RETURNING TO THE MOST ENTERTAINING PLACE IN THE UNIVERSE

 

Episode Title:  Once Upon a Planet

Air Date: 11/3/1973

Written by Chuck Menville and Len Janson

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, White Rabbit, Gabler, and Master Computer                           George Takei as Lieutenant Hikaru Sulu                     Nichelle Nichols as Lieutenant Nyota Uhura and Alice              Majel Barrett as Lieutenant M’Ress and The Queen of Hearts           

Ships: USS Enterprise NCC-1701

Planets: Fantasy Planet in Omicron Delta

My Spoiler filled summary and review: After so many exhausting adventures the crew of the Enterprise needs some rest and relaxation.  The Captain has decided to bring them to the planet that will literally bring their dreams to life:  the Fantasy Planet of Omicron Delta.  A landing party comprising of McCoy, Sulu, and Uhura beam down.  McCoy and Sulu are extremely excited since they remembered their previous adventure here.  They are very happy to see the white rabbit run around with Alice chasing him. 

Then things start to go bad, the Queen of Hearts shows up and demands heads.  Uhura steps in to rescue the Doctor but she is then kidnapped by a flying hovercraft.  McCoy and Sulu are forced to do an emergency beam out.  Back up aboard the ship, the bridge crew tries to brainstorm what went wrong and see if they can get Uhura back.  McCoy insists that he didn’t think up the Queen of Hearts.  It becomes imperative that they find the Caretaker to fix the situation like he did before.  Kirk and Spock join McCoy and Sulu back down on the planet.

Happy to be back

Uhrua finds her captor is a talking computer, which is a very confusing situation.  However, she quickly learns that the “Master Computer” is even more confused than she is.   For one, the computer thinks Uhura is some sort of slave onboard the Enterprise.  It thinks all lifeforms aboard starships are slaves to their ships.  It is concerned that its planet is being invaded and intends to turn the returned landing party “off.”  Uhura becomes horrified as she realizes that the computer is planning on killing her friends.

Uhura about to be taken away

The landing party finds the grave of the caretaker killing the hope of solving this quickly.  Then they are attacked by pterodactyls and forced to retreat into a cave.  While back on the Enterprise the crew finds the ship has a will of its own and suddenly breaks orbit before getting back in its original position.  While on the surface the landing party is still stuck in their cave.  McCoy mentions they are playing a game of cat and mouse.  Suddenly the cave’s other entrance has a giant cat waiting for them.  Good one, Bones.  However, the landing party brainstorms and they recall how McCoy on their last visit had been “killed” then was whisked away beneath the planet.  They decide to bet that particular clean-up program is still activated. Spock volunteers and McCoy injects him with melenex that will in short time cause the Vulcan to lose consciousness and for his skin to discolor.  Their bet is paid off as Spock is whisked away as well.  The three follow the transport but only Kirk manages to get underground before the entrance closes.  Back on the Enterprise, Scotty has to deal with the ship’s artificial gravity having been turned off. 

Alice

Kirk and Spock find Uhura so now all three of them are facing off against the Master Computer.  The computer is looking to take the Enterprise and explore the galaxy looking to bond with other computers.  On the ship, Scotty discovers some hardware being built that the Master Computer is looking to download its software into.  The three of them mange to convince the Master Computer that they are not slaves to the Enterprise, and that they control it. This took some convincing as the Master Computer sees them as inferior due to lack of equal brain power.  Uhura reminds the Master Computer that some people choose to serve others of their own free will.  As we all benefit when we help each other out.  The Master Computer listens to the reasons of the three officers and releases the Enterprise.

With the Fantasy Planet back in operation, Captain Kirk calls up to the Enterprise to let them know shore leave can resume.  This crew is looking forward to a good time.   

Additional thoughts: One of the great strengths of The Animated Series is when they do follow ups to the classic series.  In the original series we got very few follow up episodes.  There was “I Mudd” as a squeal to “Mudd’s Women” and “The Enterprise Incident” was in some ways a squeal to “Balance of Terror.” The first animated episode made was “More Tribbles, More Troubles” as a follow up to the story from “The Trouble With Tribbles.”  It was such a great way to excite fans after a four-year hiatus, and to generate interest in this series.  The classic Star Trek episode “Shore Leave” was always one of the more fun episodes of the series.  It was great to see the Fantasy Planet again.  I wish they had taken some more opportunity to show some other outrageous things that can happen on it with the animation.  I was sorry to see that the Caretaker had died.  We didn’t get to see much of him in the first episode it would have been nice to have learned more about him.  Nevertheless, the Master Computer made for a great adversary. 

Grave of the Caretaker

McCoy claims that he didn’t think up the Queen of Hearts.  Is he sure and if so, why?  If I saw Alice and the White Rabbit from Alice in Wonderland I would instantly start thinking of the Mad Hatter, the Cheshire Cat, and the Queen.  If I saw Batman and Robin swinging about, I would immediately think of the Joker and Two-Face.  If Kirk told me to clear my head, I would think of the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man.

Queen of Hearts

I love the classic “you couldn’t have made me bit” from the Master Computer. This is an old and always fun science fiction troupe of the AI who discovers religion.  The AI seeks to bond with its creator but refuses to see its creators as humans.  Humans are naturally inferior who need a calculator to do a basic math problem while the computer can do trillions simultaneously, therefore humans could not have made it, its creation must have been the actions of a “Supreme Being.”  Now this episode doesn’t go that far, the Master Computer does question its creation at the hands of lower lifeforms however it only seeks to meet other computers like itself, not a deity.

Battle of wits against the Master Computer

The Fantasy Planet is such a fun place and I am glad they were able to save it.  I feel that credit there belongs to Lt. Uhura.  Kirk is the Bane of All Artificial Intelligence and once Kirk entered the room it was only a matter of time before he convinced the Master Computer to kill itself.  However, thanks to Uhura’s presence they were able to convince the Master Computer to go back to being a helpful and benevolent entertainer of beings all across the galaxy who would like to have fun at the Fantasy Planet.  Thank you Lt. Uhura. 

FINAL GRADE 5 of 5

LT. UHURA TAKES COMMAND

 

Episode Title:  The Lorelei Signal

Air Date: 9/29/1973

Written by Margaret Armen

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” and Lieutenant Carver        George Takei  as Lieutenant  Hikaru Sulu              Nichelle Nichols as Lieutenant Nyota Uhura, Lieutenant Davison, and Dara         Majel Barrett as Nurse Christine Chapel and Theela                  

Ships: USS Enterprise NCC-1701

Planets: Taurean II

My Spoiler filled summary and review: There is a special region of space that could only described as an intergalactic Bermuda Triangle.  According to data that the Federation had been sharing with their rivals the Klingon and Romulan Empires, for the last 150 years, a starship has disappeared from this area exactly once every twenty-seven years four months, a few weeks, and an odd number of days on the dot.  (So, I guess that means five, which doesn’t sound like all that much come to think of it.)  Well, the date is coming up again so Starfleet has assigned the Enterprise to fly down see what happens.  

Nice looking but not so nice!

When they moment comes, they receive a signal that seems more like music.  All the men start to hallucinate, the women do not.  Uhura calls Nurse Chapel and they compare notes seeing that the men have entered their own little world. The ship is lured to the planet Taurean II and Captain Kirk leads and a landing party that consists of Mr. Spock, Dr. McCoy, and Mr. Sulu.  On the planet’s surface they meet these beautiful women.  Kirk asks where the men are and accepts the rather tame explanation that the men are just elsewhere.  The landing party are each given these strange devices to put on their heads and then they are individual brought into a room.

Uhura and Chapel work to get to the bottom of this!

Uhura realizes that the men of the Enterprise are now beyond help, she relieves Scotty of command and takes control of the ship herself.  She orders all female security teams to guard the transporter room so no deluded male goes off and tries to beam down to the surface, and she makes Nurse Chapel the acting Chief Medical Officer.

At this point the landing party realizes that there is something terribly wrong.  They realize the strange women of this planet are doing something to them so they decided to make an escape.  They are determined but they are not quick as the process that is being done to them has caused each member of the landing party to prematurely age.  Despite their aged condition, to be fair three of them have experience prematurely aging, they managed to make it outside the building.  However, they will not be able to out run the young women so they decide to hide in giant urn.  (I am not kidding that is exactly what happens.)  They can’t stay in there forever, so Spock with his Vulcan biology allowing him to retain more of his pervious strength sneaks back in the building and retrieves their communicators.  With that he is beamed up to the ship, where he lets Lt. Uhura know that they need to destroy the signal that is being sent out not only to release the men of the Enterprise but any future ship as well.

Helpless in there hands!

Lt. Uhura then leads her own landing party made entirely of women down to the surface planet armed to teeth with phasers.  They quickly put the phasers to use blasting everything in sight.  Her team saves Kirk’s landing party before their giant urn filled with water to drown them.  Uhura learns from their leader, Theela, that her people had crashed here on a ship and that it was the planet’s environment that caused the women to drain their male crew members.  This would rejuvenate them but it would only last for twenty-seven years. Thus, making them need a new ship of victims.  Uhura then proceeds to destroy the place.

dying Spock helps

Back up on the Enterprise, McCoy’s treatment doesn’t work so they try the only option they have left.  They use the transporters memory of their last transport to “reset” their bodies to their pervious condition before they left the planet.  Also, Uhura has a meeting with Theela.  In the meeting, Uhura tells them that the Enterprise can relocate them and they can just become normal.  Theela accepts with enthusiasm.

Uhura takes command from Scotty!

Additional thoughts: This was very fun episode and such a great opportunity for Uhura to shine.  When I was taking a look at how all the characters were used in the original series, I concluded with Uhura that there were two episodes where she was the second most important member of crew, but none where she was the primary protagonist.  Here we get to see the character live up to the potential that we always knew she had.  She takes charge in a no-nonsense manner and leads the Enterprise to victory.

They mean business!

So, in the episode Uhura makes Nurse Chapel the acting Chief Medical Officer.  Okay, shouldn’t the CMO be a medical doctor.  I thought that was the rules. Are there not any female doctors on the Enterprise?  Is that why it has to go the Head Nurse?  What happened to Dr. Helen Noel?  I love that character and it would been nice to see her again.  Yes, I think the show missed an opportunity here.

Help!

Such a quick trick to cure themselves using the transporter.  Why don’t they do that all the time.  Heck anytime someone has a potentially fatal injury, just stick them in the transporter and wipe the wounds away with the stored memory of their uninjured selves.  I think it would have been better if they explained that because of the nature of the Taureanian attack that they transporter was the key to their survival. Instead now you just created a whole ton of plot holes in the franchise’s future.  

saving the Captain!

 So, the planet is filled with beautiful women who turn out to be kind of mean.  Does this remind you of anything?  It reminded me a little of "Spock’s Brain," with an underground society made entirely of women except for the brute male slaves that they kidnap from the surface.  Also, what happened to the women who were on those other ships they lured in?  Or were they just lucky and every ship that passed by just happened to have an entirely male crew.  Could the women of the Enterprise be the only women that these ladies have encountered?  Diamond cuts diamond I suppose. 

FINAL GRADE 4 of 5