Is the animated series a good sequel to the original series?

So close. He would've been perfect if they hadn't called the Constellation the Constitution.

 

Hmm. You know, I'm not sure if I ever noticed that. I will just say that it was a lot tougher to double check details like that in the pre-internet, pre-home video days. It's very possible he may have just been repeating a mistake that was made in The Star Trek Concordance or something.

 

...including most of the spin off series.

 

This weekend I went through Yesteryear (thought to be the best episode of TAS), One of Our Planets is Missing (the actual best episode of TAS), The Time Trap, and The Slaver Weapon. Home runs, every one.

 

"The Time Trap" is my personal favorite.

 

Absolutely yes. It is a great bit of Trek that should easily be put in anyone's Trek collection. Besides the incredible Yesteryear, I've a certain fondness for Beyond the Farthest Star, with the farout designs of the abandoned ship.

 

I like most of those, but the last time I watched "The Slaver Weapon," I realized I don't think it's a very good episode. Despite being fairly action-heavy, it’s incredibly talky; the first act is largely one long monologue by Spock to fill in the backstory, which I find a rather clumsy way to write a TV script. It also has a really weak and awkward ending. Even aside from the questionable taste of laughing about the deaths of one’s enemies, that last exchange about Kzinti superstitions isn’t even funny.

Also, it doesn’t really have anything to say — no thematic or philosophical subtext, no real point to any of it. It’s a very superficial story, just a problem-solving exercise and a battle of wits against an enemy. It’s unique in TAS and rare in Filmation’s ouevre in that it ends with the villains being killed outright rather than reasoned with or outwitted. The whole premise feels like it was meant for a less idealistic universe than Star Trek — pure military brinksmanship and hostility, kill or be killed, no hint of any attempt at peacemaking or diplomacy or reconciliation. (The Known Space universe it originated in, as the Larry Niven novella "The Soft Weapon," isn't quite that dark, but it's definitely less idealistic than Trek.)

I can imagine a more Trek/Filmation-style ending to the episode: The Kzinti bring the captives out with them to test the weapon, so they’re all imperiled by the self-destruct, and Sulu and Spock urgently reason with Chuft-Captain and tell him, rather than each other, why they’re convinced the weapon is going to blow up. The Telepath chimes in that they’re telling the truth. Chuft-Captain hurls the weapon away at the last moment, they’re all saved, and C-C’s honor debt compels him to let them go. The closing dialogue is about the hope that this act of mercy and understanding may have opened the door to peace negotiations with the Kzinti.

 

That's lame and juvenile. If the choices are between that and what we got, I'm certainly glad they went with what Niven wrote!

 

Yes, given the constraints of time and budget it was produced under

 

Agree. Despite only being half the length of an average live-action episode, I think each of them feels like a perfect little 'bite sized' morsel of pure Star Trek.

 

It's my favorite as well.

 

Quite a few of TAS episodes were better than what the studio chose for TMP script.

 

I love TMP to an unreasonable degree. But One of Our Planets is Missing is a better TMP than TMP is. (OK, I like the Spock subplot in TPM.)

The Albatross is also an outstanding romp. It's super dense and would inflate to fifty minutes no problem.

 

I always liked TAS episode Jihad, even though that word has an evil connotation now. I thought it would have made a good first Star Trek movie, but the studio went with TMP.

 

The definition hasn't changed. The term "jihad" meant a holy war then as now, which is what Tchar was trying to precipitate. "The Jihad" was all about his goal, not the mission of Kirk, Spock and the rest of the team.

 

Jihad literally means "struggle" -- in this context, the struggle to defend Islam against that which threatens it -- invaders, persecutors, etc. (Although technically that's the lesser jihad; the greater one is the individual's daily personal struggle against doubt, fear, anger, and whatever else keeps them from being a good Muslim.) As spelled out in the Qur'an, jihad is supposed to be exclusively defensive, and only directed against aggressors, never against non-combatants. (So-called "jihadist" terror groups are nothing of the kind, corrupting the concept entirely, and lack the legal authority within Islam to declare jihad in the first place.)

The term "holy war" in European usage refers to a war declared by religious authority or fought for a religious goal, as opposed to a secular war. In Islam, the distinction between the secular and the religious is nonexistent; the defense of Islam is the defense of the community. So in a sense, jihad is a holy war in that it's authorized by religious scholar/jurists, but in another sense, it isn't, because it isn't distinguished from secular conflict -- it's just the struggle to protect who you are and what you care for.

It's hard to say whether the war Tchar tried to bring about would've qualified as a jihad in the strict sense. Technically, they would've been retaliating against a perceived attack on their religious community (the theft of the Soul), so in that sense it could be seen as defensive; but according to the episode, it would've been a campaign of aggression sweeping across the whole known galaxy indiscriminately.

 

What other Saturday morning cartoon can engender this sort of discussion?

 

Wile E. Coyote versus the Roadrunner. Beep, beep!

 

The Real Ghostbusters? Although its best, smartest episodes were in weekday-afternoon syndication. Oh, but Superman: The Animated Series, The New Batman Adventures, and Batman Beyond were Saturday morning shows, I think.

 

1) Watch enough of those in a row and you are totally on the Roadrunner's side.
2) Roadrunners eat RATT:ESNAKES for crying out loud!

I believe you are correct. Only Batman: TAS was syndicated (in the afternoon where I'm at).

The Jihad might make a good JJ movie. It moves around a lot, there are lots of explosions. Huge areas. Zero G combat. They just have to figure out how it's the Federation's fault.

It. COULD. WOOOORRRRK!