I'm Finally Going to Watch The Animated Series

[tomalak301]

Finished Disc 2 tonight:

Mudd's Passion

Nice to see Mudd again, and I actually do like some of these sequels (Once Upon a Planet being the other one) to some of the episodes of Star Trek. This one was your typical crew get's drugged story, but again, I do like the use of monster in TAS that couldn't have been done in the original. I have to wonder though, there was a scene bordering on Kirk and Spock really being super nice to each other and the first thing I thought was the idea of the drug working on the same sex. Of course given this was the 70's and we barely tolerate it today, I didn't expect them to actually do it, but it was somewhat interesting how close they could have gotten.

The Terratin Incident

Ok, so the crew shrinks, and they are able to be restored via the transporter. Something about this episode kind of rang hollow to me and had me scratching my head. If they could restore the crew to normal size, why not the colony? I guess maybe it had to do with crew DNA on file, but it seemed like there was a big deleted scene missing from this one.

The Time Trap

Good episode until the end. What the heck was up with the abrupt ending? The Klingon ship almost destroys the Enterprise and Kirk doesn't care? That's not like Kirk at all. Of course we got some cooperation and that's all well and good, but that ending left me kind of cold.

 

[Gepard]

Good, cheap, fast.
Pick two.

Now-a-days, at least in the VFX field, they keep trying for all three...

 

[Kail]

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.

Not TAS, but close.
http://www.startrekanimated.com/tas_st_wallpaper.jpg

You'll have to copy and paste this into a new window.

 

[RevDMV]

TAS, it was cool through the eyes of a ten year old who watched the big Friday night preview show before the first Saturday episode.

I've been meaning to go get these, I think my oldest son might find them fun. (I don't know if I dare re watch them)

 

[Hober Mallow]

A bit off topic here, but what I don't get about animation nowadays is why with the bigger bugdets and better technology do animators go for a purposefully cheap goofy stylized look? I remember an interview with a Powerpuff Girls producer a few years back where he boasted that the characters looked like children could draw them. Is that really what animators want now? Is there a reason we wanted Teen Titans to look sillier than Pokemon?

I mean you look back at an old Filmation show like He-Man, and, well... yes, the characters didn't move much, and every time a character ran or jumped it was the same stock footage used for every character over and over... but the images actually looked really nice. The backgrounds were sometimes spectacular, and the people actually looked like people, with the right proportions.

I dunno. Maybe if I'd grown up in the sixties I'd be nostolgic for really crappy TV animation like the Wizard of Oz cartoon or the old Tootsie Pop commercial.

 

[Christopher]

A bit off topic here, but what I don't get about animation nowadays is why with the bigger bugdets and better technology do animators go for a purposefully cheap goofy stylized look?

For one thing, because it allows for better animation. Simplified designs are more efficient to draw, so that you can work faster and achieve better results in the same amount of time. They're also less constraining on the animator. Too much detail restricts the potential movement of the figure, so simplified animation designs are far more expressive and fluid. Compare the look of the '90s X-Men series, where the characters were drawn in a detailed, line-heavy style like in the comics, to the contemporary Batman: The Animated Series, which relied on simpler, more cartoony designs. The former had exceedingly stiff and rigid animation with little expression, while the latter had the best character animation on television at the time. And the following X-Men series, X-Men Evolution, also used streamlined, cartoony character designs and had just about the best, most gorgeous character animation I've ever seen on television.

So it's not "goofy" or "cheap" at all. It's lean and efficient and graphically sophisticated. Caricature is a powerful artistic tool, because it resonates with the way the human brain perceives and remembers faces. Our brains focus on the outstanding details of a face and emphasize them in our memories while playing down the subtler details. Studies have shown that people find exaggerated caricatures of famous people more recognizable than photos of them. Paradoxically, caricatures actually seem more "real" to our brains in a way.

The other reason is artistic. The key to good animation character design is giving your character an instantly recognizable silhouette, something that stands out and can't be confused with anybody else. These days, animated shows try to do that same thing on a broader scale, giving each show its own characteristic look that can't be mistaken for any other show. The goal is individuality rather than conformity. This is a pattern that began with Bruce Timm's work on B:TAS, Matt Groening's work on The Simpsons, and John Kricfalusi's work on Ren & Stimpy (for better or worse), and it's influenced the genre ever since.

I remember an interview with a Powerpuff Girls producer a few years back where he boasted that the characters looked like children could draw them. Is that really what animators want now? Is there a reason we wanted Teen Titans to look sillier than Pokemon?

It's illogical to generalize from one show to every other. The Powerpuff Girls was a show specifically about superhero toddlers, a parody of anime action-girl shows taken to its reductio ad absurdem extreme -- not just teens, but adorable toddlers engaged in exaggeratedly ultraviolent combat. So the childlike look was part of the satire, part of the design ethic of that specific show. It's completely false to allege that that philosophy applies to animation in general.

Teen Titans's design style was influenced by anime, yes, but as filtered through Glen Murakami's own individual design sensibility. It was hardly meant to have the same aesthetic as PPG, beyond the fact that both drew on anime influences in their own ways. Personally I think it looked far less silly than Pokemon, except when it blatantly threw in super-deformed poses for the characters as part of that anime-based aesthetic. There were sequences in Teen Titans that were just gorgeous to look at.

I mean you look back at an old Filmation show like He-Man, and, well... yes, the characters didn't move much, and every time a character ran or jumped it was the same stock footage used for every character over and over... but the images actually looked really nice.

And they still do look really nice, a lot of the time. There are plenty of shows out there with gorgeous character design and animation. It's just that the styles are more diverse and individualized. If you go to a museum, you may decide you like the realist painters more than the abstract expressionists, but that doesn't mean the expressionists were doing lazy or incompetent work. It just means they were using a different style from the one you're comfortable with.

I dunno. Maybe if I'd grown up in the sixties I'd be nostolgic for really crappy TV animation like the Wizard of Oz cartoon or the old Tootsie Pop commercial.

I grew up in the '70s, and I'm still nostalgic for Filmation's art style, but I'm still able to recognize that there's plenty of gorgeous animation being done today. Look at Avatar: The Last Airbender. Anyone would have to be out of their mind to call that sloppy or cheap. The new Cartoon Network show Generator Rex also has some really impressive animation and good design work as well. Then there's something like The Spectacular Spider-Man. Personally, I hated that show's character design style, but the animation itself, the movement and expression of the characters, was just fantastic, particularly in the action sequences. The amount of thought and care and attention to detail that had to go into producing such amazing, fast-paced, imaginative action boggles my mind, even though the way the characters were designed annoyed me.

 

[plynch]

E

I dunno. Maybe if I'd grown up in the sixties I'd be nostolgic for really crappy TV animation like the Wizard of Oz cartoon or the old Tootsie Pop commercial.

With the Owl? It's beautiful. Isn't it all water-colory? Pop/psychedelic in a candy commercial. Nice.

EDIT - it's better than I remembered - a minute long animated short posing as a commercial. A Peter Lorre fox? Mallow, c'mon, that's beautiful stuff!

 

[Captain Robert April]

I don't remember the fox, just the turtle and the owl, but then, it's probably been a few decades since I've seen a sixty second version.

"One, two-hoooooo, three *CRRRUNNNCH!!* Three."

 

[Potemkin_Prod]

It was a lot longer than it is when seen today, but it was funny.

 

[tomalak301]

The Ambergis Element

Finally decided to start Disc three tonight and this episode was just ok. I was reminded a bit of Voyager's 30 Days (Yes I know this episode came first) with the water planet and the undersea civilization but the episodes were still quite different. I left the episode wondering though how many shuttles the Enterprise has. They have a space shuttle, a water shuttle, and a sub shuttle (Of course those might be the same but I digress) and I just wonder how big is the shuttle bay in this series. That's quite a few shuttles. As for the story, it was ok I guess.

I am finding watching these episodes that I'm not being wowed by them. Of course I didn't expect to be, but they aren't very memorable. Some have been, such as Yesteryear, and Once Upon a Planet, but other than that, ask me in a week what the story was about and I probably would have to look it up. Still, I'll finish this in time (hopefully next week). There's no rush.

Also, I guess this series wasn't memorable to those who watched it because the conversation turned completely off topic mainly to the animation of the time. I guess I'm not the only one who feels like the stories aren't very memorable. If anyone has any suggestions on how I can better the reviews for more plot discussion, let me know. With an episode like this though, it was pretty tough.

 

[SchwEnt]

Hmmm. Interesting. I think some of TAS is quite memorable, regardless of good/bad/indifferent quality. Many unique aspects that make TAS, if nothing else, memorable.

The Ambergris Element--TOS on a waterworld with an undersea civilization. Quite unique. Never seen before. Not memorable?

The Slaver Weapon--TOS with no Enterprise, and the only TOS eps or film without Kirk at all. Never seen before or since.

The Lorelei Signal--Uhura in command of the Enterprise. One and only time. Memorable.

Some small, some large, but there are aspects in TAS that make the eps memorable to me.

 

[Christopher]

The Slaver Weapon--TOS with no Enterprise, and the only TOS eps or film without Kirk at all.

Except "The Cage."

 

[Mr Awe]

I am finding watching these episodes that I'm not being wowed by them. Of course I didn't expect to be, but they aren't very memorable.

I'd agree with this, not very memorable. Enjoyable enough to watch through, but ultimately forgetable.

Several years ago I made my first run complete run through TAS on DVD, much like you are. I had seen a few scattered episodes here and there, but not many. Today, even after reading your descriptions, I do not remember them. So, they are literally not memorable overall. There are a few exceptions as others have pointed out.

Mr Awe

 

[Joel_Kirk]

I haven't seen the episodes in awhile, but they are quite memorable to me. (Still, in this age of the internet, there are clips, photos, info online).

I do appreciate the reviews, though.

TAS needs some love.

 

[Therin of Andor]

If you go to a museum, you may decide you like the realist painters more than the abstract expressionists, but that doesn't mean the expressionists were doing lazy or incompetent work.

 

[Therin of Andor]

I'd agree with this, not very memorable. Enjoyable enough to watch through, but ultimately forgetable.

Speak for yourself! I saw them in the 70s, in b/w, on Saturday mornings - with no knowledge of how many episodes were ever made, or even what colour Mr Arex was meant to be. Then the episodes were replayed on midweek breakfast TV when Australia got colour TV (in 1975), but it wasn't till I bought a "ST Concordance" in 1980 that I realised how many had been made and how many I'd missed.

Catching up with friends' off-air taped copies and finally buying some UK VHS copies, I had seen them all at last, but they have always been extremely memorable to me. The images, the music, the gorgeous planetary backgrounds, the stories...

 

[tomalak301]

The Slaver Weapon

This is one of the better episodes I've seen lately. Very interesting mystery of an old civilization and their weapon of considerable power and, what, 50 settings when there only seemed like 5? Just going on the setting number alone, I wonder how much damage that could do. You have Lasers? We have Lasers, bullets, a conversion of matter into energy that goes boom from a mile away, hahaha. Also liked the K'zinti. They could have made an interesting race in the live series. Also interesting this was only a Spock, Sulu, and Uhura episode. No one else was involved, and I do like that Uhura is getting more time in TAS than she ever got in Star Trek. Kinda glad that was carried over into the movies.

 

[Christopher]

If you're curious about the weapon and the Kzinti, you should track down "The Soft Weapon," the novella that Larry Niven adapted into this episode -- and perhaps other Known Space fiction as well. It was originally collected in Neutron Star, but that's long out of print, so you'd have better luck finding it in Playgrounds of the Mind, or in an upcoming tome called The Best of Larry Niven, due in November.

"The Soft Weapon" basically tells the same story as "The Slaver Weapon," except with a married couple and Nessus from Ringworld instead of Sulu, Uhura, and Spock, but it goes into somewhat more depth about the weapon and its origins.

What's striking about "The Slaver Weapon" is that it is essentially the only Filmation cartoon prior to 1987 in which any sapient being actually dies in the course of the story. The ending is actually kind of shocking by Filmation or Saturday morning standards, the villains dying and nobody shedding a tear. Even when Filmation did do a few stories involving death in 1987's BraveStarr, it was always portrayed as a grave, tragic, terrible thing. So "Slaver" is really almost unique in Filmation's canon. The only comparable thing I can think of is a 1966 Filmation Superman cartoon which I believe ended with the destruction of an alien villain's ship with the villain aboard.

 

[WisTrekFan]

To enjoy the animated series you have to place yourself in the context in which it aired originally. This series was the first new Star Trek to be seen since the original series ended its run, so it was exciting when it debuted. It would be another six years before TMP was released and even Star Wars wouldn't come around for four years yet. I watched the series originally on a 12 inch black and white television and it looked just fine on it. My two favorite episodes of the series were Yesteryear and Time Trap.

 

[tomalak301]

The Eye of the Beholder

Another good TAS episode this evening. Really liked how first contact was handled, and how a bad thing ended up turning into a really good thing. Also continue to be impressed with the monsters TAS uses, such as the Lactron aliens (They looked like a cross between Elephants and Hippos) and also liked how the characters uses their strongest assets to get out of the situation in the zoo. The deduction, reasoning, and music (And everything else really) was well done.

The Jihad

One problem I've had with episodes mainly isn't a fault of TAS as a series, but more time constraints. This episode falls into that problem in that it could have been a good hour, but it has to rush the ending and it makes the episode end up feeling cheap in the end. I remember having the same feeling about Time Trap, how I liked that episode beside the ending and this episode was kind of the same way. We have this expedition to find a religious soul to prevent a Jihad against the Galaxy (Nice seeing the Phoenix looking aliens again, as we find out they are the Skorr) and it ends with a no reward, and not much of a payoff. I feel like I wanted more. This isn't a bad episode per say, but it's not in a top 5 I'm trying to form when I give overall thoughts of TAS at the end.