Star Trek: The Animated Series

Many Star Trek fans are unaware that after the original series was canceled, it was continued in cartoon form after NBC commissioned an animated series. The animated series ran for two seasons before being canceled, and although it was certainly clumsy in some ways, it had the remarkable distinction of starring most of the original cast to voice their parts: William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley, James Doohan, Nichelle Nichols, George Takei and Majel Barrett.

The quality of the show's animation is, quite frankly, "fair" at best. Although to put it in context, let's be honest: the special effect on the live action show weren't that great, either. Animation offered a wealth of aliens and locations that cost prohibited from creating on the live action show, but the animated show's limited budget means that the quality of the movement and artwork is often choppy.

However, the writing is actually quite good. Luckily Roddenberry refused to relinquish creative control of the series, and thus was able to torpedo an early proposal in which each original crew member would receive a child as a sidekick. (No, I'm not kidding.) The writing staff used the same show bible that was developed for the live action show, and the 22 episodes feature scripts written by names familiar to Trekkies everywhere, including Samuel A. Peeples, D. C. Fontana, David Gerrold, Paul Schneider and Larry Niven.

The series aired in the 1973-74 television season, five years after the original live action show had been canceled. And it had been largely lost to obscurity, until recently making the rounds of streaming services. Star Trek: The Animated Series can be found on the official StarTrek.com website, Netflix Streaming, and is available on Hulu's current promotion for the next month, whereby they have made every Star Trek series available for free in celebration of William Shatner's birthday.

Image copyright Star Trek: The Animated Series