Not a masterpiece. Not even having the artistic quality of let's say the Simpsons, Family Guy or South Park. This show doesn't even know whether it is tailored to kids or adults. However, original voices make the show feel like a legit 4th and 5th year of the Enterprise's 5 year mission. A consolation price after TOS's premature cancellation. The artistic freedom an animated series offers leads to a motley array of races and and alien worlds w/on being held back by the tight budget that strangled TOS's 3rd season. The "soundtrack" is great btw. I appreciate that TAS shows more of TOS's minor characters and refrains from focussing on our shirtless, alpha-male captain and his pair of fists. In a sense l, character-wise, TAS feels much more balanced. The shirt duration of each episode works in their favor. Unlike in TOS, only a few episodes drag on.

Some episodes are right from the TOS playbook. Usually that leads to repetitive and very mediocre episodes. Like in TOS they are often trapped and need to find a way out. Some episodes are just crazy and seem like a totally different franchise. A few episodes are entertaining or even smart. I admit that I didn't enjoy TOS. I liked only a few episodes. In a sense, TAS is better than TOS because, compared to TOS, TAS's quality is much more consistent. TAS doesn't have many insanely bad episodes.

* :thumbsup:Best episode: *Yesteryear*.
* :clown: My guilty pleasure: *More Tribbles, more Troubles* or *The practical Joker*

My episode ratings for this series are in comparison to one another. A rating of one of these episodes as a "10" is not meant to imply that it is as good as say, "The Doomsday Machine" from the original series. If something impresses as exceptional compared to the typical details from other episodes, it'll spike the rating. The appeal of this show is that it's such a curious thing. What are the stories behind the making of this series? Is it good science fiction? Is it kiddie fare? As an admirer of animation, this should not appeal to me, as Filmation productions are almost always lacking quality. Still, there's something about it. It's probably nostalgia as there are plenty of these kinds of moment-in-time viewing choices I've made in the past, and present for that matter.

Most of these episodes feature some pretty quick resolutions to some awfully complicated problems, though the subject matter is usually far more mature than the standard Saturday morning fare of its time.

The animated worlds are simultaneously creative and shoddily drawn. Backgrounds are at times weird but nearly always very colorful. This is common of everything I've seen and read about Filmation and their traits and techniques. This is something that has to be tolerated, or at times, laughed at. It can be fun to see how long a particular shot is held and how few movements are simultaneously occurring.

The Blu-ray edition of this series didn't get a lot of love. There is a lot of dirt, smudges, and other things floating around, and it doesn't help that the drawings of clothes and faces offer little to no detail. But, the Blu-ray menus are eye-catching and creative.

It's neat that this features voice work from the original cast. It offers additional legitimacy to the stories.

This was potentially a great vehicle to use to explore "those strange new worlds" without having to spend strange new amounts of money to depict them. It's just too bad that Filmation was the company hired to animate it.

Seriously, could the animation move any slower? It is almost like watching a still painting with an audio track.

But... who cares, because it still delivers Star Trek stories. It still continues the story. It is still some pretty decent Star Trek.

And, honestly, compared to modern cartoons, even with the snail paced animation it still looks leagues better than what is being made today.

The only issue is that... it ended and it ended too soon. You really don't get many episodes despite how long it aired, and it felt as unfortunately abrupt as the Original Series. You are left wanting more and you have to wait for the movies to get it.