1. Beyond the Farthest Star
This episode sees the ship far out in space where it encounters a long-dead starship stuck in orbit around a dead star. With another alien entity hijacking the ship and foiled again by Kirk's tactical genius, it's very Trek by numbers, just animated in what seems to be a rather cheap style.
6/10
2. Yesteryear
While an interesting exploration of Vulcan youth, it's rather let down by a casual approach to the bootstrap paradox and time travel more generally. Also, more by a rather flat performance by 9-year-old Billy Simpson. Not his fault; his audition tape was used in the final cut, seemingly to save the cost of a 2nd recording session!
6/10
3. One of Our Planets is Missing
A race against time that goes rather quickly - there's some rather quick jumps in the course of single scenes - and the cheapness is rather obvious. Getting the computer to do the voice of the space cloud means that you don't have to hire a guest actor for one thing. This said, it's a well-written story overall and would have worked well as an audio drama. I did find myself wondering if they were planning to fly out the cloud's backside, which isn't something I thought I would write.
7/10
4. The Lorelei Signal
Another classical reference, although I had to actually look it up to see what it was - a 'siren' living in the rock of the same name on the Rhine in Germany. This is definitely an engaging episode, although possibility a bit clichéd and arguably sexist too in a way. What saves it a great deal is Uhura, who stands up and takes command when white-haired beautiful aliens aim to steal the lifeforce from the mostly helpless men. I'm reminded of "Hathor" from Stargate SG-1, where a similar thing happens - also of a few episodes of Doctor Who as well.
7/10
5. More Tribbles, More Troubles
Tribbles made for one of the most memorable episodes of The Original Series and have made no less than 20 appearances in the franchise to date, even if only as a cameo. The reappearance of Cyrano Jones, Stanley Adams, reprising his role, is admittedly somewhat limited by the cheap animation, but the whole thing is rather made up for by an excellent plot, with some clever Kirk tactics, some great humour ("throw tribbles at them") and the Klingons having a rather valid reason for their actions. A lot of fun all round.
9/10
6. The Survivor
The crew pick up a long-lost philanthropist by the unusual name of Carter Winston (voiced by an uncredited Ted Knight) - and just happens to have his fiancée on board. It turns out that Winston is definitely not what he appears and the Enterprise ends up in a pretty sticky situation, which Kirk manages to expertly get his way out of. Not the best episode of the run (especially in its depiction of the fiancée) but it still works pretty well. Spock gets an excellent zinger at the end.
7/10
7. The Infinite Vulcan
Filmation were too tight to hire Walter Koenig and have Chekov appear in this series, but they did have him write an episode. It's a story in scope that would stretch the budget of even the modern show and would require extensive Volume work to realise there. In animation that can be done much cheaper. It's actually a pretty good one too - with a tie-back to the Eugenics Wars, the second reference to "Indefinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations" (a mantra of the franchise) and Sulu having a lot to do as well.
8/10
8. The Magicks of Magas-Tu
[My entry here got lost somehow and I can't find my notes about this one. I recall I made jokes about "Sympathy for the Devil. If I find them I will edit this.]
9. Once Upon A Planet
A sequel to "Shore Leave" from Season 1 of TOS, which I reviewed here. This episode, with creatures created as a resort of thoughts from the characters interpreted by a computer with a misguided impression of its visitors, put me rather in mind of Rick & Morty. Of course, that show would do it in a rather different manner and with far more crudity. We actually get a pretty decent episode here, with everyone getting something useful to do. Although who wears uniform on shore leave?
8/10
10. Mudd's Passion
I'm not a fan of love potions, which I consider a fancier form of GHB. So, I wasn't disposed to this story involving one Harcourt Fenton Mudd (dressed like he's heading for a discotheque) as soon as it started heading that way. It's a pretty poor Nurse Chapel, as she does something that I am pretty sure the SNW version of her would never do and the whole plot involves a couple of vials of liquid somehow managing to affect an entire ship that should have toxin protections in its life support system. Mudd does not turn up again until Discovery in 2017, which makes sense as most of the later shows are set long after he would have died.
3/10
