Albatross

DVD, Star Trek: The Animated Series (Albatross)

One of the least outlandish episodes of the series, this doesn't deal with wacky aliens or weird phenomena, it's about as close to a realistic example of 'TOS' as I can remember. It does become a little more 'TAS' towards the end, what with skin colour-changing viruses and auroras affecting people, but for the most part this is a serious diplomatic story: after a successful visit to Dramia, Dr. McCoy is accused of being responsible for a deadly plague on Dramia II nineteen years previous, arrested, and it's all legal. The Dramians are seven foot tall yellow gargoyles, which would seem to be in typical 'TAS' style as way-out aliens, but it's all about how you present things, not the look (something modern Trek could learn a thing or two about), and they speak in normal voices about grounded subjects such as legal ramifications and such. In short, they're aliens you can take seriously as well as being fascinating to look at. They had similarities on a superficial level to Talosians thanks to their long shape and bulbous heads (which also had significant individuality), and reminded me of some of the background aliens of later Trek (specifically one of the aliens of 'DS9' sometimes seen on the Promenade or in Quarks Bar, and also on 'Enterprise,' another Nosferatu-like gargoyle face), while being distinctive in their own right for the yellow skin colour.

Scotty's all for breaking McCoy out, which is amusing in the light of 'Star Trek V,' coming fifteen years later, wherein Scotty was the one who did perform an actual jailbreak to rescue Kirk, Spock and McCoy from the Enterprise's Bridge! It also gave a different complexion to McCoy's annoyed line at the end when he tells Kirk if he's ever in jail again don't send that Vulcan to release him, just let him rot, and even expresses dismay at the time, actually saying 'it's a jailbreak,' to Spock! But it does have a serious side, too, as McCoy is doubting himself, feeling guilty that maybe he was responsible for this plague that killed so many and wants to go through with the trial. It's mentioned that Dramian trials and justice aren't the best (which makes you wonder why the Federation is friendly towards them), or something along those lines, but he doesn't seem to care in the worries of his conscience about even the possibility. It's reassuring to see someone go through a crisis of confidence like that, ready to cast himself upon apparent justice if there's even the possibility he did something wrong, an inspiring attitude so different to most people today who would do whatever it took to avoid accepting guilt and wriggle out of punishment, and shows how much the doctor cares for his patients and profession.

Kirk starts out very accepting of the legality of the situation that the Dramians have taken McCoy into custody, but of course he's keen to do some investigating of his own, which is when he starts to be more open to bending the rules or tricking Dramians to get at the truth - when Commander Deemos trails them he allows him to get aboard clandestinely so as to trap him and complete his objective, which is to visit Dramia II and find evidence. This is where the series betrays its more simplistic writing for a child's audience: would Deemos not be suspicious when the Enterprise's Hangar doors open while they're travelling in space, just in time for him to enter? And what about sensors, both internal and external, does he not realise how sensitive and aware a Starfleet starship is? No matter, the important thing is to find out whether McCoy really is responsible or not, and they find an ally on the planet, Kol-ti, who survived the plague and remembers the doctor with affection for curing him of Saurian virus (perhaps the same thing we see in 'Discovery' when Linus the Saurian was first introduced?). He reasons that a man that would cure would not also destroy (though he's forgetting it could be a mistake on McCoy's part rather than deliberate).

I wondered why they were giving so many seconds to a shot of the Enterprise travelling through this brightly coloured aurora on the way back to Dramia, putting it down to simply saving on budget by making the shot last as long as possible, but it comes up as a plot point a little later. This is where Spock also bends the rules, well, actually he flat out breaks them in a rescue of McCoy, since the whole crew have gone down with the plague. This is also where it comes closest to being much more 'TAS,' with everyone but Spock going blue (Vulcans being immune), then eventually green as they succumb. Spock's put in charge and orders 'General Order 6' which means the ship will self-destruct twenty-four hours after the crew have died to prevent anyone else from catching it. Unsurprisingly, this particular General Order was never used in canon Trek, the closest being the best known Order 1 (the Prime Directive of noninterference), and Order 7, preventing anyone from contacting Talos IV, with the only death penalty sanctioned in the Federation as punishment (totally ignored in 'DSC'), but I like that they include some Trek speak like this to further ground the episode in its own universe.

Spock performs his one man rescue mission (using a nerve pinch on the guard), McCoy agreeing to return to the ship to cure this plague, in the process realising the aurora was responsible, not him, and using Saurian virus to take out the plague, happily. Everyone but Spock and McCoy change colour - though the doctor also changes, but it's not part of the story: in the Transporter Room at the end he's shown wearing a gold shirt instead of his correct Medical blue, as they occasionally (and bizarrely), do by mistake for various characters throughout this series. It's a pretty conventional story, but is one of those that functions correctly, shows the crew doing what a crew is supposed to, rather than being sarcastic or insubordinate, they're members of a team doing their duty soberly and sensibly. These are core values of Trek too often missing from the current generation of TV series' and it's worrying that a children's cartoon from the Seventies with a limited budget can get it more right than the most up to date writing and prestige production of today!

The whole crew is present and correct, well, not M'Ress, but Arex, though he doesn't speak, and nor does Nurse Chapel, but nice to see her. As ever, James Doohan takes on some of the guest voices as the Supreme Prefect of Dramia and Kol-ti, but not Deemos or the prison guard, I think. Uhura and Sulu both get lines from their usual stations on the Bridge, so it does end up feeling like a 'TOS' episode. They even use one of the upper screens on the Bridge, which I always like to see, giving new depth to the technology that sometimes seemed stationary. I wouldn't say it was among the finest of 'TAS' stories, but I appreciated its largely serious subject matter, the aliens are good designs and there's a frisson of history, though I'd have liked to have learned more about McCoy's past, such as what ship he was serving on nineteen years before, even if it wasn't actually canon - had it been a 'TOS' episode with greater running time I suspect they'd have included a little more detail. The title comes from the idea of an albatross hanging round someone's neck, guilt they can't shake off, from 'The Rime of The Ancient Mariner' by Coleridge, so there are even poetic allusions, however basic.

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