From Newsgroup: alt.tv.star-trek.tos   
   From Address: epwise@yahoo.com   
   Subject: Re: The Ambergris Element (TAS): my review   
      
   "jphalt@gmail.com"  wrote in   
   news:58069c09-fbb5-4bdb-8fac-   
   4cf26e56307b@glegroupsg2000goo.googlegroups.   
   com:    
      
   > THE AMERGRIS ELEMENT: PLOT   
   >    
   > The planet Argo has undergone severe seismic shifts, which have turned   
   > it from a land planet to a waterworld (minus Kevin Costner,   
   > thankfully). While investigating the causes and effects of this shift,   
   > Kirk and Spock are attacked by a sea monster and cut off from the   
   > ship's sensors. It takes five days for search parties to locate them -   
   > and when they're found, their entire internal structure has been   
   > changed. They can no longer live outside the water! Dr. McCoy   
   > determines that this was done by injection, and so must have been done   
   > by somebody intelligent. Kirk and Spock go back to the planet to find   
   > that intelligence, to get themselves changed back.    
   >    
   >    
   > CHARACTERS   
   >    
   > When McCoy protests that Kirk and Spock going into Argos' waters with   
   > no backup will be too risky, Kirk responds by stating that he prefers   
   > the risk to having to live his life in a tank. "I can't command the   
   > Enterprise from in here," he says - and the thought of being unable to   
   > command, unable to be useful, is far worse to him than of death.   
   > Beyond this, not too much for the characters, though the "big three"   
   > of Kirk, Spock, and McCoy all get decent roles.    
   >    
   >    
   > THOUGHTS   
   >    
   > After The Lorelai Signal, Margaret Armen was just about the last   
   > writer I wanted to see getting a second try. Fortunately, The   
   > Ambergris Element is a much better episode than its predecessor. Armen   
   > seems to have been advised to not focus on writing for kids, but   
   > instead to focus on writing a decent Star Trek script. The result is   
   > still flawed, but it is entertaining.    
   >    
   > Like many episodes, it feels rushed. Once again, there is a decent   
   > 50-minute story that's just a bit too much to comfortably squeeze into   
   > 25 minutes. A final plot turn that has further seismic activity   
   > endgangering the underwater city is one complication too many, and the   
   > result is a badly rushed climax. This series' most successful episodes   
   > have been the ones with the simplest storylines, and by this point in   
   > the run that should have been noticed.    
   >    
   > Design is one of this episode's overall strengths. The undersea   
   > setting could not have been effectively realized on a live action   
   > budget, making it a good use of the freedom afforded by animation.   
   > Several of the underwater backgrounds are eye-catching, showing a bit   
   > more imagination than many episodes, and even the planet's underwater   
   > denizens are well-drawn and generally pretty well-animated.    
   >    
   > So on the whole: not bad. It's just a shame the writers and producers   
   > still haven't learned that the 25-minute format demands that the   
   > stories be kept simple.    
   >    
   >    
   > Rating: 6/10.    
      
   There seems to be four acts in this episode: ones that end at 5:25,    
   8:05, 17:15 and the end. Or is either the 5:25 or 8:05 end really just a    
   pause in the action?   
      
   Also Spock is shown backwards at one point. When he says, "They were    
   exposed to frightening geological disaster" his shirt insignia is on his    
   right side.   
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