I LOVE the animated series. It always annoyed me when it wasn't considered canon. We first learned of Kirk's middle name in that series. And Yesteryear is a masterpiece. I mean, come on. They cashed the check, so it's canon.
I guess I'm something of a canon nazi. (trademark Kevin Thomas) The animated series is definitely canon and the events of Spock's childhood directly informed the 2009 movie!
Holy shit. Now we have a legit argument for the He-Man Universe to be the Trek Universe! Given that his mother, Marlena, was a stranded astronaut from Earth, It works out even better!
Problem his in spite of star trek's "science fiction" it's never the less science while magic exists in He-man. It would be just like saying the flintstones,addams family,batman,and laurel and hardy are in the same universe because thay all met scooby doo
@@GrosvnerMcaffrey When magic works, as it does in He-Man, the science/magic divide becomes a false dichotomy. This is largely because "Any sufficiently advanced science is indistinguishable from magic." The other part of magic is spiritism - appeals to non-physical creatures (people) who have far more power than humans. I don't know if He-Man magic includes spiritism, but from Apollo to Q, Star Trek absolutely embraces the concept of non-physical people who have far more power than humans.
Speaking of the voice cast - no pun intended - James Doohan and Nichelle Nichols often played multiple supporting characters in TAS episodes. Doohan in particular was a really versatile voice actor with a talent for accents. TAS gave him an opportunity to really show that off.
On the gendered toy thing.... I thought that was pretty normal. Kids don't care. All me and my male cousins cared about was owning all the toys of any show we liked. Owning as much of the She-Ra and He-Man line as we could convince our parents to buy was a thing because we liked the show (s) and all of their related characters. I actually don't remember my male cousins even caring about playing with She-Ra figures. As they were a part of the He-man universe.
_Star Trek: The Animated Series_ was the first telltale that indicated that ST:TOS had gotten some real, genuine traction with its audience. That plus the popularity of the series once it went into syndication was a harbinger of Treks to come. A damned good thing, IMHO.
The best part of TAS for me: getting to see Spock's childhood pet sehlat, the "live teddy bear with 6 inch fangs"! "Yesteryear" remains one of my favorite episodes of any Trek series.
The thing I love about TAS is the fact the director was color blind and didn't know it, so that's why you ended up with Kilrathi wearing pink space suits and flying around in a pink space ship, and the Klingons had purple and pink armor, and we had pink tribbles too! Oh, and then there was the one episode where it's Star Trek V, but instead of meeting evil glowy god and land on the sun, Satan shows up and Sulu makes a woman. OH MY!
Gene Roddenberry said the animated series only came out because he wanted to finish the Five year mission of the Enterprise. That is why it only ran 2 years. The original show ran 3 years and 2 year were left on the five year mission so 2 more years were done in the animated series.
You forgot to mention Larry Niven's short story adaption in the episode "The Slaver Weapon". It freaked me out to see Kzinti in the Star Trek universe.
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Star Trek: The Animated Series is so very underrated and underexposed. This video is just what I wanted and I hope Star Trek: The Animated Series gets it's proper dues. Thanking you from Western Australia.
Ahhh... the animated series A few years ago my dad and I tried watching it so we could say we had watched all of star trek and my dad couldn't stomach it. I on the other hand made it through and actually thought it was a pretty nice extension of the original series.
Yesteryear is one of the best episodes of Trek, period. Seeing Spock dealing with his mixed heritage as a boy, as well as the roots of his fractured relationship with his father... it's amazing that storytelling of that quality was done for Saturday morning.
Ahh. Steve back to Trek videos. All is right with the world... until I watch the next Facepalm 5... then I’ll be reminded of the crapshow we live in...
You should check out watch mojos top ten petitions list. There is one on there that was directed at the obama administration that was so useless and ridiculously stupid that it would have done better with trump. Lol
I attended the American Library Association Annual Conference in June 2019. George Takei was a speaker. While he talked mostly about his forthcoming book on his childhood experiences in an American internment camp for U.S. citizens of Japanese decent, he did answer four or five questions about Star Trek. One of the stories Mr. Takei recounts is that Leonard Nimoy persuaded -- my term, not Takei's -- Filmation and NBC to rehire Takei and Nichelle Nichols to reprise their roles from the live action series. Mr. Takei had nothing but praise for Leonard Nimoy because he was the only actor who had the gumption and clout to do so. Takei called him a class act. Unfortunately, the presentation was not recorded by the conference, and the audience were cautioned against recording it. (I'm sure some did despite the caution, but I have not seen any excerpts or the presentation in its entirety.)
I've watched Star Trek my entire life - TNG started when I was 4 and I know I was sitting in front of the tv with my brother watching TOS before that, and last year I finished a FULL rewatch of every episode and movie which included a first watch of the animated series. I was pleasantly surprised how much I enjoyed it. Great episode Steve.
I've read that Shatner recorded some of his lines in the bathroom of his motel room for STA. He was on location filming Big Bad Mama with Angie Dickinson.😁
Some of the planets from Star Trek and He-Man... as far as I can tell-- originated with Filmation's Green Lantern show from the 1960s. But they might go back even further.
That makes sense. The TAS episode where Kirk and Spock were covertly operated on so that they could only live underwater used recycled Aquaman cels when they "swam" in the alien ocean.
I noticed in when my Bad Movie Club did a 'Bad Saturday Morning Cartoon' night. It included Filmation DC Heroes (The Atom, Flash and Green Lantern) and one of the bad episodes of Star Trek.... the fish episode. I would have noticed the Aquaman thing had we gotten to those.
I saw them as first runs in the early-mid 70s. Also loved those weird old Trek toy ads for the subliminal "Star Trek" being chanted by a droning voice in the background, barely audible but you can pick it up if you listen carefully. Some guy got a pay check for saying "Starrr Trek".
That series meant a lot to me. My little 9 year old self got to see it in original broadcast Saturday mornings. The novelizations by D.C. Fontana and Alan Dean Foster ( who also wrote TMP novelization) kept me company that summer on a cross Canada road trip. Good times.
Steve, you don't care about canon? You used the Ensign's Log podcast to come up with a backstory for Armus, the gelatinous being of "pure evil" that killed Tasha Yar.
Sad Fact: the ONLY reason the Caitian we see in Star Trek III wasn't explicitly made M'ress is that Paramount didn't want to have to pay D.C. Fontana a royalty.
Filmation was part of of my childhood and some of my favorite cartoons ever, especially Star Trek TAS. I hadn't known of franchise legalities and all way back then, so I kept hoping for what now would be called a Filmation shared universe; I was waiting each week (fingers crossed) for Thanagar or a GL to show up, or at least some shrinking scheme based on either Ray Palmer's White Dwarf tech or Fantastic Voyage's. I especially thought maybe a nod to TAS might happen when Stretch and Micro-Woman met mirror universe evil doubles.
If you are interested, there was a comic book cross over between Star Trek (2009) and Green Lantern. Somehow, seven power rings (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet) and the representatives of their corps (including Hal Jordan, Sinestro, and Atrocitus) end up in the Star Trek Universe. The rings seek out new ring bearers, which includes some familiar faces.
The only Trek show I owned was DS9. The reason for it is amusing, my wife wanted to buy me Star Trek TNG but she is ignorant of All Star Trek related things so she bought me DS9 which I had never seen before. It was one of the happiest mistakes I have ever had.
I love TAS. For years I thought I had dreamed the show with a feline officer (M'ress) and belt controlled force-field like environmental suit things, because it was nearly impossible to find.
@@peterjf7723 Well, Frank DOES ante-date ST:TAS, stipulated. I didn't pick up _Dune_ until years later ... and it was years after that that I was able to sort out just WTF he was on about! [chuckle!]
The animated series actually introduced me to Star Trek, As I was born in '69 I remember watching TAS in the 70s and soon after I started watching TOS. So it will always have a special place in my heart.
Up to now I had not given any thought to the animated series, even though I have been a die hard trekker since 1968. You have convinced me to reconsider. Thanks, Steve. Live long, and prosper.
I remember those episodes when they were new. It was absolutely awesome to have new Trek to watch. Also if you can fine the Allan Dean Foster written Log Book's 1 -10, novelizations of TAS episodes. The story's are greatly expanded upon.
Dude, I was the same way. I was into He-Man so wtf wouldn’t I be into She-Ra? I had all the figures as well. I still have battle cat around here somewhere!
I am one of those who care some for canon, and have long regarded TAS as absolutely canon. Which has some startling consequences, such the existence of the Kzinti and the Slavers!
I like to think that episodes like Yesteryear fit nicely into the established TOS timeline rather than after. It works very well as a direct follow up to City on the edge of Forever, rather than the ship leaving right after they discover this incredible object they stay and study it obviously.
I would love to hear the Ensign's log cover TAS, it would give me more of reason to sit down and actually digest TAS and comb through it with a fine toothed comb. Your log is what pushed me to sit back and watch TOS and actually appreciate it more
You could just pick and choose a couple of the STtAS episodes? You two could have a lot of fun with Kid's Pattion" if the two were to get hold of some of the love potion.
I greatly appreciated your first look at animated Trek--I’m sure there will be more, both for TAS and the modern shows. I was born six weeks before TOS first aired on NBC, but did get hooked on it before TAS came out, when I was seven. Between the high quality of the program in telling Star Trek stories and their novelizations, I became very much a hardcore fan (and apologist, lol). People complaint about the production values of both TOS and TAS, but they were very high for their time. TAS was made in an era when all the networks had reduced what they paid for cartoons across the board, so the whole animated industry suffered-even theatrical films got hit in the Seventies. Filmation’s shortcuts never bothered me as I got older; it’s just like how you feel about canon. Canon is important to me as a framework for consistent storytelling, but storytelling comes first. Even Hanna Barbera’s quality dropped in this era, and they made tons of Scooby Doo clones with teen sleuths and a mascot. On the other hand, Filmation made a highly regarded Tarzan series (some fans think it’s the best incarnation of Tarzan), a good Zorro series, a Flash Gordon show regarded as some of the 70s all-time best sf, and three awesome Saturday morning live-action sf series. Ideal topics for a future video would be looking at canon appearances of Klingons Kor and Koloth,, Cyrano Jones, and Harry Mudd. Also, I think that the way Lower Decks looks back to earlier live-action series and TAS itself is reflected in how TAS looked back to TOS episodes (the aforementioned named Klingons, Tribbles, Cyrano Jones and Harry Mudd). I loved the (limited) amount of music from this show. The way it was recorded gave it a special 70s-esque quality. It has always stuck with and it’s my favorite music in the whole franchise, ahead of TOS, and the TOS and reboot films. Another idea for video topics: giant creatures in Star Trek. For a long-time I didn’t think Star Trek really had any equivalent to Japan’s kaiju, but I could easily think of some in Star Wars. Then I began thinking that Trek does have them--the Space Amoeba and the Doomsday Machine and the Obsession vampire cloud in TOS, the planet-eating cloud in TAS, Galaxy’s Child in TNG… And for those who complain about how many sequel episodes are in TOS, TNG had a lot of them too, and Wrath of Khan is also a sequel story ad well as Trials and Tribble-actions. Maybe you can explore this topic.
Actually, James Doohan and Majel Barett voiced a lot of the supporting roles on the show. Majel voiced Shiboline M'Ret for instance, and James voiced among others Robert April and also Walkingbear.
In regards to Filmation, Hanna-Barbera was kind of the same way. Of course they had some great shows in the 1960s, like The Flintstones, Jonny Quest, Herculoids, The Banana Splits, and Scooby-Doo, and I personally think they had the best background music when they hired Ted Nichols, but yet they also abused the hell of what is now called "limited animation", repeating certain frames in motion, and not to mention employing a very crude laugh track on their 1970's content. And of course, by the 1970s, they were mostly recycling the same Scooby-Doo formula throughout, not giving much thought to producing anything original except for the late 1970s Godzilla series or Super Friends. But there were some really good animation studios out there in the 1970s that could produce really good content, such as Peanuts, and Schoolhouse Rock, and Ralph Bakshi. There were some good stuff out there you just had to do your research.
I was in high school when the Animated Series came out. It was the first time "Tiberious" was used as Kirk's middle name. Tribbles were pink due to a coloration error. James Doohan did a lot of voice work in the Animated Series as he did in TOS. He voiced Lt. Arex. There was one episode without Kirk.
I haven't see all of TAS but I'm slowly making my way through it. It's such an odd mix of Scooby-Doo level animation and SUPRISINGLY mature scripts. Also, listen for Shatner's pronunciation of "sabotage"
Like TOS, the animated series hired well-known sci fi authors. Larry Niven, author of Ringworld and other classics, adapted one of his short stories and wrote the script for ep 14, "The Slaver Weapon", which featured the Kzinti, one of the species in the Niven universe.
As a life long fan of the classic Chuck Jones and Tex Avery cartoons, I found the animation in TAS unbearable. However, if you close your eyes and pretend TAS is a radio drama, then it’s actually very good.
Maybe I am the only one, but when I think Star Trek: The Animated Series, THIS is the only thing I can think of: ruclips.net/video/qAXW4CktofY/видео.html
18:36 I keep thinking, if they are going foward with Kelvin Timeline, and since Anton yelchin died... the only way around this is saying Checkov went to Reliant to become first officer (since Kahn won´t show up this time) and put Arex on...
I used to watch a show when it first aired back in the 1970s I was about five years old then. When you keep saying the animation qualities not that great that might be true but you have to remember when you watch the show back when we did your television was probably about 13 in and resolution was pretty crappy so it really didn't make any bit of difference because of televisions couldn't make a better picture. I still watch episodes I have them on Blu-ray
Filmation did toons like he man and She-ra back in the 80's 😆 had same background music too. I started noticing Alot of similar images and sounds. You lucky you got to see in theaters. Not Dolls they was action figures..right next to our Thundercats figure 😆
Steve... Something tells me that Walter wrote the episode "Infinite Vulcan" as a basic Fu** You to Leonard for getting too big. It has been a while since I've seen the episode but I'm sure if you re-watch it and look for them, you'll fine other slaps at a few other actors as well.
I once heard somewhere that TAS was the equivalent of a Mercedes at a soapbox car race. Given the quality of the writing for it, I second that opinion! 😌🖖
I love TAS, and Still watch it now and then on Netflix UK, and why is everyone so down on Filmation, they have the most brilliant backgrounds, where alot of shows are just static colours, I think the Spock Time travel episode was the first TAS i ever saw, and why didnt they use those force field belts in the live action shows,
Filmation was the reason a certain cartoon was called The Real Ghostbusters instead of just Ghostbusters, because FIlmation refused to let go of the name and thought they could capitalize on the movie's success, so the name was changed to 1. get the actual cartoon on the air and 2. Throw some shade at Filmation.
The real question is: "Will ensign Riker and ensign Barkley be doing their secret podcast during the events of the animated series like they are during the Original series?"
well i saw a comment and a no but it might change here's his comment: Steve Shives 2 days ago We've gone back and forth on it. I think at present the plan is not to cover it, but that could change. I'd like to try to do something with it.
I count TAS in my canon runs that I've done since the 50th anniversary. I find it that if you start at The Cage, watch Dsc, then TOS and TAS it creates a completes the story by the time you get to Motion Picture. I also find it's a more fitting end for Kirk than Turnabout Intruder ever was
I could never get into classic trek or the animated show, but as far as cannon I always figured Star Trek TAS could have been a show within the universe.
The 1st time I ever heard of Star Trek: The Animated Series was in Honolulu transit lounge on my 1st holiday to the west coast of USA at some earlier hour in the morning many many years ago and ot tool me almost 3 years to get the dvd set which I don't have anymore
Will you guys include TAS missions in The Ensigns Log? Also I hope you look into the fan series Star Trek Continues. Yeah its fan made but its great and deserves a look
Great video, Steve. Nice to see The Animated Series getting some love and respect. TAS premiered when I was 6. I clearly remember watching "More Tribbles, More Troubles" and just adoring everything about it. The cheap animation didn't bother me; my imagination filled in the gaps and snazzed things up. TAS was my intro not just to Trek, but to science-fiction in general--particularly the episode "Yesteryear", which was mind-bending enough for 6-year-old me that it induced a lifelong fascination with time-travel stories. Because of TAS, I knew a David Gerrold novel when I saw one ("The Man Who Folded Himself"), and so I discovered one of the greatest time-travel tales ever put to paper. The Caitian character led me to Larry Niven's Kzinti; Niven led me to Clarke; Clarke led me to Heinlein; Heinlein led me to Asimov...you get the idea. But it ALL STARTED thanks to this "silly cartoon". More important than any of that, however, is the way TAS also introduced 6-year-old me to the ideas of equity, diversity, equality, morality, and IDIC--heady topics for a kid, but which helped form my core values as an adult. That alone would be a priceless contribution to any child's life, and I am eternally grateful for it. And on top of everything else, Lt Arex was simply cool as hell. 🖖
I don't think that's so -- I think they are simply mutual symptoms with the same underlying cause: writers who don't really get it and don't really care about it (Star Trek) in general, or only care about their own narrowed vision of it. It's why DS9 works better than Voyager for anyone who was introduced to Star Trek before Voyager: even with it's most-substantial pre-DIS tonal shift, the writers and producers (Behr in particular) really cared about what Star Trek had set up previously (themes as much or more than canon and technical consistency.)
@@jaimemurphy2208 I think the OP was referring to the hiatus between the end of Enterprise and the 2009 start of the Kelvinverse ST movies. Manny Coto tried his best to save Enterprise in the last season, but Paramount, Berman, and Braga had done too much WTF stuff with the franchise with Voyager, ST: Nemesis, and the first three seasons of Enterprise.
I wonder if in some parallel universe this became so incredibly successful that it became the dominant form of the franchise. Imagine what that would be like.
FINALLY! Someone gives some love to the animated series! I watched Trek from the very beginning (I was born in 1961), loved it all, but especially the cartoon. Yeah, I knew the animation was basic, but I didn't care; IT WAS MORE STAR TREK! The writing was indeed top-notch, the main originals were back, we had some interesting new characters that, as you say, were not possible for the live-action series; we had James Doohan and Nichelle Nichols doing lots of the voices, and as far as I was concerned it was canon. The novelizations by James Blish are wonderful as they fill in some gaps and answer some questions that came up because of the restrictions of that half-hour time period. I'm glad you're exposing more people to the awareness of this show that I consider to be a gift to the fans who wouldn't give up, and a tantalizing taste of what else could be in the trekverse.
Star Trek: TAS surprisingly became one of my favorite Star Trek series, even more so than TOS. The fact that there's really no limits with animation allows the show to be freely imaginative and fully creative. I really hope that The Ensigns' Log Podcast continues on into TAS.
There's Discovery links on the Animated Series as well as specially when Burnham speaks about her mother reading Alice in Wonderland that only occurs in the Animated Series and there's the showing of Captain Robert April in the animated in discovery
It was a good show. I like the Larry Niven episode, and not just because it brought the Kzin, and not because Niven was one of my favorite hard sci-fi authors, but also because the dialogue was so good. "The lean, bedraggled one is a telepath, a reader of minds." "Chuft-Captain, he is too ALIEN! He makes me taste green leaves munched between flat teeth!" "If we fail, the highest of Kzin will RE-PU-DI-ATE us!!!!" (Not a great line, but so well delivered.)
Every time I've watched/listened to the animated series it always struck me how much it sounds and is written like a semi-hammy radio show. It works completely fine just listening, kinda cool I think. Due to Larry Niven's role in a few episodes it will always hold a place in my heart. Uhura, Spock, and Sulu vs. Kzinti is just an amazing thing. Leaves the idea/option open for the Enterprise to have found Ring World. And Life Support Belts!!
I always figured they were the biggest obstacle to declaring TAS canon, though, since there would have to be some sort of explanation of why the Federation stopped using them quite shortly after the TAS era and was using fairly conventional spacesuits as late as Voyager.
Several things I've noticed re: TAS: The SAME score music riff is used MULTIPLE times in EVERY episode! The pace of the dialog is even SLOWER than ST-TOS!
I never saw that many He-Man episodes, it was opposite another series I liked more - I saw many, many more She-Ra episodes, as it came on at 11:30, which most stations had switched to live action TV...
The animated series is considered among the best series produced by Filmation, though the initial proposal for the series wasn't anything like what we saw on the screen. The initial proposal for the series wouldn't have starred the ST:TOS characters, but rather they would have been "kiddie" versions of the characters. There would have been kids on board the Enterprise, in Starfleet uniforms, and the series would have been about these kids, with brief cameos by the ST:TOS crew. Fortunately Gene Roddenberry rejected this propsosal in favor of the series we saw and came to love.
This is amazing, I literally just watched TAS for the first time ever and was going to suggest you did a video on this, and here it is! Steve, you're a dude.
My favorite episode was "Yesteryear" in which Spock travels backwards in time to save his younger self. Young Spock faced his "Old Yeller" moment. I still remember and love that story.
Steve, I rewatched Take Me Out To The Holosuite for the first time in ages today and it finally dawned on me where your hat is from. I knew it was DS9 related but didn't know how. I still won't be rewatching TAS anytime soon!
I loved the animated series! Forever the "kid", I watched Transformers (a great "what if" series), He-Man, She-Ra and Thundercats with my then, preschool son. On a side note, in response to "The Beatles" animated series, which I also watched, Hanna-Barbera had a possible animated series in the rock group genera which would have featured my favorite singing group, Paul Revere & the Raiders. It however wasn't picked up and the only trace is the album cover "Goin' To Memphis". Just so you know--
Leonard Nimoy standing up for Nichelle and George made my heart swell. What a class act.
I LOVE the animated series. It always annoyed me when it wasn't considered canon. We first learned of Kirk's middle name in that series. And Yesteryear is a masterpiece. I mean, come on. They cashed the check, so it's canon.
I guess I'm something of a canon nazi. (trademark Kevin Thomas) The animated series is definitely canon and the events of Spock's childhood directly informed the 2009 movie!
Ok but that means there is a gigantic clone of Spock called Spock Two out there in the galaxy somewhere.
Holy shit. Now we have a legit argument for the He-Man Universe to be the Trek Universe! Given that his mother, Marlena, was a stranded astronaut from Earth, It works out even better!
....so now we know what happened to Marlena in the Prime universe where she wasn't evil Kirk's mistress on the Enterprise?
@@GeekFilter I watched this! Pretty great! They DO have a lot in common.
If you read DC comics, Marlena is from the Injustice universe. They did a whole crossover series about it.
Problem his in spite of star trek's "science fiction" it's never the less science while magic exists in He-man. It would be just like saying the flintstones,addams family,batman,and laurel and hardy are in the same universe because thay all met scooby doo
@@GrosvnerMcaffrey When magic works, as it does in He-Man, the science/magic divide becomes a false dichotomy. This is largely because "Any sufficiently advanced science is indistinguishable from magic." The other part of magic is spiritism - appeals to non-physical creatures (people) who have far more power than humans. I don't know if He-Man magic includes spiritism, but from Apollo to Q, Star Trek absolutely embraces the concept of non-physical people who have far more power than humans.
Speaking of the voice cast - no pun intended - James Doohan and Nichelle Nichols often played multiple supporting characters in TAS episodes. Doohan in particular was a really versatile voice actor with a talent for accents. TAS gave him an opportunity to really show that off.
it was also where we learned Tiberius was kirk's middle name.
Larry Niven wrote "The Slaver Weapon" episode of TAS which adds the Kzinti to the Star Trek universe!
Little did I know, but that was my first introduction to Ringworld.
I'll never forget the skittish Kzin telepath forced to read the mind of a ...shudders...vegetarian!
On the gendered toy thing.... I thought that was pretty normal. Kids don't care. All me and my male cousins cared about was owning all the toys of any show we liked. Owning as much of the She-Ra and He-Man line as we could convince our parents to buy was a thing because we liked the show (s) and all of their related characters. I actually don't remember my male cousins even caring about playing with She-Ra figures. As they were a part of the He-man universe.
_Star Trek: The Animated Series_ was the first telltale that indicated that ST:TOS had gotten some real, genuine traction with its audience. That plus the popularity of the series once it went into syndication was a harbinger of Treks to come. A damned good thing, IMHO.
The best part of TAS for me: getting to see Spock's childhood pet sehlat, the "live teddy bear with 6 inch fangs"! "Yesteryear" remains one of my favorite episodes of any Trek series.
Poor I-Chya. What a tearjerker.
I agree. A really well written episode.
That ep. was right in the feels 😢
The wide overlooking landscape of Spock’s home village shown in Yesteryear was recreated in the remastered Amok Time.
The thing I love about TAS is the fact the director was color blind and didn't know it, so that's why you ended up with Kilrathi wearing pink space suits and flying around in a pink space ship, and the Klingons had purple and pink armor, and we had pink tribbles too! Oh, and then there was the one episode where it's Star Trek V, but instead of meeting evil glowy god and land on the sun, Satan shows up and Sulu makes a woman. OH MY!
Pink all over because the director was color blind, so the color editor had free reign - and really went nuts.
Gene Roddenberry said the animated series only came out because he wanted to finish the Five year mission of the Enterprise. That is why it only ran 2 years. The original show ran 3 years and 2 year were left on the five year mission so 2 more years were done in the animated series.
You didn't mention James Doohan. He voiced several characters including Lt. Arex
He mentions him only once near the end of the episode
You forgot to mention Larry Niven's short story adaption in the episode "The Slaver Weapon". It freaked me out to see Kzinti in the Star Trek universe.
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Star Trek: The Animated Series is so very underrated and underexposed. This video is just what I wanted and I hope Star Trek: The Animated Series gets it's proper dues. Thanking you from Western Australia.
Ahhh... the animated series
A few years ago my dad and I tried watching it so we could say we had watched all of star trek and my dad couldn't stomach it. I on the other hand made it through and actually thought it was a pretty nice extension of the original series.
Yesteryear is one of the best episodes of Trek, period. Seeing Spock dealing with his mixed heritage as a boy, as well as the roots of his fractured relationship with his father... it's amazing that storytelling of that quality was done for Saturday morning.
I would genuinely love for Arex and M'Ress to make an appearance in any future live action series or movie.
Me, too, especially Arex (if done well).
he does have a cameo in the fan film "phase II"
I would love that. I absolutely adored both of the characters.
@@spam1138 Yup!!
Cheers for my namesake! 🖖😁
Ahh. Steve back to Trek videos. All is right with the world... until I watch the next Facepalm 5... then I’ll be reminded of the crapshow we live in...
Sometimes it helps to be reminded of the crappy so we can really appreciate the good.
You should check out watch mojos top ten petitions list. There is one on there that was directed at the obama administration that was so useless and ridiculously stupid that it would have done better with trump. Lol
They reused plenty of things from TAS in Flash Gordon as well, itself another Filmation production. Lt. M'Res was voiced by Majel Barrett.
I attended the American Library Association Annual Conference in June 2019. George Takei was a speaker. While he talked mostly about his forthcoming book on his childhood experiences in an American internment camp for U.S. citizens of Japanese decent, he did answer four or five questions about Star Trek. One of the stories Mr. Takei recounts is that Leonard Nimoy persuaded -- my term, not Takei's -- Filmation and NBC to rehire Takei and Nichelle Nichols to reprise their roles from the live action series. Mr. Takei had nothing but praise for Leonard Nimoy because he was the only actor who had the gumption and clout to do so. Takei called him a class act.
Unfortunately, the presentation was not recorded by the conference, and the audience were cautioned against recording it. (I'm sure some did despite the caution, but I have not seen any excerpts or the presentation in its entirety.)
I've watched Star Trek my entire life - TNG started when I was 4 and I know I was sitting in front of the tv with my brother watching TOS before that, and last year I finished a FULL rewatch of every episode and movie which included a first watch of the animated series. I was pleasantly surprised how much I enjoyed it. Great episode Steve.
I've read that Shatner recorded some of his lines in the bathroom of his motel room for STA. He was on location filming Big Bad Mama with Angie Dickinson.😁
TAS also imported Larry Niven's Kzin into the Trek verse, through them adapting his short story _Soft Weapon_ into an episode.
I remember that, thought it was a GREAT episode!
Also, fun fact - The Slaver Weapon is the only episode with the classic crew in which Captain Kirk doesn’t appear.
I remember it well.There was also an episode which involved an alien race called the Hydrans!Which episode was that?
Some of the planets from Star Trek and He-Man... as far as I can tell-- originated with Filmation's Green Lantern show from the 1960s. But they might go back even further.
That makes sense. The TAS episode where Kirk and Spock were covertly operated on so that they could only live underwater used recycled Aquaman cels when they "swam" in the alien ocean.
I noticed in when my Bad Movie Club did a 'Bad Saturday Morning Cartoon' night. It included Filmation DC Heroes (The Atom, Flash and Green Lantern) and one of the bad episodes of Star Trek.... the fish episode. I would have noticed the Aquaman thing had we gotten to those.
TAS is bar none the best of the Star Trek series to watch while stoned. It's almost necessary, in fact.
I saw them as first runs in the early-mid 70s. Also loved those weird old Trek toy ads for the subliminal "Star Trek" being chanted by a droning voice in the background, barely audible but you can pick it up if you listen carefully. Some guy got a pay check for saying "Starrr Trek".
I get the feeling the art style of _Archer_ was influenced by that of _Star Trek: The Animated Series._
I think it's more that Filmation infuenced the art style of "Archer".
That series meant a lot to me. My little 9 year old self got to see it in original broadcast Saturday mornings. The novelizations by D.C. Fontana and Alan Dean Foster ( who also wrote TMP novelization) kept me company that summer on a cross Canada road trip. Good times.
Steve, you don't care about canon? You used the Ensign's Log podcast to come up with a backstory for Armus, the gelatinous being of "pure evil" that killed Tasha Yar.
I think it's more that he doesn't care about "plot holes" / conflicts in canon.
Sad Fact: the ONLY reason the Caitian we see in Star Trek III wasn't explicitly made M'ress is that Paramount didn't want to have to pay D.C. Fontana a royalty.
@@dashfatbastard The feline alien race from the planet Cait in Star Trek.
Are you sure you're not thinking of the Paradise City Bar scene on Nimbus 3 in Star Trek 5?
DC Fontana got some great stuff into the series, and was severely under-appreciated.
That's the same reason Tom Paris is not Nick Locarno from TNG! Except it's a different writer!
@@brianfox771 It might have been five but I was pretty sure it was Star Trek III.
Steve, you should do some Star Trek book reviews! I'm curious what you have to say about the book Dreadnought! and it's right wing views.
Dreadnought! and Battlestations! have not aged well.
Filmation was part of of my childhood and some of my favorite cartoons ever, especially Star Trek TAS. I hadn't known of franchise legalities and all way back then, so I kept hoping for what now would be called a Filmation shared universe; I was waiting each week (fingers crossed) for Thanagar or a GL to show up, or at least some shrinking scheme based on either Ray Palmer's White Dwarf tech or Fantastic Voyage's. I especially thought maybe a nod to TAS might happen when Stretch and Micro-Woman met mirror universe evil doubles.
If you are interested, there was a comic book cross over between Star Trek (2009) and Green Lantern. Somehow, seven power rings (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet) and the representatives of their corps (including Hal Jordan, Sinestro, and Atrocitus) end up in the Star Trek Universe. The rings seek out new ring bearers, which includes some familiar faces.
The only Trek show I owned was DS9. The reason for it is amusing, my wife wanted to buy me Star Trek TNG but she is ignorant of All Star Trek related things so she bought me DS9 which I had never seen before. It was one of the happiest mistakes I have ever had.
He did a podcast in the ‘70s? He was way ahead of his time. 🧐
Available on 8-track and cassette.
@@CommanderZoom Back when Squarespace designed posters and direct mail.
I love TAS. For years I thought I had dreamed the show with a feline officer (M'ress) and belt controlled force-field like environmental suit things, because it was nearly impossible to find.
"Clutch Cargo"
Thanks, Steve. Now I won't be sleeping for months. Thanks for reminding me of that!
FaeQueenCory Clutch Cargo was the world's worst collective fever dream.
In the '60s, my mother used to compare Nixon's State of the Union addresses to Clutch Cargo cartoons. Seriously!
Interesting tidbit: _Star Trek: The Animated Series_ is *THE FIRST PLACE* where I heard a word which is very timely in this day and age:
_Jihad_
You're not the only one, there, mate.
That's right! Good point!
Interesting, I first came across the word Jihad in Frank Herbert's Dune.
'Jihad' always makes me think of fanatical warrior bird-people.
@@peterjf7723 Well, Frank DOES ante-date ST:TAS, stipulated. I didn't pick up _Dune_ until years later ... and it was years after that that I was able to sort out just WTF he was on about! [chuckle!]
The animated series actually introduced me to Star Trek, As I was born in '69 I remember watching TAS in the 70s and soon after I started watching TOS. So it will always have a special place in my heart.
Up to now I had not given any thought to the animated series, even though I have been a die hard trekker since 1968. You have convinced me to reconsider.
Thanks, Steve.
Live long, and prosper.
The animated series is still on Canadian Netflix! I’m going to check it out!
If you have it All Trek including Short Treks are on Crave
I remember those episodes when they were new. It was absolutely awesome to have new Trek to watch.
Also if you can fine the Allan Dean Foster written Log Book's 1 -10, novelizations of TAS episodes. The story's are greatly expanded upon.
Dude, I was the same way. I was into He-Man so wtf wouldn’t I be into She-Ra? I had all the figures as well. I still have battle cat around here somewhere!
I Love Trek Actually! Thank you so much Steve!
I am one of those who care some for canon, and have long regarded TAS as absolutely canon. Which has some startling consequences, such the existence of the Kzinti and the Slavers!
Memory Alpha treats them as canon.
Rather interestingly the Caitians are to the Kzinti as the Vulcans are to the Romulans.
I like to think that episodes like Yesteryear fit nicely into the established TOS timeline rather than after. It works very well as a direct follow up to City on the edge of Forever, rather than the ship leaving right after they discover this incredible object they stay and study it obviously.
Will the Ensign's Log cover the Animated Series?
We've gone back and forth on it. I think at present the plan is not to cover it, but that could change. I'd like to try to do something with it.
I would love to hear the Ensign's log cover TAS, it would give me more of reason to sit down and actually digest TAS and comb through it with a fine toothed comb. Your log is what pushed me to sit back and watch TOS and actually appreciate it more
You could just pick and choose a couple of the STtAS episodes?
You two could have a lot of fun with Kid's Pattion" if the two were to get hold of some of the love potion.
Dam autocorrect 😡 Kid's = Mud's.
I greatly appreciated your first look at animated Trek--I’m sure there will be more, both for TAS and the modern shows.
I was born six weeks before TOS first aired on NBC, but did get hooked on it before TAS came out, when I was seven. Between the high quality of the program in telling Star Trek stories and their novelizations, I became very much a hardcore fan (and apologist, lol).
People complaint about the production values of both TOS and TAS, but they were very high for their time. TAS was made in an era when all the networks had reduced what they paid for cartoons across the board, so the whole animated industry suffered-even theatrical films got hit in the Seventies. Filmation’s shortcuts never bothered me as I got older; it’s just like how you feel about canon. Canon is important to me as a framework for consistent storytelling, but storytelling comes first. Even Hanna Barbera’s quality dropped in this era, and they made tons of Scooby Doo clones with teen sleuths and a mascot. On the other hand, Filmation made a highly regarded Tarzan series (some fans think it’s the best incarnation of Tarzan), a good Zorro series, a Flash Gordon show regarded as some of the 70s all-time best sf, and three awesome Saturday morning live-action sf series.
Ideal topics for a future video would be looking at canon appearances of Klingons Kor and Koloth,, Cyrano Jones, and Harry Mudd. Also, I think that the way Lower Decks looks back to earlier live-action series and TAS itself is reflected in how TAS looked back to TOS episodes (the aforementioned named Klingons, Tribbles, Cyrano Jones and Harry Mudd).
I loved the (limited) amount of music from this show. The way it was recorded gave it a special 70s-esque quality. It has always stuck with and it’s my favorite music in the whole franchise, ahead of TOS, and the TOS and reboot films.
Another idea for video topics: giant creatures in Star Trek. For a long-time I didn’t think Star Trek really had any equivalent to Japan’s kaiju, but I could easily think of some in Star Wars. Then I began thinking that Trek does have them--the Space Amoeba and the Doomsday Machine and the Obsession vampire cloud in TOS, the planet-eating cloud in TAS, Galaxy’s Child in TNG…
And for those who complain about how many sequel episodes are in TOS, TNG had a lot of them too, and Wrath of Khan is also a sequel story ad well as Trials and Tribble-actions. Maybe you can explore this topic.
The villains for the She-ra toys came out for boys in the He-man toys. I had those.
Actually, James Doohan and Majel Barett voiced a lot of the supporting roles on the show. Majel voiced Shiboline M'Ret for instance, and James voiced among others Robert April and also Walkingbear.
In regards to Filmation, Hanna-Barbera was kind of the same way. Of course they had some great shows in the 1960s, like The Flintstones, Jonny Quest, Herculoids, The Banana Splits, and Scooby-Doo, and I personally think they had the best background music when they hired Ted Nichols, but yet they also abused the hell of what is now called "limited animation", repeating certain frames in motion, and not to mention employing a very crude laugh track on their 1970's content. And of course, by the 1970s, they were mostly recycling the same Scooby-Doo formula throughout, not giving much thought to producing anything original except for the late 1970s Godzilla series or Super Friends. But there were some really good animation studios out there in the 1970s that could produce really good content, such as Peanuts, and Schoolhouse Rock, and Ralph Bakshi. There were some good stuff out there you just had to do your research.
I was in high school when the Animated Series came out.
It was the first time "Tiberious" was used as Kirk's middle name.
Tribbles were pink due to a coloration error.
James Doohan did a lot of voice work in the Animated Series as he did in TOS. He voiced Lt. Arex.
There was one episode without Kirk.
The walking plant that bites Sulu is, The Retlaw Plant, Walter backwards🖖
It injected him with some ... alien dew drop!
I haven't see all of TAS but I'm slowly making my way through it. It's such an odd mix of Scooby-Doo level animation and SUPRISINGLY mature scripts. Also, listen for Shatner's pronunciation of "sabotage"
Like TOS, the animated series hired well-known sci fi authors. Larry Niven, author of Ringworld and other classics, adapted one of his short stories and wrote the script for ep 14, "The Slaver Weapon", which featured the Kzinti, one of the species in the Niven universe.
This cartoon is a treasure for He-man fans
As a life long fan of the classic Chuck Jones and Tex Avery cartoons, I found the animation in TAS unbearable. However, if you close your eyes and pretend TAS is a radio drama, then it’s actually very good.
Maybe I am the only one, but when I think Star Trek: The Animated Series, THIS is the only thing I can think of: ruclips.net/video/qAXW4CktofY/видео.html
My favorite season of Star Trek, the original series is the fourth season. That's Right i'm talking about the Animated serie!!!
I remember Saturday mornings when first aired. Love the soundtrack to ST: The Animated Series.
18:36 I keep thinking, if they are going foward with Kelvin Timeline, and since Anton yelchin died... the only way around this is saying Checkov went to Reliant to become first officer (since Kahn won´t show up this time) and put Arex on...
I used to watch a show when it first aired back in the 1970s I was about five years old then. When you keep saying the animation qualities not that great that might be true but you have to remember when you watch the show back when we did your television was probably about 13 in and resolution was pretty crappy so it really didn't make any bit of difference because of televisions couldn't make a better picture. I still watch episodes I have them on Blu-ray
Filmation did toons like he man and She-ra back in the 80's 😆 had same background music too. I started noticing Alot of similar images and sounds. You lucky you got to see in theaters.
Not Dolls they was action figures..right next to our Thundercats figure 😆
In defense of Filmation. They kept their animation in the U.S.. And gave alot of American Animators work.
Steve...
Something tells me that Walter wrote the episode "Infinite Vulcan" as a basic Fu** You to Leonard for getting too big.
It has been a while since I've seen the episode but I'm sure if you re-watch it and look for them, you'll fine other slaps at a few other actors as well.
I once heard somewhere that TAS was the equivalent of a Mercedes at a soapbox car race. Given the quality of the writing for it, I second that opinion! 😌🖖
I love TAS, and Still watch it now and then on Netflix UK, and why is everyone so down on Filmation, they have the most brilliant backgrounds, where alot of shows are just static colours, I think the Spock Time travel episode was the first TAS i ever saw, and why didnt they use those force field belts in the live action shows,
Filmation was the reason a certain cartoon was called The Real Ghostbusters instead of just Ghostbusters, because FIlmation refused to let go of the name and thought they could capitalize on the movie's success, so the name was changed to 1. get the actual cartoon on the air and 2. Throw some shade at Filmation.
The real question is: "Will ensign Riker and ensign Barkley be doing their secret podcast during the events of the animated series like they are during the Original series?"
well i saw a comment and a no but it might change
here's his comment:
Steve Shives
2 days ago
We've gone back and forth on it. I think at present the plan is not to cover it, but that could change. I'd like to try to do something with it.
BTW, the tribbles were pink in TAS because one of the artists was colorblind.
damn right about she-ra, pretty much all my friends growing up played and watched she-ra cause it was part of he-man as far everyone was concerned.
I count TAS in my canon runs that I've done since the 50th anniversary. I find it that if you start at The Cage, watch Dsc, then TOS and TAS it creates a completes the story by the time you get to Motion Picture. I also find it's a more fitting end for Kirk than Turnabout Intruder ever was
I could never get into classic trek or the animated show, but as far as cannon I always figured Star Trek TAS could have been a show within the universe.
The 1st time I ever heard of Star Trek: The Animated Series was in Honolulu transit lounge on my 1st holiday to the west coast of USA at some earlier hour in the morning many many years ago and ot tool me almost 3 years to get the dvd set which I don't have anymore
Will you guys include TAS missions in The Ensigns Log?
Also I hope you look into the fan series Star Trek Continues. Yeah its fan made but its great and deserves a look
Great video, Steve. Nice to see The Animated Series getting some love and respect. TAS premiered when I was 6. I clearly remember watching "More Tribbles, More Troubles" and just adoring everything about it. The cheap animation didn't bother me; my imagination filled in the gaps and snazzed things up. TAS was my intro not just to Trek, but to science-fiction in general--particularly the episode "Yesteryear", which was mind-bending enough for 6-year-old me that it induced a lifelong fascination with time-travel stories. Because of TAS, I knew a David Gerrold novel when I saw one ("The Man Who Folded Himself"), and so I discovered one of the greatest time-travel tales ever put to paper. The Caitian character led me to Larry Niven's Kzinti; Niven led me to Clarke; Clarke led me to Heinlein; Heinlein led me to Asimov...you get the idea. But it ALL STARTED thanks to this "silly cartoon". More important than any of that, however, is the way TAS also introduced 6-year-old me to the ideas of equity, diversity, equality, morality, and IDIC--heady topics for a kid, but which helped form my core values as an adult. That alone would be a priceless contribution to any child's life, and I am eternally grateful for it. And on top of everything else, Lt Arex was simply cool as hell. 🖖
Not caring about cannon and continuity is one of the big reasons the franchise tanked and died between the start of Voyager and the end of Enterprise.
I don't think that's so -- I think they are simply mutual symptoms with the same underlying cause: writers who don't really get it and don't really care about it (Star Trek) in general, or only care about their own narrowed vision of it. It's why DS9 works better than Voyager for anyone who was introduced to Star Trek before Voyager: even with it's most-substantial pre-DIS tonal shift, the writers and producers (Behr in particular) really cared about what Star Trek had set up previously (themes as much or more than canon and technical consistency.)
@@jaimemurphy2208 I think the OP was referring to the hiatus between the end of Enterprise and the 2009 start of the Kelvinverse ST movies. Manny Coto tried his best to save Enterprise in the last season, but Paramount, Berman, and Braga had done too much WTF stuff with the franchise with Voyager, ST: Nemesis, and the first three seasons of Enterprise.
I wonder if in some parallel universe this became so incredibly successful that it became the dominant form of the franchise. Imagine what that would be like.
James Doohan should have won an Emmy for Star Trek TAS.
FINALLY! Someone gives some love to the animated series! I watched Trek from the very beginning (I was born in 1961), loved it all, but especially the cartoon. Yeah, I knew the animation was basic, but I didn't care; IT WAS MORE STAR TREK! The writing was indeed top-notch, the main originals were back, we had some interesting new characters that, as you say, were not possible for the live-action series; we had James Doohan and Nichelle Nichols doing lots of the voices, and as far as I was concerned it was canon. The novelizations by James Blish are wonderful as they fill in some gaps and answer some questions that came up because of the restrictions of that half-hour time period. I'm glad you're exposing more people to the awareness of this show that I consider to be a gift to the fans who wouldn't give up, and a tantalizing taste of what else could be in the trekverse.
Are you a fan of the new Netflix She-Ra series? There's one episode in Season 2 that is a huge shoutout to the classic She-Ra series.
Star Trek: TAS surprisingly became one of my favorite Star Trek series, even more so than TOS.
The fact that there's really no limits with animation allows the show to be freely imaginative and fully creative.
I really hope that The Ensigns' Log Podcast continues on into TAS.
There's Discovery links on the Animated Series as well as specially when Burnham speaks about her mother reading Alice in Wonderland that only occurs in the Animated Series and there's the showing of Captain Robert April in the animated in discovery
It was a good show. I like the Larry Niven episode, and not just because it brought the Kzin, and not because Niven was one of my favorite hard sci-fi authors, but also because the dialogue was so good.
"The lean, bedraggled one is a telepath, a reader of minds."
"Chuft-Captain, he is too ALIEN! He makes me taste green leaves munched between flat teeth!"
"If we fail, the highest of Kzin will RE-PU-DI-ATE us!!!!" (Not a great line, but so well delivered.)
@@irreview Did you copy and paste that off a wiki or something? Oh shit, are you a bot?
The TAS is the show you sit back with a weed vape pen and some popcorn.
The best part of "Yesteryear" is when Spock plays Johnny B. Goode on a Vulcan harp and almost makes out with his mom.
Every time I've watched/listened to the animated series it always struck me how much it sounds and is written like a semi-hammy radio show. It works completely fine just listening, kinda cool I think.
Due to Larry Niven's role in a few episodes it will always hold a place in my heart. Uhura, Spock, and Sulu vs. Kzinti is just an amazing thing. Leaves the idea/option open for the Enterprise to have found Ring World.
And Life Support Belts!!
Those belts are totally cannon. TNG had the Kivas Fajo wear one and Data ran into it!
I always figured they were the biggest obstacle to declaring TAS canon, though, since there would have to be some sort of explanation of why the Federation stopped using them quite shortly after the TAS era and was using fairly conventional spacesuits as late as Voyager.
Several things I've noticed re: TAS:
The SAME score music riff is used MULTIPLE times in EVERY episode!
The pace of the dialog is even SLOWER than ST-TOS!
classic She-Ra, for the win. omg, Steve I frigg'n LOVE you. ❤🧡💛💚💙💜
I never saw that many He-Man episodes, it was opposite another series I liked more - I saw many, many more She-Ra episodes, as it came on at 11:30, which most stations had switched to live action TV...
The animated series is considered among the best series produced by Filmation, though the initial proposal for the series wasn't anything like what we saw on the screen. The initial proposal for the series wouldn't have starred the ST:TOS characters, but rather they would have been "kiddie" versions of the characters. There would have been kids on board the Enterprise, in Starfleet uniforms, and the series would have been about these kids, with brief cameos by the ST:TOS crew. Fortunately Gene Roddenberry rejected this propsosal in favor of the series we saw and came to love.
This is amazing, I literally just watched TAS for the first time ever and was going to suggest you did a video on this, and here it is! Steve, you're a dude.
Great Topic: Gene Roddenberry's the theme Misotheism in Star Trek.
My favorite episode was "Yesteryear" in which Spock travels backwards in time to save his younger self. Young Spock faced his "Old Yeller" moment. I still remember and love that story.
I much enjoyed this version of Trek on Saturday mornings as a kid! In my mind back then they were very close to being the "same" show.
I watch it often on NetFlix.
Steve, I rewatched Take Me Out To The Holosuite for the first time in ages today and it finally dawned on me where your hat is from. I knew it was DS9 related but didn't know how.
I still won't be rewatching TAS anytime soon!
I loved the animated series! Forever the "kid", I watched Transformers (a great "what if" series), He-Man, She-Ra and Thundercats with my then, preschool son. On a side note, in response to "The Beatles" animated series, which I also watched, Hanna-Barbera had a possible animated series in the rock group genera which would have featured my favorite singing group, Paul Revere & the Raiders. It however wasn't picked up and the only trace is the album cover "Goin' To Memphis". Just so you know--