The 50th Anniversary of Star Trek: The Animated Series

The Saturday morning cartoon Star Trek, now known as Star Trek: The Animated Series, debuted fifty years ago today on NBC, on September 8 1973. Star Trek: The Animated Series was unusual for a Saturday morning cartoon based on a prime time television series in two ways. First, the original show's creator (Gene Roddenberry) served as an executive producer and had near total control over its production. Second,  most of the original cast returned to voice their characters. Another thing that set it apart was the sophistication of its writing, which was such that it would appeal more to teenagers and adults than very young children. Star Trek: The Animated Series was produced in part by Filmation, an animation company that had already made its name with adaptations of DC Comics characters (The New Adventures of Superman, The Superman/Aquaman Hour, and so on) and Archie of Archie Comics fame.

The origins of Star Trek: The Animated Series go back to 1969, when the original Star Trek was in its third season on NBC. According to Lou Scheimer in the book he co-wrote with Andy Mangels, Lou Scheimer: Creating the Filmation Generation, Filmation worked with Philip Mayer, the director of special programming for Filmation, and animator Don Christensen in developing a proposed animated series. Don Christensen had worked for a variety of animation studios, including Warner Bros., Disney, and DePatie-Freleng. He had written two episodes of Filmation's Saturday morning cartoon Journey to the Center of the Earth in 1967. The proposed series would have seen the original crew of the Enterprise training teenagers aboard a ship called the Excalibur. The new, teenage characters would have included a young Vulcan named Steve, an African American named Bob, a Chinese youth named Stick, and others. In the end, nothing really came of the project.

It was in 1972 that Filmation finally made a deal with Paramount to produce an animated Star Trek series (according to Lou Scheimer in Lou Scheimer: Creating the Filmation Generation, Star Trek story editor D. C. Fontana said it was February 14 1972). Star Trek: The Animated Series was guaranteed two seasons with 22 episode spread out over those seasons. At the time Paramount and Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry were not getting along, and the studio could not do it without Mr. Roddenberry's involvement. With Paramount and Gene Roddenberry not getting along at the time, Lou Scheimer found himself talking to the two different parties to make the deal. Ultimately, they reached a deal where Paramount had a third of the series, Gene Roddenberry had a third of the series, and Filmation had a third of the series.

The 1972-1973 season had been disastrous for NBC with regards to their Saturday morning line-up. The network wound up cancelling most of their new shows from that season.. Since its cancellation in 1969, Star Trek had proven to be a hit in syndication and had developed a rather sizeable following. Desperate for a hit on Saturday morning, NBC then wanted Star Trek: The Animated Series very badly, so badly that the network allowed Gene Roddenberry, Filmation, and Paramount total creative control over the show. From the beginning, it was decided that Star Trek: The Animated Series would not be a children's show.

Gene Roddenberry was not the only person from the original show to work on Star Trek: The Animated Series. Filmation hired D.C. Fontana, who been story editor on the original series, to serve as story editor on Star Trek: The Animated Series. D.C. Fontana convinced many of the writers on the original show to write for the new series. Samuel A. Peeples, who had written the second pilot of Star Trek ("Where No Man Has Gone Before") also wrote the first episode of the animated series, "Beyond the Farthest Star." David Gerrold revived a script, "More Tribbles, More Troubles," that was to serve as a sequel to his episode "The Trouble With Tribbles," which had gone unproduced during the original series's third season. Stephen Kandel, creator of con man Harry Mudd, wrote the episode "Mudd's Passion." D.C. Fontana even brought respected science fiction writer Larry Niven on board to write an episode.

Most of the original cast also reunited for Star Trek: The Animated Series, although it could have turned out otherwise. To keep costs down, Filmation originally planned to cut the characters of Sulu and Uhura It was Leonard Nimoy, who was returning as Spock, who pointed out that they would be excluding the two minority actors from the show. In Lou Scheimer: Creating the Filmation Generation, Lou Scheimer wrote,"We were horrified at our unintended slight, made all the worse because we were the one studio who had been championing diversity in its output." The character of Ensign Chekov was cut from the show, which meant Walter Koenig would not be part of the series.  Largely due to Leonard Nimoy, Filmation did buy a script from Mr. Koenig, "The Infinite Vulcan."

Two new characters would be added to Star Trek: The Animated Series. Lt. Arex, who was voiced by James Doohan, was an Edosian, a tripedal species who took Chekov's place as navigator. Lt. M'ress was a Caitian, a feline humanoid species. She served as a communications officer on the Enterprise. She was voiced by Majel Barrett. Majel Barrett also provided the voice for the ship's computer. Both James Doohan and Majel Barrett would voice various other incidental characters throughout the series.

Not only did original regular cast members return from the original series, but Star Trek: The Animated Series also featured guest stars from the original show. Mark Lenard once more played Spock's father Sarek in "Yesteryear." Stanley Adams reprised his role from "The Trouble with Tribbles," Cyrano Jones, in "More Tribbles, More Troubles." Roger C. Carmel returned as con man Harcourt Fenton Mudd in "Mudd's Passion."

Star Trek: The Animated Series had a huge budget for a Saturday morning cartoon at the time. It cost $75,000 per episode. While much of the budget went to the cast, a good deal of it also went into the animation. Don Christensen, who had worked on Filmation's earlier proposed Star Trek series, served as art director on the show. Bob Kline, Herb Hazelton, and George Goode, who all worked on other Filmation shows as well, did much of the design work on Star Trek: The Animated Series.

Star Trek: The Animated Series did not use the theme Alexander Courage had written for the original series. Instead, it used a theme credited to Yvette Blais and Jeff Michael, but was actually written entirely by Filmation's resident composer Ray Ellis. He used the pseudonym "Yvette Blais"due to problems with royalties, while "Jeff Michael" was producer and Filmation co-founder Norm Prescott, who received a cut of the royalties for all music composed for Filmation productions. According to Star Trek writer David Gerrold, the original theme was not used due to a disagreement between Alexander Courage and Gene Roddenberry. Mr. Roddenberry had added lyrics to the original theme, which effectively cut Mr. Courage's residuals for it in half.

Star Trek: The Animated Series debuted on September 8 1973. By total coincidence, this was the date that Star Trek: The Original Series debuted in 1966. The show was well received by critics. It won the Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Entertainment Children's Show in both 1974 and 1975. Star Trek: The Animated Series did relatively well in the ratings with regards to teenagers and adults. Unfortunately, it did not do particularly well with younger children, the audience that mattered the most to advertisers with regards to Saturday morning television in the Seventies. Star Trek: The Animated Series would be cancelled following its second season.

At the time it should not have been surprising that Star Trek would be revived as a Saturday morning cartoon. During the 1973-1974 season there was a cycle which saw the debuts of several cartoons based on prime time, live action shows. Lassie's Rescue Rangers was inspired by both the Lassie movies and the long running TV show. My Favorite Martians (which, like Star Trek, was produced by Filmation) was based on the classic sitcom My Favorite Martian. Jeannie was very loosely based on the classic sitcom  I Dream of Jeannie. Emergency +4 was based on Emergency!, which was then still on the air. Given this cycle towards Saturday morning cartoons based on prime time shows, it would have perhaps been more surprising if Star Trek has not been adapted as a Saturday morning cartoon.

Star Trek: The Animated Series would not produce a lot in the way of merchandising. Filmation sold animation cels of the series. A series of novelizations of the show's episodes by Alan Dean Foster would also be published under the title Star Trek Logs. A public service announcement for the non-profit group Keep America Beautiful was produced featuring voices of the cast and animation by Filmation. It aired on Saturday mornings while Star Trek: The Animated Series was on the air.

While Star Trek: The Animated Series was well-loved by many fans, it was following the first season of Star Trek: The Next Generation that Gene Roddenberry decided Star Trek: The Animated Series was no longer canon. David Gerrold placed much of the blame for Star Trek: The Animated Series no longer being canon on Richard Arnold, a research consultant Mr. Roddenberry appointed "Star Trek archivist. Regardless, even after Gene Roddenberry decided it was no longer canon., Star Trek: The Animated Series introduced several concepts that would continue to be accepted  It was first on Star Trek: The Animated Series that it was established that James Kirk's middle initial, "T," stands for "Tiberius." The episode "The Practical Joker" introduced what would be known as the Holodeck on Star Trek: The Next Generation and subsequent Star Trek shows, but was called a "Rec Room" in the Star Trek: The Animated Series episode.  The Vulcan city ShiKahr, which first appeared in the Star Trek: The Animated Series episode "Yesteryear," also became an established part of Star Trek lore.

Since the death of Gene Roddenberry in 1991 and Richard Arnold's departure, it would seem that Star Trek: The Animated Series, or at least most of the show, is once more regarded as canon. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine made several references to the animated series. In the episode "Once More into the Breech," Klingon officer Kor refers to his ship as the Klothos, the same name it had in the Star Trek: The Animated Series episode "Time Trap." The episode "Broken Link" includes a reference to Edosians (Arex's species). When the Star Trek: The Original Series episode "The Ultimate Computer" was remastered, the ship Woden was redone as a grain carrier of the sort that appeared in the animated series's episode "More Tribbles, More Troubles." The character of Robert April, a recurring character on Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, first appeared on Star Trek: The Animated Episode in "The Counter-Clock Incident."

Perhaps no show has made as much use of concepts from Star Trek: The Animated Series as its fellow animated series, Star Trek: Lower Decks. Indeed, the chief medical officer on the Cerritos, T'Ana, is a Caitian just as M'Ress was. The episode ""Kayshon, His Eyes Open" includes the skeleton of the giant clone of Spock from the Star Trek: The Animated Series episode "The Infinite Vulcan." The show has also featured an Edosian. The aforementioned instances are not the only times concepts from Star Trek: The Animated Series have appeared in subsequent Star Trek projects.

Regardless of whether Star Trek: The Animated Series is canon or not, the show would have a lasting impact. It was the first new Star Trek project since the cancellation of the original series, six years before the release of Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979). In this respect, it kept the franchise alive at a time when a live-action Star Trek project seemed unlikely.

Perhaps more importantly, Star Trek: The Animated Series would lead to the creation of new Star Trek fans. Prior to Star Trek: The Animated Series, I had seen the occasional Star Trek rerun on those rare days when we could pick up the television stations from St. Louis and Kansas City, so that Star Trek: The Animated Series was my first prolonged exposure to the franchise. By the time the show had ended, I was hooked. When KRCG in Jefferson City started rerunning the original series on Saturday nights, I was already a Star Trek fan. I am sure I am not alone in my experience, and that there are others who became Star Trek fans because of the animated series.

Star Trek: The Animated Series was hardly perfect. Being a Saturday morning cartoon, the animation could be extremely limited. The occasional error crept through to finished episodes. That having been said, the backgrounds on the show could be amazing and the scripts were top notch. In particular, "Yesteryear," by D.C. Fontana, ranks among the best episodes of any Star Trek series in my book. For much of its history, Star Trek: The Animated Series has been overlooked among the shows in the franchise. It is time that it was recognised for the remarkable achievement it was.