In an effort to evade an attack by three Romulan warships, the Enterprise passes through a mysterious energy cloud that causes ship's computer to develop a sentient consciousness and start playing practical jokes on it's crew. At first, the jokes seem harmless enough, but as the frequency increases, so does the danger to the crew, unless Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock can reverse the process. There's nothing like a good comedic episode of "Star Trek" to shake up the formula, like "The Trouble with Tribbles" and "A Piece of the Action" did with "The Original Series." Unfortunately, "The Animated Series" deserved better than "The Practical Joker," which falls short of its potential due to a weak teleplay that's full of plot contrivances. But the episode does have one redeeming grace: The first appearance of what later came to be known as the Holodeck, which would go on to be featured in many popular episodes of "Star Trek: The Next Generation," including the series premiere.

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