Title :
The Magicks of Megas-tu
Series :
Rating :
Overall Ep :
8
First Aired :
27 Oct 1973
Stardate :
1254.4
Director :
Year :
Writers :
Season Ep :
YATI :
When the hangar doors open, the open from one side rather than parting in the centre as shown in TOS.
Worst Moment :
The whole idea of having magic depicted as real; yes we've seen beings with abilities so powerful that they seem like magic, but this was a poorly packaged attempt.
Factoid :
The voice of Asmodeus was provided by Ed Bishop, better known as Commander Ed Straker on UFO.
My year for this episode is estimated from the Stardate; it falls before the second pilot episode of TOS, 'Where No Man Has Gone Before'. Dating TAS episodes in this way is a little speculative; for instance, it means that characters like Arex and M'Ress were aboard the ship during TOS, yet these were never once seen or even referred to. It might perhaps be a better idea to group all the TAS episodes after the end of TOS and assume the ship had a significant crew rotation in between. However, as dicey as Stardates were during this era of Trek production, using them seemed more official than making any arbitrary decision of my own. And after all, with 400+ crew on the ship it's not so unlikely that we might not see some of them all that often.
This episode is a nominee for the DITL "
Worst of Trek" award.
Plotline
The Enterprise encounters a matter/energy vortex at the centre of the galaxy. With destruction threatening, a Satan-like creature named Lucien appears on the bridge, and tells the crew that this universe is based on the rules of what humans know as magic. Lucien travels with the crew to his home planet Megas-Tu, where they are put on trial for being witches.
Analysis
Like "The Infinite Vulcan", this episode drowns under the weight of a silly premise - you can almost see how the writer sat down with the premise "what if Kirk and Spock had to deal with real magic?" and then became utterly determined to force the story to fit that premise no matter how absurd it became.
Special Edition
