THE LANDING PARTY LANDS IN A ZOO!

 

Episode Title:  The Eye of the Beholder

Air Date: 12/15/1973

Written by David P. Harmon

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 Lieutenant Commander Montgomery Scott AKA “Scotty”, Lieutenant Arex, Lieutenant Commander Tom Markel                  George Takei as Lieutenant Hikaru Sulu                     Majel Barrett as Lieutenant M’Ress and Lieutenant Randi Bryce            

Ships: USS Enterprise NCC-1701, USS Ariel registry unknown

Planets: Lactra VII

My Spoiler filled summary and review: The Enterprise arrives into orbit of the planet Lactra VII responding to a distress call from the USS Ariel.  The Ariel is a small survey ship with a crew of only seven.  When they find it however the little ship is abandoned.  There is a message left over from the Ariel’s Captain, Lt. Cmdr. Tom Markel, who explains that when the landing party didn’t respond the rest of the crew went down to search for them.  Kirk is pretty offended that a captain completely abandoned his ship. However, Spock and McCoy manage to talk him down from it. 

message from the Captain of the USS Ariel

Kirk decides to lead a landing party of three with Spock and McCoy accompanying him.  When they get down to the planet, they find a variety of different atmospheres in a short distance from another causing them to speculate that this environment is artificially created.  They get attacked by strange creatures some of them they have seen before, and one very big one that lands on poor Dr. McCoy when they stun it.  The poor Doctor has to wait for Kirk and Spock to dig him out, and I am surprised that McCoy lasted as long as he did under the blob.

The three find what appears to be a city.  They enter it and are quickly trapped behind a force field.  Spock discovers that these aliens are telepathic and extremely highly advanced.  Their brains are so powerful that to compare them with any human would be like to compare a human with an ant.  Their equipment is seized and they are brought to an Earth-like environment. Locked in with them is the crew of the Ariel. 

monster stunned 

It appears they are now exhibits in an inter-galactic zoo.  Spock has to explain to Kirk, who takes a while to wrap his head around this, that the Lactrans don’t view them as intelligent beings but rather dumb animals.  Lt. Randolph is ill and without a medical kit they can’t help her.  Both parties all think about the medical kit which causes the Lactrans do bring it over to them.  This indicates that the Lactrans are telepathically in tune with their needs.  With the Lieutenant treated, and idea springs up in the minds of Kirk and Spock.  What if they fake illness and focus their minds on the communicator?  They pull this off and one of the Lactrans complies and gets the communicator and gives it to Kirk.  Then Kirk tries to signal an emergency beam out but the Lactran grabs the communicator back and that individual is beamed up instead. 

taken to a zoo

Scotty gets the surprise of his life when he sees a Lactran in the transporter room where the landing party should be.  With the power of its mind the Lactran sends the ship spinning out of orbit. While on the planet, the landing party learns that the Lactran that was taken was a child.  So now all the adults have run into the room at once and are performing these mental attacks on their captives in order to figure out what happened to the missing kid. 

Crew of the Ariel

It turns out Scotty is more than just an engineering miracle worker.  He managed to communicate with the child and the Enterprise was restored to its orbit. The two beamed down to the planet and the adults were happy to see their child unharmed. Realizing that these are intelligent creatures, our heroes are allowed to go home.  According to Spock they will be happy to hear from them again in a little over twenty centuries from now.  

Getting the med kit!

Additional thoughts: The crew of the Enterprise being put in an inter-galactic zoo for the entertainment of advanced aliens. This story sounds familiar. In fact, that was the first Star Trek story told in “The Cage.” A major difference is the Talosians have another goal in mind aimed at using the humans to restore their declining civilization.  The Lactrans don’t have any other agenda, they are looking just to have an interesting zoo for the education and entertainment.  So, this Is our first pure inter-galactic zoo story exploring just that aspect.  

On display

In an interview with astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, he was asked about the possibility of aliens. Tyson pointed out that if there were life in the universe that somehow managed to find a way to transverse space time in order to travel to Earth, there was a strong chance that those intelligent aliens might not view us humans as intelligent creatures.  Tyson pointed out that the most intelligent chimpanzee could only be taught to do things like open an umbrella and set up a chair. Their capabilities are only on par with human children and could never engage a human adult in a sort of battle of wits.  He pointed out that such aliens might look at Stephen Hawking who can do calculus in his head as being sort of cute because that is something that their three-year-old can do. 

Family's reunited

The captain that wasn’t a captain. In the US Navy it is possible for an officer who has not yet reached the rank of captain to be the commanding officer of a ship.  Holding the rank of commander and in some cases lieutenant commander for very small ships, the ship’s CO is called “captain” while abord her and their actual rank when they are not.  However, in Star Trek we often see officers with the captain’s insignia no matter how small their particular ship is. However, in this episode we have a commanding officer of a small ship with a rank to fit. 

With this episode we come to the end of the first season of Star Trek: The Animated Series. It was a very interesting take and a great way to explore the franchise as animation has a lot of possibilities that live action tv at the time didn’t have.  For long suffering Star Trek fans who missed their show when it went off the air in 1969, they were finally able to see their fourth season.

FINAL GRADE 4 OF 5