I forgot how good The Animated Series really is.

[Amasov]

Finally picked this gem up at Newbury Comics yesterday for $20. It's been a long time since I last saw this show; I'm thinking way back in the late 80s when I was a wee tyke and it was aired on Nickelodeon in the afternoons.

I was a bit frightened that it would be one of those shows that I loved as a kid, but seeing it years later when I'm much older, it would turn out to be horrid, ala Super Mario Bros. Super Show. Not the case with Star Trek: The Animated Series. I watched the first disc last night and really enjoyed myself.

What I appreciate most about it was that it wasn't Star Trek for children nor was it dumbed down. It was still true STAR TREK, but simply in an animated form. It remains true to the original show.

Side note: I didn't realize this show sported an early version of what would come to be known as the holodeck in the later shows. Not to mention, the episode that was focused purely on Spock as a child contained a lot of elements that were the backbone of the Vulcan Trilogy episode of Enterprise.

It's a great series. I feel like it's the lost Star Trek series I never saw. I'd even go as far to consider this season four of the original series.

 

[SchwEnt]

Welcome to the club

I love TAS. Despite all the limitations and problems people find with it, the stories are fine adventures of TOS crew. And I enjoy many of them more than some TOS eps, and certainly more than some later ST series eps.

It's a shame these adventures don't get more recognition.

 

[el Chalupacabra]

I think the Voyager season 7 episode The Void borrows a lot from the animated episode Time Trap.

 

[Christopher]

I think the Voyager season 7 episode The Void borrows a lot from the animated episode Time Trap.

Which in turn seems to be an uncredited adaptation of a Gold Key Star Trek comic book from a year earlier, "Museum at the End of Time."

 

[Yeoman Randi]

I've never seen a single episode of TAS. I've heard so many good things about it, that i think when i have a few extra bucks i will pick it up.

 

[Amasov]

If you live in the United States, you can actually view the series on the CBS website. I personally prefer to have physical discs.

 

[MANT!]

TAS occupies the same shelf as my TOS Blu-rays...it's easier for me to thik of it as the 4th season of TOS..Yes it's limited by the 30 minute format, but it's head and shoulders above the other Saturday morning offerings available at the time...

 

[Basill]

I've always loved TAS as a a nice audio/visual extention of the TOS story. Of course, any good story is welcome in my TOS canon, but the use of the original actors' voices gives it an edge other formats (novels and comics) don't. The imagery was somewhat simplistic, but it also allowed for more creative freedom in regards to alien worlds and beings. Not every episode is worthy, but then each Trek series from TOS to ENT had their bombs.

Some of my favorites include; "Yesteryear", "Beyond the Farthest Star", "Albatross", "The Survivor", and "The Slaver Weapon."

There are other notable mentions as well as a few totally forgetables, but all in all, I'm a fan.

 

[sonak]

not a huge fan of TAS. The quality of animation really limits it, too few voice actors makes it really obvious when an actor or actress is just disguising their regular character voice, lots of goofy moments in general, etc.


That said, still some good episodes mixed in there, so don't throw out the candy with the candy wrapper, etc.

 

[Christopher]

not a huge fan of TAS. The quality of animation really limits it, too few voice actors makes it really obvious when an actor or actress is just disguising their regular character voice, lots of goofy moments in general, etc.

True, but for those of us who grew up watching cartoons where such things were the norm, it holds up pretty well. For one thing, as limited as the animation was, the actual artwork was much better than anything Hanna-Barbera was churning out at the time.

 

[Gov Kodos]

I really enjoyed the series growing up. Also, the Alan Dean Foster adaptations were a fun extension of the series. I enjoyed a number of the expansions he did from the TAS stories. The Eye of the Beholder was one I really enjoyed and Deans expansion story of the Enterprise going off on a zoological hunt with the Lactrans was great fun.

 

[Captain Robert April]

not a huge fan of TAS. The quality of animation really limits it, too few voice actors makes it really obvious when an actor or actress is just disguising their regular character voice, lots of goofy moments in general, etc.

You'd be surprised how many of those off-camera voices in TOS were done by Jimmy Doohan.

 

[Christopher]

You'd be surprised how many of those off-camera voices in TOS were done by Jimmy Doohan.

Not really that surprising, since they're mostly pretty easy to recognize as Doohan -- or Takei, or Barrett, or Nichols.

Although the '90s reprint of the Concordance incorrectly credited Doohan with quite a few voices that are clearly not his, including a number that I'm fairly certain were done by Lennie Weinrib, an actor who did other work for Filmation around that time including most of the villains and Commissioner Gordon in Filmation's second Batman series, and whose nasal voice is quite distinctive.

And of course anyone familiar with Filmation's shows will recognize the voice of Filmation founder Lou Scheimer doing the occasional supporting character, since he did anonymous or pseudonymous voice work in most Filmation shows (usually as the narrator or as comic-relief characters like Dumb Donald on Fat Albert and Orko on He-Man).

 

[Ar-Pharazon]

Haven't seen TAS in many years.

I remember it fondly and it definitely filled a huge Star Trek void between TOS & TMP, even if it was a little silly at times.

 

[Kirks_Flying_Wig]

I've always loved TAS as a a nice audio/visual extention of the TOS story. Of course, any good story is welcome in my TOS canon, but the use of the original actors' voices gives it an edge other formats (novels and comics) don't. The imagery was somewhat simplistic, but it also allowed for more creative freedom in regards to alien worlds and beings. Not every episode is worthy, but then each Trek series from TOS to ENT had their bombs.

Some of my favorites include; "Yesteryear", "Beyond the Farthest Star", "Albatross", "The Survivor", and "The Slaver Weapon."

There are other notable mentions as well as a few totally forgetables, but all in all, I'm a fan.

"Beyond the Farthest Star" is my favourite ep. The alien ship really shows off what animation can achieve where live action would be limiting (today's standards of special effects are probably just about at the point where it could be created convincingly in a live action shot, but it would probably be prohibitively expensive). The storyline and dialogue is excellent too.

 

[sonak]

not a huge fan of TAS. The quality of animation really limits it, too few voice actors makes it really obvious when an actor or actress is just disguising their regular character voice, lots of goofy moments in general, etc.

You'd be surprised how many of those off-camera voices in TOS were done by Jimmy Doohan.

well if I'm surprised that's good, because he's doing a good job of voice disguise.


In TAS, it seemed every non-regular female character was voiced by Nichols or Barret, doing a poor job of disguising their voices.

 

[Christopher]

"Beyond the Farthest Star" is my favourite ep. The alien ship really shows off what animation can achieve where live action would be limiting (today's standards of special effects are probably just about at the point where it could be created convincingly in a live action shot, but it would probably be prohibitively expensive).

Yeah, it showcases Filmation's strengths. What they lacked in movement, they made up for in design.

 

[Amasov]

Didn't Ted Knight of The Mary Tyler Moore Show provide some voice work for the series too?

 

[Therin of Andor]

Didn't Ted Knight of The Mary Tyler Moore Show provide some voice work for the series too?

He was the voice of Carter Winston in episode, "The Survivor".

And Ed Bishop was in "The Magicks of Megas-Tu". Asmodeus the Megan prosecutor.

 

[Christopher]

Ted Knight did a fair amount of voice work at the time, including other Filmation shows. He did Commissioner Gordon and many of the villains in Filmation's first Batman cartoon in 1968, and he was the lead in both Filmation's '68 Fantastic Voyage (one of the few Filmation shows I've never seen) and their '72-3 Lassie's Rescue Rangers show (about contemporaneous with TAS). Also in '73, he was the narrator for the first season of Hanna-Barbera's Super Friends.