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Star Trek: The Animated Series (1973)
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Movie Review by The Gravedigger
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02.01.07
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Created four years after the original series third (and last) season ended, I've always considered this the fourth season. All the voices of the original cast, from William Shatner to Nichelle Nichols to Leonard Nimoy and George Takei as Sulu. Several of the stories are continuations, such as MORE TRIBBLES, MORE TROUBLES, written by David Gerrold (who wrote the first TRIBBLES story) and a return to the vacation planet where Dr. McCoy had first seen the white rabbit from ALICE IN WONDERLAND. The best story, perhaps, is YESTERYEAR, written by D.C. Fontana, in which Spock must go back in time through the Guardian Forever and save himself from getting killed as a child. This story introduces his pet Sehlat (sort of a giant saber-tooth bear).
As this is a Filmation Production some of the scenes look rather cheap and the same sound are used for all the flying creatures, that cry you always hear for pteradactyls in 70's cartoons. And in the YESTERYEAR episode the lizard-like animal that almost kills Spock has the official Godzilla roar, which I suspect is probably some "in joke" on the production. Still, the animation enables the crew to encounter far more alien appearing creatures, such as a being that can separate his body in three parts, giant intelligent slugs and, of course, Enterprise crewmembers M'ress (cat-like alien) and Lt. Arex (three armed orange guy with a bony head). In recent novelizations, most notably Peter David's NEW FRONTIER, he re-introduces these two alien crewmembers and with the 40th Anniversary trilogy, CRUCIBLE, these animated adventures are also acknowledged.
These twenty-three episodes are quite a blast from the past and a must for any Trek fan.
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Rating: 10.0 out of 10.0 - 1 vote cast total
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