Customer Reviews

Star Trek - The Animated Series, Vol. 11: How Sharper Than A Serpent's Tooth/ The Counter-Clock Incident [VHS]

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4 star:		(1)
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Then, they should look no further than "How Sharper Than A Serpent's Tooth." This is, without a doubt, one of the best Trek episodes ever. It ranks above many from THE ORIGINAL, THE ANIMATED, THE MOVIES, and THE VARIOUS REINCARNATIONS.

An earlier reviewer has basically told it all, and I cannot add any more to his glowing words. 'Just have to say, "Sharper" is the essence of Trek: thought-provoking, literate, and just plain GOOD.

THE FIRST EVER VIEW OF MR RODDENBERRY'S FIRST CAPT OF THE STARSHIP ENTERPRISE-- CAPT ROBERT APRIL. THIS IS STAR TREK IN PERFECTION. A PARAGON AND A SET EXAMPLE FOR OTHER SHOWS TO FOLLOW. CAPT APRIL TAKES COMMAND ONE LAST TIME. HOORAH FOR TREK INDEED.

The first story is one of the best in the animated series. An alien probe arrives at Earth, sends a message back into space and then self-destructs. The Enterprise is tasked to follow the path of the message to determine who the recipient is. They encounter Kukulkan, an ancient Mayan god. He has waited centuries to be summoned back to Earth and he is angered at not getting the attention that he feels he deserves. He tests the members of the Enterprise crew and they pass. Kirk and group also free some other creatures held by Kukulkan and during the melee Kirk risks his life to save Kukulkan, demonstrating that he is in no way a god. Although this is one more instance of the well-worn ancient astronauts theme, it is so well done that it would have made an excellent Star Trek movie.
The second story is much weaker. The Enterprise is pursuing another ship and they are pulled through a supernova to another universe where time moves backwards. All the members of the crew start getting younger, so even though they determine a way to get back, they growing youth of the crew leaves them dysfunctional. Fortunately, the Enterprise was carrying two elderly passengers who are experienced Star Fleet officers. They take command when Kirk and Spock are incapacitated and guide the Enterprise back to normal space. The members of the Enterprise crew are then passed through the transporter and restored to their previous state.
The problem I have with this is that if the transporter were capable of acting as a "fountain of youth" then everyone would use it on a regular basis. There would be no aging, valued officers would be kept in their prime and the world would stagnate. This obviously has not happened, so the episode suffers from a major logical flaw. Furthermore, since some of the Enterprise crew would have de-aged beyond their birth, to get them back, the transporter would have had to recreate them from their stored patterns. This would have literally been creating people from nothing, a plot

These episodes are original, thought provoking, and well told. They both would have made exelent live-action shows, though Koo-Koo-Khan would have been quite expensive to produce. It is truly a shame that NBC decided to cancel the series after these two episodes aired. Since it was shown early on Saturday mornings, young children were the prominant viewer, and they just didn't "get" the show. If they had simply moved the show to prime-time, it may have thrived and lasted for five more seasons. Of course, if that had happened, Star Trek history would have been changed forever.