Mainstream Fare #11 – Star Trek: The Animated Series

Dammit Jim, I’m a reviewer not a doctor! *

Good morning everyone,

It’s time on our never-ending hunt for size stories to venture once more into the world of mainstream media. Today, our hunt will take us into the land of 1970s animation. Specifically, we will examine two episodes of “Star Trek: The Animated Series” (TAS) from 1973.

First, let’s briefly explore the Star Trek franchise itself. American television screenwriter and producer Gene Roddenberry (born Eugene Wesley Roddenberry) created Star Trek. He was born in El Paso, Texas, in mid-August 1921, but moved to Los Angeles, California, when he was only 19-months old. As a boy he often read pulp magazines, cheap sensational publications, such as Amazing Stories and Astounding Stories.

Gene also listened to the Buck Rogers radio show and watched Flash Gordon serials at the movie theater. (NOTE: The source for Gene’s early life was “Star Trek Creator: The Authorized Biography of Gene Roddenberry” by David Alexander.)

After serving in the Army Air Corps (later the Army Air Force) during World War II, Gene found work as a pilot for Pan American World Airways, a.k.a. Pan Am. He then became a police officer in 1949 working for the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD). (SIDE NOTE: Gene followed his father Eugene Edward Roddenberry into the LAPD. Roddenberry Senior was a LAPD police officer for most of his adult life.) While a cop Gene wrote scripts for TV shows such as Mr. District Attorney and Highway Patrol by Ziv Television Programs. (SIDE NOTE: Ziv also produced World of Giants.) Gene later left the LAPD to become a full-time screenwriter and eventually produced his first show, “The Lieutenant,” which aired on NBC. While The Lieutenant was in production Gene laid the groundwork for an action-packed yet thoughtful science-fiction series called Star Trek.

Gene worked hard to bring the optimistic vision of the future which was Star Trek to life, but he doesn’t deserve all the credit. Many of the most important components of Star Trek lore came from other people including, but certainly not limited to, D. C. Fontana and Gene L. Coon. Furthermore, accomplished writers such as Harlan Ellison (writer of “A Boy and His Dog” and “I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream”), Richard Matheson (writer of “I Am Legend” and “The Incredible Shrinking Man”), and Robert Bloch (writer of “Psycho” and “That Hell-Bound Train”) wrote episodes.

Star Trek originally aired in 1966 on NBC. The show followed “… the voyages of the starship Enterprise. Its five-year mission to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before.“

The three leads were Captain James T. Kirk (seen above on the left), Dr. Leonard H. “Bones” McCoy (above in the middle), and Commander Spock (on the right). Kirk was the ship’s Captain, McCoy was the Chief Medical Officer, and Spock was the half-human half-Vulcan Science Officer and First Officer, the second-in-command. Rounding out the crew were African officer Nyota Uhura, Asian officer Hikaru Sulu, blonde Nurse Chapel, Chief Engineer Montgomery “Scotty” Scott, and junior officer Pavel Chekov.

(SIDE NOTE: Uhura came from the United States of Africa. Sulu was Japanese-American, just like the actor who played the role, but the name Sulu is not actually Japanese. Sulu was taken from a map of the Philippines. Apparently, Roddenberry saw “Sulu Sea” and made Sulu the surname of his Asian character.)

Gene Roddenberry promoted an image of a tolerant 23rd century future. In my opinion, he deserves credit for hiring a diverse cast. Although, the dedication to diversity and inclusion certainly wasn’t perfect. For more on that topic, I recommend reading “How Star Trek Fell Short of Its Ideals About Diversity” by Ryan Britt.

The show ran for three seasons until it was cancelled in 1969. In total, 79 episodes were released. The show became more popular in the years after the cancellation as it was re-run. The first-ever landing of a man on the moon in July 1969, not long after the show was cancelled, likely helped Star Trek by stirring public interest in space exploration. Additionally, the first Star Trek convention in 1972 kept interest alive.

Gene’s ambition after the original series was to make a Star Trek feature film. In the early 1970s Paramount (they bought Desilu, the original production company behind Star Trek, in 1968) did not want to air a new series. However, American animation production company Filmation approached Gene and Paramount with a proposal for an animated series. The deal gave Gene complete creative control and the final result was distinct from other American animated shows.

TAS told more mature stories compared to its American peers such as Speed Buggy, Super Friends, and Yogi’s Gang. Of course, there was no blood and guts, harsh language, or overt sexuality in Star Trek’s animated universe. Nonetheless, the dialogue included jokes about Sulu being “inscrutable” or “scrutable” and unambiguous lust from a woman trying to bed Captain Kirk.

I’d argue that the scripts for the animated series were reasonably well written and could have served as proper scripts for live-action episodes made for adults. With the only caveat being that some scripts included non-humanoids such as the eight-foot tall winged birdman Tchar and the caterpillar-like Em/3/Green which would have been difficult to show in live action. In fact, award-winning science fiction author David Gerrold’s two TAS episodes were originally pitched for the third season of the original series. (NOTE: Check out Gerrold’s interview at startrekanimated.com to learn more.)

Most of the original cast returned to voice the animated characters. William Shatner (Kirk), DeForest Kelley (McCoy), and Leonard Nimoy (Spock) once again played the leads. Additionally, George Takei (Sulu), James Doohan (Scotty), Majel Barrett (Nurse Chapel), and Nichelle Nichols (Uhura) also returned. James Doohan and Majel Barrett each voiced more than one character. Filmation did not hire Walter Koenig (Chekov) as a voice actor, but he was brought on to write one episode, “The Infinite Vulcan.” The character of Chekov, the young Russian Ensign, was replaced by Arex, a six-limbed Edosian voiced by James Doohan.

It would have been difficult to make a six-limbed character in the original live-action series so I appreciated that the animated series took advantage of the medium and made unique aliens. Animation enables all kinds of wacky characters (whatever the artists can draw) and the producers took advantage of that freedom. Although, to its credit, the original series did include non-humanoid species such as the Horta, Medusans, and Tholians.

Another new alien crew member in the animated series was M’Ress, a feline-like Caitian. Majel Barrett voiced this character. (SIDE NOTE: Majel married Gene in 1969 and was known as the First Lady of Star Trek.)

According to the aforementioned biography Star Trek Creator, the reported budget for each episode of TAS was $75,000, a respectable sum. However, much of that money presumably went to the voice actors and writers. The actual animation suffered shortcomings such as insufficient frames to render smooth movement, an over-reliance on close-ups and covering mouths to eliminate the need for moving lips, and frequent re-use of models such as the flying creatures in episodes The Infinite Vulcan, “The Eye of the Beholder,” and The Jihad.

When critiquing the quality of this show it’s important to note that none of Filmation’s shows ever reached the level of quality in more modern animation such as 1988’s “Akira.”

In total, Filmation produced 22 episodes of TAS which aired in 1972 and 1973. Now that we’ve covered the basics behind Star Trek and its animated sequel, let’s dive into its size-themed episodes. First, let’s begin with Episode 6, The Infinite Vulcan, which first aired in mid-October 1973.

The action began on planet Phylos. The Enterprise was sent to explore this previously unknown world. While the landing crew explores the new world a mobile plant poisoned Sulu and he fell deathly ill. Luckily, large intelligent plants arrived and quickly administered a cure. Those human-sized plants then led the landing party into an underground facility. Once there flying plants, “Swoopers,” abduct Commander Spock! A giant man, Dr. Stavos Keniclius 5, appeared and sent the rest of the landing part away. (SIDE NOTE: Some sites and books, such as the Captains’ Logs, listed his first name as “Starros,” but in the episode it sounded like “Stavos.”)

Kirk and his officers then fight to rescue Spock. Giant Keniclius transferred Spock’s mind into a giant clone of Spock, the cleverly named “Spock 2,” and intended to make more giant Spock clones to form a peacekeeping army! (As you do…) However, Spock’s body was dying without a mind.

Apparently, Keniclius 5 had noticed Spock among the landing crew on Phylos and thought he would be an ideal solider. I’m not sure if that was accurate since Spock was a pacifist not a soldier and peacekeeping presumably involved conquering a whole lot of people first.

Anyway, after not much effort, Kirk told the two giants that a peacekeeping army was a dumb idea and implored Spock 2 to save Spock’s life. Spock 2 agreed and did a mind meld to restore smaller Spock’s mind.

Thus, Spock survived and Keniclius 5’s peacekeeping army never got off the ground. The Enterprise and its crew left. Spock 2 seemingly spent the rest of his clone life hanging out with Keniclius 5. He was not seen again until his skeleton appeared in a 2021 Lower Decks episode.

In general, this was a fun viewing experience even if the antagonist’s motivation was undercooked.

Next up is Episode 11, “The Terratin Incident.” Paul Schneider wrote this episode and it first aired in mid-November 1973. Paul previously wrote “Balance of Terror” and “The Squire of Gothos” for the live-action series.

The action began with the Enterprise crew investigating a strange message with only one decipherable word, “Terratin.” When approaching the signal’s source a mysterious “impulse” strikes the vessel. That impulse was then followed by a powerful beam which began to shrink all organic material on the ship.

This episode did a good job highlighting the difficulties crew members had as they became smaller and smaller. Crew members struggled to use tools, operate consoles and instruments, and open automatic doors with their reduced dimensions. They were in a race to reverse the condition before they became too small to fly the ship.

(NOTE: Dr. McCoy reported that they were not losing mass, but instead were contracting. Their weight stayed the same, but the space between molecules was reduced. There are consequences of extreme contraction which weren’t explored by the writer. For instance, a six-inch tall man who weighs 200lb exerts many more pounds of force per square inch than a six-foot tall man who weighs 200lb. Such a man might dent a console or table when he walked across it.)

Spock determined that they would continue to shrink until they reached roughly 1/16 inch in height. In desperation, Captain Kirk teleported down to the surface to find the source of the shrinking beam. Fortunately, the act of teleportation restored Kirk to normal size. Among violent volcanic eruptions Kirk discovered a miniature city.

Upon returning to the Enterprise, Kirk learned that leader of the miniature city had teleported Kirk’s bridge crew down to the planet. Kirk demanded the return of his personnel and fired a warning shot to demonstrate his seriousness. Finally, the city’s inhabitants, Terratins, established contact with Kirk. Viewers learn that the inhabitants were descendants of a human colony originally called “Terra Ten.” Spiral epsilon waves naturally occur on the planet and shrank the first colonists. Their tiny size was inherited by their descendants. However, the modern colony was endangered by earthquakes and volcanic eruptions and thus the Terratins sent out a distress signal. They were unable to communicate anything more than the word “Terratin” and thus were compelled to shrink the Enterprise crew to make contact.

Of course, in the end the Enterprise crew was restored to normal. The miniature city and all its citizens were taken to another world free of danger.

This was a fun episode, but the characterization of Kirk and Sulu felt a little off. They were surprisingly eager to fire phasers. Still, that could be explained as a result of stress. Non-consensual shrinking can be quite upsetting!

Overall, I recommend Star Trek: The Animated Series in its entirety to Science fiction fans. The two highlighted episodes, The Infinite Vulcan and The Terratin Incident, were enjoyable as was other episodes such as The Jihad. At the time of writing it is available on physical media Blu-ray and DVD and online at Amazon Prime and Netflix.

(SIDE NOTE: Five animated shorts called “Very Short Treks” were released on StarTrek.com and YouTube in September and October 2023. They included characters from several Star Trek series including TAS characters Arex and M’Ress. The humor and stories in Very Short Treks episodes were iffy, but “Walk, Don’t Run” was decent.)

That’s it for today. The next post will cover several sequels of shrunken men stories by Albert Robinson. Until then, boldly grow where no man have grown before!

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* I, like many others, believed that Dr. McCoy had said “Dammit Jim, I’m a Doctor not a bricklayer!” However, he never actually said that entire phrase! For more information check out this article in which Ido Montekyo searched all 79 scripts from the original series. Montekyo could not find a single instance of Dr. McCoy saying “Dammit Jim, I’m a Doctor not a (something else).” Instead, the doctor said:

• “I’m a doctor, not a bricklayer,”
• “Look, I’m a doctor, not an escalator! Spock, give me a hand!”
• “No. I’m a doctor, not a mechanic,” etc.

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This review was written by SolomonG and is protected under Fair Use copyright law.

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