Most fans treat Star Trek: The Animated Series like a Saturday-morning footnote. Gene Roddenberry tried to make that official. Fifty-three years later, the cheap cartoon keeps writing the rules that The Next Generation, Discovery, and Strange New Worlds still follow. Everyone over here at Whatfinger News are crazy Star Trek fans. But half of us still haven’t seen any of the animated episodes. Maybe it’s the same for you? Well… you need to and Sgt Pat forces Beth and Luke over here to watch them. Both loved it, and when you do see them, you will see many of the ideas in Star Trek the Next Generation.
NBC canceled the original series in 1969. Syndication turned it into a hit. Filmation offered a Saturday-morning continuation in 1973. Roddenberry signed on, the original cast returned for voice work (Shatner, Nimoy, Kelley, Doohan, Nichols, Takei, Barrett), and D.C. Fontana kept the stories close to the live-action tone. Twenty-two episodes, half-hour runtime, limited animation. It won the franchise its first Emmy. Roddenberry later decided none of it counted.
In 1988, while The Next Generation was still finding its footing and the licensing deals were being renegotiated, Roddenberry told Paramount to treat the cartoon as non-canon. Michael and Denise Okuda’s reference books followed the order. VHS and laserdisc releases carried the same official shrug. Writers who grew up with the show ignored the memo anyway.
Watch the full episodes of Star Trek the animated series – sneakily recorded at YouTube
Fontana’s “Yesteryear” (1973) did the heavy lifting on Spock. It put the Guardian of Forever back on screen, sent Spock to his own childhood on Vulcan, established the kahs-wan maturity ritual, the sehlat pet, the bullying over mixed heritage, and the Forge. Those details surface in the movies, in Discovery’s handling of Amanda Grayson, and in later Vulcan world-building. Roddenberry could declare the episode unofficial. The writers who staffed TNG, DS9, and Voyager used the material anyway.
The holodeck is the clearest case. In the TAS episode “The Practical Joker,” the Enterprise computer turns the recreation room into an immersive environment that traps Sulu, Uhura, and McCoy. That is the holodeck, minus the name. The Next Generation made it a regular set piece starting with “Encounter at Farpoint.” Strange New Worlds later closed the timeline gap by showing a glitchy early version on Pike’s ship and explicitly warning that the power draw makes it impractical for active vessels. The cartoon invented the toy; the live-action shows kept playing with it.
Other pieces stuck. Kirk’s middle name, Tiberius, first appears in TAS and is confirmed in Star Trek VI. Robert April is established as the Enterprise’s first captain in “The Counter-Clock Incident”; modern shows treat that as settled history. The Caitians (Lt. M’Ress, voiced by Majel Barrett) and the Kzinti show up in Star Trek IV, get a full character in Lower Decks (Dr. T’Ana), and are now being rendered in live-action on Strange New Worlds. Writers including Ronald D. Moore dropped small references when they could. YouTube deep-dives (Trekspertise’s 2020 breakdown and others) keep mapping the same list: life-support belts, new alien species, tech that later writers quietly reused.
Paramount and later CBS quietly reversed the ban. StarTrek.com added TAS material around 2006–2007. The 2010 site relaunch listed it among the official sources. Discovery and Strange New Worlds now treat specific TAS characters and details as fair game. The cartoon that Roddenberry tried to erase is the one that filled the gaps the live-action budget could not reach and then outlasted his veto.
X posts and comment threads still argue the point. Some fans quote Roddenberry’s later statements as law. Most treat the Emmy-winning, Fontana-written episodes as part of the five-year mission. The practical result is the same: the holodeck, Spock’s childhood, Tiberius, and the Caitians are in the shows people actually watch.
#Today in 1966, a television series pilot known as Star Trek was introduced on American television. That would be the beginning of an amazing, long story of the future created by Gene Roddenberry.
https://t.co/dopCXa4hiT— Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) September 8, 2024
RIP
The people who built the franchise keep leaving the bridge.
Original Series / Animated Series
DeForest Kelley (McCoy) died in 1999. James Doohan (Scotty) in 2005. Leonard Nimoy (Spock) in 2015. Nichelle Nichols (Uhura) in 2022. Majel Barrett Roddenberry (Chapel, computer voice, M’Ress) in 2008. Walter Koenig (Chekov) died October 25, 2026, at 90. Grace Lee Whitney (Rand), Mark Lenard (Sarek), and others from the same era are already gone. William Shatner and George Takei remain the last principal bridge survivors from the 1960s cast.
The Next Generation and later
Patrick Stewart (Picard) died October 29, 2026, at 86 after a short battle with Alzheimer’s and Lewy body dementia. René Auberjonois (Odo) died in 2019. Ricardo Montalbán (Khan), Brock Peters (Admiral Cartwright / Joseph Sisko), and dozens of guest stars across TNG, DS9, Voyager, and Enterprise have also passed. The list is long because the shows ran for decades.
The animated series was never the main attraction. It was the one that kept the characters working and the ideas moving while the live-action machine was stalled. Roddenberry tried to strike it from the record. The later writers, the official sites, and the current shows put it back. The people who played those roles are mostly gone. The episodes are still on the record.
Star Trek Cast: Then and Now — The Bridge Crew 60 Years Later 🛸🌠
#StarTrek #nostalgia #memories #history #thenandnow https://t.co/YPqitzrY8T— 🌸🎵 Beautiful Melody 🎶💖 (@Ducnghia16) March 21, 2026
— The Whatfinger News Team: Ben and Lisa, with Grok on edits and graphics
