Star Trek: Animated - Possible date for TAS DVDs?
Posted by David Lambert
12/28/2004


Last June we brought you the great news that Star Trek: The Animated Series was coming to DVD in 2005. Now three different websites are reporting that this release will occur on March 15th.

Information about this has been circulating since late last week at IGN Filmforce (near the bottom of the first page of their Star Trek report), at TrekToday.com (where they seem to mostly relay IGN's info), and at TrekWeb.com's news page (where you can find the "Stardates" box at the bottom of the left-hand column).

However, we should also caution our readers that this date hasn't been verified by official sources at the studios: Paramount's key staff for this matter are all out for the holiday week, and won't return until after the first of the year. We also attempted to contact Columbia House, which was identified by writer David Gerrold as the force behind the production of these discs. However, nobody we raised at Columbia House seemed to be aware of this title.

Our thanks to reader Tom Morter for the heads-up about these postings. Please stay tuned, and we'll let you know more about all of this just as soon as we can.

Link to this page:
http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/newsitem.cfm?NewsID=2641

All news for this show:
http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/shownews.cfm?ShowID=3972

Cool, looking forward to the Kirk is a Jerk episode!

i wonder if it will have the 140 dollar asking price like all other star trek dvds

About time, worried about the price though.

Same here.

At most, this title should be half the price of the other Trek box sets since it was 22 half-hour episodes.

I'm sure they will squeeze every penny out of it that they can.

Well for more good news, this is rumored to be ONLY available through Columbia House Video.

Would it be available as enrollment titles? That might keep the cost down.

However it's made available, I'm all over it.

I watched the cartoon when I was a kid, but don't remember it that well. Is it actually any good, or just good for nostalgia value? In other words, is it closer to being a Warner Bros./Rocky and Bullwinkle in adult appeal, or closer to a Wacky Races/G.I. Joe?

Same here.

It had a lot of the same writers, including David Gerrold and they even took (w/ permission) a story from another guy, I'm blanking on the name, I think Larry Niven.

It's been ages myself, but I think they've held up better than most cartoons.

The animation was horrid, but they got most of the original cast to do the voices, and some episodes had some good solid SF writers. If it's not too expensive, it's worth a buy.

I would'nt say the animation was "horrid". It was on par with the animation of its day. If we compared it with the animation of say, Princess Mononoke, yes, it would pale considerably. But for what it's worth and from when it was done, I think it's actually pretty good. I've been watching VCD's of the series for several months now and they still look pretty good.

Have to agree here...Filmations was a REALLY cheap animation outfit. Basically, a drawn image was slide back and forth across the screen, to project the illusion of movement. The stories on TAS were sometimes good, sometimes bad. Like you mentioned...if Paramount (or Columbia House) doesn't over-price them, I'll pick it up.

Well, they were cheap, but they were pretty good too - one of the first studios that did rotoscoping for TV animation that I can recall.

This one should be fun - a hundred bucks for 22 episodes. That'll take some balls, Paramount. . . .

Oh what a good idea. That should lock out the entire r2 market for one.

Ditto.

The animated series was awesome! No way I cam pass this up.

-Jason

If it is Columbia house, I wouldn't be surprised to see it on Timelife.com eventually, and it will end up cheap.

I ordered a complete set of VHS tapes back in 1990 when this first became available in Canada and have never regretted the purchase. Yes, the animation is far from first rate, and there are some hilarious errors that can be nitpicked (ie: half the time when Kirk calls McCoy in sickbay, the next scene of Kirk 2 seconds later shows McCoy standing right next to him on the bridge). However, the writers of the episodes were first rate, with such episodes as Yesteryear (DC Fontana), Beyond The Farthest Star (Samuel A. Peeples), The Slaver Weapon (Larry Niven adapted from his short story "The Soft Weapon") and The Jihad (Stephen Kandel) being personal favorites. If I remember correctly, Yesteryear and The Slaver Weapon were considered 2 of the finest episodes based on story premise by the fan base.

As long as the cost doesnt get prohibitive, I will be all over the DVD release. Its definitely a nostalgia value purchase, but perfect popcorning material to kick back with. And the soundtrack will bring back memories for any thirtysomething viewer who grew up with late 70's early 80's morning cartoon serials...the ST TAS score was used in many of those Saturday shows.

While we in r2 will have to get someone to buy it for us from Columbia House or get a copy from Ebay.

Stupid stupid stupid!

We can only hope that it will end up with a separate r2 release (will they really want to miss out on this whole market?). Land of the Giants is a Columbia House exclusive in r1, but it was on a list of "wants" Fox asked us to vote for here in r2. Alongside Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea and Time Tunnel. Which we're getting in 2005 and you in r1 aren't.

Thankfully I have the whole lot on tape; the VHS releases here missed two episodes (we got five tape of four each). They missed out How Sharper Than A Serpent's Tooth, The Counter-Clock Incident two great episodes. So I taped them from TV when Sky TV showed them in it's very early years. <cackle>

I'd like to see the animated series packaged like the three TOS box sets that just came out. Make it look like the "fourth" season.

Glad I held off on the bootlegs. This may be wishful thinking, but Damn I hope there are SOME kind of extras on these. Commentary with Nimoy et al would be great, before its too late!! These guys are getting old. And how about a music only track, dammit! Those 70s jams are too bitchin.

I haven't watched Star Trek: TAS since the late 80s (when it ran on Nick), but I remember quite a few decent episodes... at its high points it was probably better than the third season. It certainly wasn't the disaster it could've been.

I take it none of you know what LD's are. I was watching it and my son came home and asked if had just came out on DVD.

They look pretty damn good on LD. They better be pretty cheap for me to double dip!