Leonard Nimoy standing up for Nichelle and George made my heart swell. What a class act.

Speaking of the voice cast - no pun intended - James Doohan and Nichelle Nichols often played multiple supporting characters in TAS episodes. Doohan in particular was a really versatile voice actor with a talent for accents. TAS gave him an opportunity to really show that off.

it was also where we learned Tiberius was kirk's middle name.

Yesteryear is one of the best episodes of Trek, period. Seeing Spock dealing with his mixed heritage as a boy, as well as the roots of his fractured relationship with his father... it's amazing that storytelling of that quality was done for Saturday morning.

Holy shit. Now we have a legit argument for the He-Man Universe to be the Trek Universe! Given that his mother, Marlena, was a stranded astronaut from Earth, It works out even better!

Gene Roddenberry said the animated series only came out because he wanted to finish the Five year mission of the Enterprise. That is why it only ran 2 years. The original show ran 3 years and 2 year were left on the five year mission so 2 more years were done in the animated series.

_Star Trek: The Animated Series_ was the first telltale that indicated that ST:TOS had gotten some real, genuine traction with its audience. That plus the popularity of the series once it went into syndication was a harbinger of Treks to come. A damned good thing, IMHO.

The thing I love about TAS is the fact the director was color blind and didn't know it, so that's why you ended up with Kilrathi wearing pink space suits and flying around in a pink space ship, and the Klingons had purple and pink armor, and we had pink tribbles too! Oh, and then there was the one episode where it's Star Trek V, but instead of meeting evil glowy god and land on the sun, Satan shows up and Sulu makes a woman. OH MY!

The best part of TAS for me: getting to see Spock's childhood pet sehlat, the "live teddy bear with 6 inch fangs"! "Yesteryear" remains one of my favorite episodes of any Trek series.

I LOVE the animated series. It always annoyed me when it wasn't considered canon. We first learned of Kirk's middle name in that series. And Yesteryear is a masterpiece. I mean, come on. They cashed the check, so it's canon.

Larry Niven wrote "The Slaver Weapon" episode of TAS which adds the Kzinti to the Star Trek universe!

I've watched Star Trek my entire life - TNG started when I was 4 and I know I was sitting in front of the tv with my brother watching TOS before that, and last year I finished a FULL rewatch of every episode and movie which included a first watch of the animated series. I was pleasantly surprised how much I enjoyed it. Great episode Steve.

Ahhh... the animated series A few years ago my dad and I tried watching it so we could say we had watched all of star trek and my dad couldn't stomach it. I on the other hand made it through and actually thought it was a pretty nice extension of the original series.

The wide overlooking landscape of Spock’s home village shown in Yesteryear was recreated in the remastered Amok Time.

You forgot to mention Larry Niven's short story adaption in the episode "The Slaver Weapon". It freaked me out to see Kzinti in the Star Trek universe.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Star Trek: The Animated Series is so very underrated and underexposed. This video is just what I wanted and I hope Star Trek: The Animated Series gets it's proper dues. Thanking you from Western Australia.

That series meant a lot to me. My little 9 year old self got to see it in original broadcast Saturday mornings. The novelizations by D.C. Fontana and Alan Dean Foster ( who also wrote TMP novelization) kept me company that summer on a cross Canada road trip. Good times.

Loved the "Log" series by Alan Dean Foster, the novelizations of the animated series. Some really good sci-fi stories in there!

I would genuinely love for Arex and M'Ress to make an appearance in any future live action series or movie.

The animated series actually introduced me to Star Trek, As I was born in '69 I remember watching TAS in the 70s and soon after I started watching TOS. So it will always have a special place in my heart.

I've read that Shatner recorded some of his lines in the bathroom of his motel room for STA. He was on location filming Big Bad Mama with Angie Dickinson.😁

You didn't mention James Doohan. He voiced several characters including Lt. Arex

I attended the American Library Association Annual Conference in June 2019. George Takei was a speaker. While he talked mostly about his forthcoming book on his childhood experiences in an American internment camp for U.S. citizens of Japanese decent, he did answer four or five questions about Star Trek. One of the stories Mr. Takei recounts is that Leonard Nimoy persuaded -- my term, not Takei's -- Filmation and NBC to rehire Takei and Nichelle Nichols to reprise their roles from the live action series. Mr. Takei had nothing but praise for Leonard Nimoy because he was the only actor who had the gumption and clout to do so. Takei called him a class act. Unfortunately, the presentation was not recorded by the conference, and the audience were cautioned against recording it. (I'm sure some did despite the caution, but I have not seen any excerpts or the presentation in its entirety.)

"Clutch Cargo" Thanks, Steve. Now I won't be sleeping for months. Thanks for reminding me of that!

TAS also imported Larry Niven's Kzin into the Trek verse, through them adapting his short story _Soft Weapon_ into an episode.

Up to now I had not given any thought to the animated series, even though I have been a die hard trekker since 1968. You have convinced me to reconsider. Thanks, Steve. Live long, and prosper.

Sad Fact: the ONLY reason the Caitian we see in Star Trek III wasn't explicitly made M'ress is that Paramount didn't want to have to pay D.C. Fontana a royalty.

I saw them as first runs in the early-mid 70s. Also loved those weird old Trek toy ads for the subliminal "Star Trek" being chanted by a droning voice in the background, barely audible but you can pick it up if you listen carefully. Some guy got a pay check for saying "Starrr Trek".

They reused plenty of things from TAS in Flash Gordon as well, itself another Filmation production. Lt. M'Res was voiced by Majel Barrett.

I love TAS. For years I thought I had dreamed the show with a feline officer (M'ress) and belt controlled force-field like environmental suit things, because it was nearly impossible to find.

Star Trek: TAS surprisingly became one of my favorite Star Trek series, even more so than TOS. The fact that there's really no limits with animation allows the show to be freely imaginative and fully creative. I really hope that The Ensigns' Log Podcast continues on into TAS.

I get the feeling the art style of _Archer_ was influenced by that of _Star Trek: The Animated Series._

Some of the planets from Star Trek and He-Man... as far as I can tell-- originated with Filmation's Green Lantern show from the 1960s. But they might go back even further.

TAS is bar none the best of the Star Trek series to watch while stoned. It's almost necessary, in fact.

I guess I'm something of a canon nazi. (trademark Kevin Thomas) The animated series is definitely canon and the events of Spock's childhood directly informed the 2009 movie!

This is amazing, I literally just watched TAS for the first time ever and was going to suggest you did a video on this, and here it is! Steve, you're a dude.

I was in high school when the Animated Series came out. It was the first time "Tiberious" was used as Kirk's middle name. Tribbles were pink due to a coloration error. James Doohan did a lot of voice work in the Animated Series as he did in TOS. He voiced Lt. Arex. There was one episode without Kirk.

I remember those episodes when they were new. It was absolutely awesome to have new Trek to watch. Also if you can fine the Allan Dean Foster written Log Book's 1 -10, novelizations of TAS episodes. The story's are greatly expanded upon.

I Love Trek Actually! Thank you so much Steve!

My favorite episode was "Yesteryear" in which Spock travels backwards in time to save his younger self. Young Spock faced his "Old Yeller" moment. I still remember and love that story.

I like to think that episodes like Yesteryear fit nicely into the established TOS timeline rather than after. It works very well as a direct follow up to City on the edge of Forever, rather than the ship leaving right after they discover this incredible object they stay and study it obviously.

He did a podcast in the ‘70s? He was way ahead of his time. 🧐

I’ve been waiting for someone to talk about this. You do not disappoint.

On the gendered toy thing.... I thought that was pretty normal. Kids don't care. All me and my male cousins cared about was owning all the toys of any show we liked. Owning as much of the She-Ra and He-Man line as we could convince our parents to buy was a thing because we liked the show (s) and all of their related characters. I actually don't remember my male cousins even caring about playing with She-Ra figures. As they were a part of the He-man universe.

The animated series is still on Canadian Netflix! I’m going to check it out!

The only Trek show I owned was DS9. The reason for it is amusing, my wife wanted to buy me Star Trek TNG but she is ignorant of All Star Trek related things so she bought me DS9 which I had never seen before. It was one of the happiest mistakes I have ever had.

Like TOS, the animated series hired well-known sci fi authors. Larry Niven, author of Ringworld and other classics, adapted one of his short stories and wrote the script for ep 14, "The Slaver Weapon", which featured the Kzinti, one of the species in the Niven universe.

I count TAS in my canon runs that I've done since the 50th anniversary. I find it that if you start at The Cage, watch Dsc, then TOS and TAS it creates a completes the story by the time you get to Motion Picture. I also find it's a more fitting end for Kirk than Turnabout Intruder ever was

The villains for the She-ra toys came out for boys in the He-man toys. I had those.

Great video, Steve. Nice to see The Animated Series getting some love and respect. TAS premiered when I was 6. I clearly remember watching "More Tribbles, More Troubles" and just adoring everything about it. The cheap animation didn't bother me; my imagination filled in the gaps and snazzed things up. TAS was my intro not just to Trek, but to science-fiction in general--particularly the episode "Yesteryear", which was mind-bending enough for 6-year-old me that it induced a lifelong fascination with time-travel stories. Because of TAS, I knew a David Gerrold novel when I saw one ("The Man Who Folded Himself"), and so I discovered one of the greatest time-travel tales ever put to paper. The Caitian character led me to Larry Niven's Kzinti; Niven led me to Clarke; Clarke led me to Heinlein; Heinlein led me to Asimov...you get the idea. But it ALL STARTED thanks to this "silly cartoon". More important than any of that, however, is the way TAS also introduced 6-year-old me to the ideas of equity, diversity, equality, morality, and IDIC--heady topics for a kid, but which helped form my core values as an adult. That alone would be a priceless contribution to any child's life, and I am eternally grateful for it. And on top of everything else, Lt Arex was simply cool as hell. 🖖

I much enjoyed this version of Trek on Saturday mornings as a kid! In my mind back then they were very close to being the "same" show.

FINALLY! Someone gives some love to the animated series! I watched Trek from the very beginning (I was born in 1961), loved it all, but especially the cartoon. Yeah, I knew the animation was basic, but I didn't care; IT WAS MORE STAR TREK! The writing was indeed top-notch, the main originals were back, we had some interesting new characters that, as you say, were not possible for the live-action series; we had James Doohan and Nichelle Nichols doing lots of the voices, and as far as I was concerned it was canon. The novelizations by James Blish are wonderful as they fill in some gaps and answer some questions that came up because of the restrictions of that half-hour time period. I'm glad you're exposing more people to the awareness of this show that I consider to be a gift to the fans who wouldn't give up, and a tantalizing taste of what else could be in the trekverse.

Great video, thank you for your research on the animated series.

I wonder if in some parallel universe this became so incredibly successful that it became the dominant form of the franchise. Imagine what that would be like.

I remember Saturday mornings when first aired. Love the soundtrack to ST: The Animated Series.

I literally started watching Star Trek the animated series yesterday on Prime. Love hearing all this backstory.

I could never get into classic trek or the animated show, but as far as cannon I always figured Star Trek TAS could have been a show within the universe.

You are a masterful communicator; better than many people who make a career of it! I think I'd enjoy listening to you speak on any subject whether or not i agreed with your position.

Every time I've watched/listened to the animated series it always struck me how much it sounds and is written like a semi-hammy radio show. It works completely fine just listening, kinda cool I think. Due to Larry Niven's role in a few episodes it will always hold a place in my heart. Uhura, Spock, and Sulu vs. Kzinti is just an amazing thing. Leaves the idea/option open for the Enterprise to have found Ring World. And Life Support Belts!!

I had the same experience watching TAS after being a long time fan. It really upped my appreciation for TOS

I was born in 1965. So in 1973 when this came out I was an 8 year old Trek fan watching this first run. I loved it, to this day when I run Star Trek table top RPGs, I always have Edoans and some times Kazinti and Catians

Actually, James Doohan and Majel Barett voiced a lot of the supporting roles on the show. Majel voiced Shiboline M'Ret for instance, and James voiced among others Robert April and also Walkingbear.

To those who question TAS, I offer this option: Just listen to it. I started watching them on Netflix on my bluetooth headphones, and when I got up to start dinner, I kept listening, and it works GREAT as an audio drama featuring the original cast. I know some are put off by the animation, but I've always loved it; this may be a way for the former to find their enjoyment of this fantastic Trek!

Filmation was part of of my childhood and some of my favorite cartoons ever, especially Star Trek TAS. I hadn't known of franchise legalities and all way back then, so I kept hoping for what now would be called a Filmation shared universe; I was waiting each week (fingers crossed) for Thanagar or a GL to show up, or at least some shrinking scheme based on either Ray Palmer's White Dwarf tech or Fantastic Voyage's. I especially thought maybe a nod to TAS might happen when Stretch and Micro-Woman met mirror universe evil doubles.

Well done! I grew up mostly in the 70s and ST:TAS was like the 4th and 5th season of Classic Trek.

I greatly appreciated your first look at animated Trek--I’m sure there will be more, both for TAS and the modern shows. I was born six weeks before TOS first aired on NBC, but did get hooked on it before TAS came out, when I was seven. Between the high quality of the program in telling Star Trek stories and their novelizations, I became very much a hardcore fan (and apologist, lol). People complaint about the production values of both TOS and TAS, but they were very high for their time. TAS was made in an era when all the networks had reduced what they paid for cartoons across the board, so the whole animated industry suffered-even theatrical films got hit in the Seventies. Filmation’s shortcuts never bothered me as I got older; it’s just like how you feel about canon. Canon is important to me as a framework for consistent storytelling, but storytelling comes first. Even Hanna Barbera’s quality dropped in this era, and they made tons of Scooby Doo clones with teen sleuths and a mascot. On the other hand, Filmation made a highly regarded Tarzan series (some fans think it’s the best incarnation of Tarzan), a good Zorro series, a Flash Gordon show regarded as some of the 70s all-time best sf, and three awesome Saturday morning live-action sf series. Ideal topics for a future video would be looking at canon appearances of Klingons Kor and Koloth,, Cyrano Jones, and Harry Mudd. Also, I think that the way Lower Decks looks back to earlier live-action series and TAS itself is reflected in how TAS looked back to TOS episodes (the aforementioned named Klingons, Tribbles, Cyrano Jones and Harry Mudd). I loved the (limited) amount of music from this show. The way it was recorded gave it a special 70s-esque quality. It has always stuck with and it’s my favorite music in the whole franchise, ahead of TOS, and the TOS and reboot films. Another idea for video topics: giant creatures in Star Trek. For a long-time I didn’t think Star Trek really had any equivalent to Japan’s kaiju, but I could easily think of some in Star Wars. Then I began thinking that Trek does have them--the Space Amoeba and the Doomsday Machine and the Obsession vampire cloud in TOS, the planet-eating cloud in TAS, Galaxy’s Child in TNG… And for those who complain about how many sequel episodes are in TOS, TNG had a lot of them too, and Wrath of Khan is also a sequel story ad well as Trials and Tribble-actions. Maybe you can explore this topic.

This look at ST-TAS turned out much more fascinating that I thought initially. Cheers!

I remember watching this series as a kid during its original run. Even in the early 1970's, Star Trek TOS was in syndication in an after-school slot so many of us had seen every episode and were ready for more. I remember being pleasantly surprised that the animated series did not "dumb down" the plots for kids. One thing, however.......the music. It was loud and kept repeating the same couple of bars over and over again. ARRRGGGGHHHHH! Just thinking about the series, that music has again become stuck in my head!

Interesting tidbit: _Star Trek: The Animated Series_ is *THE FIRST PLACE* where I heard a word which is very timely in this day and age: _Jihad_

Ahh. Steve back to Trek videos. All is right with the world... until I watch the next Facepalm 5... then I’ll be reminded of the crapshow we live in...

When I was a small child in the early 1980's, we didn't have cable because we lived so far outside of town. Whenever we would go and visit my Grandma, I immediately turned on the TV and plopped down in front of Nickelodeon. They showed TAS all the time back then. TAS was my first experience with Star Trek, and I was hooked after that. I started watching reruns of TOS, and the year I turned 10, TNG came out. I've seen every episode of every Star Trek series to date. Seen all the movies. But TAS was the one that got me started. My favorite episode is probably "The Counter Clock Incident" which establishes Robert April as a former Captain of the Enterprise. Also, big props to your She-Ra rant! I feel the same way. I had the toys also, and I wasn't ashamed of that at all. Can't wait till the next Star Trek video!

I once heard somewhere that TAS was the equivalent of a Mercedes at a soapbox car race. Given the quality of the writing for it, I second that opinion! 😌🖖

Your comment about a half hour being the perfect length for a tv show is perfect. The new Star Wars Mandalorian shows have been about a half hour for the first two shows. It is perfect for giving a good adventure, a little character exploration and leaving you wondering what comes next for a week. I wish someone would look at the Manalorian and do a Star Trek show.

Steve, I rewatched Take Me Out To The Holosuite for the first time in ages today and it finally dawned on me where your hat is from. I knew it was DS9 related but didn't know how. I still won't be rewatching TAS anytime soon!

There's Discovery links on the Animated Series as well as specially when Burnham speaks about her mother reading Alice in Wonderland that only occurs in the Animated Series and there's the showing of Captain Robert April in the animated in discovery

I, too, bought the DVD set for TAS and my kids loved it!

I started this video yesterday and finished it today. Quite fitting, with the shout out to D.C. Fontana. May she rest in peace.

Steve, you don't care about canon? You used the Ensign's Log podcast to come up with a backstory for Armus, the gelatinous being of "pure evil" that killed Tasha Yar.

Totally agree!! In fact, I will re-watch The Animated Series this coming month! Great video! Awesomeness.

Steve: Take every main crew-member from every Star Trek series and hand pick your dream bridge crew from the lot (of course ignoring the minor obstacles like time, etc). Go!

In addition to Kirk's middle name at least two elements introduced on TAS became canon: Spock's mother is given a last name (Grayson), and the Holodeck makes its first appearance (although holographic in nature it is called simply a "rec-room"). As a child i thrilled that Star Trek was back on the air with new episodes. With all the retroactive continuity that has gone on since I hope the franchise can at long last find space for an older starship shown only briefly in one episode of TAS: the S.S. Bonaventure.

Things to love about ST:TAS Year 4 and 5 of a 5 year journey. Tholians, Gorn and Orions become more than one episode alien factions. Note, when Tholians put up no trespassing signs they are never joking around. A lot of sci-fi writers that were early in there careers got a lot of publicity for their written works by writing episodes for the show, and were allowed to add almost anything they wanted. This has created universe crossovers or parallelism where it might not be expected, such as Larry Niven's Ring World universe.

The real question is: "Will ensign Riker and ensign Barkley be doing their secret podcast during the events of the animated series like they are during the Original series?"

I grew up with this. My dad had the whole series on VHS. I absolutely loved this as a little girl trying to do the vulcan hand symbol and failing miserably. My parents were puritanical to an extent, and I was forbidden from watching “The Magicks of Magas-Tu.” 🤦🏻‍♀️😂

Those belts are totally cannon. TNG had the Kivas Fajo wear one and Data ran into it!

This show was my personal introduction to Star Trek. One consequence was that for years, the actual Alexander Courage theme sounded weird to me, because I was more familiar with the unlicensed sound-alike theme that TAS used.

My personal exposure to Trek is the exact opposite of Steve’s... TAS was my first Trek. It aired on Nickelodeon in the mid-80s on weekday afternoons and was quickly my favorite thing as a 3-4 year old. My mom let me stay up super-late one Saturday night, and after SNL was over our local NBC affiliate showed TOS reruns. I was about to go to bed when I heard familiar voices and music, and begged my mom to let me stay up even later when I realized Star Trek was a “real” TV show too. That episode was The Savage Curtain (the one with Abe Lincoln), and the world was never the same. TNG premiered the next year. I’ve been addicted to Trek ever since...

I was born after TAS aired, but grew up watching reruns of TOS and saw TNG from its first airing. My parents had a tattered old copy of Bjo Trimble's Concordance, which had synopses of the TAS episodes, and I read the novelizations I found at the library along with all the other Trek books I could get my hands on. It was painful to know that there was more Trek out there I'd never seen, but couldn't get ahold of. Eventually I also got that DVD set, when one day I saw it in a bargain bin, and was finally able to watch it all. I loved it. But I know that kid version of me would have loved it even more.

Love this series regularly shown on BBC1 children slot along side then the filmation Tarzan series, the soundtrack was superb.

James Doohan should have won an Emmy for Star Trek TAS.

As i comment on this, several years have passed since this was made, as such, we did get Lower Decks, and we did get Prodigy....but in retrospect, TAS did get several mentions in the course of Lower Decks series.

Loved how the klingons hated tribbles so much they created a creature to hunt tribbles.

On a deviation from Trek: Dude! She-Ra was the first show that taught me that "girls were cool" too! The biggest moment for me was She-Ra's first transformation; He-Man was dying and she saved him. I learned all at once I saw He-Man need help, but still be strong, and She-Ra was strong and still a woman. I learned it was okay to need help from others and it women (girls at the time) could be just as strong and heroic as men (boys). AND to top it all off, I went to Retro Con last weekend in Oaks PA and met Melendy Britt (the voice of She-Ra) and got to tell her all this! We had a moment and I almost cried. It was great!

The 1st time I ever heard of Star Trek: The Animated Series was in Honolulu transit lounge on my 1st holiday to the west coast of USA at some earlier hour in the morning many many years ago and ot tool me almost 3 years to get the dvd set which I don't have anymore

The Animated Series was my introduction to Star Trek even before the Re-runs of The Original Series. It's hard to believe now, but these Shows and the Gold Key Comics were the only Star Trek in the 70's prior to the Movie. Wow, what a special event that was. Definitely bigger than that new Star Wars thing. 😉

The novelizations of the animated series are pretty good. Well, I haven't read all of them. They were printed as "Log one", "Log two", etc, with about 3 episodes per book. Alan Dean Foster wrote them. You can often find them for cheap at used book stores - worth picking up if you come across them.

Great Topic: Gene Roddenberry's the theme Misotheism in Star Trek.

Dude, I was the same way. I was into He-Man so wtf wouldn’t I be into She-Ra? I had all the figures as well. I still have battle cat around here somewhere!

The episode about Spock's childhood is pretty good. Kind of bittersweet as far as I remember.

One more little trivia tidbit: "The Slaver Weapon" was the only Classic Trek episode where neither Kirk nor the Enterprise appear. It's just Spock, Uhura and Sulu on an away mission, and I think it's one of the best TAS episodes. Plus: more cat people! 😊👍