[6.0/10] “The Counterclock” has all the elements of a good *Star Trek* episode: a clear obstacle, a funky sci-fi twist, and a personal element to anchor it. But the whole is less than the sum of its parts, mostly for some boneheaded choices in terms of how the central concept of the episode works. The idea of a backwards universe is simple enough, and the sort of thing *Star Trek* has done before, whether it’s with the evil versions of our heroes in The Mirror Universe, or the anti-matter zone in “The Immunity Syndrome.” But while it works well enough to have people talking in reverse or the crew having to learn to operate the ship backwards, and neat to have to time a dying star in one universe with one being born in another, the episode gets pretty ridiculous with it. For one thing, the notion that people are born as old folks and die as infants makes very little sense (though I want to say *Voyager* did this idea too). By the same token, the episode’s very inconsistent about how quickly people age and de-age for the sake of narrative convenience. It also makes no sense that the mere fact that Kirk and company are getting younger means that they lose their knowledge of how to run the ship, talk, etc. It’s the kind of lazy, “taking the concept too far” stuff that turns a neat premise into nonsense. There is something cool about having Captain April and Dr. April, the first captain and medical officer of The Enterprise, aboard for *The Animated Series*’s last outing. The de-aging thing does provide a good excuse for Capt. April to take command, and again, having to line up the supernovas to get back to our universe is a solid setup. But “The Counterclock Incident” messes up the ending pretty bad. For one thing, we have another “we can make them the right ages by using the stored transporter signal” situation, which I hate because that could solve nearly every physical problem our heroes have ever had. (It’s a shame no one thought of it when Kirk and Spock were turned into mermen.) For another, Mr. and Mrs. April decline to stay young because they’ve “already had good lives.” It’s dumb because they could still have great lives! They’d just be longer lives! It’s not like continuing to live and be young means your old life is erased! What an odd form of Ludditeism. Anyway, if you can forget about the goofy backwards stuff and cop out ending, there’s a solid episode underneath, with some of the usual second act exposition, but an interesting setup and a straightforward, if appropriately science fiction-y problem for the good guys to solve. There’s cool ship designs, the fun of seeing the main characters as toddlers, and some of the usual space emergency action. It’s not the best note for *The Animated Series* to go out on, but the episode certainly has its moments. As a whole, *The Animated Series* doesn’t deserve its shabby reputation. It has its high points and low points, but it has roughly the same batting average that *The Original Series* did, and typically feels very much of a piece with its forbear. There are some issues with the stiffness of the animation, but there were also issues with the stiffness of Shatner’s acting in the live action show, so you win some you lose some. Still, the show offered as much creativity, invention, and fun as its predecessor, and deserves its place in *Star Trek* canon. (On a personal note -- so ends my journey through the episodic incarnation of the original cast’s adventures. I still have six movies to go, and plan to rewatch the episodes from later Trek series where the original castmembers show up, but this is still something of a point of demarkation. It’s been very interesting to me seeing the early incarnation of a franchise I love -- the conventions of the time and the tropes that would be solidified for the series. The watch-through has had its ups and downs, but there’s been plenty of brilliance in it, and I’m glad to be more fully versed in the iconic beginnings of this hallowed series of shows, movies, and more.)