Greatest Moments in Trek: Part II, The Animated Series

            I’ve just got to start with this. The animated series is cute. When I first heard of it, back during that same summer when I consumed the original series (see part 1), I at first dismissed it. You’re too old for “cartoons,” I told myself. If I had been imagining anything, it was a slightly done up version of the Jetsons, and I didn’t like the Jetsons! Don’t ask me why. I just … didn’t. What I didn’t know was how well Hal Sutherland actually directed twenty-one of the twenty-two episodes that make it up, nor did I know that most of the character actors lent their voices to it, turning it from a kids’ cartoon into little mini star trek episodes. But that’s what happened. The twenty-two half-hour-length shows were released in two seasons from 1973 to 74. Today, I can’t name one person who would name the animated series as their favorite. I suppose that’s alright.

            They deserve mention in my blog because they’re very well done as far as I can tell. I’m not qualified to talk about the visuals, except for information that I’ve picked up over the years, but the quality of the voice acting was good, some of the episodes made fine connections to the actual series, and one or two actually made thought-provoking points that take them beyond mere cartoonishness. So I watched them all. It took less time, about a day really. And since Paramount considers them to be real canon, that is, events considered to have taken place in the star trek universe,  get to deal with them a little bit here. Actually all this is making me want to watch them again. So here are my two picks.

“The Counter-Clock Incident”

Wikipedia Summary: The Enterprise is taking its first commander, Commodore Robert April and his wife, Sarah, to a diplomatic conference on the planet Babel and his planned retirement ceremony, when it encounters a ship flying at fantastic speeds directly into a supernova. The Enterprise attempts to assist by grabbing the vessel with a tractor beam and locking onto it, but instead both ships are pulled through the supernova and into a negative universe where time flows backwards and everything works in a counterclockwise fashion. Consequently, everyone aboard the ship begins to grow younger--to de-age. With his crew members reduced to children, "April, now a thirty-year-old man, retakes command and must bring the Enterprise to safety before it's too late.

            This episode establishes a bit of Enterprise history. If Robert April commanded the ship first, then the Enterprise had three commanders in sequence:  Robert April, Chris Pike, and James Kirk. Dianne Carry explored the character of Robert April and that early crew (one that included Kirks father) in her bestseller, Final Frontier, which was released in 1989. It’s quite a good story.
            As for this particular episode, it’s not the first time that rapid aging or age reversal is explored in star trek and it’s not the last time either. The Next Generation Episode, “Rascals,” also sees members of the Enterprise crew reverse aged down to children, and Voyager has a second-season episode, “Innocence,” that sees Tuvok supervising some children who turn out to be adults at the end of their race’s life cycle. Finally, both the original series as well as the Next Generation have episodes that deal with rapid aging as the result of some catastrophe. It seems to be a popular topic. That being said, this one is great on action, and the notion of a universe where the aging process works in reverse is an interesting one.
            Lastly, the episode strikes me as a positive commentary on aging. I’m not the first one to have thought of this, but I’ll go on and put it out there. Too often we like to dismiss or stereotype our elderly as being past the point where they can contribute anything useful to society. This episode laughs at that idea, because it’s the old man who has to come in and save everyone’s bacon. We should be more grateful for their contributions, I think.

“The Slaver Weapon”
Wikipedia Summary:  Onboard the shuttlecraft Copernicus, Spock, Uhura, and Sulu are en-route to Starbase 25 to deliver a stasis box, a rare artifact of the Slaver culture. The now-extinct Slavers used these objects to carry weapons, valuables, scientific instruments and data. The boxes can detect each other and evidence shows that another device is located nearby.
Following the signal, the shuttle lands on an ice planet where the crew is captured by the hostile catlike Kzinti. The Kzinti had an empty stasis box of their own and were using it to lure in passing starships. They are trying to steal stasis boxes in the hopes of finding a super weapon that will return their empire to its former greatness.
Intrigue builds on intrigue as the box changes hands several times between the Federation and Kzinti crews, until the Kzinti manage to retain control of it for a time. As they explore the device's many settings, it starts talking to the Kzinti and asks them to provide several code words. When they fail to provide them, it concludes they are enemies and self-destructs, killing them.

            This wasn’t one of my personal favorites, but I have to include it because of Larry Niven’s contributions. Even by 1973, Niven was well-known as the author of Ringworld, and Jean Rodenberry suggested he adapt his short story, “The Soft Weapon,” for the star trek universe. The animated series episode is, in essence, that story, with Spock playing the role of Nessus, while Sulu and Uhura were the appropriate analogues to the human couple in Niven’s story. The Kzinti are there, and as in the short story, they are cunning and ruthless. Having read the short story myself, I find the star trek adaptation preferable, but I freely admit that’s my own personal bias. The adaptation was done well, and the show was reviewed by many critics as the animated series’ best show. My personal favorite was “Yesteryear,” because it features Spock traveling back through time to save himself, but hey, I said two episodes and I meant it. I wasn’t going to include the animated series in this post cycle, as I may have said before, but I felt I had too, and like I said, they’re just fun television. Now it’s on to the Next Generation. Now that’ll be fun.