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List Price: $39.98 | | Label: Paramount
Salesrank: 4209
Released: November 21, 2006 |
| Our Price: $21.93 |
| Used Price: $20.87 |
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MPAA Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
Boldly continuing where Star Trek: The Original Series left off, these animated adventures chart the progress of Captain Kirk and his crew in a universe unconstrained by "real-life" cinematography! With all characters voiced by their original actors, join Kirk, Spock, Bones and the crew for 22 new adventures: to boldly go where no animation has gone before!
Description of Star Trek The Animated Series - The Animated Adventures of Gene Roddenberry's Star Trek:
Star Trek: The Animated Series is often referred to as Star Trek's "fourth season" because it was created in 1973, four years after the third and final season of the original series, and because most of the original cast provided the voices. William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley, James Doohan, Nichelle Nichols, George Takei, and Majel Barrett reprised their characters, and some contributed other voices as well. The only major omission was Walter Koenig's Chekov, who was replaced at the navigation console by Lieutenant Arex, the three-armed alien who most prominently represented the series' freedom to create non-humanoid characters. (Koenig did write an episode.) And while the animation is crude at best, the stories are solid sci-fi (penned by some of Star Trek's veteran writers including DC Fontana and David Gerrold, all of whom received prominent opening credits), explored the Star Trek mythos, and elevated the series above typical Saturday-morning fare. For example, "Yesteryear" goes back to Spock's early years on Vulcan, continuing some explorations from the original series' "Journey to Babel," and offers the familiar voice of Mark Lenard as Sarek. "One of Our Planets Is Missing" raises some interesting philosophical questions about the value of life, and "More Tribbles, More Troubles" and "Mudd's Passion" revisit favorite characters. Star Trek: The Animated Series lasted just barely over one season, but it won the franchise's only Emmy (for Outstanding Entertainment Children's Series in 1975) and some of its ideas were embraced by future series. Trekkers who know it only by reputation will find it a valuable part of the Star Trek canon. In addition to the series' 22 half-hour episodes, the DVD set includes "Drawn to the Final Frontier: The Making of Star Trek: The Animated Series," a 24-minute featurette including interviews with the producers and writers (but not actors) on how the series was created and why it still holds up; "What's the Star Trek Connection?", a glossary of characters and themes common to the animated series and other series; a storyboard gallery; and a brief text history. Writer David Gerrold and producer David Wise contribute audio commentaries on three and one episode, respectively, and the ever-reliable Michael Okuda and Denise Okuda provide text commentary on three other episodes. --David Horiuchi
Star Trek The Animated Series - The Animated Adventures of Gene Roddenberry's Star Trek Reviews:
Not the original series... but it did have something to offer. 
2009-12-01 - I am a huge Star Trek fan. I loved all eleven films, the original series, the next generation, DS9, voyager, and enterprise. But the original series was always my favorite one out of five television series that they made. The Animated Series is a continuation of the original series - almost. The actors and charaters are all there, so is the Enterprise, and the Klingons and the Romulans, even Mudd and the Tribbles; but it just isn't the same. The stories are often lacking, it seems to be aimed more at children, and the episodes are all rushed. But every now and then, it did seem to sparkle. After all it does have the same actors and charaters in it, and not all of the episodes were bad. There were a few good episodes like "Beyond the Farthest Star", "More Tribbles, More Troubles", "Once Upon a Planet", and "The Time Trap". Maybe not worth a whole lot of money, but if you can find it for 10 or 15 bucks, it is worth buying just for those few good episodes.
An Excellent Continuation of the Original Show 
2009-11-25 - The stories offered up in the animated series are excellent and even if you are not a fan of "cartoons" or animation, you will soon forget all that while viewing this wonderful series. It seems more like a continuation of the original rather than a stand alone series. A must have of any fan of the original or Star Trek in general. Rewatchability factor is high!
At least the voices are the characters 
2009-09-11 - A must see for The Original TV series fans. At least it gaps the era between the TV shows and the Star Trek Movie (with Voyager --- V'ger). The episode stories wasn't that great. Animation is ordinary. The only plus is that Most of the character voices are the same original actors.
A Must See but not a must have. Not something even a diehard Star Trek Fan would watch over and over.
A Hidden Gem 
2009-08-27 - Star Trek: The Animated Series is the lost Star Trek. Almost like the Roswell crash is an unending mystery for UFO buffs, TAS has never enjoyed the success or exposure of other Trek. This, I believe is denying a very important step in Trek history. While the half hour format demanded of a cartoon is not very conducive to Trek the writing staff and everyone else did a brilliant job maintaining the tradition of TOS in an animated format. Not only that, but we were finally able to see some aliens that didn't just look like humans with funny colored skin or pointy ears. I think that any serious Trek fan should at least give TAS a chance and keep an open mind because, despite an almost non existent budget, the show continued to boldly go where no man has gone before and nicely rounds out the 5 year mission leading to Kirk's initial promotion to Admiral as seen in The Motion Picture. I hope that in the years to come TAS is raised up to the level of respect it deserves and becomes part of the official canon.
Warning: Rose-Tinted Glasses Recommended
2009-08-26 - The episodes in this collection are certainly worth a watch for any fan of the original Star Trek series. All of the main actors reprise their roles (although Chekov is conspicuously absent). In fact, even the writing is on par with some of the TOS episodes. However, these episodes are very unlikely to bring new fans to the franchise, and the low production values do more to perpetuate the notion that Trek is a joke than they do to rise above that idea. This is something that fans of Star Trek are used to, though. Everybody remembers Kirk wrestling with the guy in the lizard suit, but few remember the fate of Gary Mitchell or the first encounter with the Romulans. Unfortunately, with the exception of a handful of episodes (Yesteryear comes to mind), these animated episodes are more in line with the cheesier aspects of Trek. The animation is barely there most of the time, and the scripts lean toward the fantastic more than the humanistic elements. For this reason, I can't recommend this set to any but the most hardcore of Star Trek fans. What I can say is that there is no other cartoon like this one in the history of cartoons. It's at least as smart as the best Trek episodes, though maybe not as engaging. This is one cartoon that does not insult its viewers.
An attention span is required.
A love for the characters is recommended.
