The Ambergris Element

The Enterprise visits a planet almost completely waterlogged. Apparently, long ago, it had large continents but they were pulled into the sea by volcanic activity and the planet is apparently without life. However, the sensors are wrong and there is at least a giant thingie that attacks the aqua-shuttle. In this attack, Kirk and Spock are lost. However, when they are discovered days later, the pair can no longer breath air but are like aqua-men! How did this happen? Some young Aquans decided to save these air-breathers- --and the older Aquans are unhappy as they all know that air- breathers suck! But, the crew of Enterprise manages to impress them with their niceness and the Aquans help them learn how to restore the Captain and his First Officer.

Once again, we have a horribly animated show with a reasonably entertaining episode, though this one seems more likely to appeal to children than most of the episodes. Not bad...but really ugly when it comes to the animation.

Kirk and Spock are in a submersible shuttle craft investigating a planet that is almost all water. It is subject to severe "earthquakes" that have in the past caused massive amounts of landmass to be lowered into the sea. While skimming the surface and gathering data, the shuttle craft is attacked by a giant sur-snake. They are able to repel the first attack, but when it attacks again, it destroys the shuttle craft. Kirk and Spock are thrown from the craft and when they recover, they are now aquatic, unable to survive on land. To have any hope of being human again, they must go back under water and seek out the intelligent humanoids that live there. After a debate among the leaders of the aquatic creatures, they agree to let Kirk and Spock go to their submerged hall of records to search for information regarding how to transform back. The aquatic creatures are weary of air breathers, for there was apparently hostile feelings between the two groups in the past. The problem with this episode is the ease with which the transformation takes place. There are no side effects or consequential traumas to what would have to be a massive alteration of body structure. The acquisition of the antidote is also a bit overplayed.

Imagine if you could breathe under H2O, the changes to your body that it needs to undergo, then develop some webbed fingers, some places for sea weed to linger, but of course you would lose the ability to blow.

Kirk and Spock evolve into lagoon lubbers after falling foul of a large lizard sea snake painted red.

An excursion into the liquid world is a little different tack for the Enterprise. In this one, the guys use a sea-craft on a planet that is almost all water. In the process, some sort of sea serpent smashes their vehicle against a rock and Spock and Kirk nearly drown. When they are found, the have been transformed into water breathing people. The rest of the episode involves getting the indigenous people to help them be switched back. They are stuck in the old ways, but the young aqua people are more progressive. Gotta cater to the younger crowd who is watching this on Saturday morning.

I would rate writer Margaret Armen's script for "The Ambergris Element" to be a decent, enjoyable, worthy example of how the 1974/1974 "Star Trek: The Animated Series" attempted to translate the universe of Star Trek into a cartoon show. Very good, but not great on the same plane as "Yesteryear", "The Slaver Weapon" and "Beyond The Farthest Star", which to me represent the most successful episodes from the series where everything came together -- The mythology of Star Trek, the commanding presence of the Original Series voice actors, above average writing and a conscious effort to push the envelope of animation in an effort to both capture the flavor of Star Trek in its classic sense and create something new.

All of which are found in this fine episode though the execution was a little clumsy and the synthesis doesn't quite come together. Though they sure gave it the college try and pulled out all the stops, setting up a marvelous adventure where Kirk and Spock are transformed into water breathers after an accident while exploring a planet submerged beneath a global ocean. Unable to exist in a tank in sick bay for the rest of their careers the two set off into the depths to try and find a method to reverse the process.

And come in contact with a civilization of aquatic humanoids living on the ocean floor, an intriguing concept handled well by the animators. Such a scenario could never have been staged during the production run of the original series and its enjoyable seeing Kirk & Spock in a truly alien environment that is at the same time quite familiar looking. The structure of the episode is also quite familiar, with a tribune council of elders, young upstart Aquans threatened with exile to the open seas for helping the two, and a marvelous giant squid beast with six foot fangs who of course turns out to be the crux of the plot's focus.

So all of the elements are there but the results are still a bit stiff and uneven in part due to the scope of the episode's aspirations. This was probably one of the most complex and costly of the Animated Series episodes to produce even with James Doohan providing voice work for nearly every character other than Kirk, Spock, and Bones McCoy. It's a tour-de-force performance by Doohan, the animators, and Armen's script, which like her Original Series episodes "Gamesters of Triskelion" & "The Cloud Minders" features a strong female character who is an equal of Kirk & Spock rather than just another tidbit of alien nookie to be conquered.

So it's still pretty daring stuff for Saturday morning cartoon fare and comes off well enough in relation to the rest of the Animated Series episodes, and is a unique little view of Star Trek in that 90% of the action is set underwater. And if like me you consciously prefer the funky low tech look of 1970s hand-drawn animation this is one eye popping & adventuresome little cartoon show. Even with modern digital animation techniques one would have a difficult time capturing the nuances of such a world and if the cartoon vision presented uses a short-hand approach to depicting its only due to the limitations of the form. It's supposed to look a little stiff, maybe.

Which would be my only complaint about the results, though this has always been a favorite in part due to having been blessed with a box set of Alan Dean Foster's "Star Trek Log" novelizations of the Animated Series stories, this being one of the best of his non-expanded upon straightforward adaptations. Credit for which should go to Margaret Armen for her engaging story, which has some great little Star Trek moments in it. And represents one of the more ambitious attempts at making a functional Star Trek adventure that utilized the limitless possibilities of the animation medium. You can certainly do worse for twenty three minutes of your time, and kids who love Star Trek will of course go nuts.

6/10