Why Star Trek: The Animated Series deserves a second chance

The Animated Series is better than many think

TAS continued TOS while going even further with facets of TOS fans love

Although it is obvious when watching TAS that the show had some problems due to limited budget and constraints of technology, it is a series that should not be shoved aside.  Yes Robert April has been changed dramatically in Strange New Worlds, but Khan has changed as much between the original timeline and the Kelvin timeline so this isn’t something new to the franchise

TAS tried to do the same thing for The Original Series that Picard tried to do with The Next Generation – finish character arcs and see characters in new situations.  While TAS didn’t have some of the same concerns Picard did – animated versus live action so that TAS could continue TOS without acknowledging the passage of time – both series let fans see their favorite characters outside of reruns or movies.  TAS, in particular, benefitted from being produced shortly after its predecessor because most of the cast could return to voice their animated counterparts and many of the beloved writers returned to continue plot threads they themselves created.

TAS continues many of the great themes of TOS yet aimed them at a younger audience.  This makes many episodes even more groundbreaking.  “Yesteryear” had Spock travel back in time to save his younger self and then let his younger self choose whether to put his injured pet down.  How many shows aimed at children, outside of dedicated educational entertainment, would deal with a topic as emotional as having to put a pet down to end their suffering?  Episodes also focused on underused characters, like Uhura, who gets to save the day in one episode which never occurred before in live action.  Then there were the chance to do things in animation that would have been very expensive or impossible to do in live action, underwater scenes or more creative alien designs.  Even the new series like Discovery do not have scenes set underwater.  Creative alien designs are becoming more common in the more recent tv series and films, but TAS started it with a three armed, three legged alien taking the place of Chekov.

TAS could easily have coasted on the success of TOS, yet it took the chance to build on what fans had loved before including deep themes that inspired conversations and pushing the creative bounds of the genre.