tv tropes star trek the animated series

Star Trek: The Animated Series

Star Trek: The Animated Series , originally and formally titled Star Trek , also known as The Animated Adventures of Gene Roddenberry 's Star Trek and The Cartoon Adventures of Gene Roddenberry's Star Trek , was a continuation of the voyages of the USS Enterprise , previously featured in Star Trek: The Original Series , and showed the fourth and fifth years of its five year voyage.

2.1 Starring the voices of
2.2 Also starring the voices of
3.1 Season 1
3.2 Season 2
4.1 Origins
4.2 The first recordings
4.3 Emmy win
4.4 Questionable canon and reintegration
4.5 Production inconsistencies
5 Proposed CGI reworking
6 Related topics
7.2 Documentary
7.3 Home video formats
8 External links

Summary [ ]

On the television network NBC , 22 episodes of The Animated Series were aired between September 1973 and October 1974 . Reruns continued on NBC through 1975 . The series was produced by the experienced animation house Filmation and the episodes were scripted by professional science fiction and Star Trek writers, including Larry Niven , D.C. Fontana , David Gerrold , and Samuel A. Peeples .

Some of the stories were sequels to episodes from the original series, such as " More Tribbles, More Troubles " (the follow-up to " The Trouble with Tribbles "), " Once Upon a Planet " (a sequel to " Shore Leave "), and " Mudd's Passion " (the follow-up to " Mudd's Women " and " I, Mudd ").

With the exception of Ensign Chekov , all of the regular characters from the original series continued to appear, voiced by the original actors from that series (Chekov was absent to cut down on costs of hiring the voice actors, although Walter Koenig penned an episode of the series, " The Infinite Vulcan "). Dr. McCoy was a full commander, and Nurse Chapel was a full lieutenant . New characters, such as Arex and M'Ress , were also featured. The show was the most expensive animated show on the air at the time, primarily because six "name" actors from Star Trek: The Original Series provided the voices for their characters. Nearly all the aliens and guest characters were voiced by James Doohan , Nichelle Nichols , and Majel Barrett , although some actors reprised their roles from the original series. Leonard Nimoy ( Spock ) is the only actor to voice his character in every episode of TAS. James Doohan, however, voiced different characters in every episode of the series, but missed only one episode as Montgomery Scott , the episode being " The Slaver Weapon ".

Among the returning guest actors (and characters) were Mark Lenard (as Sarek ), Roger C. Carmel (as Harry Mudd ), and Stanley Adams (as Cyrano Jones ). Although the characters Amanda Grayson , Bob Wesley , Kyle , Kor , Koloth , and Korax returned in The Animated Series , their voices were provided by the aforementioned voice talents of Majel Barrett and James Doohan.

The show featured a handful of new technologies like the recreation room (later the idea was reused in TNG , where it was known as a holodeck ) and the aqua-shuttle . It also featured many non- humanoid alien species (and even some alien officers aboard the Enterprise ) who could not have been featured within the original series' budget.

Roddenberry was adamant that this show was Star Trek (i.e. the continuation of the original series) leading to it having the same title. The addition of The Animated Series to the title was not until years later.

The series, which lasted two years, could be viewed as the completion of the Enterprise 's five-year mission. D.C. Fontana personally viewed all 22 episodes as year four. StarTrek.com considers the seasons collectively to represent the fifth and final year of the mission. [1] (X)

Although at one point Paramount Pictures did not regard the animated series as canonical, with the release of The Animated Series DVD, the studio appears to have changed its stance, and is leaning towards the animated series being part of established Star Trek canon. [2] (X) [3] (X) [4] (X) References from the series have gradually become more accepted in other Star Trek series, most notably on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine , Star Trek: Enterprise and Star Trek: Lower Decks (see the " questionable canon " section below for the complete list of references). Gene Roddenberry said that if he had known there would be more live-action Star Trek in the future, the animated series would have been far more logical and "canonable," or he might not have produced the animated series at all.

A DVD collection of the complete series was released on 21 November 2006 for Region 1.

Starring the voices of [ ]

William Shatner as Captain Kirk
Leonard Nimoy as Mr. Spock
DeForest Kelley as Dr. McCoy

Also starring the voices of [ ]

George Takei as Sulu
Nichelle Nichols as Uhura
Majel Barrett as Chapel and M'Ress
James Doohan as Scott and Arex

Episode list [ ]

Season 1 [ ].

TAS Season 1 , 16 episodes:

Season 2 [ ]

TAS Season 2 , 6 episodes:

Background information [ ]

Origins [ ].

Former Original Series writer D.C. Fontana reported in the fanzine Star-Borne of 22 June 1972 that, " Paramount... [is] enormously impressed by the quantity (and quality) of fan mail they continue to receive. The possibility seems to be slowly developing of a Star Trek feature movie for theatrical release, aimed at becoming the new Star Trek television pilot… on the network front, NBC still expresses great interest in doing Star Trek in some form. Both NBC and Paramount continue to receive a great deal of mail and have had to assign secretaries for the sole job of answering it. " [5]

NBC's surprising complete turnaround (as it were they who had canceled the live-action precursor in 1969, purportedly for poor ratings performance) not only stemmed from the spectacular resurgence of the Original Series in syndication , but also from its own accounting department. Shortly before Fontana's report, NBC had replaced its old Nielsen rating system with a new and updated one. Mystified by the success of a show in syndication they were convinced was a flop, they decided to run the original Original Series figures through their new system they and found out much to their surprise that it had not only reached full penetration into their most coveted target audience, the male population between 18 and 45, but also that the series had been one of the most successful series the network had ever aired. The sickening realization hit upon the dismayed network executives that they had slaughtered the proverbial goose that laid the golden eggs, something that every Star Trek fan at the time could have told them. Hurriedly approaching Roddenberry to see if the series could be revitalized, it turned out to be unfeasible, as Paramount had only a few months earlier cleared out their warehouses from the vast majority of the remaining Star Trek production assets, they either being scrapped, given away or simply stolen. Recreating them, calculated at US$750,000, was deemed far too cost-prohibitive. It did however lead NBC to commission the creation of The Animated Series . ( Star Trek - Where No One Has Gone Before , pp. 51-52)

Roddenberry was not really interested in doing a Star Trek animated show, but had his mind set on an actual live-action resurrection of the the show. However, as Marc Cushman explained, " His ultimate goal was to get Star Trek back into [live-action] production. And he felt that the animated series, if it did really well, could bring that about. " ( The Center Seat: 55 Years of Star Trek : "Saturday Morning Pinks")

Even though they did not produce the new series themselves, Paramount Pictures, possessing all rights and title to the Star Trek brand, was legally the owner of the new property.

The first recordings [ ]

The first recording session for the animated Star Trek series was in June 1973 (on or prior to the fourth of that month ). ( The Star Trek Compendium , 4th ed., p. 143; Star Trek: Communicator issue 119 , p. 32) This was with the entirety of the series' regular cast and was the first time they had reunited since production of the original series ended in January 1969 . The recording session was held at Filmation's studios in Reseda, California , where the performers recorded the first three scripts for the series (" Beyond the Farthest Star ", " Yesteryear ", and " More Tribbles, More Troubles "). ( Star Trek: Communicator issue 119 , p. 32)

Lou Scheimer reminisces about the cast, " The glorious thing was getting them all together for the first recording session […] It was a joyous occasion. " ("Drawn to the Final Frontier – The Making of Star Trek: The Animated Series ", TAS DVD ) William Shatner recalls how he got into character; " [Kirk had] been locked away inside me for almost four years, but as soon as I opened my mouth to read his first line he was back. Slipping back into that character was like putting on a comfortable old sweatshirt; it fit. " ( Up Till Now: The Autobiography , p. 171)

On 4 June 1973, NBC publicly announced that the initial recording session had gone ahead. ( Star Trek: Communicator issue 119 , p. 32)

Emmy win [ ]

In 1975, the animated series of Star Trek won a Daytime Emmy Award in the area of "Best Children's Series" for the 1974-1975 television season. Although Star Trek 's original series had repeatedly been nominated for Emmys, this was the first such award that the franchise actually won. It became also the only best-series Emmy ever won by Star Trek as of 2020. It beat out Captain Kangaroo and The Pink Panther . ( Star Trek: The Animated Series - special feature : "Drawn to the Final Frontier – The Making of Star Trek: The Animated Series "; Star Trek - Where No One Has Gone Before , p. 57, et al. ) Incidentally, the series had already been nominated for the same award in its inaugural debut the year previously, [6] but lost out on that occasion to PBS 's Zoom .

The series essentially won the award on the basis of a certain episode. " When Filmation submitted Star Trek for the Best Children's Series Emmy, [" How Sharper Than a Serpent's Tooth "] is the episode they submitted, " explains David Wise , a co-writer of that installment. ("How Sharper Than a Serpent's Tooth" audio commentary ) The episode's other co-writer, Russell Bates , comments, " [The episode] became the only credential submitted when Filmation received an Emmy nomination for the series, and thus was instrumental in the winning of a 1975 Emmy Award. " Bates also notes that the Emmy was not the only accolade that the episode attained. [7]

Shortly after Hal Sutherland and his family moved out of Los Angeles to Washington state , he received a call that informed him of the Emmy nomination. He remembers, " This was exciting news and I spread the word to all of our friends and neighbors in case Filmation picked up the Emmy. " As he learned prior to the event, it was to be presented in New York and Lou Scheimer decided to bring his own family to the festivities. [8] The ceremony was actually on a boat in the New York harbor. Lou Scheimer's son, Lane, heard a practice session, below-decks, of the announcements being rehearsed. The elder Scheimer reflects, " He said, 'Dad, don't worry, I just saw them down there and they said it was Captain Kangaroo ' [....] So I was sitting there, drinking wine, not worried, and [getting] half-plastered. " ( Star Trek Magazine Souvenir Special , p. 58) Scheimer also personally doubted that the animated Star Trek series was about to receive the award. He states, " I was absolutely certain we weren't going to win; there was no way that show could win because it really was not a kids' show. " ( Star Trek: The Magazine Volume 1, Issue 16 , p. 68)

Hal Sutherland recalls tuning into the televised coverage of the event; " I remember gathering the family to watch the award ceremonies with me. I hoped to make them proud of what we had accomplished in some way. Sitting in front of the TV, I watched with anxiety as the nominations for best animated series came up […] The award envelope was opened and Star Trek was announced the winner for its category. " [9] Lou Scheimer (who says he was "a nervous wreck" at the time), also recollects the announcement; " Cyril Richard gets up there and says, 'And the best children's programming for Saturday morning is Star Trek and Lou Shimmer [ sic ]. I didn't know what to do. You cannot tell, but I was floating. " ( Star Trek Magazine Souvenir Special , p. 58) Hal Sutherland continues, " Lou stepped to the podium to make his acceptance speech. " [10] A transcript of that speech follows:

Lou Scheimer accepts the series' only Emmy

Lou Scheimer recalls the shock of having to collect the award; " I was totally flabbergasted when we did [win]. I didn't know what to say; I was not prepared. I was just aghast at the idea of being in front of all those people, waiting to hear me say something meaningful. " ( Star Trek: The Magazine Volume 1, Issue 16 , p. 68)

Watching Lou Scheimer's acceptance speech was a very emotional experience for Hal Sutherland and he was enormously disgruntled that Scheimer thanked Norm Prescott rather than him. Although Sutherland never expressed his extreme disappointment to the award recipient, Scheimer finally apologized to Sutherland in 2004 . " He […] sorrowfully related to me an apology for his 'drunken' statement at the Emmy affair regarding his confusion between Norm and I and the production credits, " explained Sutherland. " We'd both carried that haunting memory all those many years, neither wanting to bring up the tender subject. We later kissed [and made up, putting the issue behind them]. " [11]

Lou Scheimer criticized the winning of the award, saying that – even though it was "the only Emmy I've ever gotten for a show" – it was inappropriate for the animated Star Trek to receive an award for a children's show, since the series was actually meant to be " a show for the entire family and anybody who was really a fan of the original live-action show. " ("Drawn to the Final Frontier – The Making of Star Trek: The Animated Series ", TAS DVD ) Norm Prescott, on the other hand, considered the award to be a high point in Filmation's history. ( Star Trek: Communicator issue 119 , p. 79) Both Filmation, in general, and the writers of "How Sharper Than a Serpent's Tooth", were happy that the episode gained the series the award. David Wise reminisces, " We, Russell [Bates] and I, considered that an achievement. Filmation was thrilled and invited us to an Emmy party and all sorts of fun things like that. " ("How Sharper Than a Serpent's Tooth" audio commentary) Gene Roddenberry regarded the award win as "the best proof" that the animated series had been "a fairly good job." ( The Making of Star Trek: The Motion Picture , p. 20) D.C. Fontana was also "pleased" that the franchise had finally won an Emmy, later stating, " I was thrilled to death. " ("Drawn to the Final Frontier – The Making of Star Trek: The Animated Series ", TAS DVD ) In their text commentary for series finale " The Counter-Clock Incident ", Michael and Denise Okuda describe the Emmy win as the series having been "honored." The book Star Trek - Where No One Has Gone Before (p. 57) refers to the win as "a fitting send-off" for the series.

Considering the efforts the writers, including Bates, put in to tell more mature stories akin to the main series, the win of a "children's" award turned out to be somewhat of a mixed blessing as it cemented the impression of Star Trek being an immature, superficial show for adolescents only at best in the minds of the non-fan society at large, which started to become wary of the emerging " Trekkie " phenomenon. It became a large part of the reasons why to date a substantial part of "Trekdom", Creator Gene Roddenberry included, continued to refuse to consider The Animated Series part of canon, as related hereafter. ( Star Trek: The Official Guide to the Animated Series , pp. 8 & 153) Most ironically, the six-episode second season of Star Trek: Short Treks , which only became nominated in 2020 for Star Trek 's fifth "major" Emmy Award, did include two animated episodes, " Ephraim and Dot " and " The Girl Who Made the Stars ", specifically intended for children.

Questionable canon and reintegration [ ]

According to Voyages of Imagination [ page number? • edit ] , the Animated Series was officially removed from canon at Gene Roddenberry's request in 1988, with the exception of some parts involving Spock's youth, from Fontana's episode " Yesteryear ". Roddenberry was partly motivated to do so because of his disappointment that the animated series did not bring about his ultimate goal of getting back Star Trek as a live-action production, as mentioned above . The removal from canon had already been confirmed previously by reference book author Mike Okuda in the introductions of his works. ( Star Trek Chronology , 2nd ed., p. vii; Star Trek Encyclopedia , 4th ed., vol. 1, p. introduction; [12] (X) ) Paramount Pictures has followed suit by elevating the request to policy, having officially declared the series non-canon. ( Star Trek Encyclopedia , 1st ed., p. iii)

Despite this request, Memory Alpha recognizes The Animated Series as a valid resource. There were also strong indications from the StarTrek.com (former) official website that TAS was unilaterally, yet formally, re-added to the official canon in 2006 by the franchise for the sole purpose of commercially promoting the occasion of the series' release on DVD that year. ( [13] (X) [14] (X) [15] (X) ; See also the content policy ).

Writers from later Star Trek series have integrated various references from the series into their works. Star Trek: Enterprise writer/producer Manny Coto once remarked, " They did some great stuff in the animated series and why not use some of that? " ( Cinefantastique , Vol. 37, No. 2, p. 37) Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine writing staffer Ronald D. Moore likewise commented, " It's kinda cool to throw in the odd reference [to TAS] here and there. " ( AOL chat , 1998 ) The following references were used in subsequent series:

The city of Shi'Kahr resurfaced on an okudagram in " The Emissary " called the "Shi-Kar Desert Survival, Vulcan", which was also a reference to Spock's kahs-wan . The city was again indirectly mentioned in " Fusion " in reference to the Shi'Kahr Academy , and later served as the namesake for the USS ShirKahr , seen but not mentioned in " Tears of the Prophets ". A Vulcan city which looks very similar to Shi'Kahr was shown in the new establishing shots used in the remastered version of " Amok Time ".
An okudagram featured in " Eye of the Beholder " referenced the Sepek Academic Scholarship , which coincides with the name of a Vulcan child in " Yesteryear ".
Vulcan's Forge was later referenced in " Change of Heart " and was the focus of a three-episode ENT arc: " The Forge ", " Awakening ", and " Kir'Shara ".
Both Lunaport and the kahs-wan were mentioned in " The Catwalk ".
The sehlat , which first appeared in "Yesteryear" in animated form, was recreated in CGI in ENT : " The Forge ".
The nearby planet seen briefly behind Shi'Kahr made it into the original version of Star Trek: The Motion Picture . For the director's cut it was decided to remove the planet (named Charis or T'Khut in the novel Spock's World ).
The title of " healer " for a Vulcan physician was referred to for Healer Senva in " Prophet Motive ".
Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country confirmed Kirk's middle name as "Tiberius", a name first revealed in " Bem ". The name had been used in novels , including in the preface to the novelization of Star Trek: The Motion Picture .
A chart of Federation space, seen in " Conspiracy ", contained references to solar objects first mentioned in TAS, including the planets Canopus III , Lactra VII , Omega Cygni , Phylos , and Kzin , and the stars Beta Lyrae and Pallas 14 .
In the episode " Once More Unto the Breach ", Kor recalled his former vessel, the IKS Klothos , which was the ship he commanded in the " The Time Trap ". It was a D5 Klingon ship (where D5s were later shown in Enterprise ), rendered as a questionably-drawn D7, but in both cases it was commanded by Kor.
The episode " Broken Link " referred to Edosian orchids , the episode " These Are the Voyages... " mentioned Edosian suckerfish , and there were several other Enterprise references to the Edosian slug – all homages to the Edosian Lt. Arex .
Coincidental references which may or may not be attributed to terms first used in The Animated Series include Klingon Imperial Fleet (" The Time Trap ") and Starbase 23 (" The Terratin Incident ").
Amanda 's maiden name, Grayson, was given in the series, and later established in Star Trek V: The Final Frontier .
The holodeck concept first appeared in " The Practical Joker ", and was later adopted into Star Trek: The Next Generation . The use of holograms was used in " Lethe ", showing that USS Discovery was equipped with similar technology during 2250s .
The idea of an additional turbolift on the bridge first appeared in TAS, and ultimately adopted in the live-action franchise from Star Trek: Phase II onward.
The act of entering the warp nacelles first appeared in TAS, and later appeared in the TNG episode " Eye of the Beholder " and in the ENT episode " The Catwalk ".
In " The Counter-Clock Incident ", a race is shown that has a life span where individuals start out old and grow younger until death. Star Trek: Voyager later reused this idea in one of its episodes for a race of aliens .
In Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home , two members of the Caitian species are seen, which FASA 's RPG sourcebook , Star Trek IV Sourcebook Update , identified as the same species as M'Ress .
The robot grain ships from " More Tribbles, More Troubles " have later been established in the 2008 remastered TOS episodes " Charlie X " (manned version) and " The Ultimate Computer " (robot version) as belonging to the Antares -type of starships. Later to also appear as wreckage in the Lower Decks episode " Terminal Provocations ".
Star Trek: Discovery confirmed Robert April from " The Counter-Clock Incident " to be an important Starfleet captain in the episode " Choose Your Pain " when Saru asks the ship's computer to list Starfleet's most decorated captains. He was later confirmed as the first captain of the USS Enterprise , preceding Christopher Pike , in " Brother ".
Lower Decks also made a mention of Spock Two from " The Infinite Vulcan " in " Veritas " before featuring his skeleton in " Kayshon, His Eyes Open ".
" Second Contact " introduced another Caitian, T'Ana , as a series' regular.
" Envoys " included the Aurelian from " Yesteryear "and the Vendorian from " The Survivor ".
" Much Ado About Boimler " introduced an Edosian character whose species was first featured through the series' regular Arex .
" Mugato, Gumato " included the appearance of a Kzinti from " The Slaver Weapon ".
" An Embarrassment Of Dooplers " depicted a total of five TAS species appearances, the aforementioned Caitian, Kzinti, Edosian, Aurelians, and a prominent return of several members of Em/3/Green's species , who first appeared in " The Jihad ".
" Mining The Mind's Mines " included the appearance of Kukulkan from "How Sharper Than a Serpent's Tooth".

Several non-canon productions have also made reference to TAS:

A second exit for the bridge, referenced in Franz Joseph 's Star Fleet Technical Manual .
DC Comics' writer Len Wein reintroduced M'Ress and Arex into the post- Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home comics , and they were further developed by Michael Carlin and Peter David until that series went into hiatus.
Some of the worlds and aliens in the series were included in the 1989 book called The Worlds of the Federation .
Author Peter David later integrated M'Ress and Arex into his 24th century book series Star Trek: New Frontier , beginning with the novel Gateways #6: Cold Wars . They also appear in IDW's "New Frontier" comic miniseries, Turnaround , by David.
The trilogy Crucible by David R. George III includes the plot from "Yesteryear" in its history.
The IDW comic miniseries Star Trek: Year Four takes place during the TAS timeframe and features appearances by Arex and M'Ress.

Production inconsistencies [ ]

One unfortunate reality of an animated television series was the occasional color discrepancy.

The most notable color discrepancy was shown with several appearances of the color pink. Unknown to the rest of the production staff, director Sutherland was color-blind, so to him, pink was light gray. (" Drawn to the Final Frontier – The Making of Star Trek: The Animated Series ", TAS DVD ) While true, Kaplan was not color-blind and was often conscientious of the color decisions being made.

The following images are examples of Irv Kaplan's personal color choices:

Reversed color variant

According to Bob Kline, " Pink equals Irv Kaplan. Irv was in charge of ink and paint, coloring the various characters and props (and he would do it himself in his office, he would sit down with a cel and paint it). He was also referred to by many people there as the purple and green guy. You'll see in a lot of scenes, purple and green used together – that was one of his preferences. He made dragons red, the Kzintis' costumes pink. It was all Irv Kaplan's call. He wasn't listening to anyone else when he picked colors, or anything. " ( Star Trek: The Official Guide to the Animated Series , p. 26)

Several other unintentional coloring issues also cropped up. Kirk's type 1 phaser had its color scheme reversed (black on silver/grey, instead of silver on black), and some shots featured characters wearing Starfleet uniforms of the wrong division or colors.

McCoy wears a command division uniform, Scott as captain

As a result of the use of recycled footage, there were also many instances of randomly misplaced characters and equipment. Recurring inconsistencies in this vein include the random appearance of Lt. Kyle in several transporter room scenes, close-up shots of Scott operating the transporter controls, the interchanged appearances with Uhura and M'Ress at the communications station, and the appearance of characters on the bridge while simultaneously appearing in another section of the ship or on the surface of a planet.

Another inconsistency that appears sometimes is Scott shown with the rank of captain, and Kirk with a unknown rank insignia.

The Animated Series also made substantial changes to set locations used in the original series:

A second turbolift is installed on the bridge, next to the main viewscreen.
The bridge stations are rounded, and form a perfect circle, instead of the hexagonal TOS bridge set.
The access stairs to the upper level engineering deck (seen in TOS seasons 2 and 3) are gone.

One production glitch that was avoided from being televised was Uhura having white skin. " Someone in the paint department used Nurse Chapel's colors on Uhura, who turned Caucasian with the flip of a brush! " exclaims Malcolm C. Klein, a management and marketing consultant to Filmation. " Fortunately, that one was caught before the film reached the lab. " ( Starlog , Vol. 2, No. 6, p. 47)

On many other occasions, body parts on various characters would go missing. According to animator Bob Kline , " it was usually something the cameraman did on purpose or accident to keep the cel levels at six. You couldn't use more than six cel levels under the camera. " This was often completed to allow more animation to appear on screen, as any more than six cells would make the animation appear "muddier". ( Star Trek: The Official Guide to the Animated Series , p. 27)

Proposed CGI reworking [ ]

In 1998 , there were talks of TAS being re-worked with CGI animation. According to Mainframe Entertainment ( Reboot ):

"Mainframe proposes to produce a television series continuing the original adventures of Captain James T. Kirk and the crew of the Starship Enterprise (NCC-1701). The new series will reunite the original 'young' crew by the use of modern technology and production methods developed by Mainframe over the last 5 years.

The new series will incorporate a 'virtual' cast performing in 3D computer generated sets, bringing together the advantages of new technology with the sensibilities of traditional film making.

In the early Seventies, 'Filmation' produced 22 one-half hour traditionally animated episodes based on the original 'STAR TREK' franchise.

It is our intention to take these 'Filmation' episodes and use them as a starting point to craft the new series. By using the original recordings of the core cast, carefully re-working the scripts, and rerecording all incidental characters, we believe that it is possible to bring the storylines up to the high standards expected of a 'STAR TREK' series today."

The project was never realized. [16]

Documentary [ ]

The Center Seat: 55 Years of Star Trek : "Saturday Morning Pinks" ( The History Channel , 5 November 2021)

Home video formats [ ]

Star Trek: The Animated Series on VHS
Star Trek: The Animated Series on Betamax
Star Trek: The Animated Series on LaserDisc
Star Trek: The Animated Series on DVD
Star Trek: The Animated Series on Blu-ray

External links [ ]

Star Trek: The Animated Series at Memory Beta , the wiki for licensed Star Trek works
Star Trek: The Animated Series at Wikipedia
Star Trek: The Animated Series at StarTrek.com
The Making of Star Trek: The Animated Series (X) at StarTrek.com
The Animated Series Gets Real (X) at StarTrek.com
DanHauserTrek.com – Guide to Animated Star Trek
Star Trek: The Animated Series at Ex Astris Scientia
Star Trek: The Animated Series at the Internet Movie Database
StarTrekAnimated.com – fan site
1 USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-G)
3 Daniels (Crewman)

Star Trek: The Animated Series

Star Trek: The Animated Series ran for just over a year.

The series used almost all of the original cast's voices (minus Walter Koenig ), and animation allowed for more aliens and fantastical plots and sets.

The animated series introduced a three-armed, three-legged, long-necked, alien member of the bridge crew, named Arex , and a cat-like alien crew member named M'Ress .

Although the show never caught on with all fans, many elements within it carried over into fanon and canon . Just a few:

Amanda 's maiden name, Grayson
the appearance of sehlats
Kirk's middle name was revealed in this series as Tiberius
Spock was bullied as a boy
the Recreation Room, a precursor to the holodeck
Klingon commander Kor's command of the battlecruiser Klothos.

Promoted Heavily, and Personally

The show was heavily promoted by D.C. Fontana , David Gerrold , and Gene Roddenberry in newsletters and letterzines , and was often accompanied by pleas to "give it a chance."

Some of this correspondence was very personal and employed a manipulation of fan loyalty and fan desperation to see their show return in any form. In the early 1973 open letter , STAR TREK is coming back as an animated series! , Fontana wrote: "Please do not prejudge the series or dismiss it as a "kiddie show" not worthy of your attention because you will be doing a great injustice to Gene Roddenberry and all the other talented people who will be working hard to give you STAR TREK again..." She also wrote in early 1973: "I will personally destroy the next person I hear dismissing "Star Trek" in animation as "just a cartoon" not worthy of their attention. I am working hard -- and so are all the other people I mentioned -- to give them "Star Trek" just the way it was." [1]

Another source of detailed info about the show is In Her Own Words: An Interview with Dorothy Fontana (1974).

A letter from David Gerrold in Star Trek Action Group #2 (June/July 1973) implored fans to watch the new show, saying "this is NOT a kiddie show."

See the transcription of the early 1973 speech: I'd like to talk about STAR TREK, past, present and future, and I don't know whether you're going to like what I have to say. by D.C. Fontana. Fontana also explained and defended an episode in the 1974 essay, Notes on 'Yesteryear' .

See David Gerrold's 1973 comments at You have asked what you can do to help bring STAR TREK back on the air. .

In 1974, Gerrold had a lot to say about this series in 2-5YM Interview with David Gerrold .

In December 1973/January 1974, Gene Roddenberry , wrote "Executive Memo":

With respect to the "new" STAR TREK, I think we should be careful that we do not get the wrong idea about the animated version. First, it is not aimed to be a "kiddies' show", although it will appear during the Saturday morning childrens' hour. I asked for and obtained creative control and intend to see it presented, within the limits of animation, as STAR TREK was originally presented in the evening. We all still believe that children are much more intelligent than generally assumed by the television industry and that the STAR TREK animation version should aim at the same quality as the original show. Why are we doing it? First, we feel it will help keep STAR TREK alive and success in an animated version will only strengthen our chance of getting back on the air in the evening, or into the movie house as a feature release of STAR TREK. Next, the animation will allow us to do some special effects, characters and stories which are impossible in a live version. Finally, it is a source of income for the stars and other people involved in STAR TREK, all of whom would like to keep eating regularly while they wait for the original show to return to the air. Sincerely yours, GENE RODDENBERRY, Executive Producer, STAR TREK [2]

Is It Canon?

From an undated interview with David Gerrold , who contributed two stories to TAS:

Arguments about "canon" are silly. I always felt that Star Trek Animated was part of Star Trek because Gene Roddenberry accepted the paycheck for it and put his name on the credits. And DC Fontana—and all the other writers involved—busted their butts to make it the best Star Trek they could. But this whole business of "canon" really originated with Gene's errand boy. Gene liked giving people titles instead of raises, so the errand boy got named "archivist" and apparently it went to his head. Gene handed him the responsibility of answering all fan questions, silly or otherwise, and he apparently let that go to his head. [3]

Writer-producer D.C. Fontana discussed the TAS Canon in 2007:

I suppose "canon" means what Gene Roddenberry decided it was. Remember, we were making it up as we went along on the original series (and on the animated one, too). We had a research company to keep us on the straight and narrow as to science, projected science based on known science, science fiction references (we didn’t want to step on anyone's exclusive ideas in movies, other TV shows, or printed work). They also helped prevent contradictions and common reference errors. So the so-called canon evolved in its own way and its own time. For whatever reason, Gene Roddenberry apparently didn’t take the animated series seriously (no pun intended), although we worked very hard to do original STAR TREK stories and concepts at all times in the animated series. [4]

From a fan discussion in 1978:

I have a suggestion. Let's disregard the animated series. They are so full of B.S.(like aging in two or three episodes plus shrinking, growing young... and then using the transporter to save themselves). I hate it when articles about ST treat information given in the animated series as fact. It doesn't make sense. I agree with all of that except for one thing. I don’t think we should disregard the episode "Yesteryear" by D.C. Fontana . This was an excellent story which would have been worthy of the live action series. It's the only animated episode that wasn’t obviously written for the sub-teen Saturday morning audience. The story has integrity and deserves admiration. I think the only way ST fandom can accept the animated series is if we look upon its ideas as being optional and accept them only if they aren’t silly and illogical. [5]

Is It a Cartoon?

Despite all the frustration about the original Star Trek not winning Emmys fans felt it deserved, AND fans' insistence that the animated series was NOT a children's' cartoon, the animated series won an Emmy Nomination along with Captain Kangaroo, Fat Albert, The Cosby Kids, and Zoom. Zoom was the winner.

Is It for Children or Adults?

Cover of Fanzine Review 'Zine #1, featuring Arex the Edosian by Gordon Carleton , 1976

Internal art from Future Wings , which claimed "artistic license" for modifying Aleek-Om and Prince T'char's Filmation look, 1978

Back cover art of Future Wings , which claimed "artistic license" for modifying Arex's Filmation look, 1978

Arex and M'Ress in the new uniforms, art by Ian McLean , Beyond Antares #18/19, 1982

A Francine Ellison -created baby Arex the Edosian , 1983

M'Ress the Caitian appears in a fan-made Starship Exeter online comic, Home is Not a Place , 2004. (Thanks Kail Tescar )

Customized Thelin the Andorian and Jan Grey action figures of "Yesteryear", with ReAction Spock and Hallmark ornaments of Arex & M'Ress , 2019

Ian McLean 's customized Loom Aleek-Om the Aurelian of "Yesteryear", 2019

Fans Online

Curt Danhauser's Guide to Star Trek: The Animated Series previously available at Curt Danhauser's Guide to The Animated Star Trek - GeoCities Site
Curt Danhauser's new episodes site
Kail Tescar's Star Trek: The Animated Series
Kail Tescar's original comics site
Yesteryear online comic adaptation
STAR TREK: THE ANIMATED SERIES FANSITE (This site features high-quality screen-grab images including a few Caitian ) and sounds. It also has a fan art section, virtual postcards, a Message Board , and AVI files)

Fan Reaction

As far as the stories go, they are not entirely up to par with the original. A few resemble former episodes, and some take the crew to planets they have already visited. There is some kind of new monster every week. There are exceptions, however, and the 22 minutes of air time severely limits the story." She also points out that the Starfleet uniforms are the same, except that the men's trousers are grey instead of black and that the planet scenes are marvelous but the latter is due to the fact it's easier and cheaper to draw them than to build a soundset. [6]

If any of you make a habit of watching Saturday morning cartoons, (and I'm sure you all do) specifically NBC, you will notice that publicity is starting to be spread about the September line-up. It is a weird feeling to see your favorite television program, STAR TREK, receive the same run-around that the Saturday morning cartoons get. They skimmed over the animation as if it was the same relatively junkie stuff that is usually seen in that time slot. In this light, I think I should warn you that you will probably feel the same way. But don't be discouraged, hold out until September 8th and watch the finished product (preferably on a color television set, it will help the transition) and then make a fair evaluation. I think you'll be surprised. [7]

"Yesteryear" was a beautifully written work, showing a deep understanding of Star Trek's tenets, even if the cartooning and voices didn't do it justice. I thought, 'Gee, this cartooning will be pretty good - D.C. Fontana as story editor, good or passing stories - it won't be bad." But, as usual, I spoke too soon. After my stomach settled, I rehashed what I had seen in my mind. 'The Lorelei Signal' -- never have I been so insulted in all my life! That was the worst! How did that ever creep by Fontana??? There were so many glaring errors in that, that I forgot that I was watching "Star Trek" and not some other dingy sci-fic show. They sound like Vulcan marriage drums - and Spock starts panting and getting all around emotional (grin, grin, sickly grin!). I almost brought the roof down! YOU DUMMYS! WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO SPOCK!!! WEDDING DRUMS OR NOT, HE IS NOT IN PONFARR !!! He won't be affected. He'll be able to control it! He's got the kind of control that lets him play chess in the women's showers all day and never break concentration! As you can see, I was mad (that's capital M.A.D.). I mean really, all fantasy affection aside, logically (groan) Spock should not have been affected. But no, he goes messing around on the planet just like Captain Kirk incarnate. Then, then oh yes, then e somewhere calls Nurse Chapel - Christine - Oh Maripol save us!!! The Vulcans are cracking up! Oh, yes. Did you know that they only had four days to live (Spock a little longer of course)? Technically aging ten years a day, they should have had at least six days a week, McCoy going first. Didn't anyone ever tell the author that men in the time of the Federation live to be 130? I guess no one reads The Making of Star Trek anymore. Aside from other little things, like Uhura violating General Order One by going around and blowing things up to threaten the women, the icing on the cake is when the transporter is used to save our beloved officers. Voila: Instant immortality - just get your molecules rearranged when you get old and you'll be young again! Plastic surgeons? Who needs them? Etc... The implications of this are staggering - and the sort of mistake that wouldn't have been made on the original show. All in all, I am sick, mad and upset. That was a children's cartoon and if they keep this up, well who knows what will happen. Any intelligent STrekfan would have been offended at the glaring errors they tried to feed us. NBC said there will be no hope of getting back Star Trek is we kill the cartoon - well, if all we'll get back is _____, [8] who wants it back? We have seen that the cartoons can be handled intelligently, as the first and third ones weren't too bad, really, even though they could have been improved, so why do they have to hand us _____, and why do we have to like it? [9]

Now that the animated Star Trek is well into reruns and is on a half hour later, most of you have been able to see quite a few of the episodes. A lot of you like it, but there are a few of you out there that don't like it or down tight hate it. To these people it is still a cartoon (SHUDDER!!) and think of it as such. Agreed it does have its bad points, but you must remember that it is only animation and you can only do so much with animation. Also the fact that its only a half hour long doesn't help it any. The biggest complaints that I have found with the animation is not with the story, so much but with the artwork. Things like spools of tape on the Enterprise (in the computer, "The Time Trap") and other things like pink tribbles ( David Gerrold was not at all happy with that) and red photon torpedoes etc... I have also found that some of the plots used in the animation resemble those used in the Star Trek comic book "The Time Trap" and S.T. comic book number 15 "Museum at the End of Time" have the very same plot). Filmation is doin' a good job but are some thing that need work. We all hope (and if enough people write in about it) the animated Star Trek will come back next Season on a week night and be a full hour long. [10]

It is my opinion that this program would have received more acceptance had it not been for the propaganda campaign that proceeded it. I for one, would have watched it- with an open mind, regardless. But after the propaganda blitz of fandom's so-called 'big wigs,' I be came quite skeptical. After all, when too many people start touting something it must be pretty bad, otherwise it could probably sell itself. They blew the 'quality' of the program out of proportion, desperately trying to convince us that it was our only salvation. Well, the product they were selling failed them. It just did not measure up to the expectations they painted for us. I feel that if it's a poor substitute in our eyes, they're responsible. [...] As a cartoon, it is equaled only by the late Sealab 2020 (also of NBC) in terms of quality, art work, scripts and con cepts. Both programs are obviously well researched and far outshine their Saturday morning peers on all levels. Cartoons are two dimensional renderings. Due to to this and budget limitations, their characters often (if not i always) appear stiff and wooden, i and backgrounds and movement sequences are constantly repeated to indicate time, size or distance. In comparison to the media we are used to, it is inferior and phoney. But we can't compare film and cartoons, they share no common bonds, excepting the film which records them. Therefore, as a cartoon, one must admit it is excellent. If, however, this were a movie cartoon, with a large budget and a staff of people (artists) who knew what ST was about, it could be better. As an artist, I know that a lot more could have been done with the media. The product was made without Star Trek* s main ingredient, Imagination. Everything looks alike, backdrops, 'bug-eyed monsters', crew men(?), everything. And worst of all, everything is done in the same colors, week after week. As Science Fiction, there is a slight problem. Most Sci-fi is in the form of film or books. Both media far surpass the TV-cartoon in quality and style. Therefore, as a Science Fiction entity, I feel it canft measure up quality-wise. Its main limitations, media and time, prevent it from adequately utilizing the firm Science Fiction foundation of its plots. The only fault I find with most of the scripts, other than that they are either inadequately or too rapidly resolved, is that they are often redresses of established Sci-fi or old STs (eg. "One of Our Planets Is Missing") This in itself wouldn't be so bad, if they would do something novel with them. As they are now, the are predictable if you are a Sci-fi reader or an old STfan. The 'live' ST was rarely predictable (unless you're seeing it in the fortieth rerun or are watching a 3rd season one), why shouldn't its 'son' be? [...] Star Trek? They've scrapped values and philosophy for voices! It’s not the stars that most of us watch it for. It’s the total concept, which includes the Kirk/Spock, , Spock/McCoy, McCoy/Kirk/ Spock interactions and the divergent points of view and philosophies they represent. Without these key ingredients, you have a kiddie 'sci-fi' show that uses ST-like characters. If the characters don’t mean something, and aren’t people you can,, in some way, identify with, you can’t maintain viewer interest (hence Starlost’s failure). This goes for films and cartoons. This void in the cartoon makes most Strekkers as comfortable watching it as Rockerfeller [sic] would be living in a Ghetto. For three years, plus the rerun years, our minds have been tantalized by the epic works of the late Gene L. Coon, the one and only Roddenberry , Miss Fontana, Harlan Elison [sic] and other masters of their field. We are used to quality of script and acting, so what did Paramount throw us? — a moving comic book. (An animated fanzine? — No, they would have better artwork.) Even with live actors doing these scripts, they would fail. The key ingredients are missing. If you think about your favorites, you will note that they are usually the ones which were well rounded with the characters humanized in some way, and an excellent plot and storyline. Yesteryear, Tribbles, Time Trap, The Slaver Weapon and a few others were, in my opinion, Star Treks. The rest merely Trekkie appeasement. (("Let them hear Spock's voice, maybe that'll stop them from writing those letters.)) [...] What happened to The Loreli Signal? We've all been waiting for Uhura's turn at the Com. After all, she is ranking officer after Scotty. I feel that that program was a cop out. It had a good premise but was poorly done. Why, in the name of all that's logical, would she take over the ship and then wait for a rescue order, when rescue was her intent when she took over? It can't be explained away as the Illogic of Woman, because her training as an officer superceeds [sic] it. The female of the species may be illogical, but what she did was ridiculous. 'Nough said. [11]

Despite super-limited animation and terrible cases of underacting from the cast, the series was an intelligent one, compared to its competition. Compared to the old series, it suffered dreadfully. [12]

Basicly [sic] I dispise [sic] the cartoon, but since it would take this whole newsletter to fully explain why, I will only give some basic points I have against it. 1) Stories have to be crammed into less than half an hour's worth of time. 2) The majority of episodes are just re-hashes of the old (live Star Trek) episodes. 3) Aliens no longer look intriguing or fascinating, just cute or funny looking. You can no longer relate to them. 4) Where are all the exotic women that Kirk used to...er... make friends with? 5) The show. according to Lincoln Enterprises , is not supposed to be an average Saturday morning show, so why did they put it on Saturday mornings"! Why not prime time (as was the case with a cartoon called "Wait Till Your Father Gets Home")? Overall, Star Trek, as a cartoon, has lost the magic it had...it's just not the same anymore, and it is certainly not a replacement for the real thing! [13]

After reading about Gene Roddenberry's problems with Mr. Spock, I find it rather amusing/surprising that two other aliens should be introduced into the series. (I must admit that I would like to see Lt. M'Ress in a live action version.) I think that, with the live action series the actors were able to pull up a not very good story and make it at least interesting, but with animations this, is not possible. This means that the stories have to be good to start with; however in 22 minutes this is going to be very difficult to maintain. It would be very interesting if someone would write "The Making of the Animated STAR TREK" so that the problems and difficulties met with in the production of the live action and animated versions could be compared... From talking to people who are not STAR TREK fans as such but do watch the programme (yes, such creatures do exist!) I gather that the response to the animations has not been as good as the response to the live action version. However since my survey (?) was carried out while I was working in an office and most of the people I asked were female it could merely be the absence of William Shatner , Leonard Nimoy and the rest of the cast in the flesh! One thing which surprised me, I had read the "Log One' book before I saw the episodes and I was pleased by the way Alan Dean Foster had kept to the programme. What did not please me was the introduction by the original writer of several pieces of equipment which wore not in the original series. (Like the Bridge Defence System and the Life Support Belts.) [14]

As for my dislike of animated Treks, I admit it all began at an Equicon , when DC Fontana announced their existence by saying "their" (Filmation's) animation was superior to Hanna Barbera's et. al., which knowing damn well the reasons it was called "limited animation" in the first place, I took immediate and ever-lasting umbrage at it. Also, her insistence that they weren't "cartoons" but "animated episodes" rankled me no end as well. Hell hath no fury like a Bullwinkle fan scorned. [15]

I was reminded of the days of long ago when they were a link with cast members, sorely missed when the Star Trek episodes ceased to be shown on TV here. Speaking personally, and appreciating the work that has to go into the making of these things, I never could raise any enthusiasm for animated films of any kind, and after listening to the familiar voices for a while I would switch off. George was initially very excited about the idea of an Animated Star Trek, and thought there was tremendous potential there, but it was never developed as it could have been. The excitement filtered away. There was not much to rave about in making the recordings either, and no contact with the rest of the "crew", unless you passed one of them going out from a recording session as you were going in. The work was done in a sound proof booth. Wait for your queue say your piece allowing time for the responses - and go on your lonely way having helped to make a Star Trek story come to life in almost total isolation. [...] As there seem to be no further hopes of repeat episodes on TV, in between the Star Trek movies, it would be something to console ourselves with if we could hear the voices again, (I don't have video). Come back Animateds, all is forgiven. [16]

Way back in 1973 something happened that promised STAR TREK a whole new image and a whole lot of new viewers. Avid fans were already disgruntled because the best thing that had ever happened to science fiction on television had been pulled, despite all their efforts, and the news of this deviation shocked their already overburdened systems. The gallant Enterprise and her noble crew were to ride again, albeit in a slightly different guise. Filmation Studios announced the new, animated STAR TREK - to a chorus of dissenting hisses! No longer the slightly paunchy captain with care-worn features, or the 'lived-in' face of the cynical but much-loved doctor. Instead the well-known characters created by Gene Roddenberry were to be miraculously transformed into cartoon -characters by Filmation Studios, from which Batman , Superman , Aquaman and other delights of the wonderful world of cartoons had emerged. Within the obvious economic limitations Filmation Studios claimed it made up for the limited animation (which it did at least admit to) by the quality scripts, voice tracks and art designs used. It was even suggested - somewhat rashly - that the cartoon might surpass the original, as there would be no patently fake studio creations representing alien landscapes. A number of the most zealous " Trekkies " were so incensced at the idea that they launched numerous petitions and crusades to get the project taken off the air before it had even had time to draw breath. But there were some consolations. Filmation Studios had had the good sense to engage William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, Deforest Kelly and a large proportion of the original crew to record the voices. At least if you closed your eyes while it was on you could pretend it was the real Gene Roddenberry was engaged in a creative capacity "so as to ensure that the show is faithful enough to the original to satisfy the purists... Star Trek will be Star Trek, with only minor alterations. They dare do it no differently." Many of the programme's original scriptwriters were engaged, with Dorothy Fontana as script consultant. They wanted to avoid the usual hackneyed drivel, - comforting in some small measure, I suppose. So what was STAR TREK to lose? In America N.B.C. television had it slotted into the Saturday morning line-up at peak viewing time - 10.30 a.m. A lot of the violence that might have been in the original evening shows had to go - after all, we mustn't corrupt the children (who revel in blood and gore,) must we? And " Trekkies " were also told that there would be no real sex element to speak of either - same reasoning. However, in spite of these "minor alterations," it would still be the same STAR TREK we all knew and loved, and not just another stereotyped kids' cartoon show to watch over cornflakes and the week-end papers. But alas, all these brave promises came to nothing. As far as most people were concerned, the twenty-two animated STAR TREK cartoons, which were screened in Britain in 1974, were a dismal failure. The series was transmitted twice, except for three episodes; "The Magicks of Megus-Tu," "Bem", "Mudd's Passion." Perhaps they thought the public might grow to like them the second time around! The British rights, once held by Paramount T.V., have since expired and thankfully there are no further plans to revive them. The cartoons have hopefully bitten the dust once and for all. For in spite of all of the efforts to recapture the spirit and spontaneity which made STAR TREK a veritable institution in itself, there is really very little to commend it to STAR TREK fans. What we are left with is not much more than a stereotyped kids' cartoon show, best watched with the television turned off! [17]

Star Trek: The Animated Series

Star Trek: The Animated Series (originally known simply as Star Trek but also known as The Animated Adventures of Gene Roddenberry's Star Trek ) is an animated science fiction television series set in the Star Trek universe following the events of Star Trek: The Original Series of the 1960s.

1.1 Beyond the Farthest Star [1.1]
1.2 Yesteryear [1.2]
1.3 One of Our Planets Is Missing [1.3]
1.4 The Lorelei Signal [1.4]
1.5 More Tribbles, More Troubles [1.5]
1.6 The Survivor [1.6]
1.7 The Infinite Vulcan [1.7]
1.8 The Magicks of Megas-tu [1.8]
1.9 Once Upon a Planet [1.9]
1.10 Mudd's Passion [1.10]
1.11 The Terratin Incident [1.11]
1.12 The Time Trap [1.12]
1.13 The Ambergris Element [1.13]
1.14 The Slaver Weapon [1.14]
1.15 The Eye of the Beholder [1.15]
1.16 The Jihad [1.16]
2.1 The Pirates of Orion [1.17]
2.2 Bem (Star Trek: The Animated Series) [1.18]
2.3 The Practical Joker [1.19]
2.4 Albatross [1.20]
2.5 How Sharper Than a Serpent's Tooth [1.21]
2.6 The Counter-Clock Incident [1.22]
3 About Star Trek: The Animated Series
4 External Links

Beyond the Farthest Star [1.1]

Yesteryear [1.2], one of our planets is missing [1.3], the lorelei signal [1.4], more tribbles, more troubles [1.5], the survivor [1.6], the infinite vulcan [1.7], the magicks of megas-tu [1.8], once upon a planet [1.9], mudd's passion [1.10], the terratin incident [1.11], the time trap [1.12], the ambergris element [1.13], the slaver weapon [1.14], the eye of the beholder [1.15], the jihad [1.16], the pirates of orion [1.17], bem (star trek: the animated series) [1.18], the practical joker [1.19], albatross [1.20], how sharper than a serpent's tooth [1.21], the counter-clock incident [1.22], about star trek: the animated series.

Associate producer Dorothy Fontana , "EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: Dorothy Fontana, Part 2" , Star Trek.com , May 19th, 2013.

Sam Richardson's Star Trek: Section 31 Role Has A Connection To The Undiscovered Country

As of this writing, Trekkies haven't been given too many details about the upcoming TV movie "Star Trek: Section 31." A recent teaser trailer revealed a lot, however . As was known, Section 31 is the shady, black ops division of Starfleet, tasked with infiltrating dangerous crime lairs or manipulating local politics to their own ends. They're the morally compromised arm of "Star Trek." In the upcoming film, the division is led by Empress Philippa Georgiou (Michelle Yeoh), who was previously a recurring character on "Star Trek: Discovery." Georgiou, to recap, was rescued from the evil "mirror" universe where she was a vicious tyrant who murdered millions. Now, after a slight redemption arc, she's been put in charge of a cadre of spies.

Said characters are a ragtag group of freelance badasses. The "Section 31" cast includes Omari Hardwick, Kacey Rohl, Sven Ruygrok, Robert Kazinsky, Humberly Gonzalez, and James Hiroyuki Liao.

Sam Richardson also appears in the movie as a member of Georgiou's team. The "I Think You Should Leave" and "Hocus Pocus 2" actor talked about his "Star Trek" role on Dax Shepard's "Armchair Expert" podcast (via Trek Movie) , disclosing that he is playing a Chameloid — a shape-shifting species not seen in the sci-fi franchise since the 1991 film "Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country." One might not recall the species' name, but one will almost certainly recall the character of Martia, played by supermodel Iman. Martia was a character James Kirk (William Shatner) and Dr. McCoy (DeForest Kelley) encountered when they had been thrown into a Klingon prison located on a distant, arctic planet. She used her shape-shifting abilities to help Kirk and McCoy escape prison, before ultimately revealing herself to be in league with the film's evil conspirators.

However, despite them being members of the same species, Richardson was a little baffled as to why his character didn't choose to look like Iman.

Chameloids are coming back to Star Trek

Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country Iman

Apart from their appearance in "Star Trek VI," little is known about Chameloids. All we know is they can shapeshift into other humanoids and perfectly imitate their voices. In "The Undiscovered Country," for example, Martia transforms into Kirk at one point, resulting in a scene where Shatner has a fistfight with himself. Chameloids are also one of many shapeshifting species in "Star Trek," a list that includes the Founders (the Changelings from "Deep Space Nine"), Allassomorphs (like the one Wesley Crusher fell in love with on "The Next Generation"), Vendorians (the squid monster from "Star Trek: The Animated Series"), and Devidians (the ones from the "Next Generation" episode "Time's Arrow"). There are also multiple species who alter their appearance using psychic manipulation or holograms. On "Star Trek," you can never really be sure you know who you're talking to.

Sam Richardson is aware he's playing the first Chameloid to appear on "Star Trek" since 1991, and his character shares one common feature with Martia: they both have bright yellow eyes. As he put it:

"So I play a physicist shapeshifter, what's called a Chameloid. This is the second time there's ever been a Chameloid in 'Star Trek.' The first time was Iman in ' Star Trek VI' [...] It's actually very funny. With Iman, it's like this is a shapeshifter, you want to look good, [so you say] 'Yeah, I'll make myself Iman.' And then for me, it's like, 'Oh good, I'm going to make myself Sam Richardson.' I'm going to accept it."

It hasn't been revealed in print yet, but Richardson noted that his character's name sounds like "Quasi." The fact that his character is a physicist also reveals that "Section 31" may boast a typical "Star Trek" style crew with a scientist, an engineer, a doctor, a diplomat, a pilot, a security officer, and a command officer. The movie isn't due until 2025, however, so this must remain in the realm of speculation for the time being.

Every STAR TREK Series, Ranked from Worst to Best

Star Trek is a pop culture franchise that just won’t quit. Now over five decades into its existence, it has outgrown its humble beginnings as a low-budget sci-fi show with a loyal cult following, and into a true cultural juggernaut. Who doesn’t know the phrases “beam me up” or “ live long and prosper? ” It’s ingrained in our collective psyche. And the franchise is going stronger than ever, with several shows currently airing. But of all these new series, and the many that came before, which one is the cream of the crop? It’s time to evaluate each of the eleven series set in the Final Frontier from the past 55 years . Here’s our ranking of every Star Trek series, from worst to best.

11. Star Trek: The Animated Series (1973-1975)

The main characters of Star Trek: The Animated Series

Yes, it’s at the bottom, but I’d never say this is a bad series. There are some smart sci-fi scripts spread throughout the show’s two-season run, notably the time-travel episode “Yesteryear,” which gave us a glimpse into Spock’s childhood. But the animation was really limited due to budget constraints, and the voice actors didn’t even record together (and it shows). We give it points for keeping the Trek flames burning in the long decade between the original series and Star Trek: The Motion Picture , but it still ranks last. If only because there’s simply not enough of it.

10. Star Trek: Lower Decks (2020-Present)

The main characters of Star Trek: Lower Decks

We’re now three seasons into the first animated Trek show since the ’70s, and also the first overtly comedic sh o w in the franchise’s history. Lower Decks centers around a second-tier starship’s junior crew, and so far, it has gained quite a cult following. The mix of irreverent humor and lovable characters has made it very endearing. It’s also very faithful to Star Trek lore (if not Star Trek storytelling sensibilities .) But the show is ultimately too fluffy to place any higher. That could change down the line of course. But for now, the crew of the U.S.S. Cerritos is near the bottom. They’re probably used to it.

9. Star Trek: Enterprise (2001-2005)

This is the fourth and last Star Trek series of the Rick Berman era. The show ran on UPN for four seasons, making it the shortest run of the modern Trek series (so far). Despite a winning cast lead by Scott Bakula as Captain Jonathan Archer, this prequel show to the original Trek felt stuck in the television tropes of the prior decade. It didn’t really even feel like a true Star Trek prequel until the show’s wonderful fourth and final season. But that season’s not enough to save the show’s legacy as a whole. Also, the theme song was pretty cringe-worthy and out of place for a Star Trek series.

8. Star Trek: Picard (2020-Present)

This live-action series saw the return of Sir Patrick Stewart as the (now retired) Jean-Luc Picard . Although the series started out promisingly , its plot about a race of artificial lifeforms was ultimately way too similar to Battlestar Galactica and Blade Runner, both of which did the same story, but better. It also showed the once-Utopian world of the 24th century as a place now filled with bitter, broken people, which was a bummer. Stewart is fantastic as always, and his inner journey helped the show remain very watchable. But the promise of a full TNG cast reunion in the third and final season could push this series much higher.

7. Star Trek: Discovery (2017-Present)

Captain Burnham and the bridge crew of Star Trek: Discovery season four.

Star Trek: Discovery is the franchise’s current “flagship show.” Four seasons in, the show is definitely a mixed bag. On the pro side: the cast—headed by Sonequa Martin-Green—is truly fantastic, and it has the best production value of any Trek to date. But like too much modern Trek , it often feels like it’s cribbing from other (more popular) franchises. Its prequel timeline/continuity was also handled messily from the get-go.

The series’ first two seasons are set about a decade before the original series. But in season three, the show went way past where any Trek has gone before, by jumping 1,000 years into the future. This was ultimately a good thing, as the journey past the prequel timeline and into an unknown future gave the show a much-needed shot in the arm. And season four further improved upon the third. Maybe with time, Discovery will move up higher on this list.

6. Star Trek: Prodigy (2021-Present)

The main characters of Star Trek: Prodigy.

Star Trek: Prodigy is the first animated all-ages Star Trek series since the 1973 Saturday morning cartoon show. Because of this, many fans dismissed it offhand before it ever aired. But Prodigy , about a group of misfit kids who commandeer a prototype Federations starship, the Protostar , in the far reaches of space, turned out to be absolutely delightful. And very true to the core, exploratory spirit of the franchise .

The camaraderie between the main cast of kids is always heartwarming, and this series has more ties to greater franchise lore than most other modern Trek shows. Of course, the addition of Kate Mulgrew as Kathryn Janeway, both the “training hologram” version, and the actual Admiral Janeway, that’s just the cherry on top. One of the best modern Star Trek shows, “kid’s show” or not.

5. Star Trek: Strange New Worlds (2022-Present)

Anson Mount as Captain Pike and Ethan Peck on Star Trek: Strange New Worlds.

It almost feels like cheating, putting a show with just one season behind it so high on this list. But so far, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is the best Trek series of the modern streaming era. It also has had the best first season of any Trek since the original series. Technically a prequel to the original show , SNW fulfills the promise of that first unaired pilot episode “The Cage,” by focusing on Captain Christopher Pike (Anson Mount) and his Number One (Rebecca Romijn). Of course, young Spock is there too, played by Ethan Peck. Together, they’ve created a new trio of instantly likable headliners.

SNW returns to the “one and done” story format of classic Trek , but gives it all a modern sheen. The color scheme and ship designs may be retro, but it’s never done in a dismissive, kitschy way. In many ways, SNW reminds us why the original format of the show, about a crew of diverse people engaged in pure exploration and diplomacy, is still the best way to go. The characters are great, the actors are great, the writing is great. So we only expect SNW to climb further up this chart as more seasons roll in, assuming they don’t drop the ball.

4. Star Trek: Voyager (1995-2001)

Let’s get this out of the way: Kate Mulgrew as Captain Janeway was a great Captain , and the rest of the cast was terrific as well. But this series never fully lived up to its premise. It was supposedly about a Federation starship lost in space, years from home. A ship with a crew made up of former enemies, now forced to work together. But you’d almost never know it watching the show, which often felt like a series desperately trying to capture the glory of the TNG years.

Many episodes of Voyager, especially in the first few seasons, felt very familiar to those that had aired just a couple of years earlier on The Next Generation . However, enough episodes scattered throughout are indeed quite terrific, but there really should be more of those for a series that lasted seven seasons. We’re glad the legacy of Voyager lives on with Seven of Nine on Picard, and with Janeway as a principal character on Prodigy.

3. Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987-1994)

The cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation

This show had everything going against it when it premiered in 1987 . How does one follow up on something as iconic as the original Star Trek ? And with all new characters and a new starship Enterprise ? Well, after a very wobbly first two seasons, the show found its footing in season three. It then became a true standout sci-fi series with dozens of classic episodes . Seasons three through seven are, in many ways, as good as this franchise gets.

Patrick Stewart is arguably the best actor ever to sit in the Captain’s chair, and the characters of Picard, Data, Worf, and the rest have all become pop culture icons. It also has one of the best series finales of any show ever. TNG represented Star Trek at its peak mainstream popularity, and no show before or since has matched its ratings power. The only reason this doesn’t rank slightly higher is that the first two seasons really are kind of a mess, and lower the value ever so slightly.

2. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993-1999)

Much like TNG before it, Deep Space Nine took about two seasons to find its footing. This despite always showcasing a stellar cast, headlined by Avery Brooks, playing the first African-American lead in a Star Trek show. But man oh man, despite the rough start, when it finally did click, it became one of the most ambitious science-fiction series ever produced for television. It did serialized, complex genre storytelling a good decade before that became the norm.

DS9 dealt with themes of religion and war and politics among the usual Star Trek tropes. Not one character was the same at the end of this series as they were at the start of it. The same can’t be said for most other shows on this list, even the best ones. It also expanded and deepened our understanding of the many different species introduced in previous Trek shows. Plus it gave us the franchise’s best villains in Gul Dukat, and later, the Dominion. This is one Trek series that broke the mold.

1. Star Trek: The Original Series (1966-1969)

The iconic cast of Star Trek, the original series.

Without Gene Roddenberry’s original series, there simply is no Star Trek franchise, period. It created the template that eight of the series that followed it picked up on. The original series was ground zero for modern nerd fandom, and it made pop culture icons of William Shatner’s Captain Kirk and Leonard Nimoy’s Mr. Spock. But beyond all that enduring cultural legacy, the character dynamic of Kirk, Spock, and McCoy remains one of the greatest ever seen in popular entertainment.

Looking back, we can see that Star Trek’s first season was nearly flawless, with almost thirty amazing episodes written by legends of the science-fiction genre. Season two is great as well, and season three is…well, it is less so. Regardless of that wonky last season though, the iconic nature of Star Trek: The Original Series , which spawned six feature films and a 21st century reboot of the characters, still wins hands down. Forget the dated music, visual effects, and occasionally cheesy acting. When it was at its best, you just couldn’t beat the original series.

Featured Image: CBS

Originally published in 2019.

Star Trek: The Animated Series

Nickelodeon

An Animated Adaptation and the first Spin-Off from the original series.

Given the reality that it was produced by Filmation , the animation is typically the studio's ultra-cheap style. However, they more than made up for that with most of the original cast and the writers as well (although Larry Niven was a tad lazy in squeezing The Soft Weapon from his Known Space universe into that of Star Trek ). The result is a show that might be badly animated, but it still boasted spectacular imagery and believably non-human aliens that the original show could never depict, while still reasonably keeping to its artistic spirit. For instance, this series took home the franchise's first Emmy Award.

However, the franchise creator, Gene Roddenberry, later insisted that the animated show be kept out of continuity since he never anticipated that Star Trek would later be revived in live action on such a scale as would happen. However, many fans insisted that at least the best episode, "Yesteryear," be counted, considering that it gives a valuable look into Spock's youth and character, as well as the planet Vulcan. Because of the information about Vulcan presented in the show, the introducing of the Holodeck and giving Kirk his middle name, many of the Star Trek writers and actors involvement in the show, many fans consider it a part of their personal Star Trek Canon . In addition, the producers of Star Trek: Enterprise have used numerous references from this series. The Expanded Universe , already having less of a need to adhere to strict canon, even went so far as to revive M'Ress and tri-symmetrical Lt. Arex .

CBS recently declared this series full canon around the time they released it on DVD.

The title used here and on the DVD release is a back-formation. The show originally aired as simply "Star Trek". It's also known by the more ponderous title of The Animated Adventures of Gene Roddenberry's Star Trek .

Tropes found in this series: [ ]

Absentee Actor : Everyone except Spock, Sulu and Uhura in "The Slaver Weapon".
A Form You Are Comfortable With : "The Magicks of Megas-Tu". The inhabitants of Megas-Tu do this for their own bodies and their planet's surface for the benefit of the Enterprise crew.
AI Is a Crapshoot : The planetary computer in "Once Upon A Planet".
Alternate Universe : "The Magicks of Megas-Tu" and "The Counter-Clock Incident".
Ancient Astronauts : Kukulcan in "How Sharper Than A Serpent's Tooth".
Animated Adaptation : The best example thereof in the 1970s.
Apocalyptic Log : "Beyond the Farthest Star". The dead ship's log entry/warning.
Artificial Gravity : "The Practical Joker" and "The Jihad".
Ascended Meme : "Beam me up, Scotty!"
Ass in Ambassador : The title character in "Bem".
Asteroid Thicket : In "The Pirates of Orion", the Enterprise pursues the Orion ship into one.
Barefoot Cartoon Animal : Lt. M'Ress.
Big Dumb Object : "Beyond The Farthest Star"
Big Red Button : "Beyond The Farthest Star". The auxiliary warp drive controls.
Bowdlerise : By German TV station ZDF .
Briar Patching : How Kirk tricks the computer in "The Practical Joker".
Broad Strokes : The timeframe this series depicts is an accepted part of Star Trek lore, but the actual details have been rearranged since.
Build Like an Egyptian : Kukulcan's city in "How Sharper Than A Serpent's Tooth".
Canon Immigrant : Larry Niven 's Kzinti and Slavers in "The Soft Weapon".
Catfolk : The Caitian Lieutenant M'Ress, as well as the Kzinti in "The Slaver Weapon".
Cat Smile : The cat-like Lieutenant M'Ress has one constantly.
Chekhov's Gun : "How Sharper Than A Serpent's Tooth". Dr. McCoy's medical kit provides a hypo to calm the Capellan Power Cat.
Cloning Blues : Spock in "The Infinite Vulcan."
Contrived Coincidence : "How Sharper Than A Serpent's Tooth". If Ensign Walking Bear hadn't been on the bridge, Kukulkan would have destroyed both the Enterprise and the entire human race.
Cool Old Guy : Captain Robert T. April in "The Counter-Clock Incident".
Creator in Joke : Captain Robert T. April in "The Counter-Clock Incident". April was the original name for the character that eventually became Kirk.
Crowning Moment Of Funny : "The Jihad" and "Bem".
Derelict Graveyard : "The Time Trap"
Detachable Lower Half : The title character in "Bem".
Detachment Combat : The title character in "Bem".
Did We Just Have Tea with Cthulhu? : "Once Upon A Planet"
Does Not Like Shoes : bios of M'Ress take pains to point this out.
Dolled-Up Installment : "The Slaver Weapon", from Larry Niven 's "The Soft Weapon".
Doomed Defeatist : Subverted with M-3-Green in "The Jihad".
Energy Beings : "Beyond The Farthest Star", "Bem"
Enthralling Siren : "The Lorelei Signal"
Everyone Is a Super : "The Magicks of Megas-Tu"
Exiled From Continuity : By Gene Roddenberry himself.
Expressive Ears : The Kzinti in "The Slaver Weapon".
Expospeak Gag : Between Spock and McCoy.
Filming for Easy Dub
Fish People : "The Ambergris Element"
Five Year Plan : TOS's three seasons plus the animated series' two seasons.
Follow the Leader : Space Battleship Yamato borrowed from "Beyond The Farthest Star".
For Want of a Nail : "Yesteryear"
Forgotten Phlebotinum : The "life support belts".
Fountain of Youth : The reverse-entropy universe in "The Counter-Clock Incident".
Four-Fingered Hands : Spock, in a blooper in "Yesteryear".
Furry Fandom : Lt. M'Ress was a Fetish Fuel character for many early Furries.
Giant Flyer : "The Infinite Vulcan" and "The Eye of the Beholder".
Girl's Night Out Episode : "The Lorelei Signal"
God Guise : Keniclius 5 with the Phylosians in "The Infinite Vulcan" and Kukulkan by the ancient Mayans in "How Sharper Than A Serpent's Tooth".
Grandfather Paradox : Spock in "Yesteryear".
Haunted Technology : The Enterprise computer in "The Practical Joker".
Healing Hands : "The Infinite Vulcan". Spock's clone revives his original with a mind meld.
Holodeck Malfunction : "The Practical Joker". McCoy, Uhura and Sulu are trapped in it.
Hollywood Psych : "Mudd's Passion" mixes up two types of love: friendship and eros.
Human Aliens : Although there are still a fair few, this show took advantage of the animated format to avert the trope whenever they could and come up with more divergent alien designs.
Humanity on Trial : "The Magicks of Megas-Tu"
Improbably High IQ : The Lactrans in "The Eye of the Beholder". A six year old Lactran has an IQ in the thousands.
In Space Everyone Can See Your Face : Life-support belts
Incredible Shrinking Man : "The Terratin Incident"
Indy Hat Roll : In "Once Upon A Planet" Captain Kirk leaps through a sliding rock door in the side of a mountain just before it closes.
Instant AI, Just Add Water : The planetary computer in "Once Upon A Planet" develops artificial intelligence on its own.
Intelligent Gerbil : The Kzinti in "The Slaver Weapon" and the Caitian M'Ress.
It Belongs in a Museum : Lt. Sulu in "The Slaver Weapon". Spock sets him straight.
Just Between You and Me : Charr in "The Jihad".
Life Drinker : "The Lorelei Signal". The women of the planet Taurus II drain the Life Energy of men to maintain their youth, causing Rapid Aging in the men.
Limited Animation
Limited Wardrobe
Losing Your Head : The title character in "Bem".
Lotus Eater Machine : Kukulcan's zoo animals in "How Sharper Than A Serpent's Tooth".
Louis Cypher : Lucien in "The Magicks of Megas-Tu"
Love Potion : "Mudd's Passion"
MacGuffin : The "Soul of Alar" artifact in "The Jihad"
Meaningful Name : Bem, which means "Bug Eyed Monster" in SF fandom.
Mega Neko : The Kzinti in The Slaver Weapon", as well as Lieutenant M'Ress.
Merlin Sickness : "The Counter-Clock Incident"
The Mole : Charr in "The Jihad".
Morph Weapon : The title device in "The Slaver Weapon".
Mr. Exposition : Ensign Walking Bear in "How Sharper Than A Serpent's Tooth".
My Future Self and Me : Spock in "Yesteryear."
Neglectful Precursors : The Slavers' stasis boxes.
Never Say "Die" : Actively averted. , which became a rather large source of controversy in the episode "Yesteryear"
No MacGuffin, No Winner : The end of "The Slaver Weapon".
No One Gets Left Behind : Kirk and Spock in "The Jihad".
Novelization : The animated episodes were novelized by Alan Dean Foster .
Now Do It Again Backwards : How the computer is repaired in "The Practical Joker".
Ocean Punk : "The Ambergris Element"
Opening Narration : An animated version of the one in Star Trek: The Original Series .
Patchwork Map : "The Eye of the Beholder"
Patchwork World : "The Eye of the Beholder"
People Zoo : "The Eye of the Beholder"
Petting Zoo People : Lieutenant M'Ress
The Plague : "Albatross," "The Infinite Vulcan."
Planet Eater : "One Of Our Planets Is Missing"
Plant Aliens : The Phylosians in "The Infinite Vulcan."
Pleasure Planet : "Once Upon A Planet"
Portal to the Past : The Guardian of Forever in "Yesteryear".
Psychic Static : Used to defeat the Kzinti telepath in "The Slaver Weapon".
The Quest : The hunt for the "Soul of Alar" artifact in "The Jihad."
Rapid Aging : What the Life Energy draining by the women of Taurus II does to men in "The Lorelei Signal".
Reality Is Out to Lunch : The planet Megas-Tu in "The Magicks of Megas-Tu".
Reality Warper : The inhabitants of the title planet in "The Magicks of Megas-Tu".
Recursive Adaptation : "The Slaver Weapon".
Replacement Goldfish : Carter Winston.
Ret-Gone : Spock in "Yesteryear."
Ripple-Effect-Proof Memory : Only Spock and Kirk remember the original timeline in "Yesteryear."
Rite of Passage : The Vulcan kahs-wan in "Yesteryear".
Robo Speak : Any computer voice done by James Doohan.
Rotoscoping : How the animation of the USS Enterprise was created.
Sequel Episode : "Mudd's Passion", "More Tribbles, More Troubles" and "Yesteryear", to Star Trek: The Original Series episodes.
Sdrawkcab Name : The retlaw plant in "The Infinite Vulcan" and the planet Arret in "The Counter-Clock Incident".
Sealed Evil in a Can : "Beyond The Farthest Star"
Secret Test : "The Magicks of Megas-Tu". The Megans test the Enterprise crew to verify their good intentions.
Self Destructing Security : "The Slaver Weapon". The title device tricks the Kzinti into using a self-destruct setting to destroy it...and them.
Single Biome Planet : A Volcano Planet in "The Jihad".
Snake Oil Salesman : Harry Mudd in "Mudd's Passion", Cyrano Jones in "More Tribbles, More Troubles"
Space Pirates : "The Pirates of Orion"
Spaceship Girl : The Enterprise computer in "The Practical Joker".
Spiritual Successor : "One Of Our Planets Is Missing" to TOS episode "The Immunity Syndrome".
Stable Time Loop : "Yesteryear"
Starfish Aliens : Edosians, Vendorians, Phylosians, Lactrans and M/3/Green.
Steal the Surroundings : In "The Terratin Incident", an entire miniaturized city is beamed aboard the Enterprise in order quickly to save the inhabitants from impending doom.
Sufficiently Advanced - "Bem", "The Eye of the Beholder" and "The Jihad".
Suspiciously Similar Substitute : Arex, to Chekov.
Swiss Army Weapon : "The Slaver Weapon"
Talking to Himself : Characters voiced by Majel Barrett and James Doohan.
Tie-in Novel : Alan Dean Foster wrote adaptations of the episodes, and many Trek novels referenced it.
Temporal Paradox : "Yesteryear"
The Time Traveller's Dilemma : Thelen the Andorian in "Yesteryear".
Title: the Adaptation
Two of Your Earth Minutes : "The Lorelei Signal"
Voluntary Shapeshifting : The Vendorian in "The Survivor."
"Well Done, Son" Guy : Spock and Sarek
Who Wants to Live Forever? : The alien women in "The Lorelei Signal".
Winged Humanoid : The Skorr show up in several episodes.
Witch Species : "The Magicks of Megas-Tu"
World of Chaos : The planet in "The Magicks of Megas-Tu" and the so-called "Mad Planet" in "Jihad".
Year Outside, Hour Inside : This occurs in the title area in "The Time Trap".
You Are in Command Now : Lt. Uhura in "The Lorelei Signal" (something which never happened on the live-action show).
You Can See That, Right? : Kirk to Spock in "The Time Trap" when the Klingon battlecruiser disappears.

Provides aversions of: [ ]

Regardless, Filmation didn't let the concept of kid sidekicks in space go to waste and created the live action series, Space Academy , a few years later.
1 Gibo/Characters
2 Buxom Is Better

Cast & crew
User reviews
Episode aired Sep 14, 1974

Leonard Nimoy, William Shatner, and James Doohan in Star Trek: The Animated Series (1973)

The Enterprise crew is being observed to evaluate their suitability to meet with advanced civilizations. The Enterprise crew is being observed to evaluate their suitability to meet with advanced civilizations. The Enterprise crew is being observed to evaluate their suitability to meet with advanced civilizations.

Hal Sutherland
Gene Roddenberry
David Gerrold
D.C. Fontana
William Shatner
Leonard Nimoy
DeForest Kelley
6 User reviews
5 Critic reviews

(credit only)

Nurse Chapel

All cast & crew
Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

Did you know

Trivia This is the first time that Captain James T. Kirk's middle name of Tiberius, a name first listed in written Star Trek (1966) guides, is revealed onscreen. Although Star Trek: The Animated Series was not considered canon by Gene Roddenberry , many writers of later series helped to canonize several of the show's elements, and the name Tiberius was finally confirmed in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991) . David Gerrold would jokingly tell fans that Tiberius was a reference to Robert Graves ' "I, Claudius". The name spread amongst fans, and Gerrold added it to the script after approval from Roddenberry. The movie Star Trek (2009) would later provide a backstory to the origin of the name: Tiberius was Kirk's paternal grandfather.
Goofs After Bem swaps the communicators for fakes, Kirk is shown using his as if it were his usual communicator.

Capt. Kirk : [stuck in a wooden cage] How come we always end up like this?

Mr. Spock : I assume that's a rhetorical question, Captain, not requiring an answer.

Connections Featured in Drawn to the Final Frontier (2006)

User reviews 6

Mar 31, 2017
September 14, 1974 (United States)
United States
Official site
Filmation Associates
Norway Productions
See more company credits at IMDbPro

Technical specs

Runtime 24 minutes

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10 Best Star Trek Parodies of All Time in Lower Decks

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Star Trek Actors Band Together to Save Lower Decks

Primetime emmy awards 2024: full winners list, game of thrones: how was the wall built.

The following contains spoilers from Star Trek: Lower Decks , Season 4, now streaming on Paramount+ .

Star Trek: Lower Decks is first and foremost a parody of Star Trek itself. The series is formal canon, aided by the emotional honesty of the characters despite their wacky adventures. It takes great joy at using that status to dig up the more embarrassing parts of the franchise's past, and does so with the affection of a true fan. But its observations cut no less deeply for it.

Among Lower Decks' best parodies include both direct plot connections (such as the Season 4 finale) and throwaway gags about some of the franchise's periodic misfires. These are among the funniest pokes at the franchise, which include both big jokes and small ones, all of which target a specific element found earlier in Star Trek history.

10 Disappointed Romulans

Season 4, episode 5, "empathological fallacies".

The Romulan Neutral Zone has been one of the franchise's go-to sources of dramatic tension from the beginning. It's a buffer of space between the Federation and the Romulan Star Empire that must not be entered under threat of war. The line in the galactic sand instantly ups the ante of whatever else is going on in a given episode. "Empathological Fallacies" sends it up with a single well-timed joke at the end of the episode.

With the Cerritos crew largely incapacitated, Captain Freeman takes control and reverses course just before entering the Neutral Zone. As they depart, a Romulan warship decloaks behind them and the crew lets out a collective groan of disappointment. The captain orders the ship to another sector, promising "we'll lurk over there" like a parent offering ice cream on the way home from the dentist. They truly enjoy being sneaky.

9 The Alien Not-Puppet

Season 4, episode 9, "the inner fight".

Star Trek: Lower Decks Sets Up a Character-Centric Finale

"The Inner Fight" focuses primarily on Mariner, offering startling information on her background and the reason she remains a perennial ensign. But the subplot concerns Captain Freeman seeking information on a person of interest. She comes across an information broker in a bar who looks for all the world like an animatronic puppet, only to learn otherwise when she picks him up and gives him a violent shake.

The gag works because of the context. The same alien appears as an actual puppet in Star Trek: The Original Series Season 1, Episode 11, "The Corbomite Maneuver." It's used by more benevolent beings to test the motives of Captain Kirk and the Enterprise a la The Wizard of Oz . Lower Decks makes Oz the Great and Terrible all-too real, and yet still extremely non-threatening. A still of the puppet appears at the very end of the Original Series Season 2 closing credits, making it particularly recognizable to long-time fans.

8 Giant Spock

Season 2, episode 2, "kayshon, his eyes open".

Star Trek: The Animated Series has always been a bit of a redheaded stepchild, with wacky plots and wild aliens aimed strictly at the younger market. That includes a giant clone of Spock, created in Season 1, Episode 7, "The Infinite Vulcan" by a mad scientist hoping to enforce peace and prosperity throughout the galaxy. Dubbed "Spock Two," he saves the original Spock's life via a mind-meld, and opts to remain with his creator at the end of the episode.

"Kayshon, His Eyes Open" witnesses the Lower Deckers cataloging a late Collector's horde, which includes a treasure trove of Easter eggs from previous franchise entries. The topper is Spock Two's giant skeleton -- complete with uniform -- hanging in the rafters, which collapses and blocks the crew's escape. The visual comes with a wink: the bones are still canon, as are all the other weird details in The Animated Series. Lower Decks never tires of going to that well for inspiration.

7 Voyager: "S**t Got Weird"

Season 4, episode 1, "twovix".

Star Trek: Voyager had a habit of swinging for the fences, which produced some bizarre misfires as well as its share of classic episodes. Lower Decks dedicates its fourth season premiere to Voyager's weirdest plot twists, as the Cerritos has to escort the vessel itself to its place in the Starfleet museum, only to find all manner of dormant threats still lurking onboard. That includes a type of cheese that once affected Voyager's systems, as well as a giant "macrovirus," Borg nanites, several holographic villains, and animatronic versions the infamous space salamanders from Voyager Season 2, Episode 15, "Threshold."

The topper, however, comes with the central plot, in which the Cerritos inadvertently recreates the transporter accident that merged Tuvok and Neelix into a single being in Voyager Season 2, Episode 24, "Tuvix." That episode presented one of Star Trek's greatest moral dilemmas, as Janeway decided to "kill" the conjoined Tuvix in order to restore the two crewmen lost. Lower Decks parodies that dilemma by "Tuvixing" almost the entire crew only to merge them into a giant blob that Tendi and T'Lyn have to untangle. But the biggest gag comes when Freeman checks the record. Convinced that Janeway pulled a miracle out of her hat to resolve the issue, Captain Freeman learned to her chagrin that "she just murdered him."

6 "Do NOT Obey"

Season 1, episode 10, "no small parts".

Lower Decks Upends One of Star Trek's Favorite Tropes

The Cerritos' specialty is "second contact," arriving on a given planet after another ship has made first contact and attending to the boring logistical issues. This allows Lower Decks to tweak Starfleet's in-world lack of follow-through, created by The Original Series' format of stand-alone episodes that were typical of network television at the time. It's led to some of the new show's best gags, topped by a very simple joke at the beginning of "No Small Parts."

The Cerritos returns to the planet of Beta III, which Kirk's Enterprise visited in The Original Series Season 1, Episode 22, "Return of the Archons." The people there were under the control of a computer called Landru, which Kirk destroys with a logic trick. "No Small Parts" finds the Cerritos returning a century later to find that the citizens have reactivated Landru and returned to their former way of life. They solve the problem with a stern lecture and a giant sticker with the Starfleet delta that reads "Do NOT Obey." (In Kirk's defense, he did leave a team of specialists behind at the end of "Return of the Archons.")

5 The Gary Mitchell Cure

Season 2, episode 1, "strange energies".

"Strange Energies" takes aim at a common Star Trek storyline: a crew member obtaining god-like powers. In this case, it's Commander Ransom, who ultimately manifests as a gigantic (and massively insecure) head that threatens to destroy the Cerritos. In one of the series' most gleefully ribald moments, Mariner saves the day by repeatedly kicking him in the groin until he goes down.

The episode directly references one of its biggest targets: Gary Mitchell, the Enterprise helmsman who became a god -- and a threat -- in Season 1, Episode 3, "Where No Man Has Gone Before." The episode ends on a bit of a head-scratcher, as Kirk stops the supposedly omnipotent Mitchell by burying him under rocks. According to "Strange Energies," that has evolved into a formal medical procedure: with Ransom down, Dr. T'Ana completes his return to normal by dropping a big rock on him.

4 Circling Deep Space Nine

Season 3, episode 6, "hear all, trust nothing".

"Hear All, Trust Nothing" contains few direct digs at Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, despite being set onboard the station. It's intended as an affectionate homage, and largely plays straight with figures like Colonel Kira and Quark. The Lower Decks crew provides the bulk of the humor in their inimitable fashion, as Boimler wins big at the dabo table and Tendi has to deal with a presumptuous Orion security officer.

The big joke comes early in the episode, and takes aim at Deep Space Nine's opening credits. The sweeping camera shots and grandeur of the soundtrack contrast sharply with the station's in-world status as a grubby former Cardassian mining facility. When Freeman needs to buy time to read up on the surprise assignment they've just been handed, a glum Commander Ransom orders the ship to slowly circle the station "and pretend we're in awe of the pylons."

3 3. The Tom Paris Plate

Season 2, episode 3, "we'll always have tom paris".

Why Lower Decks' Obscure Villain Sounds Like Tom Paris

Star Trek fans aren't immune from the occasional ribbing on Lower Decks, never more so than "We'll Always Have Tom Paris." Voyager's stalwart pilot has become a celebrity, along with the rest of his crew upon their return from the Delta Quadrant. A visit to the Cerritos elicits squeals of joy from Boimler, who hopes Paris will sign his vintage collector's plate.

It all goes wrong in the usual Lower Decks way, as Boimler first hallucinates the plate talking to him, then gets knocked silly by the real Paris who mistakes him for a Kazon. But the real target is overenthusiastic Trekkies, as well as ancillary Star Trek products which can get pretty weird sometimes. Ironically, fans have proven such good sports about the whole thing that real-life replicas of the Tom Paris plate are now official merchandise.

2 Peanut Hamper

Star Trek: The Next Generation scores a late-inning hit with Season 6, Episode 9, "The Quality of Life," in which Data protects a group of robots dubbed "exocomps" whom he believes have attained sentience. Designed to perform maintenance tasks aboard a starship, they quickly evolve into something more, demonstrating selflessness and free will.

Lower Decks turns the entire notion on its ear with Peanut Hamper, an exocomp who joins Starfleet before abandoning her duties in a fit of pique. She's since become one of the series' big antagonists, though she apparently reforms her ways at last in Season 4, Episode 7, "A Few Badgeys More." Mostly she's just a selfish jerk, which -- as Lower Deck's slyly observes -- is one of the options for beings with free will. There's always a bad apple or two.

1 The Most Important Person in Starfleet History

Season 1, episode 3, "temporal edict".

Miles O'Brien is the epitome of the Lower Decks ethos: a cheerful worker bee anonymously doing all the little things so the bridge officers can stand tall. His recurring status as the Enterprise-D's transporter chief gave The Next Generation the opportunity to explore family life onboard the ship, as he married his wife Keiko and had children together. Deep Space Nine made him a regular cast member, but even then, he was still a resolute Lower Deckie: holding a noncommissioned rank and generally acting as the station's Mr. Fixit.

"Temporal Edict" honors his work ethic (ironically in an episode about the dangers of overwork) with a flash-forward into the Federation's far future. A classroom full of children learns about "the most important person in Starfleet history," who turns out to be O'Brien. Worker bees never get the glory, but they always get the job done: something Lower Decks embodies with every episode.

Star Trek: Lower Decks

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Star Trek: The Original Series

Star Trek is the first show in the Star Trek franchise. After the release of multiple spinoff series and movies, it has been retroactively called Star Trek: The Original Series to differentiate it from the franchise as a whole.

The origin of the show came when Gene Roddenberry was looking to write hard-hitting political and moral commentary and could not do so with the regular dramas of the time. He deduced that by creating a science fiction show borrowing heavily from the film Forbidden Planet , he could slip in such commentary disguised as metaphors for the various current events. As such he pitched Star Trek to the networks as a merging of the two most popular genres of the time, science fiction anthologies and Westerns . note Notably, he pitched it as " Wagon Train IN SPACE ", not " Wagon Train To The Stars ".

While troublesome to produce, the show was a major Trope Maker , especially in Science Fiction (each of the three main characters has a trope named after them, and that's just for starters!). The cast was a dynamic mix of ethnicities and cultures, and while the focus was nearly always on Kirk , Spock and McCoy , they still had a Russian , an Asian and a black African woman in positions of responsibility, authority and respect , despite recent , brewing or ongoing conflicts concerning people of those ethnicities in Real Life . According to the cast members, near everyone in Hollywood wanted to be a part of Star Trek because of the steps forward it was making. In particular, George Takei said that almost every Asian actor wanted to be Sulu because they wouldn't be required to use an Asian accent or engage in Asian martial arts, instead breaking cultural stigma by being a practitioner of European fencing. note Takei facetiously put down fencing on his resume so he wouldn't be given a katana; once it came up in the script, he got a crash course the weekend before filming. He remains an avid fencer to this day. This also resulted in attracting multiple high-profile guest stars and guest writers, including Harlan Ellison , Theodore Sturgeon and Richard Matheson . Plots varied widely in quality from episode to episode and from season to season, depending upon who was writing and/or directing. An episode chosen at random can be anything from high camp to geopolitical allegory to genuinely intelligent drama, and is likely to be at least two out of those three .

In some ways the show was way ahead of its time ; in other ways, it is a product of its time . The women usually (but not always) appeared in the roles of assistants and secretaries , wearing go-go boots and miniskirts. note At least some of that was due to Executive Meddling ; additionally, Grace Lee Whitney has mentioned that the female regulars objected to initial efforts to have them wear pants because they preferred showing off their legs . Whitney and Nichelle Nichols were both professional dancers, and Nichols used to whipstitch her skirt shorter in between takes because she thought it was too long, leading to a few shots where you can see her matching panties . While the visual design of the show was ambitious, the actual production quality has not aged well.

The show did have some developmental history before it came to air. The original Trek pilot featured Captain Pike played by Jeffrey Hunter , and Majel Barrett as his first officer . The pilot was praised by the network as great science fiction, but was considered " too cerebral " for the target audience and not as action-packed as the network wanted to market it . This resulted in a near entire-cast replacement for a second pilot episode, except for Spock. In fact, Doctor McCoy didn't appear until after the second pilot was filmed. However, that first pilot has remained as part of the franchise canon and did not go to waste—Roddenberry used a lot of it for the series' only two-parter, " The Menagerie ," which proved a Hugo science fiction award winner, and the pilot has been included in various releases of the series. Captain Pike himself was recast in Star Trek (2009) by Bruce Greenwood , and played by Anson Mount in the second season of Star Trek: Discovery (with Rebecca Romijn as Number One, Ethan Peck as Spock, and the Enterprise herself), wherein afterwards Pike received his own show called Star Trek: Strange New Worlds , coming full circle.

While the show was considered popular with general audiences note the actors and studio were flooded with mail, and there was a huge amount of tie-in merchandise almost immediately and plenty of demand for more , the Nielsen ratings branded it a flop . Star Trek barely managed three seasons before being officially canceled, with a close call on the second season . Within a few weeks of its cancellation was the monumental first Moon Landing , and as a result the subsequent reruns of Star Trek were more popular than the original run . Television was also changing at the time, starting to account for demographics along with overall ratings, and found that Star Trek had snagged the most coveted 18–35 male group that nearly every show was aiming for. Star Trek conventions were jammed with thousands of dedicated fans, and seeing the potential for a revisit led into production for a new TV series. The first attempt was Star Trek: The Animated Series in 1973, which suffered from Filmation 's cheap production values, but more than compensated by having most of the original cast, note Of the main seven, only Walter Koenig did not appear, although he wrote an episode , and some of the writers, producing a great series that earned the franchise's first Emmy Award. Later in the decade, in the hope of creating a Paramount television network, a new Star Trek series was developed, dubbed Star Trek: Phase II . After Paramount's owner ditched the network plan, the intended pilot was reworked into the first Star Trek feature film , Star Trek: The Motion Picture , in 1979, after the monumental success of Star Wars . This led to an ongoing film series, the success of which led to the Sequel Series in 1987, Star Trek: The Next Generation , and another 18 straight years of Star Trek on television.

The subtitle "The Original Series" is a Retronym used solely for commercial clarification once Star Trek: The Next Generation came out. It has always been referred to as Star Trek in its own opening sequence.

Shatner returned to Paramount Television (which succeeded Desilu Studios as the show's production company during the second season) in 1975 for the series Barbary Coast , which was not nearly as successful as Star Trek , lasting only one season. Nimoy also continued with PTV after Star Trek ended, joining the cast of Mission: Impossible , which also began under Desilu.

Common plots:

Something will threaten the ship and wreak havoc with the crew, either by harming them directly , manipulating laws of physics/reality or screwing with people's minds .
Kirk leads a landing party to a planet with a single major defining element in their culture . Commonly, it will be a society that perfectly mirrors one from Earth's history . note No need to build new sets for an alien planet when you can just shoot a local city street and reuse props designed for the Roman Empire! Their hosts rudely steal their communicators and phasers, usually because they just can't bear to let them leave . Lots of running around and fistfights ensue. Expect at least one Red Shirt to bite the dust. At the end, Kirk gives a speech to point out what's wrong with the planet's culture . Alternatively, the people on the planet will be a worshipping a " god " who turns out to be a computer that controls every aspect of its citizens’ lives . Kirk will then destroy it to emancipate them, acknowledging that while their new life may become equally dangerous , freedom is a right that should never be sacrificed .

Character profiles and roles in the script:

Spock ( Leonard Nimoy ): The ship's exec and Science Officer , in charge of all scientific departments. His Human-Vulcan heritage was intended as an emphasis that we are out in space and alien people are common. While he is very emotionally reserved as a matter of Vulcan cultural tradition , in truth, he is as human as much as he is Vulcan . As a child, he was bullied for his mixed heritage , causing him to occasionally act in rejection of his human half (Thus, calling him "cold-blooded" or "unfeeling" will result in him thanking you for the "compliment"). But he is not as cold as he seems .
Leonard "Bones" McCoy ( DeForest Kelley ): Chief Medical Officer , The Heart , and The Watson . The least "military" person on the ship. Given a Promotion to Opening Titles in the second season.
Montgomery "Scotty" Scott ( James Doohan ): The Chief Engineer from Scotland , both a reliable officer and daring in battle .
Hikaru Sulu ( George Takei ): A compulsive hobbyist (botany, gun collecting, fencing) and a Fan of the Past . The ship's helmsman , again an almost unthinkable position then for a minority, especially an Asian .

Christine Chapel ( Majel Barrett ): Ship's nurse in Mad Love with Spock. Given The Cameo in a couple of the films.
Yeoman Janice Rand ( Grace Lee Whitney ): Ms. Fanservice with a Beehive Hairdo . The original Bridge Bunny literally — early reviews of the series called her a "Playboy Bunny–type waitress." She was supposed to be one of numerous yeomen, a "succession of young actresses, always lovely". The yeomen served Kirk as an executive secretary, valet and military aide and were supposed to be treated as completely equal with men of the same rank. Rand and Kirk had Unresolved Sexual Tension until she fell victim to Chuck Cunningham Syndrome . note By her own account, she was raped by an "executive" attached to the show — her description fits Roddenberry himself — and subsequently fired. Given The Cameo in a few of the films.
Harcourt Fenton "Harry" Mudd (Roger C. Carmel): The Trickster , Con Man , and all-around scoundrel, Mudd was the focus of two episodes, and another in the animated series .
Cyrano Jones: A more affable, less competent Trickster than Harry, who likewise reappears in an episode of the animated series .
Khan Noonien Singh: An Affably Evil Human Popsicle and Designer Baby Übermensch who was once an Evil Overlord . Though he only appeared in one episode , he later became The Unfettered of the second movie .

This series provides examples of the following tropes:

Video example(s):.

The Church of Trek

In Futurama, the Star Trek fandom grew from easy-to-punch nerds to a religious cult that influenced countries, eventually getting to the point that world leaders executed Trekkies en mass and scrubbed every known existence of Star Trek from public knowlege.

Example of: Parody Religion

Star Trek Nazi ...

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That's Assuming...

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Edith Keeler Mu...

Absolute Power

Alternative Title(s): Star Trek 1966

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Characters in Star Trek: The Animated Series
Star Trek: The Animated Series S1E4 "The Lorelei Signal" Recap
Heartwarming Moments in Star Trek: The Animated Series
Star Trek: The Animated Series
Awesome Moments in Star Trek: The Animated Series
Star Trek: The Animated Series (TV Series 1973–1975)

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Star trek animated series credits (restored version)
Uncovering Star Trek's Lost Series: Phase 2
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Star Trek: To Seek out New Life
Star Trek TAS Communicator and Concept Comm
Yesteryear

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Star Trek: The Animated Series (Western Animation)
The Animated Series remains the shortest-lived series of the Star Trek franchise, with just 22 episodes airing over a 13-month period in 1973-74 on NBC. It was also the last Trek series to air in first-run on network television until Star Trek: Voyager debuted in 1995 on UPN. The franchise would not return to the medium of animation again until ...
Characters in Star Trek: The Animated Series
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The animated series introduced a three-armed, three-legged, long-necked, alien member of the bridge crew, named Arex, and a cat-like alien crew member named M'Ress. the crew. a 1973 letter by David Gerrold encouraging fans support the show by passing this flyer on to fan clubs and other places, to write letters.
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S1.E9 ∙ Once Upon a Planet. Sat, Nov 3, 1973. Upon returning to the amusement park planet, the Enterprise crew finds the computer, which generates the planet's sophisticated robots, running amok, with the caretaker nowhere to be found. 6.2/10 (783) Rate. Watch options.
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Star Trek: The Original Series (Series)
Star Trek conventions were jammed with thousands of dedicated fans, and seeing the potential for a revisit led into production for a new TV series. The first attempt was Star Trek: The Animated Series in 1973, which suffered from Filmation's cheap production values, but more than compensated by having most of the original cast, note , and some ...
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Star Trek: The Animated Series

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Starring the voices of [ ]

Also starring the voices of [ ]

Episode list [ ]

Season 2 [ ]

Background information [ ]

The first recordings [ ]

Emmy win [ ]

Questionable canon and reintegration [ ]

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Star Trek: The Animated Series

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Star Trek: The Animated Series

Beyond the Farthest Star [1.1]

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Sam Richardson's Star Trek: Section 31 Role Has A Connection To The Undiscovered Country

Chameloids are coming back to Star Trek

Every STAR TREK Series, Ranked from Worst to Best

11. Star Trek: The Animated Series (1973-1975)

10. Star Trek: Lower Decks (2020-Present)

9. Star Trek: Enterprise (2001-2005)

8. Star Trek: Picard (2020-Present)

7. Star Trek: Discovery (2017-Present)

6. Star Trek: Prodigy (2021-Present)

5. Star Trek: Strange New Worlds (2022-Present)

4. Star Trek: Voyager (1995-2001)

3. Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987-1994)

2. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993-1999)

1. Star Trek: The Original Series (1966-1969)

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Star Trek: The Animated Series

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Star Trek Actors Band Together to Save Lower Decks

10 Disappointed Romulans

9 The Alien Not-Puppet

8 Giant Spock

7 Voyager: "S**t Got Weird"

6 "Do NOT Obey"

5 The Gary Mitchell Cure

4 Circling Deep Space Nine

3 3. The Tom Paris Plate

2 Peanut Hamper

1 The Most Important Person in Starfleet History

Star Trek: The Original Series

Common plots:

Character profiles and roles in the script:

This series provides examples of the following tropes:

Alternative Title(s): Star Trek 1966

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