The best way that I can sum up the Animated series is "TOS Cranked up to Eleven in Every Sense"
If TOS is a really good work that is sadly aged, needing a titanic effort in tolerance, TAS requires twice as that. It's a cartoon that had a janky quality already in its time, whose style was later mocked by series like "Sealab", with stilted expressions and movement, reused animation as much as possible and weird frames.
If TOS survived with a shoestring budget, TAS survived by chewing the cotton shoelaces are made of. James Doohan literally voices nearly every single character that isn't from the Enterprise, and he tries his best to do so, there was no money to hire guest stars in a steady basis. And if the worst episodes of TOS are nunchakus made of ham to sloppily slap your audience, TAS worst episodes are psychodelic trips with plots that would make Flash Gordon go 'What?!'.
And I still recommend people to try.
Not because I'm a Trek Fan, but because weirdly, when your guard is at its lowest, the big and good episodes come in and hit you in the gut. There are several scripts that were meant to be in TOS, but adapted here, and they still carry a good emotional and psychological impact. There isn't as much pondering of the human condition because it was still meant to be a show for kids, nothing groundbreaking or tear inducing (unless you lost a pet when you're a kid, no spoilers) but it can go surprisingly deep. This series also mark the first time Uhura was actually in command of the Enterprise, albeit temporarily. And also gave the series its first Emmy, yes, really.
The writers also jumped on the opportunity to invent features and creatures that would be far too expensive to depict through live action, such as the Caitians (Lt. M'Ress, voiced by Majel Barret) and Edosians (Lt. Arex, voiced by James Doohan) and invent technology that would either be a staple in the series (the Holodecks and Replicators) and some that were actually good ideas sadly not featured in the rest of the canon. After all, in a cartoon, its far easier to invent and experiment with exotic locales and weird technology (its all a background painting!), and if you need to place your heroes in a hostile environment, why not just make them wear a belt, draw a glow around them and say that they have their personal shields up, instead of drawing and animating bulky hazmat suits? So many problems would be avoided if the personal shields had been adopted! (But considering that TNG was just three years after Dune, I kinda understand why. Nobody would like to waste a ton of money to make your away team look like legos)
Lastly, when you dig upon the story of how the cartoon was made and why, there is a surprising amount of touching moments and love behind it. The actors in TOS wanted to support each other through difficult times, so when the higher ups wanted just the 'mains' (William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, De Forest Kelley, James Doohan and Majel Barrett, as better described in the main page), they refused unless George Takei, Nichelle Nichols and Walter Koenig were also on the picture. Sadly they couldn't include Koenig, who was allowed to write an episode... that was heavily edited by Gene Rodenberry.
So, have time to spare in these trying times, don't mind really old animation and willing to laugh at some really silly stuff? Try it! Can't stand the weirdness? Quite understandable, move in towards TNG! Don't like overly weird plots but don't mind the animation? Check a guide, but try it! When TAS its at its worst, its hilariously bad, when its at its best, it can almost reach TOS levels of quality.
WesternAnimation Extremes of Quality in a Weird Work of Love.
The best way that I can sum up the Animated series is "TOS Cranked up to Eleven in Every Sense"
If TOS is a really good work that is sadly aged, needing a titanic effort in tolerance, TAS requires twice as that. It's a cartoon that had a janky quality already in its time, whose style was later mocked by series like "Sealab", with stilted expressions and movement, reused animation as much as possible and weird frames.
If TOS survived with a shoestring budget, TAS survived by chewing the cotton shoelaces are made of. James Doohan literally voices nearly every single character that isn't from the Enterprise, and he tries his best to do so, there was no money to hire guest stars in a steady basis. And if the worst episodes of TOS are nunchakus made of ham to sloppily slap your audience, TAS worst episodes are psychodelic trips with plots that would make Flash Gordon go 'What?!'.
And I still recommend people to try.
Not because I'm a Trek Fan, but because weirdly, when your guard is at its lowest, the big and good episodes come in and hit you in the gut. There are several scripts that were meant to be in TOS, but adapted here, and they still carry a good emotional and psychological impact. There isn't as much pondering of the human condition because it was still meant to be a show for kids, nothing groundbreaking or tear inducing (unless you lost a pet when you're a kid, no spoilers) but it can go surprisingly deep. This series also mark the first time Uhura was actually in command of the Enterprise, albeit temporarily. And also gave the series its first Emmy, yes, really.
The writers also jumped on the opportunity to invent features and creatures that would be far too expensive to depict through live action, such as the Caitians (Lt. M'Ress, voiced by Majel Barret) and Edosians (Lt. Arex, voiced by James Doohan) and invent technology that would either be a staple in the series (the Holodecks and Replicators) and some that were actually good ideas sadly not featured in the rest of the canon. After all, in a cartoon, its far easier to invent and experiment with exotic locales and weird technology (its all a background painting!), and if you need to place your heroes in a hostile environment, why not just make them wear a belt, draw a glow around them and say that they have their personal shields up, instead of drawing and animating bulky hazmat suits? So many problems would be avoided if the personal shields had been adopted! (But considering that TNG was just three years after Dune, I kinda understand why. Nobody would like to waste a ton of money to make your away team look like legos)
Lastly, when you dig upon the story of how the cartoon was made and why, there is a surprising amount of touching moments and love behind it. The actors in TOS wanted to support each other through difficult times, so when the higher ups wanted just the 'mains' (William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, De Forest Kelley, James Doohan and Majel Barrett, as better described in the main page), they refused unless George Takei, Nichelle Nichols and Walter Koenig were also on the picture. Sadly they couldn't include Koenig, who was allowed to write an episode... that was heavily edited by Gene Rodenberry.
So, have time to spare in these trying times, don't mind really old animation and willing to laugh at some really silly stuff? Try it! Can't stand the weirdness? Quite understandable, move in towards TNG! Don't like overly weird plots but don't mind the animation? Check a guide, but try it! When TAS its at its worst, its hilariously bad, when its at its best, it can almost reach TOS levels of quality.