TAS: Underrated Series

[urbandefault]

TAS holds a special place for me because when it first aired, it was the only new Trek on TV since the cancellation. I watched it every Saturday in first run, and every rerun until they took it off the air.

Sure, it has flaws. TOS did too, and every series and movie since. But it's still Star Trek, and I love Star Trek. That's why I'm here in the first place.

 

[BoredShipCapt'n]

TAS holds a special place for me because when it first aired, it was the only new Trek on TV since the cancellation. I watched it every Saturday in first run, and every rerun until they took it off the air.

Sure, it has flaws. TOS did too, and every series and movie since. But it's still Star Trek, and I love Star Trek. That's why I'm here in the first place.

This.

 

[LMFAOschwarz]

Sure, it has flaws. TOS did too, and every series and movie since. But it's still Star Trek, and I love Star Trek. That's why I'm here in the first place.

Exactly. When you'd recently stated that you love the original like a ragged old teddy bear, I nearly shed a tear...realizing that that's how I feel about it, too!

 

[Christopher]

By the way, for anyone interested in the craft of voice acting, there's a terrific documentary out now called I Know That Voice, featuring interviews with a ton of great voice actors and voice directors -- virtually every big name in the industry today except Frank Welker (an odd omission, given how important he's been in the field over the decades, but he's always been camera-shy), plus some old soldiers like June Foray and Gary Owens. It's on Netflix streaming and no doubt available for purchase wherever you purchase movies.

 

[Gassy Man]

In many ways, the tone of the animated series is closer to that of the first season of Star Trek -- more serious, less humorous. It's written for Saturday morning but still a cut above a lot of juvenile fare.

 

[BoredShipCapt'n]

By the way, for anyone interested in the craft of voice acting, there's a terrific documentary out now called I Know That Voice, featuring interviews with a ton of great voice actors and voice directors -- virtually every big name in the industry today except Frank Welker (an odd omission, given how important he's been in the field over the decades, but he's always been camera-shy), plus some old soldiers like June Foray and Gary Owens. It's on Netflix streaming and no doubt available for purchase wherever you purchase movies.

Thanks. You're right; Welker is a huge omission.

 

[BoredShipCapt'n]

In many ways, the tone of the animated series is closer to that of the first season of Star Trek -- more serious, less humorous. It's written for Saturday morning but still a cut above a lot of juvenile fare.

I remember as a kid of 5 or 6, it was the only Saturday morning cartoon I had trouble understanding. But my brother always had it on, so there I was.

 

[plynch]

I love TOS.

But, I don't love something just because it says "Star Trek" on the box. In fact the older I get, the less I like Star Trek, the franchise. I rewatched VOY and DS9 once each. Done.

With TAS the flaws -- in my view -- are too significant; I just don't want to rewatch.

 

[urbandefault]

By the way, for anyone interested in the craft of voice acting, there's a terrific documentary out now called I Know That Voice, featuring interviews with a ton of great voice actors and voice directors -- virtually every big name in the industry today except Frank Welker (an odd omission, given how important he's been in the field over the decades, but he's always been camera-shy), plus some old soldiers like June Foray and Gary Owens. It's on Netflix streaming and no doubt available for purchase wherever you purchase movies.

I saw a bit of an interview with Frank Welker a couple of years ago, talking about sitting down to do his first Scooby Doo table read, and how he was just in awe of the talent there. We're talking Casey Kasem, Don Messick, etc. How could he know at the time that he would go on to be the reigning king of voice acting?

It brought back a memory from, I don't know when--early 70s?--, he was on Merv Griffin. I didn't know who he was, but he did a dead on Bill Cosby impression, including facial expressions. Nobody did Cosby back then. I didn't catch his name at that time, but I remembered his face.

Years later, I watched a documentary thing on that movie with Connery as a dragon. Can't remember the name of it. They'd brought Welker in to do the dragon's growling snort, and he did it on camera. Impressive.

I love voice actors, and they're vastly under-celebrated.

 

[Lance]

The acting is dead because of recording individually in sound booths. Energy and pacing are dead too.

Actually, it's worth noting here that three whole instalments of TAS ("More Tribbles, More Troubles", "Yesteryear" and "Beyond The Farthest Star") were recorded with the full cast in attendance. Which makes a big difference. Very often subsequent to that they just had to record what they could when they could, based on the actor's availability, but on those three episodes at least they have got noticeably better chemistry between the characters owing to the actors recording their dialogue together, and thus being able to play off of each other's performances directly.

 

[Galileo7]

TAS successfully filled the continuity between TOS and TMP. It gave us the rest of the five year mission.

 

[Christopher]

I saw a bit of an interview with Frank Welker a couple of years ago, talking about sitting down to do his first Scooby Doo table read, and how he was just in awe of the talent there. We're talking Casey Kasem, Don Messick, etc. How could he know at the time that he would go on to be the reigning king of voice acting?

It's interesting how Freddy was Welker's first ever animation role, and he's still playing it today. In fact, he's the only original Scooby-Doo cast member who's still part of the cast. Multiple actors have played the others, but the only times anyone else has played Fred Jones have been as a child in A Pup Named Scooby-Doo and in the live-action movies. Plus, of course, Welker is now playing Scooby himself as well.

 

[EnsignTOS]

I saw a bit of an interview with Frank Welker a couple of years ago, talking about sitting down to do his first Scooby Doo table read, and how he was just in awe of the talent there. We're talking Casey Kasem, Don Messick, etc. How could he know at the time that he would go on to be the reigning king of voice acting?

It's interesting how Freddy was Welker's first ever animation role, and he's still playing it today. In fact, he's the only original Scooby-Doo cast member who's still part of the cast. Multiple actors have played the others, but the only times anyone else has played Fred Jones have been as a child in A Pup Named Scooby-Doo and in the live-action movies. Plus, of course, Welker is now playing Scooby himself as well.

And the young actor who voiced Fred Jones (Carl Steven) also played an adorable young Spock in STIII. Tragic how he ended up, because if you know the full story it really wasn't his fault.

 

[EnsignTOS]

The acting is dead because of recording individually in sound booths. Energy and pacing are dead too.

Actually, it's worth noting here that three whole instalments of TAS ("More Tribbles, More Troubles", "Yesteryear" and "Beyond The Farthest Star") were recorded with the full cast in attendance. Which makes a big difference. Very often subsequent to that they just had to record what they could when they could, based on the actor's availability, but on those three episodes at least they have got noticeably better chemistry between the characters owing to the actors recording their dialogue together, and thus being able to play off of each other's performances directly.

Thanks for clearing that up! I had also read that they recorded individually, but then I also recently saw a very 70's picture of a smiling Nimoy, Shatner, and Kelley in a recording booth together. I was so confused! I was thinking "so if not TAS, were they recording a song, or...?"

Thanks for the clarification!

 

[BoredShipCapt'n]

And the young actor who voiced Fred Jones (Carl Steven) also played an adorable young Spock in STIII. Tragic how he ended up, because if you know the full story it really wasn't his fault.

Whoa, that was the same kid? Wow. Because the "Spock screams" in STIII were voiced by Frank Welker. Too weird.

 

[BoredShipCapt'n]

It brought back a memory from, I don't know when--early 70s?--, he was on Merv Griffin. I didn't know who he was, but he did a dead on Bill Cosby impression, including facial expressions. Nobody did Cosby back then. I didn't catch his name at that time, but I remembered his face.

Welker in those days was mostly known as an impressionist - a vocation you don't see much these days, but certainly a big thing back in the heyday of Rich Little. I've seen him as a guest in one of the Dean Martin Celebrity Roasts (the George Burns one) doing a Jimmy Carter impression, among others.

 

[EnsignTOS]

And the young actor who voiced Fred Jones (Carl Steven) also played an adorable young Spock in STIII. Tragic how he ended up, because if you know the full story it really wasn't his fault.

Whoa, that was the same kid? Wow. Because the "Spock screams" in STIII were voiced by Frank Welker. Too weird.

Yep! Freaky stuff.

 

[Christopher]

And the young actor who voiced Fred Jones (Carl Steven) also played an adorable young Spock in STIII. Tragic how he ended up, because if you know the full story it really wasn't his fault.

Whoa, that was the same kid? Wow. Because the "Spock screams" in STIII were voiced by Frank Welker. Too weird.

Now all we need is for Freddie Prinze, Jr. and Robbie Amell to play Spock. (They played Fred in the feature films and the live action TV-movie prequel films, respectively.)

And of course Leonard Nimoy played Galvatron in Transformers: The Movie, and Welker played him subsequently on TV. So they have two roles in common.

 

[LMFAOschwarz]

I didn't know about all that with Carl Steven. That's really horrible.

In my re-watch of Star Trek III the other night, I was thinking about the Spock screams. I remembered from reading the credits in the past that someone was credited for them, and I was thinking "how odd!". How on Earth you find someone who does (or can do) a scream like Leonard Nimoy might sound seems so bizarre and obtuse. It'd be, to me, like finding someone who might burp sounding like, say, Carl Weathers!

 

[Christopher]

^Well, there was a time when, if you needed any kind of unusual vocal effect or animal sound, you called Frank Welker. In addition to his character roles, he's done innumerable animal noises in TV shows, movies, and commercials. These days, Dee Bradley Baker seems to have taken his place as the go-to animal-noises guy. There's a bit in I Know That Voice where Baker is doing some of his animal sounds on camera, and it's just so weird to see him doing it.