Television Review: The Counter-Clock Incident (Star Trek: The Animated Series, S2X06, 1974)

The Counter-Clock Incident (S02E06)

Airdate: October 12th 1974

Written by: Fred Bronson
Directed by: Bill Reed

Running Time: 22 minutes

Though Star Trek: The Animated Series (1973–1974) resurrected the spirit of Star Trek during a period of dormancy, it never secured the same cultural foothold as The Original Series (TOS). The Animated Series, constrained by its Saturday-morning cartoon format, often felt like a diluted echo of TOS’s philosophical depth and character-driven drama. Its voice acting—while occasionally inspired—lacked the live-action gravitas of Shatner, Nimoy, and Kelley, and its animation, though imaginative, was hampered by the limitations of its era. Consequently, it has been relegated to the margins of Trek fandom, remembered more for nostalgia than artistic merit. However, the series’ finale, The Counter-Clock Incident, stands as a rare exception to its own mediocrity. While it cannot rival the franchise’s canonical masterpieces, it outshines TOS’s notoriously reviled swan song, Turnabout Intruder (1969). By contrast, The Counter-Clock Incident offers a coherent narrative, emotional weight, and a thematic resonance that transcends its animated origins. It is a modest triumph, not because it is exceptional, but because it fulfills the basic requirements of a satisfying Trek story, while sidestepping the cringe-inducing pitfalls of its live-action predecessor.

The episode opens with the USS Enterprise en route to Babel, where Commodore Robert April—the Enterprise’s first captain—and his wife, Sarah, are to attend a retirement ceremony. This framing immediately anchors the episode in Trek lore, as April’s introduction (voiced by veteran actor James Doohan) retroactively cements his status as a foundational figure in Starfleet history, later expanded upon in Strange New Worlds. The journey takes a surreal turn when the crew observes a supernova, only to detect an alien vessel hurtling toward it at impossible speeds. Kirk’s decision to intervene with a tractor beam backfires spectacularly: both ships are pulled into the anomaly, emerging in a parallel universe where space is a blinding white void and stars appear as black holes.

The Enterprise lands on Arret, a planet where Kirk meets Captain Kara Five, captain of the alien ship. Her exposition reveals that her people accidentally crossed into the “prime” universe and were unable to return. The Enterprise’s tractor beam, intended to prevent their self-destruction, inadvertently disrupted their efforts to navigate back. Despite this, Kara agrees to help Kirk go home, emphasizing the urgency of locating a specific “supernova-like” star before the reverse-time effects become irreversible. As the Enterprise races against the clock, the crew begins de-aging at an accelerating rate. Kirk, Spock, Uhura, and others regress to childhood, their memories and skills eroding alongside their physical maturity. The situation reaches a crisis point when April, whose original timeline age (75 years) means he de-ages only to early adulthood, becomes the sole functional officer. Leveraging his regained vitality, he pilots the ship back to the anomaly, using the transporters to reverse the process. In a poignant conclusion, April and Sarah—tempted by the chance to remain youthful—opt to return to their true ages, affirming the value of lived experience.

Written by Fred Bronson under the pseudonym John Culver, The Counter-Clock Incident bears the mark of a writer deeply invested in Star Trek’s legacy. Bronson, a music journalist and NBC publicist, approached the script with the zeal of a devotee, consulting Gene Roddenberry and revisiting TOS episodes to ensure continuity. His most significant contribution was formalizing Robert April as the Enterprise’s inaugural captain, a detail previously hinted at in The Menagerie but never explicitly stated. This decision not only enriched Trek’s lore but also laid groundwork for April’s prominent role in Strange New Worlds. Bronson also wove in references to TOS locations like Babel and Capella IV, reinforcing the Animated Series’ connection to the broader universe. His later work on The Next Generation (TNG)—notably Ménage à Troi (1990) and The Game (1991)—suggests a writer attuned to Trek’s core themes, though his Animated Series finale remains his most enduring contribution.

Bronson’s script excels in its emotional beats, particularly the Aprils’ choice to reject eternal youth. This decision serves as a counterpoint to the vanity-driven plots of earlier Trek episodes, instead celebrating the dignity of age and the irreplaceable wisdom of experience. Yet the episode’s central sci-fi premise—the reverse-time universe—is riddled with logical inconsistencies. Why does de-aging affect only biological entities, leaving the Enterprise’s systems intact? How does the transporter reverse the process so seamlessly? These questions are left unexplored, a casualty of the series’ tight budget and the demands of its target audience (children and casual viewers). The Arretan society, though briefly sketched, feels underdeveloped, their technological prowess undercut by their inability to solve their own predicament.

Nevertheless, the episode’s flaws are contextual. The Animated Series was never intended to rival TOS’s intellectual rigor; it was a vehicle for adventure, bound by the constraints of its medium. Within these limits, The Counter-Clock Incident delivers. The de-aging sequence, while scientifically dubious, is a visual treat, with the crew’s childlike forms played for both humor and pathos. The animation’s fluidity in depicting the inverted universe—white space, black stars, and reversed movement—adds a dreamlike quality that live-action Trek could not replicate until decades later. Bronson’s focus on character over plausibility pays off: the Aprils’ reunion with their younger selves becomes a meditation on mortality and legacy, themes rarely addressed in children’s cartoons of the era.

The episode’s moral message—that aging is not a curse but a testament to accumulated wisdom—resonates strongly. When April restores his crew’s ages, he implicitly critiques the obsession with youth, a theme later echoed in TNG’s Rascals (1992), where Picard, Guinan, Keiko, and Ro regress to their younger selves. Rascals explores the tension between identity and physical form with greater complexity, but The Counter-Clock Incident deserves credit for planting the seed. Bronson’s script also subtly subverts the “reset” trope common in sci-fi, where characters escape consequences through time travel. Here, the Arretans’ return to their original timeline is not a victory but a reaffirmation of their life choices, a mature conclusion for a show often dismissed as juvenile.

The Counter-Clock Incident is not a forgotten classic, but it is a fitting end to a series that struggled to balance its Trek heritage with the realities of its format. It surpasses Turnabout Intruder not because it is groundbreaking, but because it avoids the latter’s controversial missteps. Bronson’s script, while uneven in execution, demonstrates a reverence for Trek’s ideals—exploration, camaraderie, and ethical reflection—that elevates it above the Animated Series’ usual fare. Its influence on TNG’s Rascals and the resurrection of Robert April in Strange New Worlds underscore its quiet significance in the franchise’s tapestry.

RATING: 6/10 (++)

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