episode #15 - Eye of the Beholder

Air Date: 1/5/74    written by David P. Harmon

Another superior episode which, while still an animated story well suited for children to absorb, contains sophisticated concepts for adults to appreciate - especially those fans of intelligent science fiction stories. The Enterprise crew are investigating the disappearance of a smaller ship of Starfleet members (an old trope by this time, used a lot in TOS). The landing party (Kirk, Spock, McCoy) beam down to a strange region on an unknown planet - there are wildly different landscapes situated side-by-side (this now resembles Shore Leave to an extent). They are soon captured by huge slug-like creatures who carry them to a recreation of a typical human habitat - where they are meant to live out the rest of their lives? (yes, it's an alien zoo - now this resembles the Twilight Zone episode, People Are Alike All Over).

This episode is constantly intriguing and keeps you guessing. It's also one of the most clever and entertaining takes on the old saying 'Don't Judge a Book by its Cover.'  The hero of the hour turns out to be not one of the landing party but  Scotty up in the Enterprise, where he manages to establish some kind of a relationship with a child member of the slug-like race. This was also the rare animated episode which allowed Shatner to emote in pain, a version of his histrionics in several TOS episodes. But, most of all, this showed how entertaining a Star Trek episode could be, without needing to resort to violence and heavy-duty action to carry the flow. The aliens here, a huge monster and the various locales could not be duplicated on any of the live action shows. BoG's Score: 8.5 out of 10