The Star Trek Encyclopedia getting first update since 1999!
- Thread starter ScottDS
- Start date
Damn. 
No, that was resolved ages ago. It was the rights uncertainty after Filmation went out of business in the '80s that was part of the reason for the TAS ban in the '89 memo. But Paramount (and thus CBS now) long since acquired the full rights to TAS, which is why it's wholly included on StarTrek.com, streaming on Netflix along with every other Trek series, etc. To the best of my knowledge, there's simply no legal reason anymore to treat it any differently than any other Trek series, and essentially nothing does in this day and age. So it's a completely bewildering decision to exclude it from the revised encyclopedia.
It's the only thing I can really think of, because there can't be that much more work or expense involved in including TAS.
This is from the same publisher as Federation: The First 150 Years, which included references to Robert April as the first captain of the Enterprise -- a character created for TAS. (Before "The Counter-Clock Incident," "Robert April" was just a rejected name for Christopher Pike. It was TAS that defined him as a separate character.) It's the only TAS reference I could find in that book, but if there were a legal restriction, even that shouldn't have been permitted. And there's never been a legal restriction on referencing TAS in the tie-ins that I've worked on. As I said, the legal obstacles ceased to exist over twenty years ago.
Maybe selected TAS events may be included?
Yes that was the Encyclopedia.
And the old Encyclopedia's ability to use April further illustrates that there was no ban on using TAS elements. There never has been. The makers of Trek chose to distance themselves from TAS back in the late '80s because there was uncertainty about the ownership of TAS after Filmation folded, but that didn't stop TNG from overtly referencing "Yesteryear" in "Unification." Any uncertainty was quickly resolved, and has been a non-issue for over 20 years. Which is why TAS is on Startrek.com and Netflix and coexisting equally with the other series just about everywhere -- except, inexplicably, in this new Encyclopedia edition.
I don't want an explanation, I want TAS included. Seriously, is there anyone here who doesn't want it included?
I want it included, but only under the provision that we stop using the pretentious term "The Animated Series" and call it what it is, a cartoon.
To be fair, that pretentious term has been used officially to refer to it, including on the DVD set...
It's also useful because that gives TAS its own three-letter acronym to go with those we use for the other series and helps distinguish it from TOS in conversation (since it was just called Star Trek onscreen).
Interestingly, a Google search for the phrase "The Animated Series" leads to results dominated by a mix of TAS and Batman: The Animated Series.
But it's an animated cartoon (as opposed to a still cartoon like, say, your avatar). It's a series done in the medium known as animation. It's not pretentious, it's accurate. And it's a common usage -- see also Batman: The Animated Series, Superman: The Animated Series, Green Lantern: The Animated Series, etc.
I too want it included. There's nothing crazier or more out of continuity in TAS than there is in TOS. And some of the best TAS episodes rank as good as the best TOS episodes.
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