Star Trek The Animated Series

Star Trek The Animated Series

The Animated Adventures of Gene Roddenberry's Star Trek, to use its full title, was a revival/continuation of sorts of the original series in Saturday morning cartoon form.  Produced by Filmation the series ran for 22 episodes, airing on NBC's Saturday morning lineup from 1973 to 1974.  Being a Filmation show it was an exceedingly low budget production, although what it lacked in budget and perceived visual quality (see pink tribbles and purple Klingon uniforms) it more than made up for in writing quality.  A big part of this writing quality is due to the writing staff, which included TOS alum D.C. Fontana and David Gerrold.  Most of the original cast returned to voice their characters, although budget restrictions resulted in the notable absence of Walter Koenig as Chekov.  The animated nature of the series allowed for a number of imaginative, non-humanoid characters and creatures that would have been impossible in live action.  Notably two new bridge officers were introduced: Lt. Arex, a three-armed, three-legged Edoan voiced by James Doohan and the Caitian Lt. M'Ress, a felinoid female voiced by Majel Barrett.  The limited budget required many of the main cast to voice additional characters, notably Majel Barrett and Nichelle Nichols who voice all female characters in the series and James Doohan who alone voice over 50 characters across the 22 episodes.  

The canon status of the series has long been debated.  Gene Roddenberry himself said the series is not canon, however the current franchise powers that be say that it is.  Many elements of the Animated series have been canonized in NuTrek series, specifically in Lower Decks and with Robert April appearing in Strange New Worlds.  Due to the many contradictions with the live action series I personally consider TAS "quasi-canon".  Personally, I see TAS more as a part of TOS than as a separate series in itself (not so much a "TOS year 4/year 5/season 4" as just additional missions).  

Notable Episodes: "Beyond the Farthest Star" features striking visuals of the ancient alien "pod ship" discovered by the Enterprise near Questar M17 and the recorded log entry left by one of the ships insectoid crew members, really showing what could be done in animation but not in live action.  "Yesteryear" was written by D.C. Fontana and had Spock travelling back in time to his childhood on Vulcan to fix a change to the timeline to ensure his future.  Marc Lenard guest stars as the voice of Sarek while Majel Barrett provides the voice of Amanda, whose surname Grayson is established here.  In Trek's finest tradition the episode used it's futuristic scifi time travel premise to tell a serious, emotional, heartfelt story with a message: how children cope with the loss of a pet.  Of the entire animated series this episode is the closest to being truly canon (an many fans consider it to be so, even if they don't consider the rest of the series to be so).  "More Tribbles, More Troubles" is a sequel to the classic "The Trouble With Tribbles" and features Klingons, Tribbles and Stanley Adams as trader and PITA Cyrano Jones.  David Gerrold who wrote the TOS episode penned this episode originally for a potential TOS season 4.  "The Infinite Vulcan" was written by Walter Koenig and has the Enterprise crew encountering the giant clone of a Eugenics War era scientist, who captures Spock and creates a giant Spock clone.  "Slaver Weapon" penned by Larry Niven features several elements (the Slavers, the Kzinti) taken directly from Niven's "Known Space" novels.  "The Practical Joker" features the "rec room" a precursor to the holodeck, "Bem" establishes James Kirk's middle name Tiberius and the finale "The Counter-Clock Incident" established now-Commodore Robert April as the first captain of the USS Enterprise (before Pike) and his wife Sarah as the ships first CMO.

On the whole The Animated Series is an interesting and fun addition to the franchise, even if its canon status leads to most or all of it being taken with huge amounts of salt.  In the decade after the cancellation of the Original Series, TAS was a creative way to keep Gene Roddenberry's final frontier alive and popular with a growing, dedicated fanbase.