A l t e r E g o 9 Posted October 2, 2003 Star Trek: The Animated Series #7 The Infinite Vulcan Written by: Walter Koenig Directed by: Hal Sutherland Airdate: Oct. 20, 1973 Stardate: 5554.4 Synopsis On the recently-discovered planet Phylos, the U.S.S. Enterprise crew meets Dr. Keniclius, a scientist who survived Earth's Eugenic Wars. The Phylosians abduct Spock so that Keniclius can make a giant clone of him with the intention of forcing peace on the galaxy. This episode mentioned the Kzinti race, which was a tie-in to "The Slaver Weapon" and to Larry Niven's Known Space Universe. This episode's writer, Walter Koenig, originally played Ensign Pavel Chekov on the Original STAR TREK series and also starred in the semi-regular role of Alfred Bester, the highly placed member of Earth's Psi Corps on Babylon 5. This episode had a major tie-in with the original series episode "Space Seed" in that Dr. Keniclius was one of the genetic supermen created in the Eugenics war of 1996. In this episode, Kirk referred to the concept of IDIC (Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations), a tie-in to the original series episode "Is There In Truth No Beauty?" In this episode, flying plant creatures menace the Enterprise landing party. The animation drawings of the creature were reused by Filmation artists to create the purple flying lizard-like creatures that menaced the Enterprise landing party in "The Eye of the Beholder". Another example of similar life forms evolving on different planets. This episode had a production error: While Spock was being held captive on the planet's surface, a brief overview shot of the bridge showed Spock at his station. Contrary to common belief, in no STAR TREK episode or movie did Captain Kirk ever say, "Beam me up, Scotty." However, in this animated episode he came close when he said, "Kirk to Enterprise. Beam us up, Scotty." The Retlaw plant seen in this episode was named for the show's writer. ("Retlaw" is "Walter" spelled backwards). Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
trekz 7 Posted March 14, 2005 Nice summary of another very appealing episode. Did not know, or remember, that Walter had written this episode. A giant Spock was a very fun element. The tie-ins with TOS are very interesting in the history of Trek. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites