If you don’t like Star Trek already, you’re going to hate this even more.
Boldly going where no cartoon has gone before.
Star Trek: The Animated Series, much like the Original Series, doesn’t hold up well when you compare it to present day technology. If you watch a Pixar movie and then try to watch an episode of Star Trek: The Animated Series, you may find yourself turning it off after five minutes. Let’s face it, we’re spoiled by new technology. Could you Windows 7 users go back to DOS? How many of you even know what DOS is? Before you judge the show too harshly, keep in mind that this show was the first Star Trek series to win an Emmy award.
Star Trek: The Animated Series was aired in 1973-1974 and featured voice acting from some of the original cast. William Shatner (Kirk), Leonard Nimoy (Spock), Deforest Kelley (Dr. McCoy), James Doohan (Scotty), and Majel Barrett (Nurse Chapel) were originally picked to voice all of the actors, however Nimoy refused to be a part of the show unless they brought Nichelle Nichols (Uhura) and George Takei (Sulu) on board. Walter Koenig (Chekov) was removed from the show altogether due to budget cuts but did become the first Star Trek actor to write a Star Trek episode. In case you were wondering (of course you were), that episode was “Infinite Vulcan”.
Chekov was replaced by two made up characters, Lieutenant Arex (a three-armed, three-legged monstrosity) and Lieutenant M’Ress, a catlike creature who purrs every other sentence.
I watched a few episodes again recently and I have to say, for an animated show (aka cartoon) that was aired in the 1970s, it’s not bad. It helps if you’re a Star Trek fan already and are able to keep an open mind. Then again, I’d completely understand if you tried watching the show and weren’t able to get past the first episode. I recently tried getting into Doctor Who, Farscape, and Babylon 5 and every single time I rolled my eyes so hard they ended up falling outside.
Those looking to try watching it are in luck, you can watch it on Netflix if you subscribe to the service. They also reformatted the show onto DVD, a step up from the VHS tapes I currently own.
Maybe, if you’re lucky, I’ll cover an episode or two in a future post. Lucky you.