I have been using Netflix to re-watch Star Trek. And I mean all of the Star Treks. I’ve already completed DS9 and the original series. Both were excellent. I just finished the animated series. I had never seen any of the animated series before, so I figured I’d give my impressions.
For starters, it was weird. It wasn’t exactly bad, but it certainly wasn’t good.
It made me wonder about copyrights and studios and ownership. It was clearly Star Trek. It was called Star Trek. Gene Roddenberry was listed as executive producer. But, the theme music was different. It was clearly intended to sound similar, but it was different.
Larry Niven wrote an episode (The Slaver Weapon). That’s an awfully big Sci-Fi writer to pen an episode of a second rate cartoon.
The animation was mostly bad. But it was nice the way they actually had alien looking aliens.
Most of the actors are not really voice actors. When Nichelle Nichols and Majel Barrett did voices other than Uhura and Nurse Chapel, they sounded just like Uhura and Nurse Chapel.
William Shatner impressed me. He was the one that seemed to know that voice acting is different than regular acting and rose to the occasion.
There are only 22 episodes. So, if you’re curious, it is relatively painless. But, I’d only recommend it to someone who has a strong desire to see everything Trek (like me).
Now, I’m really excited for Next Generation.
