"Beyond The Farthest Star", written by TV veteran Samuel A. Peeples, is the series premiere of the animated Star Trek, as the franchise returns to NBC after a 4 year absence.
While the title is derived from the works of Edgar Rice Burroughs, it has nothing to do with a faraway land. Instead, a disembodied entity hijacks the Enterprise.
Complete episodes are not available online at present. Following is an excerpt:
It turns out that while this aired as scheduled in September 1973, it was delayed three months in California due to George Takei (Sulu) making a bid for public office, and this fell under equal time regulations.
Peeples also wrote a classic episode of the original Trek, giving him a rare daily double. His resume also includes working on shows such as Lancer & Custer at 20th Century Fox.
Rating: A-.
2 comments:
Despite the howls about the animation, in retrospect this show had more going on than most animated fare at the time. Not to mention having DC Fontana and Dennis Koenig offering scripts for the show. Of course, they could create alien creatures 60s costuming and makeup never could!
There were of course strong lessons and concepts without being too cloying. I still get misty when we see Spock say goodbye to Ichaya!!
Walter Koenig didn't reprise as Chekov on the show, but began his writing career in earnest with an episode of this series.
Because of Filmation's legendary cheapness with talent, James Doohan had to be called on to do extra characters in nearly every episode, along with Nichelle Nichols & Majel Barrett. I don't think guest stars were credited. Just rented the series DVD out of the library, and going through it.
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