“Go away, air breathers. You‘re not wanted here.”

Because of the limitations of regular television series production, the Original Series would never have the opportunities to tell stories afforded in the animated iteration of Star Trek. An underwater adventure story such as “The Ambergris Element” can place a landing party in a shuttle with amphibious qualities and then have that shuttle be attacked by ferocious sea creatures. Kirk and Spock are separated from the landing party and when they are recovered, McCoy determines they cannot breathe oxygen.

They have mutated into “water breathers.” Their eyes develop segments and their fingers have webbing. They are placed in a fish tank from where they can communicate with McCoy. Kirk believes if they could be mutated, they could be “un-mutated.” I don’t know if that is accurate, considering it would take millions, even billions of years to evolve. Kirk and Spock go back to the planet and contact the fish monster natives (“Aquans”), who seem a bit touchy dealing with air breathers. They find a vast underground city.

Ironically, they are branded “enemies,” caught in a net and brought before the ruling tribunal. I don’t understand the logic, If these mutations were developed by ancient scientists, why are the fish monsters so xenophobic? McCoy detects a violent seismic shift that will occur underwater very soon, so we have a ticking clock on the story. Kirk and Spock use the ancient records of Aquan scientists to reverse their mutations as well as continue their research in avoiding seismic devastation on other planets, which is why they came here in the first place.

There’s a bit of switcheroo here with the fish monsters worshipping science and treating it as religion and a way of life. There is also a schism between the younger and older generations of fish monsters, which is interesting. Kirk and Spock have to get the venom from a horrible snake creature in order to make an anti-toxin that will reverse the mutation. There’s a bit too much story to be stuffed into 25 minutes, but “The Ambergris Element” gets points for being far, far ahead of most cartoons made for kids in the ’70s.

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