CaptainWacky
I want to smell dark matter
Worf should have worked out that the clone wasn't the real Kahless when he failed to do his famous Surak.
Troll Kingdom
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Wacky Reviews: Star Trek
- Thread starter CaptainWacky
- Start date
CaptainWacky
I want to smell dark matter
All Our Yesterdays - Kirk, Spock and McCoy beam down to a planet to warn the inhabitants that they're sun is going to go nova in three and a half hours. That's not much of a warning! There's just one person left on the planet: an old man named Mr. Atoz (like "a to z"!) He seems to be able to exist in several places at once. He explains that the planet has known about the nova for a long time and he's sent the entire population to safety. He asks the trio to select the time period they are interesting in with his cool futuristic library equipment. Kirk ends up in the past fighting with a sword and Spock and McCoy even further in the past in the ice age. That's right: it's a time travel library! Kirk meets a woman with a terrible Irish accent and talks to Spock and McCoy through the ages somehow (I guess because he's standing in the area where he travelled back.) Irish woman accuses him of being a witch. A woman (Zarabeath) takes Spock and McCoy to her cave before McCoy freezes to death. We can tell Spock fancies her because the romantic music plays. She explains that she was a prisoner sent back in time by some villain. There's a nice bit where Spock assures her that he's real and I already enjoy their romance more than Spock's weird obsession with Droxine.
Kirk is accused of witchcraft. Spock finds that his logic is starting to fail. Zarabeth explains that they can't go back to the future because their cell structure has been adjusted for the time they live in. The Spock/McCoy/Zarabeth stuff is much more entertaining than Kirk in jail, though I do like it when Kirk works out that one of his accusers is a fellow time traveller.. There's some really nice Spock/McCoy stuff that avoids the usual "McCoy being a massive dick to Spock" trap. Well, okay, McCoy does accuse Spock of wanting to stay in the past because he's got the horn and Spock tells him "I don't like that" when McCoy calls him a pointy eared Devil, but that's part of the story rather than just being pointlessly nastiness! The other time traveller helps Kirk get back to the future (I guess his cells didn't need to adjust because he didn't travel back in time as far?) Atos doesn't understand the concept of aliens and shoots Kirk. Ice age Spock EATS MEAT and kisses Zarabeth and SMILES. Kirk puts Atos in a Full Nelson until he agrees to help. McCoy figures out that Zarabeth was lying and he and Spock can go home, but she can't. Spock fights his feelings and finally agrees to go back with McCoy.
Spock has to let go of Zarabeth so he and McCoy can go back. Atoz quickly runs into the portal as his planet is about to die. Spock tries to be logical by saying Zarabeth has been dead for five thousand years but he's sad really!
As you may have noticed I've struggled with season three. But this episode is good! It's very good! Maybe the best of the season. Even if it was in the first two seasons it would still be considered a good solid episode. The idea of members of a doomed society travelling back in time to save themselves in a really cool one! The Spock story is strong with Nimoy finally getting a chance to do some good acting again. Zarabeth is a sympathetic guest character. Atoz is a fun wacky alien. It's a good episode. It's a shame there's still one more to go because this would have been a fine ending...
SCORE: 9/10
Kirk is accused of witchcraft. Spock finds that his logic is starting to fail. Zarabeth explains that they can't go back to the future because their cell structure has been adjusted for the time they live in. The Spock/McCoy/Zarabeth stuff is much more entertaining than Kirk in jail, though I do like it when Kirk works out that one of his accusers is a fellow time traveller.. There's some really nice Spock/McCoy stuff that avoids the usual "McCoy being a massive dick to Spock" trap. Well, okay, McCoy does accuse Spock of wanting to stay in the past because he's got the horn and Spock tells him "I don't like that" when McCoy calls him a pointy eared Devil, but that's part of the story rather than just being pointlessly nastiness! The other time traveller helps Kirk get back to the future (I guess his cells didn't need to adjust because he didn't travel back in time as far?) Atos doesn't understand the concept of aliens and shoots Kirk. Ice age Spock EATS MEAT and kisses Zarabeth and SMILES. Kirk puts Atos in a Full Nelson until he agrees to help. McCoy figures out that Zarabeth was lying and he and Spock can go home, but she can't. Spock fights his feelings and finally agrees to go back with McCoy.
Spock has to let go of Zarabeth so he and McCoy can go back. Atoz quickly runs into the portal as his planet is about to die. Spock tries to be logical by saying Zarabeth has been dead for five thousand years but he's sad really!
As you may have noticed I've struggled with season three. But this episode is good! It's very good! Maybe the best of the season. Even if it was in the first two seasons it would still be considered a good solid episode. The idea of members of a doomed society travelling back in time to save themselves in a really cool one! The Spock story is strong with Nimoy finally getting a chance to do some good acting again. Zarabeth is a sympathetic guest character. Atoz is a fun wacky alien. It's a good episode. It's a shame there's still one more to go because this would have been a fine ending...
SCORE: 9/10
CaptainWacky
I want to smell dark matter
Turnabout Intruder - Kirk meets an old love(!) Janice Lester on an alien planet. "Your world of starship Captains doesn't admit women!" is one of her first lines and I'm sure there's been a lot of discussion of what it meant over the last fifty years. Did she meant that women aren't allowed to be starship Captains or that Kirk left her to be a starship Captain? Watching it in context...I don't know! Could be either! Maybe I think because she says "admit" it's slightly more likely to mean that Starfleet doesn't allow female Captains, but really I don't know. Anyway she swaps bodies with Kirk and YES that means a chance for Williams Shatner to go gloriously over the top playing a woman in Kirk's body. She tries to murder Kirk (who is in her body) with a scarf but McCoy and Spock interrupt. Lester has a male doctor (Coleman) with her who knows what's going on and refuses to kill Kirk, but does sedate him just as he's about to wake up in Lester's body. Lester enjoys sitting in the Captain's chair in Kirk's body. Some other bitch is in Uhura's chair again and that makes me sad that Uhura isn't in the last ever episode!
Lester as Kirk clashes with Spock and McCoy and Shatner trying to act like a woman is both funny and a bit sexist! Evil Coleman keeps Kirk in Lester's body locked up in a private room and convinces the easily fooled Chapel that Lester's just gone insane. Kirk does a Captain's Log in Lester's body which is a nice touch and I think the actress does a pretty good job playing Kirk. He manages to escape but Lester karate chops him. McCoy and Bones know that Kirk would never karate chop a woman! He'd probably just throw her on the floor. McCoy does medical tests on Lester while Kirk tells Spock what's going on. Spock says a completely body swap has never been done before which is weird since it was done with his body in 'Return To Tommorow'. But he believes lady Kirk after a mind meld. He casually never pinches a redshirt in a cool moment. Lester puts Spock on trial for mutiny. Spock calls SURPRISE WITNESS the real Kirk to the stand!
For some reason Chekov and Sulu are standing in the corner giggling during the cross examination, which is weird, but at least they got to be in the episode! Lester argues that she couldn't possibly have overpowered Kirk to take his body and the men are all like "she's got a point!" Like a lot of scenes in the original series this trial goes on far too long. It just repeats the point again and again that Lester is obviously lying and Spock won't stand for it. Lester eventually throws a hissy fit and Scotty realises it's not really Kirk. Lester is ONE STEP AHEAD and secretly tapes Scotty and McCoy planning mutiny. The security staff are all dumb and mindlessly do whatever the obviously fake Kirk says. Sulu and Chekov refuse Lester's orders after she orders Spock executed. Spock tries to swap their bodies back with his Vulcan powers and Shatner does some amazing acting. Lester and Coleman try to kill Kirk but their bodies swap back. They agree to let Coleman look after Lester which is pretty weird when he was just about to murder Kirk. Kirk says Lester's life could have been as rich as any woman's if only...if only...
END OF STAR TREK FOREVER.
I think it's best just to ignore the fact that this was the last episode, because it wasn't written as a finale at all. It was rare for tv shows to have proper finales in the sixties. Just think of it as any other episode and it's...pretty middle of the road. Shatner is amsuing playing Lester, as long as you think of him acting like a madwoman rather than just acting like he believes any woman would behave. Sandra Smith does a good job playing Kirk in lester's body. It's fun seeing Spock and McCoy work together to save Kirk. But it's not much of a story. Kirk just acts crazy for a while, it's obvious something is wrong, and then things go back to normal. Lester isn't that good of a character because as I said she's just an over the top madwoman. If the episode wanted to make a point about the patriarchy driving women mad with how unfair it is then it should have been more clear about it. As it it the episode is so ambiguous that we don't really know for sure if Lester wasn't kept from being a Captain because she was a woman or just because she was mad. It's a pretty watchable episode on the whole, just not an ideal end to the series.
SCORE: 6/10
Lester as Kirk clashes with Spock and McCoy and Shatner trying to act like a woman is both funny and a bit sexist! Evil Coleman keeps Kirk in Lester's body locked up in a private room and convinces the easily fooled Chapel that Lester's just gone insane. Kirk does a Captain's Log in Lester's body which is a nice touch and I think the actress does a pretty good job playing Kirk. He manages to escape but Lester karate chops him. McCoy and Bones know that Kirk would never karate chop a woman! He'd probably just throw her on the floor. McCoy does medical tests on Lester while Kirk tells Spock what's going on. Spock says a completely body swap has never been done before which is weird since it was done with his body in 'Return To Tommorow'. But he believes lady Kirk after a mind meld. He casually never pinches a redshirt in a cool moment. Lester puts Spock on trial for mutiny. Spock calls SURPRISE WITNESS the real Kirk to the stand!
For some reason Chekov and Sulu are standing in the corner giggling during the cross examination, which is weird, but at least they got to be in the episode! Lester argues that she couldn't possibly have overpowered Kirk to take his body and the men are all like "she's got a point!" Like a lot of scenes in the original series this trial goes on far too long. It just repeats the point again and again that Lester is obviously lying and Spock won't stand for it. Lester eventually throws a hissy fit and Scotty realises it's not really Kirk. Lester is ONE STEP AHEAD and secretly tapes Scotty and McCoy planning mutiny. The security staff are all dumb and mindlessly do whatever the obviously fake Kirk says. Sulu and Chekov refuse Lester's orders after she orders Spock executed. Spock tries to swap their bodies back with his Vulcan powers and Shatner does some amazing acting. Lester and Coleman try to kill Kirk but their bodies swap back. They agree to let Coleman look after Lester which is pretty weird when he was just about to murder Kirk. Kirk says Lester's life could have been as rich as any woman's if only...if only...
END OF STAR TREK FOREVER.
I think it's best just to ignore the fact that this was the last episode, because it wasn't written as a finale at all. It was rare for tv shows to have proper finales in the sixties. Just think of it as any other episode and it's...pretty middle of the road. Shatner is amsuing playing Lester, as long as you think of him acting like a madwoman rather than just acting like he believes any woman would behave. Sandra Smith does a good job playing Kirk in lester's body. It's fun seeing Spock and McCoy work together to save Kirk. But it's not much of a story. Kirk just acts crazy for a while, it's obvious something is wrong, and then things go back to normal. Lester isn't that good of a character because as I said she's just an over the top madwoman. If the episode wanted to make a point about the patriarchy driving women mad with how unfair it is then it should have been more clear about it. As it it the episode is so ambiguous that we don't really know for sure if Lester wasn't kept from being a Captain because she was a woman or just because she was mad. It's a pretty watchable episode on the whole, just not an ideal end to the series.
SCORE: 6/10
CaptainWacky
I want to smell dark matter
Did they have sex next to the unconscious McCoy? Hot.
whisky
Boobie inspector
CaptainWacky
I want to smell dark matter
The Kelvin timeline was more accepting of gays so he felt comfortable enough to come out.
Love Child
One Love
Hi CaptainWacky, did you also review the latest Star Trek movie? I just watched it the other night.
CaptainWacky
I want to smell dark matter
There's a thread about it: http://www.trollkingdom.net/forum/index.php?threads/star-trek-13-news-countdown-thread.144170/
CaptainWacky
I want to smell dark matter
Star Trek: The Animated Series
I've never watched this before. Not one episode. It was never shown in the UK (I don't think) and I never bought it on DVD or whatever because, well, I heard it was shit. But other people say it has good episodes and I certainly want to see it for myself! Really the biggest exposure I've had to it has been this video...
Which is a great video you should watch before reading these reviews.
Beyond the Farthest Star - That's...that's not the proper Star Trek theme music! It sounds all seventies! The voices sound the same but a bit like they're under water? Also the plot seems to be moving along faster than in a normal episode, probably because it's only 23 minutes long. The Enterprise is trapped in the orbit of a dead star (I think?) and finds a huge, mysterious, 300 million year old spaceship. That's pretty cool! Kirk, Spock, McCoy and Scotty beam over wearing LIFE SUPPORT BELTS that let the BREATHE IN SPACE and that is also cool. There's a weird lifeform growing over the outside of the ship. They get trapped inside and the power is sucked from their phasers somehow. There's finally a bit of characterisation as McCoy tells Spock to hurry up and Spock says "patience, Doctor." It's literally the first character moment in the episode. They find an alien log that warns them about the parasitic lifeform and beam back on the Enterprise. Kirk ELBOWS Kyle out of the way to get to the transporter controls, which is awesome, but an evil lifeform beams into the computer or something!
The alien shuts systems down and tells Kirk to obey it (in a not very evil voice.) Spock concludes that the alien is a "primal entity" which uses starships as its body. They can't use the computers because the alien has them, but Spock and Scotty calculate the slingshot effect needed to escape the dead star in their heads. The alien wants to go to the centre of the galaxy. What could be there, I wonder!? The Enteprise manages to escape and go to warp. The entitry cries about not wanting to be left alone. It's pretty sad! But they just fly off and leave it anyway. Umm, that's the end. That's the end of the episode.
The advantage an animated series has is that it can show things that could never be done in live action. The scenes of the crew exploring the massive alien starship, including walking around in the vacuum of space, are something we'd obviously never have seen in the original series. The disadvantage this animated series has is that it's pretty cheap. The animation isn't great. It's often pretty static. But the biggest problem I found with this first episode was the voice acting. The cast weren't actually together when they recorded their lines. To save money, they recorded everything individually and then it was all stuck together. The best part of the original series was the relationship between Kirk, Spock and McCoy and the chemistry the three actors playing those characters had. That is pretty much gone here as obviously if they weren't acting together there's not going to be any chemistry. I can also already tell that some of the actors (DeForest Kelley mainly!) are struggling with the voice acting, whereas James Doohan (who had voice acting experience) sounds exactly like the Scotty of old. The reduced running time means we get to the action fast, but the downside with that is that the episode just kind of ends? They get rid of the alien and then fly away. No joke at the end, no moral of the story from Kirk. So yeah, I found this to be a mixed bag!
SCORE: 5.5/10 (But don't compare these scores to the live action scores because I think it's hard to compare them!)
Yesteryear - The Enterprise has returned to the Guardian of Forever(!) to help out some historians. One is a bird person with wings! Somehow everyone but Kirk forgets who Spock is and the first officer is now an Andorian! They find that the timeline has been changed so that Amanda and Spock died when Spock was seven. It happened when Spock wasn't saved by his cousin who it turns out was Spock himself from the future! Spock has to travel back in time to Vulcan to save himself. The Andorian first officer is a bit annoyed that he's going to lose his ranking, but he values family and wishes Spock work. It's a very nice touch. Spock witnesses his young self being bullied by VULCAN BULLIES in a scene J.J. stole for his first Star Trek movie. He meets Sarek (thankfully voiced by Mark Lenard) and we then see Sarek make a speech to young Spock about choosing his path, human or Vulcan. It's another bit J.J. stole! Except it's better here!? Young Spock has a pet with big claws in another nice continuity reference. Old Spock talks to Amanda, who sounds suspciously like Majel Barrett.
Young Spock goes out to the desert for his trial, but his pet follows him. His pet is attacked by a lizard thing and old Spock saves him. Old Spock teaches young Spock about emotions. "Logic offers a serenity human seldom experience" is a great line! This is a million times better than the first episode. Spock's pet is dying and young Spock runs all the way home to fetch a healer. Old Spock teaches young Spock about death! The healer offers to prolong the pet's life, but it will live in pain, so young Spock asks for him to die with peace and dignity. Back home he tells Sarek and Amanda that he has chosen the Vulcan path. Spock goes back to the future and tells Kirk that the one change this time was that a pet died. Kirk says that won't mean much but Spock says it might...to some. McCoy remembers Spock now and they even end with a joke (YES!) and everything is back to normal.
Okay, this was so much better than the first episode. I'm sure the fact that it was written by the great D.C. Fontana has something to do with it! While the first episode was totally lacking in characterisation this one was full of it. There was lots of nice continunity with the original series and we got to see Vulcan for only the second time ever. Leonard Nimoy did some strong voice acting and all the scenes with him talking to his younger self were great. Young Spock was adorable too! If this had been a regular episode it would have been a great one and as an animated episode...it was still a great one!
SCORE: 10/10
I've never watched this before. Not one episode. It was never shown in the UK (I don't think) and I never bought it on DVD or whatever because, well, I heard it was shit. But other people say it has good episodes and I certainly want to see it for myself! Really the biggest exposure I've had to it has been this video...
Which is a great video you should watch before reading these reviews.
Beyond the Farthest Star - That's...that's not the proper Star Trek theme music! It sounds all seventies! The voices sound the same but a bit like they're under water? Also the plot seems to be moving along faster than in a normal episode, probably because it's only 23 minutes long. The Enterprise is trapped in the orbit of a dead star (I think?) and finds a huge, mysterious, 300 million year old spaceship. That's pretty cool! Kirk, Spock, McCoy and Scotty beam over wearing LIFE SUPPORT BELTS that let the BREATHE IN SPACE and that is also cool. There's a weird lifeform growing over the outside of the ship. They get trapped inside and the power is sucked from their phasers somehow. There's finally a bit of characterisation as McCoy tells Spock to hurry up and Spock says "patience, Doctor." It's literally the first character moment in the episode. They find an alien log that warns them about the parasitic lifeform and beam back on the Enterprise. Kirk ELBOWS Kyle out of the way to get to the transporter controls, which is awesome, but an evil lifeform beams into the computer or something!
The alien shuts systems down and tells Kirk to obey it (in a not very evil voice.) Spock concludes that the alien is a "primal entity" which uses starships as its body. They can't use the computers because the alien has them, but Spock and Scotty calculate the slingshot effect needed to escape the dead star in their heads. The alien wants to go to the centre of the galaxy. What could be there, I wonder!? The Enteprise manages to escape and go to warp. The entitry cries about not wanting to be left alone. It's pretty sad! But they just fly off and leave it anyway. Umm, that's the end. That's the end of the episode.
The advantage an animated series has is that it can show things that could never be done in live action. The scenes of the crew exploring the massive alien starship, including walking around in the vacuum of space, are something we'd obviously never have seen in the original series. The disadvantage this animated series has is that it's pretty cheap. The animation isn't great. It's often pretty static. But the biggest problem I found with this first episode was the voice acting. The cast weren't actually together when they recorded their lines. To save money, they recorded everything individually and then it was all stuck together. The best part of the original series was the relationship between Kirk, Spock and McCoy and the chemistry the three actors playing those characters had. That is pretty much gone here as obviously if they weren't acting together there's not going to be any chemistry. I can also already tell that some of the actors (DeForest Kelley mainly!) are struggling with the voice acting, whereas James Doohan (who had voice acting experience) sounds exactly like the Scotty of old. The reduced running time means we get to the action fast, but the downside with that is that the episode just kind of ends? They get rid of the alien and then fly away. No joke at the end, no moral of the story from Kirk. So yeah, I found this to be a mixed bag!
SCORE: 5.5/10 (But don't compare these scores to the live action scores because I think it's hard to compare them!)
Yesteryear - The Enterprise has returned to the Guardian of Forever(!) to help out some historians. One is a bird person with wings! Somehow everyone but Kirk forgets who Spock is and the first officer is now an Andorian! They find that the timeline has been changed so that Amanda and Spock died when Spock was seven. It happened when Spock wasn't saved by his cousin who it turns out was Spock himself from the future! Spock has to travel back in time to Vulcan to save himself. The Andorian first officer is a bit annoyed that he's going to lose his ranking, but he values family and wishes Spock work. It's a very nice touch. Spock witnesses his young self being bullied by VULCAN BULLIES in a scene J.J. stole for his first Star Trek movie. He meets Sarek (thankfully voiced by Mark Lenard) and we then see Sarek make a speech to young Spock about choosing his path, human or Vulcan. It's another bit J.J. stole! Except it's better here!? Young Spock has a pet with big claws in another nice continuity reference. Old Spock talks to Amanda, who sounds suspciously like Majel Barrett.
Young Spock goes out to the desert for his trial, but his pet follows him. His pet is attacked by a lizard thing and old Spock saves him. Old Spock teaches young Spock about emotions. "Logic offers a serenity human seldom experience" is a great line! This is a million times better than the first episode. Spock's pet is dying and young Spock runs all the way home to fetch a healer. Old Spock teaches young Spock about death! The healer offers to prolong the pet's life, but it will live in pain, so young Spock asks for him to die with peace and dignity. Back home he tells Sarek and Amanda that he has chosen the Vulcan path. Spock goes back to the future and tells Kirk that the one change this time was that a pet died. Kirk says that won't mean much but Spock says it might...to some. McCoy remembers Spock now and they even end with a joke (YES!) and everything is back to normal.
Okay, this was so much better than the first episode. I'm sure the fact that it was written by the great D.C. Fontana has something to do with it! While the first episode was totally lacking in characterisation this one was full of it. There was lots of nice continunity with the original series and we got to see Vulcan for only the second time ever. Leonard Nimoy did some strong voice acting and all the scenes with him talking to his younger self were great. Young Spock was adorable too! If this had been a regular episode it would have been a great one and as an animated episode...it was still a great one!
SCORE: 10/10
The Tomtrek
Love Wookiee
Yeah unfortunately Yesteryear sets a really high bar for TAS that the rest of the episodes basically never reach.
Or maybe you'll really like "Bem"!
Or maybe you'll really like "Bem"!
Loktar
Pinata Whacker
1973-74. I think I remember watching a rebroadcast of all 22 episodes sometime in the early or late 80's.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Trek:_The_Animated_Series#Episodes
CaptainWacky
I want to smell dark matter
I wasn't born in the seventies and didn't start watching the original series until the late nineties (I watched TNG from about 95/96) so I wouldn't have paid attention before then. The point is, I haven't seen it before!
Loktar
Pinata Whacker
I'm old. I watched rebroadcasts of the original series in the 80's and I watched TNG when it originally aired in 1987. I was only 1 when TAS aired.
CaptainWacky
I want to smell dark matter
One of Our Planets Is Missing - Great name for an episode! Arex, the alien with AN ARM GROWING OUT OF HIS CHEST, gets to speak and he's pretty cool. A cloud is eating planets. It's from outside our galaxy. Spock dramatically says that the cloud is alive. This all seems kind of familiar. The governor of the planet that's in danger is Bob Wesley, from 'The Ultimate Computer'. He decides to save some children but leave everyonne else to die. The Enterprise flies threw the cloud in some poorly animated scenes. I'm struggling to stay interested in this and not just go and look at those pics of Sophie Turner at the BAFTAS instead. Scotty does something with anti-matter? Spock fnds the creatures brain and Kirk wants to destroy it. Spock disagrees! Character conflict! Kirk even quotes himself from 'A Taste of Armageddon' saying "I will not kill today." Wesley doesn't save his own daughter for some reason? Spock uses his Vulcan powers to talk to the creature. The creature's voice is hilarious. It doesn't understand other forms of life apparently! It says "small" a lot. The cloud enters Spock's body and Kirk shows it slides of Earth to explain what human life is. It doesn't want to eat anyone so agrees to go back to its home galaxy. Spock claims to have seen the wonders of the universe.
I did not enjoy the first half of this episode. It took the plot of several original series episodes and stuck them together in dull fashion. A static drawing of the Enterprise being moved in front of a static drawing of some cloud thing wasn't very good to look it. Thankfully it had a bit of story in the end with Spock arguing that the cloud was intelligent and talking to it. That's what Star Trek is all about! I mean it was still pretty basic but it was something. Still not very good or anything though!
SCORE: 5.5/10
The Lorelei Signal - The Enterprise picks up some strange music in space and the men start acting strange. Spock has a vision of a woman playing a Vulcan marriage drum. Kirk sees a woman...holding a flower. Wow, sexy! Uhura and Chapel aren't effected. Kirk, Spock, McCoy and a redshirt beam down to a planet and find a load of identical blonde women. Kirk loses his mind as he watches the women balancing crystals on their hands. Kirk passes out and when he wakes up he looks older. Uhura, Chapel and the WOMEN SCIENCE TEAM try to figure out what's going on. Uhura orders a WOMEN SECURITY TEAM to take command of the ship. Scotty sings IN WELSH for some reason then grins like an idiot as Uhura takes command. Is this actually Welshie from that Futurama episode? Kirk and friends try to escape and hide in an urn while some funky music plays. Spock works out the rather obvious fact that the headbands they're wearing are draining their lifeforce. Spock gets to his comunicator and requests an all female rescue party. They face off with the alien women. Chapel and Uhura rescue the now ancient Spock and he tells them what to do. Badass Uhura threatens to kill the alien leader. The sirens explain their tragic backstory and help Uhura and Chapel get Kirk and the others back to the Enterprise. Spock comes up with a way to save them: using the transporter beam to restore them to their original ages as it has their patterns stored. That's pretty clever! Uhura tells the aliens they'll be taken to another planet where they can be normal and everyone is happy!
Okay, so the plot of this episode is pretty stupid and doesn't really make sense. Sexy space women luring men to their deaths is silly and will be done again in a terrible Voyager episode much later. If the planet is what's making the women have to suck the life out of men, why don't they just ask Kirk to take them to a new planet instead of sucking the life out of him? AND YET this episode is a lot of fun because it's the most feminist episode of Star Trek yet with Uhura taking command and kicking ass with her all female security team! Roddenberry always wanted to have Uhura take command at some point in the original series but could never do it so it's great to finally see it. I loved it when Scotty was sitting drooling on the Bridge like an idiot and she took over. So despite some huge plot problems I did like this episode and it actually feels like a landmark moment in Star Trek's portrayal of women!
SCORE: 7.5/10
I did not enjoy the first half of this episode. It took the plot of several original series episodes and stuck them together in dull fashion. A static drawing of the Enterprise being moved in front of a static drawing of some cloud thing wasn't very good to look it. Thankfully it had a bit of story in the end with Spock arguing that the cloud was intelligent and talking to it. That's what Star Trek is all about! I mean it was still pretty basic but it was something. Still not very good or anything though!
SCORE: 5.5/10
The Lorelei Signal - The Enterprise picks up some strange music in space and the men start acting strange. Spock has a vision of a woman playing a Vulcan marriage drum. Kirk sees a woman...holding a flower. Wow, sexy! Uhura and Chapel aren't effected. Kirk, Spock, McCoy and a redshirt beam down to a planet and find a load of identical blonde women. Kirk loses his mind as he watches the women balancing crystals on their hands. Kirk passes out and when he wakes up he looks older. Uhura, Chapel and the WOMEN SCIENCE TEAM try to figure out what's going on. Uhura orders a WOMEN SECURITY TEAM to take command of the ship. Scotty sings IN WELSH for some reason then grins like an idiot as Uhura takes command. Is this actually Welshie from that Futurama episode? Kirk and friends try to escape and hide in an urn while some funky music plays. Spock works out the rather obvious fact that the headbands they're wearing are draining their lifeforce. Spock gets to his comunicator and requests an all female rescue party. They face off with the alien women. Chapel and Uhura rescue the now ancient Spock and he tells them what to do. Badass Uhura threatens to kill the alien leader. The sirens explain their tragic backstory and help Uhura and Chapel get Kirk and the others back to the Enterprise. Spock comes up with a way to save them: using the transporter beam to restore them to their original ages as it has their patterns stored. That's pretty clever! Uhura tells the aliens they'll be taken to another planet where they can be normal and everyone is happy!
Okay, so the plot of this episode is pretty stupid and doesn't really make sense. Sexy space women luring men to their deaths is silly and will be done again in a terrible Voyager episode much later. If the planet is what's making the women have to suck the life out of men, why don't they just ask Kirk to take them to a new planet instead of sucking the life out of him? AND YET this episode is a lot of fun because it's the most feminist episode of Star Trek yet with Uhura taking command and kicking ass with her all female security team! Roddenberry always wanted to have Uhura take command at some point in the original series but could never do it so it's great to finally see it. I loved it when Scotty was sitting drooling on the Bridge like an idiot and she took over. So despite some huge plot problems I did like this episode and it actually feels like a landmark moment in Star Trek's portrayal of women!
SCORE: 7.5/10
CaptainWacky
I want to smell dark matter
More Trouble, More Tribbles - The Enterprise is escoring more grain to Sherman's Planet. And the fucking Klingons are up to something again! Koloth has a new weapon that comletely disables the Enterprise's engines. Scotty (eventually) beams Cyrano Jones onboard after his ship is destroyed by Klingsons. When Scotty is seen in close-up when transporting he has a beard, because they're using stock footage of a different transporter chief. That's so lazy. The voice acting is really weird and bad in this scene. It's like they're going for comedy and it just sounds weird. Jones has new PINK Tribbles with him which he claims can't multiply. And also a Tribble predator that fucking eats a Tribble! The Klingons attack again. The Klingons eat the grain and get fatter. Spock suggests throwing Tribbles at the Klingons. Kirk has to keep rolling a fat Tribble out of his chair. This would probably be funny if it was William Shatner doing it in live action rather than a poor animation. Koloth wants Jones for sabotaging a Klingon planet with his fat Tribbles, which seems pretty reasonable of Koloth. Scotty beams the Tribbles onto the Klingon ship (yes, again) and we get comedy music as the fat Tribbles bounce around. Those wacky Tribbles! Koloth reveals that what they really want is the Tribble predator Jones stole from them. Koloth apparently doesn't know the Tribbles are giant(?) and releases the predator to eat them, but it runs away. The Tribbles fall on him like they did to Kirk in that episode they're referencing (Koloth says "tin-plated" just because.) Then loads of Tribbles fall on Kirk too hahaha my sides literally split.
'The Trouble With Tribble' is of course a timeless classic. The Tribble were a great creation, but the episode was also brilliantly written with top level comedy performances from all the cast. This one is just a load of recylced jokes from that episode and without the great comedy performancs. As I have mentioned before, the voice acting in TAS is pretty terrible. It's really obvious that lines have been recorded seperately as, for example, Shatner's voice can go from delivering a line seriously to delivering the next line in a comedic fashion. So this episode has none of the charm of the original. You can see them trying (those Tribble keep falling on people!) but the comedy didn't work for me. It felt like a cheap Saturday morning cartoon trying to recreate a classic television episode. Because that's what it was.
SCORE: 4/10
The Survivor - The Enterprise finds the missing trader Carter Winston. McCoy mentions that his daughter(!) was saved by Winston using his personal fortune to save a planet. It also just happens that Winston's security officer fiance is on the Enterprise and Spock says Winston can meet her AFTER HE PROVES HIS IDENTITY. He checks out but McCoy detects something strange about his body. Winston tells his fiance that he's changed (he's gay now) and breaks up with her. A tentacle alien beams over and takes Kirk's place. Kirk orders the Enterprise to fly through the Romulan Neutral Zone, like he always does when he's been replaced by an alien. The real Kirk comes to Bridge and is like "what's going on, dudes?" Winston or another alien or whoever shapeshifts into McCoy and acts weird. The alien next disguises itself as a table and Kirk threatens to pour acid on it in quite a nice scene. His fiance can't bring herself to shoot the alien when it's in Winston's form, because women are emotional and not good at their jobs. The Romulans show up and want to know what Kirk is in the Neutral Zone. Kirk thinks the alien is a Romulan spy. THERE'S A SEXY CAT LADY NAMED M'RESS ON THE BRIDGE. The shapeshifter does more stuff and tells security lady that Carter really loved her. The alien feels some of his love for her. It asks if she can love him in his tentacle form. Winston helps the Enterprise by tansforming into a deflector shield because it wants to protect the girl. He explains that he's a "non-prodcuer" on his home world and was forced to be evil by the Romulans or something. He wasn't so bad after all! Some completely over the top comedy music plays as Spock makes a joke/
This episode at least tries to have a plot. There's even some depth to the story with the alien struggling with its feeling for the security lady. It's all very rushed (the alien doesn't really show any signs of conflict before it switches sides) but it's something. Otherwise it's standard TAD!
SCORE: 6/10
'The Trouble With Tribble' is of course a timeless classic. The Tribble were a great creation, but the episode was also brilliantly written with top level comedy performances from all the cast. This one is just a load of recylced jokes from that episode and without the great comedy performancs. As I have mentioned before, the voice acting in TAS is pretty terrible. It's really obvious that lines have been recorded seperately as, for example, Shatner's voice can go from delivering a line seriously to delivering the next line in a comedic fashion. So this episode has none of the charm of the original. You can see them trying (those Tribble keep falling on people!) but the comedy didn't work for me. It felt like a cheap Saturday morning cartoon trying to recreate a classic television episode. Because that's what it was.
SCORE: 4/10
The Survivor - The Enterprise finds the missing trader Carter Winston. McCoy mentions that his daughter(!) was saved by Winston using his personal fortune to save a planet. It also just happens that Winston's security officer fiance is on the Enterprise and Spock says Winston can meet her AFTER HE PROVES HIS IDENTITY. He checks out but McCoy detects something strange about his body. Winston tells his fiance that he's changed (he's gay now) and breaks up with her. A tentacle alien beams over and takes Kirk's place. Kirk orders the Enterprise to fly through the Romulan Neutral Zone, like he always does when he's been replaced by an alien. The real Kirk comes to Bridge and is like "what's going on, dudes?" Winston or another alien or whoever shapeshifts into McCoy and acts weird. The alien next disguises itself as a table and Kirk threatens to pour acid on it in quite a nice scene. His fiance can't bring herself to shoot the alien when it's in Winston's form, because women are emotional and not good at their jobs. The Romulans show up and want to know what Kirk is in the Neutral Zone. Kirk thinks the alien is a Romulan spy. THERE'S A SEXY CAT LADY NAMED M'RESS ON THE BRIDGE. The shapeshifter does more stuff and tells security lady that Carter really loved her. The alien feels some of his love for her. It asks if she can love him in his tentacle form. Winston helps the Enterprise by tansforming into a deflector shield because it wants to protect the girl. He explains that he's a "non-prodcuer" on his home world and was forced to be evil by the Romulans or something. He wasn't so bad after all! Some completely over the top comedy music plays as Spock makes a joke/
This episode at least tries to have a plot. There's even some depth to the story with the alien struggling with its feeling for the security lady. It's all very rushed (the alien doesn't really show any signs of conflict before it switches sides) but it's something. Otherwise it's standard TAD!
SCORE: 6/10
CaptainWacky
I want to smell dark matter
The Infinite Vulcan - Chekov never made it to the Animated Series (you could pretend he's already on The Reliant...but TMP ruins that as it does many things!) but they did let Walter Koenig write this episode. Kirk, Spock, McCoy and Sulu go to a planet. Sulu is poisoned. Some plant-based aliens show up and heal him. There's also dragons made out of plants and phasers don't work on plants? Spock is kidnapped and a giant human named Doctor Stavos shows up. He controls the plant people! Turns out he was part of the Eugenics Wars(!) and he planned to clone people with plants for crazy reasons. He's cloned himself to stay alive. He's going to take over the galaxy with clones of Spock. It's quite the plan. There's a really bad, confusing action scene of Kirk, McCoy and Sulu being chased by plant dragons. THEN THEY MEET A GIANT CLONE OF SPOCK NAMED SPOCK 2. Why the fuck would make a giant Starfleet uniform for Spock 2? Kirk throws his communicator to the giant in a hilariously badly animated moment. Uhura finds out Stavos is trying to create a peacekeeping force (of Giant Spocks) but Kirk tells him there's been peace for hundreds of years. Kirk talks to Spock 2 about the Vulcan IDIC and gets through to him. But Stavos shatters real Spock's medical thing (I don't know.) Spock 2 mind melds (called the mind TOUCH for some stupid reason!) with real Spock and that somehow brings him back to life. The giant doctor is sad that he has no purpose now the Federation has peace. Sulu says something about being inscrutable (which is a racial stereotype used against the Japanese) and Kirk says "Sulu, you're the most SCRUTABLE man I know!" and Sulu fucking WINKS TO THE CAMERA. WHAT WAS THAT ALL ABOUT!?
This episode is complete nonsense. I guess Walter Koening read a news paper article about cloning and thought "but what if someone cloned a giant Spock!" It's pretty enertaining nonsense, once Giant Spock shows up at least. He doesn't really do much but just the sight of a Giant Spock makes the episode sort of worthwhile. It still makes no sense and has one of the most baffling (but hilarious!?) endings ever, but I've seen worse!
SCORE: 6/10
The Magicks of Megus-Tu - The Enterprise heads to the CENTER OF THE GALAXY to witness new matter being created. Some poorly animated fireworks, basically. The Enterprise is caught in a storm and rides through "the center of things." Everone passes out and THE DEVIL (Lucien) appears on the Bridge. He fixes the Enterprise with magic. I know Star Trek has never been hard science fiction or anything but this is all very silly even for Star Trek. He takes Kirk, Spock and McCoy to a planet. He says he's just giving them a world they understand because he's from a universe of magic. Lucien explains that his people visited Earth many years ago and his voice acting is pretty annoying (it's James Doohan but it's not one of his better performances.) Back on the Enterprise Spock does magic. Then some other aliens attack the Enterprise. The crew end up in a recreation of Salem on Earth in 1691, on trial for witchcraft. FOR SOME FUCKING REASON. The other aliens reval that they were burned as witches on Earth because of Lucien being a dick or something I wasn't paying attention it's stupid. Spock defends humanity against the aliens, calling Lucien and Kirk to the stand. Kirk says humans have changed since the Salem witch trials. He usest he Prime Direction as an example. The aliens find the Enterprise crew innocent, but sentence Lucien to spend eternity in limbo. Kirk says that's not fair. The aliens point out that Lucien is actually LUCIFER. Kirk doesn't care(!) and keeps defending him. KIRK AND THE ALIEN THEN HAVE A MAGIC DUEL. The aliens are impressed that Kirk was willing to die to protect the actual Devil and says that was the REAL TRIAL. Spock says that thanks to Kirk Lulcifer hasn't been cast out for a second time. This is supposed to be a happy ending I think!?
I found the previous episode mildly enertaining because at least the stupid stuff was stupid science fiction stuff. I like my stupid Star Trek to at least be a sci fi show. What I don't like is when it goes full on magic and witchcraft shite. Which this one did, in a totally non-sensical plot involving Kirk saving actual Satan for some reason! And what was the deal with Lucien supposed to be? He didn't actually do anything evil in the episode (he just laughts a lot), but everyone pretty much just accepts that he's the devil by the end. So is the episode telling kids that Satan is cool and you should just give him a chance? That's pretty fucking weird. I have no desire to see Kirk and Spock using magic powers to beat up witches either. This is bad.
SCORE: 2/10
This episode is complete nonsense. I guess Walter Koening read a news paper article about cloning and thought "but what if someone cloned a giant Spock!" It's pretty enertaining nonsense, once Giant Spock shows up at least. He doesn't really do much but just the sight of a Giant Spock makes the episode sort of worthwhile. It still makes no sense and has one of the most baffling (but hilarious!?) endings ever, but I've seen worse!
SCORE: 6/10
The Magicks of Megus-Tu - The Enterprise heads to the CENTER OF THE GALAXY to witness new matter being created. Some poorly animated fireworks, basically. The Enterprise is caught in a storm and rides through "the center of things." Everone passes out and THE DEVIL (Lucien) appears on the Bridge. He fixes the Enterprise with magic. I know Star Trek has never been hard science fiction or anything but this is all very silly even for Star Trek. He takes Kirk, Spock and McCoy to a planet. He says he's just giving them a world they understand because he's from a universe of magic. Lucien explains that his people visited Earth many years ago and his voice acting is pretty annoying (it's James Doohan but it's not one of his better performances.) Back on the Enterprise Spock does magic. Then some other aliens attack the Enterprise. The crew end up in a recreation of Salem on Earth in 1691, on trial for witchcraft. FOR SOME FUCKING REASON. The other aliens reval that they were burned as witches on Earth because of Lucien being a dick or something I wasn't paying attention it's stupid. Spock defends humanity against the aliens, calling Lucien and Kirk to the stand. Kirk says humans have changed since the Salem witch trials. He usest he Prime Direction as an example. The aliens find the Enterprise crew innocent, but sentence Lucien to spend eternity in limbo. Kirk says that's not fair. The aliens point out that Lucien is actually LUCIFER. Kirk doesn't care(!) and keeps defending him. KIRK AND THE ALIEN THEN HAVE A MAGIC DUEL. The aliens are impressed that Kirk was willing to die to protect the actual Devil and says that was the REAL TRIAL. Spock says that thanks to Kirk Lulcifer hasn't been cast out for a second time. This is supposed to be a happy ending I think!?
I found the previous episode mildly enertaining because at least the stupid stuff was stupid science fiction stuff. I like my stupid Star Trek to at least be a sci fi show. What I don't like is when it goes full on magic and witchcraft shite. Which this one did, in a totally non-sensical plot involving Kirk saving actual Satan for some reason! And what was the deal with Lucien supposed to be? He didn't actually do anything evil in the episode (he just laughts a lot), but everyone pretty much just accepts that he's the devil by the end. So is the episode telling kids that Satan is cool and you should just give him a chance? That's pretty fucking weird. I have no desire to see Kirk and Spock using magic powers to beat up witches either. This is bad.
SCORE: 2/10
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CaptainWacky
I want to smell dark matter
Once Upon a Planet - The Enterprise returns to the 'Shore Leave' planet (literally what Kirk calls it here) for some, well, shore leave. The White Rabbit and Alice show up right away as McCoy, Sulu and Uhura recap that episode and explain the rules of the planet. Bones is chased by the Red Queen and Uhura's communicator is stolen by a robot. The Keeper of the planet is missing and a crazy computer inside the planet thinks the Enterprise is Uhura's master and keeping her as a slave. Kind of racist! I like how M'Ress purrs all the time. A message written in several languages says that The Keeper is dead. The computer complains about its boring life to Uhura. Pterodactyls chase Kirk and friends. Then a giant cat! Sadly they don't beam down M'Ress to talk to it, mrrrrrr. They fake an injury to Spock so that he'll be taken below the surface to be healed, like McCoy was when he died last time. There's more "Enterprise in danger/Kirk in danger!" stuff before Kirk and Spock confront the computer. It wants to leave the planet on the Enterprise and travel the galaxy seeking out its brother computers! Kirk explainst hat machines don't rule the galaxy and men and machines live together. The computer is actually very reasonable and accepts their explanation. Spock agrees to talk to the computer to keep it company. McCoy, Sulu, Alice and the white rabbit have a picnic with a two-headed dragon, which is adorable.
'Shore Leave' was one of the most childish episode of the original series, so it makes sense to do a follow-up on the children's cartoon version of Star Trek. Of course due to the limits of the animation we don't get to see anything all that amazing on the planet, just some pterodactyls, a dragon and a giant cat (I did like the giant cat though!) A lot of the episode is just the crew running around trying not to be eaten or scratched, but I do like the resolution where they talk to the computer and explain things and how the computer ends up being friends with Spock. And it had the most M'Ress dialogue and purring of any episode so far.
SCORE: 5.5/10
Mudd's Passion - It's another follow-up to an original series episode. This time Harry Mudd (with the original voice actor) is selling love potions to aliens. Spock shows that Harry is scamming the aliens so they try to stone him to death. Mudd tries to tempt Chapel into using his love potion on Spock. She decides to try it out...for science. Wow, she is so fired. Mudd steals her I.D. The love potion doesn't work and Chapel is angry that she didn't get to rape Spock. But then it turns out it DID work and Spock starts talking all sexy about her! Chapel accidentally shoots the love crystals and they disolve into the air system. Spock keeps saying "My Christine!" M'RESS STARTS COMING ON TO SCOTTY IT'S HOT. Mudd kidnaps Chapel to a planet with a giant rock crocodile. Arax starts playing an alien instrument (not his cock) on the Bridge. THEN KIRK AND SPOCK PUTS THEIR ARMS AROUND EACH OTHER HOLY FUCK TUMBLR WOULD LOVE THIS. McCoy comes on to all the girls and says "if the Enterprise had a heart I'd save her too!" Kirk gives the remaining love crystals to the rock monsters and they beam up (I'm not sure why they coudln't just beam up without doing that.) Chapel acts all angry with Spock for not loving her anymore, EVEN THOUGH HE ONLY LOVED HER BECAUSE SHE DRUGGED HIM. It's supposed to be funny I think?
It's really hard to rate TAS sometimes because episode can be objectively horribly written but still be entertaining. This episode completely ruins Chapel as a character forever, but she suffers no consequences. Mudd kidnaps her and nearly gets her killed but w'ere still supposed to think of him as a lovable comedy rogue at the end. AND YET I laughed out loud several times at drugged-up Spock and M'Ress and Scotty and Bones and I just don't know anymore.
SCORE: 5/10
'Shore Leave' was one of the most childish episode of the original series, so it makes sense to do a follow-up on the children's cartoon version of Star Trek. Of course due to the limits of the animation we don't get to see anything all that amazing on the planet, just some pterodactyls, a dragon and a giant cat (I did like the giant cat though!) A lot of the episode is just the crew running around trying not to be eaten or scratched, but I do like the resolution where they talk to the computer and explain things and how the computer ends up being friends with Spock. And it had the most M'Ress dialogue and purring of any episode so far.
SCORE: 5.5/10
Mudd's Passion - It's another follow-up to an original series episode. This time Harry Mudd (with the original voice actor) is selling love potions to aliens. Spock shows that Harry is scamming the aliens so they try to stone him to death. Mudd tries to tempt Chapel into using his love potion on Spock. She decides to try it out...for science. Wow, she is so fired. Mudd steals her I.D. The love potion doesn't work and Chapel is angry that she didn't get to rape Spock. But then it turns out it DID work and Spock starts talking all sexy about her! Chapel accidentally shoots the love crystals and they disolve into the air system. Spock keeps saying "My Christine!" M'RESS STARTS COMING ON TO SCOTTY IT'S HOT. Mudd kidnaps Chapel to a planet with a giant rock crocodile. Arax starts playing an alien instrument (not his cock) on the Bridge. THEN KIRK AND SPOCK PUTS THEIR ARMS AROUND EACH OTHER HOLY FUCK TUMBLR WOULD LOVE THIS. McCoy comes on to all the girls and says "if the Enterprise had a heart I'd save her too!" Kirk gives the remaining love crystals to the rock monsters and they beam up (I'm not sure why they coudln't just beam up without doing that.) Chapel acts all angry with Spock for not loving her anymore, EVEN THOUGH HE ONLY LOVED HER BECAUSE SHE DRUGGED HIM. It's supposed to be funny I think?
It's really hard to rate TAS sometimes because episode can be objectively horribly written but still be entertaining. This episode completely ruins Chapel as a character forever, but she suffers no consequences. Mudd kidnaps her and nearly gets her killed but w'ere still supposed to think of him as a lovable comedy rogue at the end. AND YET I laughed out loud several times at drugged-up Spock and M'Ress and Scotty and Bones and I just don't know anymore.
SCORE: 5/10
CaptainWacky
I want to smell dark matter
The Terratin Incident - The Enterprise picks up a transmission containing the word "Terratin" and Kirk goes to investigate it. A planet of crystals shoots an "impulse" at the Enterprise. Then the music goes nuts and a volcano goes off! All the dilithium crystals are fucked up. I'm not sure where this episode is going. Oh, everyone's shrinking. That's where it's going! Uhura can't reach her dial! There's actually quite a lot of science talk as Kirk, Spock and McCoy try to work out what's going on. Could have been educational for children! The crew have to build little ladders to reach their controls, it's adorable. Chapel falls into a fish tank and says "help!" on a loop. They get so small they have to climb around on ropes. Little Kirk is beamed down to the planet and the transporter restores him to normal size. Giant Kirk nearly deafens his tiny crew and has to whisper. Kirk shoots some crystals and threatens the Terratins with death if they don't restore his crew. But the Terratins aren't bad really and have restored Spock and the others to full size. Spock explains that the planet is named "Terra Ten" originally and the humans there were shrunk and lost. They shrunk the Enterprise crew so they could talk to them or something. They give Kirk some new Dilithium. Kirk beams the whole little Terratin city up to the Enterprise as their planet is about to die. He relocates them to another planet.
This episode is pretty good (on the TAS scale)! Obviously the original series would never have been able to pull off a shrinking episode with its limited special effects, so it's good to do stories like this in animation form. Unfortunately TAS doesn't have the best animation ever so they're still pretty limited in what they can do. The bit with Chapel falling in the fish tank, for example, could have been a fun little adventure but it just looked bad. Still, there's some fun stuff with the shrunken crew and I like that, once again, there's no villains here and the episode ends with Kirk coming to an understanding with the aliens. That's Star Trek!
SCORE: 7.5/10
The Time Trap - The Enterprise enters the Delta Triangle, an area of space where lots of ships have gone missing and also fireworks seem to go off. They probably shouldn't have gone in, really, seems like asking for trouble. They get into a fight with a Klingon ship which quickly disappears. They meet another Klingon Commander who blames them for the missing ship. His voice is CLEARLY George Takei's and it's distracting. The Enterprise gets trapped in the triangle with a load of other missing ships. Kirk is transported from the ship, as is the Klingon Commander Kor (voiced by Doohan.) They're brought before the ruling council of the triangle: loads of aliens including a Vulcan, an Andorian, a Tellerite, an Orion girl (who seems to be in charge, WHICH IS COOL) AND A GORN. They explain how all the aliens lived together with no violence in this pocket in time. Time passes slowly and everyone there is centuries old. Kirk and Kor both want to escape. Kor tries and fails, but it gives Spock an idea. It will require teaming up with the Klingons. Kor pretends to be willing to work with Kirk but plans to betray him. Spock puts his arms around the Klingons in friendship, which is pretty weird! Turns out he was sneakily reading their minds and knows about their planned betrayal. SHATNER SAYS THE WORD "SABOTAGE" AND IT'S AMAZING. They have a part and the Orion woman does a dance, off camera. A Klingon attacks Bones and the council want to disable his ship to punish him, as is their tradition. Kirk argues in favour of the Klingons being released so they can work together to escape. The council tell Kirk about the explosive the Klingons have planted and they find it in time. Both ships escape together.
It's another good episode. I like that we get to see so many aliens and starships. But it could been better with a few story changes. I was hoping the Klingons would decide not to sabotage the Enterprise at the last minute, because of being impressed by Kirk defending them or something. I wanted an ending where the two crews really did work together. Sadly the Klingons just ended up being assholes and Kor didn't seem as smart as in his last appearance where he was a believable equal to Kirk. So yeah, a fine episode but lacking a bit of depth in the end.
SCORE: 7.5/10
This episode is pretty good (on the TAS scale)! Obviously the original series would never have been able to pull off a shrinking episode with its limited special effects, so it's good to do stories like this in animation form. Unfortunately TAS doesn't have the best animation ever so they're still pretty limited in what they can do. The bit with Chapel falling in the fish tank, for example, could have been a fun little adventure but it just looked bad. Still, there's some fun stuff with the shrunken crew and I like that, once again, there's no villains here and the episode ends with Kirk coming to an understanding with the aliens. That's Star Trek!
SCORE: 7.5/10
The Time Trap - The Enterprise enters the Delta Triangle, an area of space where lots of ships have gone missing and also fireworks seem to go off. They probably shouldn't have gone in, really, seems like asking for trouble. They get into a fight with a Klingon ship which quickly disappears. They meet another Klingon Commander who blames them for the missing ship. His voice is CLEARLY George Takei's and it's distracting. The Enterprise gets trapped in the triangle with a load of other missing ships. Kirk is transported from the ship, as is the Klingon Commander Kor (voiced by Doohan.) They're brought before the ruling council of the triangle: loads of aliens including a Vulcan, an Andorian, a Tellerite, an Orion girl (who seems to be in charge, WHICH IS COOL) AND A GORN. They explain how all the aliens lived together with no violence in this pocket in time. Time passes slowly and everyone there is centuries old. Kirk and Kor both want to escape. Kor tries and fails, but it gives Spock an idea. It will require teaming up with the Klingons. Kor pretends to be willing to work with Kirk but plans to betray him. Spock puts his arms around the Klingons in friendship, which is pretty weird! Turns out he was sneakily reading their minds and knows about their planned betrayal. SHATNER SAYS THE WORD "SABOTAGE" AND IT'S AMAZING. They have a part and the Orion woman does a dance, off camera. A Klingon attacks Bones and the council want to disable his ship to punish him, as is their tradition. Kirk argues in favour of the Klingons being released so they can work together to escape. The council tell Kirk about the explosive the Klingons have planted and they find it in time. Both ships escape together.
It's another good episode. I like that we get to see so many aliens and starships. But it could been better with a few story changes. I was hoping the Klingons would decide not to sabotage the Enterprise at the last minute, because of being impressed by Kirk defending them or something. I wanted an ending where the two crews really did work together. Sadly the Klingons just ended up being assholes and Kor didn't seem as smart as in his last appearance where he was a believable equal to Kirk. So yeah, a fine episode but lacking a bit of depth in the end.
SCORE: 7.5/10