The Animated Series

[jsonitsac]

That's right Star Trek's red headed stepchild and no I don't mean DS9. I mean the non-canon Animated Series (Gene himself had Paramount to de-canonize it). What are your thoughts on it? I kind of liked it, but I didn't think that in its 22 episodes that it really ever found its voice. It seemed to want to be an adult show, like its live action predecessor, but got crammed into a half hour program and made in a medium that in the 70s everybody thought was for kids and was shown on Saturday mornings.

That said, I find it a shame that its not on TV and many other (especially younger) Trekkers/ies haven't even seen an episode of it. I think that the animation medium had the potential to push the limits of Trek far beyond what the original TV show could have done with its budget and technical limitations. I personally don't mind that its not canon, especially that episode that Larry Niven wrote (not because it sucked but because of all the crossover copyright headaches it could cause).

What I would like to see is for CBS to remaster it similar to what they did with TOS. Keep the original voice overs (especially since James Doohan and Majel Barret supplied half of the guest voices) but redo it with something other than that really cheap 70s Saturday Morning cartoon look. I'm talking top notch, almost Pixar style, animation if they can get it. If they did that, I think they could breath some new life into the "lost" series.

Anyway, what do you guys think about that show?

[DigiFluid]

While it's "officially" de-canonised, I still think of it as higher in the canon existence/non-existence chain than voy or ent.

That said, it is pretty corny.

[A_PophisandhisFran]

I like it. Animation is pretty bad in spots, but it sure fits some pretty big stories into under 25 minutes. Some of the stories could easily have been used for full episodes. Nice just because it is "Star Trek" with the original actors. Not good for everyone, but I like it myself. Certainly much better than what I was expecting when I finally got around to buying it.

[Alan Wake]

While it's "officially" de-canonised, I still think of it as higher in the canon existence/non-existence chain than voy or ent.

That said, it is pretty corny.

You're harsh Mr.Digi

[DigiFluid]

You know it

Also, awesome sig there. I have that Playmobil Spck around here somewhere

[Teal'c_PI]

What I would like to see is for CBS to remaster it similar to what they did with TOS. Keep the original voice overs (especially since James Doohan and Majel Barret supplied half of the guest voices) but redo it with something other than that really cheap 70s Saturday Morning cartoon look. I'm talking top notch, almost Pixar style, animation if they can get it. If they did that, I think they could breath some new life into the "lost" series.

I absolutely agree! As a matter of fact, I was thinking the exact same thing long before I read your post! If they could create totally new animation but keep the original audio, it would definitely refresh the look of the show. They could even show it now and again, which would definitely delight the fans. It would be perfect for Paramount, too, since they seem determined to suck every penny they can out of the franchise by coming out with more and more DVD sets

[McClance]

I, too, enjoyed the animated series. I watch it like it's simply apart of the original series--the conclusion of Kirk's 5-year-mission.

[The Mastage Kidd]

While it's "officially" de-canonised, I still think of it as higher in the canon existence/non-existence chain than voy or ent.

That said, it is pretty corny.

TAS is officially canon as of its DVD release.

[DigiFluid]

TAS is officially canon as of its DVD release.

I saw the link you posted in the other thread.

So the question remains, is Star Trek: The Animated Series (or Animated Adventures) canon, or not? We would like to think so, if only so we can make more work for ourselves and all future historians! At some point, we would like to start adding more information to our site gleaned from this show and have it form part of the overall collective consciousness of Star Trek. Or, do we simply leave the whole issue ambiguous and let the fans decide in their own mind what they consider canon? Put to a recent vote on the site, fans favored the canonization of the animated series by a margin of more than 2-1. Let the white smoke billow!

That's not official, it's an op/ed piece (it's even in their Editorial section!!) based on the results of an online poll--perhaps the single most inaccurate source of information-gathering out there.

Don't misunderstand, I don't loathe TAS. As I already said in this thread, I hold it in considerably higher regard than I do voy/ent/nemesis; and I do personally consider it to be part of the franchise's historical canon. But come on, we need something a little more concrete than a web poll to make a decision as grand as that.

[Captain Obvious]

I loved it when I was a kid...it was on Nickelodeon before my little brothers favorite show, Pinwheel. Sadly, I can only remember a handful of episodes.

think thats something to put on my christmas list...TAS on DvD

[The Mastage Kidd]

I saw the link you posted in the other thread.

That's not official, it's an op/ed piece (it's even in their Editorial section!!) based on the results of an online poll--perhaps the single most inaccurate source of information-gathering out there.

Don't misunderstand, I don't loathe TAS. As I already said in this thread, I hold it in considerably higher regard than I do voy/ent/nemesis; and I do personally consider it to be part of the franchise's historical canon. But come on, we need something a little more concrete than a web poll to make a decision as grand as that.

It was an official web poll to decide if it is or not. The results were it is, so Paramount says it's canon. By definition, what Paramount says is canon is canon.

[jsonitsac]

According to a DC Fontana interview at Trekmovie.com:

I suppose "canon" means what Gene Roddenberry decided it was. Remember, we were making it up as we went along on the original series (and on the animated one, too). We had a research company to keep us on the straight and narrow as to science, projected science based on known science, science fiction references (we didn’t want to step on anyone’s exclusive ideas in movies, other TV shows, or printed work). They also helped prevent contradictions and common reference errors. So the so-called canon evolved in its own way and its own time. For whatever reason, Gene Roddenberry apparently didn’t take the animated series seriously (no pun intended), although we worked very hard to do original STAR TREK stories and concepts at all times in the animated series. What freed us there was the fact that we could do environments and aliens without the constraints of sets, makeup and costumes that would have been difficult to do in live action. The research company also worked on this series, again to keep us within rules we had set up in the original series and to keep references in terms of science/science fiction etc. accurate.

From EAS (http://www.ex-astris-scientia.org/in...continuity.htm)

In order to achieve sufficient transparency and owing to other practical considerations, it should not be a matter of production quality or even of personal preference which parts of the Star Trek franchise are regarded as canon. Likewise, it would be too lax to simply dismiss everything in a series that does not seem to comply with the rest of Star Trek or that the fans simply don't like. See my commentary below. Ideally a series should be accepted as canon in its entirety, and the technical shortcomings and other inconsistencies have to be dealt with in some fashion.

Continuity-wise TAS does not pose any serious problems except for the "Slaver Weapon" issue which affects just one episode that may have to remain non-canon. Generally, maintaining continuity is not any more difficult than explaining the transition from ENT to TOS. Most importantly nothing that happened in TAS would have required anything in TNG or the later series to be substantially different even though Roddenberry had ruled that TAS may be ignored. However, when looking at the more technical and conceptual differences between the live-action series and TAS, a discontinuity of another kind becomes obvious. TAS was made with a lower technical quality than TOS, and with a lower quality than may have been possible, while TOS was top-notch TV at its time. The sequel couldn't really live up to the original in this respect. Also, in conjunction with the lacking animation, the writing is often too rash, owing to the halved length of an episode compared to TOS but also to the young target audience. This gives TAS some sort of crudity that TOS doesn't have.

These impressions, in addition to the impracticability of suddenly reworking the complete canon history in order to fit in TAS, has led me to the personal decision to give TAS a generally lower weight than the live action. And while I will take into account events from TAS in the future, they will remain in side notes for the time being.