4 out of 5

Created by: Gene Roddenberry

covers seasons 1 – 2

While I guess its place in “official” canon could be debated by more knowledgeable trekkies than m’self, I’d tend toward viewing The Animated Series as the fourth and fifth season for the original cast, given that it includes that original cast, and in how well it acts as an extension of everything the show did, with essentially the removal of budget limitations imposed on imagination… though not on the quality of the animation, unfortunately.

What I’d have to say about TAS, much like TOS, isn’t anything new to add to the pile: that it’s perhaps a much more consistently entertaining show, relying less on a handful of templates the live series tended to as it went on, and with the presumed demographic shift – it’s a cartoon, it’s for kids! – it ironically, by my standards, became more mature, ditching all the bullshit stories which are centered around Kirk wanting to bang an alien lady, or narratives that were hesitant to not projecting the most Manly Of Captains at all times; our focus feels like it can creep outwards to the actual sci-fi – stories of discovery and morality plays – and has the learnings of what came before to lean on in making that sci-fi stuff sound a bit more legit as well.

At the same time, I’m by no means trashing TOS, as it gave TAS all the groundwork of character history and lore to build on top of; and it’s not like the animated series didn’t have its own learning curve, with the cast notably stiff at the start as they figure out how to emote in animated form.

And then to harp on the word stiff, we can circle back around to the animation quality. The fantastic new theme (Yvette Blais, aka Ray Ellis) and sedate opening lend the show an instant leg-up in terms of a more contemplative tone than typical Saturday morning cartoon fare; the breadth of the wild ideas and fun inclusion of more alien races amongst the Enterprise crew and the seasoned cast carry this thing very, very far, but the show was definitely made on the cheap as a result of these investments. Mostly it’s easy to overlook as the general character designs are clean, and the creature designs varied, but you could, at points, consider these as stills with VO work, and not much would be lost.

TAS holds its own through its whole runtime. Indeed, you’ve got less episode runtime (30 mins vs an hour) and many less episodes, but TOS, to me, runs out of its most novel concepts soon into its second season, and had already started repeating riffs in its first. While it’s easy to lump the show in with a campier cartoon group – it was the 70s, and the show had pulp woven into it – it really does fulfill some of the promise left on the table by The Original Series, and leave it with a great legacy.