LogFAQs > #969138044

Episode 5: How Sharper Than a Serpent's Tooth

I was about to slightly criticise this episode for being a bit of a retread of Who Mourns for Adonais? but, after looking into it, apparently it was done as a tribute to Coon who had died around the same time. Suppose I'll let it off. Besides, it's better than its inspiration.

Kirk is still defiant, but there's a note of respect in his dealings with Kukulkan. Spock is rather a git towards Uhura. McCoy a bit of an arse towards his patients, too, but at least he's funny. Scotty and Uhura get a bit marginalised and I'm fairly certain Scotty gets told to shut up before he even says anything.

Walking Bear's existence is a good thing in terms of the whole diversity thing that Star Trek prides itself on, but the actual character is basically an exposition machine who gets ignored towards the end. Treated with respect while he's relevant, though. Kukulkan has a magnificent design and stellar voice work. He hits a lot of the standard godlike being tropes, but it's done well. His swooping and snapping at the crew is a little anemic considering his supposed power. Still, even though they get some details wrong, it's nice to have a representative from a lesser seen culture.

I gush about the designs almost every episode, but they've really upped the ante here. Kukulkan's ship is magnificent and the various designs for the city, including how its build over time, are also amazing. There's something a little haunting about having Kukulkan's image among hieroglyphs. I'm quite tolerant of the reused animation for the run startup, but having two characters do it at once feels off. It's like Kirk and McCoy are somehow glitching. The many alien designs are fun.

I'm still not a fan of suggesting that all of humanity's achievements and cultures ultimately stem from aliens. It's a good concept, but it has some troubling implications with it. I also don't really like portraying humanity as children. Sure, Kirk rejects it, but then follows up by suggesting that only modern and onward humanity can be considered adults through his Lear quotation. It implicitly marginalises many historical cultures as being infantile and not worth considering.

Still, it's a very well made episode. In fact, it's frequent beautiful.

It all ends with The Counter-Clock Incident