Quite the dramatic title, huh? This episode won the 1974-75 Emmy for Outstanding Entertainment Children's Series (Daytime). The co-writers, Russell Bates and David Wise won a Peabody for Best Writing in an Animated Series.
Now that I've raised your expectations, let's move on.
The Enterprise is investigating an ancient space probe that visited Earth and then blew up. Another ship arrives--it appears to be built out of crystals. The Enterprise is stopped by a force field, and the other ship begins a strong probe, and phasers are useless. The other ship protects a giant bird, and special guest Lt. Walking Bear recognizes it as Kukulkan, a Mayan god. Kirk, McCoy, Scotty, and Walking Bear are all transported to the bird ship. Kukulkan shows them a huge ancient city.
Kirk walks up an ancient pyramid while the rest look around. There are four statues that they figure out must be moved to reflect the sun to the pyramid, and it results in a signaling device. Kukulkan appears as a bird, and dares them to attack him. Kirk says they have no reason to do so. The god says they have forgotten him, and the environment changes around them to a kind of zoo. Each alien thinks it's in their own world, but are really in glass cages. Kirk pulls the "no has the right to capture other creatures" bit. The god only wants peace--his peace--and total control.
Meanwhile, Spock realizes they can break the force field by pressing in two directions with the tractor beam and warp power, and does so. Kukulkan attacks the ship, and Kirk realizes they need to distract him. They release a Capellan Powercat--an animal with a huge electrical charge--who breaks out many others. The cat goes to attack Kukulkan, and Kirk uses McCoy's hypo to stop it. We get a big speech about how the Federation is striving to be more peaceful, and how they can't be children of Kukulkan now. The crew is returned, and the bird ship leaves.
Some things to look for:
- I love how characters on the show run toward the camera--it's like they are linebackers
- At one point, Uhura asks if they should be looking for the missing crew--Spock tells her to keep to her job. It seems like Uhura should reply to this, but doesn't. Possibly a cut scene?
- We get several pronunciations of Kukulkan throughout the episode
- In the zoo, there's a three googly-eyed alien that is particularly goofy
- This episode gives Kirk a lot of chances to pontificate
Remember, you can play along by watching the show on Netflix!