How Sharper Than a Serpent's Tooth

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Star Trek: The Animated Series episode
"How Sharper Than a Serpent's Tooth"
Episode no.	021
Prod. code	021
Airdate	October 5, 1974
Writer(s)	Russell Bates David Wise
Director	Bill Reed
Guest star(s)	none
Year	2270
Stardate	6063.4
Episode chronology
Previous	"Albatross"
Next	"The Counter-Clock Incident"

"How Sharper Than a Serpent's Tooth" is an episode of Star Trek: The Animated Series.

1 Plot outline
2 Trivia
3 See also
4 External links

[edit] Plot outline

Following a signal from a mysterious probe, the U.S.S. Enterprise is immobilized by an alien whose ship resembles a winged serpent. The alien claims to be Kukulkan, god of the ancient Mayan and Aztec peoples of Earth. He says that he is actually a very long-lived, benevolent entity who wants the humans to worship him, as the Mayans and Aztecs did.

Kukulkan transports Captain Kirk, Doctor McCoy, Scotty, and Ensign Walking Bear to his ship, where they are brought to an ancient city. Kukulkan tells them that they must solve the puzzle of the city or the Enterprise will be destroyed.

[edit] Trivia

Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines.
The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones.

Like many Star Trek stories, this episode has a Shakespearean connection. The title comes from King Lear, Act 1, Scene 4:

How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is

To have a thankless child!

Kukulkan thinks of Earthlings as his children. When the Enterprise's personnel refuse to worship him as their Earth ancestors did, he considers them to be thankless.

The concept of a mythical god as a real being who expects humans to worship him was previously used in the original series episode "Who Mourns for Adonais?"

[edit] See also

List of Star Trek: The Animated Series episodes

[edit] External links

How Sharper Than a Serpent's Tooth article at Memory Alpha, a Star Trek wiki
How Sharper Than a Serpent's Tooth at StarTrek.com

v • d • e Star Trek: The Animated Series

Season 1 (1973–1974)	"Beyond the Farthest Star" • "Yesteryear" • "One of Our Planets is Missing" • "The Lorelei Signal" • "More Tribbles, More Troubles" • "The Survivor" • "The Infinite Vulcan" • "The Magicks of Megas-tu" • "Once Upon a Planet" • "Mudd's Passion" • "The Terratin Incident" • "The Time Trap" • "The Ambergris Element" • "The Slaver Weapon" • "The Eye of the Beholder" • "The Jihad "

Season 2 (1974)	"The Pirates of Orion" • "Bem" • "The Practical Joker" • "Albatross" • "How Sharper Than a Serpent's Tooth" • "The Counter-Clock Incident"