TAS has been a lot of fun, but it has now come to an end. The Counterclock Incident is another episode that feels like it would have worked just as well as a live action episode as it did as a cartoon. It would have been expensive to have several younger actors for each character as they aged in reverse, but that never seemed to be a problem on TNG (although by focusing on the children instead of the remaining adults the TNG adults as children episode is WAY more annoying). I will also say I was quite pleased that the Commodore in this episode, who was the first commander of the Enterprise, is both rational and a really good person unlike pretty much every previous Commodore. I kinda expected him to start usurping Kirk when the reverse aging started but he only took command when it was actually reasonable and necessary.
The episode begins with the Enterprise transporting Commodore April, the first commander of the Enterprise, to his retirement ceremony where he will be honored both as a former captain and as an ambassador for the Federation. In the way they stop to check out a cool nova (they use the term nova and supernova interchangeably in this episode when they mostly mean supernova remnant) along the way. Suddenly a ship approaches at warp 36 headed straight for the nova! Kirk tries to slow them down with a tractor beam, but the Enterprise gets dragged in as well! They are hailed by the captain of the other vessel is talking backwards and before they can figure out what is going on they are dragged into a backwards universe where even time flows in reverse.
They follow the other ship back to its planet of origin and discover the people here are born old and die as babies (this raises questions about how they are actually born that are better left uncontemplated). After looking at some maps they figure out that when a nova takes place in both universes in the same spot it is possible to get between universes so they find a start that is about to nova in the reverse universe and rig the other ship to explode and make it nova to carry them home. They set out to carry out the plan, but as they are rapidly aging in reverse all the ships crew are turning into children. Luckily Spock is older than the rest of them so he takes the helm while Commodore April takes over command. They escape just in time and can fix the reverse aging with the transporters but for some reason the Commodore and his wife decide not to stay young.
Review: This is a really fun episode that fits well with the rest of Trek. If you are going to remove parts of TAS from canon (a move I now fully understand) this is one that would be better off left in. I am not sure how the comments about the construction of the Enterprise as well as it being the first warp capable ship line up with the established timeline, but it works well in the context of this episode.
7 out of 10
Final note: I am going to be away from computers and televisions for Memorial day weekend so I will fall behind a bit on reviews. When I get back I will start in on the movies before starting the somewhat questionable first season of TNG!
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