Star Trek: The Animated Series

[A l t e r E g o 9]

Star Trek: The Animated Series

Episode #4 The Lorelei Signal

Written by: Margaret Armen

Directed by: Hal Sutherland

Airdate: Sept. 29, 1973

Stardate: 5483.7

Synopsis

Investigating a sector of space where starships have disappeared every 27 years, the U.S.S. Enterprise finds a race of beautiful women who survive by drawing the energy from the male members of the ships that they have lured to their planet.

Guest Characters:

Theela Majel Barrett

Dara Nichelle Nichols

Computer Voice Nichelle Nichols

Security Officer Davison Nichelle Nichols

Security Officer Carver James Doohan

In this episode Uhura assumed command of the ship when all the men aboard the Enterprise become distracted by the telepathic signal sent by the women of Taurus II.

In her 1994 autobiography, "Beyond Uhura - STAR TREK and Other Memories", Nichelle Nichols states that she remembered the Animated STAR TREK series fondly and was particularly enamoured of this episode chiefly because in it Uhura had a large and important role.

Lorelei was a Rhine River water nymph whose siren song drew sailors to crash upon the rocks from the story "Lore Lay" written by Klemens Brentano, which was later turned into a poem by Heinrich Heine.

There was a visual error in this episode: when Chapel beamed down to Taurus II, she was wearing a red uniform.

The planet Taurus II was the same planet that the Galileo Shuttlecraft crashed landed on in the original series episode "The Galileo Seven."

This episode's author, Margaret Armen also wrote another Animated STAR TREK episode "The Ambergris Element". She also wrote script's for the original STAR TREK episodes "The Gamesters of Triskelion", "The Paradise Syndrome" and "The Cloud Minders."

This idea of a race of females luring males to their planet for a nefarious purpose, was used again in the March 1997 STAR TREK: Voyager episode "Favorite Son".