THE NAME OF THIS EPISODE DID NOT AGE WELL!

 

Episode Title:  The Jihad

Air Date: 1/12/1974

Written by Stephen Kandel

Directed by Hal Sutherland

Cast: William Shatner as Captain James T. Kirk    Leonard Nimoy as Commander Spock        DeForest Kelley as Dr. Leonard H. McCoy AKA “Bones”              James Doohan  as Sord and Tchar         George Takei as Lieutenant Hikaru Sulu        David Gerrold as EM 3 Green             Jane Webb as Lara and Vedala Female

Ships: USS Enterprise NCC-1701, four other unnamed starships. 

Planets: mad planet

My Spoiler filled summary and review: The Enterprise has been summoned to meet with a representative from the Vedala people on a giant asteroid.  The Vedala are the oldest spacefaring race in the known galaxy and when they want a meeting the Federation is apt to apply.  Kirk beams down with Mr. Spock to meet the Vedala Ambassador.  When the two get there they find out that the Ambassador is recruiting them to be on a team for a Mission Impossible type of assignment. 

Team being assembled!

The team consists of beings recruited for their talents and vested interests.   The first of these is Tchar, the hereditary prince of the Skorr and Master of the Eyrie.  His people were once a warrior race but now preach the value of peace.  This is a good thing for the rest of the galaxy, as Spock notes the Skorr can raise an army of billions of soldiers in a short amount of time.   The second is Sord, a powerful reptilian-like creature who I assume is recruited to be the muscle.  (At first I thought he was a Gorn but apparently not.)  The third is Em/3/Green, an expert lock-pick and thief, however he also is a coward and not good at working under pressure.  The final member is Lara, who is a human and her talents are she is an excellent hunter who has a flawless sense of direction.

Tchar begins by explaining his planets history and that their passion for violence was only quelled by a teacher named Alar, who basically played the role of Surak to their society with the only difference being a religious undertone.   After he died his brain waves were copied in placed into a device which came to be known as “the Soul of Skorr.”  This allows them to keep their leader with them forever.  However, just recently the device was stolen and Tchar fears without their leaders’ brain waves-on-ice secure the people of Skorr will revert to the ways of their ancestors and rage a great holy war on the rest of the galaxy.  The have keep the theft secret and their intelligence operation has lead them to the general location of the artifact.  It is on the planet Madworld, called this because of the instability of the planet.  There have been three attempts to retrieve it, but all of these attempts have ended in failure. 

If you are going on a mission you need a set of wheels!

Now on Madworld, the team sees that it easily lives up to its name with the horrible weather.  They are given a land vehicle adding some speed to their journey.  When going over the probabilities of survival, Spock is asked if he only quotes statistics.  He replies that he also quotes philosophy and poetry but that would inappropriate at this time.  Unfortunately, the team runs into an active volcano spilling lava everywhere.   Things go from bad to worse when their vehicle breaks down.  There is no time to fix it so they lose it to the lava.

I'm glad we all fit!

The good thing is they were not too far away from the fortress and they come across it rather quick. It is locked and booby-trapped to explode.  The good news is the cowardly Green is able to pick the locks and get them in there while the rest of the team fights of automated sentinels.  It is at this point that Kirk starts to expect a trap and as soon as they are all inside they are sealed in.  Kirk then declares that the other teams made it this far and failed because someone on the team betrayed them and sabotaged the mission.  Kirk accuses Tchar and Tchar flies down and admits it. It turns out that the future ruler of his people wanted them to return to the glory of their past.  Realizing he could never do that so long as the great teacher’s essence was still influencing them he decided to get rid of it.  Now his people will wage war throughout the galaxy.  

It is like when you get in an accident with your new car!

Tchar shuts off the gravity in this building and, even though they are on a planet, with the gravity turned off they all start to flout through the air.  Tchar thinks he has won but he doesn’t know that Captain Kirk is the greatest fighter in the entire galaxy who can fight with speed and grace even in a zero-g environment.  Aided by his first officer, Mr. Spock, who also is an impressive fighter, the two tag team the big bird and swiftly defeat him.  With that the Soul of Skorr is restored to its people.

Not so nice!

Now that all has been won the Vedala Ambassador congratulates Captain Kirk but also lets him know there are no rewards or medals for the achievement only gratitude.  She also makes him aware that he is going to forget the entire adventure as the Vedala strongly desire secrecy for the good of the Skorr.  When Kirk and Spock are beamed back to the ship, Mr. Sulu is surprised as from his perspective they just left two minutes ago.  Kirk lets the helmsman know there has been a change of heart and this mission is now off.      

Additional thoughts: I remember my freshman year of college.  I had taken a class in Middle Eastern politics and felt I was well versed in the issues of the day.  I remember being the only one in my immediate family and friend group who even knew who Osama Bin Laden was and what he was all about.  Then 911 happened.  Everyone knew who he was and what jihad meant.  Actually, they knew what the popular usage of jihad was.   There are multiple types of jihad to which “holy war” is only one. However it was the one everyone became familiar with so if the Animated Series was running anywhere they probably skipped over this episode.

It is ironic that the adventure in this episode is erased from everyone’s memory.   For when I began to watch it I realized I had forgotten it as well.  With most episodes I haven’t seen in a long time I usually remember the plot in the first five minutes, this time the only thing I recognized was Tchar.  I think the episode was a victim to the structure of only being a half-hour plus commercials cartoon show.  Once the plot was explained there wasn’t much time for anything else to happen.   It was too bad because the show started our strong and the team that was assembled was neat; however everything was too quickly resolved. 

Another limitation of the half-hour format is Kirk’s new limited love life.  During this adventure Lara, our lady huntress, has the hots for Captain Kirk.  Normally this would mean our good Captain was going to get down with a nice lady, as he so often did.  However, he has to remind her that this isn’t the time for that sort of thing because we don’t want to scare the kids on Saturday morning who are under the belief that babies come from storks.

If we were live action we would get action

So what happens to Tchar, after stealing the most important part of their society is he still allowed to become their king?  I think he is a very bad choice, but who knows how bird monarchy is supposed to work?  Hopefully they will have some procedure that would prevent him from ruling.  For if they do not the universe may have a big fight on its hands in just a few years.

When a Prince is against his people!

FINAL GRADE 3 of 5