Star Trek: The Animated Series (1973)

STAR TREK: THE ANIMATED SERIES is the 'forgotten' series in the history of the franchise. Made during the 1970s, after the original live-action show had gone off the air, the show was a precursor to the resurrection that it would receive as STAR TREK: THE MOTION PICTURE in 1979, which would of course lead to a series of films, the 11th of which is currently in production, and 4 more TV series. THE ANIMATED SERIES was made by Filmation, which was a powerhouse in television animation at the time. What is highly surprising is how good the quality of the show actually is. The main reason for the high quality is that all of the original cast of the show return to ...  Read the complete review

It's very easy to forget that the animated Star Trek existed, and many people would rather it stay forgotten. In a bizarre inverse-proportionality anomaly that could seem reminiscent of a Star Trek plot, the more you collect and read about the other Star Treks, the less you recall this 1970s spin-off. The reason for this is that Gene Roddenberry and the guys were not too pleased with this series, the first reincarnation of the phenomenal 1960s sci-fi show which only really achieved success in the early 70s re-runs. All of the official encyclopedias and magazines deliberately fail to recognise this series, but the unofficial guides are always better, funnier ...  Read the complete review

When you watch the Star Trek Animated Series, the first thing that hits you if you haven't seen it before is - its the Enterprise and its a cartoon and what the heck is that awful music supposed to be in the background. This show was made in the seventies by Filmation which also did several billion other cartoons, like Tarzan, Zorro and Flash Gordon - and if you have seen any of these cartoons, you will already have an idea of what the Trek cartoon will look like animation wise. The artwork is good - the people and the ships do look like what they are mean't to. Unfortunately it also shares the same soundtrack as all of the other cartoons by them - ...  Read the complete review

Following the cancellation of the TV show STAR TREK in 1969, there was still life left in the concept. Episodes were shown in syndication (US repeats) and as such the show became more popular are cancellation that whilst it was still being made. As a result, in 1973, there was the second TV version of STAR TREK - this time an animated version created by Filmation. Although the animation itself was often crude (especially by today's standards), the series itself had some excellent qualities - not least the fact that many of the actors from the original television show returned to voice their characters in this new version. Actors and ...  Read the complete review