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Synopsis: After going through an energy field, the Enterprise’s computer starts playing practical jokes on her crew. In this episode, after traveling through an energy field, the computer that runs the Enterprise, the ultimate representation of the Logos– driven rational, conscious ego, starts acting irrationally. This is a shock to her crew, who usually consider… Continue reading Star Trek: The Animated Series Season 2, Episode 3: “The Practical Joker”

Synopsis: A visiting Federation observer judges the performance of the crew of the Enterprise. In this episode there is a bit of a turnaround from the normal perspective, as the crew of the Enterprise have taken aboard an independent observer who stands in judgment of them. Here, unlike in most episodes, it is the observer,… Continue reading Star Trek: The Animated Series Season 2, Episode 2: “Bem”

Synopsis: An Orion ship steals medicine Mr. Spock needs to recover from a fatal illness. In this episode Mr. Spock is inflicted with an illness that if left untreated is fatal to Vulcans, and the one drug that will save him is stolen by a crew of Orions before it reaches the Enterprise. The Enterprise… Continue reading Star Trek: The Animated Series Season 2, Episode 1: “The Pirates of Orion”

Synopsis: Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock agree to go on a secret mission to recover a religious relic. This episode from 1974 bears a title “The Jihad,” which has gained much emotional resonance in a post 9/11 world. When Captain James T. Kirk and Mr. Spock are summoned by the Vedala, the oldest space voyaging… Continue reading Star Trek: The Animated Series Season 1, Episode 16: “The Jihad”

Synopsis: When trying to determine why Starfleet has lost contact with Federation scientists, Captain Kirk, Mr. Spock and Dr. McCoy beam down to a planet, are captured, and find themselves on display in a zoo. This episode is a physical manifestation of what happens to the conscious ego when it finds out that it is… Continue reading Star Trek: The Animated Series Season 1, Episode 15: “The Eye of the Beholder”

Synopsis: “Mr. Spock, Lt. Sulu, and Lt. Uhura meet Kzintis, and a confrontation incurs over the contents of a Slaver stasis box. In Mr. Spock’s log, which sets up the mission for this episode, he records that the Slaver stasis box that is being transported to a Starbase was found on Kzin by archeologists. Yet… Continue reading Star Trek: The Animated Series Season 1, Episode 14: “The Slaver Weapon”

Synopsis: While exploring a planet that’s land mass has become uninhabitable, Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock are modified to become able to live in water. In “The Ambergris Element” the water in which Captain James T. Kirk and Mr. Spock find themselves can be seen as representing the unconscious. And Kirk and Spock as symbolizing… Continue reading Star Trek: The Animated Series Season 1, Episode 13: “The Ambergris Element”

Synopsis: The Enterprise disappears into the Delta Triangle and must work with the crew of a Klingon Battle Cruiser to escape Elysia. There are powerful depth psychological and mythical messages in this short, animated episode. The mythological element comes from the idea of Elysia, a location where crews from spacecraft that have disappeared from the… Continue reading Star Trek: The Animated Series Season 1, Episode 12: “The Time Trap”

Synopsis: The Enterprise is sent on a mission to map a burned-out super nova and is exposed to radiation that shrinks the crew. This episode has much in common with the episode “Wink of an Eye” from the third season of Star Trek: The Original Series. In my earlier blog on that episode, I compared… Continue reading Star Trek: The Animated Series Season 1, Episode 11: “The Terratin Incident”

Synopsis: The Enterprise is sent to the Arcadian Star System to locate Harry Mudd. In “Mudd’s Passion” once again Harry Mudd is found on a planet trying to sell something that will bring love. This time a crystal, which actually does what he says it will, it breaks down the defenses of the conscious ego… Continue reading Star Trek: The Animated Series Season 1, Episode 10: “Mudd’s Passion”