Animated STAR TREK - Notes Turn Graphics ON!

NOTES



Below are several paragraphs of notes pertaining to various subjects related to this Animated STAR TREK web site.


D.C. Fontana wrote the animated series episode "Yesteryear". In the 1960's, Ms. Fontana was the story editor and script supervisor on STAR TREK The Original Series. On that show she wrote "Tomorrow Is Yesterday", "Friday's Child", "Journey to Babel" and "The Enterprise Incident." Ms. Fontana also provided the teleplay for "Charlie X", "This Side of Paradise", "By Any Other Name" and "The Ultimate Computer." Under the pseudonym of Michael Richards she wrote the story for "That Which Survives" and collaborated on the story of "The Way to Eden." She went on to write for STAR TREK: The Next Generation, collaborating with Gene Roddenberry on "Encounter at Farpoint, Parts I and II" She also wrote the teleplay of "Lonely Among Us", "Too Short A Season" and "Heart of Glory". Ms. Fontana also worked on STAR TREK: Deep Space Nine, penning the teleplay of "Dax". Ms. Fontana later provided the scripts for three Babylon 5 episodes: "The War Prayer", "Legacies", and "A Distant Star".


Larry Brody wrote the animated series episode "The Magicks of Megas-Tu". In 1995 he wrote the story for the STAR TREK: Voyager episode "Tattoo". Mr. Brody has his own home page on the Internet and he has a section of it devoted to his work on STAR TREK.


Howard Weinstein wrote the animated series episode "The Pirates of Orion". Mr. Weinstein later wrote several STAR TREK novels. They are:
Three original series books, "Covenant of the Crown" (1981), "Deep Domain" (1987) and "The Better Man" (1994); and three Next Generation books, "Exiles" (1990), "Power Hungry" (1991) and "Perchance to Dream" (1991). He also wrote some STAR TREK comic stories produced by DC comics. Two graphic novels of those stories are "Tests of Courage" (1994) - a Captain Sulu story, and "Revisitations" (1995) which contains two stories, one features the return of Harry Mudd and the other the return of Gary Seven.


Margaret Armen wrote the animated series episodes "The Lorelei Signal" and "The Ambergris Element". She wrote scripts for the original series also. She wrote "The Gamesters of Triskelion" and "The Paradise Syndrome." Ms. Armen also wrote the teleplay for "The Cloud Minders".


Fred Bronson. Fred Bronson wrote the Animated STAR TREK episode "The Counter-Clock Incident" using the pseudonym, John Culver. Fred Bronson was not only the writer (as John Culver), he was the NBC publicist assigned to the series. A year earlier, he was the publicist on Gene Roddenberry's "The Questor Tapes." As a result of working on these two projects, Bronson introduced his friend Susan Sackett to Roddenberry -- and in 1974, she was hired as his secretary (and later became his executive assistant). Fred Bronson later collaborated with Susan Sackett on two scripts for the STAR TREK: The Next Generation, series. These were "Ménage à Troi", and "The Game". Brannon Braga also worked on the script for "The Game."


Marc Daniels. Marc Daniels wrote the Animated STAR TREK episode "One of Our Planets Is Missing". Mr. Daniels was also a prolific television director. He directed fourteen episodes of the Original STAR TREK series. These were: "The Man Trap", "The Naked Time", "Court Martial", "The Menagerie, Parts I and II", "Space Seed", "Who Mourns for Adonais?", "The Doomsday Machine", "The Changeling", "Mirror, Mirror", "I, Mudd", "A Private Little War", "By Any Other Name", "Assignment: Earth" and "Spock's Brain." Marc Daniels died in 1989 after a long and successful career in films, television and theatre. Incidentaly, in 1964, Marc Daniels directed an episode of "The Lieutenant" on which Leonard Nimoy guest starred. "The Lieutenant" was produced by Gene Roddenberry and this occassion was his first meeting with Nimoy. Gary Lockwood, who played Gary Mitchell in the second pilot for STAR TREK, starred in the series.


Stephen Kandel wrote the animated series episodes "Mudd's Passion" and "Jihad", and he wrote both Harry Mudd scripts ("Mudd's Women" and "I, Mudd") for the original series. Stephen Kandel wrote for several other television series, including Daktari, Mannix, Hawaii Five-O, Mission: Impossible, MacGyver and the 1966 Batman television series.


James Schmerer wrote the animated series episodes "The Survivor". Mr. Schmerer has written quite a number of other television series episodes, including those for Mannix, Hawaii Five-O, The Fall Guy and Starsky & Hutch. Interestingly, Schmerer colaborated on the script of the 8th episode of MacGyver with Douglas Brooks West and fellow STAR TREK writer Stephen Kandel. Coincidentally, that episode also featured guest actress Nana Visitor who would go on to become the regular cast member Major Kira Nerys on STAR TREK: Deep Space Nine.


Russell Bates is a Kiowa American Indian who began to write while hospitalized in the U.S. Air Force in the mid sixties. He later met Gene L. Coon and worked with him on The Name of the Game. Dorothy Fontana told him about the Animated Star Trek series series being planned, and she asked him to submit a script. He submitted one entitled "The Patient Parasites" but it was rejected as being too close to a live film script. That script was later published in "STAR TREK: The New Voyages 2" (January 1978, Bantam Books). Russell Bates then collaborated with a young filmaker/animator David Wise on a second script. This second effort was approved and became the episode "How Sharper Than a Serpent's Tooth". This story dealt with Native American mythology and featured U.S.S. Enterprise crewmember Ensign Dawson Walking Bear. Walking Bear actually first appeared in one of Bates' earlier efforts, "The Patient Parasites."


Samuel A. Peeples wrote the second pilot STAR TREK script, "Where No Man Has Gone Before". Samuel Peeples later became a writer on "Space Academy" which was a half-hour live-action series produced by Filmation which aired in 1977. He later became the story editor on "Jason of Star Command" a live-action spin-off of "Space Academy." James Doohan was a regular in "Jason of Star Command", playing Commander Canarvin. The series was produced by Filmation, and aired in 1978 and 1979.


Chuck Menville wrote the animated series episodes "Once Upon a Planet" and "The Practical Joker". Chuck Menville, along with Len Janson, also wrote for several Filmation series from 1969 to 1976.


Len Janson co-wrote the animated series episode "Once Upon a Planet". Len Janson, along with Chuck Menville, also wrote for several Filmation series from 1969 to 1976. In the 1990's, Len Janson wrote a Baywatch Nights episode.


David P. Harmon wrote the animated series episode "The Eye of the Beholder". He also wrote the original series episode "The Deadly Years", and he also collaborated on the story and teleplay of "A Piece of the Action."


David Gerrold wrote the animated series episodes "More Tribbles, More Troubles" and "Bem". On the original series, Mr. Gerrold wrote "The Trouble With Tribbles" and part of the story on "The Cloud Minders." David Gerrold recently said that both "Bem" and "More Troubles, More Tribbles" were originally written as possible episodes for the original STAR TREK's third season. He said that Gene Roddenberry asked him to write the tribbles sequel, but that it was dropped when the show changed management. In the 1980's he helped Gene Roddenberry with STAR TREK: The Next Generation. David Gerrold also wrote the first season Babylon 5 episode, "Believers".


Keith Sutherland did the voice of the young Vulcan boy Sepek in "Yesteryear". Keith Sutherland was the son of Filmation animation director Hal Sutherland. Keith began doing voices in Filmation produced cartoon series starting with the character of Gene Fox in "Lassie's Rescue Rangers" in 1973.


William "Billy" Simpson, at the age of nine, provided the voice of the young Spock in "Yesteryear" in 1973. He did not actually get to work with or meet any other actors during the taping. In fact, the performance used for the final episode was his AUDITION TAPE! He read all the lines "wild" and a few weeks later they cut him a check!
William Simpson dabbled in show business from age nine through about age 14 (at which time he became too tall to successfully land kid roles -- and was forcibly retired). Although he did some professional stage work ("MacDuff's Son" in the Ahmanson Theatre production of "MacBeth," starring Charlton Heston; and "Winthrop" in "The Music Man" at the Union Plaza in Las Vegas) and film and TV (notably the role of Tad Lincoln in "The Last of Mrs. Lincoln" [PBS], starring Julie Harris), his forte has been voice acting. Mr. Simpson is most proud of his performance as "The Little Prince" in the 1975 Grammy-Award-winning record starring Richard Burton, Jonathan Winters, and Jim Backus. He also had the honor of voicing the role of "Christopher Robin" in a series of "Winnie the Pooh" cartoons and records. In fact, he performed in a dozen Little Golden Book Records for Walt Disney Records in 1976.
Currently -- and for the past 16 years -- he has been "Whimsical Will" on the nationally-syndicated radio program, "The Doctor Demento Show," delivering the "Demented News" each week. William "Billy" Simpson is proud to meet the public and his e-mail address is whmsicl@concentric.net.


Walter Koenig is of course best known for portraying Chekov on the original STAR TREK series and the movies. Mr. Koenig can currently be seen on the Babylon 5 television series as Alfred Bester of Earth's psi-corps.


Joyce Perry wrote the animated episode "The Time Trap". The storyline of "Time Trap", which aired in 1973 bears a striking resemblance to a STAR TREK Comic book story "Museum at the End of Time" which was published by Gold Key in August 1972.


Paul Schneider also wrote the original series episodes "Balance of Terror" and "The Squire of Gothos."


Lincoln Enterprises is a mail-order catalog company started by Majel Barrett in 1967. Lincoln Enterprises is still in business and specializes in memorabilia pertaining to STAR TREK. In the mid 1970's they offered merchandise related to other exceptional series such as Kung Fu, SEARCH, and the television projects created by Gene Roddenberry such as Genesis II, Questor, Earth II, and Spectre. Lincoln Enterprises Catalog No. 5, which came out around 1974, offered scripts, storyboards, and other items related to the Animated STAR TREK series. Available in that catalog were biographies of the two new crewmembers from the Animated STAR TREK series, Lieutenants Arex and M'Ress. Those two biographies are no longer available from Lincoln Enterprises, but I have them included in this web site. SEE: Arex bio; M'Ress bio.
The address for Lincoln Enterprises is:

      Lincoln Enterprises
      14710 Arminta St.
      Van Nuys, CA 91402
      (818) 989-4978

There is also a Lincoln Enterprises web site.


George Takei. In 1973 George Takei ran for 10th District Councilman of Los Angeles, California. His opponents argued successfully that his voice being heard on television as the animated Mr. Sulu was unfair and they demanded equal time if episodes were aired in Los Angeles during the political campaign. Rather that arrange for equal time, on Sept. 8, 1973 the first episode "Beyond the Farthest Star" was not aired in Los Angeles. The next week's episode, "Yesteryear" was aired on schedule in Los Angeles, because Sulu wasn't in it. The election was held on Tuesday Sept. 18, 1973, after which all episodes were shown in Los Angeles as normal. So, in Los Angeles, "Yesteryear" was aired first but in the rest of the country, "Beyond the Farthest Star" was the first aired episode. Los Angeles viewers had to wait until December 22, 1973 to see "Beyond the Farthest Star." By the way, Mr. Takei did not win the election, he lost by only 1,647 votes.


Assumptions:
When I created the Animated STAR TREK Timeline, I made several assumptions concerning dates, stardates, and ordering of events. These are enumerated below:
  • Just as in the Okuda Chronology, I have made the assumption that one season of television shows roughly maps to one calendar year in the STAR TREK universe. Thus, the first 16 episodes of the animated series from "Beyond the Farthest Star" to "The Jihad" take place in the year 2269, and the last six episodes from "The Pirates of Orion" to "The Counter-Clock Incident" occur in early 2270. My assumption that Kirk's first five-year mission ended in 2270 and not in 2269 is backed up by the seventh season STAR TREK: Voyager episode "Q2" in which Icheb states that Kirk's first five-year mission ended in 2270.
  • I've made the assumption that the Animated STAR TREK series took place just after the events depicted in "Turnabout Intruder", the last live action episode.
  • Whenever an event could not be placed at an exact date, a date was chosen that best fit. When this was done an italicized note was included.
  • Episodes were placed in the order in which they aired in Los Angeles, with one exception. No effort was made to place the episodes in stardate order. Stardates were created only to remind the viewer that STAR TREK was set in the future, they were never intended to be consistent and there is no official formula that accurately maps stardates to the Gregorian calendar that we use.
  • No fan-created material, however consistant, was included. For a comprehensive timeline which includes all novels, blueprints, role-playing manuals, maps, and other fan-produced material, I refer you to James Dixon's Fandom STAR TREK Chronology.
  • My Animated STAR TREK timeline extends to just after the last animated episode. For more information about other events in the STAR TREK universe, I direct the visitor to Mike and Denise Okuda's STAR TREK Chronology and STAR TREK Encyclopedia. These are EXCELLENT resources.

Inclusion Criteria:
When I created this Animated STAR TREK web site, I created a set of rules by which decisions were made concerning what sources would be considered official or canon. These rules are enumerated below:
  • Only information from the episodes as aired was eligible for inclusion. Any material from Alan Dean Foster's novelizations that didn't appear onscreen was not included. These novelizations were interesting but it must be noted that they were written based on the scripts and not on the televised episodes.
  • Bjo Trimble's STAR TREK Concordances were used to verify spellings. I assume that her spellings came from original scripts. One exception is that I spell Starfleet as one word while many fans spell it as two words. It is spelled as one word as seen on screen in the original series episode "The Menagerie." (The cover of the secret Talos IV report plainly reads "For Starfleet Command Eyes Only").
  • No material from novels or technical manuals was included. Likewise for comics.
  • No fan-created material, however clever or consistant, was included. This site is intended to be a guide to the Animated STAR TREK television series, not the novelizations, fanfiction, or fan technology.

Errors and Omissions found in other reference works:
When I created this Animated STAR TREK web site, I used actual video of the aired episodes as final word of what was official or not. When referring to some reference works I noticed many errors. Most errors showed up in Bjo Trimble's Concordance first and then were passed on to other books which used it as a reference. I realize that a future site may list all the errors found in this site. Be that as it may, below are some mistakes that were discovered by comparing certain books with the video:
  • The titles of several Animated STAR TREK episodes were different onscreen from both of Bjo Trimble's Concordances and most every other published episode guide to the Animateds. The correct episode titles are: "The Time Trap", "The Slaver Weapon", "The Jihad" "The Pirates of Orion", "The Eye of the Beholder" and "The Practical Joker."
  • The stardate for "Beyond the Farthest Star: was 5221.3 and not 5521.3 as reported in every published episode guide to the Animated STAR TREK series. This erroneous stardate most recently appeared in J. M. Dillard's "Where No One Has Gone Before"
  • Nowhere in any reference was it mentioned that Bill Reed directed two episodes of the Animated STAR TREK. Mr. Reed directed the last two episodes, "How Sharper Than A Serpent's Tooth" and "The Counter-Clock Incident". The first 20 episodes were or course directed by Hal Sutherland.
  • In "The Pirates of Orion", the S.S. Huron had two long, thin pods projecting down and out from its upper hull at 45 degree angles on both sides. These are not included in the blueprints of the S.S. Huron by Mr. Geoffrey Mandel, which are available from collectibles catalog companies such as Star Tech. The back of the vehicle is also incorrectly drawn in the blueprints.
  • In the U.S.S. Enterprise Officer's Manual, drawings of the S.S. Bonaventure, Aquashuttle, and Cargo grain ships were incorrect when compared to the vehicles as seen on video. The Bonaventure in the manual particularly, appeared quite different from its television counterpart.
  • The episode "Once Upon a Planet" was written by Chuck Menville and Len Janson. Both Concordances and many other episode guides list one co-author as Len Jensen.
  • Alan Dean Foster's Log series which novelized the animated adventures of the Enterprise contained errors as well. (For instance in his version of "The Practical Joker" the inflatible ship created by the practical joking Enterprise computer was a Dreadnought class ship as seen in the Star Fleet Technical Manual by Franz Josephs (1974). In the televised version, the inflatible ship was just a larger version of the Enterprise herself). Since I didn't consider these books as official, I didn't re-read them to compare them with the video. It should be made clear, at this point, that these books took the reader beyond the stories seen on TV, and Mr. Foster took quite justifiable artistic license as he crafted his tales. As for myself, I prefer the spartan, unembellished novelizations as done by James Blish.


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