Date: February 15, 2020

Episode # and Episode Name:  4 – “Albatross”, 5 – “How Sharper Than A Serpent’s Tooth” *, and 6 – “The Counter-Clock Incident”

*Amazon lists this as “How, Shaper Than A Serpent’s Tooth”, but I’m sure it’s a typo.

Setting the Stage: I watched these episodes yesterday, but was too tired to write about them all, so you get the rest today. Husband is out on a “bro date” with our friend Will (happy birthday Will!!!), so I’ve got the house to myself. All of the fur children are sleeping, so it’s just me and Lindsey Stirling today.

Quick Summary with my Impressions: “Albatross” starts off as most of the episodes do, with Spock, McCoy, and Kirk on planet doing what they do. Just before they leave, however, McCoy is served with a warrant for murder! Apparently 19 years ago, after a mass inoculation, there was a plague on the planet and the inhabitants blame McCoy as he performed the inoculation. Kirk traps one of the aliens, Demos, who “sneaks” onto the ship. They arrive on a nearby planet with some of the “survivors” of the plague. They find one survivor who claims McCoy saved his life. The problem becomes grave, however, when he and everyone else on the ship (sans Spock) start turning blue. Spock goes down to get McCoy and they rush around trying to figure out how to cure this disease. They figure out the aurora is causing the color symptoms but there’s no known antidote to the actual disease. Spock explains about the survivor they found who had been saved which allows McCoy to save the day!

Now this is my kind of medical mystery! You see this all the time on modern medical dramas where there are multiple things going on and they aren’t always related, which causes confusion for the doctors. Though we have a condensed format and everything had to be done in a rushed way, I think the story line worked well. Doctors still have to be held accountable for their actions, inoculations can be bad, and sometimes we vilify someone because we want to assign blame. While this might not be the most awesome Trek episode that ever lived, it was certainly one I enjoyed for what it was. That earns this episode a good old fashioned 7&7. I’m sure McCoy would approve.

“How Sharper Than A Serpent’s Tooth” has the Enterprise is tracking a mysterious probe of unknown origin. At first, the ship has a projection of a being that looks (to me) like MetaKnight and then it looks like a Chinese Dragon that you might see during a Lunar New Year celebration, but it really looks like a serpent.

Instead of Sulu at the helm, there’s a Mr. Walking-Bear. He thinks he knows who this being resembles and it calls itself Kukulkan and thinks it is a god (haven’t we seen this in “Adonais”?). Some of the crew then disappears in a flash of light, including McCoy, Sulu, Kirk, and Walking-Bear. Those who were beamed off the ship explore Mayan-looking ruins while Spock tries to figure out how to free the Enterprise as it is now stuck. They explore the city and try to figure out its meaning. Kukulkan doesn’t understand why they don’t hate him, and Kirk is confused because he wants to explain their mission is peaceful. Looks like we have another collector of alien species, a la “The Cage” and “Eye of the Beholder”. Spock figures out how to get the Enterprise free, so Kirk and McCoy free the Capellan power-cat in order to create a distraction. Kirk is able to explain that they are no longer children and they need to be set free.

Oh thankless children, I know a thing or two about that. Not only are there my fur children at home but as an academic advisor to college “children”, I deal with my fair share of thankless children. It’s very rewarding albeit stressful at times. I digress, let’s chat about this episode. On one hand, it’s reusing SEVERAL tropes that we have already seen in previous Trek episodes. On the other hand, we have some cool cultures to explore that are very diverse from ones we have in the past. I hate that Mr. Walking-Bear was created and used only in this one episode, but I am glad they didn’t just have Sulu to explain some of the Asian-style items we see in this episode. While I give points for diversity, inclusion, and forward thinking, I have to take some points away for not having a very original plot. Oh, but there are dragons – so that makes this episode level 8 Charizard (since we’re sticking with the Pokemon theme here).

“The Counter-Clock Incident” has the Enterprise shuttling its first captain, now a Commodore of mandatory retirement age, and his wife (former Chief Medical Officer) to their retirement ceremony. Why is she referred to as “Mrs. April” if she was a doctor? It should be “Commodore and Dr. April” please and thank you. Anyway, there’s a ship coming up at warp 36, whoa. The woman on the screen is talking backwards, weird. Kirk’s plan isn’t going, well, according to plan, so he’s got to poke at the controls because clearly Sulu isn’t up to the task. However, they don’t explode and everyone is super confused. Once they’ve gone through the supernova, all of the controls are reversed as is everything else, like aging. Oh, it’s the Benjamin Button problem.

They all try to recreate what happened to bring them there. It just might work. Everyone is slowly turning into children and the Commodore takes command of the ship. They go through the novae and we have success. The Commodore and his wife contemplate not going through the transporter, but decide life has been fulfilling. The crew, however, does in order to return to their adult status.

This is another episode that suffers from the condensed time of the show, but works great with the animated format. It was easy to show the characters aging in reverse, much easier than live action. However, everything happened so damn quickly. We have this mirrored universe, which is explored for all of 5 seconds and I wanted to know more about it, dammit! We also have Spock tell us the odds of finding the exact thing happening in both places are astronomical (no pun intended) and then we just happen to figure it out in 10 seconds, okay that’s believable (so much sarcasm, by the way). Then there’s all this panic about growing younger, but we only see that for 3 seconds, and it’s all reversed off screen! For a “season and series finale”, this would have been better as a longer episode. Unfortunately there are too many issues here, so that earns this episode 4 bacon, egg, and cheese biscuits – but with floppy bacon.

That’s the end to The Animated Series, but not our adventures with the crew. Tomorrow begins the movies! Check out the The Watch Order on the menu to see what is up next. I’m going mostly in chronological order, so I won’t be watching the 2009 movies until much later in this project. I also updated the Rankings.

TA Out!

Date: February 14, 2020

Episode # and Episode Name: 1 – “Pirates Of Orion”, 2 – “Bem”, and 3 – “The Practical Joker”

Setting the Stage: I watched the entire season, all six episodes, via Amazon Prime through the CBS All Access 7-day trial and we had one day to spare! I’ve only got it in me to write about half the season tonight, however. I watched one episode before heading into a lunch meeting and the others I started around 3:00 pm. Surprisingly, no one was around when I was watching the episodes because I was working in my home office (dual screen monitors are clutch). As I write this, however, Professor Zoom is at my feet and Jazz is grooming himself and staring at me, sigh. I hijacked Valentine’s Day, so husband and I are going to see the New Jersey Devils (my team) play the Carolina Hurricanes here in Raleigh. Spoiler alert, the Devils are terrible this season. Today’s musical accompaniment is the Tron: Legacy soundtrack. Oh, and in case someone hasn’t told you today… love you!

Quick Summary with my Impressions: “Pirates Of Orion” is the beginning of another new season and another time I can’t pass the intro just yet. The Enterprise had some sickness floating around, but it’s all good… until Spock passes out on the bridge! McCoy explains to Kirk that Spock is dying and there’s only one thing that can help him. The medicine is 4 days away at warp speed and McCoy can only give Spock 3 days with a synthetic alternative. McCoy suggests that someone else can help them get it, but it will take some cooperation. The ship that has the medicine is approached by an unknown alien ship and no one knows who is on it. On the Enterprise, McCoy is trying his best to not be too snarky, but the synthesized drug is just not cutting it anymore. The Enterprise tries to help the crew of the Huron. They are now after the ship that stole the medicine, the dilithium crystal shipment, and attacked the Huron. Arax recognizes it as an Orion ship. The Orions claim they are not thieves, but they really are and decide to make a beneficial exchange so Kirk can have the medicine. The Orions, however, are planning to destroy everything. Kirk is always 5 steps ahead, but suddenly the other captain is all like “fine we surrender” and we end the episode.

Kirk just looks shocked the whole episode and seems overwhelmed by the thought of losing Spock. He doesn’t do much except for making the surprised Pikachu face for the entire first half of the episode. He finally gets his Captain on near the end, but the ending was super abrupt. It was cool to see some Orion men, as we’ve heard their race mentioned and seen some of the women. It was also great to see the cooperation between the star ship captains in order to get Spock the medicine. There were some weird changes, like the pronunciation of “Orion” and the skin color of the Orion men. But there was a bit of intrigue, mystery, drama, and all of the things a Trek episode usually has – just suuuuuper condensed. I rate this episode a 7.89mm high pressure automotive fuel line quick connector.

“Bem” allows me to skip the intro, yay! There’s a visitor on the Enterprise, he will be observing as he is part of a recently contact species. All of a sudden he wants to observe, even though he hadn’t in the several previous missions, and Kirk is peeved because it could be dangerous. They beam down, but Kirk and Spock fall into the water and Bem volunteers to rescue them (even though they don’t need it). He can, however, separate parts of his body – which no one knows about – and in doing so steals their communicators and replaces them, weird. Okay, apparently all of his body parts are able to be removed and he can then reassemble himself.

There are strange dinosaur aliens that have surrounded and captured Bem. Kirk and Spock are separated from the landing party, and Uhura is clear with Scotty and Sulu that they will follow procedure, so the latter two men are beamed up. Spock and Kirk realize something has happened, perhaps sabotage, but they also need to rescue Bem. Unfortunately, they get captured themselves. They attempt to escape, but are stopped by the ruling intelligence on the planet. Apparently, Bem is not pleased with the way Kirk and Spock are doing things and he up and leaves because of their incompetence. Kirk and Spock communicate with the ruling alien entity  (which sounds an awful lot like Uhura) and are able to communicate with the Enterprise. They find Bem and decide to leave, while quarantining the planet so that no one else gets stuck there.

Looks like this planet is getting the same treatment as the planet from “The Cage” so that others do not run into any issues. I love that animation allows us to see different kinds of aliens that we couldn’t have seen in a live action version. The whole episode, I’m wondering why Kirk just goes along with everything instead of asserting his rank over someone who is there to just observe. It was almost as if he were flustered and forgot that the engineering is supposed to run the transporter and that there are rules to be followed. At any time had Kirk just asserted his authority, as he has many times before, they wouldn’t have been in that mess. Also, what was the point of having Scotty and Sulu beam down only to have Uhura pull them back and then send them down once again? This episode just seemed like a comedy of errors, but twas funny in places and ridiculous in others, and it gets a solid 6.5 inch deep crust pizza.

“The Practical Joker” starts with Kirk talking about how the Enterprise is 72 hours ahead of schedule, so of course the very next thing that happens is they get shot at by Romulans. They escape through a strange energy field. After the escape, the bridge crew is eating and they all spill their beverage. After there’s a Matrix fork incident, McCoy thinks there is a joker in their midst.

Classic practical jokes ensue: Spock gets circles around his eyes, Scotty has food thrown at him, and someone puts “Kirk is a Jerk” on the back of one of his uniforms. Apparently the computer of the Enterprise is the practical joker. It traps Sulu, Uhura, and McCoy in the recreation room, at one point making the weather close to freezing, and it is being highly sophomoric when responding to Kirk and Spock. The computer floods “laughing gas” but they are able to rescue those from the recreation room. The ship is pointed back to the neutral zone when an Enterprise-balloon surfaces, because apparently the computer is a petty bitch and wants to trick the Romulans. Kirk now acts petrified in order to get it to go back through the energy field because he hopes that will reset the computer. Kirk is correct AND now the Romulan computer is acting up, bwahahaha.

If you look at the comedic value of this episode and add in that this was geared for children, this is a great episode. Something happens that causes the computer to glitch, and everyone thinks it’s funny until it becomes tiresome and also harmful. It proves a great lesson that sometimes jokes can go to far, and it really is all fun and games until someone gets hurt. If you’re looking for a science-fiction-filled Trekk episode, you’ve come to the wrong place. I can’t help but laugh at “Kirk is a Jerk”. For that, and the pie in Scotty’s face, this episode earns 6 White Castle sliders, extra pickles, but no cheese.

TA Out!

Date: February 13, 2020

Episode # and Episode Name: 14 – “The Slaver Weapon”, 15 – “Eye Of The Beholder”, and 16 – “Jihad”

Setting the Stage: I watched these three episodes via Amazon Prime through the CBS All Access 7-day trial, starting around 7:00 pm. Professor Zoom and Tempura slept through all of the episodes, as did Thor in the background, but Loki and Jazz were no where to be found. Tonight’s musical accompaniment is the album “A Celtic Renaissance Wedding” by the Brobdingnagian Bards, very fitting for Valentine’s Day Eve.

Quick Summary with my Impressions: “The Slaver Weapon” has Spock, Uhura, and Sulu with something known as a stasis box. The boxes are the only remnants of an old civilization, and having one can help you find others. They head to a nearby planet as another box might be near, but they are captured by weird cat aliens known as Kzinti. The Kzinti found a box but it was empty, so they used it to lure anyone else with a stasis box to where they were. In the box that Spock and company had, they encounter a weapon of unknown origin and test it out. It has many functions and Sulu theorizes it’s a spy weapon of some kins. Our three heroes are able to escape and take the weapon, but Uhura is then recaptured. Spock and Sulu try to negotiate a trade when Sulu accidentally finds a secret setting on the weapon that is very powerful and knocks them out, so they are again captured by the Kzinti who want to use the destructive capability. Turns out the weapon is also a computer and communication device, but it lies to the Kzinti and destroys itself (and likely a few Kzinti along the way).

Two items of note here. One – until the box was opened I was internally screaming “what’s in the box?!”, from Se7en because it’s now an automatic habit and I’m really a child at heart. I didn’t include that as a picture here, because I’ve used it twice before and how could I dare deprive you of felines in any form?! Two – I found it incredibly interesting that no one else was in the episode; just Uhura, Spock, and Sulu. If you had added in Scotty, we’d have my four favorite characters from The Original Series. While there are some pacing issues with the condensed and animated format, this was a super good episode… and not just because there were cats in it! I really enjoyed the concept of the stasis box, the crew being lured into a trap and having to work together to get out, their interaction with another species, and that Sulu got to impress Spock with his logic. This episode is a solid 9 hours of sleep, completely uninterrupted by noise or bodily functions, where you wake up feeling rested and refreshed the next day.

“Eye Of The Beholder” starts us with Kirk, Spock, and McCoy beaming down and of course there’s another lake monster. They are trying to find the missing crew of another ship. Now there’s another monster, and this one seems familiar and totally out of place from the terrain they are wandering. My first though is “I wonder if the crew was transformed or if there’s just a lot of wildlife on this planet”. However, they are trying to figure out why animals from different planets randomly appear and they are picked up by some large, red slug monsters. Spock theorizes we’re back in “The Cage” and they might have been collected. He is correct and they are transported to the human area, where they find the missing crew members from the other ship. They focus on the medical kit in order to help their captors give them what they need. They then try to trick their captors, but Scotty accidentally beams aboard the slug-child by accident. The child beams himself and Scotty back down because they are apparently super intelligent creatures that we will evolve into in a long, long, long, long, long, looooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong time from now. Everyone gets beamed back to the Enterprise and Spock is excited (well as excited as a Vulcan can get) about crunching the numbers.

When the other captain and Kirk are discussing escape, the “so you’re saying there’s a chance” came to my mind. Of course there’s always a chance of escape when you’re Captain James T. Kirk! So at first I was a little bummed that we recycled the plot of “The Cage” and made it more “G” rated for the children, but then I decided I kind of liked it better this way. Spock, with all of his telepathic abilities, couldn’t immediately save the day and it was actually Scotty that led to the final assist. It was also good that the child-slug was able to help and teach their parents a thing or two. I thought there were some interesting lessons to be learned and that this was a “cute” episode. All that earns this episode a 7 foot tall statue of Paul Bunyan with Babe, his blue ox.

“Jihad” begins with Kirk and Spock having been called to a meeting of a group that has a mission and needs a specialized team. One group stole the soul of a religious figure and they need to get it back, it’s like Ocean’s 11. As they search for the soul, there’s a volcanic eruption. They work together to try and stay alive and find the soul. Apparently cartoon Kirk doesn’t take advantage of a woman wanting him (a first, I am SHOCKED), but I guess they are pandering to a younger audience in this medium. They find the entrance to a temple when those damn purple dragons attack again – the third time we’ve seen them, but these ones are mechanical. Once inside, they realize there might be a traitor in their midst, but they see the soul and try to get to it. Tchar is the one who stole the soul, escandalo! The team goes their separate ways and When Kirk and Spocker are beamed back Sulu says they were only gone for two minutes. Kirk simply states the others changed their minds, and we end Season 1.

This episode started off with an interesting plot, had a totally campy middle part, and ended poorly because the guy who we were rooting for to find the stolen object was the guy who stole it, come on now! This was a very fun episode and the fact that no time had lapsed on the Enterprise made it worth it as a side excursion. This episode earned itself 8 purple sweet potatoes, because they are tasty but stain your fingers.

Overall, I genuinely enjoyed this season and am sad Season 2 is only 6 episodes! For a Saturday morning cartoon, aimed at the tiny humans, I found some of the topics to be quite cerebral and interesting. Also, aside from I-Chaya, no one died. There’s no need to kill extras in animation when you can simply just not draw them. I’ve updated this on the Rankings page, so you should check it out. Tomorrow, we begin (and possibly end) Season 2.

TA Out!

Date: February 12, 2020

Episode # and Episode Name: 10 – “Mudd’s Passion”, 11 – “The Time Trap”, 12 – “The Terratin Incident”, and 13 – “The Ambergris Element”

Setting the Stage: I watched these episodes via Amazon Prime through the CBS All Access 7-day trial, starting around 6:30 pm. The first episode was watched in the kitchen while making pizza, the second episode was watched while eating said pizza, and the last two episodes saw all four cats in the living room with us! Professor Zoom was asleep on the couch, Tempura was on husband’s lap, Thor was on my lap, Loki was sitting next to me, and Jazz was over on the other chair. It’s a Valentine’s Day miracle! Tonight’s musical accompaniment is some instrumental music from Sublime and Tool.

Quick Summary with my Impressions: “Mudd’s Passion” is the third time we’ve encountered Harry Mudd, and he’s even more of a slime in animated format. He’s selling a love potion, very similar to what he was doing the first time we met him, in non-Federation territory and quickly gives himself up once he’s found out to be a fraud. As Chapel is chatting with him, he tricks her into taking some of the substance to lure Spock to her and he steals her ID badge in the meantime. She thinks it doesn’t work, but Spock has a delayed reaction and expresses intense love and feeling for her. The substance also gets into the ship’s system and everyone starts feeling a litter amorous toward each other. After it begins to wear off, the crew experiences hangover-like symptoms and then feelings of hatred toward those they loved just a few hours prior. Mudd makes off with Chapel to the surface of the plant, to which Spock and Kirk follow, but they are attacked by giant rock monsters. They call for a beam-up but it’s delayed due to the drugged crew. Once the effects begin to wear off, they are all beamed back up to the ship and hopefully this is the last time we’ll see Mudd.

I am sooooooo disappointed with this episode. In “Plato’s Stepchildren” Chapel is so adamant that she wants Spock, but not with him being forced to do it. So what the hell happened Christine? Mudd is just not that charismatic and what did you think Spock would do when he came out of the influence of the drug? I mean it’s drugging someone to take advantage of them no matter how you slice it. Also, THIS IS A CHILDREN’S CARTOON… what the what were they thinking? This episode get a big fat ZERO, because there was nothing remotely okay about this episode.

“The Time Trap” has the Enterprise looking into disappearing ships within the Delta Triangle. Wait, didn’t we just have a “Bermuda Triangle” like episode just a few episodes ago? A Klingon ship attacks, the Enterprise shoots back, and the other ship disappears! Two more Klingon ships arrive and won’t concede that their comrades just up and disappeared. Kirk maneuvers to the exact spot to also “disappear” and they find themselves in a time pocket, along with the Klingon ship. They run into others who have formed a sort of council and are sentenced to 100 years for being violent toward each other – will they EVER learn to be civil toward each other like the Organians wanted? Anyway, they decide to work together (even thought the Klingons plan sabotage) and make their way out of the time pocket relatively unscathed.

I liked this episode but wish it had been a bit longer as the shortened format made the story move a bit fast. The ships disappear, have the universe’s shortest trial, decide to work together, the “bad guys” try to blow up “the good guys”, the sabotage is found out at the very last second, and everyone goes home and nothing has really changed. I would have liked if needing to work together helped change their mind about each other, but maybe that will happen later. I also wish we could have gotten to see more about the society that had been created by those who were trapped in the pocket of time, as it was an interesting concept that didn’t really get explored. Overall, this episode earns the 6th son of a 6th son.

“The Terratin Incident” has Uhura getting a strange signal and a mysterious message. All of a sudden everyone onboard is glowing, they’ve been exposed to radiation after explosions on the planet they are near. The crew realizes they’re all shrinking, well all organic matter is shrinking. They try to figure out what to do but either keep getting hurt or are unable to operate the ship. Kirk beams down and then back up, and he’s regular size again. We come to find out the inhabitants of the planet grew so small the only way they could communicate was to make the Enterprise their size, but the planet is about to explode – oh no! Kirk saves the day and the inhabitants are getting a new planet, hooray!

All I got from this episode is a strong “Honey, I Shrunk the Kids” vibe. I mean Chapel gets stuck in the fish tank yelling “help”, the random people stranded on the planet being all tiny, and everyone freaking out about shrinking was all just very “meh”. There was some good humor and it was an interesting problem to be solved, at the last minute of course, but nothing spectacular happened this episode. I’m getting the impression that these episodes will continue to be hit-or-miss as we go, though there are not that many left between this and the next, super short, season. This episode earns itself a very straight 5 foot tall ladder.

“The Ambergris Element” has the Enterprise looking into a planet that’s all covered in water, as another Federation planet might be heading that way. As Spock and Kirk are exploring, they are attacked by a creature and then go missing for 5 days! They are found but now only able to breathe under water as they were “saved” by some of the younger inhabitants of the aliens who live under the water. Most of the aliens believe Spock and Kirk to be spies, but a few help them to get back to their ship and have the use of their lungs back. After some sea-shenanigans and interaction with the monster who attacked them in the beginning, Spock and Kirk are cured. They are also able to learn things to help out the other planet as well as having helped improve relations with the aliens on their current planet.

This plot felt like it had so much potential and just fell a little flat. I find myself wanting a bit more time with the story. It’s funny that in Season 3 of The Original Series I complained that they were clearly just trying to fill the 50 minutes, and now I’m complaining that they are trying to fit too much story into 24 minutes. I guess there’s just no pleasing me… shrugs. Anyway, it’s clear you can’t do an underwater episode in any other medium (with the technology at the time) so I guess I was expecting a little more than aliens who are mistrusting of land dwellers. I’m also super unclear how Spock and Kirk were saved, who saved them, and why McCoy had to be super dramatic about changing them back. Sad Aquaman is sad and gives this episode 5 cuttlefish swimming in circles.

TA Out!

Date: February 11, 2020

Episode # and Episode Name: 7 – “The Infinite Vulcan”, 8 – “The Magic of Megas-Tu”, and 9 – “Once Upon a Planet”

Setting the Stage: I watched these episodes via Amazon Prime through the CBS All Access 7-day trial, starting around 7:30 pm. Accompanying me as always is the husband and Professor Zoom, various cats were around the living room throughout the evening. I didn’t sleep well last night and got a much later start, so we only got through three episodes tonight. In the background while I write this evening, I am listening to Menos El Oso by Minus the Bear, which is sort of a self titled album? But it’s good and you should give it a listen.

Quick Summary with my Impressions: “The Infinite Vulcan” has the crew of the Enterprise surverying a new planet. Sulu finds a plant that looks like a mini Truffula tree but it stabs him and he is insta-poisoned.

McCoy is snarky about the “intelligent plant life” on the planet, but they are able to save Sulu. Way to be an ass McCoy! They are very friendly aliens, but all of a sudden there’s a bunch of plant-dragons who take Spock away! Kirk, defeated, heads back to the Enterprise without his first officer. Turns out the guy who is in charge of the planet keeps cloning himself. Kirk, McCoy, and Sulu beam down to try and find Spock. They find him, but he’s already been cloned. Dr. Keniclius (the 5th) believes there is no peace in the galaxy, but he’s working on old information. The giant Spock clone transfers himself back to his original form, which is awesome and also weird. The Spock clone will stay with the doctor clone to try to help the aliens rebuild their society, and regular sized original Spock talks to giant clone Spock and it’s like when Batman talks to Bruce Wayne.

I didn’t hate this episode, but I also didn’t really love it either. It’s very middle of the road after such strong episodes before it. This was a very middle of the road episode for me where we find new and interesting alien life, who has an agenda, there’s a crisis, and then it magically gets solved in super dramatic fashion at the last minute. I did like that there was more Sulu in the episode and that the aliens were plant based, because that’s different. Also there were dragons! I mean, that’s always a plus in my book. That earns this episode 6 perfectly positioned petals on a purple petunia.

“The Magic of Megas-Tu” has the Enterprise traveling to the center of the universe; the creation point, and it’s super chaotic. Everything on the ship starts failing and then there’s a satyr? What the what is happening? Lucien, the satyr, transports Spock, McCoy, and Kirk off ship and they are in a land of “magic”. Looks like his species is like the Vorlons from Babylon 5, interesting. This dude is all over the place and then randomly sends them back to the ship in a panic. Spock theorizes that he can use the “magic” and he is successful. I mean it was totally logical, duh. However, the whole crew wind up in a replica of Salem, MA and are to be charged because they are humans from Earth and were terrible to Lucien’s people. Since Spock is not of Earth, he is allowed to call a witness. Kirk explains how humans have changed since the early times when they were on Earth. Apparently Lucien is also known as “Lucifer” but Kirk doesn’t care, he wants to defend him. There’s now a magic-off until Kirk can explain that he really would die for Lucien and we find out this was all a big test.

I need the last 24 minutes of my life back please. I have no idea what the hell went on in this episode, maybe I needed to drop some acid? Oh wait, I can’t swallow pills. I have nothing good to say, other than Kirk was his usual self at making sure someone didn’t get punished for something that wasn’t their fault and for being diplomatic. This episode gets 1 dollar that you can’t even use at Dollar Tree because, taxes.

“Once Upon a Planet” has Sulu, McCoy, and Uhura to the same planet as the “Shore Leave” episode from The Original Series. This time, however, they know how the planet works… so everything should be fine, right? Clearly not, as we have a whole episode to watch about it. Uhura is kept captive by the computer as a hostage. Apparently, the keeper of the world is dead… oh no! The computer no longer wants to live a life of service, which is why it wants to kill Kirk (maybe?) and take over the Enterprise. This is the first time we get to hear BOTH of the new alien crew members, and I absolutely love the voice of M’Ress, but it does mess with the pace of the episode a bit.

Spock volunteers to be “injured” in order for them to find the underground entrance. The thing picks up Spock’s “lifeless” body, it looks like it’s from The Hunger Games and Kirk is able to sneak through to follow it. So the computer on the ground wants to escape to the Enterprise and seek out his “brother computers”, my goodness. Kirk explains that man and machine work cooperatively, and Uhura and Spock help the computer to understand how special it is. The computer understands the logic and agrees to host shore leave.

So… I really liked the music in this episode. As a sequel to “Shore Leave”, I thought it was a good start to the story that something was clearly different. I couldn’t really get behind the ending, and I’m not really as excited by the episode pacing either, as I mention above, so this episode gets 5 soggy soft-shell tacos.

TA Out!