TV: Star Trek: The Animated Series - A Quick Look

 

Star Trek: The Animated Series (1973-1974), 22 episodes

The forgotten stepchild of the Star Trek universe, the technically non-canon Animated Series featured the voices of the entire original cast (except Walter Koenig) and scripts by many writers from the original series.

Koenig’s Chekov is not here for budgetary reasons, but Koenig did write an episode, “The Infinite Vulcan,” which is plagiaristically similar to the original series episode “Spock’s Brain.”

This is a Filmation cartoon, which means the animation is stiff and the use of stock footage is plentiful (which leads to numerous instances of incorrect rank insignia and swapped chest emblems). The characters look only vaguely like their original counterparts, and hearing the old voices from these faces takes some getting used to.

As a cartoon, the series is able to take certain liberties the original could not. There are now alien crewmembers, for one (and quite a few more aliens, period), and many more spacecraft are shown. Yet in traditional Filmation style, corners are cut wherever possible – the use of the life support belts, for example, is considerably simpler to animate than environmental suits would be (and sometimes they don’t even bother to draw the belts).

Nearly all the additional voices are supplied by Trek regulars James Doohan, Majel Barrett and Nichelle Nichols. Doohan has a talent for voices; Barrett and Nichols are hard pressed to do any voice that sounds different from their own, which causes problems when there are multiple female characters on screen.

Star Trek: The Animated Series doesn’t always feel like a kid’s cartoon. Just like in the original series, the best episodes deal seriously with themes like ethics and life and death (the worst are bogged down with exposition to the point they could be radio dramas). There are many sequels to episodes from the original series, which makes TAS more satisfying. TAS also adds significantly to the Trek universe: here we get a good look at Vulcan and Spock’s family and we see Uhura in command of the Enterprise for the first time.

The shortened running time (23 minutes) does necessitate a simplification of the stories, but it doesn’t hamper the series unduly. In fact, many of the oft-mocked Trek conventions are absent here: no redshirts die, Kirk keeps his shirt on throughout the series, and he never puts the moves on any women.

On the whole, The Animated Series is faithful in spirit to the original, and will be enjoyed by fans of the same. I give the series a 6.

Best episode: “Yesteryear”