At a Glance

The years between Star Trek the Original Series and the Star Trek motion pictures in the 1970s were long and tough for Trekkies everywhere. After being prematurely cancelled before its time in 1969, just as the world’s interest in space travel was at its peak; Star Trek found a new audience in syndication and America was crying out for new Star Trek adventures.

Detailed Information

Star Trek: The Animated Series
By Mal Simons, Blockbuster.co.uk

The years between Star Trek the Original Series and the Star Trek motion pictures in the 1970s were long and tough for Trekkies everywhere. After being prematurely cancelled before its time in 1969, just as the world’s interest in space travel was at its peak; Star Trek found a new audience in syndication and America was crying out for new Star Trek adventures.

Unwilling to commit to another live action series, Paramount Pictures decided that this would be a perfect show to bring back as an animated series. While the live action series was plagued with budget problems, it was hoped that this new series would truly be able to boldly go where no man has gone before by not being restricted by the budget and reality constraints of live action. Therefore in 1973, nearly four years after the last episode of the original series, Star Trek: The Animated Series was born.

The show featured the voice talents of almost the entire original series regulars – William Shatner (Kirk), Leonard Nimoy (Spock), Nichelle Nichols (Uhura), DeForest Kelly (Bones), James Doohan (Scotty), George Takai (Sulu) and Majel Barrett Roddenberry (Nurse Chapel / Computer voice). The only major cast member not to be included in this new animated series was Walter Koenig (Checkov), although he did go on to write an episode of the show.

Continuing the original voyages of the Starship Enterprise NCC-1701, set in year four or five of Captain Kirk’s original five year mission; the series provides a real insight to the direction that Star Trek could have gone in after Season 3 – revisiting the Klingons, Tribbles, the Shore Leave planet and Harry Fenton Mudd to name a few. The show also introduced a variety of new alien species and characters and added additional alien crew members to the Enterprise – many of which were completely different to anything that we’ve ever seen before and a far cry from the very human looking aliens seen in the original series.

Looking at the show now, it is true that the animation is not up to the standards of the modern day animation that we are used to. In recent years we have been spoilt by The Lion Kings, the Toy Story’s of this world. What does shine through however, is the strength of the storytelling and the willingness of the writers to address difficult issues such as the Vietnam War, tensions with the Soviet Union, environmental issues and racism by presenting these in a sci fi context and getting this past the censors of the time.

Although the ‘Great Bird of the Galaxy’, Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry was paid to produce this series and signed off each of the scripts, he originally said that this series did not sit inside the Star Trek universe as this was targeted purely at children. In hindsight, I think that this is a little harsh given the strength of the show. The vast majority of this series is at least as good as the third season of the original show and the whole thing stands head and shoulders above the first Star Trek feature film – Star Trek: The (slow) Motion Picture.

Although the black sheep of the Star Trek family, this Emmy Award winning show is a high quality, entertaining show that will please all fans of the original Star Trek series. A nostalgic look of a funky future, the animated series should be viewed as a product of it’s time with comparable animation to other hit shows but with superior plotlines. Where else can you see Uhura command the Enterprise or Captain Kirk become a fish? This will leave you craving more. Add to your list now!

Episode List
1. Beyond the Farthest Star
2. Yesteryear
3. One of Our Planets is Missing
4. The Lorelei Signal
5. More Tribbles, More Troubles
6. The Survivor