Good series to tie fans over until the movies came out

I was pleasantly surprised with this set. I gave it a shot partly because of the reviews I've read here, and partly because of the >50% off of MSRP price here on Amazon, LOL! I'm really enjoying the stories which are (for the most part) not dumbed-down, especially refreshing considering it was aimed at the prime demographic of cereal-eating, toy-desiring/buying elementary school kid crowd.

I remember this Sat. morn "cartoon" from it's original airing. Unfortunately, what little I do remember of it is that I didn't care for it as a 10yr. old. As a result, I didn't watch it, or ST:TOS for that matter, much at all. A couple of years later, I developed an affinity for Star Trek which has lasted through to this day, but it was too late to enjoy ST:TAS as it was then off the air...VCR's were then years away.

Despite the rather crude Filmation animation (de rigeur for the day), the stories are quite well-written. Having nearly the entire TOS cast voice the characters is, while totally superfluous and meaningless to the original Sat. morn. crowd, icing on the cake for us trekkies (trekkors/trekkers?). While you can easily tell which aditional characters are being voiced by Majel Barrett, Jimmy Doohan, or Nichele Nichols, they all did a decent job, especially Doohan who voiced 6(!) characters in some episodes!

While this set isn't exactly the "fourth" Star Trek season that some portend, it's certainly a worthwhile purchase and worth your valuable leisure time, especially for ST fans and especially at this price. Kudos to Gene Roddenbery and D.C. Fontana for not taking the cheapo easy-way-out by not recycling wholesale ST:TOS plots for ST:TAS (they did recycle certain TOS elements...like the Guardian Of Forever, but in a benign and entertaining way).

Highly Recommended!

One last word:

As alluded to in my review title, the package this set comes in is very cheesy. Yes, I realize it was supposed to be "styled" like the original TOS series DVD "clamshell" boxes. This one is in white plastic, with orange letters and an orange translucent plastic window, shaped like the Starfleet chevron. Inside, a cardboard sleeve holds small stacked clear plastic DVD trays that are taped together, with a small gatefold on the series particulars. I could have done without it...I'll take "regular" DVD boxes instead, Paramount, thank you very much.

Don't let the fact that this old Funimation produced animated Saturday morning serial of the original Star Trek characters that was made for kids fool you. The stories supplied and detailed in little half hour sketches were never for the kids but for the same adults who made The Original Series such a hit. What appealed to the little ones, like myself at that time, were the mysterious monsters, the aliens filling out the enterprise crew, and others like winged-eagle people that would show up from time to time. Watching this series again as an adult I marveled at how the stories to a one kept up with the standards of the TV show and know for a fact that I didn't come close to "getting" or understanding them when I was little. They were way over my head. The original cast voices their characters; you can jump on at any point; there's some beautiful animation that's managed on a stiff budget; the Star Trek musical themes always pull you right in; the stories continue to be true to the character's from TOS"”all of these points make this a must have series for the true Trekkie and continue to make it eminently enjoyable in spite of its limitations. The packaging may frustrate some but may delight others as it comes in a hard plastic oversized case that flips open like a communicator. There is a slip case over the four disc set with each disc sitting in a plastic flip-tray and there's a booklet that reviews the history of this series. The extras are must watches too.

As fans of the Original Series in Star Trek know, the initial run was canceled in 1969 after 3 seasons, in large part by being moved to what is called (even today) The Friday Night Death Slot, where Star Trek was switched to 10PM on Fridays when many people were doing things other than watchoing TV. The success of the series, eventually leading to the huge cultural icon that Star Trek has become, was when the show was resindicated during times such as during the evening news or on weekends. Hence, a younger generation discovered the show and became life-long fans.

This is why so many 1970s Star Trek prodcts are geared towards children while appealing to older fans as well- hence "Star Trek, the Animated Series." As any fan of the original show can explain, this short-lived cartoon series continued the tridition of the show without budget constraints regarding effects- finally there are more non-humanoid aliens (including 2 on the bridge of the Enterprise)in addition to follow-ups to episodes from the live-action show. For fans of the all-time favorite "The Trouble with Tribles" in The Orininal Series (TOS) there is "More Tribbles, More Troubles" in the Animated Series. There is a sequal to "Shore Leave" where the planet generates images of the crew's thoughts. We even see the space swindler Harcort Fenton Mudd again and expore the romantic tensions between Nurse Chapel and Mr. Spock- all of which are done through the voice-overs of the original cast!

The one downfall is that the animation is done simply, often in stills with flashing lights creating an illusion of movement. Still, for anyone interested in the development of Star Trek as a cultural phenomenon or who likes stories with Kirk, Spock, and most of the original crew of the Star Ship Enterprise, the Animated Series is a must for your collection!

This was actually the very first Star Trek I ever saw (or knew to exist) when I was a child in the early 1970's. This Emmy Award-winning Saturday morning cartoon introduced me to Star Trek and I was so excited when, shortly thereafter, I realized that there was also a live action show "with real people from the cartoon!" I was hooked from my earliest years and I've been Treking ever sense. If you haven't seen The Animated Series, you have missed out on a historically important, vastly underrated and too often forgotten part of the Star Trek saga. If you think we only got three years out of the five year mission, you're wrong--the final two years of it is right here. And it is not you're typical Saturday morning fare. It is actually Star Trek--with all the drama and depth of the original series, written and produced by the original series team, and voiced by the original series cast. It also features several sequels to TOS episodes--and they are actually good! Furthermore, much of the animation is quite stunning. These days, Filmmation (which produced the series) is often made fun of for the cost cutting "stiffness" of their animation, but I think that's unfair. Maybe the characters movements are a bit stiff (they were on a budget), but look at the amount of detail they put into their settings, backgrounds and matte paintings. Some are true works of art--and the slow Enterprise flybys look as detailed and beautiful as the live action version. If your assumption is that TAS would be too cheesy, it's a cartoon, etc., you are missing out on a rich experience. By the way, there are a number of Trek elements first introduced in The Animated Series which have since found their way into the mainstream canon of modern Trek through homage and even direct reference--especially in "Deep Space Nine," "Star Trek: Enterprise," and "Star Trek (2009)." TAS also introduced the holodeck aboard the Enterprise over fifteen years before "Star Trek: The Next Generation." Furthermore, the critically acclaimed episode "Yesteryear" detailing a traumatic event in Spock's childhood is widely considered not just TAS's most important episode, but among the most important canonical episodes of the Star Trek franchise. Also of note, TAS characters such as M'Ress and Arex have often appeared Star Trek novels and comic books, and the Orion slave girl, Devna, introduced in "The Time Trap" is now a major character in the "Star Trek: Enterprise" relaunch novels--and her story arc in the novels is anything but cartoony.