THE CREW OF THE ENTERPRISE IS FEELING BLUE!

 

Episode Title:  Albatross

Air Date: 9/28/1974

Written by Dario Finelli

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”, Dramian Supreme Prefect, Kol-Tai                          George Takei as Lieutenant Hikaru Sulu                     Nichelle Nichols as Lieutenant Nyota Uhura          Majel Barrett as Nurse Christine Chapel        Lou Scheimer as Commander Demos

Ships: USS Enterprise NCC-1701, and unnamed Dramian ship

Planets: Dramia and Dramia 2

My Spoiler filled summary and review: The Enterprise has just completed a delivery of much needed medical supplies to the planet Dramia.  A landing party of Kirk, Spock, and McCoy meet with the Dramian Supreme Prefect.  The Prefect thanks the officers kindly for the delivery.  Then he promptly informs the gentlemen that Dr. McCoy is under arrest.  It turns out that eighteen years ago McCoy was on Dramia 2, their well named colony world, doing medical work.  His work involved a mass inoculation program for a Saurian virus that had earlier threatened the colony.  Shortly after his departure they planet was struck with plague.  This forced the Dramians to quarantine that world.  They blame McCoy for starting epidemic. 

Kirk is concerned because the Dramians aren’t known for having the best justice system in the Federation.  Kirk decides to conduct his own investigation.  He returns his party, except McCoy, back to the ship and heads directly to Dramia 2.  Commander Demos of Dramian security follows the Enterprise hoping to stop its investigation.  They clearly notice the little ship chasing them so Kirk decides to trap the Commander.  He orders the shuttle bay doors open.  It is Kirk’s hope that the Commander is fool who will think so lowly of Starfleet officers that flying through space while forgetting to close the shuttle bay doors is something that happens often.  It turns out the Commander is that stupid and he flies right in and parks his little ship.  He then hops out hoping to get with his sabotage but is promptly arrested by Kirk and Spock as a stowaway.  While this is going on they pass through what appears to be a space aurora.  It is radiation but appears harmless. 

"Pleased to meet you, its an honor, and you're under arrest!"

Before they beam down to Dramia 2 Spock explains what the records show of the plague.  The cause of it is unknown.  However, the effects are clear: pigmentation changes in skin of victim, debilitation, and death. The pigmentation changes came in a distinct pattern of the victim first turning blue, then green, and finally red.  Blue meant the sickness weakened the patient.  Green meant going terminal and red was the mark of death.  Some species, such as Vulcans are naturally immune.

Not a good time to be a McCoy

After being down to Dramia 2, they are quickly attacked by a local who just as quickly retreats. Demos warns them that the locals don’t like outsiders. Spock objects pointing out that Demos himself is not an outsider.  To which Demos replies that after the plague outbreak and the quarantine of the planet, everyone infected with the plague died.  Dramians who are still here, like the one who just attacked them, are the families of the lost who came here after it was over.  They have been cut off ever since.  Despite Demos’s claim they do find a survivor named Kol-Tai.  This Dramian tells the landing party that he was treated by Dr. McCoy who he credits with his survival.  He makes it clear that McCoy had nothing to do with the plague that stuck the rest of the planet.  Realizing they can now save the Doctor, the landing party returns to the ship with Kol-Tai and the Enterprise warps out with the intention of returning to Dramia.

Dramia 2 has had better days

As the Enterprise speeds back to Dramia they pass through the aurora again.  This time however harm does come. Kol-Tai is suddenly blue with plague.  If potentially losing McCoy’s only witness was bad enough, it looks like they may lose the whole crew as everyone starts feeling blue and looking it too.  The only healthy person is Spock.  When they get back to Dramia they contact the Supreme Prefect, however seeing the crew infected with the same plague that wiped out their colony he shuts down and discussion.  This is understandable but not good for the crew of the Enterprise.  

They have found Kol-Tai

They need McCoy.  So as always when the chips are down and the rules say they must die, they break the rules.  Spock beams down to the planet and breaks McCoy out of prison.  At first McCoy refuses but when he realizes all his friends are going to die, he understands it is the greater moral duty to break out of prison than remain in.  McCoy, being GOAT of all medical doctors, quickly cures everyone just as they had started to turn green.

This is bad!

At the end of the episode the Dramians who were going to condemn the Doctor were now singing his praises.  Given the circumstances they decided to overlook exactly how it was that the good Doctor got out of prison to save the day to begin with.  McCoy went from being public enemy number one to the greatest hero of the planet in a single half hour episode.  That is just a typical day for the crew of the Enterprise.

Poor Captain Kirk 

Additional thoughts: So, I always thought I had a strong idea of McCoy’s biography in my mind, but exactly what was he doing eighteen years ago?  I thought he had only been in Starfleet for the past ten years or so right after his marriage broke up.  Was he a part of some Federation civilian relief agency?  That would make sense but always thought he spent most his pre-Starfleet days on Earth.

Poor Lt. Uhura

My only serious complaint about this episode is how reckless the crew is at times.  Shouldn’t the landing party have taken some precaution when beaming down to a planet whose population was wiped out with plague?  Like environmental suits or at least one of those force field belts.  Now granted it worked out, I don’t think they could have justified busting McCoy out of jail if only Kol-Tai was sick.  Nevertheless, Spock took a hell of a risk beaming down to the Dramia to get the Doctor.  Despite being immune, how does he know that he won’t accidently spread the illness to the population of Dramia?  Again, a force field belt would have helped.  Maybe he was just so confident in McCoy’s abilities to cure the disease that he didn’t find any logic for taking precautions in having the disease spread?  It almost reminds me of Dr. McCoy’s actions with Captain Kirk in “The Corbomite Maneuver.”  I also wonder how they knew how this disease functioned since there no survivors in all.  Who recorded the sick stages and how did they know Vulcans were immune? 

McCoy saving everyone just in time.

Over all I thought this was a great episode.  It contains a lot of elements that we like in a Star Trek adventure.  We meet a new and interesting alien species. We have a threat that needs to be dealt with right away in this case a medical one. We have some rule breaking and a space chase.  Kirk breaks the rules, Spock knocks someone out with a nerve pinch, and McCoy cures a great disease.   Then the aliens and authorities have to apologize for being wrong.  

FINAL GRADE 5 of 5

A RUDE GUEST AND A GODDESS

 

Episode Title:  BEM

Air Date: 9/14/1974

Written by David Gerrold

Directed by Bill Reed

Cast: William Shatner as Captain James T. Kirk       Leonard Nimoy as Commander Spock        James Doohan as Lieutenant Commander Montgomery Scott AKA “Scotty”, Lieutenant Arex, and Honorary Commander Ari bn Bem                          Nichelle Nichols as Lieutenant Nyota Uhura and Goddess of Delta Theta III             

Ships: USS Enterprise NCC-1701

Planets: Delta Theta III

My Spoiler filled summary and review: The episode begins with the Enterprise getting set to explore the planet, Delta Theta III.  For the past few weeks, the ship has been hosting a guest from the planet Pandro.  The guest’s name is Ari bn Bem.  He has been sent by his people to observe the Enterprise and its crew in action.  For some mystery reason Starfleet has given their guest the honorary rank of Commander, which means he outranks everyone on the ship with exception to Kirk, Spock, and McCoy.

Commander Bem has decided he wishes to go with the landing party on their assignment.  This seriously annoys Captain Kirk, who is apparently already frustrated with Bem as the so-called observer has done nothing but stay in his quarters the entire time refusing to interact with anyone on the ship and now, he wants to go on a highly sensitive mission.  Kirk relents however because he has two missions and one of them is helping the Federation establish a relationship with Bem’s people. 

Bem trying to work a transporter!

Bem was so eager to go on this assignment that he took the initiative and set up the transporter already.  Scotty overlooks it and determines it was set up alright.  Scotty should have checked a little closer because when they beam down Kirk and Spock’s standing placements were in the air with no ground beneath them.  The two men fall into the water below and now Kirk is really ticked off with his guest.  Bem jumps into the water with them.  This is where things start to get weird.  Bem then splits in two with his lower half detaching.  Since this occurs below the water no one sees it.  His lower half then goes and with some extra arms he had tucked swaps out Kirk and Spock’s phasers and communicators. 

He is sneaky splitting into parts. 

The three get out of the water and Kirk makes it clear that only Enterprise crew members are going to be operating the transporter for now on.  As they begin to explore the planet Bem decides to run away.  He goes into some thick brush but it appears that Bem can separate himself into multiple units, not just two.  Independent parts of a lower half, arms, torso, and a separate head makes Bem both a strange creature and one that can move through thick brush very easily.  So even though Kirk and Spock are in quick pursuit they quickly lose track of him.  The Enterprise starts to read a strange energy signature and due to Captain Kirk’s prior orders, Lt. Uhura beams up the rest of the landing party, over the objections of Mr. Scott.

As Kirk and Spock try to communicate with the Enterprise, they discover that their phasers and communicators have been swapped for fakes.  They quickly figure out that it was Bem that did it and as much as Kirk has grown to hate the guy, they can’t leave him on this planet.  It appears that their troubles have grown however as Bem was captured by the primitive locals.  They decide to wait to nightfall and rescue him.  When they do this Bem starts to argue saying that he is studying but Kirk and Spock try to get him out.  However, all three are caught and Kirk and Spock join their rude guest in captivity.

Moving through the brush in parts!

With all three captured, Kirk demands to Bem he explain what he was been doing.  Bem says he is here to observe and Kirk has developed such a reputation in this side of the galaxy that the Pandroians requested to post Bem on the Enterprise to see him first hand.  However now that Bem has seen him, he is very unimpressed.  He thinks Kirk is an utter disappointment and failure.  Bem continues to explain how much he despises him in detail.  Despite this Kirk still convinces him to give back the phasers and communicators that he took from the two of them.  In doing so Bem revels to the two Starfleet officers that he can take himself apart at will.  Spock concludes that the “Bem” personal is combination of a number of creatures.

Now that they have their weapons Kirk and Spock decide it is time for the three to leave.  Kirk orders the phasers on low stun.  This comes to nothing because at the very moment the interference that had been blocking communication and transporters from the ship turns out to be a living goddess.  This goddess demands to know what they are doing on her planet and when Kirk gives her a crap answer she shuts down their phasers allowing the two to be recaptured.

Bem captured!

Once again locked up, Bem determines that Kirk is a failure, tells Kirk this, and then takes himself apart so he can get out of his cage and walks away.  Although the goddess’s interference prevents them from contacting the ship, Spock reasons they could rig their communicators to allow them to communicate with the deity that they have been imprisoned by.  This works and this time Kirk speaks to the goddess with a little more wit and lets her know that he has no desire to harm her “children” (the inhabitants of the planet).  Kirk convinces her to let them once more communicate with Enterprise and they will voluntarily leave.  The goddess allows this and Kirk then beams down a security team.   

 

The goddess at this point starts to wonder why there are so many more intruders on her planet.  The good news is this time Captain Kirk is able to think more quickly on his feet and explains that they need to find their last crew member so he does not interfere with her “children.” The goddess accepts that explanation and allows them to continue.  They find Bem who is so impressed that Captain Kirk found a way out and proved his own analysis to be flawed.  Because he failed, Bem becomes suicidal.  It takes both Captain Kirk and the goddess to talk him out of it.

Showing Kirk he can leave whenever!

The Enterprise is now set to leave and go on its next adventure.  Bem is, although not suicidal, now filled with a low opinion of himself.  The goddess contacts them and wishes the crew farewell.       

Additional thoughts: Okay so why did Starfleet give Bem and honorary rank?  We have never seen them do that before, so what was the deal with it here?  At no point in the episode does his rank even matter. The story would have been exactly the same if he had been “Ambassador Bem.”  In fact, Bem as an ambassador would have made more sense in the opening scene in the transporter room, as Kirk would naturally want to please the diplomat as opposed to a commander who he could just order into compliance.

I do believe that this is the first time we have heard Kirk’s middle name “Tiberius” said allowed.  He had been known as James T. Kirk since the first regular episode made: “The Corbomite Maneuver.” However, what the “T” had stood for was anybody’s guess.  From this point on Star Trek fans could say it with confidence.

Kirk was really lucky with this one, as it turns out the goddess was very understanding of their situation.  When the first time the goddess demands their motives instead of breaking out his classical “We are explores seeking knowledge peacefully” he goes for “It’s our job to classify.” No wonder he ended up back in the cage.  When she agrees to let him contact his ship, Kirk goes back on his word to leave and beams down a security team.  He was lucky that she let him explain and plead his case. Otherwise, they all would have ended up in cages.

Talking to the Goddess!

Bem starts out as one of those characters you are supposed to initially dislike but gets redeemed in the end.  The bad part is he is never redeemed at all.  He starts off as an annoying loser and he is still an annoying loser at the end of it.  The only development he made was that he totally lost his confidence and is now aware of what a giant loser he is. 

I am surprised they didn’t try to learn from this goddess and what her designs for the planet were.  It is odd that Kirk never thinks of trying to free the natives from her control.  He does this in “The Return of the Archons” and “The Apple.”  However, it could be because Kirk doesn’t feel the goddess is holding “her children” back that he doesn’t want to interfere.

I do feel now that we are into the second season that the animation has actually improved. It just looks shaper like they are putting more work into it. 

FINAL GRADE 5 of 5

THE ONLY NORMAL ONE ON THE SHIP!

 

As a kid watching the Star Trek 25^th Anniversary Special, I remember Deforest Kelley describing the character of Dr. McCoy as the only normal person on board the ship.  This is a such a great characterization of the Doctor.  He is an old country doctor who all this alien world stuff is still kind of new for him.  He often has to slap Kirk and Spock back into reality often.   

McCoy escorting a Yeoman who has had a rough time!

Some of my favorite “normal” moments for Dr. McCoy are as follows.  “One of these days I would like to beam down and say ‘Behold, I am the Archangel Gabriel’” from the episode “Bread and Circuses.” In the episode “Return to Tomorrow” Kirk is all in on Sargon’s plan to take control of their bodies and use them to accomplish their tasks and McCoy is only one pointing out what dangerous and strange idea this is.  In “All of Our Yesterdays,” Spock explains to Kirk that they are in some sort of artic environment to which McCoy replies “he means it’s cold.”

McCoy sharing a cure made into a drink!

Doctor McCoy also happens to be the GOAT of his profession.  I cannot think of any doctor in the Star Trek universe that is better than him.  He comes up with a cure for the naked virus, which was infecting the Enterprise’s entire crew and had killed an entire crew of the space station they had visited, all while the ship was doing a death spiral towards the planet.  When McCoy was on Miri’s fake Earth, he was able to cure a disease that had wiped out her entire planet’s population. He was able to cure the aging sickness, while himself being infected with it, just in time to treat Captain Kirk so he could save the ship from the Romulans.  He found a way to pull Kirk out of Flash time, and developed a device so the miners of Ardana won’t be infected with brain damage from doing their jobs.  There was also the time McCoy consulted ancient medical text and prevented Kirk and Spock from having to live their lives as talking fish.

Spock and McCoy give the Captain their concerns

However, there was never a medical miracle performed by the good Doctor like the one we saw in “The Devil in the Dark.”  In this episode McCoy must cure a silicon-based lifeform.  After first shouting, “I am a doctor, not a bricklayer” he then got to work.  McCoy pulls the only thing he can think of and tries to use concrete to patch up the poor Horta.  It works and he cures her.  McCoy afterward is stunned by his own awesomeness, proclaiming he could probably cure a rainy day.  
 

McCoy has a hard time getting over the fact that he is awesome!

Lastly, I would like to defend the good doctor on one common charge.  That is the accusation that he is some sort of bigot.  Now I will acknowledge that sometimes he can be ethnocentric, which is usually used by writers as having him and Spock play opposites in Kirk’s moral dilemmas, a good example is “The Apple.”  However, what people are often taking a back by is when he lays on Spock for being a Vulcan.  There are a couple of points I want to make about this.  Although there are many definitions of racism, one of the important ones is the combination of bigotry and power.  Classic example is white people harassing black people in a society, such as ours, that long promoted white supremacy. There is none of that in the Federation.  Vulcan was not conquered and its people put into a subordinate place.  McCoy making fun of Spock’s Vulcaness is more equivalent to an Englishman making for a Frenchman for being French, with also the Frenchman giving equal grief to the Englishman back, and with each party speaking in jest.   

McCoy with Spock often presented two sides of an argument to Kirk.

This brings me to my second point that is those who tally up all the mean things McCoy says to Spock about Vulcans and being Vulcan often tend to ignore all the times Spock says to McCoy (and everyone else) equally mean statements about humans and being human. Spock says just as much anti-human stuff as McCoy’s anti-Vulcan stuff.  I would also add you only see McCoy say things to Spock in order to tease him.  McCoy doesn’t say these types of things to Sarek, T’Pau, or any other Vulcan he meets.

Getting to know Spock's parents!

McCoy stands alone as the greatest doctor in all of Star Trek if not of all science fiction.

Star Trek: The Animated Series season 2 episode list

1. BEM (17)                                                                            [97]

2. Albatross (18)                                                                       [98]

3. The Pirates of Orion (19)                                                        [99]

4. Practical Joker (20)                                                                   [100]

5. How Sharper Than A Serpent’s Tooth (21)                                [101]

6. The Counter-Clock Incident (22)                                                [102]

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  

HONEY, I SHRUNK THE CREW!

 

Episode Title:  The Terratin Incident

Air Date: 11/17/1973

Written by Paul Schneider

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, Gabler, and Mendant of the Terratins                           George Takei as Lieutenant Hikaru Sulu                     Nichelle Nichols as Lieutenant Nyota Uhura and Alice              Majel Barrett as Nurse Christine Chapel, Lieutenant M’Ress and The Queen of Hearts           

Ships: USS Enterprise NCC-1701

Planets: Terratin

My Spoiler filled summary and review: The Enterprise is on scientific endeavor to monitor a gas cloud that formed from an old collapsed star.   This clearly would be a very boring episode so of course something has to happen.  They get a distress call from a nearby planetoid in the Cepheus system that came in an old outdated Earth code.  It was sent to them twice and included the unknown word “Terratin.”  This is a lot more interesting than a cloud of gas so they decide to check it out.

These tools don't seem to be the same size or is it us?

The ship arrives at the Cepheus system and they head to the small planetoid.  Then the ship receives an energy blast during which their shields were ineffective and the bodies of every crewmember glow white. However, when it is over it seems that no harm has been done to anyone.  At least that was what they thought but there was some clear harm to their dilithium crystals.  This is causing the whole ship to lose power and they are now running on the ship’s battery like this was an early episode of season 1 involving either Gary Mitchell or Harry Mudd. 

We are not as toll as we use to be!

As they are trying to fix that problem, they encounter a new problem.  At first Kirk thinks that Mr. Spock is slouching and Spock thinks the same of Kirk.  Then some of Scotty’s engineers complain that their tools have been missized. It appears either the ship and the nonorganic matter inside of it is getting bigger or the crew and the other biological matter inside the ship is getting smaller.  Scans confirm it is the later, the distance between their cells is shrinking so they are getting smaller but retain their original weight.  This also where the fans find out that their uniforms have some biological element to them that is why no one is going to end up naked.

They try their best to keep operating the ship but they are getting smaller every minute!  At first, they have to stretch for things, then use stools, and finally they have to build pullies and leavers.  Sulu loses his cool and tries to shoot the planet with the ship’s phasers but falls climbing the helmsman’s chair and breaks his leg.  The Captain tries to get him to sickbay but the doors won’t open because it can no longer “see” them.  Kirk grabs a pin, now half the size of his body, to get the scanner to read him and open the door.

When you find yourself short you are going to have to adapt!

They get down to sickbay but both the Doctor and Mr. Sulu are two small to use the normal medical device that they use to knit broken bones.  Chapel remembers a smaller device that they use for the inner ear. Chapel climbs the office furniture to grab it.  She almost succeeds but she falls into sickbay’s water tank for aquatic lifeforms and starts to drown before the Captain saves her using a needle and thread. She does hang to the medical device and with that Sulu is on the mend. 

The crew can’t stop getting smaller so Kirk decides that beam down to the planet and make contact with the people there to see if they can stop this.  Spock designs him a new communicator to fit his height and Scotty has a team of engineers who have built a contraption that will allow them to operate the transporter.  Given that they can’t be sure that this will work and hour from now they program the transporter to automatically bring Kirk back at a prearranged time.  

Trying to figure out how much time!

Turns out the transporter is the cure.  When Kirk beamed the down to the planet he was restored to normal size.  The bad news was his communicator was now difficult to work.  Kirk also sees the tabletop sized settlement.  When Kirk returns, he starts sending some his crew down to get the cure and come right back.  There is some difficulty as Kirk has to continually watch his step to avoid crushing any of his crew.  He orders the entire crew to report to the transporter room to be re-sized. 

Table Top City 

Contact is established with the Terratins who explain that they were responsible for shrinking the crew as a way of trying to communicate.  Kirk is still annoyed with the Terratins but agrees to help them as they are desperate and in a time of need.  Their colony was once an Earth colony called “Terra Ten” who shrank because of their time on the planet, and now their colony is threatened with volcanic activity.  Also, it turns out their planet is packed with dilithium crystals that they can use to power the ship.  With the crew restored and the ship repaired the Enterprise finds the Terratins a new place to live.   

"We need your help, so we made you small!"

Additional thoughts: This was a fun little episode, yes pun intended.  The crew has had to deal with all sorts of threats before however the starship getting too big for them was never one.  Watching the crew of the Enterprise try to keep operating their starship after being transformed into tiny people was by far the best part.

Am I the only one who thought it was odd that Chapel couldn’t swim?  Wouldn’t that be a requirement in Starfleet?  I assume they have pool at the Academy.  If not, I think Captain Kirk should order some mandatory swimming lessons for the crew.  There are enough threats in space we don’t need to have anyone drown while visiting a local planet.  

"I can't swim!"

I did think it was interesting that the transporter was the magical cure again.  Very similar to “The Lorelei Signal,” the transporter is the quick cure for the aliment of the week.  Not only is it the TV budget friendly way to send people to the surface, it is the half-hour run time friendly way of curing problems.  Considering all the times it split someone in two or sent them to the mirror universe, I guess it’s a good thing it can also unexpectedly cure people.  Since their clothes also shank did they have to beam down all their clothing supplies as well to get them back up to proper size?

Lastly why did they go all the way to another planet to find the Terratins a new place to live?  I think they should have just kept their little colony onboard the ship.  It would be like having an ant farm only a million times more fun. 

FINAL GRADE 4 of 5