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Star Trek TAS - Season 1 - Episode 04

Star Trek TAS - 1x04 - The Lorelei Signal

Originally Aired: 1973-9-29

Synopsis:
The Enterprise enters an uncharted sector of space where Federation and Klingon vessels have been reported missing every 27 years. [Blu-ray] [DVD]

My Rating - 4

Fan Rating Average - 3.35

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Problems
- Nurse Chapel's uniform switches from blue, to red, then back to blue again when she beams down to the planet.

Factoids
None

Remarkable Scenes
- All the men being "summoned" by the signal.
- Uhura taking command of the Enterprise.
- Scotty singing in the captain's chair.
- Uhura: "Mr. Scott, as senior Luitennant I'm taking responsibility for the safetey of this ship." Scotty: "Very thoughtful of ya, love."
- Uhura's attack squad kicking some ass!
- Uhura: "Release captain Kirk and his men or we will destroy your temple!"
- Kirk: "Beam us up Scotty!" Another very close line to the famous and much parodied but never actually uttered, "Beam me up Scotty!"

My Review
An episode where the women take command because all the men are incapacitated is a nice change of pace, and certainly comically valuable. This episode features yet another alien race that looks exactly like humans though. Something almost totally unforgivable now that it can no longer be blamed on makeup for aliens being expensive. It's nice that Nurse Chapel's affection for Spock is once again revisited, creating some good continuity. Once again, the transporter is used to reduce aging, which annoys me. Spock says their chances of living through the procedure are extremely low, which makes up for any potential miracle cures for general aging, but once again our heroes beat the impossible odds. Just like they do with the slingshot effects, the life support belts, and half a dozen other things!

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

  • From CAlexander on 2011-04-07 at 2:44pm:
    Amusing to see the women finally get to do something. But not a very sophisticated episode. I practically predicted the whole plot just from the name.

    - I too am annoying by the transporter de-aging effect. Totally unnecessary to the plot, just an attempt to milk some extra drama.

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