1x09 Once Upon a Planet

[7.7/10] I surprising number of TAS episodes have been sequels or follow-ups to episode of The Original Series. While sometimes, like with the tribbles episode, that reads like an attempt to rehash old glories, going back to the amusement park planet from “Shore Leave” makes sense as something to reimagine with the possibilities of animation, and the episode is the better for it.

After all, while it was cool to see tigers and a samurai and a knight take on the crew of the Enterprise, purple pterodactyls and two-headed dragons were probably a bit too much for the budget. The episode spends a good chunk of time with Kirk, Spock, Bones, and Sulu down on the planet running away from its imaginative threats, and it works as a recapitulation of what the show already did but with a few fun animated twists. For one thing, the background drawings of the shore leave planet are nice to look at, and seeing our heroes flee from mythical creatures and the Queen of Hearts is a fun and silly adventure.

But the show uses animation to explore some creativity back on the ship too. Scotty leading the new alien crewman in an effort to figure out what’s wrong with the ship was a nice mini-plot. (Though seriously, what’s with the lioness alien crewman purring? Made me laugh out loud.) Having details like the ship’s gravity being turned off or computer arms building more computers again felt like something that would be difficult to do in live action but which worked well here.

Best of all, I like how the episode took a known premise and made it really interesting. The thing that held “Shore Leave” back for me was the fact that the “thought equals creation” details of what were happening seemed pretty obvious and our heroes took a long time to catch on. Here, Kirk & Co. know exactly what the planet’s deal is, which makes their (more interesting) struggle not to think of anything dangerous the focal point rather than a pretty easy mystery.

And the way the episode creates it threat is neat too. I like the notion that the planet’s caretaker died and in his absence, the computer that reads all the visitors’ minds and creates robot incarnations of their thoughts is restless, tired of being servile, and wants to use the Enterprise to explore the galaxy and find his “computer brothers.” It provides a reason why there would be danger in this ostensibly pleasant place once more, and adds an interesting, sci-fi philosophical bent to the antagonist.

Plus there’s some cleverness in the resolution. I love the attention to continuity with Spock remembering that Bones was injured and was taken underground to be healed, and so reasoning that by recreating such a scenario, they could get to the computer. Sure, that resolution involves Kirk talking an ostensibly evil computer out of its evil once more, and he basically convinces the computer to stay put despite its clear desire to be free, but the idea that after years of development, the computer wanted more out of life is sound one on which to build the episode.

Overall, there’s a lot of inventiveness here, some good uses of the animated medium, and a nice hook for the “bad guy.” That makes for a good Star Trek episode in my book.