Star Trek: The Animated Series

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Star Trek: The Animated Series
Genre Science fiction, Animation
Running time 30 min. per episode
Creator(s) Gene Roddenberry
Starring William Shatner
Leonard Nimoy
DeForest Kelley
James Doohan
George Takei
Nichelle Nichols
Majel Barrett
Country of origin Flag of United States United States
Original channel NBC
Original run September 8, 1973–October 12, 1974
No. of episodes 22 (List of episodes)
Preceded by Star Trek: The Original Series (1966–1969)
Followed by Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987–1994)
IMDb profile
TV.com summary

Star Trek: The Animated Series is an animated science fiction television series set in the Star Trek universe, and a continuation of Star Trek: The Original Series. The series was aired under the name Star Trek, but it has become widely known under this longer name (or abbreviated as ST:TAS or TAS) to differentiate it from the original live action Star Trek. It is also sometimes referred to as "The Animated Adventures."

Contents

[edit] Production

The series was produced by Filmation and ran for two seasons, 1973 and 1974, airing a total of twenty-two half-hour episodes. It featured most of the original cast performing the voices for their characters, except for Pavel Chekov (Walter Koenig), who was omitted because the show's budget could not afford the complete cast. He was replaced by two animated characters who made semi-regular appearances: Lieutenant Arex, whose Edosian species had three arms and three legs; and Lt. M'Ress, a female Caitian. James Doohan, and Majel Barrett, besides performing their characters Montgomery Scott and Christine Chapel, performed the voices of Arex and M'Ress, respectively.

Initially Filmation were only going to use the voices of Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley, James Doohan and Majel Barrett. Doohan and Barrett would also perform the voices of Sulu and Uhura. Leonard Nimoy refused to sign up to lend his voice to the series unless Nichelle Nichols and George Takei were added to the cast - claiming that Sulu and Uhura were of import as they were proof of the ethnic diversity of the 23rd century and should not be recast.[1]

Koenig was not forgotten and later wrote an episode of the series, becoming the first Star Trek actor to write a Trek story in the process.

As is usual for animation, the voice actors did not perform together but recorded their parts separately to avoid clashing with other commitments. For instance, William Shatner, who was touring in a play at the time, would record his lines in whatever city he happened to be in and have the tapes shipped to the studio. Doohan and Barrett, besides providing the voices of their Original Series characters and newcomers Arex and M'Ress, performed virtually all of the "guest star" characters in the series, except for a few notable exceptions such as Sarek, Cyrano Jones and Harcourt Fenton Mudd, who were performed by their original actors from The Original Series. Occasional other guest voice actors were also used, such as Ed Bishop (Commander Straker on UFO) who voiced the Megan Prosecutor in "Magicks of Megas-Tu", and Ted Knight (Ted Baxter on The Mary Tyler Moore Show) who voiced Carter Winston in "The Survivor".

While the freedom of animation afforded large alien landscapes and believable non-humanoid aliens, budget constraints were a major concern and the animation quality was generally fair, with very liberal use of stock shots. There were also occasional mistakes, such as characters appearing on screen who were elsewhere, or a character supposed to appear on the bridge main screen appears in front, indicating bad ordering of animation plates. These were typically one-off errors however. Occasionally, though, parts of episodes would be animated at a near-theatrical quality level.

[edit] Episodes

Main article: List of Star Trek: The Animated Series episodes
The characters of TAS
Enlarge
The characters of TAS

The 22 episodes of TAS were spread out over two brief seasons, with copious reruns of each episode.

All the episodes of this series were novelized by Alan Dean Foster and released in 10 volumes under the Star Trek Logs banner. Initially, Foster adapted three episodes per book, but later editions saw the half-hour scripts expanded into full novel-length stories.

The writing in the series benefited from a Writers Guild of America strike in 1973, which did not apply to animation.[2] A few episodes are especially notable due to contributions from well-known science fiction authors:

  • "More Tribbles, More Troubles" was written by David Gerrold as a sequel to his famous episode "The Trouble with Tribbles" from the original series. Here the infamous Cyrano Jones is rescued from the Klingons, bringing with him a genetically-altered breed of Tribbles which do not reproduce but do grow extremely large. (It is later discovered that these are really clusters of tribbles who function as a single tribble, and it is decided that the large numbers of smaller tribbles are preferable to the larger ones.) The Klingons, due to their hatred of Tribbles, are eager to get Cyrano Jones back because he stole a creature they created: a predator that feeds on tribbles. This episode was originally written with the intention of being an episode of the live-action original series, but this was vetoed by one of the producers who had never liked the "The Trouble With Tribbles".
  • Larry Niven's "The Slaver Weapon", adapted from his own short story The Soft Weapon. It includes some elements from his Known Space mythos such as the Kzinti and the Slavers. This is the only Kirk era TV or movie story in which Kirk didn't appear (due to scheduling conflicts which precluded Shatner's participation in the episode). This episode also has the distinction of being the only animated episode where anyone dies or is killed onscreen.
  • "The Magicks of Megas-tu", by Larry Brody, sends the Starship Enterprise to the center of the galaxy. Its crew find themselves befriended by a devil-like alien named Lucien, whom they must defend against accusations that he has brought evil to the world of Megas-tu.

[edit] Continuity

With the release of the Animated Series DVD release, Paramount studio appears to have changed its stance on the series, and is now calling the animated series as part of established canon, including within the pack-in booklet, and dvd extras, and Startrek.com.[1][2][3]

It is generally assumed that the episodes in the series take place after the events of the Original Series, possibly during the last year of the NCC-1701's five-year mission. However this is never stated on screen. It is impossible to support this notion using the stardates mentioned in the episodes, since they are often inconsistent with the Original Series. One episode, "Magicks of Megas-Tu" carries a stardate lower than that of the second pilot of the Original Series ("Where No Man Has Gone Before"); however, McCoy, who wasn't a member of the crew at the time of that early episode, is present. Another episode carries a stardate higher than that given in Star Trek: The Motion Picture which takes place approximately one and a half to two years after the events of the five-year mission. D.C. Fontana refers to the series as "year 4" in the DVD set, and some of the other extras imply that the two seasons of the animated series make up a year 4 and 5 respectively. According to the packaging, "Boldly continuing where the original series left off...".

Another theory offered is that the TAS series was the depiction of a second five-year mission that took place between the original series and ST:tMP. This was the result of a number of publications put out at the time of ST:tMP's release that gave contradicting information about the length of the last mission the Enterprise was on before underging Service Life Extension Program refiting. In Roddenberry's introduction to the novelization of the screenplay, he stated that five-year-mission had been fully completed. In the Star Trek Spaceflight Chronology it is stated that the Enterprise (and the other remaining Constitution class ships) were recalled for SLEP refit at the end of the mission's third year. Since both sources were considered canon at the time, the two appeared to indicate two missions had occured under Kirk's command; and would explain the dissapearances of Chekov, Rand, and Kevin Riley from the crew as well as the appearance of new crewmembers.[3] [4]

[edit] Canon issues

For a variety of reasons (most likely legal ones, such as the use of concepts from Niven's own works), Paramount Pictures does not consider The Animated Series to be canon with the rest of the Star Trek universe. According to various sources, including Majel Barrett Roddenberry, Gene Roddenberry reportedly asked soon before his death that the series - with the sole exception of Yesteryear - not be considered canon. An official accounting as to why the series had been "decanonized" has never been made. There have been occasions where writers and other production crew have sneaked animation-series references into one of the live-action series. In the Deep Space 9 episode Once More Unto the Breach, Kor referred to his ship, the Klothos, which was first named in the TAS episode Time Trap. Most recently, the Star Trek: Enterprise episodes "The Catwalk" and "The Forge" included references to "Yesteryear", the latter featuring a CGI rendition of a wild sehlat.

The decanonizing of TAS by Paramount has been controversial within the Trek fan community. Arguments in favor of the series being included in official canon include the fact that many episodes were written by Original Series veterans (at least a couple of stories were originally intended for TOS, example "Bem"). The episode "Yesteryear" is considered a partial exception by some sources because it provides valuable background for the character of Mr. Spock as well as Vulcan culture, however Paramount has never made an official proclamation regarding this episode, although the aforementioned Enterprise episodes did include references to it.

The novels have made free use of concepts from The Animated Series: Lieutenants Arex and M'Ress appear as regular characters in Star Trek: New Frontier, and Peter David used both in his acclaimed run as writer of the DC Comics licensed comic book during the early 1990's. The Nasat, a race introduced in the episode "The Jihad" and represented by M3 Green, provide a regular character, P8 Blue, for the Starfleet Corps of Engineers e-book novellas.

Amarillo Design Bureau, Inc. have — as part of their license for the Star Fleet Universe series of games — incorporated many aspects of the Animated Series into their works, not least being the inclusion of the Kzinti, although in a modified form. In addition FASA used elements from the animated series in their sourcebooks and modules for their Star Trek role-playing game.

[edit] Trivia

In order to meet Wikipedia's quality standards, this article's trivia section requires cleanup.
Content in the trivia section should be integrated into other appropriate areas of the article.
  • The writers of animated series used the same writers guide that was used for the live-action Star Trek: The Original Series.
  • An early Filmation proposal for this series had children assigned to each of the senior officers as cadets, including a young Vulcan for Mr. Spock. According to interviews with Norm Prescott, Paramount offered Roddenberry a substantial sum of money to abandon creative control of the project and let Filmation proceed with their "kiddy space cadet" idea. Roddenberry indignantly refused. Filmation later developed the idea into its own original program, Space Academy.
  • The U.S.S. Enterprise in this series, while supposedly the same ship as from the original series, had a holodeck very similar to the one introduced on Star Trek: The Next Generation, which was set approximately 80 years later. It only appeared once, in Chuck Menville's "The Practical Joker" and was known as the Rec Room. This feature was originally proposed for the original series (see, e.g., Gerrold, The World of Star Trek) but was never used.
  • A personal force field technology known as the life support belt was seen only in The Animated Series. In addition to supplying the wearer with the appropriate atmosphere and environmental protection it permitted the cartoonists to simply draw the belt and yellow glow around the existing characters, instead of having to redraw them with an environmental suit. The life support belt could support a mechanical load and at one point saved a character (Scotty) from being crushed.
  • The episode "The Infinite Vulcan" (written by Walter Koenig) is one of only two occurrences where Captain Kirk comes close to actually saying "Beam me up, Scotty" (long believed to be a Trek catchphrase), where he commands "Beam us up, Scotty." Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home comes closer to it by having Kirk say "Scotty, beam me up".)
  • The episode "The Lorelei Signal" provides a rare instance in Star Trek in which a female took (temporary) command of a starship. Due to the incapacitation of the male members of the crew, Uhura assumes command of the U.S.S. Enterprise from Scotty. Other instances occurred on the very first and very last adventures ever filmed of the original series:
    • The Cage in which Number One took command after the abduction of Captain Christopher Pike, and
    • Turnabout Intruder, in which Dr. Janice Lester took over the body of Captain Kirk and assumed command.
  • The animated series was, according to the Nielsen ratings, not popular with young children (According to series' producers it was intended to be enjoyed by the entire family). Although the accuracy of the ratings system conducted by the A. C. Nielsen company have been vehemently disputed by its supporters and detractors since their first implementation, these results have been cited by fans and critics as justification for the show's brief run of only 22 episodes. However, those same critics noted that the series did receive both critical acclaim and at least one Daytime Emmy award nomination. According to both Roddenberry and an NBC press release, this was the justification for six additional episodes being ordered by the network for the series' second season.
  • A few facts introduced in the animated series have been refrenced in the live-action productions:
    • Kirk's middle name mentioned as Tiberius.
    • Amanda's maiden name as Grayson.
    • The existence of a Glommer, a Tribble predator.
    • A ceiling bridge defense mechanism.
    • The first holodeck.
    • A second exit for the bridge, refrenced in Franz Joseph's Star Fleet Technical Manual.
    • The kas'wahn ritual Spock endures in "Yesteryear."
    • Klingon commander Kor's command of the battlecruiser Klothos.
    • Doctor Phlox uses edosian slugs in his medical bay, they come from the same planet as Lieutenant Arex.
    • The city on vulcan ShirKahr has been refrenced in multiple series, and can be seen in an episode of Enterprise.".
    • Some of the worlds and aliens in the series were included into the 1989 book called Star Trek: The Worlds of the Federation which also mentions that Mudd somehow manages to escape from the "Muddian Androids" from the TOS episode I, Mudd.
  • Filmation later went on to produce the hit He-Man and the Masters of the Universe (1983-85), which occasionally used modified character and set designs from ST:TAS, mostly as background material. It also shared many of the stock sound effects from both TAS and TOS. (MOTU also had several Trek-similar stories, most notable "The Arena", which is very similar to TOS's first season episode "Arena"). Filmation also recycled some of the background music for TAS in their later 1970s animated shows Tarzan and the Super 7 and Lassie's Rescue Rangers.

[edit] Video release

Following a release of the complete series on 11 volumes of VHS tapes in the 1980s, a complete boxed set of laserdiscs was released for ST:TAS in 1997. A DVD box set of the show was released on November 21, 2006. It was the last series of Paramount's Star Trek television franchise to be released to DVD.

[edit] References

  1. ^ George Takei. To the Stars: The Autobiography of George Takei. Pocket Books.
  2. ^ D.C. Fontana (1991). Introduction to Star Trek: The Classic Episodes, Volume 1.
  3. ^ Star Trek Spaceflight Chronology, by Paramount picture corp
  4. ^ Star Trek the Motion Picture -- a Novel, by Gene Roddenberry

[edit] External links

Star Trek television series and feature films
  Television series
The Original Series · The Animated Series · The Next Generation · Deep Space Nine · Voyager · Enterprise
  TOS-Era Feature films
The Motion Picture · The Wrath of Khan · The Search for Spock · The Voyage Home · The Final Frontier · The Undiscovered Country
  TNG-Era Feature films
Generations · First Contact · Insurrection · Nemesis
  Unknown-Era Feature films
XI
Formerly Broadcast Animated Nickelodeon Shows of the 1980s
Channels on the Nickelodeon Network: TV Land | Nick Too | Nick GAS | Nicktoons Network | Noggin / The N
Premiered between 1983-1989:

Bananaman | DangerMouse | Belle and Sebastian | Star Trek: The Animated Series | The Little Prince | The Smurfs | Mysterious Cities of Gold | Spartakus and the Sun Beneath the Sea | Adventures of the Little Koala | Heathcliff | Jim Henson's Muppet Babies | Inspector Gadget | Maple Town | Count Duckula | The Alvin Show on Nickelodeon | Beetlejuice | Grimm's Fairy Tale Classics | Looney Tunes on Nickelodeon | Noozles | The Super Mario Bros. Super Show! | The World of David the Gnome
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