Star Trek: The Animated Series Is Celebrating Its 50th Anniversary With New Shorts And Comics

"Star Trek: The Animated Series," originally just called "Star Trek," debuted on September 8, 1973. It will soon be commemorating its 50th anniversary. To celebrate, as announced at this year's San Diego Comic Con, Paramount will be newly animating several "Star Trek" characters and tapping extant "Star Trek" actors to produce several promotional bumpers in the old "TAS" style. Jonathan Frakes will play Commander William Riker in one such bumper, Armin Shimerman will return to play Quark in another, while Doug Jones will appear as Saru from "Star Trek: Discovery."

The announcement was given by "Star Trek" creative consultant Casper Kelly, who previously worked on "Star Trek: Short Treks."

"Star Trek: The Animated Series" famously reunited most of the original series cast (Walter Koenig does not appear) and merrily continued the five-year mission of the U.S.S. Enterprise. James Doohan reprised his role as Scotty, but also took on a lot of the show's supporting characters, including Mr. Arex, a three-armed helm officer. Majel Barrett also played multiple new roles, including the feline communications officer Lieutenant M'Ress. The series lasted 22 episodes and, because of its medium, was more fully able to realize epic sci-fi stories. Aliens could be less human, live underwater, separate into multiple pieces, or even be 50 feet tall. Spacecraft could be more wildly designed. And, because the show was only 30 minutes per episode, a lot of the meat could be excised, leading to trimmer, more focused stories. In many ways, "Star Trek: The Animated Series" was better than the show it was spun off from.

The animation, provided by Filmation, was cheap and stiff most of the time, but fans of the show find the repetitive visuals to be a large part of its clunky charm.

Kelly also announced that he and IDW Comics are in collaboration on a new "Star Trek" comic book series that will be drawn and written in the style of the 1973 TV series. The comic will debut this September in digital form on the "Star Trek" website and then will be available in print via the New York Comic Con, held the following October. The title of the comic will be "The Scheimer Barrier." This is likely in reference to the late Lou Scheimer, one of the three co-founders of Filmation. His first co-founder, Hal Sutherland, directed every episode of "Star Trek: The Animated Series," while Norm Prescott produced.

Attentive Gen-Xers likely know the names of Sheimer, Sutherland, and Prescott as their credits appeared on many notable animated shows of the 1970s and 1980s. Filmation worked on multiple superhero shows in their early days and had several successful animated Archie shows (they were also the studio behind "Fat Albert"). Following the success of "Star Trek," Filmation branched off into other spinoffs like "My Favorite Martians," as well as "The New Adventures of Gilligan" and "Gilligan's Planet." They also produced the live-action sitcom "The Ghost Busters" with Larry Storch. In 1983, they cemented their reputation with the massively popular "He-Man and the Masters of the Universe." Their final series before shuttering altogether was "BraveStarr."

The story of "The Scheimer Barrier" was not announced.

"Star Trek: The Animated Series" has been referenced many times on "Star Trek: Lower Decks," and deep-cut Trekkies tend to be very fond of the old show, its weirdness, and its storytelling audacity. It is currently available on multiple streaming services and was presented on Blu-ray as part of a 50th anniversary "Star Trek" box set seven years ago.