A MUCH BETTER FINAL EPISODE THAN TURNABOUT INTRUDER!

 

Episode Title:  The Counter-Clock Incident

Air Date: 10/12/1974

Written by John Culver

Directed by Bill Reed

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, Commodore Robert T. April, and Karl Four                           George Takei as Lieutenant Hikaru Sulu                    Nichelle Nichols as Lieutenant Nyota Uhura, Dr. Sarah April, and Karla Five                  

Ships: USS Enterprise NCC-1701, Karla’s unnamed ship

Planets: Arret

My Spoiler filled summary and review: The Enterprise has a very special guest aboard.  Commodore Robert T. April who was the Enterprise’s first captain, commanding until he was relieved by his successor Captain Christopher Pike, who we first saw in “The Cage.” The Enterprise’s original captain and her current bond over their love of the ship and April talks about how he first remembered the Enterprise being put together in the San Francisco Bay yards. The Commodore isn’t the only special guest aboard or only April.  Sarah April, the Commodore’s wife, was the Enterprise’s first Chief Medical Officer was not only began a line that led to McCoy but also a revolutionary in her field.  While Kirk is bonding with the Commodore, McCoy is star struck with his guest.  They are on route to Babel, a planet they have been to before, where April will finish his last assignment as Federation Ambassador-At-Large before retiring. 

Captains bonding

At this point, as it so often does, a strange vessel popped out of nowhere, it was moving at speeds that his series would normally say was impossible and its heading toward a supernova. The Enterprise tries to communicate with them but they can not understand the person.  Running it through the universal translator, Lt. Uhura, discovers that the woman on the other ship is just speaking English backwards.  Kirk orders the use of the tractor beam to stop the ship but instead of slowing that vessel down it instead pulls the Enterprise with toward the supernova.  They try to shut it down however the tractor beam remains on.  They go through the supernova and surprised to find that they aren’t dead.  They are now in a strange alternate universe where black stars shine in a white void, time follows backwards, and ships fly nacelles and shuttle bays first.  Dr. April’s flower that only had a one-day life cycle has suddenly been rejuvenated as it is aging backwards.

Sitting around the conference table, Commodore April jokes with his fellow officers that if we are now aging backwards, soon he won’t be at retirement age anymore.  They are able to establish contact with the ship that dragged them in here.  The pilot is named Karla Five she was researching a supernova in her universe when she was pulled into ours.  Since the Enterprise crew has adjusted to the new universe, they have an easy time understanding her. 

Doctors bonding

  Karla invites the Enterprise to her home planet where her lab is located. Her home planet, Arret, happens to occupy the same point in space in their universe that Earth does in ours. (In fact, “Arret” is just Terra—Latin for Earth—spelled backwards.)  In her lab they see a child in a crib who she explains is her father, Karl Six, and an old man who is her son, Karl Four. 

in reverse space

The research indicates they must find a dual supernova (where a dead star comes to life in their universe while a star dies in ours).  Then fly though it at the same speed for which they came and they will return there just as Karla did.  The problem is the Enterprise can’t fly that fast.  The problem is resolved because Karla can just put her ship on autopilot and have it tow it back.  They thank her for giving up her ship but she lets them know it’s not that big of a sacrifice as she can always build another. They quickly locate a dual supernova and head off to return to their own galaxy. 

The other ship

However, on their way to the supernova there is a problem.  The entire ship’s crew is aging backwards and losing their adult memories. All, save Spock, become incapable of performing basic starship tasks.  In addition, the Aprils have also reversed and are now young again.  Refusing his commodore title, he dubs himself “Captain April” and takes command of the ship leading them back to our universe.  Problem is when they get back to our universe, they are all still children, except the Aprils.  As we learned in “The Lorelei Signal” the transporter can fix everything and it does.  Even the Aprils decided to return to their right age.  Because of Robert April’s performance Starfleet will review the retirement age for its officers. 

Karla Five

Additional thoughts: In 1969 the greatest science fiction series ever ended its legendary run on a sore note.  The episode “Turnabout Intruder,” although it has an interesting premise forgot a lot about the series values in particular when it comes to women.  It was so unfortunate that for years was the last of what people saw of Star Trek.  Fortunately, the successor series although much shorter gave a far greater end.  Now this episode does have its flaws and will get into those.  However, the overall adventure was great.  The new universe was fun to explore and I wish we could have spent a little more time there.

Teenage Kirk

How awesome is it to get to meet the first Captain of the Enterprise?  A name pulled from the early Roddenberry drafts and brought to life for one episode.  Not only that but we got to meet the ship’s first chief medical officer, Dr. Sarah April.  This is however where things get a little weird. Dr. April claims that she was the first CMO to serve on a warp drive vessel.  This is absurd because we learned in “Metamorphosis” that the founder of warp drive, Zefram Cochrane, was from the 21^st century.  She could have claimed she was the first doctor on any other type of ship and she was the first CMO of the Enterprise so why just stick with that.   

Young Sarah April with toddler Uhura

That wasn’t the worst part.  The worst part was the author’s total misunderstanding of warp drive.  Not only were they traveling at speeds that are not only impossible according to Star Trek regardless of which warp chart you use.  In all canon warp 36 is impossible.  Even if it were possible, or more likely the ship was probably traveling at warp 9.999999 conventual, considering how fast it was going there is no way you could catch it with a tractor beam.  They’re moving so fast that by the time Kirk just thought of what to do they would have been gone already.

I really did like the white universe/black stars reality, I thought it was a very cool concept.  The image of the Enterprise flying backwards is hilarious.  When we get to Arret and we meet Karla’s family we see the reverse aging process that is similar from aliens from Ork in a TV show four years away from this. The son is an old man while her father lives as a child in a crib.  She is Karla Five, her father is Karl Six, and her son is Karl Four.  So, what happens when they reach One?  Do they go to zero then start over?  Do they use negative numbers?  What number did they start with?

Another weak point in this episode is the de-aging crew.  I am sorry but they were not in this universe long enough for that to become an issue.  The people in this universe age backwards not faster.  The crew should have been mostly unaffected.  The only reason they were was a plot device to return Captain April to the captain’s chair again. 

Captain April in command

Once more the transporter is used as a cure all. They are able to quickly restore people to their pervious selves based on their recorded patterns in the buffer.  Somewhere along the line I think they forget this trick.  The Aprils were very philosophical about going back to their real age.  Saying such a second chance would be wonderful if they needed it, but since their lives were awesome, they don’t.

Normally all these flaws would knock my review score down a point, but I enjoyed this so much that for today it won’t.

Thus, another chapter in Star Trek history comes to an end.  This is another milestone for my blog as a now can say I have written reviews for very episode of classic Star Trek and Star Trek: The Animated Series.  Time to move on.  This is the last appearance of the famous starship before her famous movie refit.  Bring on the classic Star Trek films.

FINAL GRADE 5 of 5