Your TAS memories

[BoredShipCapt'n]

What are your first memories of The Animated Series?

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In my case, I was only 5 to 6 years old when this series aired, and I distinctly sensed that it was a bit over my head in a way no other cartoon was. But my older brother almost never missed it, so neither did I. Anyway, I respected the show at the time for being as intelligent as the live-action series (which, back then, I didn't realize was no longer in production).

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Where was everyone else when TAS aired? What was it like seeing this show if you were already a ST fan? Or perhaps for younger fans who first saw TAS in repeats when it ran on Nickelodeon?

 

[Tallguy]

I know I was in kindergarten. I knew what Star Trek was. I knew Kirk, Spock, and Scotty (when I saw a re-run of Mirror Mirror I thought Scotty was trying to kill Kirk, because all red-shirts were Scotty). I have a vague recollection that there was a Star Trek cartoon that was on when I was watching Land of the Lost, Valley of the Dinosaurs, and Ernie Devlin.

Then I became more aware of Star Trek through the live action show and the Colorforms set (seriously). My next experience of TAS was the Viewmaster set of Yesteryear (around 1976). So I had that pretty well memorized.

I MAY have seen some in 1978ish.

But I don't think I really got to see TAS again until Nickelodeon ran them again in 1986. By then I could tell that Doohan and Barrett did all the voices. But hey, it was before TVH and a year before TNG. I took any Star Trek I could get. (I'm a TAS fan, btw.)

 

[Nerys Myk]

I was 14 and already a Star Trek fan. It was a new Star Trek show, so I was there. It wa pretty good from a story perspective. Definitely better than the other cartoons of the day. The animation was typical of television of the era, so I didn't expect anything better. I did wonder why they couldn't use the "real" Star Trek theme music. Since I can still whistle it to this day, it must have made an impression.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

I was already familiar with TOS, having seen quite a few episodes. The first clip of TAS I saw was the Friday night before the premier, on the cartoon preview show, where they showed a clip from Beyond the Farthest Star. By then, I had already seen promotional stills of TAS in various magazines.

 

[HarryM]

I was 7, in a house where we watched the original series in syndication every weekday at 6PM (on Oakland's KTVU) , so to have something new was fantastic.

 

[Christopher]

I was five. I'd only recently discovered TOS, and one Saturday morning I was playing in the backyard and my mother came out and told me that Star Trek was on. I was puzzled that it was on in the daytime rather than the evening. I'm not sure it mattered to me much that it was a cartoon rather than live-action; it was Star Trek. Since I was discovering both shows at once, they sort of blended together in my mind. Later on, there were things I thought I remembered from TOS that were really from TAS.

The first novel I ever owned was a used copy of Star Trek Log Three with the front cover torn off. It was the first book I ever read that wasn't on a child's reading level. I was six, I think.

 

[BoredShipCapt'n]

Then I became more aware of Star Trek through the live action show and the Colorforms set (seriously). My next experience of TAS was the Viewmaster set of Yesteryear (around 1976). So I had that pretty well memorized.

Oh, man, I remember those Colorforms. Till now I had forgotten the Viewmaster set, but now I'm thinking yeah, I must have had that because I remember the bird guy scientist and I'Chaya entirely too well from that period!

I also remember my brother often pointing out that Spock's skin looked green in TAS while it didn't particularly in TOS.

 

[Therin of Andor]

I've mentioned my TAS memories here before. Knowing very little about TOS, I recall watching TAS in b/w on Saturday mornings in Sydney, Australia. I guess we were way behind the US screenings. "Yesteryear", "How Sharper Than a Serpent's Tooth", "The Time Trap", "The Counterclock Incident" and "Albatross" were particularly memorable. My brothers and I were intrigued by the Auroral Plague and wondered what colours the crew were turning.

Colour TV arrived Down Under in late 1975, when I was almost 17, and TAS began rescreening daily on breakfast television the next year(?), interspersed by unrelated live-action segments, music, prize wheels, etc. Yes, we finally got to see the Auroral Plague colours - and the tribbles were pink!


Yesteryear by Therin of Andor, on Flickr

Next memories involved desperately searching toyshops for the "Mr. Spock's Time Trek" View-Master reels, admiring the beautiful Tuttle & Bailey TAS sericels advertised in 1980 issues of "Starlog" (and reprints of Bantam TOS books), realising that TAS adaptations were in the Ballantine "Logs", and my visit to Perth in about 1983, and meeting members of Westrek, who had random eps (some I'd never seen, including "The Slaver Weapon" with the end bit missing!) on off-air home videotape. Perth got multiple screenings of TAS in the early 80s and the east coast didn't.


TAS frames by Therin of Andor, on Flickr

Best TAS thing that happened:
Arex and M'ress suddenly turning up on the bridge in DC Comics' post-ST IV comic!


Return of Arex and M'Ress by Therin of Andor, on Flickr

 

[Joanna McCoy-Kirk]

I was in junior high school, and I think I had read about Star Trek in Junior Scholastic just before TAS started airing. I watched it a few times, wondering what the fuss was all about. Around 1975 or 1976, TOS finally started airing in syndication in my area (on WAAY in Huntsville, Alabama) and I quickly became a Trekkie.

 

[BoredShipCapt'n]

Now I remember those ads for the cels they used to put in the center of the Bantam books! In fact, that is why I remember the bird guy and sehlat so well, but I definitely had the View-Master reels too.

 

[Redfern]

I started watching the original series reruns about a year earlier (fall 1972) on a regular basis (mainly so I'd know how to act the role of Spock counterpointing my friend Kyle who liked playing Kirk). Sometime during that span, I began to enjoy the shows for their own sake.

Then in late August of 73, NBC started promoting its upcoming Saturday morning lineup and that's when Kyle and I learned Trek would premiere in animated format. CorporalCaptain reminded me of the preview special which I also watched. (For the younger members here, the "Big 3" networks, NBC, CBS and ABC used to run half hour previews of their new Saturday morning line-ups the Friday evening before they first aired.)

While the cartoon aired from September '73 through August of '75, reruns of the original series were suspended in our local market, Birmingham, Alabama. I can't remember if TOS ran on a competing affiliate. Point is, for those two years, TAS was the only Trek material available, so one watched it or simply did without. Not that it bothered me. For Kyle and I, it was Trek.

I purchased "Star Trek Log One" when it was first published as part of some release program. So I got the first several publications when they were first released.

In case you're wondering, no, I was not crazy about M'Ress at that time. Neither did I dislike her; she simply wasn't on my radar. (I wouldn't take note of her until late 1982 after I saw the movie "Cat People".) Spock was my "hero" since I roleplayed him. One thing that puzzled me was the lack of "frown lines" upon his animated visage. Even as a kid not quite 11 years old, I thought those creases were a defining attribute of Nimoy's face. But even then I appreciated the cartoon could depict far grander vistas and exotic flora and fauna than the live action could afford.

Sincerely,

Bill

 

[CaptPapa]

I have very strong memories of watching TAS when if first came out. I had just gone into military service and can vividly remember watching it on Saturday mornings in the barracks. I had watched TOS since mid-way through the first season (was out of the country 'til then), but I can't actually say I was an incurable Trekkie before TAS. For whatever reason, when it came along, TAS just appealed to me and to this day I have a very fond spot for it. Even though I had watch TOS, it was TAS that cemented my love of Star Trek.

 

[jpv2000]

I was 11 years old and already a huge Trek fan as was my dad.

We watched the preview show, and caught all the episodes as they aired and kept watching them as reruns through the years. I was also reading all the new Bantam and Ballantine Trek novels I could find.

I loved how Alan Dean Foster fleshed out the stories. Sadly I could never get my dad into any reading whatsoever.

I've got the TAS boxed DVD set and still rewatch them all once or twice a year. Great series.

 

[Ssosmcin]

I have a few memories audio taping One of Our Planets is Missing. However, I do remember - vividly - when it was cancelled. I was crushed when I tuned in at 11:00 that Saturday morning and was greeted by this announcement:

"Star Trek will no longer be seen at this time. Stay tuned for...WESTWIND!"

The only satisfaction I had was that it was done after 13 episodes. But my show was gone. I didn't see it again until Nickelodeon reran TAS in the 80's.

 

[Galileo7]

As a young boy in the fall of 1973, afterschool I would watch Star Trek TOS that was in reruns Mondays through Fridays. On Saturday mornings, I would watched the new Star Trek TAS too.

 

[feek61]

I was 12 and already a HUGE Star Trek fan. I remember both eagerly looking forward to each Saturday because TAS was on but also dreading it because it was the day I had to help my dad do the yard work . . . which was ALWAYS during TAS. I can remember sneaking into the house to watch it. Finally my mom intervened (she knew how dedicated I was to Star Trek because she saw me watching TOS everyday and keeping detailed notes on all of the sets and props) and let my dad know that he needed to give me a break during that 30 mins. If I remember correctly I think it came on from 11:00 to 11:30 AM

Boy, those were great, fun days.

 

[RandyS]

I was three and was in the process of watching the TOS reruns which ran every night at 6pm at the time. My mom, who had been a fan since the NBC years, told me later(as well as telling her friends every chance she got for the next thirty years) how funny she thought it was that I would ask her, "Mommy, how come Spock is a cartoon on the morning show and a real person at night?". Mom and I watched both together.

 

[BoredShipCapt'n]

If I remember correctly I think it came on from 11:00 to 11:30 AM

That's my recollection also. Safely after the "essential" cartoons like Bugs Bunny were over.

Looking back, it's amazing that something so intelligent was allowed on Saturday morning. After all, this was the era of Super Friends.

There was other programming out there in the Seventies, like the Children's Television Workshop stuff, that didn't talk down to kids but elevated their minds instead, so maybe I shouldn't be too surprised. But Star Trek was always adult-quality fare, even things like the Power Records (at least when Alan Dean Foster was holding the pen).

In a way, the Power Records were even more influential in the pre-VCR era, because kids could listen to them again and again and enrich their vocabulary. (I credit "In Vino Veritas" alone with teaching me the words envoy, hegemony, palatable, subaltern, apportionment, protocol, and subterfuge.) But that's turning into another topic!

 

[mach7]

I was 14 when it came on. I think I remember first hearing about it from a fanzine I subscribed to. My friends and I waited in anticipation for it to premire.

I remember being somewhat underwhelmed by the show. I thought the animation was weak and the stories were not up to the original. It was VERY much better than
anything else on Saturday morning, or probably even primetime.

I still watched it every week.

A few years ago I re watched it and found my original assessment still held up.

It has a few good moments but falls a bit short.

 

[Kail]

I was 13 and already a big Star Trek fan. Mt strongest memory was of the Friday night preview show. I was hooked right there with the clip from Beyond the Farthest Star. I would tape the episodes on my cassette tape recorder to listen to over and over. I would also film the TV screen with my super 8 camera. Fun!