Talking About 'Star Trek': Why is Star Trek: The Animated Series not often spoken of or given the same recognition as the other Star Trek shows?

Why is Star Trek: The Animated Series not often spoken of or given the same recognition as the other Star Trek shows?

Star Trek: The Animated Adventures of Gene Roddenberry’s Star Trek, as it was officially marketed, has a complex history as to its canonicity within the Star Trek franchise.

When it was created in the mid-1970s, most of the people involved in its creation treated the series as a continuation of Star Trek: The Original Series. (TOS). After all, it was created and executive produced by Gene Roddenberry, it featured the voices of most of the main cast members (including William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, and DeForest Kelley) except Walter Koenig (Ensign Pavel Chekov), who wasn’t hired due to budget issues. (Koenig did participate on the writing end; he penned the script for The Infinite Vulcan.) 

Most of the scripts were written by men and women who had written episodes for the live-action Star Trek, and some of the stories were adaptations of teleplays intended for TOS had it been renewed for a fourth season. And although the actual hands-on production (the animation, directing, and scoring) was handled by Norm Prescott and Lou Scheimer of Filmation, the content end was overseen by co-executive producers Roddenberry and Dorothy (“D.C.”) Fontana.

In addition, the show was co-produced by Norway Productions, which was owned by Roddenberry, and Paramount Television owned it.

So even though the animated version of Star Trek: The Animated Series aired on Saturday mornings and episodes only had a running time of 24 minutes, they were Star Trek.

And for about a decade, Roddenberry himself considered The Animated Series to be co-equal with the live-action show. So did the writers. And so did many fans, who to this day say TAS was the fourth (or even fifth) year of the USS Enterprise’s five-year mission.

And then, sometime in the mid- to the late 1980s, Roddenberry reversed himself and told Paramount Pictures that TAS was no longer canon, except for a few story elements from D.C. Fontana’s Yesteryear.

From a storytelling point of view, Roddenberry’s decision made no sense. It was purely a merchandising-based decree. Nevertheless, Paramount acceded to Roddenberry’s wishes, and TAS was sundered from the canon. That’s why readers of the Star Trek Encyclopedia will see no entries about any characters or planets that were introduced to the franchise via The Animated Series.

And yet, some writers snuck in subtle references from TAS to various shows and movies that were canon. There’s an oblique reference to Yesteryear in TNG’s Unification Part I. Enterprise incorporated more references in its Vulcan-set episodes, and Star Trek (2009) lifted the confrontation between a young Spock and three Vulcan bullies straight from TAS. (There are other references in other Star Trek series, and the TAS Enterprise’s rec deck concept was later adapted as the Enterprise-D’s holodeck in TNG.)

As it stands now, CBS Studios has reincorporated Star Trek: The Animated Series into the canon, mainly due to so many writers’ deft sneaking in of references to the live action series and movies.

From an audience’s perspective, I think the problem of why it isn’t as popular or acclaimed as the rest of the franchise lies in its origins as an animated show for the Saturday morning “cartoon block.”

Even if Roddenberry had not “disowned” the show for licensing purposes when he did, the fact that Star Trek first returned as a cheaply-made cartoon did not sit well with some fans. And, let’s face it, of all the shows spun-off by Star Trek, The Animated Series is the one with the worst production values.

The writing was not too bad. The series used the same “bible” as The Original Series, and quite a few of the scripts were originally conceived for the live-action Star Trek’s fourth season before NBC canceled it 50 years ago. And the cast was essentially the same, except, as noted above, for Walter Koenig.

But Filmation’s limited-animation process and other money- and time-saving techniques do give Star Trek: The Animated Series a quick-and-dirty quality that doesn’t endear it to many fans. Indeed, many of the backdrops for alien planets would appear in other Filmation shows, including He-Man and the Masters of the Universe.