TAS is something of the orphan of the franchise. And I’m a bit guilty of it myself. A lot of it’s appeal (for me) is a matter of nostalgia because it was the only new Star Trek we had (outside of books) in the visual medium until TMP.
I can totally understand the frustration of some with the limited animation. One can argue all they want about how good it was at the time (for television), but the fact remains that it can be a hard sell for many of today’s viewers. And while the animation was pretty good for television it was far from state-of-the-art of what was possible even back then. But just as TOS could never afford state-of-the-art feature film f/x TAS couldn’t afford state-of-the-art feature film animation of the day. It wasn’t going to happen.
There is also the matter of inconsistent voice acting. Some of the main cast weren't really accustomed to this type of acting and as a result their dialogue really can seem as if they're just reading off a page. And the voices for guest characters could also be disappointing with the limited use of the regular cast filling in as a cost saving measure.
The episodes themselves can also feel truncated as if scenes are missing. This is an almost inevitable result of the kind of stories TAS was trying to cram into a half-hour format. Many of these stories could have made fine live-action TOS episodes, but they simply didn’t have enough time to flesh them out properly.
But for all the criticisms one can fairly, and unfairly, make of TAS I must say I think there were still big plusses to it.
- Animation allowed them to visualize so many things that would have been practically impossible for TOS. New ship designs, exotic alien life forms and planetscapes were beyond TOS’ live-action resources, but merely a drawing and painting away for TAS.
- We were given additional worldbuilding to the Star Trek universe as well as added background detail to main characters. In particular there is the background to Spock’s childhood as well as that of McCoy as a young medic.
- For a Saturday morning program we were getting largely adult level stories that would have fit seasmlessy along with the TOS episodes.
I have often said that I look at TAS as a stylized storyboard of live-action events allowing me to accept that what we’re seeing is somewhat representative of what happened in the TOS universe. The detail can be debated, but the overall essence is valid.
For myself I loved many of the exotic non-humanoid life forms. The Skorr, the Vendorian and the Phylosians are my favourites. I really like the alien ship design from “Beyond The Farthest Star.” And the different looking shuttlecraft, particularly the scoutship from “Slaver Weapon,” as well as the freighter Huron (re: "Pirates Of Orion") and the robot freighters (re: "More Tribbles, More Troubles") really nailed that there was a diversity of design within Starfleet.
It was far from perfect, but a lot of cool stuff came out of it nonetheless.
I can totally understand the frustration of some with the limited animation. One can argue all they want about how good it was at the time (for television), but the fact remains that it can be a hard sell for many of today’s viewers. And while the animation was pretty good for television it was far from state-of-the-art of what was possible even back then. But just as TOS could never afford state-of-the-art feature film f/x TAS couldn’t afford state-of-the-art feature film animation of the day. It wasn’t going to happen.
There is also the matter of inconsistent voice acting. Some of the main cast weren't really accustomed to this type of acting and as a result their dialogue really can seem as if they're just reading off a page. And the voices for guest characters could also be disappointing with the limited use of the regular cast filling in as a cost saving measure.
The episodes themselves can also feel truncated as if scenes are missing. This is an almost inevitable result of the kind of stories TAS was trying to cram into a half-hour format. Many of these stories could have made fine live-action TOS episodes, but they simply didn’t have enough time to flesh them out properly.
But for all the criticisms one can fairly, and unfairly, make of TAS I must say I think there were still big plusses to it.
- Animation allowed them to visualize so many things that would have been practically impossible for TOS. New ship designs, exotic alien life forms and planetscapes were beyond TOS’ live-action resources, but merely a drawing and painting away for TAS.
- We were given additional worldbuilding to the Star Trek universe as well as added background detail to main characters. In particular there is the background to Spock’s childhood as well as that of McCoy as a young medic.
- For a Saturday morning program we were getting largely adult level stories that would have fit seasmlessy along with the TOS episodes.
I have often said that I look at TAS as a stylized storyboard of live-action events allowing me to accept that what we’re seeing is somewhat representative of what happened in the TOS universe. The detail can be debated, but the overall essence is valid.
For myself I loved many of the exotic non-humanoid life forms. The Skorr, the Vendorian and the Phylosians are my favourites. I really like the alien ship design from “Beyond The Farthest Star.” And the different looking shuttlecraft, particularly the scoutship from “Slaver Weapon,” as well as the freighter Huron (re: "Pirates Of Orion") and the robot freighters (re: "More Tribbles, More Troubles") really nailed that there was a diversity of design within Starfleet.
It was far from perfect, but a lot of cool stuff came out of it nonetheless.
Not that other kids' shows weren't still on at that hour (Fat Albert, to name another by Filmation), but adults who slept in on Saturdays were generally up and about by 10:30.
