Animated Series Re-Watch Archive

21

Star Trek Animated Series Re-Watch Wrap-Up

With just 22 episodes, we have come to the end of The Animated Series. Here’s a breakdown of our ratings:

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15

Star Trek Animated Series Re-Watch: “The Counter-Clock Incident”

The Counter-Clock Incident
Written by John Culver
Directed by Bill Reed

Season 2, Episode 6
Production episode: 22023
Original air date: October 12, 1974
Star date: 6770.3

Mission summary

Enterprise is heading back to the planet of the diplomats, Babel, with another very special guest: her first captain, Commodore Robert April.

APRIL: No matter where I’ve traveled in the galaxy, Jim, this bridge is more like home than anywhere else.
KIRK: Yes, Commodore, I know the feeling.
APRIL: To me she was always like my child. I was there in the San Francisco Navy Yards when her unit components were built.

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10

Star Trek Animated Series Re-Watch: “How Sharper Than a Serpent’s Tooth”

How Sharper Than a Serpent’s Tooth
Written by Russell Bates and David Wise
Directed by Bill Reed

Season 2, Episode 5
Production episode: 22022
Original air date:  October 5, 1974
Star date: 6063.4

Mission summary

In an ominous beginning, a mysterious space probe takes a scan of Earth’s system and then self-destructs. The Enterprise’s mission is to trace the imploded propulsion system’s destructive matter trail to its origin and find out where it came from and who sent it.

They don’t make it very far before they find a huge “crystalline ceramic” ship twice the size of the Enterprise. It’s pretty far away but they can’t get any closer for inspection–some kind of “globular force field,” firm yet flexible, has entrapped them. As the offending ship becomes more visible they realize it looks like a giant winged snake. Needless to say, it’s not anyone the Federation has had contact with before.

Luckily, this week’s minority helmsmen is Walking Bear, not Sulu, and he recognizes the ship’s design immediately: it looks kind of like the winged serpent Kukulkan.

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10

Star Trek Animated Series Re-Watch: “Albatross”

Albatross
Written by Dario Finelli
Directed by Bill Reed

Season 2, Episode 4
Production episode: 22019
Original air date: September 28, 1974
Star date: 5275.6

Mission summary

After Enterprise delivers medical supplies to Dramia, the grateful Dramians reward them by arresting Dr. McCoy, claiming that 19 years before he caused a plague that killed hundreds of people on Dramia II.

Meanwhile, at the Hall of Justice… Kirk is incensed at these accusations and distrusts the Dramian legal system. But McCoy starts to doubt himself.

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14

Star Trek Animated Series Re-Watch: “The Practical Joker”

The Practical Joker
Written by Chuck Menville
Directed by Bill Reed

Season 2, Episode 3
Production episode: 22021
Original air date:  September 21, 1974
Star date: 3183.3

Mission summary

The Enterprise is on a routine geological mission exploring asteroids. Kirk notes that they’re ahead of schedule and “the cruise has been uneventful,” which is filed with “They’ll never find us here!” or “What could possibly go wrong?” in the Ways You Should Not Tempt Fate folder.

As if alerted by the hubris, a trio of Romulan ships begin to fire on the Enterprise.

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11

Star Trek Animated Series Re-Watch: “Bem”

Bem
Written by David Gerrold
Directed by Bill Reed

Season 2, Episode 2
Production episode: 22018
Original air date:  September 14, 1974
Star date: 7403.6

Mission summary

Enterprise is hosting a very special guest: Ari bn Bem, a representative for the Federation’s new friends,  the Pandronians. He’s there to observe the crew, but he seems fairly disinterested in their mission of exploration until they arrive at Delta Theta III to investigate reports of aboriginal life.

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12

Star Trek Animated Series Re-Watch: “The Pirates of Orion”

The Pirates of Orion
Written by Howard Weinstein
Directed by Bill Reed

Season 2, Episode 1
Production episode: 22020
Original air date:  September 7, 1974
Star date: 6334.1

Mission summary

Aboard the Enterprise, an outbreak of some nasty disease called choriocytosis is finally under control. The good doctor assures the crew it’s no longer “even as serious as pneumonia”–which is, um, actually pretty serious? In any case, Kirk tries to drum up excitement for the dedication ceremony they’re en route toward at Deneb V:

KIRK: It’ll be nice to play diplomat for a change, eh, Spock?

And then Spock keels over. Diplomacy is intolerable.

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3

Star Trek Animated Series Re-Watch: “The Jihad”

The Jihad
Written by Stephen Kandel
Directed by Hal Sutherland

Season 1, Episode 16
Production episode: 22014
Original air date: January 12, 1974
Star date: 5683.1

Mission summary

Kirk and Spock are summoned by the Vedala, the oldest space-faring race known to the Federation, to help prevent an imminent danger to the galaxy. At the Vedala asteroid, they meet a motley crew: their Vedala host, a feline alien; Tchar, a birdman from Skorr; Sord, a reptilian humanoid; M3 Green, a cowardly bug who is also a locksmith and thief; and Lara, a human hunter with an uncanny sense of direction. What, are they planning a heist?

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4

Star Trek Animated Series Re-Watch: “The Eye of the Beholder”

The Eye of the Beholder
Written by David P. Harmon
Directed by Hal Sutherland

Season 1, Episode 15
Production episode: 22016
Original air date:  January 5, 1974
Star date: 5501.2

Mission summary

The Enterprise is in orbit around Lactra VII, an M-class planet where a science crew of six disappeared. A recording shows that acting commander Lt. Commander Markel went against the book and beamed down the last three teammembers, himself included, for a rescue mission and were never heard from again. Kirk, Spock, and McCoy decide to repeat history and investigate. What could possibly go wrong?

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24

Star Trek Animated Series Re-Watch: “The Slaver Weapon”

The Slaver Weapon
Written by Larry Niven
Directed by Hal Sutherland

Season 1, Episode 14
Production episode: 22011
Original air date: December 15, 1973
Star date: 4187.3

Mission summary

Spock, Uhura, and Sulu, commanding the shuttlecraft Copernicus, are delivering precious cargo to Federation Starbase 25: a Slaver stasis box recovered from the planet Kzin. The long lost Slaver Empire scattered these time capsules across the galaxy, which either contain perfectly preserved artifacts from the billion-year-old civilization or booby traps; apparently the Empire fell due to its unhealthy addiction to the game show Let’s Make a Deal.

One stasis box provided a flying belt which led to the development of artificial gravity fields on starships, thus they’re potentially very valuable, dangerous, and incredibly rare–the only way to detect a stasis box is with another stasis box or dumb luck. As it happens, Spock’s box unexpectedly points the way to another one on planet Beta Lyrae. Spock is skeptical that a stasis box could go undiscovered there for so long, but they can’t pass it by without investigating.

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