“Star Trek: The Animated Series (originally known as simply Star Trek, but also known as The Animated Adventures of Gene Roddenberry’s Star Trek) is an animated science fiction television series set in the Star Trek universe following the events of Star Trek: The Original Series of the 1960s. The animated series was aired under the name Star Trek, but it has become widely known under this longer name (or abbreviated as ST: TAS or TAS) to differentiate it from the original live-action Star Trek. The success in syndication of the original live action series and fan pressure for a Star Trek revival led to The Animated Series from 1973–1974, as the source of new adventures of the Enterprise crew, the next being the 1979 live-action feature film Star Trek: The Motion Picture.”
“The series was produced by Filmation in association with Paramount Television and ran for two seasons from 1973 to 1974 on NBC, airing a total of twenty-two half-hour episodeshttps://www.knowitalljoe.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=1100&action=edit&message=1.”
“The writers of the animated series used, essentially, the same writers’ guide that was used for the live-action Star Trek: The Original Series.”
I will admit the animation pretty much sucked, but the stories were really well done. It truly was the fourth season of the show. I love the fact that most of the actors came back to voice their characters, with the exception of Walter Koenig (supposedly due to budget issues). As a consolation, Koenig did get to script one episode of the show (“The Infinite Vulcan”).
So I thought it would be kind of interesting to post a script and storyboard packet for one of these animated episodes. I think it provides a neat comparison, especially for those who are interested in storyboarding. Sorry that the quality isn’t a tad better for the storyboards, but to quote that extremely overused and sometimes annoying cliché, “It is what it is.”
Now let’s all trek forward to some animated “Star Trek.”
The Eye of the Beholder (aired Jan. 5, 1974) – “While searching for a lost ship, Kirk, Spock, and McCoy are captured and placed in a zoo by advanced, telepathic aliens.”
Click HERE to read the script
Click HERE to view the storyboards
Citation * The episode description is from TV.com.