Revisiting TAS...

Discussion in 'Star Trek - The Original & Animated Series' started by Warped9, Jul 27, 2013.

  1. Warped9

    Warped9 Admiral Admiral

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    Quite sometime ago I revisited TOS and began revisiting TAS as part of the same thread. But, alas, life intervened and I got derailed from that marathon viewing. So now I'd like to finish it off.

    I want to pick up where I left off, watching the episodes as they appear or are arranged in the disks---it's just simpler and TAS doesn't really show much if any difference from episode to episode as it progresses. As such I think they're arranged in broadcast order which will be much like I saw it originally.

    But I was also reading the Alan Dean Foster adaptations after each episode to give me more of an overall feeling for the individual stories.


    "Beyond The Farthest Star" ****

    The Enterprise is caught in the grip of a negative star mass and a malevolent alien force.

    This was the very first TAS episode I saw back in 1973. And at the time it was very exciting. Hearing the familiar characters and seeing that incredibly alien ship. On top of which the story starts off right in the thick of things and moves right along. At times if I close my eyes and just listen it sounds almost like a live action TOS episode. :techman:

    I'm a tad disappointed with the new opening theme, but it isn't horrible. It just sounds somewhat more generic than the original Alexander Courage theme. After that I actually rather like some of the new music tracks.

    I think this is a fantastic story, but...it's marred by the show's limitations. The episode feels rushed and somewhat truncated as if additional scenes have been edited or deleted out. Often the animation is too stiff and not fluid enough. It's obvious there is a lot of reuse of stock shots. There's very little footage of the Enterprise in fluid motion as opposed to a stock drawing just panned across the screen. Even the characters don't move as much as they should and that includes their facial expressions.

    The voice acting is mostly serviceable, but at times it does sound more like someone reading their lines rather than someone interacting with others.

    In terms of overall tone this is analogous to Batman TAS of the early '90s, but it doesn't have that series sense of dynamic motion. Also while the likenesses of the characters is quite good and immediately recognizable (as are many things shown onscreen) much of it looks almost hastily drawn and with incorrect proportions. It's for that reason I feel TAS can come across as something of a stylized storyboard for a more finished product...or a live-action episode.

    With that said I think this would have made for a potentially terrific live-action episode. The malevolent alien would have been easy enough to do with f/x of green light or something like it, perhaps something like when Redjac (TOS' "Wold In The Fold) took over the ship's computer. The real challenge would have been fabricating the miniature and sets for such an exotic ship as we see on the TAS episode. But if you can suspend disbelief with something like the Fesarius or the doomsday machine or even the giant amoeba then something might have been possible. And TOS had the environmental EVA suits if they didn't opt for life-support belts.

    What this episode does do well is exploit the advantage of animation (albeit in somewhat limited fashion) by giving us such an exotic alien ship design and alien life forms.

    Advantages: utilization of animated format, good story and overall tone, feels more adult oriented than Saturday morning schedule would suggest.

    Disadvantages: lack of fluidity in animation, too many stock shots and hasty, truncated feel primarily because of half-hour format.


    ADF's adaptation:

    It's good and fleshes out the story better than the aired episode. That said sometimes ADF adds bits of dialogue that don't quite ring true (in my opinion) for the characters, but if this had served as basis for a script for a filmed episode then I've little doubt that would have been corrected.

    One new feature seen in TAS, or at least in this one episode, was the bridge's Intruder Defense System. This was a clever idea and something that might have been handy during TOS. That said because we never actually saw the topmost part of the bridge ceiling in TOS (from the inside) there is no real reason to believe the IDS wasn't there.

    The adaptations feel like whole unedited stories and avoid that truncated feeling many of the aired episodes have because of the half-hour format. Although in the '70s (and even today, really) you could never have gotten an hour long animated series launched TAS' stories often impress as needing that amount of running time to be told properly.

    But in this revisit the adaptations serve the purpose of filling in some apparent holes of the aired episodes. Still, in the end I have to assess the episode on its own because that's how it was put together and aired. It would be curious to know if there had ever been any bits or scenes planned or finished for any of the episodes that were aborted or deleted in order to fit the alloted running time.
     
  2. Warped9

    Warped9 Admiral Admiral

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    “Yesteryear” ****

    Spock travels back to the time of his youth to restore history.

    For Saturday morning television this was clearly far above what else was being offered. This episode was no less than ideal subject matter for TOS. And looking at the episode I think there is very little they would have been challenged to do had this story been done live-action.

    The lematya and Spock's sehlat would have been quite a challenge and would have had to be rethought. The flying "cars" could have been referenced though not actually seen. And a matte painting could have served for the city of Shi-Khar. If they could bring back Mark Lenard and Jane Wyatt as Spock's parents then there really wouldn't have been anything else left as a real obstacle. Oh, and you would have needed the Time Guardian set again as well. For the outdoor scenes it would have been best to have shot on-location, perhaps the same place they shot "Arena" and "Friday's Child."

    Granted the avian alien historian would have had to have been rewritten. But no reason you couldn't have done the Andorian Thelin in Starfleet uniform. I've always been intrigued by Thelin and I really wish we could have seen an Andorian Starfleet officer in TOS. It really would have nailed home the idea that there were other aliens in Starfleet.

    I also liked that when this episode was made they chose to dress Sarek in more contemporary style clothing rather than robes which seemed to become almost standard fare later on in the films and other series.

    It's also easy to see why this story is so well regarded. It's far removed from standard run-and-jump action fare which was the province of superhero type Saturday morning cartoons. It's a thoughtful and moving story.

    The only reason I'm grading it a 4 instead of 5 is again because of the limited half hour running time and limited animation.


    ADF's adaptation:

    Reading this is such a different experience. It has so many small touches that make it feel whole and complete.

    One of the advantages of the adaptations is you needn't accept sometimes less than impressive voice acting. We know that some of the regular cast were employed to voice other characters and this could often undermine the effectiveness of a given scene. A case in point would be the voice of the Guardian. Remember the way it spoke and sounded originally in "The City On The Edge Of Forever"---you can imagine that voice when you're reading it. But in the animated episode we get this weird sounding substitute that sounds like he's barely awake. It's laughable...and not in a good way. It's simply another point underlining that Paramount and Filmation were doing this on the cheap when this really deserved better.

    I also found it amusing that the Federation would risk sending research teams back into the past. Perhaps the events in "Yesteryear" will make them reconsider that practice.

    Now it's possible I suppose that in the intervening years between first finding the Guardian and the events in "Yesteryear" it was learned how to communicate with Guardian in a particular way and now it is possible to ask for specific times and places.


    "One Of Our Planets Is Missing" ***

    The Enterprise encounters an enormous cloud like lifeform that consumes planets.

    This is a watchable enough episode, but not really special in any way. It's something of a cross between "The Immunity Syndrome" and Fantastic Voyage. It's pretty much a bottle show, but one that TOS might have had some challenge producing. It would all depend on how much of the cloud creature they wished to depict and how well they could do it.

    There's a neat bit of continuity in that we see the return of Commodore Robert Wesley from "The Ultimate Computer" only here he is now governor of a Federation colony, the planet threatened by the cloud creature.


    ADF adaptation:

    Yes, it feels more complete, but it doesn't seem such a big difference this time.

    I do have one issue with the story, though. When they beam aboard a chunk of antimatter to reenergize the warp engines why is Kirk assisting Scotty in doing this? :wtf: You would think there would be any number of more skilled engineering personnel to handle a procedure of this type rather than the ship's Captain.

    The other somewhat :wtf: moment is when Spock uses the ship's sensors as a telepathic booster or extension of himself to make contact with the creature to ascertain its intelligence. I suppose it's not much different than him communicating with Nomad or the Horta, but it does push suspension of disbelief.
     
    Last edited: Jul 27, 2013
  3. Warped9

    Warped9 Admiral Admiral

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    “The Lorelei Signal” ***

    A strange signal lures the Enterprise to a remote world inhabited solely by women.

    Toss in a bit of "The Deadly Years" and this is really a retelling of the ancient fable of seagoing mariners lured by sirens to their death. I don't really care for this story much, but it has one really good saving grace: when Uhura takes command because the male members of the crew are effectively incapacitated. She not only takes command but also leads an all female security team planetside to retrieve Kirk and his landing party. We get to see them phaser stun the female inhabitants, but I'd have liked to see some good old-fashioned hand-to-hand ass kicking. :lol:

    Actually this story would have been worth doing live-action just to see the Enterprise's female contingent in action. Uhura and company doing a little Avengers' Emma Peel style action. :techman:


    ADF adaptation:

    It works somewhat better because he fills in little plot holes from the episode. In the episode I'm wondering why they just don't turn the speakers off or try to block the signal, but in the adaptation Uhura does try to do this very thing but to no effect. In the episode I couldn't understand why the Taurean women didn't just use their "magical" viewer to locate Kirk and company, but in the book it explains that Uhura's security team arrive just before the Taureans are about to consult the viewer.

    I was initially going to grade this a 2-star, but the story picks up when Uhura takes command. It doesn't make it enough to be rated as good, but it does make it better and watchable.


    “More Tribbles, More Troubles” *

    The Enterprise once again encounters Cyrano Jones, a cargo of tribbles and irate Klingons.

    "The Trouble With Tribbles" was an amusing diversion, a lighter note amidst TOS' usual drama. But there was really nothing in it that urged a revisit. Nonetheless someone saw fit to go back and retread already trodden ground...and the effort is a poor one.

    This episode is just plain bad and the story within it offers nothing of value or genuine humour. Not one bit of the original episode's charm is evident here. This is exactly the kind of episode that might appeal to the usual Saturday morning crowd and exactly the kind of effort Star Trek fans were hoping they wouldn't see from TAS.

    The only elements of note in this are the interesting automated freighter design and the introduction of the glommerr tribble predator. The rest is just plain bad. :thumbdown:


    ADF adaptation:

    Doesn't really offer anything of note over the actual episode. I really wouldn't have cared to have seen this done live-action.


    “The Survivor” ***

    The Enterprise rescues a renowned space trader on the edge of the Romulan Neutral Zone.

    I like this story although I think the voice acting and some of the writing is clumsy. It also features one the coolest looking aliens we've ever gotten in Trek: the shape-changing Vendorian. It's also offset by one of the biggest :wtf: by having the Vendorian assume the form of one of the Enterprise's deflector shields! At least in ADF's adaptation the Vendorian assumes the form of the damaged deflector circuits, which is somewhat less incredible.

    I like that we got to see another look at a female security officer, Lt. Ann Nored. Too bad they couldn't have depicted her a little more professionally. Nchelle Nichols' voice acting was also wanting (I'm assuming it was her from the sound of Nored's voice).

    The other thing that hurts this episode is the reveal is too soon. Later in the episode we see "Winston" render an engineering crewman unconscious with just a touch while still in human form. Yet earlier we saw him revert to his original form before rendering Kirk and then McCoy unconscious. It would have been better if we hadn't seen his true form until Kirk confronts him with the vial of acid to reveal himself. That way we would have been in the dark up to that point as to why the apparently human Carter Winston was doing whatever he was doing. Early on we should have just seen him change from Winston to Kirk in appearance and then later from Winston to McCoy, much like we saw the Salt Vampire do way back in "The Man Trap."

    As is it's sloppy storytelling.

    It's not bad, but with a little deft rewriting and more polished execution this could have been noticeably better.


    ADF adaptation:

    The strength here is you can gloss over some of the less than impressive bits in your imagination. As such I think this could have been a good live0action story if they could have managed to show the Vendorian in its true form, which I think would have been quite a challenge for TOS back in the day. Maybe they could just have envisioned the Vendorian in a different way.



    "The Infinite Vulcan" ***

    A race of intelligent plants abduct Spock to serve their own agenda.

    I'm a little torn about this one. I really like the essential story. I really like the idea and design of the Phylosians. I like the idea that they incorporated a Phylosian version of a universal translator to enable the aliens and our heroes to speak. There is just so much about this episode I like.

    But sadly there are some things I don't like. Firstly the episode feels just so abbreviated when it feels like there could be so much more story. Also the voice acting in this could feel so flat. And finally why, oh why, did they have to make Keniclius and Spock's clones so oversized??? :wtf: :wtf: :wtf: This was just such an off-the-wall notion that jars you right out of what is otherwise a pretty decent episode. If not for that one visual bit of brain cramp I'd have rated this four stars.

    Pity. :rolleyes:


    ADF adaptation:

    Foster simply makes this feel like it could work live-action. You can believe in the really alien life forms on this planet. You can even gloss over the stupid fifty foot clones (even though it's mentioned). I'm reminded of another flaw that bugged me: that Keniclius capitulates too easily. He is just too easily swayed by Kirk and the cloned Spock's arguments to abandon his plans of imposing peace upon a war torn galaxy. You could perhaps excuse this in a '70's era animated show, but in the adaptation it would have been nice if ADF had mixed in a little more dramatic tension.
     
  4. Warped9

    Warped9 Admiral Admiral

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    "The Magicks Of Megas-Tu" ***

    The Enterprise journeys to the centre of the galaxy.

    There are some pretty deep ideas in this episode for a show airing on Saturday mornings. There are ideas touched on here that would also later show up in TNG. In a way the Megans are trying humanity just as Q does in TNG's "Encounter At Farpoint" and other episodes.

    It's not a bad story except that it feels so truncated and somewhat flat. It feels quickly hashed together and lacking in nuance. Some of the writing also felt stiff.

    A daring idea here is treating the character of Lucien (aka Lucifer) as a sympathetic character, something I could see offending certain viewers if seen on a live-action show back in the early '70s.

    As for the "science" referenced in this episode I basically just shrug it off.

    Some interesting story ideas, not bad, but not bowling me over either because of the stilted execution.


    ADF adaptation:

    This is certainly better than the onscreen version. You can easily hear and see the live-action characters in your mind. ADF's descriptions work better sometimes. His narrative sometimes comes across as edgier and even darker than the onscreen episodes. At the beginning of this story all the power and even the lights go out aboard ship. The crew are floating gravity-less in absolute darkness and beginning to suffocate. They all believe that they're about to die...and then when it all seems finally over Lucien appears. That (and the sequences leading up to it) are a lot more dramatic than what we got onscreen.


    Once Upon A Planet **

    Ouch. At heart is a decent story---the Keeper of the Shoreleave planet has died and the planet's replication computer wants to break loose---but I found the writing a bit sloppy and redundant and the episode as a whole feels really truncated. It feels like numerous scenes are missing from the story. Too bad because I remembered this being better.

    Part of the problem, of course, is that while they try to take the story into a different place it just doesn't come off as well as the superb original TOS episode, "Shoreleave," from which the TAS effort is spun off from. Decent idea, but disappointing execution.

    I might catch flak here, but am I the only one who isn't an M'ress fan? The idea of a catlike alien crew member is interesting, but Majel Barrett's voice work here, particularly with the added purring sounds, is really annoying. It just seems like such a cliched and lazy way to vocalize the character. But, of course, guest character voice acting in TAS was very hit-and-miss.


    ADF adaptation:

    This will probably continue to be the same with all the episodes---the ADF version feels like a complete story without feeling like there are scenes missing. ADF backs that up by often fleshing out scenes with added bits of dialogue and more detailed action.

    The print versions also allow me to see the live-action characters in my mind with a live-action setting as opposed to watching the stiff animation. That alone earns the story one more star.

    The story itself, in print or onscreen, is okay, but suffers because it doesn't really go anywhere much different from the original TOS episode. Yeah, the planetary computer develops a mind of its own, but it isn't all that malevolent and in the end is rather easily dissuaded to abandon its plans.
     
  5. Commishsleer

    Commishsleer Commodore Commodore

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    Have I remembered this story correctly?
    When I was a teenager I read the ADF adaptions and recall that ADF often had an extra bonus story of his own. One of them had Uhura and Spock swapping bodies. Uhura was insisting that Spock keep up her birth control like Spock was going to jump in bed with the nearest crewman while in Uhura's body. I just thought it was funny.
     
  6. Warped9

    Warped9 Admiral Admiral

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    ADF did add extra story to two of the TAS episodes I believe: "The Counter-Clock Incident" and "Eye Of The Beholder." What you're describing doesn't sound like anything I ever read in one of the TAS adaptations. You're probably thinking of something else.
     
  7. Commishsleer

    Commishsleer Commodore Commodore

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    I thought I remembered the story from way before the days my mind was corrupted from fan-fiction (decades in fact).
    Maybe its from one of the early novels.
     
  8. Duncan MacLeod

    Duncan MacLeod Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    It's from the adaptation of "The Slaver Weapon". ADF added framing stories at both ends. That's from the last third of the book.
     
  9. Warped9

    Warped9 Admiral Admiral

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    Yep, a friend has corrected me and jogged my memory. ADF did expand four of the TAS episodes, one for each of the last for log books.
     
  10. Commishsleer

    Commishsleer Commodore Commodore

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    Hey sorry for hijacking the thread. I'll just have to get the Animated Episodes books again.

    I'll just comment on Yesteryear. Look I'll admit its a really good Star Trek episode. Even rated in the top 20 of all Star Trek episodes in one list I've seen, ahead of hundreds of live-action episodes in the franchise. It made me think that Sarek and Amanda weren't as bad parents as they seemed in "Journey to Babel".

    However I still can't understand why Spock died as a child. Why would he have saved himself as a child? Time travel - its sooooo confusing.
     
  11. Warped9

    Warped9 Admiral Admiral

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    It's a paradox that's hard to comprehend so best not to think too much about it. The only thing that makes sense to me is that you don't really travel back and forth in time, but rather you're switching from one timeline to another. And the only way to set things right (from your perspective) is to revisit the past event where things appeared to change, and if corrected then you are switched back to your original timeline where everything seems correct again.

    So in the "original" timeline Spock is always there to go back and save himself while in the other timeline the young Spock always dies and Thelin is the Enterprise's First Officer.

    Perhaps another way to look at it is the two timelines somehow intersect and the adult Spock has to revisit the past to untangle them.


    ...I'm getting a headache.
     
    Last edited: Jul 28, 2013
  12. vulcan redshirt

    vulcan redshirt Lieutenant Commander Red Shirt

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    THank you for your interesting reviews of these hard-to-find episodes.
     
  13. BillJ

    BillJ The King of Kings Premium Member

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  14. Warped9

    Warped9 Admiral Admiral

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    One of the interesting things about TAS that set it above the usual Saturday morning fare was some of the subject matter. In "Yesteryear" they not only mention (and show) the death of a pet but also reference the death of a child (the young Spock) and a parent (Spock's mother, Amanda). This was heady stuff for Saturday morning television back in the '70s. In "Albatross" McCoy is accused of mass murder in supposedly causing a plague on an alien world. In "Pirates Of Orion" a Starfleet crew is left for dead after being attacked and then later the Orion commander attempts suicide and tries to take Kirk and the Enterprise with him. In "Jihad" the alien Skorr wants to launch a "holy war" on the galaxy.

    While some of the stuff in the episodes didn't come across well or as intended a lot of the stories and ideas would have been welcomed in TOS. There really aren't many TAS episodes I wouldn't have cared to see done as live-action.
     
  15. Christopher

    Christopher Writer Admiral

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    They're not at all hard to find. In addition to the DVDs, they're streaming on Netflix and on StarTrek.com.

    All of this was par for the course for 1970s TV animation. It's unlikely any other studio at the time could've done much better given a TV budget, particularly considering the insanely tight production schedule that the network imposed on Filmation. Certainly Filmation was the only studio willing to make something that was like the original series in writing, tone, and content.


    Most unlikely. In live action, there's enough uncertainty about how the shots will turn out that episodes often run long or short once they're shot, but animation has to be plotted out frame by frame in advance, and thus the whole thing is timed to the second before the animation happens. This is why the "deleted scenes" you see in the DVDs of animated movies are usually just animatics rather than final animation -- it's quite rare for a sequence to be fully animated and only then cut out. In particular, Filmation could never have afforded the waste.


    That was James Doohan playing the Guardian. He did the majority of the guest characters, along with Nichols, Takei, and Barrett, plus a few uncredited voice artists (many of whom the '90s Concordance incorrectly identified as Doohan, an error that Memory Alpha perpetuates).


    Paramount was only the distributor, since they hadn't yet bought the series outright from Roddenberry. The series was a co-production of Filmation Associates and Norway Productions (Roddenberry's production company).

    And again, there really was not anyone at the time who could have done better.


    They actually did, according to my novel DTI: Forgotten History. But remember that the idea of research missions into the past started out in "Assignment: Earth."


    Only to a limited degree. Foster's adaptation has it lock in precisely, but the actual episode shows it displaying in the same fast-forward manner as in "City," just within a narrower range of times.


    It's also strikingly similar in story structure to ST:TMP, although that was apparently coincidental, despite Alan Dean Foster writing TMP's story. Foster's original outline lacked the screenplay's similarities to the episode.



    I doubt that would've happened on a show Roddenberry was producing. TAS is noteworthy for having D.C. Fontana as its showrunner, so to speak.


    The brief of TAS was to do things that would be visually striking and impossible to depict in live action. Some of their methods for achieving this were more gratuitous than others.



    In fact, he adds three new plots happening before, during, and after the events of the episode. The actual adaptation constitutes only Chapters 6, 8, and 10 out of a 16-chapter book.
     
  16. Harvey

    Harvey Admiral Admiral

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    I've been a bit confused on this issue. As I recall, Joel Engel's biography mentions that Paramount bought out Roddenberry's stake in the property, but Inside Star Trek: The Real Story insists that never actually happened. What's your source on this?
     
  17. Kinokima

    Kinokima Lieutenant Commander Red Shirt

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    Also streaming for free on cbs.com
     
  18. Warped9

    Warped9 Admiral Admiral

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    "Mudd's Passion" *

    Conman Harry Mudd returns only to be caught trying to peddle a love potion.

    Ouch! This is hurt by less than inspired writing and generally flat voice acting. The episode's redeeming element is having scored Roger C. Carmel to reprise the role of Harcourt Fenton Mudd. But the rest of the story is just embarrassing and not aided by a number of WTF moments.

    - Why is Nurse Chapel walking around aboard ship with a hand phaser?
    - Since when do starship personal carry an identity card?
    - How can Chapel be so freaking gullible after everything known about Mudd?
    - Spock acts more stupid then he did in TOS' "This Side Of Paradise" (at least there he was convincing).
    Kirk risks his ass in the hope the potion will make one of the gigantisaurs more friendly. Granted that you shouldn't look for any sort of credibility in a Saturday morning cartoon, but that tiny dose of potion seemed to be rather potent to work so fast on a ginormaus creature with an alien biology. :wtf:

    The story isn't just embarrassing but derivative as well. A new love potion (as opposed to the original Venus drug used in TOS' "Mudd's Women") again being peddled to miners (albeit alien miners now being included).

    Part of the problem is the whole exercise lacks nuance. It's so obvious and heavy-handed. That said it probably could have been done as a live-action story assuming more could have been fleshed out of it given that there's so little here to work with. This is really disappointing given some of the much better efforts TAS managed to produce.

    Another problem is that Harry Mudd is such a one note character: the charming rogue and conman. The only way to make it interesting is to tell an interesting story which is something they fail to do here.
     
  19. Christopher

    Christopher Writer Admiral

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    My source is the actual copyright in the TAS credits, right there onscreen. It says "(c) COPYRIGHT FILMATION ASSOC.-NORWAY PROD. 1973." Paramount didn't have a copyright on the original episodes, so I figured it didn't own them. Although it did have a copyright on the Foster novelizations, which is confusing.

    Anyway, Norway gets a copyright credit along with Paramount on The Making of Star Trek: The Motion Picture, and the TMP novelization's copyright page lists both Paramount and Gene Roddenberry. But neither Roddenberry nor Norway gets a copyright credit on anything later than that as far as I can tell.

    But the real point I was trying to make here is that TAS was a production of Filmation. Like the Bad Robot movies, it's a Trek production that was subcontracted to a different studio and distributed by Paramount, rather than actually being produced in-house at Paramount (or Desilu) like all the other series.


    How do we know they haven't always and it just never came up? Or maybe it was a recently adopted security measure.
     
  20. BillJ

    BillJ The King of Kings Premium Member

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    Seems kind of silly that they wouldn't have some type of identification.