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The Animated Series (TAS) Guest Reviews
Yesteryear
Stardate 5373.4: Synopsis in main TAS listing
"Yesteryear" is the one TAS episode the puts all other TAS episodes to shame, and many TOS episodes as well. Not only does the story provide a nice background on Spock, the time travel aspect is fantastic and, in my opinion, was more intelligently thought out compared to most other time travel stories in Star Trek. I like the idea of Spock barely remembering a man named Selek from his childhood, and then to eventually travel back in time and actually fill that role. This paradox is similar to the one in TNG
"Time's Arrow", however the paradox there is not quite as well thought out. What event caused the Enterprise to find Data's head and get involved in the whole time loop? Was it the chicken or the egg? In "Yesteryear" the time loop does not have the "chicken or the egg" problem, or at least it is not as apparent. Since Spock's memory of his childhood is not clear, Selek could have been some other Vulcan man.
It is surprising how well this story fits in with the rest of Star Trek while so many other TAS episodes are hard to take seriously. With the Vulcan forge and the Andorian officer, "Yesteryear" reminded me a lot of the fourth season of Enterprise (the GOOD season of Enterprise). I especially enjoyed seeing the Andorian Thelin give Spock the Vulcan hand sign. This gave me that nice warm feeling of unity and racial tolerance that I always enjoy in Star Trek.
Remarkable pet: Spock's pet sehlat is the first one we see on screen, and the only tame one. We see only one other sehlat in ENT
"The Forge".
Rating: 8 (Chris)
The Practical Joker
Stardate 3183.3: Synopsis in main TAS listing
Like many TAS episodes, "The Practical Joker" is rushed with some plot holes. Most of the jokes are not even very funny. Worst of all, the ship creates itself an inflatable Enterprise of equal size. What the heck? Why would the Enterprise be equipped with an inflatable fake in the first place? Did the computer create it? If so, how? It all seems too silly to me.
Remarkable prank: Kirk has a new shirt made for himself and the computer prints on the back of it "Kirk is a Jerk". Probably the only funny joke of the episode.
Remarkable technology: The rec room. Could it be that Starfleet already had holodecks on some of their ships? This would not work well with TNG where is is assumed that holodecks are a fairly new technology. However, since this series is animated (and poorly at that) we could assume that the rec room is not as realistic as a holodeck from the 24th century. If this were the case, then Riker's comment about being astonished by the perfection of the holodeck would make sense. Also, in "The Practical Joker" the team decides to try and find a wall since the room is only so big. This trick would not work in the many holodeck malfunctions of the TNG era.
Remarkable voice: Majel Barrett seems to provide the voice for the ships computer. Majel would later do the voice for Starfleet ship computers in the TNG era.
Rating: 3 (Chris)
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