“The Time Trap”
Star Trek: The Animated Series
Season 1, Episode 12
Directed by: Hal Sutherland
Written by: Joyce Perry
Original air date: 24th November 1973
The Time Trap is not nearly as timey wimey as I was expecting it to be. The Enterprise travels through a ‘time warp’ into an alternate universe called Elysia, which Kirk refers to as another place in time. One of the leaders of Elysia, Devna, refers to it as a “pocket in the garment of time” (probably my favourite line in the episode). Another leader, Xerius, explains that time flows more slowly in Elysia, which is why all the members of the ruling council are centuries old but appear younger.
That’s it for the timey wimeyness of the proceedings. Sure, there’s talk of time barriers, time continuums, time warps and the eponymous time trap, but I’m not actually sure why. There doesn’t need to be—it’s not about time at all. Even though time passes more slowly in Elysia, The Time Trap doesn’t explore what this could mean for anyone. It would’ve been interesting if we’d seen the crew stuck there for centuries, then escaping, a bit like TNG’s The Inner Light. What effect might that have on them? Perhaps that’s too big a concept for a 24-minute cartoon to grapple with.
To be honest, because this episode is actually about the Enterprise escaping from a different universe, writer Joyce Perry could’ve deleted every reference to time and not changed the story one jot (and I wouldn’t even be reviewing it for this column).
Shame. I needed more time.
That’s not to say there wasn’t anything good about this episode. I liked the idea of a Bermuda Triangle in space (unimaginatively called the Delta Triangle here) where a bunch of starships have been going missing for years. The battle with the Klingons was fun, although the terrible animation made it difficult to know what was happening at points (also, those torpedoes from the Klingon ship looked like liquid blobs splashing off the Enterprise). I did enjoy Kirk’s exchange with Commander Kor and Kirk’s retort, “Frankly, Commander, what you accept is of little importance to me.” For a moment it felt like I was watching the real Kirk, not this vapid cartoon version.
During the battle, the Enterprise gets sucked into Elysia and we see a graveyard of ships from all over the galaxy. One of them is the Bonaventure, the first starship to have warp drive installed. Spock speculates that the descendants of the crew might still be alive as there are life signs aboard. Curiously, this possibility is then forgotten about. When we find out that everyone is Elysia is ageing really slowly, it stands to reason that the original crew of the Bonaventure are still alive. Surely Kirk would try and help them escape as well? Again, I guess there’s only so much they can fit into these short episodes.
The graveyard of ships is cool and the Elysian ruling council are an interesting bunch. I know the Federation is supposed to be a kind of utopia but Elysia is heralded as an even better one. Kirk calls it “in many respects a perfect society”. Devna explains that the council is made up of many races who used to be enemies and have now learned to live together, and that any act of violence is strictly forbidden and dealt with swiftly.
The council insist that there is absolutely no escape from the ‘time trap’. All of them have tried and failed many times and now they’ve given up. Of course, we know that the Enterprise will escape by the end of the 24 minutes. The question is how.
The ‘how’ is a bit rubbish. The Enterprise decides to link up with the Klingon ship, also now trapped in Elysia. According to the dialogue they will ‘conjoin’ their warp and navigation systems and share personnel (why would they need to share personnel?) so that they can function as a single ship. This will enable them to reach the necessary speed to break through the barrier.
This bizarre technique, supported as usual by zero technobabble to at least make it sound sensible, has never been used before on Trek and never is again. And with good reason—it’s stupid. It’s even more stupid that it works. Are we supposed to believe that none of the other ships that have been stuck in Elysia for centuries thought to try that?
Spock also finds out that the Klingons are planning to sabotage the Enterprise—er, by putting his arms around them a couple of times. Two problems here. 1. This doesn’t match up with what we know of Spock’s telepathic abilities. 2. Spock acts very un-Vulcan-like but Kirk doesn’t bat an eyelid (and yet we’re supposed to believe that the Klingons notice he’s being weird—riiiight).
Anyway, the Enterprise crew find the Klingons’ explosive, jettison it and escape Elysia. That ruling council must feel stupid now.
Overall, an okay episode. The story doesn’t go far enough (although I suspect that’s symptomatic of the entire animated series) and there are a bunch of silly moments. And since it’s called The Time Trap, it really ought to have been more about time.
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