I was fourteen when I first watched "The Survivor" and I was certainly well aware of what being gay was, along with all the sterotypes that many people subscribed to. At no point from the onset did I ever get the impression that the Vendorian (as Carter Winston) could be trying to suggest he might be gay to Ann Nored. Now if you saw this episode for the first time decades after its original broadcasts then it's possible you might get that idea, but I think that has more to do with what one could be projecting onto the scene rather then what is actually there or intended by the writers.
Getting back to the question of whether TAS was intended for children, here are some quotes from Lou Scheimer: Creating the Filmation Generation by the late Mr. Scheimer and Andy Mangels (pp. 96-7): I should add that, according to Scheimer, the contract with NBC granted Roddenberry and Filmation complete creative control, and Roddenberry was more directly overseeing the series than I'd thought. If Scheimer's recollection was accurate, that would suggest that, despite Roddenberry's later attempts to distance himself from TAS, at the time it probably represented his unadulterated "vision" for Star Trek as much as anything (allowing for the toned-down sex and violence).
This would explain many things, IMHO. There are so many "essential" Trek ideas in TAS that I found it unlikely that the TAS producers had come up with these by themselves (unless they were really die-hard Trek aficionados). However, the recurring depiction of alien monsters was definitely targeted at younger audiences. Bob
The idea in TAS 'Counter-Clock Incident' where people age backwards was repeated in VOY - 'Innocence' I thought this whole concept was ridiculed when it was in TAS as being ridiculous.
Why would you think that? TOS itself frequently featured monsters -- the Salt Vampire, the Gorn, the Horta, the Mugato, the space amoeba, etc. Monsters and bizarre aliens were a staple of screen SF at the time; The Outer Limits featured them on a weekly basis. True, these were to some extent aimed at younger viewers, but no less so in TOS than in TAS. (In the '70s, Daniel Cohen published a children's book called The Monsters of Star Trek, populated entirely with creatures from the live-action series.) The only difference, as stated, is that TAS wasn't limited by real-world budgetary or physical limitations, so the monsters could be more elaborate than some guy in a rubber suit. "Counter-Clock" was ridiculous on many more levels besides that one. Every Trek series has its duds and embarrassments.
I didn't mind the 'Counter-Clock Incident'. It was a pretty exciting episode. I don't want to look at it too closely though. I may be remembering this wrong but in the ADF logs didn't he dismiss this and one other TAS episode as a dream or something.
^Foster added a sequel story in the same volume in which the events of the episode, as well as of the sequel story itself, were revealed to have been an illusion generated as a test. But no other episode was involved.
I'd say that the Salt Vampire, the Gorn, the Horta and others qualify as bizarre aliens with the Mugato being obviously an indigenous predator. But that's quite a difference to the large TAS "monsters" whose sole purpose seemed to have been to threaten, swallow or crush the protagonists or their vehicles. Considering these rock monsters from "Mudd's Passion" I'd like to believe that "Galaxy Quest" paid its own form of tribute to these. Bob