How Sharper Than a Serpent's Tooth? by: Russell Bates and David Wise and directed by: Bill Reed

 

“How Sharper Than a Serpent’s Tooth” is written by: Russell Bates and David Wise and is directed by: Bill Reed.  It was produced under production code 22022, was the 5^th episode of Star Trek: The Animated Series Season 2, was the 21^st episode of Star Trek: The Animated Series, and was broadcast on October 5, 1974.

 

Godlike aliens are nothing new to Star Trek, they’re incredibly common throughout the original series and by extension Star Trek: The Animated Series.  “Who Mourns for Adonais?” specifically featured Greek gods as aliens in an episode that posed questions that it really wasn’t interested in examining or answering.  “How Sharper Than a Serpent’s Tooth” is Star Trek: The Animated Series taking a stab at the ancient Earth gods as aliens concept, though interestingly from a writer closer to the original culture the god featured is meant to be from.  It isn’t a perfect representation, “How Sharper Than a Serpent’s Tooth” does attempt to claim that one singular alien is responsible for multiple gods, across multiple cultures, across multiple continents, across multiple time periods and as such equates many cultures to a single alien influence, but it is representation and there is almost a subversion.  Instead of just having ancient aliens the episode posits that nearly every culture had some help from this alien.  Author Russell Bates was Native American, a Kiowa, and was inspired by his own heritage in writing this episode with David Wise, a writer who would have a long career in both live action and animated television, both Bates and Wise writing this near the beginning of their respective careers.

 

Bates in addition to centering “How Sharper Than a Serpent’s Tooth?” around Kukulkan, drawing on Maya myth, includes a Native American supporting character Walking Bear, the animation team even avoiding a stereotypical native design as there is no red skin or feathers.  He is sadly voiced by James Doohan who is voicing the entire non-recurring supporting cast in this episode sadly, but at least there is some representation that attempts to present Native characters and beliefs as not primitive.  It also helps that “How Sharper Than a Serpent’s Tooth” is an episode that is particularly well constructed.  The intent is to balance action with exploration and Bates and Wise do an excellent job of showing both.  The animation team is allowed to be let loose on designing Kukulkan and combining several cultures into the city on which he resides.  Kukulkan is also presented as nearly a fully fledged character, surprised that humanity has changed over the course of history and given up the fear of those more powerful than itself.  The episode is largely a rejection of the need to worship a god in line generally with Star Trek’s vision of the future as a post-religious society (despite several episodes wishing to raise Christianity above others due to being made in the 1960s and 1970s).  This allows “How Sharper Than a Serpent’s Tooth?” to be an episode which ends without violence and peaceful resolution   Bates and Wise also do a really good job of blending the myth with the science fiction, likely Wise’s influence based on his later career in science fiction television programs.  Instead of fully rejecting religion, the episode ends with the idea of humanity and Kukulkan on equal playing fields, humanity doesn’t need guidance so the god ends the episode by leaving.

 

Overall, “How Sharper Than a Serpent’s Tooth?” is one of those episodes that really shows off the potential for Star Trek: The Animated Series, and despite being an episode that draws on previous episode’s themes of the original series, it is an episode that actually examines the ideas that previous episodes didn’t do.  Bates and Wise balance the script wonderfully, and despite not being perfect representation and certain actors dropping the ball on pronunciations (hi Shatner), it's an episode that if Star Trek: The Animated Series had been producing more often, it would be a much stronger series.  8/10.

Albatross by: Dario Finelli and directed by: Bill Reed

 

“Albatross” is written by: Dario Finelli and is directed by: Bill Reed.  It was produced under production code 22019, was the 4^th episode of Star Trek: The Animated Series Season 2, was the 20^th episode of Star Trek: The Animated Series, and was broadcast on September 28, 1974.

 

In Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s The Rime of the Ancient Mariner the killing of an albatross, a bird representing innocence, leads to punishment.  “Albatross” is an episode of Star Trek: The Animated Series given the title to possibly reference Coleridge, or at least that is possibly what is happening because the episode doesn’t ever actually mention an albatross, or poetry, or really anything.  Perhaps writer Dario Finelli is attempting to write guilt for McCoy as a character as this is an episode that sees actions of 20 years previous catch up to him: he accidentally poisoned a race of aliens with a virus while he believed he was curing them.  Finelli’s script sadly doesn’t actually give McCoy much guilt, or even real focus, as the plot of the episode more actively focuses on Kirk and Spock trying to get to the bottom of this mystery and find a cure when the plague comes back.  This makes the title and allusion to The Rime of the Ancient Mariner pointless.  That’s the episode, there’s some drama about Spock having to convince the Dramians to actually pursue proper justice and not the perversion of justice that they have.  The plague also infects everyone on the Enterprise except for Spock, meaning that everyone turns blue which is a great visual even if it’s something that really doesn’t get explored in any significant amount of time.

 

The episode’s big twist is that McCoy isn’t actually at all responsible for any of the deaths, instead an aurora in space being responsible for the plague and its symptoms.  This allows a cure to be found, but it also feels like a cheap fake out to restore the status quo which isn’t terrible for a Saturday morning cartoon show meant for children.  This is still Star Trek however where the characters at least have an attempt at developing, but then again this is from an author who is difficult to find really anything about his career.  “Albatross” is also an episode that feels bare bones in terms of what actually happens, the dialogue suffers from not really feeling like it is meant for each character until the very end of the episode with the stinger.

 

Overall, “Albatross” can be used as a case study for the weaknesses of Star Trek: The Animated Series.  It’s an episode that has a good concept, perfectly adequate performances, and with a couple more drafts and a guiding hand could be considered one of the great installments of Star Trek.  The problems come to a head with the fact that the ideas don’t really resolve into anything of interest, there is a plot but not a particularly memorable one, there is an alien society that gets focus but also has one trait of not understanding justice, and there are characters but they largely aren’t affected.  It’s half a satisfying episode that reaches and achieves mediocrity.  5/10.

The Practical Joker by: Chuck Menville and Len Janson and directed by: Bill Reed

 

“The Practical Joker” is written by: Chuck Menville and Len Janson and is directed by: Bill Reed.  It was produced under production code 22021, was the 3^rd episode of Star Trek: The Animated Series Season 2, was the 19^th episode of Star Trek: The Animated Series, and was broadcast on September 21, 1974.

 

Sometimes you just want an episode of television that is a bit of fun and that’s exactly what “The Practical Joker” brings to Star Trek: The Animated Series.  Like the previous episode this is one that introduces a piece of lore, mainly the predecessor to the holodeck which as far as I am aware is one of those things that will be a big part of Star Trek: The Next Generation.  What’s kind of funny is that here the rec room is just a small part of an episode that decides to have fun by going full weird.  The central mystery is the Enterprise crew experiencing a series of practical jokes from their glasses being full of white liquid that spills on them, forks bending and dropping food, food dispensers dispensing ludicrous amounts of fruit, and laundry writing “Kirk is a Jerk” on the back of his uniform which I could not believe was an actual thing that happened in an episode of Star Trek and not a shitpost because of William Shatner’s general demeanor.  Doing an episode like “The Practical Joker” in animation could be a worry due to how limited Filmation’s animation standards were.  Yes, there’s still something quite static when the dialogue is happening, but even with the shortcuts being taken for very good reason in getting the episode in under the deadline.

 

Chuck Menville and an uncredited Len Janson write a script that actually increases in tension, the jokes start harmless as mentioned but eventually become more dangerous.  There’s also a secondary threat of the Romulans, the Enterprise accidentally entering Romulan space and by the end of the episode providing their ship with the same practical jokes the crew have had to deal with.  The big twist is that there isn’t a single joker on board, but the actual computer of the Enterprise is malfunctioning because of an energy field it passed through and playing these jokes.  Majel Barrett actually might be giving her best Star Trek performance here as the computer, using just enough emotion to communicate a childish sense of glee at the jokes being played while still holding back that artificial voice.  In fact, the entire cast of the episode seems to really be cutting loose, they know the episode has quite the silly premise and are playing into it with the slight exception of William Shatner who is just giving his usual performance as Kirk.  Menville and Janson also do a surprisingly good job of balancing the episode so everyone in the cast at least has something to do, which is an especially good feat since this is still just a 25-minute episode of television.  Okay, it’s accomplished by keeping characters in groups, but historically Star Trek has even struggled with doing this in even the standard hour-long episodes of the original series.  The weaknesses of Menville and Janson as writers, not usually writing in science fiction, does mean that the resolution of the episode is particularly ridiculous, just going through the field again to fix the computer and make the Romulan’s computer become a joker.  It's a resolution that doesn’t make sense but I can’t help but still enjoy the episode because of how much fun everyone is having.

 

Overall, “The Practical Joker” is an episode that isn’t particularly deep and has very little to say on anything, but it does fulfill a brief of being an entertaining episode of television.  The cast is clearly having a lot of fun performing their parts and that shows in the finished product, meaning the audience is going to have fun.  If Star Trek: The Animated Series was more like this it might get tired fast, but after a few weeks of boredom, this feels like a shot in the arm to finish the episode count strong.  7/10.

Bem by: David Gerrold and directed by: Bill Reed

 

“Bem” is written by: David Gerrold and is directed by: Bill Reed.  It was produced under production code 22018, was the 2^nd episode of Star Trek: The Animated Series Season 2, was the 18^th episode of Star Trek: The Animated Series, and was broadcast on September 14, 1974.

 

The one thing about “Bem” that stuck with me is that this is where Kirk’s middle name, Tiberius, is first spoken.  Outside of that, it’s among one of those episodes that just kind of exists.  David Gerrold is responsible for the script and there are clearly some ideas there that Gerrold should make work.  Gerrold as a writer has a general understanding of Star Trek, and this episode has a premise that largely should work.  The Enterprise has an ambassador in Bem, an alien with his own morality and an attempt at personality.  It vaguely wants to tackle the question of a space faring civilization encountering aliens and being treated as a god, something that is a tried and true Star Trek premise.  It’s something that Gerrold should really excel at, but honestly this isn’t one that works at all.  Bem as a character feels like an almost needless addition to the plot of the episode that bares his name.  There is this attempt to make some conflict between the crew and Bem, but with the godlike alien acting as a third party which has most of the focus pulled to it there isn’t enough for Bem to work as a character.  He is a character that is basically a troublemaker who strongarms his way into the episode’s plot that he really doesn’t contribute anything too.  The character can detach his own limbs and move them of their own accord which should be a great image, a perfect one for animation, but like so much of this episode it feels like it's there to fill time.

 

“Bem” as an episode is also one where the rest of the cast just feels as if they are getting tired of playing these roles.  Shatner and Nimoy both realize what sort of script this episode is and are just not really caring enough to make much of it interest.  Nichelle Nichols is providing the voice of the godlike alien in addition to Uhura for this episode as Majel Barrett is absent, and once again she is the best thing about a rather bad episode.  So much of the episode also plays into the rather problematic trope of the noble savages, the civilization on this planet is portrayed as completely savage and locks everyone up immediately with the godlike alien being the one that guides their actions.  This honestly also feels like a choice because of the limited casting of Star Trek: The Animated Series not allowing the civilization to be an actual civilization, but knowing the show it is equally likely as a flaw at the original conception of the script.

 

Overall, “Bem” is the second time Star Trek: The Animated Series really falls flat, but this time it’s from a writer I generally really like.  The idea of the character of Bem really deserved focus and characterization, but this is honestly an episode where it feels as if no effort was put in, Gerrold likely having to rewrite his script to make it work in the context of the animated series.  It’s an episode made to just fill a slot in the episode order, making it one of the worst.  2/10.