TBJCSKCNRRQTreviews
The continued adventures of the starship Enterprise. It gives us the last two of the ship's five year mission, high on the list of "worst ideas of specific details to main concepts", because before this, it only lasted three, and if this had gotten a third season, oops, it lasted more than the five. It slips right back into the soft continuity, with a similar opening, and if you watched this right after The Original Series, and wasn't told there were years between it, you'd barely be able to tell. Like that, no (aired) pilot or finale. This was made when NBC realized that the old Nielsen system didn't get the ratings right, it had actually been one of the most successful series, but props from it were gone, so they did what other live-action prime time did in the 70's, including Happy Days, Laverne & Shirley, Mork & Mindy, The Partridge Family, and The Dukes of Hazzard. Go Saturday morning cartoon with it. It even won an Emmy in that category. It is smarter and more mature, and not specifically for kids. You *can* go in blind: if this is the first Star Trek you watch, while there are elements and such that are followed up on that you won't appreciate as much, you will pick up anything you need to know to follow it: You'll learn what warp speed, Klingons and phasers are. And this fits in nicely tonally. This review is co-written by my ex-fiancée, who has graciously lent her expertise on the franchise each time I delve into one of these.We are again led by the adventurous, and though it's less present here, seducer-of-women, Captain James Tiberius Kirk(Shatner, clever and determined, who still pauses here and there, the rest of his trademark not as clear, given the medium). His Second in command and Science Officer is Spock(Nimoy, R.I.P., half-Vulcan and -human, driven by the former to logic, intelligence, away from the emotions of the latter, in spite of clearly caring about his friends, including Jim, who he represents the mind of. He will now sometimes Troi). Where the modern takes on this are ensembles, the two aforementioned, are the focus, along with Dr "Bones" McCoy(Kelley, R.I.P., Southern, gives his opinion and driven to protect and heal), the passion of the Cpt. The two last-mentioned people have a sibling relationship, picking on each other, yet you never doubt, and will see, they'd do anything to help the other when it counts.The Chief of Engineering is Scotty(Doohan, who's love of the ship rubs off on the audience. He also gives us Arex, an orange-skinned, goofy-grinned crew member). He performs as a lot of guests, and I'm not certain why... did he jump at the chance, was it someone's idea they ran with, was he deemed the best at changing his voice of the mains, was he less expensive than some of the others, maybe he demonstrated that he could produce the most variety, perhaps it helped that he was the only one who didn't speak in his real accent as his regular? The pilot is Sulu(Takei, a swashbuckler). In charge of communication is Uhura(Nichols, a strong woman, who here may just get to take command... and *own* it!). Nurse Chapel(Barrett, now a full lieutenant. She also does M'Ress, the purring, cat-like being). Chekov is Sir-Not-Appearing-On-This-One, and he's the only bridge person. It was because of costs cut of hiring. He did pen a script. This was the most expensive drawn shows on the air at the time, primarily because of the six "names". They, and any one-offs and such, all give solid performances. It's very unusual and impressive for those not trained for voice acting to do this well – I don't know if it's themselves or the direction...anyway, kudos to them all.This has 2 seasons, 22 episodes total, each of 20-21 minutes, fantastical, personal, or both. They kept up a similar ratio of 'serious' ones, to 'action' ones, to 'light/funny' ones. They vary some in quality... with that said, there isn't a single one I would suggest you skip, and this has a handful that live up to the standards expected from Gene Roddenberry's idealistic, utopian, optimistic view of what's in store for us. The characters are the driving force and we get cool, compelling and/or fun sci-fi concepts explored well: vastly different forms of life from what we know, including intelligent plants and huge monsters, unusual situations, and frequently amazing, detailed aliens, tech, vast settings, they really build an incredible world. This is exciting, at a fast pace, tight, and rarely too fast. There are a handful of new technologies like the recreation room (later the idea was reused, where it was known as a holodeck) and the aqua-shuttle. They can now go onto non-M-class planets, ones that don't support human life, with life-support-belts. As a result of the use of recycled footage, there were also many instances of randomly misplaced people and equipment.The events, phenomena, and as already mentioned, non-humanoid aliens, are much freer and more surprising than before, since with animation, you can basically do anything, and with the humans on our crew being, well, human, and that they look and move fairly realistically, it grounds this in our reality, just in our future and in space. As envisioned by the time it was made, of course. And thus, the amazing things are that much more effective, than in some fiction where everything is outlandish, nothing is like our world, our time, us. This was done by Filmation. Relatively simple visuals. Often fairly limited angles and movement in the frames. When someone runs, they will often appear as a silhouette.There are themes, ideas and sights that aren't for the youngest of viewers... one's age should probably be in double digits. I recommend this to anyone who enjoys speculative fiction, and would urge those thinking this is "just for kids" to give it a chance. 7/10
RealLiveClaude
Thus this is at first a 70s Saturday Morning Cartoon, just by seeing it with most of the original cast that did it in the Original Series puts this one at level with the rest of the franchise, despite the fact that the late Gene Roddenberry denied the canon and stories were treated in "average" TV animation for this era.The stories are well told, though short and targeted for a younger audience than the average Trekkie. Even some stories which were about to be told whether the Original Series would have continued found their way here, with cool results. Even story arcs from "TOS" involved the Tribbles with notorious merchant Cyrano Jones, the infamous Harry Mudd and Spock's father Sarek (all voiced by their original actors who appeared in the previous series). Sad to see that Walter Koenig did not participate, however, he did provide a story for this series.Luckily, all the original actors (Shatner, Nimoy, Kelley, Takei) reprise their iconic roles, and Nichelle Nicholls, Majel Barrett and especially James Doohan made excellent voice characterizations beside their original roles in Star Trek.Thus we can claim the average "still" animation of that era which is criticized, it opened the door to more flexibility, including original aliens (which today can be CGI-animated) and the add-on to the crew of Lieutenants M'Ress and Arex (who replaced Chekov) which proves the Federation can rely on other than humans and a Vulcan.If you can't stand the animation, good to close your eyes and imagine if they were real, as the dialogue exchange resembles the Original Series.Finally, if this is not considered "canon", however, the re-discovery of the animated series for the creators of the farther series (The Next Generation, Voyager and Enterprise) found a way to "connect" it and make it part of the franchise...And of course, it won an Emmy ! Enjoy Trekkies, worth the watch !
peter-faizey
Star Trek The Animated Series came about in 1973 following the cancellation of the original live action series in 1969. Produced by Filmation under the direction of animator Hal Sutherland the series closed a gap in between the cancellation of the original series and Star Trek: The Motion Picture which was produced in 1979. The show was born due to Star Trek's increasing popularity following its repeats through syndication in the early 1970's. With a considerable potential audience the Animated Series of Star Trek was a smart move at the time, with Paramount unwilling to finance a brand new live action series. William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy and later George Takei, James Doohan, Nichelle Nichols and Majel Barrett were all keen to return to voice the characters they had played in the original series and original series writer and script editor D.C Fontana was brought in to ensure a knowledgeable hand had control over the scripts brought in for the series. Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry acted as a 'Executive Consultant' and original series writers including David Gerrold, Samuel A. Peeples and Margaret Armen wrote for the programme. Walter Koenig was not able to return as Chekov due to budgetary restrictions, but he did pen the excellent episode 'The Infinite Vulcan'. Theoretically the animated series allowed the production team to be more imaginative in its creation of monsters and alien worlds, achieving results that would be impossible for a live action series. The show is certainly atmospheric, the limited animation is generally used to great effect and the layout artists do a fantastic job of conjuring unearthly settings. The writing is generally top notch, the stories rarely simplified for the younger audience it was largely intended for, with many adult themes running throughout. The fantastic 'Yesteryear' the only script contributed by D.C Fontana for the series is truly brilliant, a fascinating insight into Spock's childhood which one could imagine as an Original Series episode. The programme is often harshly criticised for its crude animation (an industry trait at the time) which admittedly is very repetitive. The reuse of certain monsters does become noticeable, certainly the usage of monsters becomes is considerable, countering the limitations the series had experienced in its live action format and certainly a good monster or two will keep the children entertained. Another criticism usually levelled is at the music in the series. I consider that criticism to be particularly unfair, the incidental cues (although recycled ad nauseum) are generally excellent, and the theme is a worthy homage of Alexander Courage's iconic original. Worthy of note is the initial unease of William Shatner and DeForest Kelley in the first few episodes with the voice-over format. Both fail to inject much emotion and enthusiasm into the performances initially but greatly improve by later episodes. DeForest Kelley later acknowledged that he found the voice work very difficult, not being able to interact with other actors. The show is also noteworthy for its sequels to Original Series episodes, most notably the excellent 'More Tribbles, More Troubles' and 'Mudd's Passion'. Star Trek The Animated Series ran for two seasons between 1973 - 1975 with 22 episodes being produced. It remains a considerable curio in the Star Trek universe, finally being released on DVD in full in 2006. Generally the short twenty minute episodes are of excellent quality, if less developed than the original series episodes. Favourites include 'Yesteryear', 'More Troubles, More Tribbles', 'The Survivor', 'The Infinite Vulcan', 'The Magicks of Megas-Tu', 'The Abergris Element', 'Bem' and 'The Pirates of Orion', but the whole series makes a truly enjoyable watch. It is a great shame that Gene Roddenberry would later 'decanonize' the animated series. In many ways it is far better than later Star Trek spin-offs and features some truly excellent stories and visuals. More recently it has been remembered with greater affection and has become something of a cult. It is, despite its flaws a good piece of television and in my view a worthy addition to the Star Trek franchise.
