Last week, Star Trek: The Animated Series came out on Blu-ray—available, for the first time, in a standalone Blu-ray collection, as part of the franchise's 50th anniversary bonanza o' merch. The show's also currently on Netflix, which is likely how most will want to watch it: While the Blu-ray comes with some snazzy collectible postcards featuring art by Juan Ortiz, and while it boasts some decent special features, Star Trek: The Animated Series isn't necessarily the most gorgeous show you need to own in sparking HD.
What it is, though, is fantastic. For better or worse, The Animated Series looks its age, and looks its budget—its aesthetic is firmly "1970s Filmation," which I think is pretty great, but opinions no doubt vary based on how old and decrepit you are. It the stories, though—many of which were written by the same writers who wrote for the original Star Trek—that set The Animated Series apart. Since it was a cartoon, the show was exempt from the 1973 Writers Guild strike that kept writers from working on live-action scripts, meaning plenty of great writers were happy to make some dough by cranking out an episode or two. And since it was a cartoon, outlandish aliens and far-out planets that could never be realized in the live-action Star Trek were suddenly feasible.
The Animated Series boasts some excellent scripts from the likes of D.C. Fontana, David Gerrold, and Larry Niven, and it also features the voices of nearly the entire original cast, all of whom seem to be having a ton of fun. (James Doohan not only voices Scotty, but also roughly 984 other characters, and he sounds delighted to be doing each of them.) The result is a weird mix of smart sci-fi and Saturday morning goofiness: The Animated Series ultimately ends up being so strange and so fun that it's probably up there with Deep Space Nine as my favorite Trek series.
But where Deep Space Nine is srs bsns, The Animated Series just goes off the rails whenever it feels like it. You want Kirk & Co. talking to a bunch of plant aliens? You got it! You want Spock growing until he's like 200 feet tall? Okay! You want the Enterprise somehow encountering SATAN HIMSELF? Sure, let's have Satan guest star on this cartoon for children.
In related news, Satan works out.
Anyway: You want the crew finding themselves as exhibits in an alien zoo? Yep. You want an orange, three-armed guy on the bridge, working alongside "M'Ress," a cat-lady who says everything with a purr? HERE YOU GO, FURRIES. This is a show where, in a single episode, the Enterprise crew—just on one of their, you know, everyday adventures—encounters the Mayan snake god Kukulkan, and Bones' response is to quote King Lear. In other words: This show is the best.
Here's the thing about this Blu-ray set: It's nice, and the special features, recycled from the 2006 DVD release, are solid enough—particularly the interviews with Fontana and the other writers, along with some old-school Filmation dudes who're justifiably proud of what they did with this show. And for those of us who don't want to be without Trek in case the show gets pulled from the streaming services we use, it'll be nice to have the discs on hand. (2017's upcoming Star Trek series, Discovery, will air on CBS' own streaming service.) But unlike other Trek shows or movies, the picture quality offered by Blu-ray just doesn't matter so much with The Animated Series.
Regardless of how you watch it, if you're looking to chill out this weekend—and if, like me, you find yourself in a dystopian present, seeking inspiration from Star Trek's non-dystopian future—check out The Animated Series. If you haven't watched it before, you're in for a treat.
