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As a lifelong fan of Star Trek I remember growing up in the 70s USA San Francisco and watching STAS. I loved it and still do. The stories are very good very much like the original Star Trek, granted Not the greatest special f/x, but when your a child they’re just perfect! Looking forward to the new anime series. Thank you for this review brings back some good memories
Okay, giant glowing Kirk shooting lightning at a pilgrim in a shield is an amazing image that I wish could've been done with the live actors at some point.
The four best episodes... Once Upon A Planet, Mudd's Passions, More Tribbles- More Troubles and Yesteryear were all developed as potential episodes for the fourth season of TOS.
At the time the animated series aired it was far superior to the other animated shows at the time which relied on cheap gags and overused tropes. It really did feel like a continuation of the original series and should be considered canon.
It was the only animated show I could watch without being called the "R" word by my sister. I like the one where Scotty sang and one Walter Koenig wrote (same one?).
first mention and use of the holodeck is not a trivial matter for something that became such an intrical part of many episodes in the remaining series iterations and expanded universe
After the animated series there was also "Star Trek: 25th Anniversary", and "Star Trek: Judgment Rites" CD-ROMs, both with 7/8 episodes each, with the voices of the original cast. There were also exclusive audio drama tapes that featured the cast, reading new stories about their characters.
Agreed with everything you said. I always thought the stories this series told fit right at home alongside TOS. It’s really not “dumbed down” for kids at all. The stories are just more concise for the time slot. Honestly, a lot of these episodes are better then TOS season 3.
About 5 years ago the Space Channel in Canada aired every episode of the animated series in a 2 day marathon. I had never seen it before so I watched every episode. It is both the greatest and the worst thing I have ever watched. The animation is cheap. The voice acting is lazy. The stories are ridiculous. And yet I love it.
MrGeekFreek they actually recorded shatner in a sound van. He was on tour with a play, living out of his car, and couldn't afford to take time off work, and they couldn't afford to fly him in, so they'd rent a local news truck or whatever was available wherever he was playing and drive it out to him and he'd do a couple takes. That's why he's so amazingly flat.
I like TAS a great deal. Not least because it tied the Known Space universe into the Trek canon--Niven himself being a trekker. Although it does make me regret all the more that Enterprise was cancelled before the planned introduction of the Kzinti.
James Blish did a wonderful job writing novellas based on the animated episodes. Oh, and BTW, the immunity syndrome was in season two (episode 17) not season three and it was a great episode.
Foster did a remarkably good job of taking many of the, ah, let's be charitable and call them "less plausible" episodes and tying them together in a metaplot that explains away a significant number of the more problematic elements - in some cases pretty much by the "just a dream/illusion" handwave, but still better than the show managed. Considering what he had to work with on some of them he did wonders even if he wandered very, very far from the original screenplays.
The Immunity Syndrome suffered from following The Doomsday Machine. While no-doubt written separately, and without knowledge of the plot of TDM, It parallelled the earlier episode too closely. It might've been better received had it either preceeded, or followed by 1 year, TDM.
It is not realistic to compare the level of animation of ST:TAS to the superb Superman cartoons from the 40s. Superman had the advantage of having much more time to work on the cartoons & not having to grind them out on a weekly basis. Also,Paramount Pictures allocated a lavish budget for that era for the cartoons.
The janky animation and weird framing were hallmarks of Filmation, the studio that did the show. You can see it in everything they ever worked on - Flash Gordon, He-Man, Bravestarr, everything.
Roddenberry was actually pretty emphatic on TAS being canon. He said it was, absolutely positively, up until TMP entered production, and then he said it wasn't. He tended to do that a lot, basically whenever a newer, bigger paycheck came along.
Though Roddenberry ultimately considered it to be non-canon, TAS definitely influenced TOS Remastered, which used the designs of the grain ships from “More Tribbles, More Troubles” in “Charlie X,” and Spock’s home city of ShiKar from “Yesteryear” in the remastered “Amok Time.”
I'm wondering if something was wrong with him or he was past it. The unused ideas for _Star Trek: The Motion Picture_ were bad. And he was put on the sidelines after that.
I enjoy the animated series. Don’t watch if often but yeah, as you mentioned, the freedom that animation gave them in terms of tech and scope means they can explore some cool ideas. Seeing Vulcan portrayed as this beautiful alien place was also nice. Plus they have a holodeck!
I remember watching reruns of this a lot as a kid and enjoying it. I still occisionally re-read the short stories collections of the episodes that I have
Interesting trivia on Wikipedia about TAS: The series' writing benefited from a Writers Guild of America, East strike in 1973, which did not apply to animation. A few episodes were written by well-known science fiction authors
One thing about "Once Upon a Planet" is I think it may be the only time a crew has defeated a malevolent AI by just pointing out, "Hey, you actually have a pretty cool job, here. Maybe, do you want to just, like, try doing it?"
I also find it wild that this episode is essentially the plot from Westworld. The computers running a resort become self-aware and tired of serving the human guests. So it becomes violent, using the resources of the park to attack the guests.
While James Doohan is no Mel Blanc, Doohan's earlier work in radio plays shows itself to some effect in ST:TAS. It may just be me, but I believe that Doohan's voice acting in "The Slaver Weapon" was quite good. If I recall correctly, James Doohan enjoyed the recording sessions where all of the actors were in the studio at the same time, but was turned off by speaking lines by himself to a tape recorder, so he did not pursue work as a voice actor, which I see as a terrible loss to the world of animation.
Personally, I've always loved the animated series. The animation style, framing, music - everything - I've always just put down to the unique style of the show. In many ways it mirrors the original series in these details particularly with the formulaic music and animation choices for running, fighting, Spock talking at his console etc. The original series was quite stylised in a repetitive way that gave it a certain unity and so is this. I'll be watching it all again soon, I'm sure!
That new planned animated show will primarily be a comedy. Hopefully, it can provide some thoughtful and tearjerking moments like how Futurama managed to.
I love the Animated Series so much. It continued the "Tone" of the original series, but it expanded & did many other things because it was animated rather than live action.
I remember being so excited when i saw the first trailer for ST Animated as a kid...always find it amusing to realise that much of the fantastic scenarios featured in the cartoon can All be done in live action today ...
It’s funny the listener question was about Electric Dreams. The Greg Kinnear episode was filmed in my neighborhood, and it was fun the see a TV production up close.
You hit the nail on the head. Poor animation; good stories. It belongs in the canon because of the characterization and development. It is too bad we don't give animation its due. I said for years that one of the best sci-fi shows was Buzz Lightyear of Star Command.
Funnily enough i have just acquired the Animated Series on DVD, and watched 'Yesteryear' today. That episode has depth, and does stand up with the best Original Series scripts.
@@RowanJColeman please? Continues stands shoulders above many fan projects in terms of effort and execution, and had the blessings of many including, privately, CBS.
My first intro to this series was a now deleted 2 part abridged series on UA-cam called "Star Trek: Border Patrol." Mudd gets the entire crew high on drugs and chaos ensues. It's gold.
Animated series could be re-done with amazing animation and the audio tracks just used as they are. It’s a great opportunity to really give it fresh life. I wish someone would do that.
That reminds me. John Byrne once did These photo comics, where he Used Old photos and recomposited them to tell new stories. How about doing something Similar with old audio tracks? Maybe it could work as a short form series.
Agreed. A sadly underrated entry in the franchise, and while some episodes are mind-twistingly dumb (you age in reverse in this universe, being born as an old man???) the good episodes are very, very good. Excellent point about animation (even low-budget low-quality animation) freeing the writers from the constraints of live-action SFX.
The Alan Dean Foster novelizations of this show are excellent, far better than any of the broadcast episodes from which they were adapted. He even did a serviceable job fixing BEM! And The Eye of the Beholder adaptation is such a broad, beautiful expansion of the episode on which it's based I still think of it as among the best Star Trek novelettes ever.
LOVE THIS SHOW!!!! Thanks for your video essay! Goofs: you mean "The *Paradise* Syndrome," not "Immunity," at 5:05, and you mean *Daytime* Emmy award at 5:22. Filmation was a cheap proud-to-be American house who repeatedly used templates, and that had to be accepted. This and Flash Gordon were two of the best series it did (if you don't count "He-Man."), and they are two of the best sci-fi animated series of the late 20th-century. And, yes, it's canon, regardless of what Roddenberry said!!!
I'm old enough to remember watching this on original run. I was 7 at the time. This makes me want to do my own video. I liked the connection to Spock in Discovery - nice call there. There's two other "firsts" in Star Trek from Animated. First ever Holodeck (episode "The Practical Joker"), and the first time we found out what the "T" in James T Kirk stood for (Episode "Bem"). It was never formally canonized until Movie 6 when they said Tiberius in that movie when Kirk was on trial.
One bit on the quality of information. The Fleischer Superman Cartoons were developed for cinema and had probably a larger budget. Star Trek TAS was a weekly animated series and they had to cut corners both for budgetary reasons and to keep the schedule.
I love TAS. While the animation is poor and the voice acting of secondary characters not good, as you point out, there are some great episodes. I love "Yesteryear"; "Lorelei Signal," where Uhura finally gets to shine when she has to take command of the Enterprise; and "Counterclock Incident," which introduces us to Robert April, the Enterprise's first captain are among my favorites. I love that we get to meet the Kizinti (another episode where Uhura and Sulu get substantial roles).
I love how TAS, despite being a "kids show", refuses to talk down to it's audience. Some of the concepts and dialog are more mature than many modern shows are comfortable dealing with. Religious wars? Eugenics and cloning? Finding the Devil though dimensional travel and defending him in a court of his peers? This show was amazingly ambitious at times.
We also have to remember that animation quality doesn't just get better as time progresses. For various reasons, mostly economic, animation in general was not as good as in the '70s as it was in the '40s.
Yes, comparing the quality of some of the most expensive animated theatrical cartoons ever made with a micro-budget 1970's TV series is unrealistic and insulting to our intelligence. Kind of like confusing The Immunity Syndrome with The Paradise Syndrome.
Great review of a mostly very enjoyable series. I agree with several other posters about maybe not being quite fair comparing the likes of this to the '40s Superman cartoons. Whilst I get the point you're making, in fairness those cartoons had more time and, arguably, more equivalent budget, to play with. ST:TAS was churned out on a weekly basis and arguably again, aimed at a smaller and more 'throwaway' audience. I grew up in the 1980s adoring 'He-Man and the Masters of the Universe' (which I still love) also made by Filmation, and it did have many of the same traits as TAS - rushed and corner-cutting animation at times (though I wouldn't rank it as terrible), but redeemed by some really good designs and backgrounds, and good stories and realisations of characters. TAS has always felt strange as in it's maybe it feels like it's aiming at several different audiences. It certainly has the thoughtful scripts of TOS, but with it's comic book-like visuals and some of the more "cartoony" adventure elements, it sometimes feels like a juxtaposition with those thoughtful and often quite moral scripts. But I do think it is a series of some quality; not classic, but not an embarrassment to the franchise either. I have to say, beyond TOS and TNG, TAS generally offers more of interest to me personally than much that came after TNG. But that's just my personal, narrow-viewed opinion.
Pretty heady material for Saturday Morning Cartoons for most kids, but I ate it all up as a young fan. Granted, I caught them upon the reruns in the later 70's but since I had embraced TOS so did I with TAS. That myan flying lizard scared the crap out of me as a kid in 1977 though.
I would love if Paramount would re-animate The Animated Series in modern design (could even replace or alter the original audio of the aliens with new actors or pitch shifting).
Star Trek The Animated Series is my favourite Trek hands down. So fun, so camp, and you're so right about Yesteryear. I love M'ress and Arex too, although I do wish they could have afforded Walter Koenig as well :'(
To be exact, the ST:TAS was shot for $75k in 1973 dollars, while the Fleisher Superman shorts were shot for $50k in 1941 dollars. Not to mention that the former had a 20-minute timespan, whereas the latter was 7 minutes.
It was a truly remarkable series for its time- during a period where animated cartoons were intentionally designed to be as dumb and unchallenging as possible so as not to upset the kiddies (and Star Trek: The Animated Series _was_ made for kids- it _had_ to be, it was animated and only kids watch cartoons, as the prevailing thought of the time went) it was... basically just Star Trek. It had some of the nastier violence and almost all the sexual references stripped out (that said, it still included the likes of Mudd's Passion) and obviously the episodes were shorter, but it was ultimately the same show, refusing to talk down to its young audience. It was far ahead of its time. When I was a kid, I owned a copy of 'Star Trek: Log 5', one of a series of expanded novelizations of Animated Series episodes (in this case The Ambergris Element, The Pirates of Orion, and Jihad) and the stories were absolutely exceptional. Just a pity the production values were so poor. I can't believe it's taken them _this_ long to try another animated series!
There are actually two new animated series in development: one for Nickelodeon which we know nothing about (except that it'll be explicitly for younger audiences), and Lower Decks for CBS All-Access, by a Rick & Morty writer, which is for older audiences. Additionally, the next season of Short Treks will be animated. Animated Star Trek seems to be coming back in a big way.
Your optimistic mention of Lower Decks is an interesting reminder that not that long ago TAS was considered non-canon and pointless. STLD has breathed new interest in TAS, and if I dare say, STLD is the best Trek series of all.
I have no idea if the original elements still exist, but if they were re-combined today with TOS music, and looped with a better variety of guest voices, it might serve as a TAS "remastered."
And now, The Lower Decks (the new animated Star Trek series which has had four seasons released for it so far) has proven to be the greatest Star Trek series in the entire franchise. I'm being completely sincere. The Lower Decks is certainly not as culturally significant as the original Star Trek, and probably not as culturally significant as TNG, but The Lower Decks maintains a much higher overall level of quality, with consistent quality and entertainment from episode to episode, and actually does an excellent job of being authentic to the Star Trek franchise as a whole, whilst also drawing heavily from the many inconsistencies and more questionable things that have happened in many episodes in a way that's very clever and funny, though it also does a good job of exploring serious and mature themes. Of course, another reason why the Lower Decks is so well liked is because it is set shortly after the end of the TNG and Deep Space 9 time-lines, and does a good job of having continuity with those time-lines, and those are probably the two most popular and well known Star Trek series.
Other than the episode with the second , giant Spock they were all great additions to the cannon and deserved better reception than they got, Roddenberry should not have disowned it. Plus they added a great,new antagonist species, Larry Niven's "Kizenti" from his own future history series. A pity it only went one year plus two or three episodes the second year. As someone said they ought to reanimate it using the same soundtrack but withe modern animation tec, it would be a true 4th season then! Thanks for posting!
I think there was something wrong with Roddenberry after TOS. The story ideas for Star Trek: The Motion Picture were just bad. Going into Star Trek II, he was shelved. As a result Starfleet become more militaristic and we didn't see any more space exploration, really. I do agree with him saying Kirk and crew shouldn't have exhibited such prejudice against Klingons in VI, and it does little to nothing for the story.
I cannot help but feel that your comment on the animation quality is a little unfair, especially as the cost of animation itself went through the roof since those _Superman_ animated cartoons that you mention. There is also the problem that having almost all of the original cast reprising their roles (the only casualty being Walter Koenig) is that all of those salaries would have eaten into the available budget for each episode quite considerably (there was not originally a plan to have all of the cast returning, but Leonard Nimoy reportedly refused to be Spock again unless Nichelle Nichols and George Takei were indeed brought on board to reprise Uhura and Sulu respectively - they were originally going to be voiced by Majel Barrett and James Doohan respectively whilst at the same time reprising their own roles of Nurse Chapel and Scott). This reduced budget after taking into account the aforementioned salaries meant that some aspects of production, as well as animation quality in general, were inevitably going to suffer, as well as there simply not being enough money to bring on board all sorts of guest voice actors, and the reduced number of cels would also have meant that movements would be jerkier and clumsier. There was simply nothing that could be done about this and we just have to accept the limitations of what was available to the production at the time. _Yesteryear_ was indeed a superb entry into this series. It was the only episode that Dorothy Fontana had the chance to write as her usual jobs on the show meant that she simply had no time to write any others.
Honestly I'm quite surprised I haven't seen more animated trek-like science fiction. Stepping away from the live action medium effectively side-steps the biggest problem that trek has with it's aliens, being that they have to rely too heavily on rubber prosthetics and easily reusable sets... while also potentially cutting back on the need to lean on the holodeck so they can put their characters in unusual costumes and play out more unusual plotlines.
Sticks and stones may break my bones, my my love of Star Trek will NEVER waver! Have watched the animated series more times than the animated ones, probably because there are not as many. So as Scotty might say, to all you 'distracters' of the animated serIes, UP YOUR SHAFT!
I always thought Star Trek Animated would've looked better if Hanna-Barbera had done the animation, they always came up with, in my opinion, interesting designs for aliens.
I think it's funny that one of the artists was really color blind. I don't remember when they caught it, but try and spot when they stopped using pink for odd things. :P Great video! Even with the slight taint of STD in it. ;)
Not to defend Filmation's animation work, but comparing them to the Fleischer Superman shorts is really unfair. Those 1940s Superman shorts were lavish big-budget productions meant for the big screen, with about double the budget compared to a typical animated short for the time (about $50,000 nominally per short). Filmation's work on the other hand was a very crank it out once a week and cut as many corners as we can by reusing and recolouring animation cels, so of course, it was going to look bad. But nearly everything would if you put it next to Fleischer's Superman.
@@CosmoShidan so about half the budget per TAS episode when adjusted for inflation? And in the case of TAS, I imagine most of the budget is going toward the original cast.
It's long-past time to have a Remastered TAS. Adding footage (maybe even scenes with Walter (and an explanation of his absence...?). I for one think TAS music is worthy of remastering as well. While some of it is tacky, shallow and repetitive, some sounds as good or better than most of the spinoff tracks that have followed it. Unlike TOS, where remastering was kept to an understandable minimum, here they could "have at it!" A difficult decision is, do you re-cast the extra voices? Majel and Nichelle did a great job, but after 7-8 characters, you run out of voices (Jimmy Doohan is an exception!). Word is, sadly, that CBS and/or Paramount has considered, and dismissed, this idea. Really too bad, since It is (except for a couple of 90's computer games and George & Jimmy's book narrations) all we have left of the original cast.
I really like the animated series. Not every episode is good, but the show has much more good going for it than against it. Animation allowed them to explore stories that were outside the scope of the original series.
PARAGON - AVAILABLE ON AMAZON HERE!!!
Paperback From UK site: www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1797861581
Paperback from US site: www.amazon.com/dp/1797861581
Kindle version now here: www.amazon.com/dp/B07NYJBLQ4?...
Rowan J Coleman Thank you I’ll check this out on Amazon
As a lifelong fan of Star Trek I remember growing up in the 70s USA San Francisco and watching STAS. I loved it and still do. The stories are very good very much like the original Star Trek, granted Not the greatest special f/x, but when your a child they’re just perfect! Looking forward to the new anime series. Thank you for this review brings back some good memories
This is the Star Trek cartoon that cbs should have made into a series : m.ua-cam.com/video/MDqiiauqVDs/v-deo.html
Mr. Coleman Welcome back It's good to see a rational and yet heartfelt look-back at a lost cousin of a favorite series. Thank you so much.
Imagine if The TOS Star Trek Characters met The Ferengi.
The TAS episodes are my favorite ones. Stories set underwater, new crew members, Uhura taking command….I loved all of it.
Okay, giant glowing Kirk shooting lightning at a pilgrim in a shield is an amazing image that I wish could've been done with the live actors at some point.
"Yesteryear" is truly a great episode that can stand alongside the best TOS had to offer.
Its great episode even tho it has the weird plothole of time traveling to save yourself when you died younger.
@@Jebu911 I wouldn't call that a plothole, because it has to do with the infamous pedestrian paradox of time travel.
Personally, I LOVE the ST Animated Series. It truly is underrated.
The four best episodes... Once Upon A Planet, Mudd's Passions, More Tribbles- More Troubles and Yesteryear were all developed as potential episodes for the fourth season of TOS.
At the time the animated series aired it was far superior to the other animated shows at the time which relied on cheap gags and overused tropes. It really did feel like a continuation of the original series and should be considered canon.
It was the only animated show I could watch without being called the "R" word by my sister. I like the one where Scotty sang and one Walter Koenig wrote (same one?).
@@virginiaconnor8350 the R word?
@@orinanime The word is "retard". It's a pity that adults have to use such silly self-censorship.
@@virginiaconnor8350 Your sister just sounds toxic
@@orinanime "Retarded." It was a go-to put-down among grade school children in the 1970s. We're not proud of it.
first mention and use of the holodeck is not a trivial matter for something that became such an intrical part of many episodes in the remaining series iterations and expanded universe
After the animated series there was also "Star Trek: 25th Anniversary", and "Star Trek: Judgment Rites" CD-ROMs, both with 7/8 episodes each, with the voices of the original cast. There were also exclusive audio drama tapes that featured the cast, reading new stories about their characters.
Another thing to note is although Chekov is not featured in TAS, Walter Koenig did serve as a writer for one of the episodes, so that was pretty cool.
That IS cool!
Agreed with everything you said. I always thought the stories this series told fit right at home alongside TOS. It’s really not “dumbed down” for kids at all. The stories are just more concise for the time slot. Honestly, a lot of these episodes are better then TOS season 3.
I consider it to be their fourth year or season.
About 5 years ago the Space Channel in Canada aired every episode of the animated series in a 2 day marathon. I had never seen it before so I watched every episode.
It is both the greatest and the worst thing I have ever watched. The animation is cheap. The voice acting is lazy. The stories are ridiculous.
And yet I love it.
MrGeekFreek they actually recorded shatner in a sound van. He was on tour with a play, living out of his car, and couldn't afford to take time off work, and they couldn't afford to fly him in, so they'd rent a local news truck or whatever was available wherever he was playing and drive it out to him and he'd do a couple takes. That's why he's so amazingly flat.
I like TAS a great deal. Not least because it tied the Known Space universe into the Trek canon--Niven himself being a trekker. Although it does make me regret all the more that Enterprise was cancelled before the planned introduction of the Kzinti.
This show was my introduction to Star Trek. I still love it.
I always considered Star Trek: The Animated Series brilliant and I always consider it canon.
I was delighted when this show first appeared in the 1970s. And the Alan Dean Foster novellas were excellent. 🖖
I saw TOS and TAS in first run and never discounted TAS. So glad it’s finally getting the credit it deserves.
James Blish did a wonderful job writing novellas based on the animated episodes. Oh, and BTW, the immunity syndrome was in season two (episode 17) not season three and it was a great episode.
Bollocks, I meant to say, "Paradise Syndrome." Immunity Syndrome from season 2 is a good episode, yes. Too many syndromes haha.
Alan Dean Foster wrote the novelizations of the animated series. Blish wrote the TOS novelizations.
I just stand corrected. I supposed after a few decades I've becomed a little confused.
Foster did a remarkably good job of taking many of the, ah, let's be charitable and call them "less plausible" episodes and tying them together in a metaplot that explains away a significant number of the more problematic elements - in some cases pretty much by the "just a dream/illusion" handwave, but still better than the show managed. Considering what he had to work with on some of them he did wonders even if he wandered very, very far from the original screenplays.
The Immunity Syndrome suffered from following The Doomsday Machine. While no-doubt written separately, and without knowledge of the plot of TDM, It parallelled the earlier episode too closely. It might've been better received had it either preceeded, or followed by 1 year, TDM.
It is not realistic to compare the level of animation of ST:TAS to the superb Superman cartoons from the 40s.
Superman had the advantage of having much more time to work on the cartoons & not having to grind them out on a weekly basis.
Also,Paramount Pictures allocated a lavish budget for that era for the cartoons.
Exactly this.
Fleischer Superman is pioneering. It’s decades ahead of its time. It seems like a weird thing to compare TAS to.
The janky animation and weird framing were hallmarks of Filmation, the studio that did the show. You can see it in everything they ever worked on - Flash Gordon, He-Man, Bravestarr, everything.
Roddenberry was actually pretty emphatic on TAS being canon. He said it was, absolutely positively, up until TMP entered production, and then he said it wasn't. He tended to do that a lot, basically whenever a newer, bigger paycheck came along.
To me TAS is canon as I've always viewed it as being such.
Honestly though, it is best to consider TOS+TAS as one canon and the movies+TNG+DS9+VOY+ENT as a separate canon.
Though Roddenberry ultimately considered it to be non-canon, TAS definitely influenced TOS Remastered, which used the designs of the grain ships from “More Tribbles, More Troubles” in “Charlie X,” and Spock’s home city of ShiKar from “Yesteryear” in the remastered “Amok Time.”
I'm wondering if something was wrong with him or he was past it. The unused ideas for _Star Trek: The Motion Picture_ were bad. And he was put on the sidelines after that.
I enjoy the animated series. Don’t watch if often but yeah, as you mentioned, the freedom that animation gave them in terms of tech and scope means they can explore some cool ideas. Seeing Vulcan portrayed as this beautiful alien place was also nice. Plus they have a holodeck!
I remember watching reruns of this a lot as a kid and enjoying it. I still occisionally re-read the short stories collections of the episodes that I have
as a kid I was aware of the Star Trek tv show from it's popularity in reruns but I never knew about an animated series until many many years later
Interesting trivia on Wikipedia about TAS:
The series' writing benefited from a Writers Guild of America, East strike in 1973, which did not apply to animation. A few episodes were written by well-known science fiction authors
One thing about "Once Upon a Planet" is I think it may be the only time a crew has defeated a malevolent AI by just pointing out, "Hey, you actually have a pretty cool job, here. Maybe, do you want to just, like, try doing it?"
I also find it wild that this episode is essentially the plot from Westworld. The computers running a resort become self-aware and tired of serving the human guests. So it becomes violent, using the resources of the park to attack the guests.
While James Doohan is no Mel Blanc, Doohan's earlier work in radio plays shows itself to some effect in ST:TAS. It may just be me, but I believe that Doohan's voice acting in "The Slaver Weapon" was quite good. If I recall correctly, James Doohan enjoyed the recording sessions where all of the actors were in the studio at the same time, but was turned off by speaking lines by himself to a tape recorder, so he did not pursue work as a voice actor, which I see as a terrible loss to the world of animation.
Personally, I've always loved the animated series. The animation style, framing, music - everything - I've always just put down to the unique style of the show. In many ways it mirrors the original series in these details particularly with the formulaic music and animation choices for running, fighting, Spock talking at his console etc. The original series was quite stylised in a repetitive way that gave it a certain unity and so is this.
I'll be watching it all again soon, I'm sure!
In the time traveling Spock episode i didn't see Michael spocky Burnham in his family home? 😁
And thank God for that.
Yes thank God for that. Don't taint greatness with garbage.
Cry baby new Trek haters bitching again. Move on fools. Discovery's here to stay. Season four in production. 🖕
@@ronaldganze8965 Discovery season 4 on its way. Get over it loser.
@@jaysonraphaelmurdock8812 no one cares about your opinion. Can't wait for Discovery season 4.
That new planned animated show will primarily be a comedy. Hopefully, it can provide some thoughtful and tearjerking moments like how Futurama managed to.
I like Slaver Weapon as well. Notably Wslter Koenig wrote an episode called The Ultimate Vulcan.
I remember this episode well, only recently finding out it was based on a story by SF writer Larry Niven.
I love the Animated Series so much. It continued the "Tone" of the original series, but it expanded & did many other things because it was animated rather than live action.
I remember being so excited when i saw the first trailer for ST Animated as a kid...always find it amusing to realise that much of the fantastic scenarios featured in the cartoon can All be done in live action today ...
It’s funny the listener question was about Electric Dreams. The Greg Kinnear episode was filmed in my neighborhood, and it was fun the see a TV production up close.
You hit the nail on the head. Poor animation; good stories.
It belongs in the canon because of the characterization and development.
It is too bad we don't give animation its due. I said for years that one of the best sci-fi shows was Buzz Lightyear of Star Command.
Absolutely loved the animated series. The music was excellent too. I loved the new updated theme music
Funnily enough i have just acquired the Animated Series on DVD, and watched 'Yesteryear' today. That episode has depth, and does stand up with the best Original Series scripts.
U should do 1 of these for star trek continues
Maaaaybe...
Great shout. STC was quite an achievement and well worth doing.
@@RowanJColeman please? Continues stands shoulders above many fan projects in terms of effort and execution, and had the blessings of many including, privately, CBS.
That is an awesome idea!! I hope you do it!
My first intro to this series was a now deleted 2 part abridged series on UA-cam called "Star Trek: Border Patrol." Mudd gets the entire crew high on drugs and chaos ensues. It's gold.
Has the some quality of animation as the Superfriends.
Some of the animation glitches are just...amazing
I love when Kirk and others charge the "camera."
Animated series could be re-done with amazing animation and the audio tracks just used as they are. It’s a great opportunity to really give it fresh life. I wish someone would do that.
That reminds me. John Byrne once did These photo comics, where he Used Old photos and recomposited them to tell new stories. How about doing something Similar with old audio tracks? Maybe it could work as a short form series.
Agreed. A sadly underrated entry in the franchise, and while some episodes are mind-twistingly dumb (you age in reverse in this universe, being born as an old man???) the good episodes are very, very good. Excellent point about animation (even low-budget low-quality animation) freeing the writers from the constraints of live-action SFX.
The Alan Dean Foster novelizations of this show are excellent, far better than any of the broadcast episodes from which they were adapted. He even did a serviceable job fixing BEM! And The Eye of the Beholder adaptation is such a broad, beautiful expansion of the episode on which it's based I still think of it as among the best Star Trek novelettes ever.
In the Original Series Kirk and Spock also encounter a giant cat which ends up being the second witch character (Korob was her associate) Sylvia
Yesteryear was a brilliant episode, one of the best Trek episodes ever
LOVE THIS SHOW!!!! Thanks for your video essay! Goofs: you mean "The *Paradise* Syndrome," not "Immunity," at 5:05, and you mean *Daytime* Emmy award at 5:22. Filmation was a cheap proud-to-be American house who repeatedly used templates, and that had to be accepted. This and Flash Gordon were two of the best series it did (if you don't count "He-Man."), and they are two of the best sci-fi animated series of the late 20th-century. And, yes, it's canon, regardless of what Roddenberry said!!!
I remember this very fondly as a kid, along with the Space Sentinels.
You and me both - and add the Flash Gordon toon to that list. About as good as we could hope for back in the day.
I'm old enough to remember watching this on original run. I was 7 at the time. This makes me want to do my own video.
I liked the connection to Spock in Discovery - nice call there.
There's two other "firsts" in Star Trek from Animated. First ever Holodeck (episode "The Practical Joker"), and the first time we found out what the "T" in James T Kirk stood for (Episode "Bem"). It was never formally canonized until Movie 6 when they said Tiberius in that movie when Kirk was on trial.
Joe Siegler I’m old enough to have watched them on Nickelodeon.
CBS in 1973 for me. :)
One bit on the quality of information. The Fleischer Superman Cartoons were developed for cinema and had probably a larger budget. Star Trek TAS was a weekly animated series and they had to cut corners both for budgetary reasons and to keep the schedule.
Well done! Captured the spirit of TAS very well.
I love TAS. While the animation is poor and the voice acting of secondary characters not good, as you point out, there are some great episodes. I love "Yesteryear"; "Lorelei Signal," where Uhura finally gets to shine when she has to take command of the Enterprise; and "Counterclock Incident," which introduces us to Robert April, the Enterprise's first captain are among my favorites. I love that we get to meet the Kizinti (another episode where Uhura and Sulu get substantial roles).
I really like the Animated series, i don't know why wouldn't be more cannon that the TOS .
Honestly this is my second favorite Trek Series. It's so out there and fun.
I love how TAS, despite being a "kids show", refuses to talk down to it's audience. Some of the concepts and dialog are more mature than many modern shows are comfortable dealing with. Religious wars? Eugenics and cloning? Finding the Devil though dimensional travel and defending him in a court of his peers? This show was amazingly ambitious at times.
Love "Eaters of Roots and leaves"
2:12 - Dude, you're comparing TV animation with THEATRICAL animation. Differences in budget is HUGE.
We also have to remember that animation quality doesn't just get better as time progresses. For various reasons, mostly economic, animation in general was not as good as in the '70s as it was in the '40s.
Yes, comparing the quality of some of the most expensive animated theatrical cartoons ever made with a micro-budget 1970's TV series is unrealistic and insulting to our intelligence. Kind of like confusing The Immunity Syndrome with The Paradise Syndrome.
Poor animation can still be still too jarring and distracting for viewers.
I wonder if the Animated series will somehow be incorporated to the new version, like it was recently done with DISCO.
Great review of a mostly very enjoyable series. I agree with several other posters about maybe not being quite fair comparing the likes of this to the '40s Superman cartoons. Whilst I get the point you're making, in fairness those cartoons had more time and, arguably, more equivalent budget, to play with. ST:TAS was churned out on a weekly basis and arguably again, aimed at a smaller and more 'throwaway' audience.
I grew up in the 1980s adoring 'He-Man and the Masters of the Universe' (which I still love) also made by Filmation, and it did have many of the same traits as TAS - rushed and corner-cutting animation at times (though I wouldn't rank it as terrible), but redeemed by some really good designs and backgrounds, and good stories and realisations of characters.
TAS has always felt strange as in it's maybe it feels like it's aiming at several different audiences. It certainly has the thoughtful scripts of TOS, but with it's comic book-like visuals and some of the more "cartoony" adventure elements, it sometimes feels like a juxtaposition with those thoughtful and often quite moral scripts. But I do think it is a series of some quality; not classic, but not an embarrassment to the franchise either. I have to say, beyond TOS and TNG, TAS generally offers more of interest to me personally than much that came after TNG. But that's just my personal, narrow-viewed opinion.
Nice recap - I never watched the animated series cuz it looked so silly
As opposed to people running around in pajamas with everything painted in highly saturated primary colors?
It is very silly. Just a slightly different flavor of silly as the rest of the franchise.
Definitely worth checking out
That shouldn't discourage you from watching it.
The Superman cartoons you mentioned were not done for tv trek toon was actually pretty good for 70’s
Not The Immunity Sydrome. It was The Paradise Syndrome.
5:02 You mean TAS made up for "The Paradise Syndrome"... not "The Immunity Syndrome" (which was GOOOD!)...
Pretty heady material for Saturday Morning Cartoons for most kids, but I ate it all up as a young fan. Granted, I caught them upon the reruns in the later 70's but since I had embraced TOS so did I with TAS. That myan flying lizard scared the crap out of me as a kid in 1977 though.
I would love if Paramount would re-animate The Animated Series in modern design (could even replace or alter the original audio of the aliens with new actors or pitch shifting).
No don't let them touch it. It the current climate they'd make it into the same sort of woke swill that Discovery, Picard, etc have been.
Kinda wish they would "special edition" this show and redo much of the animation. Some of the storys are good enough they deserve it.
Star Trek The Animated Series is my favourite Trek hands down. So fun, so camp, and you're so right about Yesteryear. I love M'ress and Arex too, although I do wish they could have afforded Walter Koenig as well :'(
3:53 "logic dictates that it's my turn to use the xbox"
Fleischer's Superman was done for theatrical release. St:TAS was done on a shoestring budget. Filmation was famous for that.
To be exact, the ST:TAS was shot for $75k in 1973 dollars, while the Fleisher Superman shorts were shot for $50k in 1941 dollars. Not to mention that the former had a 20-minute timespan, whereas the latter was 7 minutes.
I agree the Theme tune toatlly slaps.
It was a truly remarkable series for its time- during a period where animated cartoons were intentionally designed to be as dumb and unchallenging as possible so as not to upset the kiddies (and Star Trek: The Animated Series _was_ made for kids- it _had_ to be, it was animated and only kids watch cartoons, as the prevailing thought of the time went) it was... basically just Star Trek. It had some of the nastier violence and almost all the sexual references stripped out (that said, it still included the likes of Mudd's Passion) and obviously the episodes were shorter, but it was ultimately the same show, refusing to talk down to its young audience. It was far ahead of its time. When I was a kid, I owned a copy of 'Star Trek: Log 5', one of a series of expanded novelizations of Animated Series episodes (in this case The Ambergris Element, The Pirates of Orion, and Jihad) and the stories were absolutely exceptional. Just a pity the production values were so poor. I can't believe it's taken them _this_ long to try another animated series!
There are actually two new animated series in development: one for Nickelodeon which we know nothing about (except that it'll be explicitly for younger audiences), and Lower Decks for CBS All-Access, by a Rick & Morty writer, which is for older audiences. Additionally, the next season of Short Treks will be animated.
Animated Star Trek seems to be coming back in a big way.
These animated episodes are available for streaming on CBS All Access, which currently offers a 7 day free trial. Enjoy!
Steve Chance They are also currently available on Netflix, which is were I stream them.
James Doohan did a LOT of the alien species' VO roles. And M'Ress? Voiced by Majel Barrett.
TAS is a fun, whimsical addition to Trek.
Your optimistic mention of Lower Decks is an interesting reminder that not that long ago TAS was considered non-canon and pointless. STLD has breathed new interest in TAS, and if I dare say, STLD is the best Trek series of all.
The alien zoo - The Orville’s second episode!
There was a few eps of this show and retooled at ST Voyager. I did enjoy this Animated Series.
I have no idea if the original elements still exist, but if they were re-combined today with TOS music, and looped with a better variety of guest voices, it might serve as a TAS "remastered."
And now, The Lower Decks (the new animated Star Trek series which has had four seasons released for it so far) has proven to be the greatest Star Trek series in the entire franchise. I'm being completely sincere.
The Lower Decks is certainly not as culturally significant as the original Star Trek, and probably not as culturally significant as TNG, but The Lower Decks maintains a much higher overall level of quality, with consistent quality and entertainment from episode to episode, and actually does an excellent job of being authentic to the Star Trek franchise as a whole, whilst also drawing heavily from the many inconsistencies and more questionable things that have happened in many episodes in a way that's very clever and funny, though it also does a good job of exploring serious and mature themes.
Of course, another reason why the Lower Decks is so well liked is because it is set shortly after the end of the TNG and Deep Space 9 time-lines, and does a good job of having continuity with those time-lines, and those are probably the two most popular and well known Star Trek series.
Would love to see a CGI redux using the original cast dialog.
Wish Caprica Caprica Caprica had a season 2 in animated form
Other than the episode with the second , giant Spock they were all great additions to the cannon and deserved better reception than they got, Roddenberry should not have disowned it. Plus they added a great,new antagonist species, Larry Niven's "Kizenti" from his own future history series. A pity it only went one year plus two or three episodes the second year. As someone said they ought to reanimate it using the same soundtrack but withe modern animation tec, it would be a true 4th season then! Thanks for posting!
I think there was something wrong with Roddenberry after TOS. The story ideas for Star Trek: The Motion Picture were just bad. Going into Star Trek II, he was shelved. As a result Starfleet become more militaristic and we didn't see any more space exploration, really. I do agree with him saying Kirk and crew shouldn't have exhibited such prejudice against Klingons in VI, and it does little to nothing for the story.
@ 5:02 The Immunity Syndrome was NOT "an awful episode" and it was Season Two not Season Three.
The Immunity Syndrome was a great episode.
This show is still today brilliant!!!!!!
I cannot help but feel that your comment on the animation quality is a little unfair, especially as the cost of animation itself went through the roof since those _Superman_ animated cartoons that you mention. There is also the problem that having almost all of the original cast reprising their roles (the only casualty being Walter Koenig) is that all of those salaries would have eaten into the available budget for each episode quite considerably (there was not originally a plan to have all of the cast returning, but Leonard Nimoy reportedly refused to be Spock again unless Nichelle Nichols and George Takei were indeed brought on board to reprise Uhura and Sulu respectively - they were originally going to be voiced by Majel Barrett and James Doohan respectively whilst at the same time reprising their own roles of Nurse Chapel and Scott).
This reduced budget after taking into account the aforementioned salaries meant that some aspects of production, as well as animation quality in general, were inevitably going to suffer, as well as there simply not being enough money to bring on board all sorts of guest voice actors, and the reduced number of cels would also have meant that movements would be jerkier and clumsier. There was simply nothing that could be done about this and we just have to accept the limitations of what was available to the production at the time.
_Yesteryear_ was indeed a superb entry into this series. It was the only episode that Dorothy Fontana had the chance to write as her usual jobs on the show meant that she simply had no time to write any others.
Honestly I'm quite surprised I haven't seen more animated trek-like science fiction. Stepping away from the live action medium effectively side-steps the biggest problem that trek has with it's aliens, being that they have to rely too heavily on rubber prosthetics and easily reusable sets... while also potentially cutting back on the need to lean on the holodeck so they can put their characters in unusual costumes and play out more unusual plotlines.
I remember watching this as a kid. It’s weird, but the sound effects were great 👍
Sticks and stones may break my bones, my my love of Star Trek will NEVER waver! Have watched the animated series more times than the animated ones, probably because there are not as many. So as Scotty might say, to all you 'distracters' of the animated serIes, UP YOUR SHAFT!
I always thought Star Trek Animated would've looked better if Hanna-Barbera had done the animation, they always came up with, in my opinion, interesting designs for aliens.
I think it's funny that one of the artists was really color blind. I don't remember when they caught it, but try and spot when they stopped using pink for odd things. :P Great video! Even with the slight taint of STD in it. ;)
Using the original cast voices (for their main characters), I would love to see ViacomCBS remake this show with modern animation!
Not to defend Filmation's animation work, but comparing them to the Fleischer Superman shorts is really unfair. Those 1940s Superman shorts were lavish big-budget productions meant for the big screen, with about double the budget compared to a typical animated short for the time (about $50,000 nominally per short).
Filmation's work on the other hand was a very crank it out once a week and cut as many corners as we can by reusing and recolouring animation cels, so of course, it was going to look bad. But nearly everything would if you put it next to Fleischer's Superman.
Yeah, plus the budget for the animated series was $75K in 1973 dollars.
@@CosmoShidan so about half the budget per TAS episode when adjusted for inflation? And in the case of TAS, I imagine most of the budget is going toward the original cast.
@@gestalt3s Yes, especially when adjusted for inflation, and that the original cast, sans Koenig ate up the budget.
Also, $75k in 1973 would be $492k in today's dollars.
That amazing 70s theme song is so, so good!! Viva la Hi Hat!!!!
Oh that's why it's just one sentence in the TMP episode of the big retrospective series.
anyone think it would be worth re-animating?
It's long-past time to have a Remastered TAS. Adding footage (maybe even scenes with Walter (and an explanation of his absence...?). I for one think TAS music is worthy of remastering as well. While some of it is tacky, shallow and repetitive, some sounds as good or better than most of the spinoff tracks that have followed it. Unlike TOS, where remastering was kept to an understandable minimum, here they could "have at it!" A difficult decision is, do you re-cast the extra voices? Majel and Nichelle did a great job, but after 7-8 characters, you run out of voices (Jimmy Doohan is an exception!). Word is, sadly, that CBS and/or Paramount has considered, and dismissed, this idea. Really too bad, since It is (except for a couple of 90's computer games and George & Jimmy's book narrations) all we have left of the original cast.
I love Star Trek The Animated Series.
I really like the animated series. Not every episode is good, but the show has much more good going for it than against it. Animation allowed them to explore stories that were outside the scope of the original series.