TV Talk - Star Trek: The Animated Series

'Sup guys! Well, I have one more TV show to do this month that relates to the original crew of the Enterprise. That's right... it's the animated show from 1973. I don't have too much to say, so let's finish it!

Background
Until recently, I had only seen one episode from this 22-episode series. It was one Saturday morning, maybe 5th or 6th grade. I don't remember which channel it was on but I do know it was some sort of cable channel. The episode was "Yesteryear." When I got Netflix, I saw that this show was on there along with the other Trek shows. I really had no interest in seeing it until this month. Since it does involve the original Enterprise crew, I knew that I had to do it for this month and you know what? It's actually not that bad.

Likes
That's right! There are things to like about this series.

 Hmm... So this is what the Star Trek's version of the JLA looks like!

• The writing - The writing for this the show really has the feel of TOS (The Original Series). The characters feel in character for the most part. Kirk is Kirk, Spock is Spock, and Bones is Bones. The plots for each episode also have that TOS feel. They're action-packed, humorous, and thought-provoking at times. 
• The voice acting - Just about everyone from TOS come back to reprise their roles as their characters. While some of the acting feels a bit dry at times, it's cool to hear the original cast's voice in their iconic roles. The only original cast member who's not on the show at all is Walter Koeing (Chekov). They actually replaced him with a three-armed alien which works, I guess.
• The renderings and backgrounds - The overall look of the show isn't too bad. While the animation could be flat and bland, the renderings of the characters are pretty decent. The renderings of the different planets were also pretty cool since you really didn't get that on the live-action show.
• Better diversity in aliens - There were a lot of different-looking aliens on the show. We had lizard-men, cat-people, bird-folk, and unfortunately, Harry Mudd (lol). You even had alien bridge officers. You had a cat lady at Uhura's post and a three-armed-looking alien at Chekov's post. With the budget the live-action show had, we really didn't see them to go all out and see any wild-looking aliens. It was pretty cool. 

Dislikes

 Spock: Don't worry, young man. Your voice won't sound too annoying when you grow up.

You know there are going to dislikes with this show. It's like that with any show and the cons to the animated series really stick out to me. If anything, these are basically nitpicks.

• Bland animation - While the renderings and background was pretty decent, the actual animation was bland and flat. I guess I shouldn't complain though since most animation back then was pretty bland and flat. It also looks like they reused a lot of animation during the show.
• Writing sometimes feels rushed - Now the writing does feel a bit rushed at times. It's like they're trying to a script from TOS in the show. This show is about 22 minutes long, so there's not a lot of down time. At times, it feels like things are constantly happening.
• Some voice acting sucked - While the voices from the main cast were okay, some of the voice acting on the show was kinda bad. One of the biggest examples of this was from the episode "Yesteryear." The kid who voiced Young Spock was pretty bad. I don't know if was either his dialogue or him but he was bad all-around.
•  It Ended - The show only lasted 22 episodes. I think it got canceled because of low ratings which kinda sucks. While the show wasn't great, it was still Star Trek and stayed in the spirit of the franchise.

Favorite Episodes
And here are my favorite episodes from the series. While I think you should check out all 22 episodes, here are the ones i enjoyed the most.

• Yesteryear - Spock has to travel through the Guardian of Forever to save his younger self from dying.
• The Magicks of Megas-Tu - You can see the plot of this here. It's one you definitely need to see becuase it is Weird. 
• The Lorilei Signal - When the men get incapacitated because of some Siren-like women, the women of the Enterprise must save the day. 
•  The Slaver Planet - Spock, Uhura, and Sulu are transporting some old relic when they are attacked by some Thundercat lookalikes. 
• The Jihad - (Weird name by the way)... Kirk, Spock, and a collection of different aliens must recover some sort of religious artifact before a holy war comes. 
• Once Upon a Planet - The crew travel back to the "Shore Leave" planet and get into trouble.
• The Practical Joker - The Enterprise starts to malfunction and play tricks on the crew. Also, we have the first appearance of the holodeck here.

Well, that's all I got for today. While it's not the best cartoon I have ever seen, it's not that bad. There are only 22 episodes, so I say check it out. Peace, God Bless, and by all means AVOID the center and the edge of the galaxy. It's Weird there.