1 00:00:00,711 --> 00:00:04,923 [Gates McFadden] At the dawn of the '70s, Star Trek looked like a doomed mission. 2 00:00:05,007 --> 00:00:09,303 Officially canceled, Gene Roddenberry's wagon train to the stars 3 00:00:09,386 --> 00:00:11,013 had come to a halt. 4 00:00:11,096 --> 00:00:14,391 It was the beginning of years out in the cold. 5 00:00:14,475 --> 00:00:19,813 The only hope for Star Trek lay in a mysterious, unknown parallel universe, 6 00:00:19,897 --> 00:00:22,941 otherwise known as Saturday mornings. 7 00:00:23,025 --> 00:00:23,859 What are you talking about? 8 00:00:25,527 --> 00:00:28,071 So beam aboard and hold on tight 9 00:00:28,155 --> 00:00:32,284 as we boldly go into the depths of Star Trek. 10 00:00:34,369 --> 00:00:39,041 And you can see it all from here in The Center Seat. 11 00:00:45,547 --> 00:00:48,967 [Captain Kirk] These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. 12 00:00:49,885 --> 00:00:53,889 Its five-year mission: to explore strange, new worlds. 13 00:00:53,972 --> 00:00:56,266 Yes, there was a Star Trek animated series. 14 00:00:56,350 --> 00:00:57,684 It was not a fever dream. 15 00:00:57,768 --> 00:00:58,811 I don't understand. 16 00:00:58,894 --> 00:01:03,232 It was, you know, like finding a whole missing season of the original series. 17 00:01:03,315 --> 00:01:07,736 I watched the animated series religiously when it came on. I was very excited. 18 00:01:07,820 --> 00:01:10,447 What was interesting is the darn thing won an Emmy. 19 00:01:10,531 --> 00:01:11,698 [bell dings] 20 00:01:11,782 --> 00:01:13,283 [McFadden] The story of how Kirk and his crew 21 00:01:13,367 --> 00:01:15,619 went from three to two dimensions 22 00:01:15,702 --> 00:01:18,956 is the story of Star Trek's greatest demotion. 23 00:01:19,039 --> 00:01:21,375 The original series was canceled in 1969. 24 00:01:21,458 --> 00:01:23,627 The third season, the ratings just weren't there, 25 00:01:23,710 --> 00:01:25,379 and NBC moved the show around so much. 26 00:01:25,462 --> 00:01:28,841 [McFadden] Roddenberry had been promised a prime time 8:00 PM slot, 27 00:01:28,924 --> 00:01:32,386 but Star Trek would sink to the depths of late night, 28 00:01:32,469 --> 00:01:34,805 to die a quiet death. 29 00:01:34,888 --> 00:01:37,307 So they gave Star Trek 10:00 on Friday night. 30 00:01:37,391 --> 00:01:39,142 So Gene quit the show. 31 00:01:40,853 --> 00:01:42,729 [McFadden] Star Trek had lost its creator, 32 00:01:42,813 --> 00:01:45,148 its time slot, and the backing of its network. 33 00:01:45,232 --> 00:01:47,818 But even drifting through the abyss, 34 00:01:47,901 --> 00:01:50,737 the show still had the backing of a loyal band, 35 00:01:50,821 --> 00:01:54,283 the very first members of a brand-new species: 36 00:01:54,366 --> 00:01:55,492 Trekkies. 37 00:01:56,577 --> 00:01:57,661 [Rich Schepis] You had the first convention, 38 00:01:57,744 --> 00:01:59,621 the Star Trek convention in New York City, 39 00:01:59,705 --> 00:02:02,374 and it just became a phenomenon all of a sudden. 40 00:02:02,457 --> 00:02:03,625 [McFadden] Away from prime time, 41 00:02:03,709 --> 00:02:07,921 NBC had inadvertently scattered the seed of Star Trek 42 00:02:08,005 --> 00:02:11,758 through syndication, and it had taken root. 43 00:02:11,842 --> 00:02:16,513 Star Trek was growing in popularity in syndication. It had taken off. 44 00:02:16,597 --> 00:02:19,349 People who hadn't seen it originally got a chance to see it 45 00:02:19,433 --> 00:02:22,686 on kind of a daily basis after school or after work. 46 00:02:22,769 --> 00:02:24,271 And a whole new audience was born. 47 00:02:24,354 --> 00:02:26,481 As soon as Star Trek hit the after-school market, 48 00:02:26,565 --> 00:02:27,858 you know, the audience has doubled. 49 00:02:27,941 --> 00:02:31,361 [McFadden] Reruns had connected Star Trek with a new legion of fans. 50 00:02:31,445 --> 00:02:32,279 Like this guy. 51 00:02:33,572 --> 00:02:34,656 My name is Fred Bronson. 52 00:02:34,740 --> 00:02:37,159 [McFadden] And when it came to their favorite show, 53 00:02:37,242 --> 00:02:40,829 Trekkies weren't going to stand by and watch it die. 54 00:02:40,913 --> 00:02:45,167 I marched on NBC to protest the cancelation of Star Trek. 55 00:02:46,043 --> 00:02:49,755 The fans refused to let the show die, 56 00:02:49,838 --> 00:02:52,299 and they were determined to bring it back on. 57 00:02:52,382 --> 00:02:55,761 [McFadden] Their protests were too late to spare the original series, 58 00:02:55,844 --> 00:02:59,514 but they had caused ears to perk up at NBC. 59 00:02:59,598 --> 00:03:03,644 [Aaron Harvey] In early 1973, Gene had a meeting with NBC, 60 00:03:03,727 --> 00:03:05,562 and they expressed interest in wanting to bring Star Trek back. 61 00:03:05,646 --> 00:03:07,731 [McFadden] The question was, how? 62 00:03:07,814 --> 00:03:09,399 [Marc Cushman] Because they had destroyed the sets, 63 00:03:09,483 --> 00:03:13,111 they had given away the Enterprise to the Smithsonian Institute, 64 00:03:13,195 --> 00:03:14,738 and the expense was just too high. 65 00:03:14,821 --> 00:03:17,074 [McFadden] They needed a cheaper version of Star Trek, 66 00:03:17,157 --> 00:03:20,953 and it just so happened that someone working in a little-known studio 67 00:03:21,036 --> 00:03:24,247 had thought of one about four years earlier. 68 00:03:24,331 --> 00:03:27,376 [Harvey] The animated series came about in 1973, 69 00:03:27,459 --> 00:03:31,046 but a lot of people don't know that it was actually originally pitched in 1969. 70 00:03:31,129 --> 00:03:33,298 [McFadden] The animation house Filmation 71 00:03:33,382 --> 00:03:36,343 had conceived a kind of junior version of Star Trek 72 00:03:36,426 --> 00:03:37,552 and took it to NBC. 73 00:03:37,636 --> 00:03:41,264 [Harvey] It was going to be a Starfleet Academy show. 74 00:03:41,348 --> 00:03:43,058 Each of the crew members of the Enterprise 75 00:03:43,141 --> 00:03:46,019 having basically a cadet in training with them. 76 00:03:46,103 --> 00:03:48,271 Spock was going to have a Vulcan named Steve. 77 00:03:48,355 --> 00:03:50,399 [laughter] 78 00:03:50,482 --> 00:03:53,944 [McFadden] Sadly, Steve the Vulcan never came to be. 79 00:03:54,027 --> 00:03:57,823 Gene Roddenberry didn't see Star Trek as just an educational tool, 80 00:03:57,906 --> 00:04:01,118 but he was intrigued by the possibilities of animation. 81 00:04:01,201 --> 00:04:05,247 He liked animation because his big thing was you can animate lava. 82 00:04:06,623 --> 00:04:09,668 He'd always wanted to do lava, apparently, on the original series. 83 00:04:09,751 --> 00:04:10,836 Go! 84 00:04:10,919 --> 00:04:13,088 [McFadden] Of course, Gene had a much bigger goal 85 00:04:13,171 --> 00:04:16,091 than simply indulging his love of molten rock. 86 00:04:16,174 --> 00:04:19,177 [Cushman] His ultimate goal was to get Star Trek back into production, 87 00:04:19,261 --> 00:04:21,847 and he felt that the animated series, if it did really well, 88 00:04:21,930 --> 00:04:22,889 would bring that about. 89 00:04:22,973 --> 00:04:24,641 [McFadden] But fans hungry for more 90 00:04:24,725 --> 00:04:27,561 had no interest in a smaller serving of Star Trek, 91 00:04:27,644 --> 00:04:30,147 let alone one ordered from the kids' menu. 92 00:04:30,355 --> 00:04:31,690 And there was a lot of resistance. 93 00:04:31,773 --> 00:04:33,191 The audience was very unhappy. 94 00:04:33,275 --> 00:04:36,236 [Harvey] At conventions, people were passing around petitions 95 00:04:36,319 --> 00:04:38,947 to stop the animated series from coming to television 96 00:04:39,031 --> 00:04:40,490 because it wasn't real Star Trek. 97 00:04:40,574 --> 00:04:42,576 [Larry Nemecek] There were a lot of people who thought that a cartoon show 98 00:04:42,659 --> 00:04:44,828 would be the death of any kind of Star Trek revival 99 00:04:44,911 --> 00:04:47,039 because it wasn't real life, it wasn't live-action. 100 00:04:47,122 --> 00:04:48,290 And you know, and then we'd say to them, 101 00:04:48,373 --> 00:04:50,459 "Yeah, but you're getting more Star Trek. Shut up." 102 00:04:50,542 --> 00:04:51,418 [laughs] 103 00:04:51,501 --> 00:04:54,337 [McFadden] Gene had his own concerns, not wanting to see 104 00:04:54,421 --> 00:04:58,675 his sophisticated sci-fi creation reduced to child's play. 105 00:04:58,759 --> 00:05:03,138 Gene really just was not interested in a kiddie version of Star Trek. 106 00:05:03,221 --> 00:05:05,807 [McFadden] But desperate to keep the franchise alive, 107 00:05:05,891 --> 00:05:08,393 he agreed to an animated series. 108 00:05:08,477 --> 00:05:10,812 The only thing that convinced him was the idea 109 00:05:10,896 --> 00:05:13,732 we will do real Star Trek as an animated series. 110 00:05:13,815 --> 00:05:16,068 [McFadden] To guarantee that, Gene brought in 111 00:05:16,151 --> 00:05:20,197 one of the original series' most respected writers to run the show. 112 00:05:20,280 --> 00:05:22,741 Dorothy Fontana came aboard as the producer. 113 00:05:22,824 --> 00:05:24,951 [Bob Kline] She was the guiding force. 114 00:05:25,035 --> 00:05:28,580 She was the one that really wanted this to be wonderful. 115 00:05:28,663 --> 00:05:33,794 [McFadden] Dorothy, or D.C. Fontana, was a very talented screenwriter. 116 00:05:33,877 --> 00:05:37,380 But as a woman, she could not yet afford to trade on her name. 117 00:05:37,464 --> 00:05:39,049 [David Gerrold] In those days, it wasn't common 118 00:05:39,132 --> 00:05:41,802 for a woman to be a scriptwriter. 119 00:05:41,885 --> 00:05:43,386 Women were hiding behind their initials, 120 00:05:43,470 --> 00:05:47,599 V.N. McIntyre and C.L. Moore and D.C. Fontana, 121 00:05:47,682 --> 00:05:51,228 because there was this belief that women couldn't write. 122 00:05:51,311 --> 00:05:54,189 I was trying and I had an agent, but people, they were saying, 123 00:05:54,272 --> 00:05:56,149 "Oh, I don't think she can write our show. I don't know." 124 00:05:56,233 --> 00:05:57,776 "But why not?" 125 00:05:57,859 --> 00:05:58,860 "Well, she's a woman." 126 00:05:58,944 --> 00:05:59,903 "Okay, fine." 127 00:05:59,986 --> 00:06:03,573 So I wrote it a Ben Casey, and I put "D.C. Fontana" on it. 128 00:06:03,657 --> 00:06:05,700 They'll at least read it without knowing I'm a woman. 129 00:06:05,784 --> 00:06:07,494 That helped me get in that door. 130 00:06:07,577 --> 00:06:12,833 But there were very few actual women writers doing action-adventure. 131 00:06:12,916 --> 00:06:15,210 [Nichelle Nichols] She was a great writer. 132 00:06:15,293 --> 00:06:17,796 The stuff she wrote was just so darn good. 133 00:06:17,879 --> 00:06:20,632 Star Trek, she knew what she was doing. 134 00:06:20,715 --> 00:06:23,802 She was a fan. That was her show. 135 00:06:23,885 --> 00:06:27,973 [McFadden] Not only was she a woman who was young and in charge of men, 136 00:06:28,056 --> 00:06:30,475 she also had the intimidating task of marshaling 137 00:06:30,559 --> 00:06:33,478 some of the foremost minds in science fiction. 138 00:06:33,562 --> 00:06:36,022 Gene and Dorothy brought in all these amazing talents 139 00:06:36,189 --> 00:06:37,399 of science fiction authors: 140 00:06:37,482 --> 00:06:40,527 Harlan Ellison, Theodore Sturgeon, Larry Niven. 141 00:06:40,610 --> 00:06:44,531 Dorothy Fontana invited me to write a Star Trek cartoon, 142 00:06:44,614 --> 00:06:46,032 and that sounded like fun. 143 00:06:46,116 --> 00:06:48,869 [McFadden] But Gene Roddenberry kept a hand on the tiller. 144 00:06:48,952 --> 00:06:50,495 [Harvey] He still had the last word, 145 00:06:50,579 --> 00:06:54,082 much like anybody who's creative has that need to want to influence 146 00:06:54,166 --> 00:06:56,042 whatever is going out, if it's under your name. 147 00:06:56,126 --> 00:06:58,503 [Larry Niven] Gene Roddenberry's big breakthrough, 148 00:06:58,587 --> 00:07:01,882 he used science fiction writers instead of scriptwriters, 149 00:07:01,965 --> 00:07:03,842 and taught them how to do the scripts. 150 00:07:03,925 --> 00:07:06,845 [McFadden] But D.C. Fontana and Gene Roddenberry 151 00:07:06,928 --> 00:07:09,639 were united by the same prime directive. 152 00:07:09,723 --> 00:07:12,392 Gene said, "We're gonna do Star Trek in a cartoon. 153 00:07:12,475 --> 00:07:14,394 We're gonna do it as Star Trek." 154 00:07:14,477 --> 00:07:16,229 [Gerrold] Dorothy, she brought in Star Trek writers, 155 00:07:16,313 --> 00:07:18,231 and she said, "Write a Star Trek episode." 156 00:07:20,025 --> 00:07:22,611 "And we can show things that we could not do live-action, 157 00:07:22,694 --> 00:07:24,821 so you can be a little broader in what you design." 158 00:07:24,905 --> 00:07:26,656 [D.C. Fontana] The glory of the animated show 159 00:07:26,740 --> 00:07:29,659 was we could do anything on any planet, any kind of creature, 160 00:07:29,743 --> 00:07:31,953 any sort of situation that you could dream of 161 00:07:32,037 --> 00:07:33,997 that could be drawn was there on the film. 162 00:07:34,080 --> 00:07:37,083 [McFadden] So for years after first floating the idea, 163 00:07:37,167 --> 00:07:43,089 Filmation was contracted to create a new animated universe for a Star Trek cartoon. 164 00:07:43,173 --> 00:07:47,010 Filmation was an animation company out of Reseda, California. 165 00:07:47,093 --> 00:07:49,930 [McFadden] Which had grown from humble beginnings 166 00:07:50,013 --> 00:07:52,098 to become part of a cartoon cartel. 167 00:07:53,683 --> 00:07:55,769 Very humble beginnings. 168 00:07:55,852 --> 00:07:58,146 [Harvey] They literally had a mannequin dressed up 169 00:07:58,230 --> 00:08:00,398 just so it looked like there was somebody at the front desk. 170 00:08:00,482 --> 00:08:03,485 They were doing industrial films and religious cartoons, 171 00:08:03,568 --> 00:08:05,612 but it just wasn't making it. 172 00:08:05,695 --> 00:08:08,531 DC Comics came to them when they were just about ready to shut down. 173 00:08:09,616 --> 00:08:11,952 Look! Up in the sky! 174 00:08:12,035 --> 00:08:15,622 [McFadden] And oddly enough, Filmation was saved by Superman. 175 00:08:15,705 --> 00:08:17,999 "We want you to do the Superman cartoon." 176 00:08:18,083 --> 00:08:19,626 They actually started 177 00:08:19,709 --> 00:08:23,046 the first superhero cinematic universe on television. 178 00:08:23,129 --> 00:08:24,506 [Fred Bronson] Lou Scheimer and Norm Prescott 179 00:08:24,589 --> 00:08:26,800 made the decisions and ran the company, 180 00:08:26,883 --> 00:08:28,760 and it was a well-oiled machine. 181 00:08:28,843 --> 00:08:30,971 [McFadden] Dorothy Fontana's first challenge 182 00:08:31,054 --> 00:08:33,682 was convincing the original cast of something 183 00:08:33,765 --> 00:08:35,767 that even most fans didn't believe, 184 00:08:35,850 --> 00:08:39,020 that an animated Star Trek was worth doing. 185 00:08:39,104 --> 00:08:40,647 [Bronson] If you had somebody else doing the voice 186 00:08:40,730 --> 00:08:44,651 of Captain Kirk or Mr. Spock, that just wouldn't have been right. 187 00:08:44,734 --> 00:08:46,861 [McFadden] But even if she could convince them, 188 00:08:46,945 --> 00:08:48,613 could she afford them? 189 00:08:48,697 --> 00:08:51,032 Originally, they did talk to everybody, 190 00:08:51,116 --> 00:08:53,535 and they realized that the budget wasn't supporting it. 191 00:08:53,618 --> 00:08:58,665 You had somebody like Shatner and Nimoy, the amount of salary that they commanded, 192 00:08:58,748 --> 00:09:00,333 it just became a very expensive show. 193 00:09:00,417 --> 00:09:05,046 [McFadden] The producers' solution, the Enterprise key crew would return. 194 00:09:05,130 --> 00:09:09,050 But for two of the actors, an honorable discharge. 195 00:09:09,301 --> 00:09:11,219 Can you give us any more? 196 00:09:11,303 --> 00:09:15,557 They, for cost savings, were going to have Majel Barrett and James Doohan... 197 00:09:15,640 --> 00:09:16,474 Aye. 198 00:09:16,558 --> 00:09:20,228 ...voice Nichelle Nichols' role and George Takei. 199 00:09:20,312 --> 00:09:22,605 [McFadden] But NBC had underestimated 200 00:09:22,689 --> 00:09:25,317 the esprit de corps of the Enterprise crew. 201 00:09:25,400 --> 00:09:27,569 [Harvey] When Nimoy was in the studio, 202 00:09:27,652 --> 00:09:31,948 Leonard realized that Nichelle Nichols and George Takei, two people of color, 203 00:09:32,032 --> 00:09:34,075 were not going to be in Star Trek. 204 00:09:34,159 --> 00:09:37,203 [McFadden] Leonard didn't need his Vulcan logic 205 00:09:37,287 --> 00:09:39,080 to realize this wasn't right. 206 00:09:39,164 --> 00:09:42,417 And Nimoy, when he was there, he said, "Where's George?" 207 00:09:42,500 --> 00:09:44,461 And they were like, "What do you mean?" 208 00:09:44,544 --> 00:09:47,380 "Well, why isn't George back? Why isn't Nichelle back?" 209 00:09:47,464 --> 00:09:49,883 And they told him, "We don't have the money for it." 210 00:09:49,966 --> 00:09:52,719 [Cushman] When he found that out, he said, "I will not come back and do this show 211 00:09:52,802 --> 00:09:55,180 unless you bring back the entire original cast." 212 00:09:55,263 --> 00:09:56,348 Yes, that's quite true. 213 00:09:56,431 --> 00:09:59,059 [McFadden] Before a single frame had been drawn, 214 00:09:59,142 --> 00:10:03,980 Star Trek: The Animated Series was already in need of reanimating. 215 00:10:10,528 --> 00:10:11,988 [Spock] Captain, we're underway. 216 00:10:12,072 --> 00:10:15,075 [McFadden] Day one of recording for Star Trek: The Animated Series 217 00:10:15,158 --> 00:10:19,537 would prove to be one of the few days the whole cast would gather in one studio. 218 00:10:19,621 --> 00:10:21,623 Well, almost the whole cast. 219 00:10:21,706 --> 00:10:23,958 The day they had the first recording session 220 00:10:24,042 --> 00:10:26,336 with William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy, 221 00:10:26,419 --> 00:10:28,671 DeForest Kelley, James Doohan, 222 00:10:28,755 --> 00:10:31,508 but no Nichelle Nichols, no George Takei. 223 00:10:31,591 --> 00:10:33,301 We came here looking for some friends. 224 00:10:33,385 --> 00:10:35,387 And Leonard was very upset. 225 00:10:35,470 --> 00:10:39,099 [Schepis] George and Nichelle, they represented diversity in Star Trek, 226 00:10:39,182 --> 00:10:43,061 and Leonard felt very strongly that if you're going to continue to do Star Trek, 227 00:10:43,144 --> 00:10:46,398 you need to have their representation, that Pan-Asian character, 228 00:10:46,481 --> 00:10:48,400 the African American character on the bridge, 229 00:10:48,483 --> 00:10:50,693 how powerful those two roles were. 230 00:10:50,777 --> 00:10:52,779 And so he made it known to Filmation 231 00:10:52,862 --> 00:10:54,864 that if Nichelle and George were not gonna be part of this, 232 00:10:54,948 --> 00:10:56,408 neither was he. 233 00:10:56,491 --> 00:10:58,410 [McFadden] The producers relented. 234 00:10:58,493 --> 00:11:00,745 Well, obviously, they did not wanna lose Leonard Nimoy. 235 00:11:00,829 --> 00:11:03,832 [McFadden] George Takei and Nichelle Nichols were enlisted. 236 00:11:03,915 --> 00:11:04,833 Standing by, sir. 237 00:11:04,916 --> 00:11:06,418 [Bronson] I wrote the press release, 238 00:11:06,501 --> 00:11:09,754 and my press release didn't say that Leonard Nimoy was upset. 239 00:11:09,838 --> 00:11:12,549 My press release said, "Nichelle Nichols and George Takei 240 00:11:12,632 --> 00:11:15,760 added to the cast of Star Trek: The Animated Series." 241 00:11:15,844 --> 00:11:17,595 [McFadden] And really, it's just as well. 242 00:11:17,679 --> 00:11:19,055 Let me tell you something. 243 00:11:19,222 --> 00:11:23,017 Star Trek, to me, is the type of show 244 00:11:23,101 --> 00:11:28,189 where you can close your eyes and listen to it. 245 00:11:28,273 --> 00:11:33,153 And it's beautiful because you're dealing with voices of people 246 00:11:33,236 --> 00:11:37,157 who are trained in whatever, you know, a character they're doing, 247 00:11:37,240 --> 00:11:40,994 but they're trained voices, and so it's lovely when they come together. 248 00:11:41,077 --> 00:11:43,621 [McFadden] Well, it would almost be lovely. 249 00:11:43,705 --> 00:11:46,624 Nimoy had managed to get most of the band back together, 250 00:11:46,708 --> 00:11:48,918 but there was still one player missing. 251 00:11:49,002 --> 00:11:50,795 Phasers armed and ready, sir. 252 00:11:50,879 --> 00:11:53,339 I wasn't going to be in the animated series. 253 00:11:53,423 --> 00:11:57,927 I didn't know that. I found that out from a fan at a convention in L.A. 254 00:11:58,011 --> 00:12:00,180 Chekov as supposed to be a part of the animated series. 255 00:12:00,263 --> 00:12:04,476 They drew the character, but they couldn't afford to bring everybody back. 256 00:12:04,559 --> 00:12:07,770 [McFadden] It was a double blow for the descendant of Russian immigrants, 257 00:12:07,854 --> 00:12:10,356 who perhaps more than any of the original cast 258 00:12:10,440 --> 00:12:11,441 needed the work. 259 00:12:11,524 --> 00:12:13,693 [Walter Koenig] After Star Trek, I didn't work at all. 260 00:12:13,776 --> 00:12:16,988 You know, I spend three or four years never having the phone ring, 261 00:12:17,071 --> 00:12:19,866 resorting to writing and actually writing for television. 262 00:12:19,949 --> 00:12:22,744 [McFadden] So Roddenberry threw Walter a bone. 263 00:12:22,827 --> 00:12:26,247 He asked me if I'd like to write one of the episodes of the animated Star Trek. 264 00:12:26,331 --> 00:12:29,667 [McFadden] With all the original cast now playing a hand 265 00:12:29,751 --> 00:12:32,837 and Nimoy signed on, Star Trek: The Animated Series, 266 00:12:32,921 --> 00:12:37,133 known simply as Star Trek, was starting to look like Star Trek. 267 00:12:37,217 --> 00:12:38,510 Just like that, Captain? 268 00:12:38,593 --> 00:12:40,261 So it would appear, Mr. Sulu. 269 00:12:40,345 --> 00:12:41,471 Star Trek was back. 270 00:12:41,554 --> 00:12:42,472 Wonderful! 271 00:12:42,555 --> 00:12:45,642 They handled the animated series like they did the original series. 272 00:12:45,725 --> 00:12:48,436 They got the same writers, the same voice cast. 273 00:12:48,520 --> 00:12:49,812 The animation department 274 00:12:49,896 --> 00:12:52,565 used Matt Jefferies' blueprints for the Enterprise. 275 00:12:52,649 --> 00:12:54,192 So they made Star Trek. 276 00:12:54,275 --> 00:12:57,487 [Captain Kirk] Captain's Log, Stardate 5554.4. 277 00:12:57,570 --> 00:13:01,950 [McFadden] Make that "Start date 9-15-1973." 278 00:13:02,033 --> 00:13:06,788 The animated series set out to go where no Star Trek had gone before. 279 00:13:06,871 --> 00:13:07,705 Where? 280 00:13:07,789 --> 00:13:10,625 [McFadden] To Saturday-morning kids' cartoons. 281 00:13:10,708 --> 00:13:12,335 When we talk about the animated series, 282 00:13:12,418 --> 00:13:14,212 we always make a point of saying "animated." 283 00:13:14,295 --> 00:13:16,005 We don't say "Saturday-morning cartoons." 284 00:13:16,089 --> 00:13:19,008 [McFadden] And yet that's exactly where the Enterprise found itself, 285 00:13:19,092 --> 00:13:21,761 rubbing shoulders with Saturday-morning celebs, 286 00:13:21,844 --> 00:13:23,930 like the Jetsons, the Bradys, 287 00:13:24,013 --> 00:13:28,434 a pair of crime-fighting dogs, and civic-minded superheroes. 288 00:13:28,518 --> 00:13:31,938 The funny thing about the animated series was it was too good for Saturday morning. 289 00:13:32,021 --> 00:13:36,401 Ugh, I've got a hangover to shame all previous hangovers. 290 00:13:36,484 --> 00:13:38,653 [McFadden] With the nation's most impressionable minds 291 00:13:38,736 --> 00:13:42,865 now in their care, Star Trek producers naturally played it safe 292 00:13:42,949 --> 00:13:47,328 by sticking with gentle, easily understood materials suitable for kids, 293 00:13:47,412 --> 00:13:48,538 like suicide. 294 00:13:48,621 --> 00:13:52,375 All unsuccessful Orion missions end in suicide. 295 00:13:53,418 --> 00:13:55,712 That was not for kids. It should not have been for kids. 296 00:13:55,795 --> 00:13:59,882 [McFadden] It was a subject matter rarely dealt with on network TV anywhere. 297 00:13:59,966 --> 00:14:02,635 But Star Trek had its own hot take for kids, 298 00:14:02,719 --> 00:14:04,887 called "The Pirates of Orion." 299 00:14:04,971 --> 00:14:06,389 Destroy the Enterprise. 300 00:14:06,472 --> 00:14:09,350 And the only way to do that is to destroy ourselves too. 301 00:14:09,434 --> 00:14:13,187 Suicide bombings, to even think about that in those days. 302 00:14:13,271 --> 00:14:15,773 Your ship will be destroyed. 303 00:14:15,857 --> 00:14:16,858 But so will yours. 304 00:14:16,941 --> 00:14:22,071 Having those stories be that mature and fun to watch 305 00:14:22,155 --> 00:14:25,908 from a story standpoint was just splendid. 306 00:14:25,992 --> 00:14:28,620 We're not going to let you commit suicide. 307 00:14:28,703 --> 00:14:31,372 Disarm the self-destruct system. 308 00:14:31,456 --> 00:14:35,418 [McFadden] Dorothy Fontana was determined to continue Star Trek's mission, 309 00:14:35,501 --> 00:14:38,755 and that meant an intrepid approach to subjects like death. 310 00:14:38,838 --> 00:14:41,382 Murderer! You've killed Spock! 311 00:14:41,466 --> 00:14:45,136 [Bronson] Because they wanted it to hit adults as well as children 312 00:14:45,219 --> 00:14:49,766 and also to honor what Star Trek was, was never to dumb it down. 313 00:14:49,849 --> 00:14:54,145 [McFadden] But in just the second episode, Dorothy Fontana went much further 314 00:14:54,228 --> 00:14:58,149 with her own life lesson for an unsuspecting audience. 315 00:14:58,232 --> 00:15:00,693 "Yesteryear" is by far everybody's favorite episode. 316 00:15:00,777 --> 00:15:03,071 That is a brilliantly written episode. 317 00:15:03,154 --> 00:15:03,988 One of the best. 318 00:15:04,072 --> 00:15:08,076 It would be in the top five episodes of all time, of any series. 319 00:15:08,159 --> 00:15:11,245 [McFadden] A half-hour cartoon was putting the backbone 320 00:15:11,329 --> 00:15:15,083 into the backstory of Star Trek's most loved characters. 321 00:15:15,166 --> 00:15:17,835 "Yesteryear" represented everything that Gene and Dorothy wanted to do 322 00:15:17,919 --> 00:15:19,128 with the animated series. 323 00:15:19,212 --> 00:15:24,092 [Harvey] "Yesteryear" is kind of a seminal history 324 00:15:24,175 --> 00:15:25,635 of the Spock character. 325 00:15:25,718 --> 00:15:28,930 What Spock became, a lot of it is due to that episode. 326 00:15:29,013 --> 00:15:33,434 [McFadden] Writer Dorothy Fontana returned to her perennial Star Trek theme, 327 00:15:33,518 --> 00:15:34,769 time. 328 00:15:34,852 --> 00:15:37,939 [Captain Kirk] We are in orbit around the planet of a time vortex, 329 00:15:38,022 --> 00:15:40,400 the focus of all the timelines of our galaxy. 330 00:15:40,483 --> 00:15:43,986 Dorothy was very excited about the fact that there was a wide-open canvas. 331 00:15:44,070 --> 00:15:47,240 They could go back in time and tell the story about Spock's childhood. 332 00:15:47,323 --> 00:15:48,324 What happened? 333 00:15:48,408 --> 00:15:49,742 [McFadden] In "Yesteryear," 334 00:15:49,826 --> 00:15:54,122 the Enterprise crew discover a rip in the fabric of spacetime. 335 00:15:56,374 --> 00:15:59,210 They go back in time and when they return to our time, 336 00:15:59,293 --> 00:16:02,505 nobody knows who Mr. Spock is. 337 00:16:02,588 --> 00:16:03,506 Who's he, Jim? 338 00:16:04,507 --> 00:16:06,092 What do you mean, who's he? 339 00:16:06,175 --> 00:16:08,010 When we were in the time vortex, 340 00:16:08,094 --> 00:16:10,847 something appears to have changed the present as we know it. 341 00:16:10,930 --> 00:16:13,433 [McFadden] His mission is immediately obvious. 342 00:16:13,516 --> 00:16:17,103 Spock has to go back in time to fix things. 343 00:16:17,186 --> 00:16:20,022 So they use the Guardian of Forever to send him back in time, 344 00:16:20,106 --> 00:16:21,733 to basically save himself. 345 00:16:21,816 --> 00:16:25,486 I wish to visit the planet Vulcan, 30 Vulcan years past. 346 00:16:25,570 --> 00:16:27,822 Spock goes back in time and sees himself as a child. 347 00:16:27,905 --> 00:16:29,907 You could never be a true Vulcan. 348 00:16:29,991 --> 00:16:34,787 He helps himself through a maturity test in the Vulcan Forge, 349 00:16:34,871 --> 00:16:35,955 their desert. 350 00:16:36,038 --> 00:16:38,166 [Spock] A personal ordeal upon which I embarked 351 00:16:38,249 --> 00:16:41,043 was meant to determine the course my life would take. 352 00:16:41,127 --> 00:16:44,589 This was the time that he basically tried to prove himself 353 00:16:44,756 --> 00:16:45,965 by doing the kahs-wan. 354 00:16:46,048 --> 00:16:48,509 A survival test, traditional for a young male. 355 00:16:48,593 --> 00:16:51,804 [McFadden] And the episode even referenced some backstory 356 00:16:51,888 --> 00:16:54,265 that had been set up in the original series. 357 00:16:54,348 --> 00:16:59,520 No, I-Chaya, this is my own test. 358 00:16:59,604 --> 00:17:00,730 I have to do it alone. 359 00:17:00,813 --> 00:17:03,399 [Harvey] They had mentioned in the original series 360 00:17:03,483 --> 00:17:07,278 in "Journey to Babel" that Spock had a childhood pet, a sehlat. 361 00:17:07,361 --> 00:17:08,571 Sehlat? 362 00:17:08,654 --> 00:17:11,324 It's sort of a... a fat teddy bear. 363 00:17:11,407 --> 00:17:14,118 And McCoy goes, "Oh, really? You had a teddy bear?" 364 00:17:14,202 --> 00:17:15,995 A teddy bear? 365 00:17:16,078 --> 00:17:18,915 And so we finally got to see Spock's sehlat. 366 00:17:18,998 --> 00:17:22,794 I-Chaya, what if I'm not a true Vulcan like they say? 367 00:17:22,877 --> 00:17:26,506 [McFadden] The shaggy look of Spock's previously unimagined pet 368 00:17:26,589 --> 00:17:28,716 owed something to the musings of fans. 369 00:17:28,800 --> 00:17:33,304 [Harvey] The fanzine Spockanalia had a lot of fan art. 370 00:17:33,387 --> 00:17:37,433 Alicia Austin had speculated on what a sehlat would look like, 371 00:17:37,517 --> 00:17:43,147 and the illustrators at Filmation used that as the basis for their design. 372 00:17:43,231 --> 00:17:46,859 [McFadden] But this fat teddy bear brought to life by fans 373 00:17:46,943 --> 00:17:49,821 was now to be sacrificed on the altar of life's lessons. 374 00:17:49,904 --> 00:17:50,738 [roars] 375 00:17:50,822 --> 00:17:54,075 [Harvey] Spock, he is attacked by a mountain lion. 376 00:17:54,158 --> 00:17:57,954 I-Chaya tries to prevent him from being attacked 377 00:17:58,037 --> 00:18:00,498 and unfortunately is mortally wounded. 378 00:18:00,581 --> 00:18:01,916 They try to save I-Chaya. 379 00:18:01,999 --> 00:18:04,627 They go back to the city and bring back a healer. 380 00:18:04,710 --> 00:18:08,798 I can prolong his life... but he will be in pain. 381 00:18:08,881 --> 00:18:11,467 Or I can release him from life. 382 00:18:11,551 --> 00:18:13,344 It tackled the idea of euthanasia. 383 00:18:13,427 --> 00:18:16,931 [Harvey] So Spock had to choose between letting his pet die 384 00:18:17,014 --> 00:18:19,851 or having him be alive in great pain. 385 00:18:19,934 --> 00:18:20,935 And he made the decision. 386 00:18:21,018 --> 00:18:22,520 Release him. 387 00:18:22,603 --> 00:18:26,065 It is fitting he dies with peace and dignity. 388 00:18:26,148 --> 00:18:27,817 [McFadden] And so an adolescent Spock 389 00:18:27,900 --> 00:18:30,903 decides his pet can't live long and prosper. 390 00:18:30,987 --> 00:18:34,574 Dorothy was really concerned that people might have a problem with this. 391 00:18:34,657 --> 00:18:37,326 [McFadden] Somehow, Star Trek had conspired to air 392 00:18:37,410 --> 00:18:41,080 one of the most controversial issues in American society, 393 00:18:41,163 --> 00:18:43,082 on children's television. 394 00:18:43,165 --> 00:18:44,750 And NBC was really worried about this, 395 00:18:44,834 --> 00:18:47,295 showing a pet dying on Saturday-morning television, 396 00:18:47,378 --> 00:18:50,006 and NBC actually got a flood of telephone calls 397 00:18:50,089 --> 00:18:53,175 thanking them for tackling such a difficult subject 398 00:18:53,259 --> 00:18:55,553 on Saturday-morning television with their kids watching. 399 00:18:55,636 --> 00:18:59,015 [Harvey] It really cemented the character of Spock 400 00:18:59,098 --> 00:19:02,143 and how he treats his Vulcan and human side. 401 00:19:02,226 --> 00:19:03,978 [McFadden] The theme of sacrifice 402 00:19:04,061 --> 00:19:08,649 was something Spock was destined to explore to its logical conclusion. 403 00:19:08,733 --> 00:19:12,570 It's logical. The needs of the many outweigh... 404 00:19:12,653 --> 00:19:13,988 The needs of the few. 405 00:19:14,071 --> 00:19:18,159 I give you credit, human, you are not afraid to die. 406 00:19:18,242 --> 00:19:20,620 [McFadden] But when it came to embracing the big issues, 407 00:19:20,703 --> 00:19:23,706 the animated series had only just begun. 408 00:19:28,336 --> 00:19:31,422 [McFadden] Star Trek: The Animated Series had shown a willingness 409 00:19:31,505 --> 00:19:35,176 to slaughter the sacred cows of Saturday-morning cartoons, 410 00:19:35,259 --> 00:19:37,803 and it was just getting started. 411 00:19:37,887 --> 00:19:39,847 [Schepis] "The Slaver Weapon" is a real interesting episode. 412 00:19:39,931 --> 00:19:43,517 First of all, the only time any characters die on the animated series. 413 00:19:43,601 --> 00:19:47,647 I give you credit, human, you are not afraid to die. 414 00:19:47,730 --> 00:19:51,233 Characters die. They end up being killed by their actions in the episode. 415 00:19:51,317 --> 00:19:52,193 [groans] 416 00:19:54,862 --> 00:19:55,863 [McFadden] Don't blame the writer. 417 00:19:55,947 --> 00:19:59,241 If there was a rule about this, no one told Larry. 418 00:19:59,325 --> 00:20:04,997 To my knowledge, I don't think they had barred killing from children's shows. 419 00:20:05,081 --> 00:20:06,499 Kids aren't used to seeing that Saturday morning. 420 00:20:06,582 --> 00:20:08,459 [McFadden] A bold choice of subject matter 421 00:20:08,542 --> 00:20:10,878 was not all that distinguished the series 422 00:20:10,962 --> 00:20:12,672 because an animated Star Trek 423 00:20:12,755 --> 00:20:15,758 could do things its predecessor could only dream of. 424 00:20:15,841 --> 00:20:17,343 Commander Bem, what are you doing here? 425 00:20:17,426 --> 00:20:18,552 [chuckles] 426 00:20:18,636 --> 00:20:21,347 [Gerrold] We could write a character that splits himself into parts. 427 00:20:21,430 --> 00:20:24,892 In those days, you couldn't do those alien characters live-action, 428 00:20:24,976 --> 00:20:27,103 but you could do on the animated show, 429 00:20:27,186 --> 00:20:29,230 so we got a lot of very interesting aliens. 430 00:20:29,313 --> 00:20:31,816 An uncharted star system ahead, Captain. 431 00:20:31,899 --> 00:20:33,275 [McFadden] For the first time, 432 00:20:33,359 --> 00:20:36,487 the original series Star Trek cast was expanded, 433 00:20:36,570 --> 00:20:38,489 and new crew members made an entrance. 434 00:20:38,572 --> 00:20:39,949 [whistles] 435 00:20:40,032 --> 00:20:42,618 I really liked the alien character who was at the helm. 436 00:20:42,702 --> 00:20:44,286 [McFadden] That would be this guy. 437 00:20:44,370 --> 00:20:47,289 You can have Lt. Arex or Lt. M'Ress. 438 00:20:47,373 --> 00:20:49,792 [purrs] Lt. M'Ress here. 439 00:20:49,875 --> 00:20:51,002 [McFadden] And so Star Trek fans 440 00:20:51,085 --> 00:20:53,921 got to meet a purring communications officer. 441 00:20:54,005 --> 00:20:55,214 [purrs] 442 00:20:55,297 --> 00:20:58,968 [McFadden] And a tripodal lute-playing navigator. 443 00:20:59,051 --> 00:21:03,139 M'Ress was cat-like. I always thought of Arex as kind of a camel. 444 00:21:03,222 --> 00:21:05,641 Anybody keeping a trace on the Captain and Mr. Spock? 445 00:21:05,725 --> 00:21:08,894 What I was trying to do with that character 446 00:21:08,978 --> 00:21:10,771 was to make him humanoid 447 00:21:10,855 --> 00:21:14,942 and make him an appealing and accessible-looking character. 448 00:21:15,026 --> 00:21:15,901 Hey, wait a minute. 449 00:21:15,985 --> 00:21:18,988 He was a truly alien character that you could not have seen on 450 00:21:19,071 --> 00:21:21,198 the live-action television series, and I loved that. 451 00:21:21,282 --> 00:21:23,659 [McFadden] Ron Moore wasn't the only one. 452 00:21:23,743 --> 00:21:26,370 I always feel that the animated series is like 453 00:21:26,454 --> 00:21:30,875 if the original series had an unlimited special effects budget 454 00:21:30,958 --> 00:21:33,794 and was renewed for a fourth season. 455 00:21:33,878 --> 00:21:34,879 I absolutely love it. 456 00:21:34,962 --> 00:21:36,672 I know that it has its detractors. 457 00:21:36,756 --> 00:21:40,634 Their opinions are absolutely valid, but for me, I'm crazy about it. 458 00:21:40,718 --> 00:21:41,594 I think it's great. 459 00:21:41,677 --> 00:21:43,262 [both laugh] 460 00:21:43,345 --> 00:21:46,766 [Gerrold] You could do the M'Ress makeup if you want in live-action, 461 00:21:46,849 --> 00:21:49,435 but it would be three hours in the makeup chair 462 00:21:49,518 --> 00:21:52,354 every day that you wanna use that character, 463 00:21:52,438 --> 00:21:54,565 and it would be a budget thing, so you don't want to do that. 464 00:21:54,648 --> 00:21:56,901 I mean, Spock was spending an hour in the chair 465 00:21:56,984 --> 00:21:58,360 getting his ears put on. 466 00:21:58,444 --> 00:22:00,613 We weren't getting Disney level of animation, 467 00:22:00,696 --> 00:22:04,158 but we were getting to do a much broader palette of Star Trek. 468 00:22:04,241 --> 00:22:07,870 [McFadden] While animation meant a world of new possibilities, 469 00:22:07,953 --> 00:22:09,622 it was not without its limits. 470 00:22:09,705 --> 00:22:11,999 It was all hand-done, artists sitting there, 471 00:22:12,083 --> 00:22:14,585 painting in the cells and all of that stuff. 472 00:22:14,668 --> 00:22:17,588 The one big technological advance we had 473 00:22:17,671 --> 00:22:20,549 was you could Xerox the black-and-white cells 474 00:22:20,633 --> 00:22:22,968 that were standard cells for backgrounds 475 00:22:23,052 --> 00:22:24,386 or maybe facial expressions, things like that. 476 00:22:24,470 --> 00:22:28,015 You could Xerox those, but they still had to be painted in by hand by artists. 477 00:22:28,099 --> 00:22:31,185 Animators were cutting corners every way they could. 478 00:22:31,268 --> 00:22:35,022 They gave it a low budget, not thinking it was gonna be popular. 479 00:22:35,106 --> 00:22:38,275 [McFadden] Director Bill Reed became adept at using a system 480 00:22:38,359 --> 00:22:42,113 Filmation had perfected to deliver with a smaller budget. 481 00:22:42,196 --> 00:22:45,699 The thing that saved Filmation was the stock program. 482 00:22:45,783 --> 00:22:50,371 The stock system was a cornerstone of all of the Filmation products. 483 00:22:50,454 --> 00:22:54,875 [Bill Reed] The main characters each had a stock scene of close-up, 484 00:22:54,959 --> 00:22:58,129 a medium shot, a walk, and a run, 485 00:22:58,212 --> 00:23:00,422 and those were used over and over again. 486 00:23:00,506 --> 00:23:03,551 [McFadden] And so Mr. Spock became Mr. Stock. 487 00:23:03,634 --> 00:23:04,552 Most logical. 488 00:23:04,635 --> 00:23:08,806 [McFadden] Lending the animated first officer even more Vulcan serenity. 489 00:23:08,889 --> 00:23:12,059 Spock is looking into his viewer. That's a stock scene. 490 00:23:12,143 --> 00:23:13,811 You can spot a stock scene 491 00:23:13,894 --> 00:23:16,814 because they use the same setup over and over again. 492 00:23:16,897 --> 00:23:18,732 It saved them a lot of money. 493 00:23:18,816 --> 00:23:22,194 [upbeat music playing] 494 00:23:22,278 --> 00:23:25,114 [Schepis] I love those scenes of Spock and Kirk running and the music because 495 00:23:25,197 --> 00:23:28,033 because it's the same Kirk-Spock running scene every time. 496 00:23:28,117 --> 00:23:28,993 I just love it. 497 00:23:29,076 --> 00:23:30,494 Oops! 498 00:23:31,412 --> 00:23:32,246 Amazing. 499 00:23:34,290 --> 00:23:37,459 [Bronson] The animation it, may seem a little primitive. 500 00:23:37,543 --> 00:23:41,881 But back then, it might have been a little cut below some other animation, 501 00:23:41,964 --> 00:23:43,757 but it wasn't that far off. 502 00:23:43,841 --> 00:23:45,176 I think it was a product of its time. 503 00:23:45,259 --> 00:23:48,179 [McFadden] However clunky Captain Kirk's groove may have seemed, 504 00:23:48,262 --> 00:23:53,058 there was no denying his 2D likeness was a dead ringer for the real thing. 505 00:23:53,142 --> 00:23:56,145 This is Captain James T. Kirk of the starship Enterprise, 506 00:23:56,228 --> 00:23:57,730 representing the Federation of Planets. 507 00:23:57,813 --> 00:23:59,398 [McFadden] Spock was spot-on too, 508 00:23:59,481 --> 00:24:01,901 and Bones looked like the real McCoy. 509 00:24:01,984 --> 00:24:02,818 McCoy here. 510 00:24:02,902 --> 00:24:06,071 [McFadden] It was all thanks to the keen eye of one man. 511 00:24:06,155 --> 00:24:09,200 [Kline] Herb Hazelton was really important to the show, 512 00:24:09,283 --> 00:24:12,745 in that he designed all of the prime characters. 513 00:24:12,828 --> 00:24:17,166 I mean, he was a fine artist. He drew people better than anyone. 514 00:24:17,249 --> 00:24:21,420 He worked from photographs to create these likenesses, 515 00:24:21,503 --> 00:24:23,589 just the way an artist would draw from a model. 516 00:24:23,672 --> 00:24:25,716 [Schepis] For a little television show with a quick turnaround 517 00:24:25,799 --> 00:24:29,094 for all these episodes, what they did was pretty impressive. 518 00:24:29,178 --> 00:24:30,721 It looked like Star Trek. 519 00:24:30,804 --> 00:24:32,473 But something was changed. 520 00:24:32,556 --> 00:24:36,560 [McFadden] The animated series was Star Trek in all its true colors. 521 00:24:36,644 --> 00:24:38,729 Except when it came to true colors. 522 00:24:38,812 --> 00:24:40,773 There are some interesting color choices. 523 00:24:40,856 --> 00:24:41,899 Most peculiar. 524 00:24:41,982 --> 00:24:46,278 [McFadden] Producer D.C. Fontana knew fandom did not like random. 525 00:24:46,362 --> 00:24:48,364 [Nemecek] "This ain't no other Saturday-morning show. 526 00:24:48,447 --> 00:24:49,448 People care about this. 527 00:24:49,531 --> 00:24:52,826 We will be drowned in letters if you put the wrong color here." 528 00:24:53,661 --> 00:24:56,330 [McFadden] Sure enough, there were quibbles over tribbles. 529 00:24:56,413 --> 00:24:58,624 Captain, these are safe tribbles. 530 00:24:58,707 --> 00:25:00,000 You know, you've got pink tribbles. 531 00:25:00,084 --> 00:25:00,918 [grunts] 532 00:25:01,001 --> 00:25:04,004 [McFadden] So what was behind this kaleidoscope of color? 533 00:25:04,088 --> 00:25:06,715 [Gerrold] The tribbles are pink in "More Tribbles, More Troubles" 534 00:25:06,799 --> 00:25:09,760 because the man who chose the colors was colorblind. 535 00:25:09,843 --> 00:25:11,679 Aren't you going to sit down, sir? 536 00:25:11,762 --> 00:25:13,347 I think I'll stand. 537 00:25:13,430 --> 00:25:16,475 [McFadden] That would explain it if the truth were that simple. 538 00:25:16,558 --> 00:25:20,312 So color blindness on the animated series is one of those fun urban legends. 539 00:25:20,396 --> 00:25:23,565 [McFadden] Right. Would a colorblind person paint like this? 540 00:25:23,649 --> 00:25:26,944 Well, yes, the art director did have some color blindness issues. 541 00:25:27,027 --> 00:25:29,530 [McFadden] That's art director Don Christensen. 542 00:25:29,613 --> 00:25:31,740 Don Christensen was colorblind. 543 00:25:31,824 --> 00:25:33,993 He wasn't the one choosing the color palette. 544 00:25:34,076 --> 00:25:35,244 That was Irv Kaplan. 545 00:25:35,327 --> 00:25:38,747 And that was his color palette of choice. 546 00:25:38,831 --> 00:25:40,207 He loved to use those colors. 547 00:25:40,291 --> 00:25:44,920 [Kline] I disagreed with Irv every time he painted something pink or red 548 00:25:45,004 --> 00:25:49,633 or that was just outrageous for that character. 549 00:25:49,717 --> 00:25:51,802 He did pick out some pretty strange colors. 550 00:25:51,885 --> 00:25:54,138 You're saying we can't escape? 551 00:25:54,221 --> 00:25:57,474 [McFadden] Which meant some of Star Trek's more menacing villains 552 00:25:57,558 --> 00:25:59,351 were surprisingly pretty in pink. 553 00:25:59,435 --> 00:26:01,895 We are prepared to go to war if we have to. 554 00:26:01,979 --> 00:26:04,857 When you saw the purple-pink Klingon uniforms, 555 00:26:04,940 --> 00:26:06,900 the Kzinti from "The Slaver Weapon." 556 00:26:06,984 --> 00:26:08,319 Identify yourself. 557 00:26:08,402 --> 00:26:10,821 [Kline] That was one of the famous situations 558 00:26:10,904 --> 00:26:14,366 where Irv Kaplan decided they needed to have pink outfits, 559 00:26:14,450 --> 00:26:18,912 and it was just astonishing to me that that was his solution. [laughs] 560 00:26:18,996 --> 00:26:19,913 [groans] 561 00:26:19,997 --> 00:26:22,750 [McFadden] Dorothy Fontana, who had little control over art direction, 562 00:26:22,833 --> 00:26:25,794 found she could only apologize to her writers. 563 00:26:25,878 --> 00:26:28,505 It was like, "No! It can't be!" 564 00:26:28,589 --> 00:26:30,174 I thought that was just fine. 565 00:26:30,257 --> 00:26:32,634 [Schepis] Larry was, like, totally okay with it because he's like, 566 00:26:32,718 --> 00:26:36,388 "Well, there's orange and red vegetation on the Kzinti homeworld anyway." 567 00:26:36,472 --> 00:26:38,140 I'm not sure I can take too much of this. 568 00:26:38,223 --> 00:26:41,935 [McFadden] But on at least one occasion, it was the color yellow 569 00:26:42,019 --> 00:26:44,480 that raised eyebrows in the screening room. 570 00:26:44,563 --> 00:26:48,150 Ted Cortez and I would go over to Filmation to view the episodes. 571 00:26:48,233 --> 00:26:49,735 You know, he did it for broadcast standards. 572 00:26:49,818 --> 00:26:51,820 I did it for publicity. 573 00:26:51,904 --> 00:26:56,408 We'd sit there in front of a Moviola, crowded in, watching the episode, 574 00:26:56,492 --> 00:26:59,370 and we're watching the one called "Once Upon a Planet," 575 00:26:59,453 --> 00:27:02,748 which was the sequel to "Shore Leave" from the original series. 576 00:27:02,831 --> 00:27:06,502 There's a scene where Dr. McCoy is out in a field, 577 00:27:06,585 --> 00:27:08,462 like in a Southern plantation, 578 00:27:08,545 --> 00:27:12,800 and I'm looking, and I see a yellow stream coming out of him... 579 00:27:12,883 --> 00:27:15,302 hitting the ground. 580 00:27:15,386 --> 00:27:17,137 And it goes on. I said, "Wait a minute." 581 00:27:17,221 --> 00:27:19,390 I turned to Ted and said, "What did we just see?" 582 00:27:19,473 --> 00:27:20,557 He said, "I don't know." 583 00:27:20,641 --> 00:27:23,936 So we asked them to roll it back. 584 00:27:25,521 --> 00:27:27,439 And we look. He's taking a piss. 585 00:27:27,523 --> 00:27:29,066 Ted said, "You can't do that!" 586 00:27:29,149 --> 00:27:32,653 And they said, "We know, we just put it in for you." [laughs] 587 00:27:32,736 --> 00:27:33,821 [McFadden] But an unpalatable palette 588 00:27:33,904 --> 00:27:37,199 would prove to be the least of the producers' concerns. 589 00:27:37,282 --> 00:27:40,494 It doesn't matter. It's gonna be seen once on Saturday-morning cartoons. 590 00:27:40,577 --> 00:27:41,453 And who cares? 591 00:27:41,537 --> 00:27:42,830 [McFadden] Because where the animated series 592 00:27:42,913 --> 00:27:47,918 was about to take its young viewers was wholly uncharted territory. 593 00:27:53,382 --> 00:27:55,259 I want to protect her, 594 00:27:55,342 --> 00:27:58,095 hold her in my arms. 595 00:27:58,178 --> 00:28:01,265 There were two things that Gene Roddenberry always had notes for, 596 00:28:01,348 --> 00:28:03,517 for the writers for Star Trek episodes. 597 00:28:03,600 --> 00:28:05,185 He wanted to have more relationships. 598 00:28:05,269 --> 00:28:07,604 [McFadden] Just like its live-action sibling, 599 00:28:07,688 --> 00:28:10,399 the animated series wasn't afraid of live-action... 600 00:28:10,482 --> 00:28:12,067 -Love? -Yes. 601 00:28:12,151 --> 00:28:14,319 [McFadden] Nor one other big thing. 602 00:28:14,403 --> 00:28:15,779 The other one was God. 603 00:28:15,863 --> 00:28:19,199 Excuse me, I'd just like to ask a question. 604 00:28:21,034 --> 00:28:22,995 What does God need with a starship? 605 00:28:23,078 --> 00:28:24,580 [Gerrold] This was Gene's story. 606 00:28:24,663 --> 00:28:27,833 Whenever the story got bogged down or he didn't know what to do, 607 00:28:27,916 --> 00:28:29,126 he said, "Let them meet God." 608 00:28:29,209 --> 00:28:31,003 Magic. 609 00:28:31,086 --> 00:28:33,630 [Schepis] Larry Brody, who wrote "The Magicks of Megas-Tu," 610 00:28:33,714 --> 00:28:36,258 knew that Gene would love a God story. 611 00:28:36,341 --> 00:28:37,885 So he pitched the story with God in it. 612 00:28:37,968 --> 00:28:40,387 [McFadden] But on network television in the '70s, 613 00:28:40,471 --> 00:28:43,140 God might find an audience on Sunday morning, 614 00:28:43,223 --> 00:28:45,767 but not Saturday-morning cartoons. 615 00:28:45,851 --> 00:28:49,521 But NBC said, "No, no, no, no. The crew's not meeting God. 616 00:28:49,605 --> 00:28:52,357 But you know what? You can meet the devil instead." 617 00:28:52,441 --> 00:28:54,193 It is not logical. 618 00:28:54,276 --> 00:28:55,736 [laughs] Which is crazy. 619 00:28:55,819 --> 00:29:00,866 [McFadden] To the writers of Star Trek, this was a temptation too good to resist. 620 00:29:00,949 --> 00:29:06,413 Ah, humans. Lovely, primitive humans. 621 00:29:06,497 --> 00:29:09,249 Can't you do anything right? 622 00:29:09,333 --> 00:29:11,960 [Nemecek] "The Magicks of Megas-Tu" is an episode 623 00:29:12,044 --> 00:29:16,006 that the newest generation of fandom is all kind of, like, woke up to. 624 00:29:16,089 --> 00:29:18,759 Call me Lucien. Call me friend. 625 00:29:18,842 --> 00:29:21,845 Oh, my God, it's Kirk, Spock, and the devil! What?! What?! 626 00:29:21,929 --> 00:29:25,015 [McFadden] The character of Lucien certainly looked the part, 627 00:29:25,098 --> 00:29:27,976 but Star Trek's devil was no traditional Satan. 628 00:29:28,060 --> 00:29:31,647 Never could I abandon those who come to rollick with me. 629 00:29:31,730 --> 00:29:33,190 [McFadden] He was less devilish. 630 00:29:33,273 --> 00:29:37,277 I knew eventually humans would come searching for me. 631 00:29:37,361 --> 00:29:39,071 [McFadden] More devilishly charming. 632 00:29:39,154 --> 00:29:40,697 [laughs] 633 00:29:40,781 --> 00:29:45,619 Captain, good Captain, always so curious! 634 00:29:45,702 --> 00:29:50,082 That must be why I've always liked you Earthlings so much! 635 00:29:50,165 --> 00:29:53,126 Eight-year-old kids were watching this on Saturday morning. [laughs] 636 00:29:53,210 --> 00:29:57,839 Let us leave this vessel and go where true delights lie! 637 00:29:57,923 --> 00:29:59,967 Wait a minute, you're glorifying the devil? 638 00:30:00,050 --> 00:30:02,094 [McFadden] Not only did Star Trek dare to give Satan 639 00:30:02,177 --> 00:30:05,514 an acceptable, even child-friendly face, 640 00:30:05,597 --> 00:30:08,058 it went to bed with him on the big issues. 641 00:30:08,141 --> 00:30:10,561 To isolate someone like Lucien, 642 00:30:10,644 --> 00:30:13,397 that's the same as sentencing him to death. 643 00:30:13,480 --> 00:30:17,025 Kirk was defending the devil in a courtroom, basically. 644 00:30:17,109 --> 00:30:19,820 He's a living being, an intelligent life form. 645 00:30:19,903 --> 00:30:23,824 Would you defend him still if you knew he had another name too? 646 00:30:23,907 --> 00:30:24,992 Lucifer! 647 00:30:25,075 --> 00:30:27,244 He's like, "Hey, no, he's a good guy." 648 00:30:27,327 --> 00:30:30,872 [McFadden] And what better thing to do with a good guy then share a drink? 649 00:30:30,956 --> 00:30:33,709 Why I love the episode is because it's not the devil. 650 00:30:33,792 --> 00:30:36,336 [McFadden] And if this handsome devil wasn't enough, 651 00:30:36,420 --> 00:30:38,422 how about a side of the occult? 652 00:30:38,505 --> 00:30:42,718 [Schepis] Inhabitants of Megas-Tu had hoofed feet, had horns. 653 00:30:42,801 --> 00:30:45,762 They actually were on Earth during the 1600s, 654 00:30:45,846 --> 00:30:47,639 and they could do magic. 655 00:30:47,723 --> 00:30:53,645 That idea that Lucian was something evil was because humanity made him that way. 656 00:30:53,729 --> 00:30:59,359 When the aliens put our crew on trial, it looks like we're in ancient Salem. 657 00:30:59,443 --> 00:31:04,448 We are gathered here today, good citizens, to see justice done. 658 00:31:04,531 --> 00:31:08,493 The whole idea of Salem and the witches, it probably triggered something 659 00:31:08,577 --> 00:31:12,122 in people about Satanism or witchcraft. 660 00:31:12,205 --> 00:31:14,875 [McFadden] The idea of Satan on the bridge 661 00:31:14,958 --> 00:31:17,628 proved a bridge too far for some Southern viewers. 662 00:31:17,711 --> 00:31:22,215 [Bronson] A lot of people, especially in religious areas, the Bible Belt, 663 00:31:22,299 --> 00:31:25,052 took offense to it and complained to NBC. 664 00:31:25,135 --> 00:31:27,512 They mobilized, they called, they hammered NBC. 665 00:31:27,596 --> 00:31:30,557 They did not get a lot of positive phone calls for this episode. 666 00:31:30,641 --> 00:31:34,394 The funny thing is, is that NBC was the one that said, "Make it the devil. 667 00:31:34,478 --> 00:31:35,354 That'll be okay." 668 00:31:35,437 --> 00:31:38,482 [McFadden] Following the outcry, NBC caved. 669 00:31:38,565 --> 00:31:42,986 "The Magicks of Megas-Tu" got pulled because 40 rabid Baptists 670 00:31:43,070 --> 00:31:44,446 wrote in letters of protest. 671 00:31:44,529 --> 00:31:46,615 "How can you make the devil a nice guy?" 672 00:31:46,698 --> 00:31:51,328 They actually did make some adjustments from the time it aired originally. 673 00:31:51,411 --> 00:31:54,206 It's one of those things that, with a little hindsight 674 00:31:54,289 --> 00:31:56,958 and a fresh filter, you're thinking, "What?" 675 00:31:57,042 --> 00:31:59,252 It was just a trippy episode. 676 00:31:59,336 --> 00:32:01,254 [McFadden] But the trip was just beginning. 677 00:32:01,338 --> 00:32:05,467 Star Trek had other children's television taboos in its sights. 678 00:32:09,096 --> 00:32:11,348 These are the most beautiful women in the galaxy. 679 00:32:11,431 --> 00:32:13,016 Oh, sorry, sir. 680 00:32:13,100 --> 00:32:14,142 Are you injured? 681 00:32:14,226 --> 00:32:17,270 No. No, I'm-I'm fine. 682 00:32:17,354 --> 00:32:19,940 [McFadden] Adult themes were surprisingly interwoven 683 00:32:20,023 --> 00:32:24,444 throughout the animated series, including the most adult of them all. 684 00:32:24,528 --> 00:32:27,489 My world, there's a lot of females, not so many men. 685 00:32:27,572 --> 00:32:30,534 Come we find a man attractive, we say so. 686 00:32:30,617 --> 00:32:31,743 I'm sayin' so. 687 00:32:31,827 --> 00:32:34,621 [McFadden] Whether it was Friday night or Saturday morning, 688 00:32:34,705 --> 00:32:38,375 Captain Kirk would still be a sex object, even in 2D. 689 00:32:38,458 --> 00:32:40,502 You're more handsome than ever. 690 00:32:40,585 --> 00:32:42,129 It goes back to that whole idea of Kirk 691 00:32:42,212 --> 00:32:45,257 being that, you know, ladies' man from the original series. 692 00:32:45,340 --> 00:32:46,675 How do you find me? 693 00:32:46,758 --> 00:32:48,593 Mm... fascinating. 694 00:32:48,677 --> 00:32:49,928 [McFadden] In "The Jihad"... 695 00:32:50,011 --> 00:32:51,847 It definitely wouldn't get that title today. 696 00:32:51,930 --> 00:32:55,267 [McFadden] Lara, the expert hunter, brings sexual tension 697 00:32:55,350 --> 00:32:57,561 where no sexual tension had gone before. 698 00:32:57,644 --> 00:32:59,896 You know, she's flirting with him the whole episode. 699 00:32:59,980 --> 00:33:01,898 But we're not here on a pleasure trip, Lara. 700 00:33:01,982 --> 00:33:04,943 All the more reason to take what pleasure there might be in it. 701 00:33:05,026 --> 00:33:06,528 [chuckles] 702 00:33:06,611 --> 00:33:08,989 It's hilarious because, again, it's adult subject matter. 703 00:33:09,072 --> 00:33:11,867 If we were together, the trip would be easier. 704 00:33:11,950 --> 00:33:14,327 You know, she says something about "we can make green memories." 705 00:33:14,411 --> 00:33:18,331 And if anything happened, why, uh, we'd have some green memories. 706 00:33:18,415 --> 00:33:20,542 You know, she's talking about making green memories and Kirk's like... 707 00:33:20,625 --> 00:33:23,962 -I already have a lot of green memories. -Oh. 708 00:33:24,045 --> 00:33:26,506 [McFadden] In case you're wondering about green memories, 709 00:33:26,590 --> 00:33:29,676 it's true, Kirk had formed a few over the years. 710 00:33:29,760 --> 00:33:32,679 [Schepis] I can only imagine a kid talking to Mom and Dad and going, 711 00:33:32,763 --> 00:33:34,598 "Mom, what's a green memory?" 712 00:33:34,681 --> 00:33:36,933 It was on purpose, but it wasn't like a plot. 713 00:33:37,017 --> 00:33:38,185 "Oh, we'll fix them." 714 00:33:38,268 --> 00:33:40,645 I think they wanted to tell great stories. 715 00:33:40,729 --> 00:33:42,856 Goodbye, James Kirk. 716 00:33:42,939 --> 00:33:44,024 Too bad. 717 00:33:44,107 --> 00:33:46,610 [McFadden] But telling great stories meant having great scripts, 718 00:33:46,693 --> 00:33:49,946 and Dorothy was about to run out of those. 719 00:33:50,030 --> 00:33:52,866 Star Trek: The Animated Series wouldn't have turned out the way it did 720 00:33:52,949 --> 00:33:54,826 if there wasn't a writers' strike at the time. 721 00:33:54,910 --> 00:33:58,622 [McFadden] But being a writer herself, Dorothy knew a clever workaround. 722 00:33:58,705 --> 00:34:02,501 [Harvey] The Guild rule, you could not write live-action television 723 00:34:02,584 --> 00:34:06,463 if there was a strike, but you could do one animated episode. 724 00:34:06,546 --> 00:34:07,464 Yes, that's right. 725 00:34:07,547 --> 00:34:11,009 [McFadden] Dorothy exploited this little-known loophole in union rules 726 00:34:11,092 --> 00:34:14,346 to keep her writers working and the show in production. 727 00:34:14,429 --> 00:34:18,225 Dorothy approach people who had written original Star Trek and said, 728 00:34:18,308 --> 00:34:22,604 "Hey, you can't write anything right now, but you can do this animated show." 729 00:34:22,687 --> 00:34:25,232 [McFadden] As the animated series was a unique gig, 730 00:34:25,315 --> 00:34:28,777 it was a chance for pigeonholed riders to flex their muscles. 731 00:34:28,860 --> 00:34:30,695 It was enticing to somebody like David Gerrold, 732 00:34:30,779 --> 00:34:32,906 who was able to do his Bem character. 733 00:34:32,989 --> 00:34:34,199 [McFadden] This David Gerrold. 734 00:34:34,282 --> 00:34:36,243 I always wanted to do Bem. 735 00:34:36,326 --> 00:34:39,704 So with the animated show, they said, "You know, we can do Bem now." 736 00:34:39,788 --> 00:34:42,791 [Captain Kirk] Honorary Commander Ari bn Bem. 737 00:34:43,291 --> 00:34:45,919 [McFadden] Bem stood for "bug-eyed monster." 738 00:34:46,002 --> 00:34:49,506 Because we don't have to build a costume, it's easier to draw this character. 739 00:34:49,589 --> 00:34:52,300 This one must disassemble. 740 00:34:52,384 --> 00:34:56,847 That was an idea that came over from the original series into animation. 741 00:34:56,930 --> 00:34:59,474 [McFadden] Also picked up from the original series, 742 00:34:59,558 --> 00:35:02,227 Star Trek's continuing mission for diversity. 743 00:35:02,310 --> 00:35:03,979 Gentlemen, we've just been through one civil war. 744 00:35:04,062 --> 00:35:05,730 Let's not start another. 745 00:35:05,814 --> 00:35:07,691 [Schepis] Gene Roddenberry didn't do an interview saying, 746 00:35:07,774 --> 00:35:09,401 "Hey, we've got a black woman on our bridge. 747 00:35:09,484 --> 00:35:12,070 Hey, we've got a Japanese American on our bridge." 748 00:35:12,153 --> 00:35:12,988 They just did it. 749 00:35:13,071 --> 00:35:15,198 [McFadden] The animated series did it too, 750 00:35:15,282 --> 00:35:16,449 and did more. 751 00:35:16,533 --> 00:35:19,995 Infinite diversity in infinite combinations. 752 00:35:20,078 --> 00:35:21,746 [Harvey] The characters all got something to do. 753 00:35:21,830 --> 00:35:23,748 They didn't have to just be one-liners. 754 00:35:23,832 --> 00:35:26,835 All right, you lovelies, hold together. 755 00:35:26,918 --> 00:35:28,169 [McFadden] In this universe, 756 00:35:28,253 --> 00:35:31,548 Star Trek's minorities could even take control. 757 00:35:31,631 --> 00:35:33,550 Lt. Uhura, place the ship on yellow alert. 758 00:35:33,633 --> 00:35:35,552 Aye, sir, yellow alert. 759 00:35:35,635 --> 00:35:38,847 Lt. Uhura had a whole lot more to do than she did in the original series, 760 00:35:38,930 --> 00:35:39,764 when you look at it. 761 00:35:39,848 --> 00:35:41,308 Fire! 762 00:35:41,391 --> 00:35:44,853 She actually finally got to take control of the Enterprise. 763 00:35:44,936 --> 00:35:46,062 What are you doing? 764 00:35:46,146 --> 00:35:47,814 Taking command of this ship. 765 00:35:48,940 --> 00:35:52,777 When she read the script, she yelled out loud, "Finally!" 766 00:35:52,861 --> 00:35:55,030 I am assuming command of the Enterprise. 767 00:35:55,113 --> 00:35:57,741 Uhura got to captain the damn bridge. 768 00:35:57,824 --> 00:36:01,161 It was so satisfying and I loved it. 769 00:36:01,244 --> 00:36:04,205 [McFadden] And while the show was among the first on many fronts, 770 00:36:04,289 --> 00:36:09,169 including Kirk's split-focused interracial kiss with Lt. Uhura, 771 00:36:09,252 --> 00:36:11,880 there was one notable and unexpected first 772 00:36:11,963 --> 00:36:13,632 the animated series could claim. 773 00:36:13,715 --> 00:36:16,718 A legend of a winged serpent god who came from the skies, 774 00:36:16,801 --> 00:36:17,928 bringing knowledge. 775 00:36:18,011 --> 00:36:21,056 It was one of the first times that they actually brought in 776 00:36:21,139 --> 00:36:23,475 Native American culture into Star Trek. 777 00:36:23,558 --> 00:36:26,019 [McFadden] Writer Russell Bates was invited to introduce 778 00:36:26,102 --> 00:36:28,939 his own culture into the Star Trek universe. 779 00:36:29,022 --> 00:36:30,690 [Schepis] He was a Native American. 780 00:36:30,774 --> 00:36:33,818 Dorothy wanted him to write something towards his experiences. 781 00:36:33,902 --> 00:36:35,612 Aye, sir, warp factor two. 782 00:36:35,695 --> 00:36:37,822 So that's how we have Ensign Walking Bear. 783 00:36:37,906 --> 00:36:39,115 Mr. Walking Bear. 784 00:36:39,199 --> 00:36:41,117 [Schepis] The first Native American in Starfleet. 785 00:36:41,201 --> 00:36:42,494 [Walking Bear] I am a Comanche, Captain. 786 00:36:42,577 --> 00:36:44,746 Another one of those groundbreaking moments for Star Trek. 787 00:36:44,829 --> 00:36:47,415 [McFadden] On a Saturday morning in the '70s, 788 00:36:47,499 --> 00:36:50,627 the kind of ethnic culture that American kids encountered 789 00:36:50,710 --> 00:36:52,963 was usually no more than phooey. 790 00:36:53,046 --> 00:36:54,839 ♪ Hong Kong Phooey ♪ 791 00:36:54,923 --> 00:36:56,925 ♪ Number one super guy ♪ 792 00:36:57,008 --> 00:37:00,512 Not the best portrayal of people of color, unfortunately. 793 00:37:00,595 --> 00:37:02,806 We work only to create peace. 794 00:37:02,889 --> 00:37:06,267 [McFadden] The humble animated officer Ensign Walking Bear 795 00:37:06,351 --> 00:37:10,271 was light years beyond earlier brushes with Native American cultures. 796 00:37:10,355 --> 00:37:12,691 Give him the medicine badge. 797 00:37:14,442 --> 00:37:17,529 [McFadden] The episode entitled "How Sharper Than a Serpent's Tooth"... 798 00:37:17,612 --> 00:37:19,698 Which is a quote from King Lear. 799 00:37:19,781 --> 00:37:23,493 How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is to have a thankless child. 800 00:37:23,576 --> 00:37:25,620 [McFadden] ...went on to win an Emmy for... 801 00:37:25,704 --> 00:37:28,206 Outstanding daytime children's television series. 802 00:37:28,289 --> 00:37:31,876 [McFadden] The Emmy ceremony itself was also outstanding. 803 00:37:31,960 --> 00:37:35,213 This was the first and last year that the Emmys were done on a boat. 804 00:37:35,296 --> 00:37:37,048 [Monty Hall] They told me this is really the way to do a show. 805 00:37:37,132 --> 00:37:40,010 Well, I suppose it is, but what I wouldn't do for a cooling breeze. 806 00:37:40,093 --> 00:37:41,302 -Yeah. [laughs] -Jeez. 807 00:37:41,386 --> 00:37:45,223 [McFadden] Well, it was the '70s, and they simply didn't know any better. 808 00:37:45,306 --> 00:37:47,225 [Harvey] Lou Scheimer heard that the winner 809 00:37:47,308 --> 00:37:49,102 was actually Captain Kangaroo. 810 00:37:49,185 --> 00:37:53,690 Lou got drunk, and they announced that Star Trek has won the Emmy. 811 00:37:53,773 --> 00:37:57,569 To all those great, great people who produce for us 812 00:37:57,652 --> 00:38:00,989 in the art of animation at Filmation those wonderful shows. 813 00:38:01,072 --> 00:38:02,866 He is about ready to fall over. 814 00:38:02,949 --> 00:38:04,159 Thank you very, very much. 815 00:38:04,242 --> 00:38:05,076 [crowd cheering] 816 00:38:05,201 --> 00:38:07,245 The animated series, to this day, whatever you think about it, 817 00:38:07,328 --> 00:38:10,373 is the only Star Trek to win an Emmy as a program. 818 00:38:10,457 --> 00:38:12,751 [McFadden] Star Trek shows have won twice for makeup, 819 00:38:12,834 --> 00:38:16,254 but the animated series stands alone for writing honors. 820 00:38:16,337 --> 00:38:18,131 Despite the accolades, 821 00:38:18,214 --> 00:38:22,010 this chapter was always going to be Star Trek's least watched. 822 00:38:22,093 --> 00:38:24,763 [Bronson] We did get high praise from television critics. 823 00:38:24,846 --> 00:38:27,807 I think they saw that children could appreciate the show. 824 00:38:27,891 --> 00:38:29,559 Adults could appreciate the show. 825 00:38:29,642 --> 00:38:32,896 The stories had the quality that the original series had. 826 00:38:32,979 --> 00:38:36,483 [McFadden] The L.A. Times called Star Trek: The Animated Series 827 00:38:36,566 --> 00:38:38,860 "A Mercedes in a soapbox derby." 828 00:38:39,069 --> 00:38:41,196 I like the fact that they said it was a Mercedes. 829 00:38:41,279 --> 00:38:44,074 [McFadden] Nonetheless, Saturday-morning cartoons 830 00:38:44,157 --> 00:38:47,535 was not a race this Mercedes was destined to win. 831 00:38:51,372 --> 00:38:54,709 [McFadden] For a kids' show, Star Trek: The Animated Series 832 00:38:54,793 --> 00:38:56,711 had achieved something very grown-up. 833 00:38:56,795 --> 00:39:01,716 It won an Emmy as best children's show, and there was nothing children about it. 834 00:39:01,800 --> 00:39:03,968 [McFadden] That was something the original series 835 00:39:04,052 --> 00:39:06,971 never managed in 79 episodes. 836 00:39:07,055 --> 00:39:12,018 Nevertheless, this upstart cartoon would suffer the same fate as its mothership. 837 00:39:13,186 --> 00:39:18,358 After 22 episodes over two seasons, the show was retired. 838 00:39:18,441 --> 00:39:21,069 The animated series was not canceled for bad ratings. 839 00:39:21,152 --> 00:39:23,863 It just was a point where we have enough episodes, 840 00:39:23,947 --> 00:39:27,826 and now we can run these forever and it doesn't cost us any more money. 841 00:39:27,909 --> 00:39:30,620 [McFadden] The animated adventures had found an audience, 842 00:39:30,703 --> 00:39:32,789 but it was the wrong audience. 843 00:39:32,872 --> 00:39:37,210 Star Trek might have actually continued if it didn't have sort of this dual identity 844 00:39:37,293 --> 00:39:41,339 of being a children's program and original Star Trek at the same time. 845 00:39:41,422 --> 00:39:43,466 [announcer] The Star Trek USS Enterprise gift set 846 00:39:43,550 --> 00:39:45,593 with five Star Trek action figures. 847 00:39:45,677 --> 00:39:48,054 [Harvey] The advertisers didn't quite know what to do with it. 848 00:39:48,138 --> 00:39:50,807 Are you advertising to the dad that's watching the show with the kids? 849 00:39:50,890 --> 00:39:52,892 Or are you advertising to the kid that wants the toy? 850 00:39:52,976 --> 00:39:54,477 [announcer] Star Trek action figures sold separately. 851 00:39:54,561 --> 00:39:57,105 It's kind of charming when you see some of the toys back in the day 852 00:39:57,188 --> 00:39:59,232 that, you know, they have a mustard-yellow Kirk, 853 00:39:59,315 --> 00:40:00,692 and you're like, "Eh, that's not really correct." 854 00:40:00,775 --> 00:40:02,277 But you know, what are you gonna do? 855 00:40:02,402 --> 00:40:04,320 "Ah, stupid kids, they don't care." 856 00:40:04,404 --> 00:40:07,407 [McFadden] Well, it certainly didn't stop them from buying them. 857 00:40:07,490 --> 00:40:11,578 Mego Toys in the mid '70s becomes one of the best-selling toy lines. 858 00:40:11,661 --> 00:40:14,414 They sold $12 million worth of toys the first year. 859 00:40:14,497 --> 00:40:17,083 [McFadden] And while it sold a lot of toys, 860 00:40:17,167 --> 00:40:21,838 can an obscure kids' cartoon that ran for just two seasons 861 00:40:21,921 --> 00:40:24,716 legitimately be part of the Star Trek legacy? 862 00:40:24,799 --> 00:40:28,219 Today, you often hear the refrain of "that's not Star Trek." 863 00:40:28,303 --> 00:40:31,222 [McFadden] This debate goes all the way back to the beginning. 864 00:40:31,306 --> 00:40:35,685 That started in 1973, when they announced the animated series. 865 00:40:35,768 --> 00:40:39,898 You had that loud vocal minority saying, "Don't do this to my show that I love." 866 00:40:40,690 --> 00:40:44,068 People took out newspaper ads asking that they not put 867 00:40:44,152 --> 00:40:47,655 Star Trek: The Animated Series on the air because it's a cartoon. 868 00:40:47,739 --> 00:40:48,656 It's not real Star Trek. 869 00:40:48,740 --> 00:40:50,200 [McFadden] There was one true fan 870 00:40:50,283 --> 00:40:53,578 who really was dedicated to proving that idea wrong. 871 00:40:53,661 --> 00:40:55,079 Someone special. 872 00:40:55,163 --> 00:40:58,374 Dorothy, of course, was fiercely protective of Star Trek. 873 00:40:58,458 --> 00:41:00,210 [McFadden] But in the male-dominated world 874 00:41:00,293 --> 00:41:05,006 of fast-turnaround cartoons, Dorothy Fontana was on her own. 875 00:41:05,089 --> 00:41:07,759 No one is thinking they're upholding the legacy 876 00:41:07,842 --> 00:41:09,928 of some already undervalued show, 877 00:41:10,011 --> 00:41:13,598 and Dorothy, just trying to enforce Star Trek continuity 878 00:41:13,681 --> 00:41:15,225 from the original series. 879 00:41:15,308 --> 00:41:19,604 For the first several episodes, she didn't see final cuts of the shows 880 00:41:19,687 --> 00:41:22,106 and was totally blocked out of the process, 881 00:41:22,190 --> 00:41:24,067 and it was a real frustration point for her. 882 00:41:24,150 --> 00:41:28,404 She knows there's a little controversy about people seeing these animated shows 883 00:41:28,488 --> 00:41:30,657 as a consolation prize for revival, 884 00:41:30,740 --> 00:41:34,869 so the last thing she wants is any fan to be upset. 885 00:41:34,953 --> 00:41:37,789 And so Dorothy made sure it was Star Trek. 886 00:41:37,872 --> 00:41:40,416 [McFadden] After all, that's what it says on the can, 887 00:41:40,500 --> 00:41:42,377 but is it canon? 888 00:41:42,460 --> 00:41:45,088 This whole debate about canon for the animated series is just amazing. 889 00:41:45,171 --> 00:41:46,839 The animated series is canon. 890 00:41:46,923 --> 00:41:48,508 [Nemecek] A lot of us took it as canon. 891 00:41:48,591 --> 00:41:50,385 We just kind of, you know, held our nose a couple of times 892 00:41:50,468 --> 00:41:52,512 and kind of tried to look the other way on a couple of areas. 893 00:41:52,595 --> 00:41:55,348 [McFadden] Well, after all, it was for kids. 894 00:41:55,431 --> 00:41:57,558 Dorothy says it's canon. She treated it as canon. 895 00:41:57,642 --> 00:42:02,605 She felt that the animated series was the unofficial 4th season 896 00:42:02,689 --> 00:42:03,940 of the original series. 897 00:42:04,023 --> 00:42:07,902 [McFadden] Some might see a cartoon Trek as a crime against canon, 898 00:42:07,986 --> 00:42:12,407 but there's no denying the animated series checked a load of boxes. 899 00:42:12,490 --> 00:42:13,408 Like original cast. 900 00:42:13,491 --> 00:42:15,743 It's the voices. It's those guys. 901 00:42:15,868 --> 00:42:17,036 Nothing's changed. 902 00:42:17,120 --> 00:42:19,247 -[bell dings] -[McFadden] Check, but not Chekov. 903 00:42:19,330 --> 00:42:21,874 Mr. Chekov. Join us in the transporter room. 904 00:42:21,958 --> 00:42:24,502 Walter Koenig didn't make the cut for this show. 905 00:42:24,585 --> 00:42:29,007 [McFadden] And while Walter did get to add to the series by writing an episode... 906 00:42:29,090 --> 00:42:29,924 "The Infinite Vulcan." 907 00:42:30,008 --> 00:42:32,343 [McFadden] ...after that, Chekov checked out. 908 00:42:32,427 --> 00:42:35,138 When I got done with the animated show, they offered me a second one. 909 00:42:35,221 --> 00:42:36,723 I just turned that down. 910 00:42:36,889 --> 00:42:37,974 [McFadden] For young Walter, 911 00:42:38,057 --> 00:42:41,102 it was tough to hear the criticism about the episode. 912 00:42:41,185 --> 00:42:44,480 When I did hear comments about the episode, 913 00:42:44,564 --> 00:42:50,028 the complaint was a 50-foot Spock, you know. [scoffs] 914 00:42:50,111 --> 00:42:52,447 [McFadden] It seemed like fans just preferred 915 00:42:52,530 --> 00:42:54,490 their favorite Vulcan human-sized, 916 00:42:54,574 --> 00:42:57,243 and Walter couldn't help but take it personally. 917 00:42:57,327 --> 00:43:00,413 I said to myself, "Well, I guess it was a pretty lousy episode," 918 00:43:00,496 --> 00:43:02,874 and I just left it at that. 919 00:43:02,957 --> 00:43:04,751 And then I read this book. 920 00:43:04,834 --> 00:43:08,171 [McFadden] The same book that Aaron happens to be holding right here. 921 00:43:08,254 --> 00:43:14,218 This very handsomely done book about animated Star Trek. 922 00:43:14,302 --> 00:43:16,804 [McFadden] Written by a couple of great guys. 923 00:43:16,888 --> 00:43:21,851 And Dorothy Fontana said it was the show she liked best. 924 00:43:21,934 --> 00:43:23,811 Can you imagine that? 925 00:43:23,895 --> 00:43:27,940 I've been going along all these years thinking that it was really a bad show, 926 00:43:28,024 --> 00:43:29,942 and she said she really liked it. 927 00:43:30,026 --> 00:43:33,112 [McFadden] Unfortunately, Walter's work also had 928 00:43:33,196 --> 00:43:35,031 someone else's fingerprints all over it. 929 00:43:35,114 --> 00:43:37,241 Explain it to me, sir. Explain it to me. 930 00:43:37,325 --> 00:43:39,827 [McFadden] Because Gene Roddenberry wanted too many rewrites. 931 00:43:39,911 --> 00:43:41,829 I got crazy with it. 932 00:43:41,913 --> 00:43:44,248 Gene is the master rewriter. 933 00:43:44,332 --> 00:43:46,918 [McFadden] Which is another check on the canon checklist. 934 00:43:47,001 --> 00:43:49,545 If it has Gene Roddenberry's name on it, it's canon. 935 00:43:49,629 --> 00:43:50,797 -[bell dings] -[McFadden] Check. 936 00:43:50,880 --> 00:43:52,882 He put his name on it, and he collected his paycheck. 937 00:43:52,965 --> 00:43:54,008 -[bell dings] -[McFadden] Another check. 938 00:43:54,092 --> 00:43:54,926 It's canon. 939 00:43:55,009 --> 00:43:56,302 [McFadden] Original writers? 940 00:43:56,386 --> 00:43:59,097 It was written by the writers that wrote the original stories. 941 00:43:59,180 --> 00:44:00,014 [bell dings] 942 00:44:00,098 --> 00:44:02,016 [McFadden] And they weren't the only returnees. 943 00:44:02,100 --> 00:44:04,018 [Harvey] You have a lot of returning characters. 944 00:44:04,102 --> 00:44:04,936 [bell dings] 945 00:44:05,019 --> 00:44:08,606 You have Sarek and Amanda. You have Harry Mudd. 946 00:44:08,689 --> 00:44:10,483 Captain Kirk. 947 00:44:10,566 --> 00:44:12,235 [Harvey] You have Cyrano Jones. 948 00:44:12,318 --> 00:44:13,486 What can I do for you? 949 00:44:13,569 --> 00:44:16,697 You even have fictional characters like Alice in Wonderland 950 00:44:16,781 --> 00:44:17,907 from the "Shore Leave" planet. 951 00:44:17,990 --> 00:44:20,368 I beg your pardon, but did you see a white rabbit? 952 00:44:20,451 --> 00:44:23,454 There's just so many returning bits and pieces. 953 00:44:23,538 --> 00:44:25,915 [McFadden] Not to mention sequels. 954 00:44:25,998 --> 00:44:28,251 These tribbles don't reproduce, they just get fat. 955 00:44:28,334 --> 00:44:29,168 [bell dings] 956 00:44:29,252 --> 00:44:31,129 "More Tribbles, More Troubles," that's a sequel. 957 00:44:31,212 --> 00:44:33,881 "Once Upon a Planet" is a sequel to "Shore Leave." 958 00:44:33,965 --> 00:44:36,050 [McFadden] Some of them were even prequels. 959 00:44:36,134 --> 00:44:38,136 [screams] 960 00:44:38,219 --> 00:44:42,890 Without the animated series, a huge chunk of what Spock is would not have existed. 961 00:44:42,974 --> 00:44:43,808 [bell dings] 962 00:44:43,891 --> 00:44:48,646 The animated series is becoming more canon because they're using stuff from it. 963 00:44:48,729 --> 00:44:51,774 [Schepis] They have taken the ideas from the animated series, 964 00:44:51,858 --> 00:44:53,276 like the rec room holodeck. 965 00:44:53,359 --> 00:44:54,193 [bell dings] 966 00:44:54,277 --> 00:44:57,488 Just imagine what it was like, no engines, no computers. 967 00:44:57,572 --> 00:45:00,241 [Cushman] There were a lot of things that came out of the animated series 968 00:45:00,324 --> 00:45:02,702 that became part of the Star Trek universe. 969 00:45:02,785 --> 00:45:04,203 Unbelievable. 970 00:45:04,287 --> 00:45:06,539 [McFadden] Including another animated series 971 00:45:06,622 --> 00:45:09,542 that would join the fleet 46 years later. 972 00:45:09,625 --> 00:45:12,420 [Kline] Watching Lower Decks , I was very excited to see 973 00:45:12,503 --> 00:45:16,466 a species relative of Lt. Arex appears. 974 00:45:16,549 --> 00:45:17,717 This is no joke, sir. 975 00:45:17,800 --> 00:45:19,886 [McFadden] And let's not forget this little gem. 976 00:45:19,969 --> 00:45:22,805 This is Captain James Tiberius Kirk. 977 00:45:22,889 --> 00:45:26,267 The animated series is where we got on-screen Tiberius. 978 00:45:26,350 --> 00:45:29,645 James Tiberius. 979 00:45:29,729 --> 00:45:30,563 Kirk. 980 00:45:30,646 --> 00:45:32,231 Well, that convinces me. 981 00:45:32,315 --> 00:45:34,692 So these stories still hold up. 982 00:45:34,775 --> 00:45:37,236 Each story has an idea. 983 00:45:37,320 --> 00:45:38,404 There's a reason why they're telling this story. 984 00:45:38,488 --> 00:45:41,574 It's a Star Trek idea. It continues the story. 985 00:45:41,657 --> 00:45:43,659 What was important about the animated series 986 00:45:43,743 --> 00:45:46,704 is that it was a big and very important stepping stone 987 00:45:46,787 --> 00:45:48,080 to getting Star Trek back. 988 00:45:48,164 --> 00:45:50,082 -Captain. -I appreciate the welcome. 989 00:45:50,166 --> 00:45:53,169 [Bronson] Anyone associated with Star Trek can hold their head up high 990 00:45:53,252 --> 00:45:55,505 if they worked on the animated series. 991 00:45:55,588 --> 00:45:59,759 It was a quality product that won an Emmy and won the hearts of Star Trek fans. 992 00:45:59,842 --> 00:46:00,968 My dear friend Spock. 993 00:46:01,052 --> 00:46:02,929 It's good to have a friend like you. 994 00:46:03,012 --> 00:46:05,139 The animated series is Star Trek. 995 00:46:05,223 --> 00:46:06,057 Exactly. 996 00:46:06,140 --> 00:46:10,561 [Bronson] It was a smart show where they had ideas about all kinds of things: 997 00:46:10,645 --> 00:46:13,564 life and death, women's issues, diversity. 998 00:46:13,648 --> 00:46:17,235 They were all worked into the stories, and they were not talking down to kids. 999 00:46:17,318 --> 00:46:21,697 And that's one of the reasons why 50 years later we're still interested, 1000 00:46:21,781 --> 00:46:24,659 talking and watching the animated series. 1001 00:46:24,742 --> 00:46:25,785 [McFadden] But you know what? 1002 00:46:25,868 --> 00:46:28,788 There's a lot more Star Trek to talk about. 1003 00:46:29,747 --> 00:46:31,832 [theme music playing]