The cautionary tales of artificial intelligence (AI) are fraught with terrifying scenarios. What if AI becomes too intelligent? Too powerful? Too adaptable? Few AI doom stories explore what Kirk and Spock encounter on this adventure: what if AI gets bored? The focus on excessive intelligence in the AI of previous stories has often been on … More Self-lost, TAS: S1E9 “Once Upon a Planet”
An icy moon illuminates the autumnal forest. The chorus of cackling young women join the woodland’s night symphony, magic in their hands and evil in their hearts. With murderous intent, they invoke the devil to carry out their evil plots, knowing they will hang in the gallows if discovered. Thus goes a typical accusation, or … More Magically Suspicious, TAS: S1E8 “The Magicks of Megas-tu”
Plants rarely make an appearance in Sci-Fi shows, and even less so as walking, talking intelligent lifeforms. With the Animated Series’s increased ability to explore new alien designs, Kirk and crew were able to meet a civilization of four-legged plant beings. Hoping to colonize the planet Phylos for the Federation, the Enterprise crew stumble upon … More Planting Peace, TAS: S1E7 “The Infinite Vulcan”
Many are familiar with Jehovah’s Witnesses and other brands of zealous door to door evangelism. Aside from their recruitment practices, Jehovah’s Witnesses are most well known for their refusal to accept blood transfusions. Their beliefs interpret that ‘life’, or the soul, is in the blood. Modern blood transfusions have saved numerous lives, but are they … More Lifeblood, TAS: S1E6 “The Survivor”
Kirk crew are once again inundated with tribbles in this sequel to the classic Original Series episode “Trouble with Tribbles”. On their way to deliver a new seed grain, quintotriticale, to the starving population on Sherman’s Planet, the last thing the Enterprise needs is more tribbles. However, the prolific fuzzy space pet once again resurfaced … More Additional Division, TAS: S1E5 “More Tribbles, More Tribbles”
Since their first literary appearance in Homer’s Odyssey, sirens have been luring men astray with their deadly voices in many a pop fiction. Homer and his crew were forced to float passed the singing snare, but Kirk and his band of space sailors were sent to the doomed site intentionally. While investigating the mysterious disappearance … More Siren Songs in Space, TAS: S1E4 “The Lorelei Signal”
A planet eating space blob terrorizes the galaxy and the Enterprise must intercept it before it reaches a densely populated Federation colony. Comprising an unusual combination of matter and energy, the deadly space cloud at first appears to be some natural formation with an undesirable planet-destroying effect. Without much evidence, Spock concludes that the mass … More Tornado, Amoeba, Brain TAS: S1E3 “One of Our Planets is Missing”
It is fitting that the second episode of The Animated Series is considered to be the best of this Star Trek iteration, as it is an homage to the greatest episode of the Original Series, “The City on the Edge of Forever”. We see the same all-knowing sentient time portal, the Guardian of Forever, which … More Pain or Logic, TAS: S1E2 “Yesteryear”
The original Enterprise crew is back! Continuing their adventures right where they left off, The Animated Series exchanges Kirk’s five-year mission for an ongoing ‘star charting’ expedition, now rendered in a budget-friendly Hanna Barbara campiness. Aside from the obvious switch into the toonverse, and a shorter run time, there is no real difference between the … More The Ultimate Parasite, TAS: S1E1 “Beyond the Farthest Star”
Hopeless Trekkie 