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Star Trek TAS - Season 1 - Episode 16

Star Trek TAS - 1x16 - The Jihad

Originally Aired: 1974-1-12

Synopsis:
On Vedala, Kirk and Spock are summoned to learn about a stolen religious artifact that could ignite a galaxy-wide holy war, a jihad. [Blu-ray] [DVD]

My Rating - 3

Fan Rating Average - 4.63

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Problems
- Why didn't they use a shuttle or some other anti gravity vehicle since the planet they went to was filled with lava flows?

Factoids
None

Remarkable Scenes
- Lara declaring herself attracted to Kirk.
- The zero gravity fight.

My Review
The Vedalans are an interesting concept. A powerful race, moreso than the Federation, but not super god aliens like we've seen so much of already. They're neutral, but friends of the Federation. They're something like galactic prophets. The power to watch, but not the power to act. Maybe they're guided by their own version of a prime directive. In any case, they were a cool idea. Unfortunately, this episode suffers from some fuzzy plot logic. We're not told exactly how stealing the Soul of Skorr would cause the mass breeding of soldiers. I guess we're supposed to assume that the defacing of a religious symbol drives their race into a Jihad. Or maybe Tchar was just nutty. The audience shouldn't have to come up with this stuff though. Overall an interesting episode, but dragged through the mud by a bit of bad writing.

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