By 
Title: Once Upon A Planet
Airdate: 11/3/1973
Plot Summary
In Once Upon A Planet, the Enterprise returns to the Shore Leave planet for some R&R, but find that things aren’t as fun as when they were last there.
Risk Is Our Business
Kirk is the only one to get through the door and was able to work with Spock to talk the computer out of killing everyone. At least this time he didn’t talk it into suicide.
Logical
Spock takes the simulated injury so he could be taken by the planet to be healed, thereby talking the computer out of killing everyone. Actually Kirk did most of the work on that front, and he only pipes up that he’ll spend time with the computer to keep it entertained.
He’s Dead Jim
Bones has his usual potions that are just what is needed, in this case to “kill” Spock.
Helm Sluggish Captain
Sulu actually spends the entire episode on the planet, getting chased by dragons, pterodactyls, and giant cats.
Hailing Frequencies Open, Sugar
Uhura gets kidnapped. She has to try to talk the computer out of killing the rest of the crew with limited success.
My Wee Bairns
Scotty finds the computer that is being built to take over the ship and does his best to keep things stable while the crew is away. Doohan has to play Scotty, Arex, and the shore leave computer, and none of them have small parts. He’s a busy guy this episode.
Three Arms Are Better Than Two, ya Fuzzy Face
Arex is told to take the con. We don’t get to see him try to sit in the chair, though, which, given his 3 legs, would’ve been interesting to see. After Scotty takes over, Arex takes his place at navigation and ends up saving the ship by locking out the computer when the shore leave planet tries to take over the Enterprise.
M’ress also takes over communications while Uhura is missing.
Getting Animated
The shore leave planet is able to create dragons and dinosaurs, something that probably would’ve been pretty hard to do in live action. It was also nice to see M’Ress and Arex given a whole lot more to do, which in turn gives the main crew more to do on the planet.
Technobabble
The shore leave computer is able to turn off the gravity. This is somewhat odd as gravity plating is typically separate from the rest of the systems; that’s why it’s rare that people ever lose their gravity, even when the ships are heavily damaged. And yes, I know in Star Trek VI the Klingons lost gravity when they got damaged, but it’s possible that they use a different technology, and an inferior one at that.
In any case, it’s also the first and only time the TOS crew was shown to be wearing seat belts. Given how many times they get thrown out of their chairs, they should use them more often.
What It Means To Be Human – Review
Once Upon A Planet is an interesting follow-up to Shore Leave. The caretaker has passed away, and now the computer that runs the planet is a little pissed to be taking care of all the weird organics that keep making it do stuff. Of course, the crew didn’t realize the computer was sentient, nor did the computer realize the organics were alive. It assumed the Enterprise was alive and these things were just parasites or something.
Most of the episode is just Kirk and company trying to rescue Uhura and solve the mystery. Once again, we have a nice Trek happy ending where, through the power of understanding, they reach an agreement where everyone learns to understand each other. Spock’s idea of enjoyment is to just sit and have conversations with the computer, which seems in line with his character.
But overall, there’s just not much to talk about. It’s a paint-by-numbers episode and doesn’t really make that much of an impression. I didn’t hate it, but like the original episode before it, once you know what’s going on, it’s just biding time for the characters to catch up. It also doesn’t have a lot of repeat value.
It’s a nice if unremarkable, follow-up. Middle of the road at best.
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