After Star Trek completed three years of its five-year mission on NBC in the 1960’s, the show was cancelled. However, the program proved extremely successful in the syndication market, where the original 79 episodes drew legions of fans and cries for new stories of the Starship Enterprise and its crew.
And in 1973, Star Trek returned to broadcast television – sort of.
From 1973 to 1975, NBC aired 22 episodes of a half-hour animated Star Trek series. Most of the actors from the original show returned to voice their original roles, and if you can get past the cheezy Filmation-style animation and repetitive background music, the show’s episodes are quite inventive in their own right.
With the show’s Saturday morning timeslot and a 30-minute runtime, episodes focused more on action and adventure. In other words, you didn’t have Captain Kirk boinking his way through the galaxy on this series.
Star Trek: The Animated Series also introduced several new concepts to the Star Trek universe, including more detailed views of Spock’s home planet Vulcan (in the episode “Yesteryear”), and a chance for Lt. Uhura to pilot the ship (in the episode “The Lorelei Signal”). In fact, many of the original writers on the 1960’s-era version of Star Trek penned scripts for Star Trek: The Animated Series, keeping the show’s theme as consistent as possible. Star Trek: The Animated Series became the first Star Trek media to earn an Emmy Award (1975 – Outstanding Achievement – Children’s Series).
I say this because … to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Star Trek: The Animated Series, there will be five new mini-episodes of Star Trek debuting on September 8, 2023 – under the banner name of Star Trek: Very Short Treks. And if you see the preview clip … you can tell that the show pays plenty of respect to the old Filmation-era animation and atmosphere.
And just like the original series, Star Trek: Very Short Treks will feature voicework from several actors and actresses from the Star Trek family of shows. Jonathan Frakes returns as Cmdr. William Riker from The Next Generation, Armin Shimmerman brings back Quark from Deep Space Nine, Ethan Phillips dusts off his Neelix character from Voyager, and three actors from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds will also share their voicework. Heck, the guy who played Trip Tucker from Star Trek: Enterprise also participates in this project.
Okay, now THIS has me intrigued. I want to see if they’re going to really go full-drill into the TAS-Filmation animation style, or if they’re going to make fun of it. Are they going to lean hard into the pre-recorded stilted dialogue, or will this show border on the scattershot quick-or-you’ll-miss-it chatter from Star Trek: Lower Decks?
Anyway … I want to see this. And heck, five mini-episodes might be just enough for my taste.
Star Trek: Very Short Treks debuts on September 8 on the Star Trek website and on YouTube.
And if they find a way to get Captain Kirk to finally … in canon … actually say the exact words “Beam me up, Scotty,” the show will have paid for itself.
Chuck The Writer 