A l t e r E g o 9 Posted October 25, 2003 Star Trek: The Animated Series #9 Once Apon A Planet Episode 9 Written by: Chuck Menville and Len Janson Directed by: Hal Sutherland Airdate: Nov. 3, 1973 Stardate: 5591.2 Synopsis Arriving at the "amusement park" planet for some relaxation, the Enterprise finds that the planet's keeper is now dead and the untended machinery is constructing dangerous images from the crew members' thoughts. Guest Characters: Amusement Park Computer George Takei Gabler James Doohan White Rabbit James Doohan Alice Nichelle Nichols Queen of Hearts Majel Barrett Notes: This episode was a sequel to the Original STAR TREK series episode "Shore Leave" by Theodore Sturgeon. A scene in this episode showed the interior of the Enterprise hanger deck. Visible in the hangar deck was a heavy shuttle (as seen in "Mudd's Passion"), and a long range shuttle (as seen in "The Slaver Weapon"). In this episode, the date of the Caretaker's death could be read off of the gravestone: "7009th year of operation." An accomplished singer, Nichelle Nichols as Lieutenant Uhura, sang in this episode as she had done in a number of original STAR TREK episodes. In this episode, she vocalized for almost 40 seconds. This episode's co-writer, Chuck Menville, also wrote another animated STAR TREK episode "The Practical Joker". Chuck Menville, along with Len Janson, also wrote for several other Filmation series from 1969 to 1976. In this and other episodes, the sciences insignia erroneously appeared on red uniforms. The correct spelling of this episode's co-writer is Janson. All episode guides of the animated STAR TREK universally mispelled his name as Jenson. This episode had a visual error: the hangar deck doors opened from one side, while in the animated episode "Albatross" and the original series, the doors open from the center like a sideways clam shell. Another visual error: McCoy's tricorder strap disappeared in a bridge scene. This episode had another mistake in which Sulu was erroneously shown calmly sitting on the bridge while he was actually imperiled on the planet's surface. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites