The Time Trap by: Joyce Perry and directed by: Hal Sutherland

 

“The Time Trap” is written by: Joyce Perry and is directed by: Hal Sutherland.  It was produced under production code 22010, was the 12^th episode of Star Trek: The Animated Series, and was broadcast on November 24, 1973.

 

I’m just going to come right out and say that “The Time Trap” is an episode that struggles with really doing anything of note.  Joyce Perry’s only script for Star Trek has an interesting idea at its core, essentially setting things in a pocket dimension of the space-time continuum where several starships have gone missing in the past.  It’s a great idea, playing off ideas like the Bermuda Triangle and graveyards of ships because traveling is often a dangerous thing.  Star Trek as a series has taken ideas of natural danger in space travel, though like this episode by generally taking ideas from travel by ocean and translating them to space travel.  That’s what this episode is largely doing on an ideas level, and Joyce Perry as far as I can tell had a career in television before this episode and following it, working on Days of Our Lives, an incredibly popular soap opera.  I’m bringing this point up specifically because “The Time Trap” is an episode that honestly struggles because there is this lack of any interesting conflict driving the plot forward.  There is conflict in the episode, in this pocket dimension there are several different alien species living in harmony, though unable to largely break the time barrier keeping them there.  The Enterprise and a Klingon ship, engaging with each other, led by Kor from “Errand of Mercy” though voiced here by James Doohan, both ships being taken out of time and put in this pocket.  The conflict of the episode is Perry’s attempt to replicate the Kirk/Klingon conflict of the original series, but there is much of the episode working against that conflict being presented as anything interesting.

 

The final act of the episode has Kor betray Kirk and company by hiding a bomb on the Enterprise that will detonate when a certain speed is reached.  As this is the final act of a 24-minute episode, the planting, discovery, and disposal of a bomb is just one of those things that happens and our characters brush it off like nothing because there is no runtime left to really explore it.  This is lampshaded by the characters just being happy to be back in their home time and universe, which I suppose is fine, but it’s one of many threads of the episode that really don’t get a piece of exploration.  The actual society the Enterprise is exploring is where Perry devotes most of the script’s time, allowing the animators once again to go off the leash and animate as many races as they want.  There are Vulcans, Orions, Andorians, and several other aliens that have appeared in this series and the original series.  Perry’s other attempt at conflict is the idea that anyone stuck in this trap is unable to escape, but this is overcome with the idea of humanity and the Klingons working together to escape.  Perry just doesn’t find a workaround to have the Council in the trap to wish to stop the humans and Klingons to escape, in fact they are the ones to tell the Enterprise about the bomb and exactly where it can be found.  There’s also a moment early in the episode where Spock realizes that sabotage is happening, but it’s something that doesn’t quite do anything or go anywhere.  Perhaps Perry thought there was going to be a sequel to the episode, because this kind of feels like it’s meant to be a part one of two.

 

Overall, “The Time Trap” is a misstep for Star Trek: The Animated Series.  The appeal of the episode should be coming from the titular trap, though there isn’t actually any exploration of the society on the other side of the trap.  This could be fine if there was some interesting conflict between humanity and the Klingons, but despite being what takes up the most of the episode doesn’t actually add much of interest.  This is an episode where the conflict doesn’t add anything and leaves the episode an incredibly meandering one.  4/10.

The Terratin Incident by: Paul Schneider and directed by: Hal Sutherland

 

“The Terratin Incident” is written by: Paul Schneider and is directed by: Hal Sutherland.  It was produced under production code 22015, was the 11^th episode of Star Trek: The Animated Series, and was broadcast on November 17, 1973.

 

You know “The Terratin Incident” is an episode of Star Trek: The Animated Series that if it wasn’t for William Shatner phoning it in, it’d be rivaling “Yesteryear” as one of the absolute best of this series so far.  Paul Schneider writes the episode, returning to Star Trek after “Balance of Terror” and “The Squire of Gothos”, the former being my personal favorite episode of the original series, while the later is a solid, more surreal episode.  “The Terratin Incident” is one of those episodes that works because there’s a particularly strong mystery at the core of the episode: why is the crew of the Enterprise shrinking?  Schneider’s script is particularly methodical in investigating the mystery, starting from wondering if they are shrinking, or the ship is growing.  The fear becomes how far can they actually shrink, though this is soon revealed to be finite, so the bulk of the episode is trying to stop this from happening.  Were this made in the original series, it would likely have been a ship only episode, though likely one using a lot of greenscreen to achieve the shrinking effects.  Using it in Star Trek: The Animated Series means that it’s actually a lot easier to depict in the animated format, and for my money it looks far better than it could.  It’s clear the animators are having a fun time playing around with the scale of the characters and drawing up the work arounds to run the Enterprise while the crew gets smaller and smaller.  The episode also goes fairly far in terms of exploring the dangers of being too small, there’s the general point of where the crew will be too small to work the Enterprise, but Sulu also falls off a console and breaks his leg while Nurse Chapel falls into a fishtank.  Okay the later event is really there for Kirk to have a daring rescue scene which feels a bit like padding, but it also has a workaround for using the regular sized medical equipment to heal Sulu’s leg.

 

Schneider also doesn’t drop the ball in terms of explanations as to why the Enterprise is shrinking.  While the big twist is that Terratin is a lost Earth colony, Terra Ten, it’s seeded in the inciting incident of the radio waves and Schneider makes you feel the colonist’s desperation to be heard and saved as their planet is being destroyed.  It’s perhaps a little silly that shrinking the Enterprise crew so they can be heard, and then trying to negotiate from a standoff, but it’s sold really quite well for the episode.  Another benefit of this being an entry in Star Trek: The Animated Series is that the destruction on the planet Terra Ten can actually be depicted, as can an entire city in miniature once again designed by a team that leans into the alien environment aesthetic that would be near impossible to portray in live action.  I mentioned Shatner giving an underwhelming performance (he sounds almost bored at points), but he’s not the only one who sounds off during this episode.  DeForest Kelley is giving it his all as Bones, but it sounds like he might have been suffering from a cold when this episode was recorded and there’s something about Leonard Nimoy’s voice that also sounds off.  Nimoy in particular sounds like whatever recording setup they are using isn’t quite mixed correctly with the rest of the episode, making this an episode where I’m guessing technical glitches impact the total production.

 

Overall, “The Terratin Incident” is an incredibly strong piece of animation, working because the animators are allowed to be let off their leashes through the entire thing.  Paul Schneider has contributed an excellent script that understands the medium while clearly having its origins in the original series and actually balancing the ensemble of the cast better than much of Star Trek actually has by giving every major character a role to play.  It’s just a shame that there’s clearly something going on to make the performances out of whack be it Shatner phoning it in or just technical errors in recording.  8/10.

Mudd's Passion by: Stephen Kandel and directed by: Hal Sutherland

 

“Mudd’s Passion” is written by: Stephen Kandel and is directed by: Hal Sutherland.  It was produced under production code 22008, was the 10^th episode of Star Trek: The Animated Series, and was broadcast on November 10, 1973.

 

Leave it to Roger C. Carmel to come into an episode of Star Trek: The Animated Series and make it one of the most lively episodes the series has seen thus far.  “Mudd’s Passion” is the third episode of Star Trek to feature the character of Harry Mudd and it’s probably the strongest of the three.  Stephen Kandel once again writes the script from his own original ideas like “I, Mudd” was meaning he is not beholden to Gene Roddenberry’s ideas as he was in “Mudd’s Women”.  Every scene Carmel is in means that he is the one stealing the show, his distinctive voice and personality coming through the rather limited animation of the show’s general budget.  This still has some of the issues trapping any episode featuring Harry Mudd, specifically the sexism inherent in who his character is and the fact that the episode sees Mudd once again using the sex angle to sell his wares.  This time it’s a literal love potion that can be used to force someone of the opposite sex to fall madly in love with you with one touch.  It’s explicitly explained to be for heterosexual pairings as is to be expected from a children’s cartoon from 1973, but what’s stopping this from being as bad as the literal sex trafficking plot and apologetics of “Mudd’s Women” is that this time the twist is that the love potion actually works.  The framing of the episode keeps Harry Mudd as a complete conman, we initially see him like a carnival barker asking people to step right up and see as he demonstrates the use of the love potion.  Of course, it’s being used on an alien that is disguised as a human and in on the con which then makes the twist of it actually working being easier to swallow.  It also probably helps that this is a 25-minute episode so there isn’t as much time for the episode to really go off the deep end like “Mudd’s Women” did.

 

Stephen Kandel also actually uses the opportunity to focus on Nurse Chapel as a character, though not particularly in depth.  The unrequited romance between Nurse Chapel and Spock is one of those elements of Star Trek that feels like it has entered public consciousness more than it appeared in the show, only really showing up in the original series occasionally.  This is at least partially because Nurse Chapel as a character is one that doesn’t get much focus, but Kandel writes her here closer to an actual nurse/scientist.  She is initially skeptical of Harry Mudd’s claims about a love potion and is fully ready to analyze the drug she’s given.  Kandel does add one line telling her not to and the fact that she immediately believes him feels a bit too much like writing her like a typical female character from the 1960s (aka the prevailing idea that women are fools).  The way Majel Barrett and Leonard Nimoy play the romance is actually quite interesting, Nimoy almost struggles to keep his emotions in check as Spock when Nurse Chapel is kidnapped in the third act of the episode and the climax moves to an alien planet with dinosaur like monsters.  Kandel clearly understood in terms of setting what Star Trek: The Animated Series could actually do and wanted to take full advantage of it making this episode particularly interesting to look at.  There’s also the added tension of the love potion infecting the Enterprise and making everyone begin to fall in love with each other which is brief because if it were extended at all the target age demographic would almost certainly increase from the audience of children.

 

Overall, “Mudd’s Passion” is surprisingly the strongest of the three episodes of Star Trek to feature Harry Mudd, at least in this era of the show.  While it does have the problems of falling into sexism with love potions already being an implicitly problematic trope, but since this is an episode that uses it largely for the absurdity of a working love potion it doesn’t fall entirely into the problems of the trope.  Now I don’t quite get why it’s called “Mudd’s Passion”, but hey it’s an episode that knows exactly what it is doing and where the fun is to be had.  7/10.

Once Upon a Planet by: Chuck Menville and Len Janson and directed by: Hal Sutherland

 

“Once Upon a Planet” is written by: Chuck Menville and Len Janson and is directed by: Hal Sutherland.  It was produced under production code 22017, was the 9^th episode of Star Trek: The Animated Series, and was broadcast on November 3, 1973.

 

I didn’t really expect Star Trek: The Animated Series to write a sequel to “Shore Leave” but here we are.  “Shore Leave” was one of those episodes that has a fantastic premise that is let down by the limitations of live action television and the fact that the episode was being rewritten on the fly while filming.  “Once Upon a Planet” is not from “Shore Leave” writer Theodore Sturgeon, but Chuck Menville and Len Janson a pair of television writers with Menville having a fairly extensive career in animation.  This is perhaps why “Once Upon a Planet” is the best looking episode of Star Trek: The Animated Series thus far, Menville as a writer was allowed to cut loose and the animators are clearly having a joy in switching from the science fiction vistas to fantastical vistas and back to science fiction at points.  Menville and Janson also attempt to not repeat the general plot of “Shore Leave”, using the first few minutes of the episode to recap the events and premise of that episode including the Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland connection that once again becomes the first fantastical thing appearing in the episode.  The actual premise of “Once Upon a Planet” is that the computers that govern the pleasure planet are going haywire, capturing Uhura while the keeper of the planet is nowhere to be seen, and it’s up to the crew of the Enterprise to stop it.

 

This means that “Once Upon a Planet” is the second episode of Star Trek: The Animated Series to really focus on Uhura as a character and allow Nichelle Nichols the chance to really explore what she can do with the character.  It’s a shame than that instead of having Uhura lead her own subplot, Menville and Janson saddle her with being the damsel in distress and a figure for exposition to reach the audience before Kirk can come in and rescue her.  This is buffered somewhat by the fact that this is an episode where despite William Shatner receiving top billing as Captain Kirk, he doesn’t actually appear nearly as much in the 25-minute runtime as you would expect.  The actual conflict of the episode also hinges on a computer malfunction that sadly doesn’t have enough time in the runtime to be really explored when compared to even other episodes in the series.  The idea is that the computer has come to see other forms of life serving aboard vessels specifically as slaves to a machine masters that it wishes to free by powering down, killing them, intending to do this to Uhura.  This is where we have a rather uncomfortable issue of our one black character being treated by the villain as a slave, and there isn’t much Nichelle Nichols can really do about it except work with the material given.  It’s also brought down, at least in my eyes, by having Kirk be the one to save the day when he really was a passive character in the episode.

 

“Once Upon a Planet” genuinely seemed more interested in exploring the other characters: Sulu gets some moments to shine early on while the focus of finding Uhura is placed more on Spock and McCoy (though in a general sense of what their banter is).  When the Enterprise is interfered with by the computer it gives a chance for James Doohan as Scotty to shine and the first real extended dialogue for the new recurring alien characters Arex and M’Ress, the former being a navigator with three pairs of arms and the latter being a feline alien which I’m fairly certain was Gene Roddenberry’s idea (she’s voiced by Majel Barrett).  It isn’t a problem that Kirk doesn’t have much to do, Star Trek in my mind works better as an ensemble show already so the captain taking a back seat isn’t a problem, but Shatner really pushes his performance to make the story about him when it really shouldn’t be, which really brings down what could have been a great episode.

 

Overall, “Once Upon a Planet” is a script that gets a little too bogged down in recap and not thinking through the decision of who has to be the damsel in distress and called a slave several times.  The actual visuals of the episode are great, taking full advantage of animation as a medium even if the budget of each of these episodes isn’t always up to scratch, and the actual character work does its best to follow, but it honestly leaves too much to be desired in terms of what it was trying to accomplish.  5/10.

Dry Pilgrimage by: Paul Leonard and Nick Walters

Dry Pilgrimage is a title that seems almost too perfect for exploring Bernice Summerfield’s character.  It’s a title with multiple meanings of the term dry, the most obvious being a pilgrimage done without alcohol, Paul Leonard and Nick Walters using that as their major theme with Benny’s drinking being not so much a defining characteristic, but a constant presence in terms of how the character operates.  Benny usually finds kinship through sharing drinks and generally being jovial with people, and Dry Pilgrimage’s general premise of Benny taking a vacation on Dellah means that it doesn’t ever become a regular vacation.  The title’s use of pilgrimage is also important for the religious themes of the novel that Leonard employs, largely exploring the Saraani, a genderless species of religious refugees who are attempting to find their own home on Dellah.  This main thrust of the novel is particularly fascinating as Leonard and Walters explore incredibly well what this sort of exile is like, something that has at least a partial basis in history filtered through a science fiction lens.  It’s actually quite surprising to read Dry Pilgrimage because the authors don’t write a novel which preaches a religious theme: it remains fairly level headed on the truth and validity of religion and is more interested in exploring the social aspect of faith, life, and death.  The actual deaths of characters in the novel are in particular beautiful in how they are written, there is a Holy Transference which can move people’s minds yet the final death at the end of the novel is particularly tragic.

 

This is also a novel that contemplates the nature of life as a major thread involves biological constructs earning their philosophical right to life.  Now it’s an aspect of the novel that despite devoting quite a bit of time to exploring doesn’t come to an entirely satisfying conclusion, though that is perhaps to be expected when Paul Leonard is writing, I’ve often found his endings to never quite reach up to the potential they set out with.  A lot of the novel deals with the question of if a major supporting character, Professor of Comparative Religion Maeve Ruthven, has her mind surviving in a Saraani whom Benny has already created a connection with.  The fact that this novel ends in a tragedy for Maeve is perhaps the biggest stumbling block for what Leonard and Walters were achieving.  In terms of narrative it’s effectively tragic, but it does mean that the general questions at the heart of the novel in terms of themes go unanswered, something that Leonard has struggled with before.  It’s especially a shame because the friendship between Benny and Vilvian, a Saraani outsider who sneaks Benny’s alcohol back to her and provides much of the religious commentary, is one of the best character dynamics in the entire series.  The Saraani as a species are genuinely written as alien with their own cultural practices and I hope that Leonard and Walters at the very least have the chance to use them at some point in the future.

 

Overall, Dry Pilgrimage’s biggest flaw is that it is a novel written by Paul Leonard whose own struggle with endings is something that is going to affect pretty much everything he has written.  Leonard and Walters work incredibly well as collaborative partners and this is genuinely a compelling contemplation on religion and a character study for Bernice in particular, taking some of the themes Justin Richards established in The Medusa Effect without actually meaning to.  It’s just a great time that’s let down by an ending that’s either a brilliant tragedy or just a general letdown of the established themes.  8/10.