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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

Episode	Title	Description	Rating
00	The Cage	Aborted pilot, didn't air until 1988. No Kirk—instead, it's Captain Pike. Rejected for being "too cerebral."	Just for fun
01	Where No One Has Gone Before	Pilot, but didn't air until after the next two. The Enterprise leaves the galaxy and some crew members exhibit extraordinary powers.	Engage!
02	The Corbomite Maneuver	Kirk attempts to bluff his way out of a scrape with a much meaner alien ship.	Engage!
03	Mudd's Women	The Enterprise encounters freighter captain Harry Mudd, who travels with three beautiful women.	meh
04	The Enemy Within	A transporter accident splits Kirk into two halves—a "good" one, and an "evil" one.	Engage!
05	The Man Trap	Something is not as it seems when the Enterprise runs into one of McCoy's old romanic interests.	Just for fun
06	The Naked Time	The Enterprise crew becomes infected by a virus that has a similar effect as alcohol.	Engage!
07	Charlie X	A human boy raised by aliens has supernatural powers—can he adapt to Federation culture?	meh
08	Balance of Terror	A Romulan warbird strikes against Federation border outposts. Kirk must defeat the Romulan commander.	Engage!!
09	What Are Little Girls Made Of?	The Enterprise encounters Dr. Roger Korby, leading medical archaeologist, and Nurse Chapel's once fiancée.	meh
10	Dagger of the Mind	The Enterprise inadvertently picks up a stowaway from a penal colony.	meh
11	Miri	The Enterprise investigates a planet where virus kills everyone once they reach puberty.	meh
12	The Conscience of the King	A mass murderer may be loose on board the Enterprise.	meh
13	The Galileo Seven	McCoy, Scott, Spock and four other crewmen crash land on a planet, and not everyone gets along with Mr. Spock.	Engage!
14	Court Martial	When an officer (and friend) under Kirk's command dies in an ion storm, Kirk is accused of foul play.	Just for fun
15	The Menagerie (Part I)	Spock kidnaps his former captain, Pike, and takes the Enterprise to forbidden planet Talos IV for reasons unknown.	Engage!
16	The Menagerie (Part II)	Kirk discovers why Spock has stolen the Enterprise.	Engage!
17	Shore Leave	Kirk orders shore leave for the Enterprise crew, but the planet they've selected seems to be fulfilling everyone's fantasies.	Just for fun
18	The Squire of Gothos	The Enterprise is captured by Trelane, a seemingly omnipotent being.	Just for fun
19	Arena	The Metrons, an advanced alien species, pit Captain Kirk against a Gorn captain in personal combat.	Engage!
20	The Alternative Factor	The Enterprise is sent to investigate a mad scientist after a galaxy-wide spatial disruption.	Avoid
21	Tomorrow is Yesterday	The Enterprise accidentally travels back to the 20th century where they destroy a US Air Force aircraft and rescue the pilot, creating a time paradox as the pilot gains foreknowledge of events to come.	Engage!
22	Return of the Archons	The Enterprise visits a planet where an Earth ship was last seen before reported missing, 200 years ago.	meh
23	A Taste of Armageddon	The Enterprise discovers two civilizations fighting a computerized war—but the casualties are real.	Just for fun
24	Space Seed	The Enterprise rescues the SS Botany Bay without realizing the war criminal and genetic "superman" Khan is aboard.	Engage!
25	This Side of Paradise	The Enterprise investigates a colony where everyone should be dead from radiation exposure, only to discover the colonists are alive.	Just for Fun
26	The Devil in the Dark	The Enterprise crew must find a creature that has killed more than 50 workers at a vital Federation mining colony.	Engage!
27	Errand of Mercy	War breaks out between the Federation and the Klingon Empire, and Kirk is sent to fight the first battle over a planet called Organia.	Engage!
28	The City on the Edge of Forever	Dr. McCoy changes history in a manner which prevents the Federation from even existing. Kirk and Spock must follow him back and stop him.	Engage!
29	Operation: Annihilate!	Colonists on a distant planet are taken over by neural parasites.	Just for fun

Season 2

Episode	Title	Description	Rating
01	Catspaw	Kirk and co. beam down to a Halloween themed planet.	Avoid
02	Metamorphosis	The Enterprise finds Zefram Cochrane, inventor of warp drive, on a distant planet, even though he's been believed dead for 150 years.	Just for fun
03	Friday's Child	Kirk attempts to negotiate mining rights with a primitive, honor-bound civilization.	Just for fun
04	Who Mourns for Adonais?	The Enterprise encounters an entity which claims to be the Greek god Apollo.	meh
05	Amok Time	Spock undergoes Pon Farr and must return to Vulcan to mate or he will die.	Engage!
06	The Doomsday Machine	The Enterprise encounters a planet killer and must stop it before it strikes again.	Engage!
07	Wolf in the Fold	Scotty is accused of murder during shore leave.	Just for fun
08	The Changeling	The Enterprise encounters Nomad, a human-built probe which has been altered to have one mission: the sterilization of all life.	Engage!
09	The Apple	A landing party explores a beautiful planet with primitive natives, before the planet begin killing redshirts.	Avoid
10	Mirror, Mirror	A transporter accident sends Kirk, Scotty, McCoy and Uhura to the "mirror universe," where good and evil seem to be inverted.	Engage!
11	The Deadly Years	The Enterprise crew becomes infected with a rapid-aging virus.	Just for fun
12	I, Mudd	The Enterprise bumps into Harry Mudd once again after a new crewman hijacks the ship.	meh
13	The Trouble with Tribbles	The Enterprise responds to a distress call from Space Station K7 when Klingons arrive at the station.	Engage!
14	Bread and Circuses	The Enterprise discovers a parallel Earth where Rome never fell.	Just for fun
15	Journey to Babel	The Enterprise transports Federation ambassadors to a conference on Babel. One of the Ambassadors is Sarek, Spock's father.	Engage!
16	A Private Little War	Kirk suspects that a primitive culture may have been armed by the Klingons.	Just for fun
17	The Gamesters of Triskelion	Kirk, Uhura and Chekov are kidnapped while preparing to beam down to Gamma 2. Spock must determine where the landing party has gone.	Avoid
18	Obsession	A cloud creature kills a number of redshirts on an away mission—but Kirk has encountered this creature before, and is determined to kill it.	Just for fun
19	The Immunity Syndrome	The Enterprise investigates the loss of the Federation starship Intrepid.	Just for fun
20	A Piece of the Action	The Enterprise encounters a planet where the culture is based entirely on 1920's mobsters.	Just for fun
21	By Any Other Name	While investigating a distress call, the Enterprise discover survivors who need the Enterprise to get home.	Just for fun
22	Return to Tomorrow	The Enterprise receives a distress call from a distant planet.	Just for fun
23	Patterns of Force	In search of Federation historian John Gill, the Enterprise discovers a planet modeled after Nazi Germany.	Just for fun
24	The Ultimate Computer	Kirk is ordered to test M-5, an advanced computer which can command a starship.	Engage!
25	The Omega Glory	A Federation captain breaks the Prime Directive and arms a primitive civilization.	Avoid
26	Assignment: Earth	The Enterprise travels back in time to 1968 and encounters secret agent Gary Seven.	Just for fun

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.