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TREKCORE > TAS > THE COUNTER-CLOCK INCIDENT > Behind the Scenes
 

 The final episode of "Star Trek: The Animated Series" as well as the final episode of a "Star Trek" television series starring the cast of "The Original Series."
   
With the possible exception of the upcoming feature film "Star Trek", and aside from the "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" episode of "Trials and Tribble-ations" and the "Star Trek: Enterprise" episode of "These Are the Voyages. . .", this episode marks the final appearance of the U.S.S. Enterprise in its "television form." It later appeared, refitted, in "Star Trek: The Motion Picture." The classic-variant of the Constitution class ship would later reappear in the form of the U.S.S. Defiant in "Star Trek: Enterprise"'s episode "In A Mirror, Darkly, Part I and II"
   

Following this episode and based on lines from "Star Trek: The Motion Picture", we can infer that Captain Kirk is promoted to admiral and made Chief of Starfleet Operations, Mr. Spock retires from Starfleet and returns to Vulcan to begin the Kohlinar discipline, Dr. McCoy also retires from Starfleet becoming a private practitioner, Scotty is promoted to full commander, Uhura and Sulu are promoted to lieutenant commander, Pavel Chekov returns to the Enterprise as a full lieutenant and as chief of security, Nurse Chapel gets her medical degree and becomes a doctor, M'Ress and Arex possibly remained aboard the ship, (there was many aliens present in the "rec deck" scene in "Star Trek: The Motion Picture.") Lieutenant Ilia, a Deltan, is assigned as the new navigator, and Willard Decker, son of Commodore Matt Decker from the classic episode "The Doomsday Machine" is named captain of the Enterprise on the recommendation of Admiral Kirk. The Enterprise is also recalled to Earth for experimental refit, which takes 18 months of redesign and refit, producing an almost totally new ship.
   
Captain Robert April was the original name of the captain of the Enterprise in Gene Roddenberry's original pitch for "Star Trek" in 1964.
   

Several novels chronicle the events of Captain Robert April as captain of the Enterprise.
   
The only "live-action" photograph of Captain Robert April is that of series creator Gene Roddenberry in a "Where No Man Has Gone Before"-variant Starfleet uniform. (Take a look)
   

John Culver is the pen name of writer Fred Brosnan, who would go on to write "Menage a Troi" for "Star Trek: The Next Generation."
   
The concept of the crew degenerating in children later reappeared in the "Star Trek: The Next Generation" episode of "Rascals."
   

The "anti-time" element of this episode would factor heavily in the final episode of "Star Trek: The Next Generation", "All Good Things..." as well.
   
Kes regressed younger and younger in the "Star Trek: Voyager" episode "Before and After."
   

In the alternate ending to "Star Trek: Insurrection", Ru'afo would have fallen into the metaphasic rings of the Ba'ku planet, causing him to grow younger until finally perishing.
   
This episode contradicts events established by "Star Trek: Enterprise" by saying that Dr. Sarah April was the first chief medical officer of a warp drive ship, as well as a previous mention of the Bonaventure in "The Time Trap."
   

Beta Niobe, referenced in this episode, went nova in the classic episode "All Our Yesterdays."
   
Minara, referenced in this episode, went nova in the classic episode "The Empath."
   

Dr. Sarah April's flower, "a native from Capella IV", is from the same planet the Enterprise visited in "Friday's Child."
   

Once again, the transporter is used to restore the crew to their original selves. A similar technique was previously used in "The Lorelei Signal" and "The Terratin Incident."
   
Kirk, Mr. Spock and Dr. McCoy go from one extreme to the other having grown mortally old in "The Lorelei Signal" to young children here. (although we don't see the child-like Dr. McCoy in this episode, it's implied that the entire crew has turned to children.)
   

In a forgivable plot hole, as the crew degenerate into children, their uniforms also shrink in size to accommodate.
   
As the crew degenerate into children, Lieutenant Arex grows younger slower than the human crewmembers, but not as slowly as Mr. Spock.
   

Second appearance of the young Spock. The first was in "Yesteryear."
   
The aliens from the "Antimatter Universe" have numbers in the their names, similar to the Eminians in the classic episode "A Taste of Armageddon."
   

Keeping with continuity, the mandatory retirement age in Starfleet remains nullified by the 24th century as Admiral Mark Jameson demonstrates in the "Star Trek: The Next Generation" episode "Too Short A Season."
   
Leonard Nimoy and James Doohan are the only cast members to lend their voices to all 22 episodes of "Star Trek: The Animated Series."
   
Nichelle Nichols gets the final line of the series as Dr. Sarah April by saying "It gave us all a second life," a reference to the revival of "Star Trek" with this series
 

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