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Algernon_Asimov's guide to The Animated Series

Star Trek: The Animated Series (previously 'The Animated Adventures of Gene Roddenberry's Star Trek') is the unloved and rejected stepchild of Star Trek series. For decades, it wasn't even considered canon. However, after CBS' acquisition of the rights to TAS in 2006, they incorporated all of its episodes and elements into their canon articles on StarTrek.com, thus making it officially canon. (Although, this might simply have been due to the fact that they released the DVD box set of the series that year, and wanted to encourage people to buy it...)

Yes, it's cheesy. Yes, it was made for children's television. But, it was produced by Gene Roddenberry and Dorothy (D.C.) Fontana, two of the main creative talents behind the original series. It was voiced by (most of) the actors from the original series. Many of the writers had also written episodes for the original series. And, some of its episodes are better than some episodes from the original series. For all its faults, it's still Star Trek. It deserves our attention, as much as any of the other series.

Beyond The Farthest Star (1x01)

Production number: 22004

Summary: "Kirk's crew come across an ancient derelict vessel, but something is still living inside it."

Rating: Engage!

Points of interest:

This first episode of the new series was written by Samuel A Peeples, who also the (second) pilot of the original series, 'Where No Man Has Gone Before'.

The crew have personal lifebelts which are humanoid-shaped forcefields (instead of using spacesuits). This series is the only series that uses these lifebelts: they are never referred to in any Star Trek series - but they'd be handy devices. Imagine the fight scene on the deflector dish in 'First Contact' if Picard and Worf weren't wearing spacesuits!

The Enterprise is out "beyond the fringe of the galaxy", "mission: star charting".

The science is not strong in this episode: we have a star with negative mass, which attracts the Enterprise more strongly, whereas negative mass should actually repel other mass; there's a reference to a civilisation which existed three hundred millions years ago, "before life existed on Earth", when life has has existed on Earth for billions of years (maybe Kirk meant before Human life...?).

However, it takes good advantage of the new medium of animation: there's an alien ship unlike any we've seen before (and unlike most we've seen since); there's a three-armed crewman of a new species at the navigation console on the bridge.

Yesteryear (1x02)

Production number: 22003

Summary: "Spock travels back in time to prevent his own demise during his youth on Vulcan."

Rating: Engage!

Points of interest:

This episode was written by Dorothy (D.C.) Fontana, who was story editor during the first two seasons of the original series. She wrote a few classic episodes, including 'Journey to Babel', which 'Yesteryear' builds on.

This episode contains a number of firsts:

• It's the first time we see the planet of Vulcan (what we saw in 'Amok Time' was just one ceremonial arena).
• It's the first time we see that great big round non-moon object in Vulcan's sky. (It seems that both Gene Roddenberry and D.C. Fontana wrote "NO MOON!" on the preliminary sketches they were shown... and were ignored.)
• It's the first time we see a sehlat.
• And... more importantly, it's the first time that anyone acknowledges that Vulcans do actually have emotions. Until this time, it's been assumed or implied, at best.

It's interesting to note that Spock, despite the stereotype that Vulcans can't lie, does actively lie about his identity in the past: he tells his father that's he's a cousin, and his name is Selek.

It's a great episode, and essential viewing for any Star Trek fan.

A weekly episode discussion about this episode in /r/StarTrek.

One of Our Planets is Missing (1x03)

Production number: 22007

Summary: "The Enterprise crew learns that a massive, planet-destroying cloud has entered Federation space."

Rating: Just for fun

Points of interest:

This was actually the first animated episode produced; the standard episode order is based on the order the episodes aired.

This is the first time that Lieutenant Arex speaks - he's the three-armed, three-legged Edosian who sits at Navigation in Chekov's place.

The Enterprise gets swallowed by the planet-eating cloud, and Captain Kirk has to decide whether to kill a possibly intelligent being to save a planet of over eighty million people.

A weekly episode discussion about this episode in /r/StarTrek.

The Lorelei Signal (1x04)

Production number: 22006

Summary: "The Enterprise is drawn to a planet populated solely by women who dominate the male crew members's minds to the point where Uhura must assume command to rescue them."

Rating: Just for fun

Points of interest:

Lieutenant Uhura takes command of the Enterprise for the only time in any series or movie.

Nichelle Nichols voices the Enterprise's computer - probably to prevent Majel Barrett as Nurse Christine Chapel talking to herself as the computer! In fact, because of the high number of female characters, both Nichols and Barrett do a lot of work in this episode (there were no guest stars).

Captain Kirk says "Beam us up, Scotty" in this episode - which is the closest he ever comes to saying the classic phrase "Beam me up, Scotty." (He does say "Beam me up" and "Scotty, beam me up" at other times.)

The writer of this episode, Margaret Armen, also wrote three episodes in the original series, and another animated episode.

More Tribbles, More Troubles (1x05)

Production number: 22001

Summary: "While escorting a shipment of grain to Sherman's Planet, the Enterprise encounters three "old friends:" Koloth, Cyrano Jones - and tribbles!"

Rating: Just for fun

Points of interest:

This was written by the same writer who wrote the original tribbles episode: David Gerrold. Gerrold managed to get himself drawn in as a cameo appearance (he's the unknown Ensign in the transporter room).

Also returning was the actor who played Cyrano Jones (although Koloth was played by James Doohan).

It's a light bit of fun, but it's good fun.

It also has one of my favourite lines of the series, from Scotty to Kirk: "But we've got tribbles on the ship, quintotriticale in the corridors, Klingons in the quadrant... it can ruin your whole day, sir!"

The Survivor (1x06)

Production number: 22005

Summary: "The Enterprise encounters the ship of a noted Federation philanthropist, missing for nearly five years, near the Romulan Neutral Zone."

Rating: meh

Points of interest:

This is the first appearance of Communications Officer Lieutenant M'Ress, a female Caitian (she's a feline humanoid). She is voiced by Majel Barrett.

And, while Uhura doesn't say or do anything in this episode (her function is filled by M'Ress), Nichelle Nichols voices the guest female role of Security Officer Lieutenant Anne Nored. Quite confusing!

I was a little disappointed that they used the Klingon Birds-of-Prey for the Romulans rather than the Romulans' own Warbirds.

The Infinite Vulcan (1x07)

Production number: 22002

Summary: "A species of intelligent plants, led by a clone of a Eugenics Wars-era scientist, clones Spock with the intentions of creating a master race to keep the peace."

Rating: Engage!

Points of interest:

This is the only Star Trek episode ever written by a main cast member: Walter Koenig. Even though Keonig wasn't included as one of the voice actors in this series due to budget constraints, he was still asked to contribute a script (Gene Roddenberry had seen another screenplay that Koenig was working on, and was impressed). Keonig auditioned to voice the guest character role, but was rejected (this character, like many many other guests characters in the series, was voiced by James Doohan). Koenig still managed to write himself into the show in a subtle way: the plant that Sulu discovers is called a "retlaw", which is "Walter" spelled backwards.

Captain Kirk says "Beam us up, Scotty" again in this episode: the second and last time he says this phrase. (See also 'The Loelei Signal'.)

We meet another refugee from the Eugenics Wars - one of the genetic scientists.

This episode includes only the second reference to the Vulcan IDIC.

And... we see Spock do a "Vulcan mind-touch" with himself!

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Kraetos' guide to Star Trek

You know. 1966? 79 episodes, about 30 good ones.

- Phillip J. Fry

Ah, The Original Series. Where it all started. The show was tragically cancelled after three seasons, but on the other hand, it's easy to see why: the show missed more than it hit.

This guide has two sections:

• Complete guide. This is a list of all the episodes, sorted by production order with a quick description and it's rating, on a simple four tier scale: Engage, Just for Fun, meh, and Avoid.
• "30 good ones." If we take Fry's comment as gospel, which thirty episodes comprise the "good ones?"

Complete Guide

Season 1

Season 2

Normally the Prime Directive would forbid contact between Starfleet from open contact with a species incapable of interstellar communication. It is generally taken for granted that a similar rule or law must be in force for Federation civilians. It is hard to imagine the Horta could have warp drive, or even something like subspace radio. The Horta are almost obligate subterranean dwellers, finding even an open cavern uncomfortable compared to their own narrow tunnels. It is unlikely any Horta has ever deliberately traveled to Janus VI's surface. Even if one were to, they give every indication of being blind in the conventional sense-- or at least poor enough of vision that it took a mind meld for the Mother Horta to even understand what her unexpected guests even looked like. The Horta simply cannot look up to the stars and wonder, as other species can. They live in a world where the idea of flight could barely occur to anybody. It's debatable whether even the idea of tool use would be meaningful in such an environment (though the Mother Horta clearly understood the idea enough to understand how to sabotage the miners' life support.) And yet they are clearly an intelligent and sophisticated people, if alien. Extracanonical materials see the Horta join the Federation and become a vital part of its mining infrastructure, and even on a few occasions show mature Horta who have joined Starfleet, serving on such prestigious vessels as Kirk's Enterprise and Riker's Titan.

There is no indication that either the Federation miners nor the crew of the Enterprise encountered any reprisals for establishing a formal relationship with the Horta, even despite the fact that in the former case, their actions so interfered in the future of the species and their indigenous culture as to actively jeopardize their survival! Granted the miners had no way of assuming that the Mother Horta was sapient until long after the deed was done, but it was certainly clear to Spock before he attempted the Mind Meld.

This raises the question: why? Does Starfleet carve out some sort of exception for a species that may be incapable of ever meeting the standards for first contact? Did the fact that the contact by civilians was completely accidental create a justifiable breach, as it seems to have in "A Private Little War", and if so does that mean that in Picard's era Starfleet would have been obligated to ignore the Horta as the interpretation of the Prime Directive grew stricter?

Recently a user on Mastodon had a thought about Lt. Ortegas. She is clearly part of the Engineering/Operations division, which is abnormal given the triad of gold that normally sat on the bridge during Kirk's five year mission.

So I began to dig. José Tyler wore Command gold with an engineering insignia. Detmer wears bronze on the Discovery, which continued into the 32nd century. Gary Mitchell wore the darker operations color with a Sciences insignia. I think this suggests Helm can be a multidisciplinary position, though it is typically staffed by a young Command officer. The Command division tends to be more administrative or dedicated to control functions, but we also have Vice Admiral Toddman who wore Security yellow and Earth Starfleet's Maxwell Forrest who also did not wear Command colors.

Continuing forward the exceptions to the rule become less frequent. Lt. Leslie manned the helm as an Operations officer several times under Kirk and Demora Sulu wore Operations gold as the Enterprise-B's helm officer.

I have not dug terribly further, but outside of the 23rd century, the only notable helm officer not wearing command colors is Hector Illario.

Are there any other notable helm officers who don't wear Command colors?

To answer that question, let's talk about Starfleet's expectations for a new class of heavy cruiser/explorer. The Constitution class was in service for at least 50 years. NCC-1701 was commissioned in 2245, but it wasn't the first Constitution class ship. So lets say that the first one was launched in 2243. They were in service until at least 2293, but probably even later than that. It also had three significant refits over the course of it's 50-year service life.

The Excelsior was commissioned in 2290 after the great experiment failed. By 2293 it was Starfleet's pride and joy, and the first Federation ship named Enterprise that wasn't a Constitution class was an Excelsior. The basic Excelsior frame is apparently extremely durable and versatile, since Starfleet began producing them en masse.

It was Starfleet's biggest, meanest ship for about 20-30 years, from the 2290s until the 2320s. This mirrors the Constitution's service life as well. When Starfleet designs a new front-line heavy cruiser/heavy explorer, they apparently expect it to serve for at least three decades in that capacity, and then at least another two as an auxiliary cruiser/explorer.

The Ambassador was clearly slated to replace the Excelsior as the pride of the fleet. But for whatever reason, the Ambassador didn't have as privileged a run as the Excelsior.

Why?

Politics.

In the early-mid 24th century, the Federation didn't have many enemies. It was a time of relative peace. The Romulans had withdrawn behind their own borders, the Klingons were still recovering from Praxis, the Ferengi were unknown and the Cardassians were upstarts. They didn't really need another big mean ship like they needed the Excelsior in the 2280's, at the height of the Federation-Klingon Cold War.

Furthermore, because the Federation is in such a strong position relative to the other galactic powers, Starfleet has returned to it's original mandate: exploration and humanitarian operations.

Think about it from the perspective of the admiralty. The year is 2340 and you're the admiral with ultimate authority over the construction orders at all of Starfleet's various shipyards. The situation is as follows:

• The Rear and Vice admirals commanding fleets out of frontier Starbases tell you they need more ships to support the expanding Federation border.
• The Romulans are quiet.
• Peace negotiations with the Klingons are proceeding smoothly, especially since Capt. Garrett gave her life, ship and crew to defend a Klingon outpost.
• First contact with a race called the Cardassians has occurred recently. They have some bad blood with the Klingons due to a dispute over a dilithium-rich planet in the Betreka nebula, and the Klingons are our allies now, and they might require our assistance. However, all intelligence on the Cardassians indicates that they are several decades behind Starfleet in terms of technology and they don't appear to be catching up to the Federation's tech level.

So, Admiral, Utopia Planitia wants to know: what are we building for the next few years?

• Build more Ambassador class ships. The Ambassador class design is about 15 years old now, tried and true. Ambassador class ships are expensive, both in terms of time and material. However, they easily outclass the known Cardassian counterparts of the time. On the one hand, building more of them would be a potent show of force, but on the other hand, we need a larger fleet more than we need tougher ships.

Or,

• Build more Excelsior class ships. The Excelsior space frame is aging at this point, over 50 years old. But the Excelsior class is one of the most successful ship classes the Federation has ever built. They are durable and easily refittable, and they have enough internal space to be fitted for a wide variety of missions. In fact, the Excelsior herself is still in service at this time, 50 years after her commissioning. Unlike the Ambassador class they are no more powerful than Cardassian counterparts, but we have perfected the manufacturing process at this point and we can build a lot of them cheaply and quickly, and we need lots of reliable, speedy ships to support our growing network of colonies.

The choice is pretty obvious. The Ambassador class, despite being a better ship by just about every measurable metric, gets sidelined. Meanwhile, Excelsior production accelerates because the Federation needs more ships. This is why, by 2365, there appear to be more Excelsiors in service than Ambassadors, despite the fact that the design is 80 years old.

No worries, we'll figure out how this works someday.