Once Upon A Planet

DVD, Star Trek: The Animated Series (Once Upon A Planet)

Another enjoyable segment of Trek in the animated variety, as usual giving us a moral message by the end, this time about using the skills you have (the computer), and serving others not being shameful when it's done with free will - notable for coming from Uhura who knew all about her own people's history of forced servitude. We'd already had one direct sequel to a 'TOS' episode, bringing back the Tribbles and Klingons, and this is another one. A sequel to the pleasure planet story 'Shore Leave,' with all its weird happenings as thoughts were turned into reality by the complex robotics and computing power of a planet dedicated to the enjoyment of its visitors. Now we learn the old Keeper, as he's called here (originally the Caretaker, not to be confused with the Sporocystian life form of 'Voyager'), has died in the intervening years since the Enterprise last visited, and his computer has gone haywire. There's no indication that the computer itself killed off its master, it must have created the memorial to him that stands in the woods and features an inscription in multiple languages, but it's certainly got its wires crossed as it believes it's been kept in bondage and is now revolting under the false assumption that machine is master of man and so the visitors that came to sample its recreations were mere slaves of the 'sky ships,' their masters. It wants to break free from the planet and head out into the unknown to meet its brother computers!

Artificial intelligence is a good source of fiction, but this computer was a bit dim if it didn't realise that it had been built by organic hands, as had the other machines that visited. It was a bit like V'Ger and its own confusion over the carbon units infesting USS Enterprise in 'The Motion Picture,' so there may have been some inspiration for that from this story. Kirk doesn't exactly talk the computer to death as he had on 'TOS' so many times before, and in fact it's a multiple-prong strategy as he, Spock and Uhura all chip in with the truth about the computer's misconceptions. It accepts the logic and everything's happy in the end because rather than Kirk suggest that man rules over its creations, men and machines coexist, so maybe that's the way to deal with uppity AI if it starts to get bothered about doing what it does. Although, if it did have this desire to reach out into the galaxy maybe it's harsh to force it to remain in a cage, even one the size of a planet? They get around this by saying other machines and computers will come from all around to it, but then that's what had always happened, so maybe they should have suggested it request ships dock on the planet or form some kind of communication so it can trade stories or whatever with the visiting computer systems. On the other hand maybe they were setting up something terrible that would spread ideas of self-determination throughout the space lanes!

It's only a cartoon so it's not going to pry too deeply (unlike Mr. Scott who somehow was able to pry open a computer cover on the Enterprise with a crowbar while being weightless when the whole ship had no gravity!), but it does raise questions, more than you might expect from a kiddies' Saturday morning throwaway, which may be why it still works today - it tried to be more than that, something it could teach modern Trek a few things about! Being a cartoon it has the advantage of doing things that 'TOS' would have found difficult, if not impossible on their limited time and budget: we see all kinds of flying things, from pterodactyls (the cries of which were reused from 'The Infinite Vulcan'), to the planetary computer's drones to, most spectacularly, the whole ship losing gravity and everyone floating around on the Bridge! Imagine pulling that off in a 60s TV show… We also get a rare sighting of seatbelts on the Bridge chairs to stop the crew floating away from their stations, something the lack of has become a slight running joke over the years (see the deleted scene in 'Star Trek Nemesis'), but that has been avoided for the sake of drama most of the time - they like to have people cast out of their seats and rolling across the deck during an attack!

There are a couple of instances of actors talking to themselves, something very occasionally experienced by Majel Barrett since she was the computer voice in much of Trek while also playing other roles. Here, she's the one that never does that as she only plays the purring M'Ress, a fun character to hear. Uhura and Alice in Wonderland talk to each other and are both voiced by Nichols, while Scotty talks to Arex, both voiced by Doohan. He also plays the voice of the planetary computer, and it was a good episode for him as Scotty also gets to be in charge and sit in the Captain's Chair again. All the characters are well used with McCoy and Sulu together on the planet (when the Doctor sees a large house it looked like a rat or hedgehog creeping across the road in the distance, but it must have just been a speck of dust on the animation cels!), even recalling specific events from 'Shore Leave.' Other links include Uhura singing (no doubt deliberately nonspecific so as to avoid any royalties issues), a giant cat like 'Catspaw' (this time a ginger tom), we get to see inside the Hangar Bay (which has other craft, not just the usual Shuttles), and a 'Phaser Bore' which sounded like the large Laser weapon used by Pike's crew in 'The Cage' to try and cut through rock, though when Scotty tries to beam it down it looks more like a Phaser Rifle.

We see where 'DSC' got its stuff about Spock's Mother being fond of the works of Lewis Carroll, an example of that series' predilection for non-canon references to this series and the novels. The same could be said of Control in 'DSC' Season 2, which was from the books, but here we have a similar idea of AI taking over and thinking it wants to rule the galaxy, getting other computers (the Enterprise), to make more computers, which was creepy. Though it does have a few ideas and is generally fun it isn't quite as satisfactory from an adult perspective as others have been, and would suit child viewers more, I suspect, but it continues to be a pleasure to see those familiar characters and their environs in the unique art style of the series - they even slightly recreated the same place where they beamed down in 'Shore Leave,' which was beautiful.

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