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
Monday, May 4, 2015
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
Thursday, April 30, 2015
TAS: One of Our Planets Is Missing
This is the first episode of TAS that could have just as easily been a TOS episode. Even with the limited effects budget I am pretty sure a giant space cloud was within the reach of TOS. I supposed the Enterprise going magic school bus through the digestive tract of the space cloud would have been harder, but whatever. Spock joining minds with the space cloud was another element that felt straight out of TOS.
The episode begins with the Enterprise encountering a cloud of both energy and matter that is in the process of engulfing an unoccupied planet. As they watch the planet starts breaking down inside the cloud as if being consumed. This would be nothing more than an interesting note except for the fact that the cloud is headed towards a planet with 82 million people on it! Shooting it doesn't work so Uhura warns the governor of the next planet it its way and Kirk tries blasting the cloud with phasers. The phasers don't work so the next obvious course of action is the let the cloud consume the Enterprise. Wait, really? Yup, and inside things are even worse. It appears the clouds is made of mostly anti-matter and the strain of keeping the shields up is taking all their power.
As they move deeper it becomes apparent that they are inside a solar system sized organism that is consuming planets as food. To solve their own fuel problem Scotty convinces Kirk to blast of a chunk of the enormous creature to use to regenerate the anti-matter engines. Strangely Scotty also talks about them having matter engines, but whatever. The plan works, but they only have a few minutes now before the cloud starts eating the populated planet. The only choices left are destroy the ship in an effort to stop the cloud and have Spock try an mindmeld. Kirk decides to try both and luckily for all of them the cloud turns out to be friendly and agrees to not eat anymore planets with people on them.
Review: This one is definitely on the scifi side of things more than action and that may weight the episode down more than would be ideal. The shortness of the episode was great in this case, had it been an hour it may well have scored lower.
6 out of 10
The episode begins with the Enterprise encountering a cloud of both energy and matter that is in the process of engulfing an unoccupied planet. As they watch the planet starts breaking down inside the cloud as if being consumed. This would be nothing more than an interesting note except for the fact that the cloud is headed towards a planet with 82 million people on it! Shooting it doesn't work so Uhura warns the governor of the next planet it its way and Kirk tries blasting the cloud with phasers. The phasers don't work so the next obvious course of action is the let the cloud consume the Enterprise. Wait, really? Yup, and inside things are even worse. It appears the clouds is made of mostly anti-matter and the strain of keeping the shields up is taking all their power.
As they move deeper it becomes apparent that they are inside a solar system sized organism that is consuming planets as food. To solve their own fuel problem Scotty convinces Kirk to blast of a chunk of the enormous creature to use to regenerate the anti-matter engines. Strangely Scotty also talks about them having matter engines, but whatever. The plan works, but they only have a few minutes now before the cloud starts eating the populated planet. The only choices left are destroy the ship in an effort to stop the cloud and have Spock try an mindmeld. Kirk decides to try both and luckily for all of them the cloud turns out to be friendly and agrees to not eat anymore planets with people on them.
Review: This one is definitely on the scifi side of things more than action and that may weight the episode down more than would be ideal. The shortness of the episode was great in this case, had it been an hour it may well have scored lower.
6 out of 10
Wednesday, April 29, 2015
TAS: Yesteryear
For the second time in the pre-TNG era Starfleet is using time travel to study the past, and as you would expect there are unintended consequences. This time they have returned to the guardian of forever which at least allows them to passively observer the past. But of course this isn't good enough for Kirk who has to go messing around in the past of Orion. I think the most interesting part to me was the scene of young Spock being hassled by his Vulcan peers and getting into a fight in pretty much the exact same way it took place in the recent reboot.
The episode opens with Kirk and Spock coming out of the guardian of forever after having spent time on early Orion learning about the development of its culture. There are also historians there who have been passively looking through the guardian to study the history of Orion. When they beam back to the Enterprise something is wrong, nobody recognizes Spock. Kirk it turns out has had an Andorian second in command for the last five years. Looking through historical databases they learn that in this timeline Spock died at the age of 7. Spock suddenly remembers that as a child he had a near death experience, but was saved by a cousin he never saw before or since who happened to look a lot like himself as an adult.
Spock goes back through the guardian to try and set things right. First he sees himself being harassed into a fight by Vulcan youths. Sarek approaches him and apologizes for having to see such an emotional display by a Vulcan. Spock explains that he is their cousin Selek here to visit the family shrine. Sarek invites him to stay with them in the mean time. It turns out young Spock is having a hard time deciding if he would rather follow the human path of his mother or the Vulcan path of his father. It is almost time for him to take a dangerous journey into the wilderness to prove he is a man so young Spock decides to test himself personally first by wandering into the desert.
Young Spock is followed by the family pet I-Chaya and more distantly by the adult Spock still pretending to be his cousin. Young Spock is attacked by a dangerous dragon like animal that adult Spock knocks out with a neck pinch. Unfortunately I-Chaya was injured by the poisonous claws of the other animal and young Spock must hurry back to town to get the healer to come save I-Chaya. When the healer arrives adult Spock explains that to be Vulcan is to realize that all things die and that it is how we die that matters. When the healer tells him that I-Chaya can not be saved young Spock decides it is best to not prolong suffering and lets I-Chaya die with dignity. Back home Sarek thanks adult Spock for his help and then Spock returns to the Enterprise as if nothing had happened.
Review: While not quite as broadly impactful as the last episode, this one manages to tell a personal tale of Spock's past without being overly cheesy. The voice actor for young Spock was a little annoying, but overall a good episode that added to the canon of Trek.
6 out of 10
The episode opens with Kirk and Spock coming out of the guardian of forever after having spent time on early Orion learning about the development of its culture. There are also historians there who have been passively looking through the guardian to study the history of Orion. When they beam back to the Enterprise something is wrong, nobody recognizes Spock. Kirk it turns out has had an Andorian second in command for the last five years. Looking through historical databases they learn that in this timeline Spock died at the age of 7. Spock suddenly remembers that as a child he had a near death experience, but was saved by a cousin he never saw before or since who happened to look a lot like himself as an adult.
Spock goes back through the guardian to try and set things right. First he sees himself being harassed into a fight by Vulcan youths. Sarek approaches him and apologizes for having to see such an emotional display by a Vulcan. Spock explains that he is their cousin Selek here to visit the family shrine. Sarek invites him to stay with them in the mean time. It turns out young Spock is having a hard time deciding if he would rather follow the human path of his mother or the Vulcan path of his father. It is almost time for him to take a dangerous journey into the wilderness to prove he is a man so young Spock decides to test himself personally first by wandering into the desert.
Young Spock is followed by the family pet I-Chaya and more distantly by the adult Spock still pretending to be his cousin. Young Spock is attacked by a dangerous dragon like animal that adult Spock knocks out with a neck pinch. Unfortunately I-Chaya was injured by the poisonous claws of the other animal and young Spock must hurry back to town to get the healer to come save I-Chaya. When the healer arrives adult Spock explains that to be Vulcan is to realize that all things die and that it is how we die that matters. When the healer tells him that I-Chaya can not be saved young Spock decides it is best to not prolong suffering and lets I-Chaya die with dignity. Back home Sarek thanks adult Spock for his help and then Spock returns to the Enterprise as if nothing had happened.
Review: While not quite as broadly impactful as the last episode, this one manages to tell a personal tale of Spock's past without being overly cheesy. The voice actor for young Spock was a little annoying, but overall a good episode that added to the canon of Trek.
6 out of 10
Tuesday, April 28, 2015
TAS: Beyond the Farthest Star
For the first time in my journey through Trek I watched two episodes today, and I am glad I did. My mental justification was that I missed an episode last Saturday due to work commitments and I wanted to keep going at the same one episode a day pace as long as I could. But it was a really cool comparison to watch the final episode of TOS and then go straight into TAS. I am really impressed with the attention to detail on the drawings of the ship and especially the bridge. They seem to have taken much greater liberties with such things as main engineering, but those sets weren't really all that impressive in the live action run.
The episode begins with the Enterprise not dealing with a crisis like so many TOS episodes, but instead on a routine star charting patrol beyond the edge of the galaxy. And for the first time there doesn't appear to be any of the silliness of a, "galactic barrier," or any of that garbage. While flying through seemingly empty space Uhura detects a radio transmission coming from the remains of a dead star. As they approach the gravity is much more intense than expected and they only barely manage to make orbit rather than hit the dead star. Once in orbit they encounter a huge organic looking alien vessel that appears to be the source of the radio transmissions. It has been there hundreds of millions of years so of course they have to check it out.
Putting on their magic life support belts Kirk beams over with Spock, McCoy and Scotty leaving Sulu in command. Kirk has the transporters locked onto them as they explore the insides of the colossal vessel. Some of the systems seem to be working, even after so long. They enter a room full of equipment and suddenly the door seals behind them. Their communicators and phasers aren't working, but evidently the door was sealed to protect them as something starts trying to break through. They find a recording of someone from the ship warning them of the dangerous lifeform on the other side of the door and it tells them that the ship was left here to keep it trapped for all eternity. The room explodes and they are rescued just in time. However the alien has also been beamed over and starts wrecking havoc all over the ship.
The alien is apparently of electromagnetic nature and it starts reading the computer memory banks and shutting off life support to most decks. Kirk has the ships controls locked out before it can take them over, but it does manage to use the phasers to destroy the other ship. Kirk figures out a plan to have Spock calculate a slingshot maneuver in is head to get them away from the dead star by diving apparently straight at it. The alien is fooled and thinks they are destroying the ship and fleas to the dead star. It works and as they fly away the alien pleads to not be left by itself forever.
Review: I honestly wasn't sure what to expect from this part of my voyage, but so far I am impressed. The shorter format works well with adventure stories like this and the animation seems quite good. The music cues are pretty disparate from what I am used to from TOS, but I think I can get used to it. Not the greatest of trek, but an above average episode.
7 out of 10
The episode begins with the Enterprise not dealing with a crisis like so many TOS episodes, but instead on a routine star charting patrol beyond the edge of the galaxy. And for the first time there doesn't appear to be any of the silliness of a, "galactic barrier," or any of that garbage. While flying through seemingly empty space Uhura detects a radio transmission coming from the remains of a dead star. As they approach the gravity is much more intense than expected and they only barely manage to make orbit rather than hit the dead star. Once in orbit they encounter a huge organic looking alien vessel that appears to be the source of the radio transmissions. It has been there hundreds of millions of years so of course they have to check it out.
Putting on their magic life support belts Kirk beams over with Spock, McCoy and Scotty leaving Sulu in command. Kirk has the transporters locked onto them as they explore the insides of the colossal vessel. Some of the systems seem to be working, even after so long. They enter a room full of equipment and suddenly the door seals behind them. Their communicators and phasers aren't working, but evidently the door was sealed to protect them as something starts trying to break through. They find a recording of someone from the ship warning them of the dangerous lifeform on the other side of the door and it tells them that the ship was left here to keep it trapped for all eternity. The room explodes and they are rescued just in time. However the alien has also been beamed over and starts wrecking havoc all over the ship.
The alien is apparently of electromagnetic nature and it starts reading the computer memory banks and shutting off life support to most decks. Kirk has the ships controls locked out before it can take them over, but it does manage to use the phasers to destroy the other ship. Kirk figures out a plan to have Spock calculate a slingshot maneuver in is head to get them away from the dead star by diving apparently straight at it. The alien is fooled and thinks they are destroying the ship and fleas to the dead star. It works and as they fly away the alien pleads to not be left by itself forever.
Review: I honestly wasn't sure what to expect from this part of my voyage, but so far I am impressed. The shorter format works well with adventure stories like this and the animation seems quite good. The music cues are pretty disparate from what I am used to from TOS, but I think I can get used to it. Not the greatest of trek, but an above average episode.
7 out of 10
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