Retro Review: Star Trek The Animated Series
Gene Roddenbery’s vision, the original actors, hard core writers, and Filmation’s cartoon experience make 1973-1974′s Star Trek: The Animated Series worthy of the Star Trek banner and consistent enough to be allowed into Star Trek canon.
All of the cartoons maintain the spirit of Star Trek and fit into TOS continuity- these are the continuing voyages of the starship Enterprise after TOS got canceled. Gene was pumped because you can DRAW anything, and the crew could go ANYWHERE- they were no setting constraints; so we have some underwater scenes, better aliens, more shuttlecraft action, thin space suits auras, more planets, better action, etc.
No offense to Hal Sutherland, the Filmation director, but Filmation isn’t exactly known for breaking the budget for their animation (which happens to great here); they are known for reusing stock footage and cutting corners to meet production deadlines. However, generally there is no distracting stock footage here, and each episode has different aliens, backgrounds, and animations. (I’m mostly comparing this show to the 1980′s He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, my favorite cartoon, which is loaded-if not smothered- with reused animation).
That being said, the only two flaws of the series are the characters eyes and the music is reused. (The original themes and music from TOS can’t be used.)
I can see how expensive each episode was, and how Paramount was probably spending too much money on the animation, voice acting, and scripts; this is NOT a children’s cartoon. Roddenberry thought that Star Trek would never be live action again, and thought that the only way to continue his vision would be via an animated series (it’s easier than producing a weekly live-action TV series).
Ultimately, the series failed because the target audience didn’t meet the required demographics that made other Filmation series viable (in fact, Filmation offered to buy creative control rights from Roddenberry and make the crew younger and kiddie-friendly, but he turned down their money). Finally, it’s kinda tough for adults to take cartoons seriously, so this series gets written off.
Anyway, here is a quick rundown of the episodes with my GRADE rating (A+ all the way down to F). My rating is based within the sci-fi genre and Star Trek universe, so a “C” means it is a generic ST episode, while an A+ is an elite classic (like TOS episode The City on the Edge of Forever). Of course, I’m sure they are non-sci-fi or non-ST fans that don’t find an A+ episode of Star Trek to be worth anything, kinda like “the best Godzilla movie”; I don’t care.
Average Animated Series Rating: B
Season 1
“Beyond the Farthest Star”: The crew discovers an ancient life form trapped aboard an ancient derelict spaceship. First appearance of Chekhov’s replacement Arex and a feline crew member M’Ress. The crew battles an non-corporeal aggressive life-form. B
“Yesteryear”: A+
“One of Our Planets is Missing”: Enterprise vs. Galactus in cloud form! An ancient giant cloud alien eats planets…she had no idea there were living things on them. B+
“The Lorelei Signal”: Uhura takes command after the males are lured by sirens/amazons who drain the males’ lifeforce. B
“More Tribbles, More Troubles”: I’m not a huge fan of comedy episodes, but this was a cool director sequel. C+
“The Survivor”: The Enterprise finds Carter Winston, while patrolling the Romulan Neutral Zone, an icon who was lost for years. Turns out he’s really a shape-shifter hired by the Romulans, but he had fallen in love with an Enterprise crew-member. B-
“The Infinite Vulcan”: A giant cloned scientist from the 1990′s Eugenics Wars clones Spock with to create a master race to create order in the universe, along with an army of intelligent plants. What if I told you SPOCK’s GIANT CLONE IS STILL ON THE PLANET WITH THIS GUY? B
“The Magicks of Megas-tu”: Probably would be a talked about to this day if this was live action. The crew investigates the creation of the universe, when they are thrown into an alternate universe where magic is the backbone, and befriends a Pan-like alien , and both are put on trial by the witches and warlock aliens who were hunted in Salem back in the day. Turns out the Pan-like alien was the Devil in mythology, and he was actually a nice guy! A
“Once Upon a Planet”: The Enterprise returns to the planet where the crew once took shore leave. Once again, the illusions turn deadly. Not really into shore leave episodes. D+
“Mudd’s Passion”: Yeah, another Harry Mudd comedy episode. He makes Spock fall in love with Nurse Chapel. C-
“The Terratin Incident”: The crew shrinks. We find out a miniature race was asking for help. Kinda gimmicky episode showing off what an animated series could do as opposed to live action at the time. D+
“The Time Trap”: The Enterprise and a Klingon ship are trapped in a pocket universe, where time is virtually frozen, and are put on trial by the (good) judges of this dimension. Ultimately, Kirk and the Klingons must work together to escape. B+
“The Ambergris Element”: Kirk and Spock become mutated into Mer-Men after exploring an underwater culture that hates surface dwellers. B-
“The Slaver Weapon”: Sulu, Uhura, and Spock find an ancient Slaver box on an ice planet. Evil cat-like aliens- the Kzinti- want to open the box and use the ultimate weapon. Excellent Cold War episode that shows aggression and war-like intentions don’t pay off. A-
“The Eye of the Beholder”: Hard core sci-fi here: The crew is captured and put in an interstellar zoo by advanced intelligent (and good) aliens who are so evolved that humans are like insects. The aliens are peaceful and curious, and want to protect their new specimens. A great analogy for the way we humans treat animals. A
“The Jihad”: It’s Star Trek Team-Up! Kirk teams up with the best of other races to retrieve a stolen religious and powerful artifact from a volcanic murder-world. Too bad one of his partners is a traitor! This episode was action-orientated in the Filmation tradition- there was a bird man, lizard man, female hunter, insect man, etc. B-
Season 2
“The Pirates of Orion”: Spock is dying of a rare disease, and pirates have stolen the medicine from a cargo ship. It’s up to Kirk to “negotiate”. B+
“Bem”: I’ve always hated American cartoons where the heroes must defend and protect a guest character that is rude, obnoxious, ungrateful, and who thinks he/she/it is smarter than everyone else. That being said, the crew gets captured by primitive natives and they are ruled by a non-corporeal god-like alien who hates interference. C
“The Practical Joker”: After passing through a space cloud, the Enterprise gains full intelligence and becomes the title of this episode; she takes over the ship. Oh, and FIRST APPEARANCE OF HOLODECK. Eat it and weep. C
“Albatross”: Bones gets arrested for spreading a plague on a planet, and Kirk and Spock get the evidence to clear his name, but not before the crew gets the plague, too. The aliens are heartless prosecutors in this episode and want McCoy to pay the price. B+
“How Sharper Than a Serpent’s Tooth”: The Enterprise encounters a Mayan/Aztec/Chinese Dragon powerful entity that was worshiped by ancient earth. The entity Kulkukan is disappointed that humans never solved its riddle and wants to continue to teach. It also has a Matrix-like zoo where it keeps its “children” from other planets. This is kinda like the TOS classic episode “Who Mourns for Adonis”, and Alan Moore kinda tackled this in modern times in a Tom Strong story. A
“The Counter-Clock Incident”: Meet the FIRST CAPTAIN OF THE ENTERPRISE, Robert April, and his wife, THE FIRST DOCTOR OF THE ENTERPRISE, Sarah April. WHHHHOOOooooOOOooooo! Eat that J.J. Abrams and Scott Bakula. Anyway, Commodore April is being forced to retire due to his age, so the Enterprise is escorting them to be honored. The Aprils are kinda sad that they have to retire. Too bad they get knocked into an anti-matter universe where everything is reversed due to time flowing backwards. Eventually, the crew de-ages and becomes teenagers and kids. Spock assumes command because Vulcans age differently, but then Captain April is now back in his prime! He’s back for one last run and saves the Enterprise. He uses the transporter frequencies to restore the crew back to normal age once they arrive back in our universe, however he and his wife make the ultimate sacrifice: they return to being old instead of staying in their primes. April said that he has lived a full life, and has no regrets; no need to live it again. A+
If you liked this article, check out these:
- Retro Review: Star Trek III: The Search for Spock
- Star Trek: Jumpstarting a Franchise
- Star Trek Movie Review
- DailySkew Review: Star Trek: ‘Return to Tomorrow’
- Star Trek War Online
- Babylon 5 Season 1 on HULU for FREE
- Retro Review: Yesteryear (Star Trek Animated Series)
- Enterprise Season 1, Episodes 1-5
- James Cameron Aliens Movie Review (1986)
- More weirdness- alien UFOs in ancient art
- 24 Canceled: When Did 24 Jump the Shark?
- How the Internet Killed my Star Wars love
- Green Lantern First Flight Review (Green Lantern animated)
- Predator is Overrated – Arnold Schwarzenegger Hype
- Watch The Prisoner Online…for FREE
- Cloverfield
- War of the Worlds Review (2005)
- George Lucas Speaks (Spidey Rip + News)
- Banned Video: Proof of Reptilian nWo
- Coming this summer: PREDATORS MOVIE
put of curiosity I took the time to check out some of the star trek animated series on youtube and must say I was impressed.
It was exactly like the original star trek except for the fact that it was animated.
never saw it until now, thanks for the heads up on this.
definitely watchworthy.
Exactly, R.A.W. I can’t say it any better: the personalities, scripts, aliens, messages, sci-fi, voices, and techno-speak is 100% like TOS…except it’s a cartoon. That’s why it was canceled, which was a shame.
I meant to say “out of curiousity”
I guess thats also where “pwned” comes from.
No problem, R.A.W…I don’t worry about typos here.