Greetings Trek fans!!
NEW FEATURED EPISODE
http://mainengineering.simplenet.com/tas_ep.html
We have a new featured episode. This month it's "The Ambergris
Element". You don't want to miss the beautiful
artwork of the underwater world.
Ambergris...
Isn't that the black strong-smelling stuff used to enhance perfume that is coughed up by large whales (if not found in their stomachs by vicious whale-killers) as a result of their failure to digest the hard bits of shellfish?
What's the connection???
I suppose it was in connection with the fluid they had to collect from that big whale-sized whatchamacallit.
Ambergris is used in making perfume, and is very rare. People are willing to pay a lot of money for ambergris. For that reason, ambergris has come to represent a rare and precious nautical item. It's use in the title is meant to imply that the object K&S are searching for (their cure) is rare and priceless.
Makes sense to me.
I guess Starfleet at this time has given up giving names to their shuttlecrafts. None of the shuttles seen so far in TAS have their own names. Especially not the aquashuttle seen in this ep.
When the Argo sea serpent reawakens, and attacks the aquashuttle, Kirk and crew flee from the creature on the surface of the water. Why? Why not take to the air and thus out of the serpent's reach?
Strange that after Kirk and Spock do not emerge from the wrecked shuttle, McCoy is so quiet. I'd expect him to be calling out Kirk and Spock's names. The silence seems so out of character for him.
Gee, why don't they use the transporter to restore Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock to normal? It's worked twice before in TAS.
Part of the mutations the Captain and his First Officer were given included webbed-hands. I wonder if their feet were also webbed? If so, wouldn't it be easier for them to swim underwater barefoot rather than wearing their boots?
How long did the surgery to mutate Kirk and Spock take? It couldn't have taken longer than five minutes, give or take. Or else the two officers would have drowned. And the operation had to take place underwater. If only because the Aquans can't breathe air. (I'm also curious to know how the young Aquans got to Kirk and Spock in time to perform the operation? How'd they get them away from the sea serpent in time to mutate the air-breathers?)
Why is Dr. McCoy informing Scotty of the impending seaquake? Shouldn't it be Uhura, Sulu or Arex or whoever is in charge of the Bridge making that report?
How'd they get that boat on the planet? It is not an enclosed structure, so it wasn't flown down from the Enterprise? I suppose they could have a transporter platform large enough to handle the boat. But why hasn't that transporter been used in previous eps? Particularly in situations where mass evacuations might be necessary? (Of course, I can't think of a time when the Enterprise ran into that situation, but still...)
Apparently the Aquans are amphibious, seeing that Rila has no problem breathing when she has her head above water. Which beggars the question of why Kirk and Spock weren't made amphibious, too?
Why were they mutated in the first place? Why couldn't the young Aquans simply rescue them from the sea serpent and then deposit the Starfleet officers on dry land?
I just realized the sclerae of the Aquans are white. So why couldn't the sclerae of the regular cast also be colored white?
"Ancient medical symbols"? Is Spock implying the caduceus is a universal (literally) symbol? How likely is that?
There were at least five cannisters containing scrolls. Kirk and Spock take four (two each officer). They got lucky that they picked the right four. For all they knew, it could've been that fifth cannister that held the one piece of vital information they'd need to be restored.
This episode contains the third death witnessed in TAS - that of the Aquan sea serpent. At least, I presume it died when the ruins fell on top of it.
Oh come on! They need the ambergris-like substance from the sur-snake (or Aquan sea serpent as I've been calling it) to revert to their air-breathing selves. So Kirk and Spock ask some of the young Aquans for help in capturing one of the sur-snakes. Why? They have one readily available. The one that was killed by the ruins falling on it.
McCoy says part of the ancient records is missing. Yeah. It was probably in the fifth cannister Kirk and Spock left behind.
Why would Kirk fall to the floor of the water tank? If he's unconscious - and in water - he should just float.
Shouldn't there be an oxygen tank in the aquarium in case the antitoxin works? I mean, once Kirk's lung revert to nomral, he's going to start drowning unless a scuba tank is nearby.
"Live long and prosper."
SPECIAL VOICE: David Gerrold as Nephro
Kirk seemed really laid back about the tectonic activity on Argo. Scotty tells him that a major, devastating earthquake is about to happen---which one would think would affect the Aquans---but he doesn't even try to warn the Aquans that it is coming. Then, at the end of the episode, the Enterprise has the ability to control where earthquakes strike on Argo. Kirk even credits this knowledge as a something they learned that can help a Federation colony planet facing similar earthquakes. But we never saw them learning this from Argo---just applying it.
It was gutsy of Scotty et. al. to search for Kirk and Spock using what was basically a small motorboat in an area that had just had an attack from a large sea monster. If the sur-snake had come back for seconds, that skiff would have been toast. But was the risk necessary? Even though the only submersible shuttle had been destroyed, one would think regular shuttles could fly just above the water and see just as much as the people on the launch. Admittedly, I don't know that we've ever seen TOS-era shuttlecraft fly slowly or hover like helicoptors---they might only handle more like fixed-wing aircraft.
Upon finding the drowned city, Spock observes that it must have sunk in a matter of minutes. How can he tell? Then they find what they think is the sealed place that holds the forbidden knowledge. But, although there is an (open) vault door, there is nothing sealed about the building or any rooms in it.
The cels of Kirk and Spock swimming to the camera are traceovers of the swimming Aquaman from Filmation's series a few years earlier. They simply drew on the Kirk and Spock characteristics over the existing Aquaman figure action. In the scene where they try to get the venom from the sur snake they swim over one of the aquans holding the net and are totally out of proportion to him. By the time they are close to the camera, they look like giants compared to the aquan.
How did the sur-snake pick up & throw the shuttle? Wouldn't it have needed to brace itself on something first?
Funny how McCoy's initial scan of Kirk & Spock missed their webbed fingers.
Kirk says, "An intelligence that can cause this kind of mutation can change us back!"
Uhhhh... yeah.... that's kind of the same logic that would assume the race that can chop off a head can sew it back on...
They talk about the surface sinking, but isn't it more likely that the sea bottom was raised, since the amount of water didn't actually increase.
Why would the knowledge gained from Argo help the other world facing this problem? Wouldn't a better solution be to evacuate that other world?
Kirk says they are going to "change the epicenter of the quake".
I get the feeling that the writer didn't know that epicenter is the point on the surface over the actual center of the earthquake. (Though technically changing the center of the quake would probably change the epicenter as well.)
Spock says, "The seabed should settle in a few hours".
What? No aftershocks?
When the shuttle is being chased by the sur-snake and Kirk calls for beamout, a night sky is visible behind him out the window. However, the rest of the scene is in the daytime.
Kirk asks the Aquans to help capture a sur-snake because he and Spock can't go that deep. What do we see in the very next scene? Kirk and Spock helping move the net that will be used to capture the Sur-Snake.
Kirk and Spock really should have put on more appropriate swimming clothes while they were underwater. Those waterlogged uniforms must have been quite heavy, clingy and uncomfortable.
The two Aquans examining the resurfaced city at the end are shown wearing and not wearing their water breathing gear depending on the various camera angles.