I'm Finally Going to Watch The Animated Series
- Thread starter tomalak301
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By any chance could you send me a copy of that list? It would help a lot in tracking down some of those unknown credits (I spent several weeks awhile back annoying the hell out of my family by doing marathon sessions of TAS, trying to confirm or deny how many voices Jimmy Doohan did or didn't do; btw, I'm pretty sure that IS Doohan as Arex).
Imagine if they did TAS they way they did a lot of kids' cartoons then. There'd be a talking alien dog sidekick, and Kirk, Spock, and the rest would have a band and they'd jam at the end.
Finished Disc 1 tonight:
The Lorelei Signal
For a children's show, I actually found this episode a little sexist. It was pretty much men showing typical men stereotypes when being possessed by woman infatuations and it wasn't all that interesting. I did like seeing Uhura in command though. She showed more spunk here than she did any other time not including the stealing of the Enterprise in Star Trek III.
More Troubles More Tribbles
I've actually seen this episode before, and other than being a retelling of "Trouble with Tribbles" I liked it. Liked seeing a fat tribble, and the expressions on Koloth's face were great. So much for the new weapon though. Like Spock (Or was it McCoy) said, a tribble seemed to be a nice defense mechinism towards it.
The Survivor
I liked this one. Not as good as Yesteryear but on this disc it's probably my second favorite episode. It was the typically alien comes aboard ship disguised like someone familiar, but I liked the message that came across, and it was enjoyable.
I also saw Yesteryear again with the Text Commentary on, and I think I liked it more the second time. The commentary seemed to focus more on aspects of the episode that couldn't be done in live action that could be taken full advantage of in animation and I started thinking about some comments regarding the graphics and effects. I've got to say reading the commentary, the Paintings on Vulcan were amazing, especially for that time. I wouldn't go as far to say they're my favorite representation of Vulcan, but it's up there. Kind of makes me wonder if Animation was done today how awesome things would look. Of course it has to be done right (Because some of the animation shows of today don't look all that terrific and really low budget), but I'm sure something like Quo'Nos would look amazing in animation.
The Lorelei Signal
For a children's show, I actually found this episode a little sexist. It was pretty much men showing typical men stereotypes when being possessed by woman infatuations and it wasn't all that interesting. I did like seeing Uhura in command though. She showed more spunk here than she did any other time not including the stealing of the Enterprise in Star Trek III.
More Troubles More Tribbles
I've actually seen this episode before, and other than being a retelling of "Trouble with Tribbles" I liked it. Liked seeing a fat tribble, and the expressions on Koloth's face were great. So much for the new weapon though. Like Spock (Or was it McCoy) said, a tribble seemed to be a nice defense mechinism towards it.
The Survivor
I liked this one. Not as good as Yesteryear but on this disc it's probably my second favorite episode. It was the typically alien comes aboard ship disguised like someone familiar, but I liked the message that came across, and it was enjoyable.
I also saw Yesteryear again with the Text Commentary on, and I think I liked it more the second time. The commentary seemed to focus more on aspects of the episode that couldn't be done in live action that could be taken full advantage of in animation and I started thinking about some comments regarding the graphics and effects. I've got to say reading the commentary, the Paintings on Vulcan were amazing, especially for that time. I wouldn't go as far to say they're my favorite representation of Vulcan, but it's up there. Kind of makes me wonder if Animation was done today how awesome things would look. Of course it has to be done right (Because some of the animation shows of today don't look all that terrific and really low budget), but I'm sure something like Quo'Nos would look amazing in animation.
Okay, now I want to see that happen.
Interesting that it was written by a woman, then. Keep in mind this was 1973. The bar was set at a different level. By the standards of '60s/'70s Trek, it was quite progressive in terms of gender roles, showing the women as the powerful ones and the men as subservient, and giving Uhura a command role. Not to mention showing an all-female security team. We never saw any women in security in TOS, but we get four here and one more in "The Survivor."
It's cute, but I find it inconsistent. How come the Klingon weapon froze the transporter the first time but not the second? And Kirk's strategy doesn't make sense -- beaming the tribbles to the Klingon ship before he made his demands. At that point, he'd already done his worst to them, so what did they have to gain by releasing the Enterprise? The way a threat works is that you make your demands before you attack. That way, the enemy has something to lose if they don't comply. If you've already done your worst, you have no more leverage.
They seemed to take either one extreme over another, and that was something I had a problem with in terms of early Star Trek and gender roles. The same thing kind of happened in TNG's Angel One and I thought Star Trek was about equality and IDIC and all that. Perhaps I just don't like when episodes take one extreme over the other and this episode I felt kind of did.
Well, yeah, equality was the goal, but these stories were written at an earlier point in the process, when there was still great inequality between the sexes and offering an alternative tended to mean going to the other extreme to counter it. Even aside from that, there were still a lot of unexamined assumptions about gender identity and behavior that were more polarized than we're used to today, so even in stories that nominally depicted gender equality, there was an undercurrent of gendered assumptions that seem sexist to us today. But that just shows how far we've come in a generation or two.
Oh my God, yeah. Kirk would be lead singer and electric guitarist. Spock would play bass guitar, Bones has keyboard, Scotty on bagpipes, Sulu on drums, with Uhura and Chapel on tambourines and rattle respectively. They'd warm up with a comedy bit, usually involving Scotty bleating badly on the pipes, or Sulu being hit in the kisser with a pair of cymbals, with a huge laugh track overlay. None of the songs would utilize most of those instruments, and the characters would bop and sway totally out of time with the music. The song would be related to the episode, with appropriate scenes flashed during the number (usually involving two warring aliens becoming friends and hugging at the end of the song). The song would fade out under applause.
Final tag:
McCoy: "Well Jim, looks like the Throggs and the Tyrannos will be friends from now on."
Kirk: "I'm glad we could help them."
Spock: "It is to be hoped they will retain what they have learned for lasting peace."
Sulu: "I can say they will Mr. Spock."
Spock: "What brings you to this assumption, Mr. Sulu?"
Sulu: "Because we drummed it into them."
Kri, Spock and McCoy each give a Filmation scowl, while "wah waaah" music plays over laugh track as we FADE OUT.
I've enjoyed Foster's work for years, but his work on the TAS adapations was just so painful for me to read, *especially* Counter-Clock. I picked up all ten volumes from a used bookstore, and was really looking forward to more indepth details on the eps, but all I kept reading was tap dancing and spin.
My advice to new TAS viewers: yes it's corny at times, but it's still decent Trek, just take it with a grain of salt (or a stiff drink, if you will).
And I always wondered what Larry Niven's K'Zinti characters were doing in Star Trek.
Earning Niven money.
Of course, lots of prose SF authors were big fans of ST and many were participants in its writing -- Sohl, Matheson, Sturgeon, Ellison, Spinrad, etc. So it's not surprising that Niven would want to be involved too. And sometimes prose authors writing for TV adapt pre-existing works into episodes, though that usually happens with anthology shows. (But not always. TNG's "Tin Man" was based on an original SF novel called Tin Woodman by TrekBBS member Dennis Bailey and David Bischoff.)
I didn't count "Where No One Has Gone Before" because it was adapted from a Trek novel, not an original SF novel. So it doesn't count as an example of bringing concepts from a separate SF universe into the Trek universe.
The Infinite Vulcan
I got Disc two today so I can review more episodes. This one wasn’t that bad, but I have to admit the tall Spock was a little awkward. Also, I felt this episode was a little unfocused. I mean we see three different races in this episode, the Phylosians, the pterodactyl-like race and Keniculus 5 as the master. I think in terms of the format for this show, there could have been two episodes here, one about the plant planet and the other as back story for the Eugenics wars. The two stories being merged together in a 30 minute show seemed a little too much. I did like the back story on the Eugenics wars though, about the guy wanting to create a peace-making race. On that end, overall, the episode was alright.
The Magicks of Megas – Tu
This was another episode that was just OK. It seemed to go all over the place though, from exploring the center of the Galaxy (If memory serves, has no ship made it that far, as we were told in Star Trek V?) to meeting the Megas people and Lucian and Asmodeus. Then we got the Salem witch trial scene and I was thinking how much this episode jumped around to get from the beginning to here. I did like the messege though and the crew making a new friend but I think the episode was trying to be a bit too symbolic and mythical. At least it didn’t have very tall people like the previous episode did. Also, some of the dialog wasn’t all that great and got tedious on occasion. Of course I know about how they went about with the dialog so that’s why I haven’t brought it up much. If I had, I’d criticize some of the recording work in every episode.
Once Upon a Planet
So far this is the best episode I’ve seen tonight. Very nice sequel to Shore Leave. I could tell though there was some restocked footage (Such as the Pterodactyls and the round forest from The Infinite Vulcan) but given the limited budget I could understand why. I have to say too M’Ress is kind of freaky, but also kind of hot. Love the purring she does. Almost too adult for a children’s show.
I got Disc two today so I can review more episodes. This one wasn’t that bad, but I have to admit the tall Spock was a little awkward. Also, I felt this episode was a little unfocused. I mean we see three different races in this episode, the Phylosians, the pterodactyl-like race and Keniculus 5 as the master. I think in terms of the format for this show, there could have been two episodes here, one about the plant planet and the other as back story for the Eugenics wars. The two stories being merged together in a 30 minute show seemed a little too much. I did like the back story on the Eugenics wars though, about the guy wanting to create a peace-making race. On that end, overall, the episode was alright.
The Magicks of Megas – Tu
This was another episode that was just OK. It seemed to go all over the place though, from exploring the center of the Galaxy (If memory serves, has no ship made it that far, as we were told in Star Trek V?) to meeting the Megas people and Lucian and Asmodeus. Then we got the Salem witch trial scene and I was thinking how much this episode jumped around to get from the beginning to here. I did like the messege though and the crew making a new friend but I think the episode was trying to be a bit too symbolic and mythical. At least it didn’t have very tall people like the previous episode did.
Also, some of the dialog wasn’t all that great and got tedious on occasion. Of course I know about how they went about with the dialog so that’s why I haven’t brought it up much. If I had, I’d criticize some of the recording work in every episode. Once Upon a Planet
So far this is the best episode I’ve seen tonight. Very nice sequel to Shore Leave. I could tell though there was some restocked footage (Such as the Pterodactyls and the round forest from The Infinite Vulcan) but given the limited budget I could understand why. I have to say too M’Ress is kind of freaky, but also kind of hot. Love the purring she does. Almost too adult for a children’s show.
Therin, do you know where that picture of Arex, M'Ress, and the K'zin is from? Is it unused art from TAS?
Like tomalak301, TAS was the last ofthe ST's to be watched by me, very recently, my reason for not watching them sooner was I didn't even know that there was an animated series
. No matter what some may I found it entertaing and fun. All you have to remember that it was made way back and animated technology was basic then, and it was done the old way. What i mean by that is that the episodes were not computer generated. You can't beat a bit of nostalgia.
. No matter what some may I found it entertaing and fun. All you have to remember that it was made way back and animated technology was basic then, and it was done the old way. What i mean by that is that the episodes were not computer generated. You can't beat a bit of nostalgia.
^Well, we're talking about the 1970s here. The technology of animation had been well-established by then, and there was certainly fine work being done in animated feature films for decades before then. But animation is only as good as the time and budget available to its creators. Television animation was produced in a much tighter time frame and on a far smaller budget than feature animation, and Filmation specialized in the style of limited animation that allowed a relatively small number of people to produce a significant amount of animated programming in a relatively small amount of time. Moreover, at network insistence, TAS's first season was produced on a schedule that was insanely tight even for television animation, so they had to rush and cut corners even more than usual.
So it's not an issue of technology, except in the sense that modern digital methods allow animators to work faster and thus get better results on a tight schedule. But considering that TAS was made decades after films like Fantasia, it's kind of disingenuous to say that they didn't have the technology to produce good-looking animation. They had the technology, just not the time.
So it's not an issue of technology, except in the sense that modern digital methods allow animators to work faster and thus get better results on a tight schedule. But considering that TAS was made decades after films like Fantasia, it's kind of disingenuous to say that they didn't have the technology to produce good-looking animation. They had the technology, just not the time.
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