TAS: Once Upon a Planet

            The prototypical holodeck gone awry episode takes place in TAS! Also I know that the last episode the visited this planet was called, "Shore Leave," and that they were in fact there for shore leave, but do they have to refer to it as the shore leave planet? That seems like a clear breaking of the 4th wall to me. Other than that this is very much an episode that would have fit in very nicely in TOS, although if it were a TOS episode I think Kirk would be contractually obligated to destroy the master computer with a paradox.
            The crew are exhausted and Kirk brings them to, "the shore leave planet," for some relaxation. They start beaming down and everything seems as it was. Even the characters from Alice in Wonderland show up, and act cute. But then the queen of hearts shows up and tries to have McCoy executed and they all flee back to the ship except for Uhura who is taken prisoner. On the ship Kirk arranges to try and rescue Uhura who is being interrogated by the master computer of the planet. The computer asks about her, "master," and insults her when she doesn't understand. Eventually she figures out that it thinks the crew of the Enterprise serve the ship as slaves.
            Kirk and Spock decide they need to find the keeper of the planet and beam down to the surface. They manage to make their way into the caves where the computer is and trick it into taking them deep into its core. There they learn that without the keeper of the planet (who died several years ago) the computer has gone mad and decided it needs to spread itself through the galaxy. It is even having one of itself built on the Enterprise. Kirk manages to convince the computer that they aren't slaves and that they work together with computers to do the things they do. This calms it down and it agrees to go back to being an entertainment system.

            Review: The rapid conclusion of this episode doesn't make all that much sense, but it still manages to be a fun tale of adventure. More powerful computers gone bad, but at least it doesn't have any godlike beings.

6 out of 10