The Eye of the Beholder
Contact with a scientific research party is lost, and Kirk must navigate through rapidly-shifting terrain and fend off hostile creatures to rescue them.
We'll give the animators some credit for drawing imaginative aliens for this episode, especially the pink elephant snail things. We don't really see their remarkable intelligence demonstrated, but trust if Spock says something ten times, it must be true. The "animals in a zoo" metaphor is also driven to the ground. Didn't we see a menagerie in The Menagerie ...? I guess that was Pike's adventure, and Kirk deserves this treat too. Time is not effectively managed here: half the show is spent wandering around deserts and forests, and the attempts at telepathic communication don't amount to much. The only element that is unexpected is the child's aiding Scotty. It's a nice reversal of the old "parental intervention" ending. Here the parents' eyes are opened by their child's experiences. It's also nice that Scotty can be the one to break through, though how his mind survives intact is unknown.
Spock Saves the Day: Spock figures out how to get a medical kit and communicator and provides insights into the aliens' minds.
Oops: Spock's mental forces are apparently no match for . . . Scotty's?
Developments: It's important to be reminded that Vulcan abilities can't solve every problem, and Spock accomplishes much through reasoning alone. Fortunately for him, the animated universe seems more richly populated with telepathic beings than the live action one.