerful alien entity, which regards the aborgines as its children and the landing party as a hostile presence!


CHARACTERS

Kirk more or less repeats his pattern from Metamorphosis in his dealings with the aborigines and the entity. He first tries to use force. When the entity blocks that, he must find a way to reason with it instead. Uhura also gets a strong episode, pushing back against Scotty's desire to act by reminding him firmly of the captain's orders and the need to follow procedure in Kirk's absence.


THOUGHTS

Writer David Gerrold returns for this entry, which makes use of animation's freedoms by investing Bem with a quality that would have been impossible for television of its time to realize even passably convincingly.  Bem's ability to separate his body into three separate but united parts is a clever conceit, one well-used by the story and one which results in a few strong visual moments.

He also weaves the various aspects of the story together in a way that's thematically consistent, with each plot strand reflecting the others.  Kirk and his landing party are there to plant devices to monitor the native lifeforms, effectively to study them. Bem is also there to study, both the aborigines and Kirk. Finally, all of the above are being studied by the alien entity protecting the planet. It all fits, with each strand reflecting the others.

Unfortunately, the episode falls prey to preachiness. Practically the entire second half consists of a series of heavy-handed speeches and exchanges. These also miss the most obvious solution. When Kirk gets Bem to return the communicators and phasers, he opts to use the phasers to cut themselves out of their cages. Wouldn't it have made more sense for him to use the communicator, to have the ship beam them all up? This could have been dealt with by having Kirk try to contact the ship and failing due to some random interference... but he doesn't even try, which has the effect of making Kirk look like a trigger-happy idiot.

Between that plot hole and the preachiness, a promising episode slides into mediocrity. Not one of the animated series' worst by any means.  I expect better from writer David Gerrold, though, leaving this a distinct disappointment.


Rating: 5/10.

Previous Episode: The Pirates of Orion
Next Episode: The Practical Joker

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2-1. The Pirates of Orion.

The Enterprise confronts Orion pirates!

THE PLOT

The Enterprise is en route to attend the dedication of a new science academy at Deneb V when Spock is struck down by coriocytosis. This is an illness that is relatively minor In humans, roughly equivalent to a respiratory infection... but for Vulcans, it is fatal!

There is a drug available to treat it, and Kirk arranges a rendezvous with another Federation ship to obtain some. But when the rendezvous ship is raided by Orion pirates, Kirk must track the Orions down to recover the drug. The clock is ticking. Without treatment, Spock has less than twenty hours to live!


CHARACTERS

The character interplay between Kirk, Spock, and McCoy was stiff and artificial when the animated series began.  By this point in the series run, their exchanges feel almost as spontaneous as they did in the live action series. The acting of the three leads seems more relaxed than in the early episodes, with some of the actors perhaps giving a bit more now that the animated series has earned some surprisingly good reviews. 

This episode is particularly strong in showing the friendship/rivalry between McCoy and Spock, with McCoy's sarcastic asides about "that pointed-eared encyclopedia" clearly covering his genuine worry. A short character beat in which he fumes that, as a doctor, he's "only as good as (his) drugs and technology" also rings true for the occasionally techno-phobic McCoy.


THOUGHTS

Strong critical response earned the animated Star Trek a temporary reprieve: A six-episode second season. I do wonder why it only was picked up for six more episodes. Surely a pickup of 13 - 16 shows would have been more economical, given that more episodes means more backgrounds to recycle? But despite the series' frequently uneven quality, I'm glad of what are effectively six bonus episodes. At its best, the series has been very good Star Trek, and the average quality has largely increased as the show has progressed.

The Pirates of Orion is a solid season opener. The episode's central crisis is clear and simple: Spock's disease and the need for the drug to cure it. There is only one complication: the pirates of the title. With a couple of "Captain's Log" entries papering over transitions, this is one of the better-paced animated episodes. I find myself daring to hope that Season Two will not see a recurrence of the "rushed episode" problem that plagued so much of the first season.

The little gaffes caused by animation recycling are still evident. There's a scene in which McCoy calls Kirk from sickbay. A cutaway to Spock and back to Kirk shows McCoy in frame, even as he's talking over the speaker. Neat trick, Bones!

That's more than made up for by a solid script, one that really captures the feel of a Star Trek episode. It's no stretch at all to imagine this being made as a live-action episode, complete with an ending in which Spock and McCoy exchange barbs and then a regular bursts out laughing.


Rating: 7/10. A promising season premiere.

Previous Episode: The Jihad
Next Episode: Bem 

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1-16. The Jihad.

Kirk and Spock join a quest to prevent a war!

THE PLOT

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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1-15. The Eye of the Beholder.

The Enterprise crew are displayed in an alien zoo!

THE PLOT

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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1-13. The Ambergris Element.

Kirk and Spock explore a waterworld.

THE PLOT

The planet Argo has undergone severe seismic shifts, which have turned it from a land planet to a waterworld (minus Kevin Costner, thankfully). While investigating the causes and effects of this shift, Kirk and Spock are attacked by a sea monster and cut off from the ship's sensors. It takes five days for search parties to locate them.  When they're found, their entire internal structure has been changed. They can no longer live outside the water! 

Dr. McCoy determines that this was done by injection, and so must have been done by intelligent life. Kirk and Spock go back to the planet to find those responsible, in the desperate hope of finding a cure.


CHARACTERS

When McCoy protests that Kirk and Spock going into Argos' waters with no backup will be too risky, Kirk responds by stating that he prefers the risk to having to live his life in a tank. "I can't command the Enterprise from in here," he says.  That thought, of being unable to command and unable to be useful, is far worse to him than death. Beyond this, not too much for the characters, though the "big three" of Kirk, Spock, and McCoy all get decent roles.


THOUGHTS

After The Lorelai Signal, Margaret Armen was just about the last writer I wanted to see getting a second try. Fortunately, The Ambergris Element is a much better episode than its predecessor. Armen seems to have been advised to not focus on writing for kids, but instead to focus on writing a decent Star Trek script. The result is still flawed, but it is entertaining.

Like too many episodes, it feels rushed. Once again, we see a decent 50-minute story squeezed a bit uncomfortably into 25 minutes. A final plot turn that has further seismic activity endgangering the underwater city is one complication too many, resulting in a badly rushed climax. This series' most successful episodes have been the ones with the simplest storylines, and by this point in the run that should have been noticed.

Still, this isn't a bad episode. The undersea setting could not have been effectively realized on a live action budget, making it a good use of the freedom afforded by animation. Several of the underwater backgrounds are eye-catching, and even the planet's underwater denizens are well-drawn and reasonably well-animated. 

So on the whole: not bad. It's just a shame the writers and producers still haven't learned that the 25-minute format demands that the stories be kept simple.


Rating: 6/10.

Previous Episode: The Time Trap
Next Episode: The Slaver Weapon 

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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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1-11. The Terratin Incident.

A shrunken Kirk struggles with his communicator.

THE PLOT

The Enterprise receives an outdated radio signal with only one decipherable word: "Terratin." They follow the message to its origin source - a planet with substantial volcanic activity, whose surface is dotted with crystals and satellite dishes. No sooner have they entered the planet's orbit than the ship is hit by a strange beam that affects all organic matter. The crew is now shrinking steadily - and if something isn't done soon, they will soon become too small to retain control of the Enterprise!


CHARACTERS

Not much of interest here, though it's worth noting that the crew largely sympathizes with the Terratin people once they learn why they affected the Enterprise. Kirk gets a nicely ruthless bit in which he locks the ship's phasers on the Terratin city and threatens to destroy them if they don't respond. Otherwise, the characters are just pushing the plot through its somewhat labored paces.


THOUGHTS

There's a lot of Idiot Plotting in this installment.  One example: Kirk discovers that using the transporter returns him to normal size. So he immediately orders all crew members to go to the transporter room... No, wait. He tromps around the ship for several minutes, threatens the Terratins (who have somehow kidnapped his bridge crew in the meantime), reaches an agreement with them, and then bothers returning his crew to normal size. On top of all that, it's mentioned right before he beams down that the transporter might restore Kirk to normal size. Which means the crew knew the transporter was a possible solution... and chose not to use it!

In fact, nothing is actually attempted in terms of solving the shrinking problem. They stand around and debate the situation, with Spock giving them a running countdown until they'll be unable to use the ship's controls. There's a bit of forced suspense with Nurse Chapel falling into a fish tank(!), before Kirk finally beams down. And outside of that very manufactured situation, the characters never even seem terribly concerned about their predicament.

Which is an incredibly pointless predicament, by the way. The ending reveals that the shrink ray was the Terratins' way of shrinking the Enterprise crew down to size so that they could communicate with them. We discover this when... a normal-sized Kirk hails the Terratin city and gets a response, allowing Kirk and the Terratins directly communicate with each other. I guess just contacting the Enterprise in the first place (something they're clearly capable of doing) would have been too much trouble.

Alternately padded and rushed, with so much Idiot Plotting that Cletus could probably write a better script, The Terratin Incident is another stinker in a series that has had a few too many of these already. It's clear that when the animated series is good, it's very good... but that a disappointingly large portion of its scripts were dashed off in a hurry to boldly fill airtime where no airtime had been filled before.


Rating: 2/10.

Previous Episode: Mudd's Passion
Next Episode: The Time Trap

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1-10. Mudd's Passion.

Kirk and Spock, fueling slashfic for the next few decades.

THE PLOT

Harry Mudd (Roger C. Carmel) has escaped from his prison on the robot planet, and is once again swindling his way across the galaxy. Kirk and Spock catch up with him at a mining colony, where he is peddling "love crystals," guaranteed to make any member of the opposite sex fall in love with you at a single touch. When Spock exposes Mudd as a fraud, the colonists prepare to take justice into their own hands.  This prompts Harry's immediate surrender to the gentler justice of the Federation.

But Harry Mudd has never been one to accept arrest, even from "old friends." He insists that his love crystals are the genuine article. Observing Nurse Chapel's unrequited crush on Spock, he tempts her with the prospect of testing a crystal on the Vulcan, to make Spock hers forever. Of course, it's all a ruse, a distraction to allow him to make his escape. But there's one thing Mudd hasn't counted on: The crystals actually work!


CHARACTERS

Nurse Chapel's big episode... which plays her both as a dupe and as a thoroughly unprofessional officer. Nice to see those '60's gender politics continuing into the '70's. Meanwhile, a lovesick Spock provokes more cringes than laughs. The moment at which Spock and Kirk, under the crystal's influence, throw their arms around each other's shoulders and talk about how nice it is "to have a friend like you... That's the way I feel," seems like the grist for 1,000 slashfics. 

At least Harry Mudd is still entertaining. Slick, slimy, and charming in a repugnant sort of way, he feels absolutely authentic to the live action Mudd. The artwork for him is well-drawn, and the script makes him as much the nasty piece of work of his first appearance as the comedy creation of his second. Roger C. Carmel is the star of this show, and he at least manages to elevate this above the bottom rung inhabited by The Infinite Vulcan and The Lorelai Signal.


THOUGHTS

I've come to the conclusion that comedy episodes just don't work in this animated format. The animation is too crude to provide the subtlety of expression needed to sell a gag, and the voice editing is too slack to really raise the pace. As with More Tribbles, More Troubles, things need to get hectic in the closing Act. But voice tracks are edited so that one line follows another, even when comic energy demands that some of them overlap. As a result, there is no comic energy, just a series of leaden line readings.

I don't think Mudd's Passion would have been a very good live action episode, either. It's an Idiot Plot. The story only works if Nurse Chapel carefully removes her brain and falls for Mudd's sales pitch. I simply couldn't make myself buy into her stupidity. I certainly can't believe that she could compromise ship's security and use a piece of alien technology against a superior officer, with no consequences of any kind! 

The planet set succeeds in looking as cheap and bare as the papier mache planets of the live action series' third season - Hardly the kind of authenticity to source material the makers should strive for. An attempt at an action climax involving two rock monsters is hobbled by bad animation, leaving the monsters just roaring impotently while mostly not even moving... which doesn't stop Kirk from doing one of his typically impractical somersaults in the midst of evading them (that last actually is a nice touch).

Mispaced, largely unfunny, and with a script relying on a major character behaving like a moron... Yes, it's fair to say I didn't much like this one.


Rating: 3/10.

Previous Episode: Once Upon a Planet
Next Episode: The Terratin Incident 

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