Product Description

Boldly continuing where Star Trek: The Original Series left off, these animated adventures chart the progress of Captain Kirk and his crew in a universe unconstrained by "real-life" cinematography! With all characters voiced by their original actors, join Kirk, Spock, Bones and the crew for 22 new adventures: to boldly go where no animation has gone before!

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #8658 in DVD
• Brand: Paramount
• Released on: 2006-11-21
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: AC-3, Box set, Color, Dolby, DVD, Full Screen, Subtitled, NTSC
• Original language: English, Spanish
• Subtitled in: English, Spanish, Portuguese
• Number of discs: 4
• Dimensions: .85 pounds
• Running time: 526 minutes

Amazon.com
Star Trek: The Animated Series is often referred to as Star Trek's "fourth season" because it was created in 1973, four years after the third and final season of the original series, and because most of the original cast provided the voices. William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley, James Doohan, Nichelle Nichols, George Takei, and Majel Barrett reprised their characters, and some contributed other voices as well. The only major omission was Walter Koenig's Chekov, who was replaced at the navigation console by Lieutenant Arex, the three-armed alien who most prominently represented the series' freedom to create non-humanoid characters. (Koenig did write an episode.) And while the animation is crude at best, the stories are solid sci-fi (penned by some of Star Trek's veteran writers including DC Fontana and David Gerrold, all of whom received prominent opening credits), explored the Star Trek mythos, and elevated the series above typical Saturday-morning fare. For example, "Yesteryear" goes back to Spock's early years on Vulcan, continuing some explorations from the original series' "Journey to Babel," and offers the familiar voice of Mark Lenard as Sarek. "One of Our Planets Is Missing" raises some interesting philosophical questions about the value of life, and "More Tribbles, More Troubles" and "Mudd's Passion" revisit favorite characters. Star Trek: The Animated Series lasted just barely over one season, but it won the franchise's only Emmy (for Outstanding Entertainment Children's Series in 1975) and some of its ideas were embraced by future series. Trekkers who know it only by reputation will find it a valuable part of the Star Trek canon. In addition to the series' 22 half-hour episodes, the DVD set includes "Drawn to the Final Frontier: The Making of Star Trek: The Animated Series," a 24-minute featurette including interviews with the producers and writers (but not actors) on how the series was created and why it still holds up; "What's the Star Trek Connection?", a glossary of characters and themes common to the animated series and other series; a storyboard gallery; and a brief text history. Writer David Gerrold and producer David Wise contribute audio commentaries on three and one episode, respectively, and the ever-reliable Michael Okuda and Denise Okuda provide text commentary on three other episodes. --David Horiuchi

Customer Reviews

These are the Animated voyages...
After NBC cancelled the original Star Trek series in 1969 for its second time, it seemed doubtful that the voyages of the Starship Enterprise would resume again until Filmation resurrected the original cast (with the notable exception of Walter Koenig) on September 8, 1973 for the Animated Series. William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelly, James Doohan, Nichelle Nichols, George Takei and Majel Barrett lent their vocal talents to bring their familiar characters back to the small screen in addition to a few new bridge officers: Lt. Arex, a three-armed and legged alien of the Edo species voiced by James Doohan, and Lt. M'Ress a Caitian cat-woman with Majel Barrett purring her alluring voice. With most of the original crew onboard, the five-year mission would boldly go on for at least 22 more episodes of continuing missions. While it is generally regarded as non-canon among Trekkies (even Gene Rodenberry himself rejected the notion that TAS was canon and even the Stardates are inconsistent with those established in the original series) the animated series still contributed some reverent facts to the legacy of the enduring franchise including the revelation of Captain James T. Kirk's middle name as 'Tiberius' and the establishment of the first holodeck (known as the 'Rec Room') in the episode "The Practical Joker" which would serve as an important narrative device for The Next Generation. Walter Koenig would still contribute to the series as a writer for the episode "The Infinite Vulcan" and alumnus D.C. Fontana would write the stand-out episode "Yesteryear" in which Spock travels through the Guardian of Forever from the highly acclaimed Original Series episode "City on the Edge of Forever" and has to mentor his childhood self as an alienated half-human, half-Vulcan outcast on his home planet Vulcan.

Star Trek: TAS was one of Filmation's finest achievements along with The New Adventures of Flash Gordon and both shows shared the same theatrical quality animation with director Hal Sutherland at the helm of both shows. Despite budgetary constraints requiring some stock shots to be recycled, and occassional continuity errors in animation plates and erratic stories, the series managed to preserve the production design and spirit of the original series quite faithfully. I fondly remember most of all the stock Filmation background music by Jeff Michael and Yvette Blais which was looped throughout the series and recycled in several Filmation productions afterward including Ark II, Space Academy, Jason of Star Command and Tarzan. To this day, I can still hear that incidental music playing in my head after some 30 years and I would hope that someone will eventually release the soundtrack on CD. With the soundtrack being remastered in Dolby Digital 5.1 for the DVD release, it would seem logical that the original unmixed production tracks might possibly still exist for them to release the isolated music score and would serve not just as a piece of forgotten Trek memorabillia to merchandise but also a reference of nostalgic source cues from the Filmation music library (Lou Scheimer, are you listening?).

To coincide with the television broadcast of Star Trek: TAS in 1974, Mego Toy Corporation introduced a successful series of 8-inch action figures and a vinyl U.S.S. Enterprise bridge playset featuring a spinning Transporter chamber to make action figures "dematerialize." Fascinating.

Star Trek: The Animated Series beams onto DVD for the first time on November 21, 2006 and feature all 22 episodes remastered in high definition, 2 featurettes "Drawn to the Final Frontier - The Making of Star Trek: The Animated Series" and "What's the Star Trek Connection?," 3 episode commentaries by writers David Wise and David Gerrold, interviews and commentaries with Filmation producer Lou Scheimer, director Hal Sutherland and writer Dorothy Fontana, photo gallery, text commentary by Michael and Denise Okuda on episodes "Yesteryear" "The Eye of the Beholder" and "The Counter-Clock Incident," stoyboards, wallpaper and AIM icons, and much more!

These are the Animated voyages of the Starship Enterprise:

Season 1 (1973-1974)

101 "Beyond the Farthest Star"
102 "Yesteryear"
103 "One of Our Planets is Missing"
104 "The Lorelei Signal"
105 "More Tribbles, More Troubles"
106 "The Survivor"
107 "The Infinite Vulcan"
108 "The Magicks of Megas-tu"
109 "Once Upon a Planet"
110 "Mudd's Passion"
111 "The Terratin Incident"
112 "The Time Trap"
113 "The Ambergris Element"
114 "The Slaver Weapon"
115 "The Eye of the Beholder"
116 "The Jihad"


Season 2 (1974)

201 "The Pirates of Orion"
202 "Bem"
203 "The Practical Joker"
204 "Albatross"
205 "How Sharper Than a Serpent's Tooth"
206 "The Counter-Clock Incident"

The Animated series finally on DVD
The animated series of Star Treak is the least known of all and can be easily enjoyed by both children and adults. We see many more non humanoid creatures in this series because if is cheaper to do with animation than with puppets. The series ran for 22 episodes.

Beyond the Farthest Star
The Enterprise is pulled off course and contacted by a noncopereal life form

Yesteryear
Kirk and Spock use the guardian of forever to go back in time but upon returning, nobody recognizes Spock and it is discovered that he died as a child.

One of Our Planets is Missing
The Enterprise crew try to stop a massive cloud like creature from destroying inhabited planets.

The Lorelei Signal
The crew enters a region of space where many ships have vanished from. Later, group of alien women hypnotize all the men of board
and are believe to be the ones responsible for the disappearances

More Tribbles More Troubles
Cyrano Jones introduces a new kind of tribble that does not breed quickly but does get really fat instead.

The Survivor
The Enterprise encounters a damaged pod with a woman on board who is the long lost fiance of one of the crewmen

The Infinite Vulcan
While on an alien planet, a plant like species clones Spock and intends th use the clone as a peacemaker

The Magicks of Megas-Tu
The crew learns magical powers from an alien species that resembles a devil.

Once Upon a Planet
The Enterprise crew return to the amusement park planet, only to discover that the keeper has died and the computers are malfunctioning

Mudd's Passion
The Enterprise crew track down Harry Mudd who now is accused of selling a snake oil love potion.

The Terratin Incident
After a blinding flash of light, all the crewmembers on board begin to shrink.

The Time Trap
While the Enterprise is under attack by a Klingon ship, both ships are sucked into a vortex and end up in a region with many abanboned ships

The Ambergris Element
When the crew are studying an ocean planet, Kirk and Spock are abducted by a sea monster and transformed into aquatic life forms.

The Slaver Weapon
When the crew is transproting a stasis device which can stop time, another is detected nearby. While looking for it, they are captured by a hostile species

The Eye of the Beholder
While invesitvating the disappearance of another starship crew, the Enterprise crew are captured by a higher life form which wants them as pets.

The Jihad
Kirk and Spock are asked to learn about a stolen religious artifact that could start a devastating holy war.

The Pirates of Orion
The crew is stricken with a disease fatal to Vulcans and the only know cure is on a planet that is too far away to arrive soon enough to save Spock.

Bem
Starfleet assign the Enterprse crew to open negotiations with an alien race that has advanced medical knowledge

The Practical Joker
The Enterprose computer starts playing tricks on the crew.

Albatross
When delivering medical suppiles to an alien planet, Dr. McCoy is accused of genocide that occured years earlier.

How Sharper Than a Serpent's Tooth
The Enterprise encounters a giant creature who claims to be Kulkukan, a Mayan Aztec deity.

The Counter-Clock Incident
The Enterprise is stuck in an alternate universe where time flows backwards.

This is a fine addition to any Star Trek Collection

Not quite the fourth season
As a big fan of the original series I had hoped that with many of the original voices and scriptwriters, this animated series of Star Trek would in essence be the fourth season of the original series. Unfortunately this isn't the case, which I believe is as a result of two main factors. First of all each episode is half the length of the originals, which dramatically reduces the amount of time spent for character and story development. Having watched all the animated episodes, many of them seemed like they rushed though the story. Secondly since this series was aimed at children as apposed to prime time general audiences the stories and themes seemed simplified and less edging, even by 1970's standards.
While an animated format does allow writers more freedom to create much more elaborate science fiction environments and aliens, this was offset in the series by the average level quality of the animation of the time. I'm sure diehard fans will most likely not be put off from buying this series by my review. I'd just want to make sure that fans know what they're getting is not quite the same thing as the original series.