“Beyond the Farthest Star”

A classic type of sci-fi episode with the ship being taken over by a malevolent, non-corporeal entity like in "Day of the Dove" or "Wolf in the Fold" and giving the appearance of attempting self-destruction is the way to get rid of the entity.

What I liked is the imagination to conceive of a strange alien ship that had suffered the fate of being taken over by the alien entity some 300 million years ago. Uhura notes how beautiful the alien ship is and its insectoid-like designs are acknowledged by Spock. This did feel like a TOS story but the alien ship is something that TOS could never have produced. That is supposed to be the point of TAS. The life support belts are bit farfetched though. Nothing exceptional here other than a decent sci-fi story and reasonable plot for a 1/2 hour animated show.

2.5*

I remember viewing this as a kid … and being totally enthralled!

At the time, Star Trek had been in reruns for two years and I was concerned that this would just be a Saturday morning “cash grab” with some “kiddie plotting”.

While the animation was predictably stilted, it was still exciting to hear most of the original crew voices; and the episode was penned by a real science fiction author to boot! This may not have been stellar sci-fi, but it was good enough to realize that this was going to be *real* Star Trek and not just kiddie fare.

I alerted all of my fellow Star Trek fan classmates accordingly!

I agree pretty much with Rahul on this one. I've always thought the alien ship was so beautiful--artsy and imaginative, and nice to look at. Jammer, we are just going to have to deal with old-fashioned, clunky animation on all of these. I kind of like it--it's just so simple. It's true to the times when these shows were made. (We can't read Anthony Trollope and complain that they were all riding horses instead of driving cars. ) My nitpick is with the resolution, where the entity is left all alone like that. Surely they could have figured out some way to offer him some companionship, or at least some plan for how it could be done. It was mean to just dump him.--felt unfinished.

@Jammer JAMMER THANK YOU FOR REVIEWING THJS!! WHY did you only give this 2 stars though.??You say it was plodding but that was the only criticism you made..isn't the unique and original alien life form and unique setting enough enough be worthy of 3 stars or more 3.5 as solid, original sci fi with some depth? Hope to hear from you.

Well I'll be! Never in my life did I think I'd watch a TAS episode. And yet, here I am.

It would be a bit disingenuous to thank @Jammer (given the quality of at least this first episode), but then again, after the drek that has been trek for the last many years, why not boldly go back to the future. Or something.

I agree with @Elizabeth Palladino, the alien ship was amazing. The whole thing reminded me of He-Man, which I loved as a kid, so I'm not really going to complain about the animation at all.

The pacing actually started off spot on - right in line with the cadence of a TOS episode. But then, alas. It. Really. Started. To. Drag, once the alien came onboard. And I found my attention drifting. And I can't say I really cared for the ending (so lonely).

Animated Trek has been a mixed bag for me. I enjoyed Prodigy, and can't stand Lower Drecks. My guess is TAS is a bit closer in spirit to the first rather than the second. Which is promising.

Final thoughts:

- Loved the lower shots of Uhura in the skirt. Don't remember that from TOS! Reminds me of Teela in He-Man. Gosh, the 70's were sexy!

- The voice acting is phenomenal! Amazing what these guys can do. People who said TOS had bad acting - or that Shatner was a poor actor - really had no idea what they were talking about.

- @Rahul, I can't say I like the TAS theme song better, but it is pretty decent. Maybe it'll grow on me?

@Mal -- it may be sacrilege to not really like the TOS theme song (especially given how much I love TOS) but yes, the TAS theme song did grow on me and I truly think it is better than the TOS one.

One other thing I'd add about TOS and TAS is that for all their shoestring budgets, they did manage to get some of the top composers / musicians of their day and created memorable soundtracks. Ray Ellis for TAS was like winning the lottery.

This episode is near-perfect cartoon Trek, creepy and suspenseful, absolutely bonkers, and just plain impulsive. Just an absolute blast.

I agree with Jammer that this episode drags a bit, but I’d go 2 1/2 stars on it because it kicks off a (then) bold new look for Trek post-TOS. The scale and design of the alien ship were cool, plus I liked the poignant ending.

Thanks to Jammer for finally reviewing this series. Actually I’d say it’s like the lost 4th and 5th seasons of TOS (not merely 4th) since it did have a brief 2nd season. Given how short streaming seasons are today, I think it’s fair to count that second season of TAS. Indeed, this neat little series completes the original 5-year mission, albeit not at the same dramatic level.

Yes, nothing to see here really.

It's an interesting villain, But you have to have more than a good villain have a good episode.

"But you have to have more than a good villain have a good episode."

And we have - very interesting alien ship ;).

Thanks Jammer for finally reviewing TAS. I look forward to your take on the series and to some childhood nostalgia for me.

"A physiological symptom of latent primal superstition"

Picking on humans based on scientific facts, and helping save the Enterprise by computing the slingshot effect on his head — now thats a well written Spock.

The "life support belts" may be due to budget constraints, but they are very well fitted and justified in the context.

I saw this as a kid and it blew my mind, and I still feel that way despite seeinh it a few dozen times since. The vast alien pod ship and its long-dead captain are the real stars of the show, and the soon-to-be overused Filmation stock soundtrack works better here than in any of the other episodes. The exploration of the ruined ship is genuinely eerie. When the alien destroys the ancient starship (presumably out of spite for being trapped on it for so long) I always feel a real pang of anguish. The pod ship is one of the most memorable in all of Star Trek, yet we barely get a glimpse of it and its builders before it's gone forever. I love how Uhura marvels at it. The Redjack ending is a letdown but the setup is top notch. 4 stars for most of it, take half a star for a slightly lame climax.

I watched Star Trek TAS original run 1973 to 1974 Saturday Mornings on Channel 4 NBC in Detroit Michigan at the age of 9 and 10. Star Trek TAS Action Musical Score when Captain Kirk is at the Helm of the Enterprise heading for the Dead Star for the Sling Shot Effect, while being Phasered by the Automated Defense System under the Magnetic Alien control was on par with the Action Music on T.O.S. Captain Kirk example piloting the Enterprise set the Example of 1. Captain Picard NCC-1701D in T.N.G. Episode: Booby Trap. 2. Captain Sisko I.S.S. Defiant NX-74605 against the Regent's Flagship I.K.S. Regency One in the mirror universe. D.S.9 Episode: Shattered Mirror. 3. Captain Janeway pilot U.S.S. Voyager NCC-74656 between two pulsars to destroy one of two alien ships conducting medical experiments on her crew in S.T. VOYAGER Episode: Scientific Method.

The Terran Rebellion I.S.S. Defiant NX-74205 correction.

Just watched this episode number one of season for the first time today. It immediately reminded me of an old Saturday morning cartoon show I would watch as a kid: Space Ghost. As a kid, I thought that show was fantastic.

The crude animation didn’t bother me today, just as it didn’t even enter my mind while sitting on floor eating my cereal those Saturday mornings oh so many decades ago to criticize the quality of the animation at the time probably because there was nothing better to compare it to.

I think we as a society have tended to get quite spoiled when it comes to “the newest, latest, and best.” I’m sure my grandfather was probably blown away with the technology of the crank telephone attached to the wall !

“… mmmm, operator, number please”. “Say Viola sweetheart, please ring Roy at his service station for me, and see if his boy can bring the tow truck around to my farm this morn’n.”

TAS animation was just fine in 1973, with those hard working illustrators having to create all those countless cell drawings to produce a single episode. With that in mind, it’s just as fine today as I watch this fifty year old animated program.

A “cartoonist” today, I imagine is just a very talented dedicated individual with lots of computer background and experience using state of the art graphic software to create very slick, lifelike renderings of moving persons and things.

But I hope that these contemporary cartoon “graphics specialists” pause occasionally to contemplate and appreciate the lost talent of all those cartoon illustrators of yesteryear.

I've only seen an episode or two of the animated Star Trek over the years, but I got the series on blu-ray for Christmas, so I've sat down to watch them in order. I have to say, this opening episode made a good impression. It feels like Star Trek. That may seem like an odd thing to say, but not every show that goes out under the Star Trek branding hits the mark. This one does. It helps to have almost all of the original cast back for this animated continuation.

The "made on the cheap" Filmation animation is a downside, but other shows made by the same company never bothered me when I was a kid. It's only now that I'm watching this as an adult that I wish for more. I'm just used to animation being given more care these days. This is definitely a product of its time. That being said, the character likenesses are decent and the show is clearly trying to mimic some of the style of the live action show, so again it feels authentic.

The story isn't half bad. The alien ship is nicely designed, and though we've seen aliens possess the Enterprise before, the plot is handled well enough here. I like the attempt to give the hostile alien presence some sympathy at the end by showing how lonely it is. This is a decent little Star Trek adventure for the original crew.

I don't really have a lot to add that other folks haven't already covered, but I will say that it was a bold move to have the first episode be almost a horror story. A dead ship floating in space for 300k years, a message from a long dead captain saying that his entire crew committed suicide in order to escape an alien force, the insane laughing thing bonding with the ship and torturing Spock and Kirk, and the end with the previously maniacal alien pleading for mercy after being doomed to an eternity on a dead star. Not exactly the kind of thing you'd see on the Archies or Captain Caveman.

When the creature took over the ship and immediately ordered them to fly to the heart of the galaxy, I couldn't help but wonder if there was a connection to the God entity in ST 5.


Other positives:

-The forcefield belts
-The alien ship design
-Not turning Trek into a kid's show
-Not having everything explained and neatly wrapped up. The Enterprise crew escapes with their skin intact and that's it.

“Beyond the Farthest Star” does have some pretty cheesy animation, but it’s never enough to take you completely out of the show. My childhood memories are used to presentations like this, and The Animated Series actually holds up pretty well. My sons got a kick of watching an old-fashioned Saturday morning cartoon show--on Saturday morning--with me.

Its greatest strength is that *finally* the writers’ imaginations have hardly any limit. It’s all a matter of what the animators can devise with color palettes and lines on paper. No plastic trees or cardboard sets on this show. TAS is a bit like a comic book whose characters can move around in front of you--nothing wrong with that.

Nichelle Nichols is outstanding here. She really understood what voice acting is. Because the audience can’t see the face of a voice actor, that actor is free to “cut loose,” if you will. They can emote with extra emphasis and be a lot more dynamic than usual. It makes Uhura full of life on this show. James Doohan is also great, and I’m looking forward to seeing what else he comes up with as the VIP of this show (as Jammer indicates). Unfortunately, William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy--especially Nimoy--seem really flat. Nimoy’s delivery is often particularly awkward. Does anyone know if the animators had completed the cartoons *before* the actors came to the studio, so that they could watch the footage and follow along? Or did the actors simply come in and read a script into the microphone? TAS surely presents like it was the latter. Later episodes in this show will probably be better in this regard, as the actors would have had time to get used to the new process.

The plot offers some good “Gotcha!” moments--especially the money shot of the big explosion on the alien ship. That was so well done. I kind of dug the Ghost in the Machine plot. Jammer’s observations about the whole “OBEY ME!” schtick made me crack up, as that was a little silly. There was a little too much going on for a 22-minute episode, however, which is why it ends so abruptly. It probably could have been pared down a bit--the investigation, for sure, seemed to go on for longer than it needed to and was full of way too much “science” for a 1970’s kids’ show.


Speak Freely:
Kirk -- “Compared to the beings that built this ship, we are primitive people. Even you, Mr. Spock.”


My Grade: C+