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Star Trek: The Animated Series - Beyond the Farthest Star
episode 1.1
USA 1973
produced by Norm Prescott, Lou Scheimer for Filmation, Norway Corporation, Paramount/NBC
directed by Hal Sutherland
starring the voices of William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley, George Takei, Nichelle Nichols, James Doohan
written by Samuel A. Peeples, created by Gene Roddenberry, music by Ray Ellis (as Yvette Blais), Norm Prescott (as Jeff Michael)
TV series, animation Star Trek: The Animated Series, Star Trek, Star Trek (original crew)
review by Mike Haberfelner
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On a star charting mission, the starship Enterprise is pulled towards a
dead star and just about can get itno its orbit rather than just crashing
onto it. Once in orbit, the Enterprise discovers a 300 million year old
starship of enormous size that apparently had been abandoned by its crew
in an emergency escape. When exploring, Kirk (William Shatner), Spock
(Leonard Nimoy), Bones (DeForest Kelley) and Scotty (James Doohan)
eventually pop across a message from back when that warns all intruders of
a malevolent bodyless being that has apparently taken over the ship, has
been contained but might want to break free and hail a ride with whoever
pops by. And indeed, the being breaks free of its holding bay, has itself
beamed aboard the Enterprise with the landing crew, then starts to take
over the ship. And to gather enough power to escape orbit of the dead
star, it starts to turn off life support systems on the ship just as a
precursor of things to come. So the prospects are grim, until Kirk has a
plan: In a game of chicken, he steers the Enterprise right into the dead
star, until the bodyless being abandons ship, then uses the speed gathered
by the free fall as a boost to centrifugally escape orbit. With
the growing fan demand ever since the cancellation of Star
Trek 4 years prior, audiences were eventually given an
animated continuation of the series, with most of the original cast (safe
Walter Koenig, whose Chekov has been replaced by a three-armed insectoid)
- which for sure had its good and bad aspects. The good points: Much
effort has been put into giving the series the look and feel of the
series, maybe a bit too much even, and at least judging from this episode,
the writing hasn't been dumbed down for a more kiddie audience. The bad
though is the very limited animation of the series, along with bland
character designs makes all characters rather, well, bland, and despite
the best efforts of the voice actors, the human drama which was one
cornerstone of the original series never comes to full bloom. That all
said, the series was well-received at the time, but from today's point of
view it feels rather well-meant than well-executed.
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