Customer Reviews

Star Trek - The Animated Series, Vol. 1: More Tribbles, More Troubles/The Infinite Vulcan [VHS]

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The launching of the Star Trek animated series was met with both skepticism and protestations by ardent fans that scoffed at the idea of their cultural heroes being reduced to Saturday morning cartoon fodder. But this much maligned and all but forgotten series deserves a second look; there were several very good stories that had the ability to be told in this format that would not have been considered for the live action TV program. Using the animated format allowed the creators to grow Spock to enormous proportions and effectively interact with his comrades; in another episode they were able to shrink each of the crew to the size of a pinky finger; still another episode featured several different alien ships replete with alien crews - something that would have been insurmountable budget-wise on the previous televised series. Additionally D. C. Fontana was prudently retained as the story editor and she was able to get a good number of literate, intelligent scripts from many of the writers that worked on the live action show.

David Gerrold wrote 'More Tribbles, More Troubles' as a sequel to his own classic original series entry 'The Trouble With Tribbles'. It was supposed to have been produced during the third season of that show's run but the director assigned to the task disapproved of "doing Star Trek as comedy" which he firmly believed it wasn't. When the animated series was in pre-production Fontana contacted Gerrold about the possibility of using it on the Saturday morning show and he agreed. This story however isn't nearly as memorable as it's predecessor though Cyrano Jones returns as the scoundrel of a trader with the Klingons in hot pursuit of him. It seems that Jones has stolen a Glommer, a prototype of a Klingon bred predator that devours tribbles, and the Klingons are in desperate need of it as their home world is overrun with the troublesome things. Once again though another shipment of the wheat grain figures in quite improbably; the odds of these two sequences of events happening again simultaneously seems more than astronomical. Also the same humor from the original is repeated nearly verbatim with a few new puns added, and many moments from the original are pictured here as well making this show seem flat and stale by comparison. There is an interesting new Klingon weapon though called a stasis field ray; rendering ships and their weapons systems (including all hand weapons) ineffective the Klingons can now easily defeat anyone. Kirk and crew manage to outsmart their foes of course and punish them righteously and quite humorously in the end.

'The Infinite Vulcan' is one of the very best shows done for the animated series and it was written by original series regular Walter Koenig who was not asked to participate in this Saturday morning revival of the show that made a household name of him. His character was replaced by the odd-appearing three legged and three armed Mr. Areks and voiced by another of the animated series regulars; apparently it was considered a money-saver to do this rather than have paid Koenig for reciting only scant dialogue. His story is quite well written and features two of the most unusual aliens the Enterprise has encountered. Beaming down to the planet Phylos the landing party discovers intelligent plant life as well as beings and an incongruous and rather large human known as Dr. Starros Keniclius 5. The giant doctor turns out to be a long missing and presumed dead geneticist who came to prominence during the Eugenics Wars, first discussed in the original series episode 'Space Seed'. He has been waiting for a perfect specimen for his pet project and it seems that Spock is the unfortunate candidate. The Vulcan is cloned and increased in size enormously and that puts our real Mr. Spock in a very sensitive life and death situation. With only minutes to spare Kirk must reason with the cloned version and save Spock's life. This is a very intriguing and good-looking show, a prime example of what the live action series could not have brought off with much success due to budget limitations.

Just a quick note: When you watch the animated episodes listen closely and you can hear James Doohan voicing several different characters. Occasionally he did as many as four or five separate voices during a half-hour show; he doesn't change his dialect only the tone of his voice so he is easily recognizable.

Of all the original series episodes the Trouble with Tribbles was perhaps one of the most loved; Enough so that it was reprised most recently on Deep Space Nine and earlier in this animated continuation of the original story line. I found it especially hilarious. certain scenes in the video still stick in my mind for example " Mc Coys phrase "these truly are safe tribbles" and the scene reminiscent of the original episode where Captain Kirk gets buried (again) in tribbles. the second episode on the tape Infinate Vulcan is an intiguing concept: combining senscient(Intellegent) plants and cloning. Over and over Gene Roddenberry and the other creators/directors of the Star Trek universe tackle issues of importance to the era they are written/shown in, and they do it in a way that is humerous and gets the point across in a memerable yet not preachy way~ imposed peace-Infinate Vulcan *conservation,instinction- Star Trek IV etc. ~

The first of these two episodes was designed to be a sequel to the classic episode of the original series, "The Trouble With Tribbles", one of the most popular episodes of the series. A Klingon battle cruiser is pursuing a small ship containing Cyrano Jones. Although he is reluctant, Kirk is forced to intervene to save Jones. Kirk then learns that the Klingons are so desperate to get Jones back that they fire on the Enterprise using a new and powerful weapon that damps energy fields. It renders the Enterprise powerless while it is in the grip of the weapon. Fortunately, the Enterprise is escorting two robot ships and Zulu is able to maneuver them to force the Klingons to break off the attack.
As would be expected, Jones has some Tribbles with him, only these are supposed to be safe Tribbles, ones that will not reproduce. However, he fails to tell them that rather than reproducing, these Tribbles will continue to increase in size when they are fed. Jones is also in possession of another creature called a Glommer, which preys on Tribbles. After a respite to recharge their weapon so that the Klingons can continue the attack, Kirk learns that the Klingons are not after Jones, they want the Glommer. The Tribbles have created an ecological disaster on the Klingon planets and they need the Glommer to breed predators to hunt down the numbers. Kirk quickly acquiesces to the Klingons, but not before he is once again engulfed in Tribbles.
In the second episode, the Enterprise travels to the planet Phylos, where there is a species of intelligent plants capable of motion and manipulating objects. Years earlier, a plague was brought to their planet and Dr. Starros Keniclius helped the Phylosians before all were wiped out. A giant clone of him now rules the planet which turns out to be the fourth generation of a clone of the original. Keniclius clones Spock with the goal being to send out an army of giant and intelligent warriors that will bring peace to the galaxy. When the original Keniclius was alive, the Eugenics wars were occurring and the latest generation of Keniclius clones is unaware that the Federation is at peace. The cloning also will kill Spock, but he is saved via a mind meld with his giant clone. The giant Spock agrees to stay on the planet and work with Keniclius to rebuild the Phylosian planet.
The first episode is much more serious than the second and Kirk should have had the sense to ask why the Klingons were willing to risk full-scale war over Cyrano Jones. However, despite this significant plot weakness, the episode is a good one. The second episode is much weaker; the near destruction of the Phylosians should have been dealt with in more detail. As humans move out into space, the possibility of a plague either being transmitted from humans to aliens or from aliens to humans is a significant one. Human history is full of examples of diseases endemic but normal in one population having a high level of fatality in other populations. The existence of the giant clones also is a bit absurd, they would collapse of their own weight and Spock's grows to full size in a matter of minutes.

This is wonderful addition to my collection. The hand drawn cartoon grafics were very funny to watch.

"More Tribbles, More Tribbles" I guess had a good plot, It was fair but "The Infinite Vulcan" was Ok also, wasn't the greatest and wasn't the worst.

More Tribbles More Trobles was really great and funny. The Infinate Vulcan was truly a unique episode!

coo