Captain's Blog pt. 4: The Animated Series (Episode by Episode) 2 of 2

(I'll dispense with the links to full-overviews/ summaries at Memory-Alpha or imdb for this post; y'all know how the internet works.) 

11.

PLOT: The Enterprise returns to the planet from TOS "Shore Leave" for some rest and relaxation. Unfortunately, following the death of the planet's Keeper, the computer has run amok. (This seems to be the default setting to which computers revert in the Trekverse.) Uhura is kidnapped, and Kirk and Spock ultimately convince the computer that man and machine can co-exist. Satisfied with their assurance that its creative consciousness is both useful and peaceful, shore leave resumes, and Spock settles in for a long chat with the computer.

This episode might not have the best reputation, but I find it perfectly enjoyable. The Shore Leave planet is like a telepathic-interactive holodeck in the TOS episode, and this sequel furthers the concept nicely. One quick note: Alan Dean Foster's novelization of this for Log Three includes the intriguing addition of Kirk's shore leave fantasy being... a silent film director. (???) I like it, but it's pretty non-sequiter.

Maybe Kirk (or more likely Mr. Dean Foster himself) just has a thing for Lillian Gish.

Also, the ending is a nice reversal of the standard Trek trope, i.e. "Convince the computer to self-destruct." Here, Kirk and Spock convince the computer that its consciousness has meaning.

10. 

The wiki summary for this episode amusse me: "In this episode, Captain Kirk and First Officer Spock are mysteriously transformed into water-breathers."

There's a bit more to it, of course, but that's the essential set-up, I guess. I like this one fine for what it is, (Armen wrote good Trek. She had a long career in tv, mainly westerns, and passed away at the age of 82 in 2003, so a RIP is in order) but mainly it cracks my personal top ten just for how it expands the storytelling tableau of Trek. 

I don't think the idea of an aquashuttle was revisited until "Thirty Days" in Star Trek: Voyager.

9.

PLOT: While tussling with some Romulans, the Enterprise passes through a strange cloud that infects the ship's computer. The crew fall victim to a series of practical jokes, always accompanied by the sound of Majel Barrett giggling. Like all great works of fiction, a giant inflatable Enterprise figures into the ending.

LEGACY: This was the first use of the ship's "holodeck" (here called a recreation room) in Trek history.

Chuck Menville had a long career writing primarily-children's entertainment, and here we see that perennial of children's entertainment, the super-powered imp.

I sometimes exaggerate aspects of an actor's performance in memory and am surprised on re-watch when the memory doesn't match up with the actual performance. Here, I remembered this episode as showcasing McCoy's PTSD-esque fury at someone playing practical jokes. I pictured someone from his past, possibly at Starfleet Medical, bullying McCoy with silly pranks and McCoy's never having gotten over it. But he seemed much less irritated on re-watch than I remembered. I was almost disappointed by this; I prefer my invented backstory.

8.

PLOT: Pursued by Klingons, the Enterprise enters an obvious analogue for its Bermuda counterpart, the Delta Triangle. (Technically, Joyce Perry envisioned it as "the Sargasso Sea in space," but the geometric designation makes the connection more explicit to Bermuda.)

Once inside, they discover they have entered the realm of Elysia, "more aptly described as a pocket in the garment of time." It is ruled by the council seen here, a cross-representation of the various races trapped inside the Triangle.

Kirk and the gang work with the Klingons to devise an escape route, but the Klingons, naturally, place a bomb aboard the Enterprise, rigged to explode upon the moment of escape. Which Spock discovers and disposes of:

Is it odd that the flagship of the Federation would have an "eject" chute like this?

Spock's equation for how to break free. It's so simple.

LEGACY: Commander Kor (the Klingon captain) first appeared in TOS "Errand of Mercy" and later appeared in several episodes of DS9. Although voiced by James Doohan here, he was played by John Colicos in all other appearances. 

Kor has always been my favorite Klingon villain, outside of Christopher Lloyd in STIII: Search for Spock. And Gowron, of course.

The Bonaventure, one of the ships in the Delta Triangle, is referred to as the first ship to have warp drive. This detail is contradicted, many times, in later Trek incarnations.

7.

PLOT: The Enterprise comes to the aid of a disabled one-man vessel near the Romulan Neutral Zone. The occupant appears to be Carter Winston, a philanthropist missing for five years, whose fiance happens to be a member of the Enterprise's crew. It turns out, however, that Winston is dead, and an alien Vendorian - a race of shapeshifters - assumed his identity.

After some hijinks with the Romulans, Carter helps save the ship (after first putting it in danger), and he (and his fiance, whom he loves as a result of absorbing Carter's emotions) discuss perhaps living together on Earth.

On the face of it, that's not a particularly exciting plot, and shapeshifters are never handled very logically in the Trekverse. (At one point, Carter/the Vendorian assumes the shape of components of the deflector shield. This is... problematic to say the least, but I'll put that aside for now.) But it's an episode full of nice moments (such as when Kirk humanely if not prudently allows Carter's fiance to be his guard detail while he's in the brig) and some great lines, such as this back and forth between McCoy and Spock:

"I'm glad to see him under guard, Jim. If he'd turned into a second Spock, it would've been too much to take."
"Perhaps. But then two Doctor McCoys just might bring the level of medical efficiency on this ship up to acceptable levels."

and this line from the Romulan commander to Kirk: "You seem to have a propensity for trespassing in the Neutral Zone, Captain." 

All in all, a solid episode and well-paced tale.

6.

PLOT: Responding to a signal transmitted in two-hundred-year-old Earth code, of which the only word decipherable is "Terratin," the Enterprise finds a planet of crystalline structure from which emanates "an undefined ray bombardment." Soon, all organic matter on the ship begins to shrink.

Kirk discovers that using the transporter (naturally; is there anything it can't do?) restores him to his regular size. The ray bombardment (shades of "The Lorelei Signal") was simply an attention-getting gesture on the part of the planet's inhabitants, citizens of a shrunken city threatened by volcanic activity. They are the descendants of a missing scientific expedition (a group of colonizers who founded "Terra Ten," which over time was corrupted to "Terratin") to the planet who, due to exposure to the unique rays on the planet, shrank too small to ever be found again. Kirk agrees to help them, everyone is restored to their original size, and everyone warps away, happy.

This wrap-up skips, unfortunately, most of what makes this episode so endearing, but it's an interesting idea and another that takes full advantage of what can be done in the animation format vs. live-action. That goes for the rest of the episodes to follow in this countdown, as well.

LEGACY: Once CGI got up to speed, this story idea was revisited in DS9 in the episode "One Little Ship." And Paul Schneider helped introduce the Romulans in his script for TOS episode "Balance of Terror."

Oh and - FINALLY! - we learn what Starfleet uniforms are made of: algae-based xenylon. Not unstable molecules, eh?

5.

PLOT: The Enterprise is pulled into an anti-universe where time flows backwards. The crew ages in reverse and become, eventually, much too young to effectively manage the ship. It is left to Commodore Robert April (the first captain of the USS Enterprise, before Pike) and his wife Sarah, on board due to the Enterprise's ferrying them to the Commodore's planned retirement ceremony, to save the ship and restore the crew, which they do. This results in Starfleet's reconsidering the mandatory retirement age, as they - and hopefully the audience/ America, as well - realize the elderly still might have something to contribute.

Allow me to contradict my earlier decision not to link to Memory-Alpha for this one, as this summary of events is only the tip of the iceberg for this episode. It's impressive how much is covered in the span of twenty-two minutes.

It's written by "John Culver," a pen name for Fred Bronson, whose career is ongoing and has been multi-varied, to say the least. (Seriously - the only thing missing from his c.v. is commando-work in Yemen; this guy has done it all.) Bronson is a self-confessed "huge Trek geek," and this episode abounds with references to TOS concepts and stories, among (but not all of) them "All Our Yesterdays," "Journey to Babel," and "The Empath." He wrote a couple of episodes for TNG, as well, "The Game" and "Ménage à Troi." Good on ya, Fred.

This was the series finale to TAS and might even be the second-best finale of any other Trek series. If anyone has this as their favorite ep of TAS, I wouldn't argue.

LEGACY: The name of Robert April comes from Roddenberry's original name for the Enterprise's Captain from his 1964 initial outline/pitch. (Roddenberry also used the name in two episodes he wrote for Have Gun, Will Travel, which, incidentally, is among my favorite tv-titles, ever.) He appears in plenty of non-canon stories, but he's only mentioned again in one of the deleted scenes for the ST:E episode "In a Mirror Darkly, pt. 1," as part of Jonathan Archer's computer-bio. (Note: his role as first captain of the USS Enterprise is not contradicted by the events of ST:E as Jonathan Archer, of course, captains the NX-01, not the USS.)

4.

Here we come to not just one of the strangest episodes of any Trek series but of TV in general. Think I'm exaggerating? Read on.

PLOT: The Enterprise is at the center of the Milky Way galaxy investigating nothing less than the origin of creation itself. It is quickly caught in an energy-matter whirlwind and transported to an alternate universe where magic works and science is whimsical. They are immediately contacted by "Lucien."

He was supposed to be red-skinned, but Hal Sutherland's color-blindness, apparently, strikes again.

Lucien seems quite familiar with humanity and treats the crew with much affection. He warns them about being discovered, as his fellow Megas-Tu inhabitants ("the Megans") are xenophobic. But, after Sulu (rather amusingly) uses magic to create a beautiful woman, they are indeed discovered, and the bridge crew is put in stocks and on trial, as well as Lucien for exposing them to evil.

It is revealed that the Megans once traveled to Earth in search of companionship, but, after being persecuted as "witches" in Salem, Massachusetts, they quit Earth forever in 1691 and returned to the stars, eventually making their way back to the Megas-Tu dimension. Kirk comes to the defense of Lucien and uses magic to get his point across to the lead prosecutor, one Mr. Asmodeus. They are convinced of humanity's having grown past its need to drive out that which is different from themselves, and the Enterprise is allowed to leave in peace.

Larry Brody's original idea was for the crew to penetrate the barrier and meet God himself, a concept of which Roddenberry (see last blog) enthusiastically approved. This was nixed by the suits. He explains further:

"'The NBC 'daytime boys' had nixed that as quickly as their prime time counterparts would've. But writing about Kirk and Spock and McCoy and the rest of the crew meeting the Devil in outer space was just fine. So that's what I did.' Brody likened the situation to his experience of having served as producer of the NBC series Police Story, during which he found that the network did not approve of showing a married policeman engage in sexual activity with his wife but did conditionally accept the series showing sex between a cop and a mistress. 'If you can show immoral sex instead of moral sex on TV," said Brody, "you can also show Satan instead of God on Star Trek, I guess.'"

Brody also expresses disappointment that his original script was rewritten so extensively by Roddenberry, a sentiment shared by many TAS writers.

I'm frankly amazed that this sympathetic depiction of the devil didn't cause more of an outcry. I mean, this was a Saturday morning cartoon, for Christ's sake. (Pun intended) The implications all around are fascinating. Trek is sometimes a bit clumsy or heavy-handed when dealing with theological stuff (TOS "Bread and Circuses" and TNG's "Who Watches the Watchers" come to mind) but when it isn't (such as here or in TNG "Devil's Due") it deserves a tip of the cap not just for "going there" but for doing it in such a compelling way that (one would hope) doesn't alienate the viewer, regardless of his/her beliefs. (I'm sure Pat Robertson was or remains offended, of course.)

LEGACY: I'll get into this more when I cover the films, but Star Trek V: The Final Frontier revisits the general concept, i.e. break through the center of the galaxy, meet God/ the devil, discover God/ the devil is not who God/the devil is believed to be. It is dealt with far more intelligently here in TAS.

3.

PLOT: The Enterprise follows a trail of disrupted matter left by a probe that suddenly appeared, scanned Earth, and self-destructed.

They find themselves suddenly encased in an energy field...

...whereupon the alien shape appears in the form of a large feathered serpent, which Ensign Dawson Walking Bear, a Comanche, recognizes as Kukulkan. (More on him below)

Kirk, McCoy, Scotty, and Walking Bear are transported inside Kukulkan, where a huge puzzle-city must be decoded.

Once they do, Kukulkan reveals that he visited Earth long ago and is upset that his Earth children have forgotten him. Kirk et al discover a menagerie of other alien beings, whom Kukulkan also refers to as his children. Kukulkan is eventually persuaded to give everyone their freedom. As he and the Captain ruminate on events, McCoy quotes the Shakespeare of the title, and the Enterprise warps away.

Russell Bates has this to say about Kukulkan:

"As we worked, I realized that the same legends are more well known as being the winged dragon-like beings of the Aztecs, Toltecs, and the Mayans... There were three likely candidates: Varicocha of the Peruvian Incas, Quetzalcoatl of the Toltecs and Aztecs, and Kukulkan of the Mayas. We picked the latter because Kukulkan had that hard 'k' ring to it and my tribe, the Kiowas, were discovered to be related to the Mayas."

Despite the hard 'k' ring, Shatner still had trouble pronouncing it correctly, so, as in "Return of the Archons" with "Landru," the rest of the cast pronounces the deity one way while Shatner goes his own way. (The reason for this - besides Shatner's propensity for such behavior - was that he recorded his audio after the rest of the cast, and in isolation, as he was in New York for the initial cast recording session.)

LEGACY: This episode, Bates notes, was a personal tribute to Gene L. Coon, who had recently passed away. Coon wrote one of Bates' favorite TAS episodes, "Who Mourns for Adonais," a story with similar plot points. David Wise, it should be mentioned, has many other credits to his name, including one of my favorite episodes of Batman: the Animated Series.

GREAT LINE: "Vulcan was visited by such beings. They left much wiser." - Spock, on similar early alien intervention on his homeworld.

2.

PLOT: While searching for a missing science team, Kirk, McCoy, and Spock are captured by the Lactrans, a telepathic giant-slug race who place them in a zoo. After one of their offspring is beamed aboard the Enterprise, the Lactrans realize that humans are sentient beings and don't belong in their zoo. They send a final parting message to Spock: "Humans may return in 20 or 30 of their centuries."

This episode doesn't have the greatest reputation for some reason, but it could easily (if the sets/ costumes/ make-up could have accommodated it, that is) be an episode of TOS. I may like it more than most for the humans-in-alien-zoo concept, something I've always found entertaining in The Twilight Zone, Slaugherhouse Five, or in TOS itself ("The Cage.") I think it's one of those fundamental-to-sci-fi concepts that never gets old. But beyond my affection for that, this is an intelligently written tale, and the moments between Scotty and the baby Lactran in particular are quite fun.

"I find them... strangely attractive." - Spock on their alien captors.

Shatner's voice-acting for TAS has been described as "somnambulant." He does seem to be fairly subdued in his line deliveries; we're a long way from the "They've! Transformed! The! Whole! CREW!" of TOS. But a very-much-appreciated glimpse of the old Shatner is heard here when the Lactrans pierce his mind to try and find out what happened to their child. 

"What... happened! TO! ... THE BABY!!? They're destroying me! Tearing my mind to... to... to..."

1.

PLOT: The Enterprise returns to the time-guardian planet from "City on the Edge of Forever," where Kirk, Spock and historian Erickson have used the Guardian to observe the birth of the Orion civilization, while McCoy and two other historians conduct similar research on Vulcan's past. Upon Kirk and Spock's return, however, no one aboard the Enterprise has any memory of Mister Spock except for themselves (and Erickson). The first officer of the ship is now an Andorian, Commander Thelin.

Through investigation, it is discovered that Spock's (and his mother's) existence was nullified when Vulcan history was given a brief glance through the Guardian. Spock recalls that his life was saved as child by his cousin Selek, whom he never saw again. Assuming Selek's identity, he returns to the Vulcan past to similarly intervene and restore himself to history/ the main timeline. The timeline changes once Spock arrives, as he quickly realizes, and when Young Spock goes into the desert for his kahs-wan ritual, ("The personal ordeal upon which I embarked was meant to determine the course my life would take") followed by his pet sehlat, I-Chiya, I-Chiya is mortally wounded. He delivers a nerve pinch to ease the sehlat's suffering and remarks: "This did not happen before. My life decision was made without the sacrifice of yours, old friend." 

Side note: perhaps this is the timeline that Sybok comes from?

A healer arrives but too late to save I-Chiya, and Young Spock makes the painful decision to put him down. The timeline is restored, and Spock returns to duty. 

The Guardian was also used in this Pocket Books tale, dealing with the son Spock had with Zarabeth in "All Our Yesterdays." Shortly after its publication and the airing of "Yesteryear," Harlan Ellison, the Guardian's creator, became litigious on its use in any further Treks. (Incidentally, this audiobook is a great little production; I found it for a buck at That's Entertainment in Worcester, MA, easily one of the top 5 "for a buck" acquisitions I've ever made.)

"One small thing was changed this time. A pet died."

"A pet? But that wouldn't mean much to the course of time."

"It might... to some."

To say this episode is a bit on the heart-wrenching side is an understatement. Its writer explains further:

"The euthanizing of I-Chaya embodied a theme that Dorothy Fontana was eager to teach youngsters about. 'I actually wanted to do a story that dealt with death,' she admitted. 'It just seemed to me that so many times children are not aware of death and then, when a pet dies, the child is devastated by it. The parents find it's difficult to explain the situation. And I wanted to touch on a way to deal with the subject...[I] felt strongly about dealing with the death of a pet. It was a very serious thing for kids. We were trying to put across a lesson to children, that when it comes time for an animal to die, if he must go, it should be with dignity.' Fearing that children would be "upset" by the depiction of euthanasia, NBC executives wanted the ending of this episode changed, but Dorothy Fontana refused and Gene Roddenberry supported her decision."

Is there no concept that NBC executives want to change? It seems to be the common denominator of every behind-the-scenes TV story I've ever heard. Thankfully, here, the story came through over their ass-brained objections. It's an episode with a long shadow, to be sure; it (or some aspect of it) is referenced in each of the subsequent series, and Spock's school training and being bullied by the three other Vulcans even appears in the 2009 Star Trek.

Released on the view-master as "Mr. Spock's Time Trek."

As Mark Altman wrote in Trek Navigator: "a superbly moving story and a compelling Trek adventure." 

NEXT:

We jump both forward and backward in time to overview Star Trek: Enterprise

Captain's Blog pt. 3: The Animated Series (Episode by Episode) 1 of 2

Nimoy, Kelley, and Shatner recording TAS. There's a lot of 70s in this photo.

Let's jump right in to part one of our episode-by-episode one-stop-shopping for TAS, organized least-to-most favorite. Engage.

22.

PLOT: Spock, Uhura, and Sulu are aboard a shuttlecraft en-route for Starbase 25 to deliver a Stasis Box, a rare artifact of an ancient alien species (The Slavers.) They are attacked by the hostile catlike Kzinti, who want to use the artifact to restore their empire to greatness. The Kzinti are killed when they artifact requests access codes and, failing to get them, self-destructs. (Full overview here)

Larry Niven was visiting Gene Roddenberry's house one afternoon, and Roddenberry suggested he use his short story “The Soft Weapon” as the basis for an episode of TAS. Niven changed the identity of the characters in the original to their analogs in Star Trek, but the characters from the Kzinti ship remained unchanged. DC Fontana adds: "The only thing we couldn't do was make them striped (…) animating the stripes would have been far too expensive, so they were tabby cats without the stripes." Probably good, as the stripes would have just ended up being pink, on account of Hal Sutherland’s colorblindness. (I’m not sure if it was someone else at Filmation who was colorblind or Hal Sutherland, but DC Fontana says Hal Sutherland, so let's go with that.) 

Here we see one of the novelties of TAS, these personal force fields generated by life support belts. Much easier to animate! As well as being much more logical than 20th century spacesuits for 23rd century outer-space work.

It's not a bad idea - and more power to Mr. Niven now and forevermore - but the execution is not great. The weapon never seems all that threatening (or makes much sense), and the animation of the Kzinti is unrealized enough to make a real difference.

Even in last place, I'd still rather watch it than 80% of the tv now or since.

LEGACY: The Kzin have stuck around. There's a planet Kzin in TNG, and the cat-dancer from Star Trek V: The Final Frontier was a Kzinrrett. Had Enterprise not been canceled, according to Manny Coto, they would have appeared in the fifth season.

21. 

Marc Daniels directed many episodes of TOS and is among other things co-credited with introducing the three-camera-set-up for sitcoms still in use today.

PLOT: The Enterprise must stop a planet-consuming cloud before it destroys a planet with 82 million Federation folks on it. Once enveloped in said cloud, Spock determines it is an intelligent being and communicates telepathically with it. Upon realizing the planets it consumes are filled with other living beings, it departs the Milky Way for parts unknown. (Full overview here)

Is it just me or is the title to this episode a little too whimsical for its subject matter? It would be not just fine but awesome, however, if it was an exclamation point instead of a question mark.

Spock: Messiah! Spock's mind-meld with the cloud is a bit nuts, but fun. He's mind-melded with robots, alien-rock-monsters, and now nebulous sentient clouds. He should write a book.

LEGACY: A nice return for Bob Wesley, last seen in TOS episode "The Ultimate Computer," now governor of Mantilles, "the most remote planet in the Federation."

The most remote planet in the Federation has a population of 82,000,000? And only one governor? 

20.

Samuel A. Peebles wrote "Where No Man Has Gone Before" for TOS and is credited with talking Roddenberry out of his original idea for Spock, that of his being half-Martian with a reddish complexion and a plate in his stomach through which he consumed energy.

PLOT: While star-charting (an activity Kirk returns to with unintentionally-amusing gusto in the Captain's Log at the end's episode,) the Enterprise comes across a strange alien vessel.

It is unfortunately inhabited by a malevolent entity who beams aboard and takes over the ship. After saying "Obey me!" a hundred times in three minutes. it's tricked into thinking Kirk is going to destroy the ship and flees for its life. As the Enterprise departs, the creature is left to orbit around the star forever, wailing, as Memory-Alpha puts it, "in terrible, endless loneliness."

Endless is right. "Soooooooo loooooonely...." it cries, while the crew calmly look on for what seems an eternity.

LEGACY: Lieutenant Kyle appears here (though voiced by James Doohan and not John Winston) sporting a pretty serious mustache. This influenced Kyle's appearance in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and the Fandral-the-Dashing-goutee he's sporting there.

19.

PLOT: Harry Mudd returns; Mudd-esque hijinks ensue.

As well as some non-Mudd-esque hijinks. (Full overview here)

I was prepared to rank this one last, as I'm just not a Harry Mudd fan. Sure, "I, Mudd" of TOS was my favorite thing in the world when I was thirteen, but my appreciation of it hasn't aged well. (I'll still take it over 83% of what's on now or since.) Stephen Kandel wrote both "I, Mudd" and the character's first appearance, the exceptionally creepy "Mudd's Women." This TAS episode is probably the best iteration of the character. And it's not a bad little episode. Watching McCoy and Spock under the influence of the love-drug is pretty amusing, and the weirdness of Mudd's parting remarks ("I just hate to leave you all... all my... loved ones...") stuck with me for days.

"That is an outstandingly stupid idea." - Spock to Kirk. (Great line)

THERE'S A LOT OF LOVE IN THIS ROOM: "Thanks, Jim, it's good to have a friend like you."
"Strange, that's how I feel about you, too. My dear friend Spock..." One wonders if they weren't trying to hint at a different direction for the episode, here.

18.

PLOT: The Vedala, the oldest known spacefarers of the Federation, ask for Kirk and Spock's help in recovering the Soul of Skorr, an ancient religious artifact that could spark an intergalactic holy war. Kirk is chosen to lead a diverse group of aliens for the mission, one of whom steals the artifact in an effort to return his species to their warrior ways.

Full overview here

Not much to say about this one. It's an interesting enough idea, one its writer originally envisioned as a Mission: Impossible episode. When he couldn't get the network interested, he transcribed it for TAS.

"I already have a lot of green memories." - Kirk's response to Lara's suggestion that their hooking up would provide them both with "green memories" in the years to come. One of the few episodes I can think of where Kirk spends most of his time turning down overtures of romance.

This guy, the oddly named M3-Green, a self-proclaimed "coward," gets a lot of good lines, though his voice is a little annoying.

Voice provided by David Gerrold, who wasn't particularly happy with his performance, either. Speaking of:

17.

PLOT: Bem (shorthand for "Bug Eyed Monster" in old sci-fi talk) is an observer from the planet Pandro. Pandronians are colony creatures, i.e. multiple component organisms some of which may be capable of autonomous function. (Say that in your best Data or Geordi voice, please.)

On an away mission to Delta Theta III, to observe the aborigines there, Bem creates several headaches for Kirk and Spock, ultimately getting them locked up by the planet's native lifeforms. At episode's end, he/it/they explain these things were done to better test Kirk's capacities as a commander. Amidst all this, they discover Delta Theta III is under the protection of a god-like creature (voiced by Nichelle Nichols) who chastises them for interfering with her "children" but lets them go in peace. (Full overview here)

This episode's commentary track is a wealth of info. Gerrold relays how his original concept changed several times due to Roddenberry's repeated directive to first insert and then how to properly utilize the god-like creature. Roddenberry had several pet go-tos for Trek, and this "and then, the god-like creature" set-up was one of them. (Down the road, Paramount producers stopped taking his calls, as from the late-70s on, his single idea for every movie was "The crew must go to Dallas 1963 and stop the Kennedy assassination.") But Gerrold was able to accommodate Roddenberry's idea easily enough, and the script for this one is pretty tight. Kirk and Spock in particular have a lot of fun back-and-forth.

Oddly, though, at one point Kirk says, "Why don't you try your... uhh... Vulcan Nerve Pinch?" The line is delivered with the uhh just like that, suggesting our good Captain has forgotten the many times he's seen his first officer use this technique to subdue a foe. 

At one point, Scotty says, "The Loch Ness Monster couldn't get through that." Sometimes I wonder why they bothered putting a uniform on him instead of a kilt, wielding a highland claymore. I love Scotty, don't get me wrong, but in the Museum of Televised Cultural Stereotyping, Montgomery Scott gets a wing all of his own.

You mean there's no Scotchtoberfest?

LEGACY: This is the episode that establishes Kirk's middle name as "Tiberius."

16.

PLOT: Essentially the same story and structure as TOS episode "The Trouble with Tribbles." But it's fun enough to not be redundant, and it furthers the concepts by adding a "Glommer," i.e. a Klingon-designed genetically-engineered "Tribble eater." (Gerrold's original concept had this glommer growing in size like a Tribble until it eventually started eating crew members, but this was judged too much for Saturday morning TV.)

I was amused by Kirk's description of Cyrano Jones as "intergalactic trader and general nuisance." Also, one of the chapter titles: "They Throw Tribbles, Don't They?" Nice.

15. 

Howard Weinstein wrote this when he was only 19. He's been involved in the Trekverse in various capacities ever since.

PLOT: Spock falls ill, and Orion pirates hijack the ship containing the medicine that will save him. Kirk has a mano y mano with the Orion captain on an asteroid and fixes his wagon. Spock is saved.

Some confusion exists around whether or not the Orions, here, are meant to be the same race as appeared in "Journey to Babel" and "The Menagerie" in TOS. Shatner pronounces the pirates as "Ore-ee-on," thus distinguishing them as different from the Oh-rye-ons, they of the green-skinned-scantily-clad-ladies fame. The rest of the cast does, as well. Weinstein maintains he meant them to be the same race as the Orions who appeared in TOS eps just-mentioned. Did Shatner just say it wrong and the rest of the cast went with it? I doubt Bill Reed knew or cared either way. Shatner has had his fair share of stubborn mispronunciations, as captured wonderfully here, so I'll go with Weinstein, here.

14.

PLOT: A species of intelligent plant, led by a clone of a Eugenics Wars-era scientist clones Spock with the intentions of creating a master race. He creates instead a Giant Spock whom he calls "Spock Two."

Let's turn this over to Jeff, author of Into the Dark Dimension who shares my fascination with this concept:

"Giant Spock may be one of my favorite things ever... I still can't get over how they created that character and then, as far as I know, nothing has been done since with him. I mean, it's SPOCK, for God's sake, just giant-size. He'd have the same potential and intellect. Why has that not been important enough to follow up on? 

(on the idea of a Star Trek D&D campaign) "How about Giant Spock nerve-pinching Frost Giants? ... Silliness aside, I like the idea that neither Spock is very troubled by the presence of the other; none of this "am I really me?" bs from Giant Spock. He just looks at it logically. "I am me. Dwelling on the provenance of my memories and experiences is irrelevant and illogical." I would watch or read as much about Giant Spock as they could produce..."

Me, too. Ten Giant Spock's Adventures done in 70s-Marvel-style would be one of my monkey paw wishes. Would he build a giant spaceship? A giant Science Academy? Does Giant Spock undergo pon farr or have a katra? I seriously could riff on this for years. 

Actually, I guess I've already been riffing on it for years.

LEGACY: Interesting to note that Walter Koenig wrote this episode. Koenig, not just a former castmate but also a close personal friend of George Takei's, according to Takei's autobiography To the Stars, would presumably have known Takei's sexual preference decades before Takei officially came out to the world. What are we to make of the ending dialogue, here?

"By the way, Mr. Sulu, any chance of teaching me that body throw? Could come in handy some time."
"I don't know, sir. It isn't just physical, you know. You have to be.. inscrutable."
"Inscrutable? Sulu, you're the most scrutable man I know!"

"Inscrutable" doesn't mean anything akin to "gay," of course, and nor do I at all care whom the guy sleeps with, there's just something wink-wink nudge-nudge about the way both Takei and Shatner deliver these lines, and it even ends with an actual wink (above.) I can't help but wonder if this is an affectionate nod or acknowledgement to his friend's then-verboten lifestyle, coded enough within the boundaries of 1970s television but conspicuous.

All such speculation aside, though... Kirk doesn't know a simple judo move like a body throw? He sure seemed to in "Charlie X" and elsewhere in TOS.

13.

Margaret Armen wrote two of my favorite TOS episodes, "The Paradise Syndrome" and "The Cloud Minders."

PLOT: Kind of a cross between "The Deadly Years" and "Spock's Brain" while foreshadowing the Enterprise episode "Bound." The Enterprise receives a mysterious subspace transmission from Taurus 2 (no, not that Taurus 2, i.e. the one that appears in "The Galileo Seven.") It has a debilitating effect on all male crew members, though, and soon, the men are entranced and eventually begin to age rapidly. Uhura takes control of the ship and assembles an all-female security team to go down to the surface, where she discovers the all-female race there can neither grow old nor die nor have children. They came to the planet long ago but now cannot escape. 

They bring men to them with their siren-like song, (aka a "Loreli"-like song, from Germanic folklore concerning the sirens of the Rhine river) bewitch them, and then consume their life essence to "revitalize." Uhura promises to send a starship to take them elsewhere, and the men are restored to their normal, relatively-non-useless selves.

Before Uhura assumes control of the ship, it is in the hands of a thoroughly besotted Scotty; it is not revealed whether he was inebriated before or during the initial incursion, but of all the crew, he seems more inebriated than bewitched. In one sequence, the Enterprise crawls across the screen for what seems like an eternity while the only audio is Scotty drunkenly singing to himself. It is arguably the definitive wtf moment in all TAS.

In another sequence, the transporters are utilized to restore crew members to their younger selves, and Nurse Chapel says this has never been done before. She must have really not been paying attention in TOS. (The ol' "just use the transporter" trick is used even more prominently in TNG.)

FOOD FOR THOUGHT: It's difficult to put yourself into the shoes of another era, and aspects of this story must seem either wildly satirical or terribly offensive to some folks. I can sympathize. But I kind of love  contemporaneous gendered mayhem like this.

12.

PLOT: (Full overview here) McCoy is accused by the people of the planet Dramia of mass genocide committed on a previous visit to the planet. He maintains his innocence, but the Dramians are intent on trying him. While investigating, the Enterprise itself is infected with the same plague they've accused McCoy of unleashing on their world. McCoy realizes the aurora through which ships pass to and from the planet is the cause of the planet, and everyone recovers. The Dramians absolve him of charges.

"Hippocrates would not have approved of lame excuses." - Spock to McCoy.

McCoy with Dramians

At one point, McCoy (I think - I neglected to write down who said it) says "I presume you have antibodies?" I wouldn't be surprised if there was some insane reason why the replicator on-board every Starfleet vessel couldn't reproduce antibodies, but that doesn't mean I have to go with numb with acceptance at the idea.

The writer has only one other credit to his name:

Fascinating.