Ah Harry Mudd, is there any situation he won't try to con his way out of? This time his game is selling a love potion he doesn't believe works, only it does, kinda. This is actually a fairly successful attempt at a comedic episode that despite being about forcing people to fall in love manages to stay mostly not creepy. I was worried Harry Mudd's return to TAS would be pretty bad, but it worked much better than I expected.
The Enterprise is hunting for the notorious swindler Harry Mudd. This time he is on the creatively named mining plate Motherlode. His attempts to sell a love potion seem to be going well until Spock reveals the beautiful woman he is working with on stage is in fact a hypnotic reptile capable of altering its appearance. The miners turn on Mudd and Spock has to save him from the mob by blasting a huge chasm into the ground between the miners and Mudd. They take Mudd back to the ship to so he can face charges back in the Federation. Mudd notices nurse Chapel's infatuation with Mr. Spock and manages to convince her to try the love potion on him. It doesn't appear to have working and Chapel confronts Mudd. They get into a fight in the shuttlebay and break a bunch of the crystals into the ventilation ducts before Mudd subdues Chapel and flees in a shuttlecraft with her.
Back on the bridge Spock is suddenly in love with Chapel and outraged when he learns Mudd has kidnapped her and fled to the rocky planet below. Kirk goes with him down to the planet as the crew gradually succumb to the effects of the love potion including Scottie falling in love with the feline M'Ress. On the planet Mudd manages to awaken giant rock monsters who chase him along with Chapel, Spock and Kirk. Kirk decides to try the love potion on the rock monsters and I think it is supposed to have worked maybe, but being a cartoon they don't actually show if it does. Back on the ship the potion has made everyone who was in love suddenly hate each other and they drag Mudd off to trial.
Review: A quick and entertaining episode. Spock falling head over heals in love is always fun to watch. Somehow with all the love in the air the captain didn't fall for anybody. I guess he already has the ship.
7 out of 10
Thursday, May 7, 2015
Wednesday, May 6, 2015
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
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
Tuesday, May 5, 2015
TAS: The Magicks of Megus-Tu
I am going to get it out of the way right here and talk about the disaster that is the, "science," at the beginning of this episode. The idea that the center of the galaxy was the center of the universe and therefore of creation wouldn't have made any sense even in the 70's. The idea that the creation of the universe might be an ongoing phenomenon would have been more reasonable back then as we didn't understand the big bang. But that going to the center of the galaxy would send you to a different universe where magic is real, wow. But if we ignore all that other stuff and accept magic this isn't a bad TAS episode.
The Enterprise is exploring the center of the galaxy/universe when suddenly all the laws of physics stop working! Worst of all this means life support is failing as well. Just as they are about to lose home a horned red goat man appears and fixes it all. He then explains that he knows about humans from a long time ago and is very excited to be with some again. He also explains that here magic is real! He shows them around the planet a little bit and then sends them back to the ship warning them they have to hide, but from who?
Spock decides to start playing around with the new magic they all apparently have and is able to move giant chess pieces around with his mind. Lucius (the goat man) reappears and tells them to stop or they will be caught, but it is too late. The entire crew is removed from the ship and show up in stocks for a reverse Salem witch trial. It turns out the people on this planet were the witches and didn't really like getting burned at the stake. So now Q style they are going to put the crew of the Enterprise on trial for the sins of their ancestors. Spock gets to defend and after messing around just pulls out the memory banks of the ship (more punch cards than I remember) and tells the magicians to take a look. They do and decide the humans are all right, but Lucius, he is going to be sent to some sort of hell like limbo for eternity. Kirk gets mad and there is a wizard battle between him and the head of the witches, but it works out to have just been a test and they leave and no longer have powers.
Review: This is the most cartoony of the episodes in TAS so far. Not just because it is a bit silly, but also because it would have clearly been impossible to film live action without some fairly major changes to the climax. Not the best, but far from the worst.
6 out of 10
The Enterprise is exploring the center of the galaxy/universe when suddenly all the laws of physics stop working! Worst of all this means life support is failing as well. Just as they are about to lose home a horned red goat man appears and fixes it all. He then explains that he knows about humans from a long time ago and is very excited to be with some again. He also explains that here magic is real! He shows them around the planet a little bit and then sends them back to the ship warning them they have to hide, but from who?
Spock decides to start playing around with the new magic they all apparently have and is able to move giant chess pieces around with his mind. Lucius (the goat man) reappears and tells them to stop or they will be caught, but it is too late. The entire crew is removed from the ship and show up in stocks for a reverse Salem witch trial. It turns out the people on this planet were the witches and didn't really like getting burned at the stake. So now Q style they are going to put the crew of the Enterprise on trial for the sins of their ancestors. Spock gets to defend and after messing around just pulls out the memory banks of the ship (more punch cards than I remember) and tells the magicians to take a look. They do and decide the humans are all right, but Lucius, he is going to be sent to some sort of hell like limbo for eternity. Kirk gets mad and there is a wizard battle between him and the head of the witches, but it works out to have just been a test and they leave and no longer have powers.
Review: This is the most cartoony of the episodes in TAS so far. Not just because it is a bit silly, but also because it would have clearly been impossible to film live action without some fairly major changes to the climax. Not the best, but far from the worst.
6 out of 10
Monday, May 4, 2015
TAS: The Infinite Vulcan
Planet of the planet people! Well, kinda. Really it is planet of the giant clone of another eugenic superman who decides the solution to creating peace in the galaxy is to produce a race of giant clones of Spock who also have clones of his clothing. Also planet people. This is one of the most fast paced episodes of any trek series. It isn't the deepest of stories but it is fun and has some danger of Spock being killed. Also Kirk says, "beam us up Scotty," again and they call mindmelding mindtouching which I find disturbing.
The episode begins with the Enterprise discovering a seemingly unoccupied city of the appropriately named planet Phylos. Sulu discovers a purple plant that uproots and walks around which seems cute until it stabs him with a thorn and he dies. Well not quite, but according to McCoy he has only minutes to live and there is no way to find an antidote fast enough! Fortunately some strange looking aliens who turn out to be sentient plants show up and give Sulu a shot of antidote. They offer to take Kirk and company to see the rest of their species, but instead the kidnap Spock with tentacle bat plant monsters. Their weapons don't work, there is some sort of field. They then meet the master of the planet people, giant eugenic superman clone Keniclius 5. He forces them to beam back to there ship.
Kirk refuses to abandon Spock so they rig up some poison gas sprays and masks and beam down while the Enterprise warps away to try and fool Keniclius. They run into the plant people again who say they need Spock but offer to show it is ok. But of course it is a trap again, but the luckily the plant people are kinda dumb and took them a short run from where Spock actually is. They kill (or knock out I guess) the plant bat monsters and find Spock near death. Keniclius explains his plan to Make an army of Spock clones from Spocks mind in the computer and introduces giant Spock 2. They argue for a while and eventually Kirk convinces Keniclius that the Federation has already created peace and he should instead work with Spock 2 to help the plant people. They leave the two giant clones to make an army of plants and possibly giant human/vulcans.
Review: This is probably the strangest TAS yet and while it has a lot of scifi it is honestly a little too fast paced for its own good. I like the concept but it is a lot to tell in such a short period of time. Also the fact that they leave a giant clone of Spock to chill with a eugenics superman who just tried to conquer the galaxy is a little bothersome.
5 out of 10
The episode begins with the Enterprise discovering a seemingly unoccupied city of the appropriately named planet Phylos. Sulu discovers a purple plant that uproots and walks around which seems cute until it stabs him with a thorn and he dies. Well not quite, but according to McCoy he has only minutes to live and there is no way to find an antidote fast enough! Fortunately some strange looking aliens who turn out to be sentient plants show up and give Sulu a shot of antidote. They offer to take Kirk and company to see the rest of their species, but instead the kidnap Spock with tentacle bat plant monsters. Their weapons don't work, there is some sort of field. They then meet the master of the planet people, giant eugenic superman clone Keniclius 5. He forces them to beam back to there ship.
Kirk refuses to abandon Spock so they rig up some poison gas sprays and masks and beam down while the Enterprise warps away to try and fool Keniclius. They run into the plant people again who say they need Spock but offer to show it is ok. But of course it is a trap again, but the luckily the plant people are kinda dumb and took them a short run from where Spock actually is. They kill (or knock out I guess) the plant bat monsters and find Spock near death. Keniclius explains his plan to Make an army of Spock clones from Spocks mind in the computer and introduces giant Spock 2. They argue for a while and eventually Kirk convinces Keniclius that the Federation has already created peace and he should instead work with Spock 2 to help the plant people. They leave the two giant clones to make an army of plants and possibly giant human/vulcans.
Review: This is probably the strangest TAS yet and while it has a lot of scifi it is honestly a little too fast paced for its own good. I like the concept but it is a lot to tell in such a short period of time. Also the fact that they leave a giant clone of Spock to chill with a eugenics superman who just tried to conquer the galaxy is a little bothersome.
5 out of 10
Sunday, May 3, 2015
TAS: The Survivor
I feel like these discussions of TAS are turning into, "could this have been shot live action or not," but I don't think that is unreasonable either. This is definitely one that could have been done live action, but the alien shapeshifter would have had to have been a lot less of a floating tentacle monster and more of a humanoid with makeup. For the subplot about whether the woman who was engaged to the man the shapeshifter has taken the form of having the natural form be very inhuman does help with the story.
While patrolling the edge of the neutral zone the Enterprise encounters a damaged ship. They discover the ship is registered to the most famous philanthropist in the galaxy who disappeared five years earlier. They beam him aboard and are quite excited to have a celebrity on board. Spock insists in confirming his identity which comes across as an extra dick move when we learn Winston, the philanthropist in question, has a fiance aboard the ship! McCoy takes Winston in for a medical exam and other than a few readings outside normal he appears to be a human. However when his fiance gets him alone he explains that he has changed to much over the five years to be able to be with her any more. She is quite understandably upset.
We don't have to wait long to see why though as Winston follows the captain into his quarters and promptly turns in a strange tentacle monster and knocks out the captain before assuming his form. He then heads to the bridge and convinces them to set a course through the neutral zone. Spock naturally objects, but "Kirk" explains Winston has told him it is both safe and necessary to prevent a humanitarian disaster. "Kirk" then leaves, but the real Kirk returns not long after and realizes he has been impersonated. They turn the ship around and run back for the border, but it is too late.
Back in sickbay the alien knocks out and impersonates McCoy apparently to convince his fiance she should give up on him. When Spock and Kirk arrive in sickbay to have Kirk examined they notice that something seems odd about McCoy, but they don't discuss it until they are back in the corridor. They return and find McCoy napping in the lab, but no sign of the alien. Kirk outsmarts him when he notices one extra exam table. The alien transforms again and manages to flee. Kirk returns to the bridge to deal with the Romulans who have just shown up while security searches the ship. The alien encounters Winstons fiance but even after he shows his true form she doesn't shoot him. He manages to knock out the deflectors as Kirk attempts to negotiate with the Romulans and they attack. With the shields down they are sitting ducks, but something about his conversation with his fiance changes the aliens mind and he uses his shapechanging to become the deflectors and save the ship. Kirk agrees to let his fiance be his guard while they take him back for trial as a spy.
Review: A lot happened in the 23 minutes that was this story and pretty much all of it worked. The idea of a species of alien shapeshifters who aren't trusted to leave their planet actually makes a lot of sense and of course they would be sought as spies. Fast paced and enjoyable.
8 out of 10
While patrolling the edge of the neutral zone the Enterprise encounters a damaged ship. They discover the ship is registered to the most famous philanthropist in the galaxy who disappeared five years earlier. They beam him aboard and are quite excited to have a celebrity on board. Spock insists in confirming his identity which comes across as an extra dick move when we learn Winston, the philanthropist in question, has a fiance aboard the ship! McCoy takes Winston in for a medical exam and other than a few readings outside normal he appears to be a human. However when his fiance gets him alone he explains that he has changed to much over the five years to be able to be with her any more. She is quite understandably upset.
We don't have to wait long to see why though as Winston follows the captain into his quarters and promptly turns in a strange tentacle monster and knocks out the captain before assuming his form. He then heads to the bridge and convinces them to set a course through the neutral zone. Spock naturally objects, but "Kirk" explains Winston has told him it is both safe and necessary to prevent a humanitarian disaster. "Kirk" then leaves, but the real Kirk returns not long after and realizes he has been impersonated. They turn the ship around and run back for the border, but it is too late.
Back in sickbay the alien knocks out and impersonates McCoy apparently to convince his fiance she should give up on him. When Spock and Kirk arrive in sickbay to have Kirk examined they notice that something seems odd about McCoy, but they don't discuss it until they are back in the corridor. They return and find McCoy napping in the lab, but no sign of the alien. Kirk outsmarts him when he notices one extra exam table. The alien transforms again and manages to flee. Kirk returns to the bridge to deal with the Romulans who have just shown up while security searches the ship. The alien encounters Winstons fiance but even after he shows his true form she doesn't shoot him. He manages to knock out the deflectors as Kirk attempts to negotiate with the Romulans and they attack. With the shields down they are sitting ducks, but something about his conversation with his fiance changes the aliens mind and he uses his shapechanging to become the deflectors and save the ship. Kirk agrees to let his fiance be his guard while they take him back for trial as a spy.
Review: A lot happened in the 23 minutes that was this story and pretty much all of it worked. The idea of a species of alien shapeshifters who aren't trusted to leave their planet actually makes a lot of sense and of course they would be sought as spies. Fast paced and enjoyable.
8 out of 10
Saturday, May 2, 2015
TAS: More Tribbles, More Troubles
The animated series loves to call back to TOS and this is by far the most extreme example so far. This episode is a pretty much direct continuation of The Trouble With Tribbles and while it isn't as successful, it does have both the humor and adventure elements that made the original so successful. I guess that Sherman's planet is an important (and hungry!) place since they are again trying to get super grain there to solve their crisis of hunger. Getting the actor who played Cyrano Jones was a big boost to the quality of this episode.
The episode opens with the Enterprise escorting two robot ships of quintotriticale bound for Sherman's planet (I hear there is a nice lagoon there). The Enterprise breaks off to investigate a Klingon warship following a small Federation type scouting vessel. They are particularly interested in a new weapon the Klingons are rumored to have. As they approach the Klingons open fire on the scout ship and Scotty barely has time to beam the single occupant over before his ship is destroyed. However the pilot is caught in the beam since... The Klingons fire their new weapon at the Enterprise. It is a stasis field of some sort that knocks out the Enterprise engines and weapons. The Klingon captain calls to the Enterprise and demands the pilot of the scout be given to them. Kirk naturally refuses and uses the two robot ships to try and ram the Klingons. Fortunately it turns out the Klingons can only stasis one ship at a time and when they try to get all three the beam goes down and they flee after knocking out the engines on one of the robot ships.
Kirk then heads to the transporter room to see who they have. When he finally materializes it is Cyrano Jones and a several piles of tribbles. Cyrano explains he had them genetically modified to not reproduce and even found predator that eats them. Kirk agrees to take Cyrano to a starbase but first they have to beam over the grain from the disabled vessel. As soon as they do the Klingons show up again and the fight is on. Kirk manages to chase off the Klingons but not before they knock out the engines on the other transport vessel and spill grain all over the halls of the Enterprise making for a tribble feast. We then learn that these new tribbles don't reproduce, they instead just keep growing. Spock correctly guesses that the Klingons knocked out the transport ship to make the Enterprise slower forcing it to tow the ship. The Klingons reappear and use their stasis beam again, but not before Scotty can beam the giant tribbles all over their ship.
The Klingon captain again demands that Kirk surrender, but is very diheartened when he learns his ship is full of tribbles. He then explains that what the really want is the tribble predator, a Klingon genetic project designed to save them from the tribbles. Kirk agrees to give it back knowing it has no chance to eat the now giant tribbles.
Review: Not as good as the original, but that was a pretty high bar. For an episode that aims to have both action and comedy this one is largely a success. The short format again helps keep this fairly simple story from ballooning into really craziness.
7 out of 10
The episode opens with the Enterprise escorting two robot ships of quintotriticale bound for Sherman's planet (I hear there is a nice lagoon there). The Enterprise breaks off to investigate a Klingon warship following a small Federation type scouting vessel. They are particularly interested in a new weapon the Klingons are rumored to have. As they approach the Klingons open fire on the scout ship and Scotty barely has time to beam the single occupant over before his ship is destroyed. However the pilot is caught in the beam since... The Klingons fire their new weapon at the Enterprise. It is a stasis field of some sort that knocks out the Enterprise engines and weapons. The Klingon captain calls to the Enterprise and demands the pilot of the scout be given to them. Kirk naturally refuses and uses the two robot ships to try and ram the Klingons. Fortunately it turns out the Klingons can only stasis one ship at a time and when they try to get all three the beam goes down and they flee after knocking out the engines on one of the robot ships.
Kirk then heads to the transporter room to see who they have. When he finally materializes it is Cyrano Jones and a several piles of tribbles. Cyrano explains he had them genetically modified to not reproduce and even found predator that eats them. Kirk agrees to take Cyrano to a starbase but first they have to beam over the grain from the disabled vessel. As soon as they do the Klingons show up again and the fight is on. Kirk manages to chase off the Klingons but not before they knock out the engines on the other transport vessel and spill grain all over the halls of the Enterprise making for a tribble feast. We then learn that these new tribbles don't reproduce, they instead just keep growing. Spock correctly guesses that the Klingons knocked out the transport ship to make the Enterprise slower forcing it to tow the ship. The Klingons reappear and use their stasis beam again, but not before Scotty can beam the giant tribbles all over their ship.
The Klingon captain again demands that Kirk surrender, but is very diheartened when he learns his ship is full of tribbles. He then explains that what the really want is the tribble predator, a Klingon genetic project designed to save them from the tribbles. Kirk agrees to give it back knowing it has no chance to eat the now giant tribbles.
Review: Not as good as the original, but that was a pretty high bar. For an episode that aims to have both action and comedy this one is largely a success. The short format again helps keep this fairly simple story from ballooning into really craziness.
7 out of 10
TAS: The Lorelei Signal
This episode manages to be very progressive when it comes to having strong female characters, and still has an ending the feels pretty damn sexist. It is dangerous territory to have an episode about sirens who only prey on men, but that part is handled pretty decently. Having Uhura and nurse Chapel be the ones who save the day is also pretty cool, but of course it is Spock and Scotty who do the saving in the end.
The Enterprise receives a distress signal that contains a strange music. When the men of the ship hears it they can't resist wanting to go investigate. They even have hallucinations of beautiful women which should have probably raised some alarm, but whatever. Kirk can't resist beaming down along with McCoy, Spock and some redshirt. They are greeted by beautiful women who already know their names. They start hanging out and drinking together, but there was something in the drinks and all the men pass out.
When they awaken the men are wearing headbands that glow when the women are around and they are greatly aged and quite weak. Back on the ship Uhura has taken over and is investigating with nurse Chapel. Computer analysis shows that they are having their energy drained and that it will be fatal if not stopped. Female guards are posted to the transporter rooms to keep any more men from beaming down. Back on the planet the men are feeling weak, but Bones manages to inject them with enough stimulant to flee into the garden where they hide in a giant urn. Spock goes back in to try and call for help. He manages to call Uhura who sends down teams of female security officers who take control of the situation.
After rescuing the captain from the urn that was filling with water they learn from the women of the planet that they weren't from there, but when they arrived they gained this power to control men. They also live forever as long as they keep feeding on the energy of men, but they can't reproduce. In a rapid turn to sexism the women all decide to give up eternal life to go to some other planet where they can find love. Spock uses to transporter to reverse the aging they suffered and all is as it was.
Review: I am going to give this episode some credit for the strong parts played by Uhura and nurse Chapel. Some of the explenations are pretty thin, but overall this episode works pretty well.
6 out of 10
The Enterprise receives a distress signal that contains a strange music. When the men of the ship hears it they can't resist wanting to go investigate. They even have hallucinations of beautiful women which should have probably raised some alarm, but whatever. Kirk can't resist beaming down along with McCoy, Spock and some redshirt. They are greeted by beautiful women who already know their names. They start hanging out and drinking together, but there was something in the drinks and all the men pass out.
When they awaken the men are wearing headbands that glow when the women are around and they are greatly aged and quite weak. Back on the ship Uhura has taken over and is investigating with nurse Chapel. Computer analysis shows that they are having their energy drained and that it will be fatal if not stopped. Female guards are posted to the transporter rooms to keep any more men from beaming down. Back on the planet the men are feeling weak, but Bones manages to inject them with enough stimulant to flee into the garden where they hide in a giant urn. Spock goes back in to try and call for help. He manages to call Uhura who sends down teams of female security officers who take control of the situation.
After rescuing the captain from the urn that was filling with water they learn from the women of the planet that they weren't from there, but when they arrived they gained this power to control men. They also live forever as long as they keep feeding on the energy of men, but they can't reproduce. In a rapid turn to sexism the women all decide to give up eternal life to go to some other planet where they can find love. Spock uses to transporter to reverse the aging they suffered and all is as it was.
Review: I am going to give this episode some credit for the strong parts played by Uhura and nurse Chapel. Some of the explenations are pretty thin, but overall this episode works pretty well.
6 out of 10
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