Axiom’s Edge Science Fiction and Fantasy

(Continuing our Summer of Star Trek series)

By John J. Joex

Rating: 3 out of 5 Stars

Star Trek: The Animated Series has long been the red-headed step-child of that iconic franchise. The series came into existence in response to the phenomena that developed around the original series when it blossomed in syndication after its initial cancellation by NBC. The animated version continued directly from the original series with most of the same characters and cast in place and even used the same series “bible” as a guideline for writers. And though NBC wanted to do a more Saturday Morning friendly version with kids taking active roles on the bridge of the Enterprise, Gene Rodenberry dug in his heals and insisted on following generally the same path as the live action version. Despite this, many Star Trek fans simply dismiss the series and consider the twenty two episodes that it produced as apocryphal.

That is of course unfortunate, because the series is really not that bad. It brought back the majority of the original actors to voice their characters, it continued the basic premise of the original series, and it carried over several of the writers from the original series such as David Gerrold, D.C. Fontana, and Samuel A. Peeples. And even though it ran on Saturday mornings, it still attempted to present intelligent stories that did not pander or talk down to its audience.

That said, the series still had several hurdles to overcome. Filmation, the company that produced it, was known for cutting corners which often resulted in sub-standard animation (though the artwork at times was quite impressive). The scripts often seemed more like story-sketches, that hurried through their premise, contained plot holes or leaps of logic, and did not always provide a sufficient build-up to the episode’s ending. And some scripts were just plain bad, hardly distinguishing themselves from the kiddie-fare that the series aired next to.

Still, the show gave fans the chance to return to the “Shore Leave” planet, catch up with Harry Mud and Cyrano Jones (and his tribbles), and the chance to look back at Spock’s childhood. Fans of the original series jonesing for more adventures from their favorite Starfleet officers in the early seventies got at least a small fix from this show. And going back and revisiting the episodes on DVD reveals that they have held up much better than I would have thought. Among the stand-out episodes we have “Yesteryear” in which Spock visits himself as a child, “The Slaver Weapon” written by noted Science Fiction author Larry Niven, “More Tribbles, More Troubles” in which the furry creatures return, and “The Infinite Vulcan” (written by Walter Koenig) which gives as a more credible take on the original series episode “Spock’s Brain”.

Most of the original cast voiced their characters, though Walter Koenig (Chekov) did not make the cut because Filmation had to keep casting costs down (as mentioned, though, he did get the chance to pen an episode). In addition to their own characters, James Doohan (Scotty) and Majel Barrett (Christine Chapel) also voiced many of the other characters that appeared in the episodes. The familiar voices, of course, helped with the continuity between the original series and its animated follow-up and the usually well-written stories kept the show a notch or two above its Saturday Morning competition.

At less than $20 on Amazon.com and including a decent “Making Of” documentary, this one is worth a second look from diehard Trek fans and/or should provide a nice bit of nostalgia for those who have fond memories of watching the show back in the 70’s.

Star Trek Sculpture from Collectibles Today

(Continuing our Summer of Star Trek series)

By John J. Joex

I’m not a big fan of DVD sets that collect together episodes already available in other sets.  However, with the Star Trek franchise, I can see the logic in this move as it spans six different television incarnations and over 700 total episodes.  So you may get someone like myself who is a huge fan of the original series, but who is not as enamored of its sequels and may only want to own a sampling of episodes from those series on DVD.  In this respect, the Star Trek Fan Collective sets serve their purpose (though it completely ignores the animated series).  Of course anybody can pick out a handful of episodes from each series, but can they pick really good episodes that make it worth buying the sets even though you may have several of the episodes in your DVD library?  That’s what I have taken upon myself to determine as I have looked through the selections from the six sets currently available in this series.  I will address each collection separately and, instead of my usual number rating system, I will give a final judgment on whether I think it is worth shelling out the money for considering the possibility that you may already have some of the episodes in your collection.
(View the complete list of episodes available on each set)

Available at Amazon.com

Alternate Realities:
Mirror/Parallel Universe episodes are always good, no matter which incarnation of the series you are watching.  And this collection has them all.  “Mirror, Mirror”, from TOS is the best with the Enterprise two-parter “In a Mirror Darkly” following close behind.  The DS9 forays into that alternate dimension are worth checking out as well.  Unfortunately, TNG never did a Mirror Universe episode, but to make up for that we have the fantastic alternate timeline episode “Yesterday’s Enterprise” instead.  In addition, TNG episodes “Parallels” and “Frame of Mind” are good representations from that series.  In fact, most of the rest of the episodes give us good examples of how the various Trek incarnations twisted reality, but someone please tell me what TOS episode “Turnabout Intruder” is doing here.  That’s not an alternate reality episode (a vindictive former lover switches bodies with Kirk), and it has to rank as one of the worst episodes in the Star Trek canon.  In addition, TOS episode “The Alternative Factor” is pretty much just taking up space and “The Enemy Within”, while definitely a good episode, seems out of place.  Still, overall this one gives us a decent collection of Trek highlights and has the most episodes of the six sets. (Note that this is not officially considered one the Fan Collective sets, but I’m including it here anyway.)
Value: Worth the money

Available at Amazon.com

Klingon:
It’s hard to go wrong with Klingon-centric episodes, unless of course you are talking about the horrid “Father Worf Knows Best” ones which fortunately this collection chooses to ignore.  Part of the reason Klingon episodes tend to shine among the Star Trek canon is that they almost always center around conflict, something that from TNG on they often shied away from (for more of what I think about that, see my ranking of the Star Trek series).  For the most part, this collection picks the better Klingon episodes, though they could have selected better examples from TOS.  Sure, “Errand of Mercy” is required because that episode introduced the Klingons, but “Trouble with Tribbles”, despite being an all-time best Trek episode, seems out of place here.  Sure, it had Klingons, but “A Private Little War” would have fit better.  Even “Day of the Dove” would have provided a better Klingon-centric episode.  Yeah, it was a pretty ridiculous story, but it was great fun watching the swordplay between the Enterprise crew and the Klingons.  And while I realize that “Trials and Tribble-ations”, another great ep, is here to bookend “Trouble with Tribbles”, it already made it to the Time Travel set and seems superfluous here.  Still, overall a decent set.
Value: Worth the money

Available at Amazon.com

Borg:
Borg episodes are almost always worth a look as well, as they are truly a comparable in villain status to the Klingon.  The Borg collective only visited TNG and Voyager, though, so of course this set sticks to those two series.  “Regeneration” seems kind of pointless because it only suggests the presence of the Borg, and it was really quite a lame episode.  But apparently they are shooting for a complete collection of Borg-related episodes, thus the reason for its inclusion.  The rest of the episodes all shine, though, with TNG’s “The Best of Both Worlds” delivering a high point for the Trek Franchise (and conflict among Starfleet officers!) and “Scorpion” introducing one of the more interesting Trek regulars, Seven of Nine.  So if you want to stroll down memory lane with the collective, give this one a look.
Value: Worth the money (if you like the Borg)

Available at Amazon.com

Q:
John de Lancie as Q gave us one of the best foils of all time for our favorite Starfleet officers.  He fit the role perfectly and you could just tell that he absolutely loved playing the character.  He chewed up the scenery in every episode he appeared in and brought life to the screen next to the overly stiff Starfleet personnel he interacted with.  That said, Q episodes could be really good or really bad.  For example, the TNG premiere “Encounter at Farpoint” gave us one of the all-time best Trek episodes, but later in the first season “Hide & Q” really misfired (except for de Lancie’s performance).  And the less said about “Q-Pid”, the better (with the exception of an all-time great Worf line: ” Sir, I protest – I am NOT a merry man!”).  Is the set worth getting?  Well it does have some of the best Trek episodes (only from TNG, DS9, and Voyager, though, as Q never visited TOS or Enterprise).  And I would say that the good heavily overshadows the bad, so it’s worth considering.
Value: Pick it up if you have some extra money

Available at Amazon.com

Time Travel:
As a device in Science Fiction, time travel usually leads to really good stories or really bad ones.  In fact, if you have been reading my Sci Fi TV Briefs column this past season or my recent piece on the new Trek movie’s temporal foibles, you will know already know about my aversion to the time travel story telling device.  Still, this collection gives us more of the good examples of time travel stories than the bad.  TOS episode “The City on the Edge of Forever” regularly ranks as one of the franchise’s best, and the other TOS selection “Tomorrow is Yesterday” is a solid entry as well.  TNG’s “Yesterday’s Enterprise” (available in the Alternate Realities set) and “Cause and Effect” are also excellent episodes, though I considered “Time’s Arrow” a significant drop-off in quality for that series.  DS9’s “Little Green Men” just annoyed me, though “Trials and Tibble-ations” gave us yet another Trek classic episode (though you can find that one on the Klingon set).  As far as the Voyager episodes, I can pretty much take them or leave them (the way I feel about that series in general).  So a lot like the Q collection, this set gives us some episodes that really shine along with a few clunkers, but it lacks the charisma of de Lancie’s presence and duplicates entries from other sets, which knocks it down a rung in value.
Value: Buy this one on sale

Available at Amazon.com

Captain’s Log:
This collection moves me the least.  You would expect some good selections since the actor’s playing the captain in each series each pick their favorite episodes and fans get to chime in with their favorites as well.  The TOS episodes are decent picks, though I’m surprised that “The Enterprise Incident” made it over any of a number of stronger possibilities.  From there on, though, few of the other selections really jump out for me as among the “best” for each series with maybe the exception of TNG’s “Chain of Command”.  Now I will admit that it has been awhile since I have seen most of the non-TOS episodes listed here, thus I am a bit rusty on them, but still with each series I can come up with at least half a dozen other episodes that I felt were better.  So while this might give you a good sampling of each series, with selections from the actors involved and the fans, I would not personally call this a good Star Trek “Greatest Hits” compilation (it’s more like one of those bargain-bin ones you find at the used record store).
Value: Pass and search out the better episodes on Netflix

Buy the Collected Collective at Amazon.com:

Collectible Star Trek: Guardians Of The Federation Starship Enterprise Figurine Collection