All language subtitles for The Center Seat [55 Years of Star Trek] S01E02 eng

[Gates McFadden] At the dawn of the '70s,
Star Trek looked like a doomed mission.

Officially canceled, Gene Roddenberry's
wagon train to the stars

had come to a halt.

It was the beginning of years
out in the cold.

The only hope for Star Trek lay in
a mysterious, unknown parallel universe,

otherwise known as Saturday mornings.

What are you talking about?

So beam aboard and hold on tight

as we boldly go into the depths
of Star Trek.

And you can see it all from here
in The Center Seat.

[Captain Kirk] These are the voyages
of the starship Enterprise.

Its five-year mission:
to explore strange, new worlds.

Yes, there was a Star Trek
animated series.

It was not a fever dream.

I don't understand.

It was, you know, like finding a whole
missing season of the original series.

I watched the animated series religiously
when it came on. I was very excited.

What was interesting is
the darn thing won an Emmy.

[bell dings]

[McFadden] The story of how
Kirk and his crew

went from three to two dimensions

is the story of
Star Trek's greatest demotion.

The original series was canceled in 1969.

The third season,
the ratings just weren't there,

and NBC moved the show around so much.

[McFadden] Roddenberry had
been promised a prime time 8:00 PM slot,

but Star Trek
would sink to the depths of late night,

to die a quiet death.

So they gave Star Trek
10:00 on Friday night.

So Gene quit the show.

[McFadden]
Star Trek had lost its creator,

its time slot,
and the backing of its network.

But even drifting through the abyss,

the show still had
the backing of a loyal band,

the very first members
of a brand-new species:

Trekkies.

[Rich Schepis]
You had the first convention,

the Star Trek convention in New York City,

and it just became a phenomenon
all of a sudden.

[McFadden]
Away from prime time,

NBC had inadvertently scattered
the seed of Star Trek

through syndication,
and it had taken root.

Star Trek was growing in popularity
in syndication. It had taken off.

People who hadn't seen it originally
got a chance to see it

on kind of a daily basis
after school or after work.

And a whole new audience was born.

As soon as Star Trek
hit the after-school market,

you know, the audience has doubled.

[McFadden] Reruns had connected Star Trek
with a new legion of fans.

Like this guy.

My name is Fred Bronson.

[McFadden]
And when it came to their favorite show,

Trekkies weren't going
to stand by and watch it die.

I marched on NBC to protest
the cancelation of Star Trek.

The fans refused to let the show die,

and they were determined
to bring it back on.

[McFadden] Their protests were too late
to spare the original series,

but they had caused ears
to perk up at NBC.

[Aaron Harvey] In early 1973,
Gene had a meeting with NBC,

and they expressed interest
in wanting to bring Star Trek back.

[McFadden]
The question was, how?

[Marc Cushman]
Because they had destroyed the sets,

they had given away the Enterprise
to the Smithsonian Institute,

and the expense was just too high.

[McFadden] They needed
a cheaper version of Star Trek,

and it just so happened that someone
working in a little-known studio

had thought of one
about four years earlier.

[Harvey]
The animated series came about in 1973,

but a lot of people don't know that it
was actually originally pitched in 1969.

[McFadden]
The animation house Filmation

had conceived
a kind of junior version of Star Trek

and took it to NBC.

[Harvey] It was going to be
a Starfleet Academy show.

Each of the crew members
of the Enterprise

having basically a cadet
in training with them.

Spock was going to have
a Vulcan named Steve.

[laughter]

[McFadden] Sadly, Steve the Vulcan
never came to be.

Gene Roddenberry didn't see Star Trek
as just an educational tool,

but he was intrigued
by the possibilities of animation.

He liked animation because his big thing
was you can animate lava.

He'd always wanted to do lava,
apparently, on the original series.

Go!

[McFadden] Of course,
Gene had a much bigger goal

than simply indulging
his love of molten rock.

[Cushman] His ultimate goal was to get
Star Trek back into production,

and he felt that the animated series,
if it did really well,

would bring that about.

[McFadden]
But fans hungry for more

had no interest
in a smaller serving of Star Trek,

let alone one ordered from the kids' menu.

And there was a lot of resistance.

The audience was very unhappy.

[Harvey] At conventions,
people were passing around petitions

to stop the animated series
from coming to television

because it wasn't real Star Trek.

[Larry Nemecek] There were a lot of people
who thought that a cartoon show

would be the death
of any kind of Star Trek revival

because it wasn't real life,
it wasn't live-action.

And you know,
and then we'd say to them,

"Yeah, but you're getting more Star Trek.
Shut up."

[laughs]

[McFadden] Gene had his own concerns,
not wanting to see

his sophisticated sci-fi creation
reduced to child's play.

Gene really just was not interested
in a kiddie version of Star Trek.

[McFadden] But desperate
to keep the franchise alive,

he agreed to an animated series.

The only thing that convinced him
was the idea

we will do real Star Trek
as an animated series.

[McFadden] To guarantee that,
Gene brought in

one of the original series'
most respected writers to run the show.

Dorothy Fontana
came aboard as the producer.

[Bob Kline]
She was the guiding force.

She was the one that
really wanted this to be wonderful.

[McFadden] Dorothy, or D.C. Fontana,
was a very talented screenwriter.

But as a woman, she could
not yet afford to trade on her name.

[David Gerrold] In those days,
it wasn't common

for a woman to be a scriptwriter.

Women were hiding
behind their initials,

V.N. McIntyre and C.L. Moore
and D.C. Fontana,

because there was this belief
that women couldn't write.

I was trying and I had an agent,
but people, they were saying,

"Oh, I don't think she can write our show.
I don't know."

"But why not?"

"Well, she's a woman."

"Okay, fine."

So I wrote it a Ben Casey,
and I put "D.C. Fontana" on it.

They'll at least read it
without knowing I'm a woman.

That helped me get in that door.

But there were very few actual
women writers doing action-adventure.

[Nichelle Nichols]
She was a great writer.

The stuff she wrote was just so darn good.

Star Trek,
she knew what she was doing.

She was a fan.
That was her show.

[McFadden] Not only was she a woman
who was young and in charge of men,

she also had the intimidating task
of marshaling

some of the foremost minds
in science fiction.

Gene and Dorothy brought in
all these amazing talents

of science fiction authors:

Harlan Ellison, Theodore Sturgeon,
Larry Niven.

Dorothy Fontana invited me to write
a Star Trek cartoon,

and that sounded like fun.

[McFadden] But Gene Roddenberry
kept a hand on the tiller.

[Harvey]
He still had the last word,

much like anybody who's creative
has that need to want to influence

whatever is going out,
if it's under your name.

[Larry Niven]
Gene Roddenberry's big breakthrough,

he used science fiction writers
instead of scriptwriters,

and taught them how to do the scripts.

[McFadden]
But D.C. Fontana and Gene Roddenberry

were united by the same prime directive.

Gene said,
"We're gonna do Star Trek in a cartoon.

We're gonna do it as Star Trek."

[Gerrold]
Dorothy, she brought in Star Trek writers,

and she said, "Write a Star Trek episode."

"And we can show things
that we could not do live-action,

so you can be a little broader
in what you design."

[D.C. Fontana]
The glory of the animated show

was we could do anything on any planet,
any kind of creature,

any sort of situation
that you could dream of

that could be drawn
was there on the film.

[McFadden] So for years
after first floating the idea,

Filmation was contracted to create a new
animated universe for a Star Trek cartoon.

Filmation was an animation company
out of Reseda, California.

[McFadden]
Which had grown from humble beginnings

to become part of a cartoon cartel.

Very humble beginnings.

[Harvey] They literally had
a mannequin dressed up

just so it looked like
there was somebody at the front desk.

They were doing industrial films
and religious cartoons,

but it just wasn't making it.

DC Comics came to them when
they were just about ready to shut down.

Look! Up in the sky!

[McFadden] And oddly enough,
Filmation was saved by Superman.

"We want you to do the Superman cartoon."

They actually started

the first superhero cinematic universe
on television.

[Fred Bronson]
Lou Scheimer and Norm Prescott

made the decisions
and ran the company,

and it was a well-oiled machine.

[McFadden]
Dorothy Fontana's first challenge

was convincing the original cast
of something

that even most fans didn't believe,

that an animated Star Trek
was worth doing.

[Bronson] If you had somebody else
doing the voice

of Captain Kirk or Mr. Spock,
that just wouldn't have been right.

[McFadden]
But even if she could convince them,

could she afford them?

Originally, they did talk to everybody,

and they realized that
the budget wasn't supporting it.

You had somebody like Shatner and Nimoy,
the amount of salary that they commanded,

it just became a very expensive show.

[McFadden] The producers' solution,
the Enterprise key crew would return.

But for two of the actors,
an honorable discharge.

Can you give us any more?

They, for cost savings, were going to have
Majel Barrett and James Doohan...

Aye.

...voice Nichelle Nichols' role
and George Takei.

[McFadden]
But NBC had underestimated

the esprit de corps
of the Enterprise crew.

[Harvey]
When Nimoy was in the studio,

Leonard realized that Nichelle Nichols
and George Takei, two people of color,

were not going to be in Star Trek.

[McFadden]
Leonard didn't need his Vulcan logic

to realize this wasn't right.

And Nimoy, when he was there,
he said, "Where's George?"

And they were like,
"What do you mean?"

"Well, why isn't George back?
Why isn't Nichelle back?"

And they told him,
"We don't have the money for it."

[Cushman] When he found that out, he said,
"I will not come back and do this show

unless you bring back
the entire original cast."

Yes, that's quite true.

[McFadden]
Before a single frame had been drawn,

Star Trek: The Animated Series
was already in need of reanimating.

[Spock]
Captain, we're underway.

[McFadden] Day one of recording
for Star Trek: The Animated Series

would prove to be one of the few days
the whole cast would gather in one studio.

Well, almost the whole cast.

The day they had
the first recording session

with William Shatner
and Leonard Nimoy,

DeForest Kelley,
James Doohan,

but no Nichelle Nichols,
no George Takei.

We came here
looking for some friends.

And Leonard was very upset.

[Schepis] George and Nichelle,
they represented diversity in Star Trek,

and Leonard felt very strongly that if
you're going to continue to do Star Trek,

you need to have their representation,
that Pan-Asian character,

the African American character
on the bridge,

how powerful those two roles were.

And so he made it known to Filmation

that if Nichelle and George
were not gonna be part of this,

neither was he.

[McFadden]
The producers relented.

Well, obviously,
they did not wanna lose Leonard Nimoy.

[McFadden] George Takei
and Nichelle Nichols were enlisted.

Standing by, sir.

[Bronson]
I wrote the press release,

and my press release
didn't say that Leonard Nimoy was upset.

My press release said,
"Nichelle Nichols and George Takei

added to the cast of
Star Trek: The Animated Series."

[McFadden]
And really, it's just as well.

Let me tell you something.

Star Trek, to me, is the type of show

where you can close your eyes
and listen to it.

And it's beautiful because
you're dealing with voices of people

who are trained in whatever, you know,
a character they're doing,

but they're trained voices, and so
it's lovely when they come together.

[McFadden]
Well, it would almost be lovely.

Nimoy had managed to get
most of the band back together,

but there was still one player missing.

Phasers armed and ready, sir.

I wasn't going to be
in the animated series.

I didn't know that. I found that out
from a fan at a convention in L.A.

Chekov as supposed to be
a part of the animated series.

They drew the character, but they
couldn't afford to bring everybody back.

[McFadden] It was a double blow for
the descendant of Russian immigrants,

who perhaps more
than any of the original cast

needed the work.

[Walter Koenig]
After Star Trek, I didn't work at all.

You know, I spend three or four years
never having the phone ring,

resorting to writing
and actually writing for television.

[McFadden] So Roddenberry
threw Walter a bone.

He asked me if I'd like to write one
of the episodes of the animated Star Trek.

[McFadden] With all the original cast
now playing a hand

and Nimoy signed on,
Star Trek: The Animated Series,

known simply as Star Trek,
was starting to look like Star Trek.

Just like that, Captain?

So it would appear, Mr. Sulu.

Star Trek was back.

Wonderful!

They handled the animated series
like they did the original series.

They got the same writers,
the same voice cast.

The animation department

used Matt Jefferies' blueprints
for the Enterprise.

So they made Star Trek.

[Captain Kirk]
Captain's Log, Stardate 5554.4.

[McFadden]
Make that "Start date 9-15-1973."

The animated series set out
to go where no Star Trek had gone before.

Where?

[McFadden]
To Saturday-morning kids' cartoons.

When we talk about the animated series,

we always make a point
of saying "animated."

We don't say
"Saturday-morning cartoons."

[McFadden] And yet that's exactly where
the Enterprise found itself,

rubbing shoulders with
Saturday-morning celebs,

like the Jetsons, the Bradys,

a pair of crime-fighting dogs,
and civic-minded superheroes.

The funny thing about the animated series
was it was too good for Saturday morning.

Ugh, I've got a hangover
to shame all previous hangovers.

[McFadden] With the nation's
most impressionable minds

now in their care, Star Trek producers
naturally played it safe

by sticking with gentle, easily understood
materials suitable for kids,

like suicide.

All unsuccessful Orion missions
end in suicide.

That was not for kids.
It should not have been for kids.

[McFadden] It was a subject matter
rarely dealt with on network TV anywhere.

But Star Trek
had its own hot take for kids,

called "The Pirates of Orion."

Destroy the Enterprise.

And the only way to do that
is to destroy ourselves too.

Suicide bombings,
to even think about that in those days.

Your ship will be destroyed.

But so will yours.

Having those stories be
that mature and fun to watch

from a story standpoint
was just splendid.

We're not going to let you commit suicide.

Disarm the self-destruct system.

[McFadden] Dorothy Fontana was determined
to continue Star Trek's mission,

and that meant an intrepid approach
to subjects like death.

Murderer! You've killed Spock!

[Bronson] Because they wanted it
to hit adults as well as children

and also to honor what Star Trek was,
was never to dumb it down.

[McFadden] But in just the second episode,
Dorothy Fontana went much further

with her own life lesson
for an unsuspecting audience.

"Yesteryear" is by far
everybody's favorite episode.

That is a brilliantly written episode.

One of the best.

It would be in the top five episodes
of all time, of any series.

[McFadden] A half-hour cartoon
was putting the backbone

into the backstory of
Star Trek's most loved characters.

"Yesteryear" represented everything
that Gene and Dorothy wanted to do

with the animated series.

[Harvey] "Yesteryear"
is kind of a seminal history

of the Spock character.

What Spock became,
a lot of it is due to that episode.

[McFadden] Writer Dorothy Fontana returned
to her perennial Star Trek theme,

time.

[Captain Kirk] We are in orbit
around the planet of a time vortex,

the focus of all the timelines
of our galaxy.

Dorothy was very excited about the fact
that there was a wide-open canvas.

They could go back in time and tell
the story about Spock's childhood.

What happened?

[McFadden]
In "Yesteryear,"

the Enterprise crew discover
a rip in the fabric of spacetime.

They go back in time
and when they return to our time,

nobody knows who Mr. Spock is.

Who's he, Jim?

What do you mean, who's he?

When we were in the time vortex,

something appears to have
changed the present as we know it.

[McFadden]
His mission is immediately obvious.

Spock has to go back in time
to fix things.

So they use the Guardian of Forever
to send him back in time,

to basically save himself.

I wish to visit the planet Vulcan,
30 Vulcan years past.

Spock goes back in time
and sees himself as a child.

You could never be a true Vulcan.

He helps himself through
a maturity test in the Vulcan Forge,

their desert.

[Spock] A personal ordeal
upon which I embarked

was meant to determine
the course my life would take.

This was the time that
he basically tried to prove himself

by doing the kahs-wan.

A survival test,
traditional for a young male.

[McFadden] And the episode
even referenced some backstory

that had been set up
in the original series.

No, I-Chaya, this is my own test.

I have to do it alone.

[Harvey]
They had mentioned in the original series

in "Journey to Babel"
that Spock had a childhood pet, a sehlat.

Sehlat?

It's sort of a...
a fat teddy bear.

And McCoy goes,
"Oh, really? You had a teddy bear?"

A teddy bear?

And so we finally got to see
Spock's sehlat.

I-Chaya, what if I'm not a true Vulcan
like they say?

[McFadden] The shaggy look
of Spock's previously unimagined pet

owed something
to the musings of fans.

[Harvey] The fanzine Spockanalia
had a lot of fan art.

Alicia Austin had speculated
on what a sehlat would look like,

and the illustrators at Filmation
used that as the basis for their design.

[McFadden] But this fat teddy bear
brought to life by fans

was now to be sacrificed
on the altar of life's lessons.

[roars]

[Harvey]
Spock, he is attacked by a mountain lion.

I-Chaya tries to prevent him
from being attacked

and unfortunately is mortally wounded.

They try to save I-Chaya.

They go back to the city
and bring back a healer.

I can prolong his life...
but he will be in pain.

Or I can release him from life.

It tackled the idea of euthanasia.

[Harvey] So Spock had to choose
between letting his pet die

or having him be alive in great pain.

And he made the decision.

Release him.

It is fitting he dies
with peace and dignity.

[McFadden]
And so an adolescent Spock

decides his pet
can't live long and prosper.

Dorothy was really concerned that
people might have a problem with this.

[McFadden] Somehow,
Star Trek had conspired to air

one of the most controversial issues
in American society,

on children's television.

And NBC was really worried about this,

showing a pet dying
on Saturday-morning television,

and NBC actually got
a flood of telephone calls

thanking them for tackling
such a difficult subject

on Saturday-morning television
with their kids watching.

[Harvey] It really cemented
the character of Spock

and how he treats
his Vulcan and human side.

[McFadden]
The theme of sacrifice

was something Spock was destined
to explore to its logical conclusion.

It's logical.
The needs of the many outweigh...

The needs of the few.

I give you credit, human,
you are not afraid to die.

[McFadden] But when it came
to embracing the big issues,

the animated series had only just begun.

[McFadden] Star Trek: The Animated Series
had shown a willingness

to slaughter the sacred cows
of Saturday-morning cartoons,

and it was just getting started.

[Schepis] "The Slaver Weapon"
is a real interesting episode.

First of all, the only time any characters
die on the animated series.

I give you credit, human,
you are not afraid to die.

Characters die. They end up being killed
by their actions in the episode.

[groans]

[McFadden]
Don't blame the writer.

If there was a rule about this,
no one told Larry.

To my knowledge, I don't think they
had barred killing from children's shows.

Kids aren't used to seeing that
Saturday morning.

[McFadden]
A bold choice of subject matter

was not all that distinguished the series

because an animated Star Trek

could do things
its predecessor could only dream of.

Commander Bem,
what are you doing here?

[chuckles]

[Gerrold] We could write a character
that splits himself into parts.

In those days, you couldn't do
those alien characters live-action,

but you could do
on the animated show,

so we got a lot
of very interesting aliens.

An uncharted star system ahead, Captain.

[McFadden]
For the first time,

the original series Star Trek cast
was expanded,

and new crew members made an entrance.

[whistles]

I really liked the alien character
who was at the helm.

[McFadden]
That would be this guy.

You can have Lt. Arex
or Lt. M'Ress.

[purrs] Lt. M'Ress here.

[McFadden]
And so Star Trek fans

got to meet
a purring communications officer.

[purrs]

[McFadden]
And a tripodal lute-playing navigator.

M'Ress was cat-like. I always
thought of Arex as kind of a camel.

Anybody keeping a trace
on the Captain and Mr. Spock?

What I was trying to do
with that character

was to make him humanoid

and make him an appealing
and accessible-looking character.

Hey, wait a minute.

He was a truly alien character
that you could not have seen on

the live-action television series,
and I loved that.

[McFadden]
Ron Moore wasn't the only one.

I always feel that
the animated series is like

if the original series had
an unlimited special effects budget

and was renewed for a fourth season.

I absolutely love it.

I know that it has its detractors.

Their opinions are absolutely valid,
but for me, I'm crazy about it.

I think it's great.

[both laugh]

[Gerrold] You could do the M'Ress makeup
if you want in live-action,

but it would be three hours
in the makeup chair

every day that
you wanna use that character,

and it would be a budget thing,
so you don't want to do that.

I mean, Spock was spending
an hour in the chair

getting his ears put on.

We weren't getting
Disney level of animation,

but we were getting to do
a much broader palette of Star Trek.

[McFadden] While animation
meant a world of new possibilities,

it was not without its limits.

It was all hand-done,
artists sitting there,

painting in the cells
and all of that stuff.

The one big technological advance we had

was you could Xerox
the black-and-white cells

that were standard cells
for backgrounds

or maybe facial expressions,
things like that.

You could Xerox those, but they still
had to be painted in by hand by artists.

Animators were cutting corners
every way they could.

They gave it a low budget,
not thinking it was gonna be popular.

[McFadden] Director Bill Reed
became adept at using a system

Filmation had perfected
to deliver with a smaller budget.

The thing that saved Filmation
was the stock program.

The stock system was a cornerstone
of all of the Filmation products.

[Bill Reed] The main characters
each had a stock scene of close-up,

a medium shot, a walk, and a run,

and those were used over and over again.

[McFadden] And so Mr. Spock
became Mr. Stock.

Most logical.

[McFadden] Lending the animated
first officer even more Vulcan serenity.

Spock is looking into his viewer.
That's a stock scene.

You can spot a stock scene

because they use the same setup
over and over again.

It saved them a lot of money.

[upbeat music playing]

[Schepis] I love those scenes of Spock
and Kirk running and the music because

because it's the same
Kirk-Spock running scene every time.

I just love it.

Oops!

Amazing.

[Bronson] The animation it,
may seem a little primitive.

But back then, it might have been
a little cut below some other animation,

but it wasn't that far off.

I think it was a product of its time.

[McFadden] However clunky
Captain Kirk's groove may have seemed,

there was no denying his 2D likeness
was a dead ringer for the real thing.

This is Captain James T. Kirk
of the starship Enterprise,

representing the Federation of Planets.

[McFadden]
Spock was spot-on too,

and Bones looked like the real McCoy.

McCoy here.

[McFadden] It was all thanks
to the keen eye of one man.

[Kline] Herb Hazelton
was really important to the show,

in that he designed
all of the prime characters.

I mean, he was a fine artist.
He drew people better than anyone.

He worked from photographs
to create these likenesses,

just the way an artist
would draw from a model.

[Schepis] For a little television show
with a quick turnaround

for all these episodes,
what they did was pretty impressive.

It looked like Star Trek.

But something was changed.

[McFadden] The animated series
was Star Trek in all its true colors.

Except when it came to true colors.

There are some interesting color choices.

Most peculiar.

[McFadden] Producer D.C. Fontana
knew fandom did not like random.

[Nemecek] "This ain't no other
Saturday-morning show.

People care about this.

We will be drowned in letters
if you put the wrong color here."

[McFadden] Sure enough,
there were quibbles over tribbles.

Captain, these are safe tribbles.

You know, you've got pink tribbles.

[grunts]

[McFadden] So what was behind
this kaleidoscope of color?

[Gerrold] The tribbles are pink
in "More Tribbles, More Troubles"

because the man who chose the colors
was colorblind.

Aren't you going to sit down, sir?

I think I'll stand.

[McFadden] That would explain it
if the truth were that simple.

So color blindness on the animated series
is one of those fun urban legends.

[McFadden] Right.
Would a colorblind person paint like this?

Well, yes, the art director
did have some color blindness issues.

[McFadden]
That's art director Don Christensen.

Don Christensen was colorblind.

He wasn't the one
choosing the color palette.

That was Irv Kaplan.

And that was his color palette of choice.

He loved to use those colors.

[Kline] I disagreed with Irv every time
he painted something pink or red

or that was just outrageous
for that character.

He did pick out
some pretty strange colors.

You're saying we can't escape?

[McFadden] Which meant some
of Star Trek's more menacing villains

were surprisingly pretty in pink.

We are prepared to go to war
if we have to.

When you saw
the purple-pink Klingon uniforms,

the Kzinti from "The Slaver Weapon."

Identify yourself.

[Kline]
That was one of the famous situations

where Irv Kaplan decided
they needed to have pink outfits,

and it was just astonishing to me that
that was his solution. [laughs]

[groans]

[McFadden] Dorothy Fontana,
who had little control over art direction,

found she could only apologize
to her writers.

It was like, "No! It can't be!"

I thought that was just fine.

[Schepis] Larry was, like, totally okay
with it because he's like,

"Well, there's orange and red vegetation
on the Kzinti homeworld anyway."

I'm not sure I can take
too much of this.

[McFadden] But on at least one occasion,
it was the color yellow

that raised eyebrows
in the screening room.

Ted Cortez and I would go over
to Filmation to view the episodes.

You know,
he did it for broadcast standards.

I did it for publicity.

We'd sit there in front of a Moviola,
crowded in, watching the episode,

and we're watching the one called
"Once Upon a Planet,"

which was the sequel to
"Shore Leave" from the original series.

There's a scene where Dr. McCoy
is out in a field,

like in a Southern plantation,

and I'm looking, and I see a yellow stream
coming out of him...

hitting the ground.

And it goes on.
I said, "Wait a minute."

I turned to Ted and said,
"What did we just see?"

He said, "I don't know."

So we asked them to roll it back.

And we look. He's taking a piss.

Ted said, "You can't do that!"

And they said, "We know,
we just put it in for you." [laughs]

[McFadden]
But an unpalatable palette

would prove to be
the least of the producers' concerns.

It doesn't matter. It's gonna be seen once
on Saturday-morning cartoons.

And who cares?

[McFadden]
Because where the animated series

was about to take its young viewers
was wholly uncharted territory.

I want to protect her,

hold her in my arms.

There were two things that
Gene Roddenberry always had notes for,

for the writers for Star Trek episodes.

He wanted to have more relationships.

[McFadden]
Just like its live-action sibling,

the animated series
wasn't afraid of live-action...

-Love?
-Yes.

[McFadden]
Nor one other big thing.

The other one was God.

Excuse me,
I'd just like to ask a question.

What does God need with a starship?

[Gerrold]
This was Gene's story.

Whenever the story got bogged down
or he didn't know what to do,

he said, "Let them meet God."

Magic.

[Schepis] Larry Brody,
who wrote "The Magicks of Megas-Tu,"

knew that Gene
would love a God story.

So he pitched the story with God in it.

[McFadden]
But on network television in the '70s,

God might find an audience
on Sunday morning,

but not Saturday-morning cartoons.

But NBC said, "No, no, no, no.
The crew's not meeting God.

But you know what?
You can meet the devil instead."

It is not logical.

[laughs] Which is crazy.

[McFadden] To the writers of Star Trek,
this was a temptation too good to resist.

Ah, humans.
Lovely, primitive humans.

Can't you do anything right?

[Nemecek] "The Magicks of Megas-Tu"
is an episode

that the newest generation of fandom
is all kind of, like, woke up to.

Call me Lucien.
Call me friend.

Oh, my God, it's Kirk, Spock,
and the devil! What?! What?!

[McFadden] The character of Lucien
certainly looked the part,

but Star Trek's devil
was no traditional Satan.

Never could I abandon those
who come to rollick with me.

[McFadden]
He was less devilish.

I knew eventually
humans would come searching for me.

[McFadden]
More devilishly charming.

[laughs]

Captain, good Captain,
always so curious!

That must be why I've always
liked you Earthlings so much!

Eight-year-old kids were watching
this on Saturday morning. [laughs]

Let us leave this vessel
and go where true delights lie!

Wait a minute,
you're glorifying the devil?

[McFadden]
Not only did Star Trek dare to give Satan

an acceptable, even child-friendly face,

it went to bed with him
on the big issues.

To isolate someone like Lucien,

that's the same
as sentencing him to death.

Kirk was defending the devil
in a courtroom, basically.

He's a living being,
an intelligent life form.

Would you defend him still
if you knew he had another name too?

Lucifer!

He's like, "Hey, no, he's a good guy."

[McFadden] And what better thing to do
with a good guy then share a drink?

Why I love the episode
is because it's not the devil.

[McFadden] And if this handsome devil
wasn't enough,

how about a side of the occult?

[Schepis] Inhabitants of Megas-Tu
had hoofed feet, had horns.

They actually were on Earth
during the 1600s,

and they could do magic.

That idea that Lucian was something evil
was because humanity made him that way.

When the aliens put our crew on trial,
it looks like we're in ancient Salem.

We are gathered here today,
good citizens, to see justice done.

The whole idea of Salem and the witches,
it probably triggered something

in people about Satanism or witchcraft.

[McFadden]
The idea of Satan on the bridge

proved a bridge too far
for some Southern viewers.

[Bronson] A lot of people, especially
in religious areas, the Bible Belt,

took offense to it
and complained to NBC.

They mobilized,
they called, they hammered NBC.

They did not get a lot
of positive phone calls for this episode.

The funny thing is, is that NBC
was the one that said, "Make it the devil.

That'll be okay."

[McFadden]
Following the outcry, NBC caved.

"The Magicks of Megas-Tu"
got pulled because 40 rabid Baptists

wrote in letters of protest.

"How can you make the devil
a nice guy?"

They actually did make some adjustments
from the time it aired originally.

It's one of those things that,
with a little hindsight

and a fresh filter,
you're thinking, "What?"

It was just a trippy episode.

[McFadden]
But the trip was just beginning.

Star Trek had other children's
television taboos in its sights.

These are the most beautiful women
in the galaxy.

Oh, sorry, sir.

Are you injured?

No. No, I'm-I'm fine.

[McFadden] Adult themes
were surprisingly interwoven

throughout the animated series,
including the most adult of them all.

My world, there's a lot of females,
not so many men.

Come we find a man attractive,
we say so.

I'm sayin' so.

[McFadden] Whether it was
Friday night or Saturday morning,

Captain Kirk would still
be a sex object, even in 2D.

You're more handsome than ever.

It goes back to that whole idea of Kirk

being that, you know, ladies' man
from the original series.

How do you find me?

Mm... fascinating.

[McFadden]
In "The Jihad"...

It definitely wouldn't
get that title today.

[McFadden] Lara, the expert hunter,
brings sexual tension

where no sexual tension
had gone before.

You know, she's flirting with him
the whole episode.

But we're not here
on a pleasure trip, Lara.

All the more reason to take
what pleasure there might be in it.

[chuckles]

It's hilarious because, again,
it's adult subject matter.

If we were together,
the trip would be easier.

You know, she says something
about "we can make green memories."

And if anything happened, why, uh,
we'd have some green memories.

You know, she's talking about
making green memories and Kirk's like...

-I already have a lot of green memories.
-Oh.

[McFadden] In case you're wondering
about green memories,

it's true, Kirk had formed a few
over the years.

[Schepis] I can only imagine a kid
talking to Mom and Dad and going,

"Mom, what's a green memory?"

It was on purpose,
but it wasn't like a plot.

"Oh, we'll fix them."

I think they wanted
to tell great stories.

Goodbye, James Kirk.

Too bad.

[McFadden] But telling great stories
meant having great scripts,

and Dorothy was about
to run out of those.

Star Trek: The Animated Series
wouldn't have turned out the way it did

if there wasn't a writers' strike
at the time.

[McFadden] But being a writer herself,
Dorothy knew a clever workaround.

[Harvey] The Guild rule,
you could not write live-action television

if there was a strike,
but you could do one animated episode.

Yes, that's right.

[McFadden] Dorothy exploited
this little-known loophole in union rules

to keep her writers working
and the show in production.

Dorothy approach people who had written
original Star Trek and said,

"Hey, you can't write anything right now,
but you can do this animated show."

[McFadden]
As the animated series was a unique gig,

it was a chance for pigeonholed riders
to flex their muscles.

It was enticing to somebody
like David Gerrold,

who was able to do his Bem character.

[McFadden]
This David Gerrold.

I always wanted to do Bem.

So with the animated show, they said,
"You know, we can do Bem now."

[Captain Kirk]
Honorary Commander Ari bn Bem.

[McFadden]
Bem stood for "bug-eyed monster."

Because we don't have to build a costume,
it's easier to draw this character.

This one must disassemble.

That was an idea that came over
from the original series into animation.

[McFadden]
Also picked up from the original series,

Star Trek's continuing mission
for diversity.

Gentlemen, we've just been
through one civil war.

Let's not start another.

[Schepis] Gene Roddenberry
didn't do an interview saying,

"Hey, we've got a black woman
on our bridge.

Hey, we've got a Japanese American
on our bridge."

They just did it.

[McFadden]
The animated series did it too,

and did more.

Infinite diversity
in infinite combinations.

[Harvey]
The characters all got something to do.

They didn't have to just be one-liners.

All right, you lovelies, hold together.

[McFadden]
In this universe,

Star Trek's minorities
could even take control.

Lt. Uhura, place the ship on yellow alert.

Aye, sir, yellow alert.

Lt. Uhura had a whole lot more
to do than she did in the original series,

when you look at it.

Fire!

She actually finally got
to take control of the Enterprise.

What are you doing?

Taking command of this ship.

When she read the script,
she yelled out loud, "Finally!"

I am assuming command
of the Enterprise.

Uhura got to captain the damn bridge.

It was so satisfying and I loved it.

[McFadden] And while the show
was among the first on many fronts,

including Kirk's split-focused
interracial kiss with Lt. Uhura,

there was one notable
and unexpected first

the animated series could claim.

A legend of a winged serpent god
who came from the skies,

bringing knowledge.

It was one of the first times
that they actually brought in

Native American culture
into Star Trek.

[McFadden] Writer Russell Bates
was invited to introduce

his own culture
into the Star Trek universe.

[Schepis]
He was a Native American.

Dorothy wanted him to write something
towards his experiences.

Aye, sir, warp factor two.

So that's how we have
Ensign Walking Bear.

Mr. Walking Bear.

[Schepis]
The first Native American in Starfleet.

[Walking Bear]
I am a Comanche, Captain.

Another one of those
groundbreaking moments for Star Trek.

[McFadden]
On a Saturday morning in the '70s,

the kind of ethnic culture
that American kids encountered

was usually no more than phooey.

♪ Hong Kong Phooey ♪

♪ Number one super guy ♪

Not the best portrayal
of people of color, unfortunately.

We work only to create peace.

[McFadden] The humble animated officer
Ensign Walking Bear

was light years beyond earlier brushes
with Native American cultures.

Give him the medicine badge.

[McFadden] The episode entitled
"How Sharper Than a Serpent's Tooth"...

Which is a quote from King Lear.

How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is
to have a thankless child.

[McFadden]
...went on to win an Emmy for...

Outstanding daytime children's
television series.

[McFadden] The Emmy ceremony itself
was also outstanding.

This was the first and last year
that the Emmys were done on a boat.

[Monty Hall] They told me this
is really the way to do a show.

Well, I suppose it is, but what
I wouldn't do for a cooling breeze.

-Yeah. [laughs]
-Jeez.

[McFadden] Well, it was the '70s,
and they simply didn't know any better.

[Harvey]
Lou Scheimer heard that the winner

was actually Captain Kangaroo.

Lou got drunk, and they announced
that Star Trek has won the Emmy.

To all those great,
great people who produce for us

in the art of animation at Filmation
those wonderful shows.

He is about ready to fall over.

Thank you very, very much.

[crowd cheering]

The animated series, to this day,
whatever you think about it,

is the only Star Trek to win an Emmy
as a program.

[McFadden] Star Trek shows
have won twice for makeup,

but the animated series stands alone
for writing honors.

Despite the accolades,

this chapter was always going to be
Star Trek's least watched.

[Bronson] We did get high praise
from television critics.

I think they saw that children
could appreciate the show.

Adults could appreciate the show.

The stories had the quality
that the original series had.

[McFadden] The L.A. Times called
Star Trek: The Animated Series

"A Mercedes in a soapbox derby."

I like the fact that
they said it was a Mercedes.

[McFadden] Nonetheless,
Saturday-morning cartoons

was not a race this Mercedes
was destined to win.

[McFadden] For a kids' show,
Star Trek: The Animated Series

had achieved something very grown-up.

It won an Emmy as best children's show,
and there was nothing children about it.

[McFadden]
That was something the original series

never managed in 79 episodes.

Nevertheless, this upstart cartoon would
suffer the same fate as its mothership.

After 22 episodes over two seasons,
the show was retired.

The animated series
was not canceled for bad ratings.

It just was a point
where we have enough episodes,

and now we can run these forever
and it doesn't cost us any more money.

[McFadden] The animated adventures
had found an audience,

but it was the wrong audience.

Star Trek might have actually continued if
it didn't have sort of this dual identity

of being a children's program
and original Star Trek at the same time.

[announcer]
The Star Trek USS Enterprise gift set

with five Star Trek action figures.

[Harvey] The advertisers
didn't quite know what to do with it.

Are you advertising to the dad
that's watching the show with the kids?

Or are you advertising to the kid
that wants the toy?

[announcer]
Star Trek action figures sold separately.

It's kind of charming when you see
some of the toys back in the day

that, you know, they have
a mustard-yellow Kirk,

and you're like,
"Eh, that's not really correct."

But you know,
what are you gonna do?

"Ah, stupid kids, they don't care."

[McFadden] Well, it certainly
didn't stop them from buying them.

Mego Toys in the mid '70s
becomes one of the best-selling toy lines.

They sold $12 million worth of toys
the first year.

[McFadden]
And while it sold a lot of toys,

can an obscure kids' cartoon
that ran for just two seasons

legitimately be part
of the Star Trek legacy?

Today, you often hear the refrain
of "that's not Star Trek."

[McFadden] This debate goes
all the way back to the beginning.

That started in 1973, when they
announced the animated series.

You had that loud vocal minority saying,
"Don't do this to my show that I love."

People took out newspaper ads
asking that they not put

Star Trek: The Animated Series
on the air because it's a cartoon.

It's not real Star Trek.

[McFadden]
There was one true fan

who really was dedicated
to proving that idea wrong.

Someone special.

Dorothy, of course,
was fiercely protective of Star Trek.

[McFadden]
But in the male-dominated world

of fast-turnaround cartoons,
Dorothy Fontana was on her own.

No one is thinking
they're upholding the legacy

of some already undervalued show,

and Dorothy, just trying
to enforce Star Trek continuity

from the original series.

For the first several episodes,
she didn't see final cuts of the shows

and was totally blocked out
of the process,

and it was a real frustration point
for her.

She knows there's a little controversy
about people seeing these animated shows

as a consolation prize for revival,

so the last thing she wants
is any fan to be upset.

And so Dorothy made sure it was Star Trek.

[McFadden] After all,
that's what it says on the can,

but is it canon?

This whole debate about canon
for the animated series is just amazing.

The animated series is canon.

[Nemecek]
A lot of us took it as canon.

We just kind of, you know,
held our nose a couple of times

and kind of tried to look the other way
on a couple of areas.

[McFadden]
Well, after all, it was for kids.

Dorothy says it's canon.
She treated it as canon.

She felt that the animated series
was the unofficial 4th season

of the original series.

[McFadden] Some might see
a cartoon Trek as a crime against canon,

but there's no denying the
animated series checked a load of boxes.

Like original cast.

It's the voices. It's those guys.

Nothing's changed.

-[bell dings]
-[McFadden] Check, but not Chekov.

Mr. Chekov.
Join us in the transporter room.

Walter Koenig didn't make the cut
for this show.

[McFadden] And while Walter did get to add
to the series by writing an episode...

"The Infinite Vulcan."

[McFadden]
...after that, Chekov checked out.

When I got done with the animated show,
they offered me a second one.

I just turned that down.

[McFadden]
For young Walter,

it was tough to hear the criticism
about the episode.

When I did hear
comments about the episode,

the complaint was a 50-foot Spock,
you know. [scoffs]

[McFadden]
It seemed like fans just preferred

their favorite Vulcan human-sized,

and Walter couldn't help
but take it personally.

I said to myself, "Well, I guess
it was a pretty lousy episode,"

and I just left it at that.

And then I read this book.

[McFadden] The same book that
Aaron happens to be holding right here.

This very handsomely done book
about animated Star Trek.

[McFadden]
Written by a couple of great guys.

And Dorothy Fontana
said it was the show she liked best.

Can you imagine that?

I've been going along all these years
thinking that it was really a bad show,

and she said she really liked it.

[McFadden] Unfortunately,
Walter's work also had

someone else's fingerprints all over it.

Explain it to me, sir. Explain it to me.

[McFadden] Because Gene Roddenberry
wanted too many rewrites.

I got crazy with it.

Gene is the master rewriter.

[McFadden] Which is another check
on the canon checklist.

If it has Gene Roddenberry's name on it,
it's canon.

-[bell dings]
-[McFadden] Check.

He put his name on it,
and he collected his paycheck.

-[bell dings]
-[McFadden] Another check.

It's canon.

[McFadden]
Original writers?

It was written by the writers
that wrote the original stories.

[bell dings]

[McFadden]
And they weren't the only returnees.

[Harvey]
You have a lot of returning characters.

[bell dings]

You have Sarek and Amanda.
You have Harry Mudd.

Captain Kirk.

[Harvey]
You have Cyrano Jones.

What can I do for you?

You even have fictional characters
like Alice in Wonderland

from the "Shore Leave" planet.

I beg your pardon,
but did you see a white rabbit?

There's just so many
returning bits and pieces.

[McFadden]
Not to mention sequels.

These tribbles don't reproduce,
they just get fat.

[bell dings]

"More Tribbles, More Troubles,"
that's a sequel.

"Once Upon a Planet" is a sequel
to "Shore Leave."

[McFadden]
Some of them were even prequels.

[screams]

Without the animated series, a huge chunk
of what Spock is would not have existed.

[bell dings]

The animated series is becoming more canon
because they're using stuff from it.

[Schepis] They have taken the ideas
from the animated series,

like the rec room holodeck.

[bell dings]

Just imagine what it was like,
no engines, no computers.

[Cushman] There were a lot of things
that came out of the animated series

that became part
of the Star Trek universe.

Unbelievable.

[McFadden]
Including another animated series

that would join the fleet 46 years later.

[Kline] Watching Lower Decks ,
I was very excited to see

a species relative of Lt. Arex appears.

This is no joke, sir.

[McFadden]
And let's not forget this little gem.

This is Captain James Tiberius Kirk.

The animated series is where
we got on-screen Tiberius.

James Tiberius.

Kirk.

Well, that convinces me.

So these stories still hold up.

Each story has an idea.

There's a reason why
they're telling this story.

It's a Star Trek idea.
It continues the story.

What was important
about the animated series

is that it was a big
and very important stepping stone

to getting Star Trek back.

-Captain.
-I appreciate the welcome.

[Bronson] Anyone associated with Star Trek
can hold their head up high

if they worked on the animated series.

It was a quality product that won an Emmy
and won the hearts of Star Trek fans.

My dear friend Spock.

It's good to have a friend like you.

The animated series is Star Trek.

Exactly.

[Bronson] It was a smart show where
they had ideas about all kinds of things:

life and death, women's issues, diversity.

They were all worked into the stories,
and they were not talking down to kids.

And that's one of the reasons
why 50 years later we're still interested,

talking and watching the animated series.

[McFadden]
But you know what?

There's a lot more Star Trek
to talk about.

[theme music playing]