Beyond the Farthest Star (Star Trek: The Animated Series)

"Beyond the Farthest Star" is the pilot episode and series premiere of the animated American science fiction television series Star Trek. This series premiere episode first aired in the NBC Saturday morning lineup at 10:30 a.m. on September 8, 1973, seven years to the day after the series premiere of the live action series which started the franchise.[1] It was written by American author and script writer Samuel A. Peeples who had also written the Original Series second pilot "Where No Man Has Gone Before".[note 1]

"Beyond the Farthest Star"
Star Trek: The Animated Series episode
Episode no.Season 1
Episode 1
Directed byHal Sutherland
Written bySamuel A. Peeples
Production code22004
Original air dateSeptember 8, 1973 (1973-09-08)

In this episode, the Enterprise crew must contend with a malevolent non-corporeal alien entity that has taken control of the ship and tries to force them to help it escape the massive gravity well of a dead star.

Plot

While exploring on the outermost rim of the galaxy, the Federation starship Enterprise is pulled into the orbit of a dead star. Trapped there, the crew discovers that there is a massive derelict 300,000,000-year-old pod ship trapped with them as well.

Captain Kirk beams aboard the huge starship with a boarding party that includes First Officer Spock, Chief Medical Officer Dr. McCoy and Chief Engineer Scott, where they learn it was once home to an insectoid race. They also learn from a prerecorded message that the ship had become almost completely controlled by a malevolent entity seeking to escape the dead sun and travel to other worlds. The ship's crew created an isolated chamber that the entity did not control, and from there recorded the message and then had their ship self-destruct rather than let it be used by the entity. The entity begins to pierce into the isolated chamber where the Enterprise party is and beams back with them.

Infiltrating the workings of the ship, it disables the self-destruct mechanism, but Spock has placed the navigation console inside a static shield, so it cannot steer the ship. Instead, it uses the ship's systems to threaten the crew's lives and thereby coerce Kirk to navigate the ship according to its orders.

Kirk flies the Enterprise toward the dead star in what appears to be a suicide run, but in actuality is a slingshot maneuver for escaping its massive gravity. The entity believes the ship will crash and be destroyed and so flees, with the Enterprise successfully escaping both it and the dead star.

Reception

The episode received outstanding reviews upon its initial broadcast, with reviewers praising the intelligent writing, imagination, production, and adherence to the tone of the live action series.[1] In 2017 this episode was noted as featuring scary Star Trek content.[2] Also in 2017, GameSpot ranked this as the 6th best pilot episode of a Star Trek series, commenting, "The original voice cast is there, and they do the best they can, but the dialogue and animation make it a hard task to sit through."[3]

See also
  • Booby Trap - a Next Generation episode where the heroes' ship is trapped near an ancient dead ship (which is explored by an Enterprise captain) which provides clues about their situation.

Notes
  1. This story was expanded into a novelette by science-fiction author Alan Dean Foster as part of the collection, Star Trek Log One (1974) (ISBN 0-345-24014-6).

References
  1. Mangels, Andy (Summer 2018). "Star Trek: The Animated Series". RetroFan. TwoMorrows Publishing (1): 25–37.
  2. "18 eerie, disturbing and downright scary Star Trek episodes". H&I. Retrieved June 5, 2019.
  3. Complex, Valerie (October 20, 2017). "Every Star Trek Pilot Episode, Ranked From Worst To Best". GameSpot. Retrieved June 8, 2019.
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