Star Trek: The Animated Series DVD: Review By Mushy

In a word, the Star Trek: The Animated Series - The Animated Adventures of Gene Roddenberry's Start Trek, is awesome. I am not a Trekkie, not because I don't like the show but because I just I don't keep up with it enough to call myself one. This 4 disc set contains 22 episodes that are not animated like a kids show. In fact, this might be one of the first "cartoons" that was specifically directed toward adults. To top all this off, you have William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy voicing the Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock characters. I was expecting this to be hokey, the characters to be overly animated, but these episodes play very much like the live action shows that first came on the scene.

With such episode as "The Infinite Vulcan," in which a scientist tries to clone Spock, we get to see Captain Kirk do his best to diffuse a tricky situation. In "The Slaver Weapon," we see the Starfleet become engaged in a battle that has very little to do with them. Lastly, my favorite episode was "Bem," because it takes an early look at the touchy subject of gun control. While some people will never see animation as a way to put across adult ideas, with it's 1975 Emmy Star Trek: The Animated Series proved it wasn't kids stuff.

Text Commentary and Show History

I grouped both of these together because they're similar except the Text Commentary runs over the episodes in question, and the Show History is just pages of text on how this animated show was created. I watched the text commentary for the show "Yesteryear." It talks about how these episodes basically picked up the show after it went off the air, how much the fans supported this animated version, and other tidbits that the casual fan probably wouldn't know but a hardcore one might skip through.

Storyboard Gallery

Audio Commentary Tracks

"Bem" was the show that I listened to the commentary track for. It was done by David Gerrold who wrote the show. He discusses how the idea for these episodes goes back to the live action show and centers firmly around Mr. Spock's logic. The idea was, what if Mr. Spock was prejudiced toward somebody? Why would he be this way? Gerrold offers an interesting commentary giving us insights into this show that we most likely wouldn't have had otherwise.

Drawn to The Final Frontier

This segment looks at the making of this show as an idea after the live action version went off the air. Then it moves to what it's became in it's animated form. We see conceptual drawings and other ideas that really serve to put what it takes to make an animated show into perspective. I loved how dedicated this staff was and how they felt like they had to live up to something with Star Trek: The Animated Series. Other topics they discussed were how they never felt like they were making a cartoon version of the live action show, and that this animated series seemed like an opportunity to finish what had initially been started.

What's the Connection?

One of the more interesting supplemental features on this DVD, What's the Connection? lists out characters, plot points, and other Star Trek related things and we see how they carried over from one version of the show to the next (and even into the movies). Whether we are finding out about Captain Kirk's middle name, the rapidly aging crew (this happened in both the live action and animated show), or any other mystical piece of Star Trek related lore, it was very enlightening to see how all this came together.

Full Screen. I knew from the moment this show began, seeing the iconic U.S.S. Enterprise fly through space, that I was witnessing a different kind of animated series. The first thing that grabs you is that even though the animation is simple, it's not like they they have made these characters flamboyant. They aren't throwing their arms around and acting in a slapstick manner. Also, these episodes looked really good on DVD. Every so often I could see some wear on the shows from being in the vault, but that kind of thing was really marginal.

Dolby Digital - English 5.1 Surround. English and Spanish Mono. The audio in this set was creepy mainly because it reminded me so much of the audio on the show. There was a light, almost somber tone to the way these episodes played. Almost like between each sentence some ambient room tone had been added to give the impression that these characters were really light years away. Very well put together sound, overall.

All four discs are stored in a solid white case with the Star Trek logo on the front. This opens up easily and we can pull out the four discs which are stored together in plastic, book-like form. There is a folded doc*ment that gives some information on the show, as well as lists out and describes each episode. My biggest bone of contention is that this set is kind of hard to close, and the slip packaging that covers the DVDs gets creased when the plastic cover finally does get shut.

I was surprised with how much I really liked Star Trek: The Animated Series - The Animated Adventures of Gene Roddenberry's Start Trek. I have always had a distant relationship with the show, but with all the movies (some good and some bad), all the TV shows and everything else, it always seemed like too much for me to get into if I hadn't been involved with it to begin with. I am not saying that I am a born again Trekkie, but owning this animated series is making me consider buying the original three seasons that make up this set. I feel that between that and this animated series, I would have essentially all the Star Trek material that I would need to at least be an honorary Trekkie.

If you are a fan of this show, you have got to own Star Trek: The Animated Series - The Animated Adventures of Gene Roddenberry's Start Trek.