Star Trek: The Animated Series - Season 1

This stricken-from-continuity, barely animated, too-poor-to-hire-Chekov show, is probably best enjoyed when you didn't have to pay for it.

Star Trek is us at our most curious, most tolerant, and most together, and for a show aimed at a Saturday morning kids crowd, The Animated Series gives us all we could hope for.

The pacing is similar to TOS - which means a lot of pregnant pauses, and not just from [William] Shatner, who reprises his role as Captain. But condensed to a 30-minute show, the episodes often flow much more smoothly than on TOS.

It feels like classic Trek. And if you've never seen it, it literally is like discovering that all this time, there was a fourth season you didn't know about.

Apparently, the universe just wants to see as many Spocks as possible.

In retrospect this stilted, handmade approach is suffused with a goofy charm, much like that found in the crude action of a Peanuts holiday special.

TAS still feels even stiffer and more self-important than Trek, hard as that may be to believe. But it also feels more thoughtful, and less beholden to the prime-time need for scantily clad space chicks and two-fisted action.

Star Trek: The Animated Series is awesome.

Star Trek: The Animated Series isn't exactly the most fondly remembered of the six Star Trek series, but that doesn't mean it didn't have its moments.

It takes a devotee to get past the roughness, but once you accept that this is never going to be perfect, it's a charming, intelligent reward for everyone who ever wondered just what the hell was going on inside the planet of Shore Leave.