All language subtitles for Star.Trek.TAS.S00E01.The.Making.of.Star.Trek.The.Animated.Series.DVDRip.x264-[MULVAcoded]

- Where are we, sir?
- At another place in time, I think.

Open hailing frequencies, Lieutenant.

- Message coming in, sir.
- Put it on the view screen.

I've always felt it was pad of Star Trek.

And a very important part
that has been long overlooked.

Oh, I thought... Yeah,
I thought it would make a terrific show

for youngsters and for oldsters.

Wouldn't make any difference because
you could do the same kind of stories.

It was really different
and it was a pleasure to work on,

but frightening at the same time
because you didn't wanna

do a lesser job
than the public might expect.

Working.

One of the best things
about The Animated Series

is it's like buried treasure.

It's like, you know, every fan
of the original series

knows that there are those 77 episodes
or however you want to count them out.

And it's as if somebody said,

"Hey, we just found this other episode
that no one's ever seen before."

I think that Star Trek:
The Animated Series

was really important
because it kept Star Trek alive.

It gave it
to a whole new generation of viewers.

It was the last iteration.

The last opportunity to play out that,

what can we do with Kirk, Spock
and McCoy and the others

in an episodic sense
before we went on to do the movies,

where the movies all eventually
ended up in this kind of long story arc.

And at the time, you know,
it was real Star Trek.

Cartoon, no cartoon.

With Shatner and Nimoy in it,

as far as I was concerned,
it was real Star Trek.

None of us ever said, "Cartoon." Never.

So we were going to do Star Trek
in animation.

Star Trek was produced
by the company that

I was founder of, one of the founders of.

We did The Archies,

we did the first Superman show
for animation, for television, we did.

We did the Batman and we did...

If it flew and had a cape

and it was painted red, white or blue,
we probably did it.

I find this scientifically fascinating.

The way we became involved with
Star Trek: The Series,

was actually it came right from NBC.

We got a can one day
from Joe Taritero

who was Vice President
of children's program there

and they'd been negotiating
with Gene Roddenberry.

And they made the choice
that they wanted Filmation

to produce this show,
which was quite an honor,

and scared the devil out of me
a little bit.

I cannot tell you how impressed I am
by your splendid spirit of cooperation.

And then I got in touch
with Roddenberry

who was easy to talk to,
and actually he'd liked the idea,

but he said he can't do it.

He said, you know,
"Paramount owns it, I own it.

"I can't do anything without them.
They can't do anything without me."

I said, "Why don't you two guys talk?

"I mean, you know,
sit down in a room, make a deal.

"Then we could do this thing."
He said, "You know, that's a good idea."

- That seems logical.
- Thank you.

Filmation, it was just a hoot.

Lou Scheimer was...
I don't know how to describe Lou.

He was so enthused about focusing on,

"Let's just do fun, exciting television
for Saturday morning,"

but he was also willing to do shows.

He understood better than some places

that a lot of your Saturday morning
audience is not kids,

it's grownups or teenagers or you know.

People are laying around Saturday,
"What's on TV?"

Dorothy Fontana, D.C. Fontana,

was introduced to us by Roddenberry

and he wanted her to do the story idea
because he felt very, very comfortable.

She was an assistant of his
in the live-action shows.

She was terrific.

And we all just wanted to do
Star Trek, still.

We had it in our bones and...
No pun, but...

I mean, in 1969 when it went off the air,
we felt unfinished.

We hadn't had a chance to complete
the next voyages we had in mind.

And this was one way to do it,
even though we didn't get the fifth year.

I mean, that's...
And then we ended up doing a show

that basically was the same
as the nighttime show,

same writers in many cases,
same actors obviously,

and the same audience, too.

- Bones, any opinion?
- There's some resemblance.

I am inclined to agree
with the Doctor, Captain.

The problem was the audience
was all in their 20s and 30s

and our normal audience
was like eight to ten.

They're all teenagers and children.

The way I got involved
in Star Trek: The Animated Series

was that I had previously worked
with Dorothy Fontana

on a show called The Sixth Sense
and one day...

In the middle of a writers' strike, I was
a young starving writer in my early 20s,

she called and said, "Do you wanna
write an episode of Star Trek?"

Well, that was a lucky
or unlucky stroke of fortune.

The Writers Guild
happened to be on strike in 1973.

During those early months, I think
we went for about a three-month strike.

And that meant
none of the writers could write,

you know, live-action dramas or
comedies, whatever they were writing,

but it did mean that we could hire them
to write at least one script

for animation without their becoming
a member of that union.

And so we turned to all our... Not all,
but many of our Star Trek regulars

and said, "Do you wanna do this?"

Our first script was by Sam Peeples.

He had done the very first episode
for the live show.

It's a starship
like nothing I've ever seen.

There were these two or three ideas

I'd had for the original series
that we had never done.

And so now I could do them
in The Animated Series.

And one of course was the
"More Tribbles, More Troubles,"

and the other was "Bem."

We got David Gerrold to do two.

We got Margaret Armen to do two,
and several other people who

had wanted to write Star Trek
but hadn't gotten a chance

on the original series,
came in and did something.

Joyce Perry was one.

Larry Brody, who was just starting out,
was another.

Meeting Gene Roddenberry
was an experience all in itself

because I'd been in the business
just long enough

to have encountered a lot of people
who really crapped on writers.

And I'm in the office of a guy
who to me is a legend,

who is the most gracious, warm,
friendly, sweet guy I've ever met,

who respects everything
that every writer does,

listens closely to every word I say.

And I did mostly
just sat behind his shoulder

and looked at what he was doing
and listened to what he was saying

and he'd make
changes, changes, changes,

and then he'd make
some more changes.

I don't like it at all, sir.

Nor do I, Mr. Scott,
but we've got to do it.

Roddenberry was... He was great.

It was the only time that I can remember
that we sold a show to a network

and the network didn't have any right
to make any changes in the scripts.

And that was heaven.

Everything went past Gene,
he saw it all,

but he wasn't there every day.

When he had comments,
he put them in.

Otherwise, he just said,
"It's fine, go for it."

And we all did the show.

I do remember one day,
it was getting pretty frightening.

Lou and I talked and he says,

"Hey, if we don't get started pretty soon,
you know, we're dead in the water."

And I said, "Well, I'll just see
if I can tell that to Gene," you know.

So it happened, I think, the next day

and when we were going over things
and I said, "Gene, I have to talk to you."

I says, "If we don't start this production
this week, in the next couple of days,

"we've only got six-week-window here,

"we're not gonna make
the first deadline."

He says, "That's it."

He stood up and he says,
"I'm not gonna bother you anymore."

He was happy and
he walked out the door and he left me.

Thrilling to work
with somebody like that.

Wait a minute.
There is a method to this madness.

Please elaborate, Captain.

So the first approach was,
"How are we going to tell these stories?

"What form are we going to use?"

And the second one was,
"Who are we going to use?"

And they opted to hire
almost everybody

except for poor Walter Koenig,

but who did get a chance
to write a script,

which was the beginning
of his writing career.

So, you know, it wasn't all that bad.

We could barely use all the characters
they had to use in the shows.

I mean, just the set characters.

Anyway, you couldn't have fit into the
damn little room we were recording in.

Nice to be back aboard, sir,
and fitting the room again.

The glorious thing was getting them all
together for the first recording session.

I know that's of interest to the fans.

And I think it's the first time
they'd all been together,

at one time, in the same room,
and it was a joyous occasion.

You don't know how good it is
to have you back on the Bridge,

alive and well.

We're as happy about it as you are, Jim.

I'll just tell you, I get chills up my spine
any time Leonard would do Spock

because he'd just get all serious
and do that Spock voice,

you know, and, "Fascinating, Captain."

Fascinating.

And he'd do that and then, of course,
Shatner is just, he's very playful.

You will remind me
to report my conduct to the Federation,

-won't you, Mr. Spock?
- Of course, Captain.

Shatner had one thing
that was immensely important to him

and that was to be true
to the original show.

To make sure that we didn't do anything
in our show that would...

Not really work with the bible.

It is our responsibility
to take care of our own,

just as it is your responsibility
to take care of yours.

He's one of the hardest working actors
I've ever seen

in front of a microphone
or in front of a camera.

But, you know, he'd say,
"All right, we need a take,"

and he would just, "barn,"
just like that, first time, right up.

You know, "That was perfect, Bill,
one more." And he'd do it again.

Well done, Jim.

There were some actors
who did multiple roles.

Majel Barrett did.

She did a lot of the female voices.

Well, I can't find anything wrong
with these instruments, Doctor.

I am Theela, the Head Female.

Hostile behavior doesn't fit its program.

Lieutenant M'Ress, I want a printout
of the guidance computer's last orders.

Jimmy Doohan did
a lot of voices that were...

Other than his own, obviously,
as Scotty.

He was very good on
other characters' voices

that we would have had to bring in
different voice actors.

And Jimmy could do a wide range
of not only types of voices

but types of accents.

No matter where I've traveled
in the galaxy, Jim,

this bridge is more like home
than anywhere else.

We will live no longer like worms
crawling in the did.

Good. All hands to battle stations.

And, of course, my favorite is
all the stuff that Nichelle got to do.

I'm just in love with Nichelle.
That's just me.

And in the episode "Bem,"
she shows her range.

She gets to show Uhura being
a very strong voice on the Bridge,

but then she does the voice
of the alien intelligence

and there
she's a whole different character.

And the range there is spectacular.

What gives you the right
to intrude here?

Then in another episode
Uhura says that the men are all

captured or something
and they're not available.

- What are you doing?
- Taking command of this ship.

"At last!"
She just had so much fun with that

and that goes back to who Nichelle is.

So watching her stretch herself and
grow as a performer, that was great.

Ship's Log, supplemental.

I am assuming command
of the Enterprise.

Once the actors
have recorded all the voices

then it can go to animation,

to actual ink and pen
to be sketched out.

Storyboards were being done
at the time, off the scripts.

They were doing
storyboards at the same time.

So every script was storyboarded out.

Scene for scene, line for line.

Tactically well-planned.

Putting an episode together
from start to finish

for our schedule
was about three months.

I know the animation
was six weeks allowed for that.

Animation takes a long time.

And there's a whole procedure:

You have to write it,
then you have to do storyboards,

then you have to do layouts,
then you have to do backgrounds,

then you have to animate it.
And we would start

about six months prior
to the first show going on the air

and just deliver them in time.

I mean, we were delivering wet...
Well, in those days it was film.

I mean, when I say "wet film,"

we'd ship out on Friday
for Saturday morning.

I mean, it was really gruesome.

Have you covered every possibility?
Every factor?

The facts remain unchangeable.

You had to keep that Steamroller going

in order to make the final deadline.

That's what! was saying earlier
about working with Gene,

you know,
there was a certain time frame.

If we didn't start,
we were gonna be late.

- Status, Mr. Spock?
- All systems affirmative, Captain.

The Enterprise is on course
and on schedule.

Hal Sutherland,
the dear man who was our director,

was colorblind. We didn't know that.

And as a result, on Larry Niven's
"The Slaver Weapon,"

his Kzinti, these are his creation.

They are eight-foot orange cats,
very fierce, very predatory,

and they were flying around
in a pink ship.

It will not be pleasant for her.

Which startled me
when I saw it broadcast

and I immediately called Larry
and apologized.

But I didn't know, until that moment,
that Hal was colorblind

and probably only saw that color
as a shade of gray.

- Captain, what happened?
- I would rather not discuss it.

The people who work on these things
are artists.

I mean, I had the joy of working

with up to 2,000 artists over the time
that we were in business.

At one time we had 875 artists
working for us.

And you could see your work onscreen.

Fantastic architecture.

Only an incredibly advanced race
could have built it.

The show had a visual canvas
that was...

It sod of incorporated the original show
but it also expanded it

into this realm
that couldn't be done at the time.

We could do new
and different creatures that actually

still aren't being done
as well as they were done in animation

because you could do anything.

And the environments, underwater.

All sorts of lovely things that we
wouldn't have been able to easily do

in live-action.

You could show the most
bizarre-looking aliens that,

you know, could never have been
produced in the '60s or even the '70s.

I mean, you had... There was
Lieutenant Arex, I guess,

the three-!imbed navigator
who replaced Chekov,

who was a very interesting alien,
a very cool design.

Well, in the episode "Bem,"

in my original conception of "Bem,"

which was going to be
a live-action story,

I had sketched a kind of a two-pad
creature that would be played by

a very sturdy, shod person
who would be carrying a very shod,

shorter person on his back and then...
And so you would have this character

that could then split apart
into two symbiotic creatures.

And The Animated Series,

we didn't have to worry about
building a costume or finding the actors.

The animators just had Bern split apart

into as many different pieces
as they needed.

I mean, the first time
we saw a Vulcan city

was in the episode "Yesteryear."

And then later, on Enterprise, we did...

In season 4, we did a three-episode
arc that took place on Vulcan.

And we wanted to see that city again.

It was Spock's hometown
and we thought,

"Well, it'd be cool to visit it
before Spock came along."

So we brought that city to fife.
I think it was called ShiKahr.

So The Animated Series

had a look, I think, that certainly
influenced later Star Treks-.

I wish to visit the planet Vulcan,
30 Vulcan years past,

the month of Tasmeen.

Location, near the city of ShiKahr.

I had some ideas
that I'd always had for years

about what Star Trek
as a series should have,

so I was ready to go with them.

I decided to lead with my favorite,
which was,

"Why can't the Enterprise
encounter God in space?"

Gene thought that was
the greatest thing he'd ever heard of.

He said, "I've been trying for years
to just get that out in that way.

"I never really thought about
just doing it. So all right, let's do that.

"You know, go home.
We're gonna make a deal."

Well, a week later,
Dorothy called me and said,

"The good news is that
we're making a deal

"and you're gonna write that episode
we talked about.

"The bad news is we can't use God
but we can use the devil."

So it became "The Magicks
of Megas-Tu,"

which was a story
about a planet of devils.

Lovely primitive humans.

Can't you do anything right?

Well, the thing that we could do is

we could go anywhere
and do anything we wanted to do

as long as it could be drawn.

Nowadays, you can do it
with computers,

but in those days, you did it by hand
and pencil and paint.

And Gene could write about
or think about

going any place he wanted
in the universe.

In any planet, any color,
any shape, any size.

What we did have
was a really good research company

that pointed out
when we contradicted ourselves,

when something didn't follow.

"Remember you said this
over here in this episode

"and then over in this episode
you're saying something else.

"Well, it has to follow,
it has to make sense.

"And they have to agree."
"Okay, fine." So we did that.

We were doing Star Trek.

We were doing the Star Trek
as described in the writer's guide

and the writer's guide
for the animated show

was the same one we had
for the live-action show, pretty much.

Something awfully familiar about it.

What do you make of all this, Spock?

Well, my take on whether or not
this fits into the Star Trek legacy

is that it fits into my version
of the Star Trek legacy.

I mean, I think it should.

All this argument about canon is stupid.

All this argument about canon is stupid.

It has Gene Roddenberry's' name on it.

It has William Shatner as Kirk.

It has Leonard Nimoy as Spock.

It has D. Kelley as McCoy.

It has Jimmy Doohan as Scotty.

It has Majel Barrett as Nurse Chapel.

It has Nichelle Nichols as Uhura.

It has George Takei as Sulu.

We were fortunate to be in position,
in the last season of Enterprise,

as co-producers on the show

to actually take some elements
from the animated show

and put it into live-action on-air
continuity so it becomes canon.

And one of the best examples of that
was the sehlat,

which had been seen
in The Animated Series.

Mentioned in The Original Series.

It was in "Yesteryear,"

Dorothy Fontana's episode
which showed that

pretty poignant glimpse
of Spock's early years,

and with his pet.

And he has an adventure
out in the wilds of the Forge.

And that became the episode.

"The Forge" was the name
of the episode we wrote for Enterprise.

And we too included a sehlat.

Yeah, I mean, I think
the first time we saw a holodeck

was on The Animated Series.

There was an episode, I believe
it was called "The Practical Joker,"

where the ship's computer
went a little bonkers.

It is lovely, but I'm more in the mood
for a nice, quiet walk in the woods.

I did an episode called "Catwalk"

and I think there were
a couple of moments

where I dropped in some references
to the old show.

One where Dr. Phlox had these...

A lot of creatures in his sickbay
and he had some slugs.

And we called them,
in a couple different episodes,

we revealed
that they were Edosian slugs.

So they were from the same planet
as Lieutenant Arex.

Although, the reference
I like the most was the kahs-wan ritual,

which is what young Spock
was going through in "Yesteryear."

And there was a lovely little scene

between Captain Archer and T'Pol,

and the Captain makes a reference
about how it's a lot like going camping

and he asked T'Pol,
"Have you ever gone camping?"

She says, "Well, no, but

She tells him a little bit
about the kahs-wan ritual

and how she spent all these days
in the desert,

the Vulcan idea of camping.

Well, number one, I know the
animated show helped the franchise

because it helped give birth...

Because they suddenly realized
there was an audience out there.

I love that at the time,
the LA Times reviewed it

and though it was part of
a Saturday morning line-up

they said it was a Mercedes
in a soapbox derby.

NBC was elated.

Just absolutely elated.

I remember getting
a personal letter from them saying

how wonderful the show looked
and how happy they were at the results.

I'd never heard anything like that

in all the years we'd been in business,
20 odd years.

It's the only Emmy
I've ever gotten for a show.

I did 1,500 half hours or whatever it was
and it really wasn't...

It should not have been given to us.

It was an Emmy for
best children's show Saturday morning

and it was not really a children's show.

It was a show for the entire family

and anybody who was really a fan
of the original live show.

They recognized it.

My son overheard the rehearsals
and he heard it was Captain Kangaroo.

So I don't know what to say
except a very, very special thanks

to my very, very, special friend,
and co-producer, Norm Prescott,

and my lovely family, my wife, Jay,

my son and my daughter,
Lane and Erika,

and to all those great, great people
who produced for us

in the ad of animation at Filmation
those wonderful shows.

Thank you very, very much.

I was pleased that it won the Emmy.
It was the only Emmy we got.

Star Trek was nominated
a number of times,

more in technical categories
than anything else,

which always insulted us because we
felt we were doing really good drama.

But I was pleased that we got an Emmy.

I was thrilled to death.

Our trip into the negative universe
gave it a second life.

It gave all of us a second life.

When they were thinking
that Star Trek was gone,

when the series ended, the live show,

and then all of a sudden
the animated show came back

all our hopes became rejuvenated.

And to me that was important

because I think
it gave us a sense of closure

that we just hadn't abruptly ended
our five-year mission.

That we were still out there
doing our job.

It was the further adventures.
It was the fourth season

that we didn't get to do live-action,
but we did get to do in a different way.

The reason why The Animated Series
still holds up after all of this time

is the same reason The Original Series
holds up all of this time,

-and it's stories.
- Stories.

So I'm glad that, you know,
almost 40 years later

we're still remembering it
and honoring it.

I don't think we should forget
the storytellers who worked on it.

These were the people
who created the series in the first place.

Most of us were involved
whether it was the writers,

the actors, Gene himself.

We were all there doing Star Trek.

Take us out of orbit, Mr. Sulu.
Let's go home.

Captain, I'm picking up a message.

Go in peace. Yes. Go in peace.

You have learned much. Be proud.

You have learned much. Be proud.