STAR TREK
THE ANIMATED SERIES

"To Boldly Go..."

Beyond the Farthest Star
In orbit around a dead star, the Enterprise comes across a huge starship inhabited by a parasitic life form that threatens the entire ship.

Yesteryear
Spock must return to his own past on Vulcan to prevent his death as a youngster.

One of Our Planets is Missing
The crew of the Enterprise races to find a way to stop a cloud from destroying inhabited planets.

The Lorelei Signal
The men of the Enterprise are victimized by a race of beautiful women who stay immortal by draining the life force of men.

More Tribbles, More Troubles
Cyrano Jones returns, along with new tribbles that can't multiply. The Survivor The Enterprise finds missing explorer Carter Winston, but he may not be what he appears to be.

The Infinite
Vulcan Kirk and the crew are faced with a race of intelligent plants and a mad scientist who wants to impose peace on the galaxy.

The Magicks of Megas-Tu
The Enterprise goes to the center of the galaxy, where they find a race of powerful aliens who once fled Earth.

Once Upon a Planet
Kirk returns to the "shore leave" planet, but it's not as peaceful as it was when they last saw it.

Mudd's Passion
The crew encounter Harry Mudd again, who is selling a fake love potion.

The Terratin Incident
The crew of the Enterprise finds themselves shrinking after being bathed with radiation.

The Time Trap
The Enterprise and a Klingon ship must join forces to escape from a pocket universe that has been trapping starships for centuries

The Ambergris Element
While exploring the planet Argo, Kirk and Spock are turned into water breathers.

The Slaver Weapon
Spock, Sulu and Uhura are captured by the Kzinti, who are trying to learn the secret of an ancient weapon.

The Eye of the Beholder
While searching for a lost ship, Kirk, Spock and McCoy are captured and placed in a zoo by advanced, telepathic aliens.

The Jihad
Kirk leads a party to retrieve a religious relic that was stolen; however, he is faced with sabotage from within the group by someone who doesn't want to relic to be found, which will trigger an intergalactic jihad.

The Pirates of Orion
When Spock is stricken down by a disease fatal to Vulcans, the Enterprise is to meet a freighter with a load of drugs that provides the only cure, but Orion pirates attack the ship and Kirk must track down the Orions and the drug before it is too late.

Bem
On a planetary survey mission, Kirk and Spock have to deal with a reckless observer named Bem.

The Practical Joker
After passing through an unusual cloud, the Enterprise computer develops a playful--and potentially lethal--personality.

Albatross
Dr. McCoy is arrested and held responsible for causing a plague that ravaged the planet Dramia Two, where he performed a mass-inoculation 19 years earlier.

How Sharper Than a Serpent's Tooth?
The Enterprise crew encounters an alien who visited Earth in ancient times and became known as the Mayan god Kukulkan.

The Counter-Clock Incident
The Enterprise tries to save an unidentified ship plunging into a supernova but is dragged into a universe where time runs backwards. Their only hope to return home is Commodore Robert April, the first commander of the Enterprise, who is onboard on a retirement trip.

After the cancellation of the Original Series in 1969, fans lamented that this would be the last time they would see the crew of the Starship Enterprise on the small screen but they would have never have guessed they would return in animated form.

In 1973 Star Trek broke convention and returned after been cancelled by NBC but not as they knew them. Instead of a new live action series however the crew of the Starship Enterprise returned as an animated series. While fans at the time might have been slightly disappointed, as cartoon series were considered just for kids but when the series started they released that it was just the same as the live action series but without the restrictions.

Whereas the live action series was restricted by technology, makeup and budget, Gene Roddenberry and his creative team could do whatever they wanted in the animation medium. Now Kirk, Spock and McCoy could fight with non-human looking aliens more often, travel more exotic worlds, fight bigger space battles and much, much more. With every restriction removed however it would have been easy to forget about what made the series so loved in the first place, the science fiction storytelling.

The animated series continues the momentum of the Original Series and even continue some of the stories that were introduced during the three seasons of the live action run. We see the return of Cyrano Jones and his tribbles, Harry Mudd and even an appearance by the first captain of the Starship Enterprise, Robert April. This makes the animated series just as valid, if not more so than anything else in the Star Trek universe.

The major plus point of the series however is the return of the original cast to provide the voices. Everyone is here. William Shatner as James T. Kirk, Leonard Nimoy as Spock and DeForest Kelly as Dr. 'Bones' McCoy all return, as do George Takei (Sulu), James Doohan (Scotty), Nichelle Nichols (Uhura) and Majel Barrett (Nurse Chappel). This makes the show just as good a watch as any of the original series episodes.

'Star Trek: The Animated Series' is part of the Star Trek Universe and one that should be treasured. With just the same impact as the Original Series, the adventures Kirk, Spock and McCoy continue.

PICTURE & SOUND

Presented in full screen 4:3 with Mono soundtrack, the digitally remastered series looks great.

BONUS FEATURES

Text Commentary by Michael and Denise Okuda
Watch 'Yesteryear', 'The Eye of the Beholder' and 'The Counter-Clock Incident' with snippets of information about the show, the animated series and where is fits in the Star Trek universe.

Audio Commentary by David Gerrold
The famed Star Trek writer provides commentary for the episodes 'More Tribbles, More Troubles' and 'Bem'. He discusses how he became involved with the animated series and how the ideas developed from the live action show. These are interesting tracks that offer an insight into how the animated series was made.

Audio Commentary by David Wise
The writer who went on to pen episodes for 'The Transformers', 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' and 'Batman: The Animated Series', talks about one of his first writing experiences on the episode 'How sharper than the Serpent's tooth'. Storyboard Gallery View original storyboards for 'The Infinite Vulcan'

Drawn to the Final Frontier: The Making of Star Trek the Animated Series (24.31 mins)
Writer/associated producer D.C. Fontana, producer Lou Scheimer, writers David Gerrold and Larry Brody and director Hal Sutherland talk about Star Trek: The Animated Series. The group reveals how the show came about and the concept behind it. They also talk about Gene Roddenberry's involvement and how they wanted to complete what they had began during the original series. The return of the original cast is also talked about in this fascinating featurette.

What's the Star Trek connection? (5.43 mins)
View how the animated series is connected to the other Star Trek series and the universe.

Show History
Read the history of the show and its place in the Star Trek universe

OVERALL

The DVD package for Star Trek: The Animated Series is very good. Besides from the digital remastering of the series, fans of the series and Trekkers will enjoy the bonus features. This is a must buy for any Star Trek fans to complete their collection.

DVD

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