Season 2
CBS All Access (Original TV network: NBC)
October 12, 1974
Run Time: 24 minutes
Episode 6 – “The Counter-Clock Incident”
The Enterprise, complete with a dignitary, the first captain, Commodore April, of the Enterprise (not Pike), encounters a ship traveling toward them and a Supernova at an unbelievably fast speed — warp 34. Captain Kirk tries to hail the ship, but they aren’t responding, so they put a tractor beam on it, barely slowing it down to warp 32. The captain of the other ship speaks in a language they don’t understand. They realize the language is running in reverse. They play the message in reverse and hear the captain saying the Enterprise is interfering with an important mission.
The alien ship ends up pulling them inside the Beta Naobi system in an unusual reverse time universe.
Summary
Commodore April being named as the first captain of the Enterprise is a bit jarring if you’re familiar with Captain Pike in the Original Series. Obviously, this wasn’t canon. Also, it’s another time travel of sorts story and, unfortunately, Star Trek has too many of those. The difference here, is they don’t actually visit a place in the past, they just travel so fast that time moves differently, which is scientifically accurate. Everybody grows younger, which will remind of several other plotlines.
Mrs. April’s voice is clearly Nichelle Nichols (Uhura) which is distracting. I’ve noticed that James Doohan and Nichelle Nichols voiced extra characters, but their voices were disguised poorly. This had me thinking a different character was talking.
This episode, at least for Star Trek, seems cliched, even for the 70s, but other movies would use the same concept later (Benjamin Button). It’s an interesting and entertaining episode, despite the story not feeling as fresh as it probably was in the 70s. I don’t remember seeing this episode before.. It’s just ok, but not recommended.
This is the last of the 22 episodes of Star Trek: The Animated Series for us to review. Despite a few weak episodes, somewhat outdated animation it was nice to hear the original series crew voicing the characters. I wish they would hae gotten some more guest stars, because it feels a little low budget sometimes, but overall, it’s too bad they didn’t make more than 22 episodes. The series overall is well worth checking out.
Episode rating: ⭐️⭐️½
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