The Animated Series 1x13 "The Ambergris Element"

rating: **

Memory Alpha summary

"The Ambergris Element" may be the best possible example of what only this series could get away with.

via Let's Watch Star Trek

A combination of the pacing that syncs up perfectly with the animation style and the storytelling itself makes for an episode that is quintessentially Animated Series.  Kirk and Spock end up being transformed into water-breathers.  Watching them cope, or even just watching them swim, in the way the series tended to recycle scenes, puts a focus on the key differences between what was at that point the two contrasting Star Trek experiences.  While everything at that point was virtually the same, style and cast members, the expanded possibilities of animation had always promised to expand storytelling potential.  Here, in its own element, the series achieves exactly that.

It's almost sublime, really, watching this moment finally happen, as if the creators stopped trying to force it to happen, and stopped trying to recreate the original series itself.  Watching "Ambergris" ought to be considered the ultimate test as to whether or not you "get" the series at all.

Otherwise it really is just another episode of the series, with all the same basic elements, a heavy emphasis on a strange environment and strange aliens inhabiting it, the essence of the franchise in many respects, just having fun, which is something you realize perhaps this series does best as it nearly completely dispenses with any real concern over how the characters react or if they have lives of their own going on.  Given the failure of Deep Space Nine to find a significant portion of fan support, one might argue that this may in fact be the ideal.

four quarter analysis
franchise * series * essential * character

notable guest-stars:
James Doohan
Majel Roddenberry

The Animated Series 1x12 "The Time Trap"

rating: *

Memory Alpha summary

via Agony Booth (ouch!)

The Voyager episode "The Void," Enterprise's Xindi Council, Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, Next Generation's "Birthright Part II," and indeed the whole concept of the Federation all feature elements viewers of "The Time Trap" will find familiar.

It's the idea of an interspecies coalition.  As in "The Void," "Time Trap" features a reluctant one intended to make the best of a bad situation, and the featured crew looking for a way out of the unique circumstances that have forced everyone together, a given region of space that is the true trap of the story.  The other trap, the one concerning time, is an unnecessary layer that is basically irrelevant except as an element of added danger.

More significantly, perhaps, is that "Time Trap features Kor, one of the major Klingons of the franchise, usually portrayed by John Colicos but here voiced by Jimmy Doohan.  Kor debuted in the original series episode "Errand of Mercy" and was one of three Klingons from that time to later appear in Deep Space Nine ("Blood Oath"), ending up the longest-tenured in that regard with two additional appearances ("Sword of Kahless," "Once More Unto the Breach").

Which of course also makes this a Klingon episode.  As with Klingon appearances in the preceding live action series, the famed warrior race to this point has perhaps a far greater reputation than actual presence.  It isn't until the next Klingons appear in the franchise, with newly-revised appearances, Star Trek: The Motion Picture, four major roles in subsequent sequels, and the figure of Worf, that they're actually as prominent as they seem to be all along.  Without any of these later appearances, Klingons would have gone the way of Harry Mudd.

Thankfully they don't.  "Time Trap" is in some ways a rehash of previous Klingons episodes, a forced alliance and stab at peace, that sort of thing.

Perhaps the most significant element is a far harder one to recognize: this is the first time George Takei is allowed to join the voice actor talent pool outside of his most familiar role (Sulu), something Doohan and Nichelle Nichols, along with Majel Roddenberry, have been during throughout the series already.

The interspecies alliance features cameos from a number of familiar aliens, from Romulans and Orions to some that are unique to the series.  But this is not a particularly notable showcase for any of them.

four quarter analysis

franchise * series * essential * character

notable guest-stars:

George Takei

Nichelle Nichols

James Doohan

The Animated Series 1x11 "The Terratin Incident"

rating: *

Memory Alpha summary

Honestly, if Deep Space Nine hadn't also done an episode where the crew shrinks ("One Little Ship"), I'd be tempted to dismiss "The Terratin Incident" as completely skippable.

And there you are, too, what happens for the majority of the episode: the crew shrinks, making various comments about their predicament.  It's exactly the kind of episode you'd expect from a show that can get away with anything without worrying about the budget.  The later (and in fact final) episode "The Counter-Clock Incident" features a similarly silly premise, the crew aging backward all the way to infants! but at least features a guest character who can carry the dramatic weight that otherwise keeps the action grounded in something fans can take a little more seriously.

via Tumblr.  Look at the size of that Kirk!  (Best I got.)

You have to wait until the end of the episode for any other element to be featured, which actually isn't that bad.  Honestly, a lot of otherwise bad stories, not just from Star Trek, could easily be redeemed if the good stuff weren't buried.  In this instance, "Terratin" turns into a kind of Kirk version of Brainiac from Superman lore.  Brainiac is a collector of worlds, famously creating the Bottle City of Kandor in the midst of Krypton's last days.  Unlike Brainiac, Kirk is doing the Terratins a favor.

Some allusions could be made to other franchise adventures in population relocation, but none of them like this.  

Otherwise, this is a silly episode.  It's a prime reason why most fans have a hard time taking the series seriously.  But then "One Little Ship" had to happen later.  And so we have yet another reason to reappraise the show's creative decisions, for good and otherwise.  

four quarter analysis

franchise * series * essential * character

notable guest-stars:

Nichelle Nichols

Majel Roddenberry

James Doohan

Roddenberry, Kelley, Doohan, and now Nimoy

Gene Roddenberry: October 24, 1991
Mark Leonard: November 22, 1996
DeForest Kelley: June 11, 1999
James Doohan: July 20, 2005
Majel Roddenberry: December 18, 2008
Ricardo Montalban: January 14, 2009

and now

Leonard Nimoy: February 27, 2015

The Animated Series 1x10 "Mudd's Passion"

rating: ***

Memory Alpha summary

Poor Harry Mudd.  The guy was such a part of Star Trek lore, and the legacy of the original series (two episodes, even!), that he received one of the several "sequel episodes" in the series.  And now?  You couldn't con someone into caring about him...

It's the fault of the movies, really.  Once it was determined that Khan was the one who best suited the cinema treatment, the decidely uncinematic Mudd, and his original portrayer, Roger C. Carmel, was dropped by the wayside.  Carmel returned to voice Mudd in "Passion," such was his distinctiveness.

All the same, Mudd has a place in history if not memory, and perhaps "Passion" makes his best case for that.  Here he's involved in love potion nonsense (there's some echoes to be found in Deep Space Nine's "Fascination") that results in a lot of romantic shenanigans.  His prior appearances all had to do with robotic nonsense that invariably redirected mostly back to Mudd himself.

via Treks in Sci Fi

Leading the way is Nurse Chapel, making this episode notable for more than one recurring character.  Chapel's significance slowed significantly in later years, even though she did appear in the movies (you'd probably have to know that to really notice, though).  This is probably in part because the emphasis on the role diminished over time, and the fact that performer Majel Roddenberry became better known as Lwaxana Troi (in both Next Generation and Deep Space Nine), plus, y'know, having married Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry (she was originally billed by her maiden name, Majel Barrett).

As an artifact of the series, "Mudd's Passion" has a peculiar place.  It's a strong bridging experience, and represents two experiences well, if not exceptionally.  As another candidate as an ambassador for the series, it does a fine job of displaying how animated Star Trek doesn't have to rely on anymore gimmicks than basic storytelling.

four quarter analysis

franchise * series * essential * character

notable guest-stars:

Roger C. Carmel

Majel Roddenberry

Nichelle Nichols

James Doohan

The Animated Series 1x9 "Once Upon a Planet"

rating: ***

Memory Alpha summary

In this sequel to "Shore Leave," the series ends up more relevant to a far different matter, the franchise theme of the emerging sentience of machines.  Can you say Data?

via The Viewscreen

The planet that was like a precursor to all the malfunctioning holodeck episodes returns, complete with Alice's Wonderland.

Unlike the other sequel episodes in the series, however, "Once Upon a Planet" has a distinctively new story to tell, about the planet post-guardian, with the mechanism that allows its basic function to operate running on its own.  No, this is not Next Generation's "Arsenal of Freedom" redux, but rather much more akin to The Motion Picture or even Next Generation's "Emergence" (which just happens to also feature a malfunctioning holodeck).

The basic idea of technology taking on an intelligence of its own is one of those fears that permeates our perception of the future, the robot uprisings featured in The Matrix and The Terminator.  As usual, Star Trek has a broader interpretation in mind.  Things look grim in The Motion Picture until humanity actually merges with the machine in question (which has long given speculation to how much of a connection to the later Borg there exists in the film), while in "Emergence" and "Upon a Planet" a dialogue between man and machine suffices.

"Planet" tackles the nature of the transition point directly: the moment of change occurs when the original programming is superseded by a change of circumstances.  Voyager played out a different scenario in "Prototype," in which a robotic army plays out the familiar "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield"/"Chosen Realm" scenario, a war of attrition that is the result of the worst possible outcome from a failure to change.  In "Planet," the machine listens to reason after initially assuming, as in Motion Picture, that it's the Enterprise itself that is the relevant entity (just as it's the ship in "Emergence" that produces new life).

It's an ideal story for the series to explore, something that might have seemed too outlandish in live action at the time, a few years ahead of Motion Picture itself (which, remember, was also a version of the earlier "Changeling"), which is still too hard to swallow as a near-purely intellectual exercise for fans more accustomed to more visceral franchise experiences (a peculiar dichotomy for a phenomenon that has always walked that fine line and draws equal support from both sides).

There's a small chance you will want to watch this as a spotlight for Uhura, although "Planet" doesn't indulge too much in the potential it sets up in that regard.  If anyone ever revisited this story, they could easily picks up on a number of possibilities, including the "Changeling" connection (an episode where she loses her memory and has to have it recreated to similarly limited exploration).

four quarter analysis
franchise * series * essential * character

notable guest-stars:
Nichelle Nichols
Majel Roddenberry
James Doohan

The Animated Series 1x8 "The Magicks of Megas-Tu"

rating: [no stars]

Memory Alpha summary

This whole series was always going to walk a fine line, both on its own terms and how it would be appreciated in the context of the later franchise.  It's exactly what the fans have said about Deep Space Nine, Voyager, and Enterprise, a dicey prospect that could and to date has been the only screen Star Trek to be considered unofficial.  "The Magicks and Megas-Tu" is a prime example why.

It's not really a good episode.  It's an interesting idea, one that would be more fruitfully explored elsewhere, but in and of itself, I would not recommend you watch it, unless you want to be a completist.

Kirk stumbles upon entities who are responsible for humanity's ideas about the Devil.  Yeah, sound familiar?  Next Generation basically did exactly the same thing, in more believable context, in "Devil's Due."  Which is not to say that the idea of beings existing who actually could fit the profile accidentally creating it is a bad one.  But this isn't the best way to do it.

The rest of the episode is likewise translated to better effect elsewhere in the form of Q in the Next Generation episode "Deja Q" and Voyager's "Death Wish."  Star Trek has a long history of beings possessing extraordinary power abusing it, and usually it's only Kirk making them realize that they've been naughty.  In the prolonged Q experience, a much more nuanced exploration became possible, so that even an episode like "Hide and Q," which took a relatively simplistic approach, could be balanced even by a minor entry like "True Q."

"Magicks" doesn't have anything but association going for it.  It a series that thought it could do anything just because it was animated finding out that really wasn't the case.  It's not the first or even last such misstep, but thankfully still not completely typical.  Every Star Trek has episodes like this.  Usually fans will interpret the bad ones as those that take risks.  "Magicks" is a risk, but other episodes prove how easily it could have been done better.  Which makes "Magicks" exactly what it is.  Something that looks like this:

via the Viewscreen

four quarter analysis

franchise * series * essential * character

notable guest-stars:

James Doohan