Origins of TAS: 1969!

[Therin of Andor]

Plans for Filmation's animated Star Trek date back to 1969!

#5 of the US version of Titan's "Star Trek: The Magazine" (MAY/JUN 2007) was back to its regular 66 page size, but the UK/Aussie version (#90 JUL/AUG 2007; #132 UK), just arrived Down Under, continues to be a regular 98 pages, plus covers.

While both versions carry the same cover banner, "Writing for 'Star Trek: The Animated Series'", above the title, the main UK/Aussie difference is the generous bonus lift-out Celebrating 'Star Trek: The Animated Series', a supplement in the middle pages.

For the US version, the banner would refer only to the David Gerrold article, which both versions have in common. (David Gerrold talks about many aspects of Trek, including his contributions to the recent TAS DVD set). The UK/Aust. bonus material, however, features much more material about TAS:

including... "The Secret Origins of 'Star Trek: The Animated Series'" by Andy Mangels, which includes reprints of official comments about a 1969 "concept paper" proposing, for TAS: a training ship called Excalibur, Scotty's moustache, new characters called Tun-Tun, Stormy, Ploof, Steve and Bob, and a suggestion to eliminate Chekov and his paired cadet, Chris, in favour of finding a cadet pairing for Uhura.

Three early story outlines were "The Space Cocoon", "The Impossible Rainbow" and "Klingon Attack".

Excalibur (originally proposed as 6D12 Lightly) would have been able to break up into smaller pods. It sounds like Tun-Tun was already slated to be replaced by the moustachioed Scotty - and his cadet counterpart, Stormy, was to be dropped.

Some "crab/spider" business in "The Space Cocoon" was deemed unacceptable for a kids' show, but there was an effort to boost up the educational angle of each TAS instalment from even this earliest incarnation. There were aliens called trogs.

Steve was Spock's cadet companion, and Bob was McCoy's. There was concern that Kirk's companion looked too much like "any boy in the world", and Sulu's and Uhura's companions were not decided yet (although I once saw a preliminary sketch of the female cadet paired with Uhura in a book about Filmation, so she did see further development).

more details

This stuff is so cool, I'm sure "ST: The Magazine" will eventually find a way of getting this material to US fans.

 

[blakbyrd]

Very interesting!

 

[Good Will Riker]

Were any of these story outlines re-written or re-imagined as an episode of TAS that ended up on the small screen?

 

[Therin of Andor]

Good Will Riker said:
Were any of these story outlines re-written or re-imagined as an episode of TAS that ended up on the small screen?

Who knows. Hard to tell. Perhaps "The Space Cocoon" inspired the story about the pod ship of "Beyond the Farthest Star" That ship was built by an insectoid race, and there was already talk of the TAS cadet ship being able to break into smaller pod vessels?

"The Impossible Rainbow" was about "a quiet boy" and fantasy becoming reality - perhaps inspired by "Charlie X"?

There was concern there was "no real point" to "The Klingon Attack" and it needed work to draw out the interrelationships and to add an educational message.

 

[TiberiusK]

Interesting. If it was 1969, then Roddenberry wasn't involved, or was he? Who was involved in the brainstorming, etc.?

 

[Therin of Andor]

TiberiusK said:
Interesting. If it was 1969, then Roddenberry wasn't involved, or was he? Who was involved in the brainstorming, etc.?

For Filmation: Lou Scheimer.

Concept paper: Don Christensen.

For Paramount (the distributor): Phillip Mayer, Director of Special Programming.

Paramount had been blaming Roddenberry for stonewalling through the early 70s, in absentia, but when Filmation decided to approach him separately, they hit it off with him. So the final version of TAS was developed by Filmation, NBC and Roddenberry's own Norway Corp. NBC (Joe Taritero) was happy to defer to Roddenberry's choices, and GR left most of the development work to DC Fontana. (Paramount was content to just distribute. Remember, Paramount's logo didn't get added to the end credits of TAS until it finished its first run on Saturday mornings and Paramount inherited its ongoing distribution.)

 

[TiberiusK]

So, who was it that came up with the storyboards? Or did I misunderstand something here. Was it solely Filmation without the input of any Trek insiders?

 

[Therin of Andor]

TiberiusK said:
So, who was it that came up with the storyboards? Or did I misunderstand something here. Was it solely Filmation without the input of any Trek insiders?

There were no storyboards in 1969. It was only a "concept" for a possible show.

For the final version of TAS, Filmation was responsible for storyboarding and animating the scripts that were being developed by DC Fontana. The storyboards simply turn the scripts into b/w drawings to guide the director how the show will be animated.

 

[TiberiusK]

Therin of Andor said:

TiberiusK said:
So, who was it that came up with the storyboards? Or did I misunderstand something here. Was it solely Filmation without the input of any Trek insiders?

There were no storyboards in 1969. It was only a "concept" for a possible show.

For the final version of TAS, Filmation was responsible for storyboarding and animating the scripts that were being developed by DC Fontana. The storyboards simply turn the scripts into b/w drawings to guide the director how the show will be animated.

Interesting. Thanks. That is really cool. I'll have to get the U.S. mag tomorrow, even if it doesn't have that section.

 

[StolenThunder]

This seems almost exclusively TAS discussion, so I'm going to send this thread over to TOS.

 

[Mallory]

This sounds like some really cool stuff Therin. I haven't had a chance to read it yet, but I going to.

Thanks for pointing it out.

 

[Ryan Thomas Riddle]

A picture of the Enterprise gang with their cadets appears in The Art of Star Trek book by the Reeve-Stevens.

 

[Borjis]

middyseafort said:
A picture of the Enterprise gang with their cadets appears in The Art of Star Trek book by the Reeve-Stevens.

Page 42

Glad they didn't do that.

 

[Therin of Andor]

Borjis said:
Page 42

Note the pre-TMP moustache on Scotty!

 

[Ryan Thomas Riddle]

^Thanks for the scan. I don't have my copy (it's in San Diego and I'm in LA).

 

[KeepOnTrekking]

It doesn't surprise me that TAS was considered back in '69. I remember an article on TAS in The best of Trek #1 where Gene stated that he wasn't impressed by most pitched that amounted to Kirk's crew training cadets and the stories usually revolved a planet having some sort of malady that had nothing to do with the crew until the ship "landed" and the crew jumped out with phasers blazing to resolve the situation. It wasn't until he met with Filmation that he felt that this was the right company to worh with and remain true to the original.

 

[Therin of Andor]

KeepOnTrekking said:
It doesn't surprise me that TAS was considered back in '69. I remember an article on TAS in The best of Trek #1 where Gene stated that he wasn't impressed by most pitched that amounted to Kirk's crew training cadets and the stories usually revolved a planet having some sort of malady that had nothing to do with the crew until the ship "landed" and the crew jumped out with phasers blazing to resolve the situation. It wasn't until he met with Filmation that he felt that this was the right company to worh with and remain true to the original.

"Best of Trek" not withstanding, some of their article must now be viewed through the hindsight of the abovementioned 1969 memo, which was only recently found. It was Filmation that approached Paramount, and then Roddenberry about TAS, not Roddenberry shopping it around to other animation houses. The first Filmation pitch happened as TOS was being cancelled, and Roddenberry wasn't involved with TOS at the time.

And the ship could land because it was constructed of break-apart pods; it was not the Enterprise.