"The Jihad" was the first season finale of Star Trek: The Animated Series, airing during the week of 12 January 1974. The episode was written by Stephen Kandel, directed by Hal Sutherland and novelized in Log Five by Alan Dean Foster.
Description
- VHS teaser
- Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock join a team of aliens trying to recover a sculpture containing the soul of their spiritual leader before a Holy War breaks out.
Summary
The USS Enterprise was summoned to a Vedala asteroid, where a Vedala briefed Kirk and Spock about a threat to the galaxy. Skorr Prince Tchar explained that a sacred artifact was stolen, one that would incite a vengeful galactic war if the general population of his homeworld found out about it. The Soul of Alar artifact had been tracked to the Mad Planet, a geologically unstable world where three expeditionary forces sent by the Vedala were lost. The fourth team would consist of Kirk, Spock, avian Tchar, tracker Lara, reptilian Sord, and lockpick Em/3/Green.
The team materialized on the Mad Planet with provisions and an all-terrain vehicle. The artifact's indurite composition was quickly located by scanner before planetary conditions overloaded it. Since Lara had seen it, her infallible sense of direction would serve to guide them. The team faced wildly changing climates and hostile terrain en route, and were forced to burn out their vehicle's engine to evade lava from erupting volcanoes. They pressed ahead on foot until they came across a locked Skorr temple.
As Em/3/Green picked the complex lock, flying robot sentinels captured Tchar. Inside, the team located the missing artifact floating out of reach within a force field. Kirk suspected a traitor had killed the other teams, and called out Tchar, who flew into view above them. Tchar congratulated them on getting them this far, but revealed himself to be an insane zealot who conspired to lead his brethren to battle, even if his war wiped out his people. He engaged a gravity neutralizer to give his teammates a good death, so they could combat him in the air. Fighting in zero-g, Kirk and Spock were eventually able to grab hold of Tchar and the artifact, then request recovery.
The team rematerialized on the Vedala asteroid, with Tchar now sealed within a clear container. The Vedala thanked them for their service, which had to remain secret for the good of the Skorr, and promised to cure Tchar of his insanity. When Kirk and Spock beamed back to the Enterprise, only a couple of minutes had elapsed, allowing them to provide a cover story that nothing had happened.
References
Characters
Episode characters
- Em/3/Green • James T. Kirk • Lara • Montgomery Scott • Spock • Sord • Hikaru Sulu • Tchar • Vedala
- Referenced only
- Alar • Seven Gods
Novelization characters
- Arex Na Eth • Em/3/Green • James T. Kirk • John Kyle • Lara • Montgomery Scott • Sord • Hikaru Sulu • Tchar • Vedala
- Referenced only
- Alar • Leonard McCoy • Seven Gods
Starships and vehicles
- USS Enterprise (Constitution-class heavy cruiser) • Vedala cart • unnamed Alpha and Beta Quadrant starships
Locations
- bridge • the galaxy • Mad Planet • transporter room • Vedala asteroid
- Referenced only
- Denmark • Earth • engineering • sickbay • Skorr • Starfleet Headquarters • Taurean system • Terratin
Races and cultures
- Gnalish • Human • Nasat • Skorr • Edosian or Triexian • Vedala • Vulcan
- Referenced only
- Klingon • Romulan • Terratin
States and organizations
Science and technology
- belt light • cartography • compact drive system • computer • elevator • engine • energy cell • force field • gravity neutralizer • hologram • image projector • navigational computer • phaser • pistol • robot • transporter • tridee tape • viewscreen • wheel
Materials and substances
- blood • bone • gas • hail • ice • indurite • lava • metal • ozone • paper • plastic • plexalloy • positron • rain • sand • sulfur • water
Ranks and titles
- ambassador • apostle • captain • commander • Federation Starfleet ranks (2260s) • first officer • helmsman • hunter • huntress • lieutenant • master of the Eyrie • mechanic • navigator • picklock • prince • science officer • slave • Starfleet ranks • teacher • thief • transporter chief • warrior
Other references
- alien • animal • apple • assignment patch • atmosphere • aye-aye • bat • bird • boulder • brain • bushido • cabin • captain's log, USS Enterprise, 2269 • carnivore • century • cilia • city burrow • Class-A Security Prime Order • coordinates • crater • cyclone • day • dilithium • dinosaur • doll • dragon • earthquake • energy • falcon • fortress • gargoyle • glacier • government • grass • history • homeworld • humanoid • insect • jihad • Kelvin • killboot • log entry • logic • medal • meter • millennia • minute • monkey wrench • monsoon • moon • mountain • mushroom • null-gravity combat exercises • parsec • philosophy • planetoid • planet • plant • pyrrhic victory • quadrant • races and cultures • reptile • rock • rope • seal-tarp • second • sector • shovel • Soul of Alar • space • spatial equator • spider • star • Starfleet uniform • Starfleet uniform (2265-2270) • starship • suicide • temple • tentacle • tree • universe • vegetable • volcano • war • worm • year • zero-g
Appendices
Related media
- TAS episode & Log Two novelization: The Lorelei Signal – During a downpour on the Mad Planet, Kirk recalled one of similar magnitude while he was trapped in an urn in the Taurean system.
- TAS episode & Log Four novelization: The Terratin Incident – Kirk compared the Mad Planet to Terratin.
- Skorr appeared in:
- Vedala were cited in:
- Nasat (Em/3/Green's species) appeared in:
- Gnalish (Sord's species) appeared in:
Background
- Author Stephen Kandel also wrote three Harry Mudd stories: TAS episode: "Mudd's Passion", TOS episodes: "Mudd's Women", "I, Mudd".
- Writer David Gerrold performed the voice of Em/3/Green.
- Character designs for the Aurelian Loom Aleek-Om in "Yesteryear" were reused for the Skorr Tchar.
Novelization
- It was titled simply "Jihad".
- As he was unaware how Tchar would be visualized, author Alan Dean Foster described Skorr wings as bat-like.
- The Vedala asteroid was a self-propelled, terraformed homeship. Foster revisited the concept in his novel-length adaptation of "The Eye of the Beholder", in which propulsion systems drove six moons of Boqu II alongside the Enterprise for an unusual excursion outside the Milky Way Galaxy.
- The all-terrain vehicle came with a retractable canopy. For much of the trip, Sord walked rather than squeeze his bulky frame into the vehicle.
- Instead of Spock falling out of the vehicle, as seen in the episode, he had hastily climbed out when it stalled to fix a broken seal. It suddenly lurched away without him, leaving him sprawled on the ground.
- Tchar's talons gashed Kirk's chest and drew blood during their personal combat in zero-g, but Kirk was returned to the Vedala asteroid fully healed and rested.
Images
Connections
Timeline
| published order | ||
|---|---|---|
| Previous episode: The Ambergris Element |
TAS episode produced | Next episode: The Terratin Incident |
| Previous episode: The Eye of the Beholder |
TAS episode aired | Next episode: The Pirates of Orion |
| Previous story: The Ambergris Element |
Log Five
|
Next story: last story |
| chronological order | ||
| Previous Adventure: The Pirates of Orion |
Memory Beta Chronology | Next Adventure: Albatross |
| Previous Adventure: The Pirates of Orion |
Next Adventure: Albatross | |
External link
- The Jihad article at Memory Alpha, the wiki for canon Star Trek.
- The Jihad review at TrekToday.
- The Jihad discussion at the Saturday Morning Trek podcast.
