TVTropes Now available in the app store!
Open

Follow TV Tropes

Star Trek: The Animated Series

Go To

Star Trek: The Animated Series (Western Animation)
Star Trek TAS, complete with the "hunched over, clenched-fist" He-Man/Filmation running style we've grown to laugh at. I mean, love.

Star Trek: The Animated Series is an Animated Adaptation and the first Spin-Off from the original series, continuing the initial five-year mission.

Given that it was produced by Filmation, the animation is in the studio's typical, ultra-cheap style. However, they more than made up for that with the presence of all of the original cast except Walter Koenig (Chekov), and some of the writers as well. The result is a show that might not have had the best animation, but still boasts spectacular imagery and believable non-human aliens that the original show could never depict, while still reasonably keeping to its artistic spirit. As a result, this series is the best example of the Animated Adaptation concept in The Dark Age of Animation, and was so good that it won the franchise's first ever Emmy Award.

The Animated Series remains the shortest-lived series of the Star Trek franchise, with just 22 episodes airing over a 13-month period in 1973-74 on NBC. It was also the last Trek series to air in first-run on network television until Star Trek: Voyager debuted in 1995 on UPN. The franchise would not return to the medium of animation again until the release of Star Trek: Lower Decks in 2020.

However, the franchise creator, Gene Roddenberry, later insisted that the animated show be kept out of continuity since he never anticipated that Star Trek would later be revived in live action on such a scale as would happen, with the film series and The Next Generation. Still, many fans (and Roddenberry too) insisted that at least the best episode, "Yesteryear", be counted, considering that it gives a valuable look into Spock's youth and character as well as the planet Vulcan, as told by the most authoritative voice on the matter, D.C. Fontana. Because of the information about Vulcan presented in the show, as well as the introduction of the Holodeck and Kirk's middle name, and the fact that many of the Star Trek writers and actors were involved with the production, many fans consider it a part of their personal Star Trek Canon, depicting the final two years of Enterprise's five year mission. In addition, the producers of Star Trek: Enterprise used numerous references from this series. The Star Trek Expanded Universe, already having less of a need to adhere to strict canon, even went so far as to revive the series' Sixth Ranger alien crew members, Cat Girl Lt. M'Ress and tri-symmetrical Lt. Arex.

CBS declared this series full canon around the time they released it on DVD.

The title used here and on the DVD release is a retronym, as the show originally aired as simply Star Trek. It's also known by the more ponderous title of The Animated Adventures of Gene Roddenberry's Star Trek.

In 2018, IDW Publishing used this series for a Crossover with The Transformers, entitled Star Trek vs. Transformers. Read more about tropes pertaining to that particular story on that page.

To celebrate the show's 50th anniversary, a series of Short Treks produced and animated by the Lower Decks team were released. These shorts veer towards Affectionate Parody territory as opposed to the original series, with the Enterprise crew being put into more outlandish situations. With appropriate Art Shifts whenever the LD cast appears.

The show was announced to start airing on MeTV Toons in September 2025, the first Filmation show the channel has aired and the second show the channel has acquired from Paramount, the first being Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1987).


This series provides examples of:

  • Alternate Universe: "The Magicks of Megas-Tu" has a world in which practicing magic is the norm and "The Counter-Clock Incident" has a universe in which everything works backwards, including aging.
  • Animal Motifs: Lieutenant M'Ress has a cat smile constantly, due to her cat-like anatomy.
  • Animated Adaptation: The best example thereof in the 1970s.
  • Animation Bump: A slight example took place in the second season, firstly due to them already having a lot of stock animation from the first season that they were able to re-use, thus letting them give more time and attention to the new animation, and secondly due to first season director Hal Sutherland — whose color-blindness resulted in him often going with muted purple-pink color schemes for episode he directed — being replaced by Bill Reed, who gave the show a somewhat more vibrant visual style.
  • Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: Apparently, Keniclus' master plan won't work without making Spock enormous, the better to force everyone to be peaceful, apparently. (He himself is also a giant.)
  • Barefoot Cartoon Animal: Lt. M'Ress, who wears a full Starfleet uniform, except for footwear. Justified because she has digitigrade paws (meaning she walks on her toes).
  • Bowdlerise: By German TV station ZDF.
  • Broad Strokes: The timeframe this series depicts is an accepted part of Star Trek lore, but the actual details have been rearranged since.
  • Canon Discontinuity: The series was declared non-canon by Gene Roddenberry, with the sole exception of the episode "Yesteryear". CBS later declared the whole thing canon anyway.
  • Canon Immigrant: The Kzinti, from Larry Niven, were never mentioned or referenced again in the series. But starting with the CBS re-canonization of the series, hey became canon. They have been major features in Star Fleet Battles, since its license included all elements of the original and animated series. Wasn't for lack of trying, though — there were multiple attempts to re-include the Kzinti in some fashion, but for one reason or another these plans never got started; Star Trek Online got stymied by legal reasons and had to substitute the Ferasan for the Kzinti; it wouldn't be until Lower Decks (appropriately enough) that the species made a reappearance.
  • Cat Folk: The Caitian Lieutenant M'Ress, as well as the Kzinti in "The Slaver Weapon". Some of the Expanded Universe material around it suggests that the Caitian relationship to the Kzinti is essentially the same as the one between the Vulcans and the Romulans, only with the ones that left (the Caitians) being the "good guys" that ended up part of the Federation and the ones that stayed (the Kzinti) as the militaristic bad guys with historic conflicts with the Federation (and possibly with some ill-advised genetic engineering on the part of the Kzinti).
  • Character Development: Since this is a Saturday-Morning Cartoon directed at children (albeit a very well-written one), Kirk's infamous womanizer tendencies are effectively absent here. In particular, he repeatedly rebuffs advances from an attractive woman in "The Jihad," saying they need to focus on the mission at hand. Additionally, episodes like "The Slaver Weapon," "The Infinite Vulcan," and "The Lorelei Signal" give Sulu and Uhura more to do than usual got on the Original Series.
  • Comic-Book Adaptation: IDW's Star Trek vs. Transformers used the character designs from the Animated Series, to bettter blend in with the animated characters from The Transformers. It was a good choice, and the characters look surprisingly natural standing next to each other.
  • Darker and Edgier: Than most other cartoons on television at the time. The Animated Series tended to work with the same style of cerebral stories that the previous live-action series did, and references to death were not glossed over at all. In fact, "Yesteryear" deals with a child version of Spock losing his beloved pet, and the "death words" weren't glossed over or replaced with Lighter and Softer equivalents. This has helped the series gain a strong following within the Star Trek fan community, as well as with the creative staffs involved with the franchise.
  • Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: "The Magicks of Megas-Tu" has James T. Kirk defeating Satan! (Or at least a being claiming to be him as part of a Secret Test of Character.) For an added bonus, they become friends at the end.
  • Empowered Badass Normal: Kirk (and a few others) gain magical abilities in "The Magicks of Megas-Tu".
  • Energy Ring Attack: One episode has a Klingon warship test out a stasis field ray against the Enterprise. When fired, concentric circles engulf the Enterprise, immobilizing it. The stasis ray is also fired at two supply drones that the Enterprise was escorting.
  • Everyone Is a Super: "The Magicks of Megas-Tu" has beings who have the ability to practice magic.
  • Expospeak Gag: Between Spock and McCoy.
    McCoy: Why couldn't you have just said [x]?
    Spock: I believe I just did.
  • Extreme Close-Up: Used frequently, often with the speaking character's mouth out of frame (presumably to save on animation costs)
  • A Form You Are Comfortable With: "The Magicks of Megas-Tu". The inhabitants of Megas-Tu do this for their own bodies and their planet's surface for the benefit of the Enterprise crew.
  • Forgotten Phlebotinum: "Life-support belts" that allow the crew to survive in vacuum without spacesuits only ever appear in this series. The Forgotten History novel from Star Trek: Department of Temporal Investigations reveal that life-support belts were discontinued as their failure meant immediate death for their users.
  • Freudian Trio: Just like the live-action version, we have Kirk, Spock, and McCoy.
  • Giant Flyer: "The Infinite Vulcan" and "The Eye of the Beholder" feature flying plant creatures called Swoopers.
  • Human Aliens: Although there are still a fair few, this show takes advantage of the animated format to avert the trope whenever they can and come up with more divergent alien designs.
  • In Space, Everyone Can See Your Face: Life-support belts take this to its logical extreme—the production team doesn't have to draw spacesuits, but can simply use its normal character models with a belt and a glowing outline.
  • The Ken Burns Effect: Just as the live action series would often come back from a commercial break to have Kirk deliver his "Captain's Log" to a stock shot of the Enterprise floating above the Planet of the Week, the animated series would have Kirk deliver the log as we slowly pan across a background painting of an exotic alien landscape.
  • Limited Animation: Filmation's Signature Style. Lacking much range in facial expression, the onus was on the voice cast to convey the characters' emotions, in which (being made up of mostly Original Series alumni) they largely succeeded.
  • Mysterious Middle Initial: It was actually in this show that Kirk's middle name was first revealed to be Tiberius, though it wouldn't officially enter canon until the sixth film.
  • Novelization: All of the animated episodes were novelized by Alan Dean Foster for a series of books published as the Star Trek Log series, 10 in total. Initially, Foster adapted three storylines per book in novella format. The last few books, however, saw the writer take some of the 25-minute teleplays and expand them considerably into full-length standalone novels.
  • Opening Narration: An animated version of the one in Star Trek: The Original Series.
  • Pet-sonal Security: Spock, as a child, had a pet sehlat named I-Chaya who saved him from a venomous le-matya but was bitten by the creature. A young Spock had to euthanize I-Chaya, as there was no antidote to the venom at that time.
  • The Power of Sisterhood: Kirk, Spock, and McCoy are incapacitated by an alien race that preys on men. Lieutenant Uhura takes command and leads an all-female team to the planet's surface to save the men and stop the aliens. This is noted to be Nichelle Nichols' favorite Star Trek episode ever.
  • Real Men Wear Pink: The Klingons in "The Practical Joker" and the Kzinti in "The Slaver Weapon", courtesy of a colorblind director.
  • Recycled Soundtrack: Well, duh, it's Filmation. While yes, this was also done on The Original Series, it definitely wasn't to the same extent.
  • Replacement Goldfish: Carter Winston (actually a shape shifting alien).
  • Rotoscoping: The exterior shots of the Enterprise are animated using rotoscoping.
  • Sequel Episode: "Mudd's Passion" is a sequel to "I, Mudd"note , "More Tribbles, More Troubles" is a sequel to "The Trouble with Tribbles", "Yesteryear" is a sequel to "The City on the Edge of Forever" with references to "Journey to Babel" , and "Once Upon a Planet" is a sequel to "Shore Leave".
  • Single-Biome Planet: A Volcano Planet in "The Jihad", an Ice Planet in "The Slaver Weapon" and a Water Planet in "The Ambergris Element".
  • Starfish Aliens: Edosians, Vendorians, Phylosians, Lactrans, and M/3/Green. The production team was clearly thrilled to not have to worry about budget constraints when designing the aliens, to the point that they probably went overboard with it. (Also, if the aliens naturally fly, swim, or slither, you don't have to animate them walking.)
  • Stock Sound Effects: Many sound effects from The Original Series get re-used here, thanks to regular Filmation sound editor Sam Horta also working on said original series, though it replaced the typical red alert with the one from a single episode of the show this spun-off from, and one episode even used a Godzilla roar!
  • Tie-In Novel: Alan Dean Foster wrote adaptations of the episodes, and many Trek novels reference it.
  • The Time Traveller's Dilemma: It's unknown what happens to Thelen the Andorian (who replaced Spock as Science Officer) after the timeline is fixed in "Yesteryear".
  • Title: The Adaptation: As noted, however, this is only the case for the re-releases. It originally aired just as "Star Trek," with no subtitle.
  • 20 Minutes into the Future: Thanks to a blooper involving the mustached Lt Kyle, one shot of Scotty working the transporter momentarily showed him with a mustache, five years before his live action mustache's debut in Star Trek: The Motion Picture.

 
Feedback

Video Example(s):

Top

Lactra VII - The Zoo Planet

The Lactrans of Lactra VII have converted their planet into a giant zoo, and have exhibited many species there including humans and vulcans.

How well does it match the trope?

4.8 (5 votes)

Example of:

Main / PeopleZoo

Media sources:

Report