@@theironclads by same token you could say the other cast members didn't join him either? Also why didn't he also argue for Walter (Chekov)? Fed up with shatner bashing.
@@philfitnesspt6139 The supporting cast members did not have the same swaying power as Nimoy did. Look, I like Shatner's acting, and he's done some wonderful charity work through his horse shows. However, he is like the rest of us in that he isn't perfect.
I've never teared up watching an animated series, but the voice actor doing young Spock when he has to let his pet go, I lose it. A very responsible episode that coukd teach kids how to let a dying pet go. Or a loved one for thst matter. Classy.
Correction: the pic of "Samuel Peeples" you have at about the 6:29 mark is actually me, Howard Weinstein, writer of "The Pirates of Orion" season 2 episode. Not sure how this mix-up occurred. Sam Peeples died in 1997; I'm alive and well. I was 19 when I sold the script, which made me the youngest-ever Star Trek scriptwriter.
RWTV they basically were, they had the original cast, minus Koenig and writers of a lot of the original episodes back again, and it did win an Emmy. It's 'real' Trek in my opinion.
I always thought it an insult to Star Trek, apart from a good number of the original actors being in it. That stupid lioness and that orange thing on the bridge, ruined it, even if you could stand the cheap animation. One trick they did that makes me laugh though is where they'll have a closeup of some face in a corner of the screen, split by that edge, and then somebody much further off on the other side of the screen. It's nice one or two times, but the show seemed obsessed with it as though it were something great. IMO, the increase in alien potential due to animation was lost by ANY of the crew being an alien, apart from the usual alien presence of Spock. It would had worked a lot better to have had just the beings outside of the ship be freaky looking. I'm not kidding, those two on the bridge totally ruined it for me. Gene says it isn't canon, then it isn't. It really is an insult to TOS, but it didn't have to be, they could had made it much better. The music in it wasn't too terribly bad, even though it didn't resemble TOS in the least. If I watch any of it now, it's only for nostalgia's sake, and the fact I gave the series an almost absolute miss when it aired.
@World: Well said and I do that. It was not a cheap show to produce. And I think that that is one of the reasons that Koenig wasn't on the show, which is because they could not afford him.
The slow animation pace allows one to focus more upon the dialogue, perhaps? I like audio books and these episodes are just as entertaining to me as TOS. I watched the original series on B&W TV from another city with a poor antenna, ergo, poor reception. I was able to ignore the fuzzy, occasionally rolling picture and it was still magic. By comparison, the animated series was easier to watch for me as we then had cable and color TV's. In those days. The sci-fi sceenwriters had some of the best stories in both series which was a true blessing. Dr. Smith destroyed Lost in Space, IMO. The pilot film was serious science fiction then...I became a fan of Star Trek from the very time time I saw the Enterprise. ;)
I watched these episodes when twelve years old and purchased both animated seasons the moment they came out on DVD. They are a critical part of my Star Trek collection.
I have the DVD set. I bought it some years ago. Still good for its time. Time for CBS/Paramount to re release the animated series and have it digitally remastered.
I appreciated the the 4th season (animated series), it had some great stories. Too many filmmakers these days completely forget that special effects is _only_ a means for telling a story and not an end all to itself.
Let's be fair, fans have an issue with bad special effects as well. At least, I should say, American fans. That's probably why shows like Doctor Who didn't become popular until the second series.. Though I personally was a fan from the mid 70's, on. The stories were great, but the special effects were horrible.
" The counter clock incident" ( Robert April episode) shown that older people are capable of doing things just as young people can. At the ending.the crew were reduced to children and Robert April and his wife, Sara were young again.in their 30's. April was the first Captain of the Enterprise in 2245, Sara was the first chief surgeon . So it was now up to them to save the day. In the episode April and his wife are in their 70's. The year is 2269.and Ambassodor at large, Robert April is headed towards retirement.
@@johnmiller7682 doctor who effects were very good in season 1 and 2 so not quite sure what your implying there obviously time moves on but not that much between season 1 & 2 of new who.
“The Animated Series”, in 1973, was my first introduction to “Star Trek” before I began watching “The Original Series”. I’ve been a fan ever since. But, regardless of what Gene Roddenberry stated, I consider “The Animated Series” as canon. For me, “The Original Series”, “The Animated Series” and the six movies with the original cast is all the Star Trek I’ll ever need.
I watched this on TV when I was a kid and I have re-watched the whole series twice on Netflix. My absolute favorite episode is The Lorelei Signal. I think it was really cool when Lt. Uhura took command, put together a team of female officers, beamed down, and rescued the men from the siren-like captors. She did that with no help or advice from any men. That kind of story was really different and original for that time period.
You should really spend some time looking into T.V. from the sixties, female and minority characters were more positively featured that history would have you believe. With shows like Anne Okley, Zoro, The Cisco Kid in the 50's through shows like Honey West, The Girl From U.N.C.L.E., I Spy, Room 222, Gloria, and The Avengers (who could not consider Mrs.Peel a strong female)... Today's shows are a joke, a caricature of actual deversity.
I have been a fan from day 1. I was a ten year old boy sitting in front of my TV being mesmerized by the first episode. I still feel that wonder today in all things Trek. I am saddened by the number of fans i have met that dismiss the animated series as not genuine Trek. Some who have proclaimed to be fans have never even seen it. I am so glad to see the series get the attention it so richly deserves. Lets continue to keep the memory alive. This IS Trek and is as much a part of the journey as any other series in Trek history. ( Yes, i have a life, but consider it much richer for the entertainment Star Trek has provided over the last 50 years. )
Lloyd...thanks for the posting. Yes, I was there, September 8th, 1966 to watch, "The Man Trap" on NBC as a ten year old! Amazing some of the fans comments I receive as my hair gets grey! The animated series was a fantastic addition to the Star Trek universe. In addition, I enjoyed the Enterprise series. But what do I know, I have only been following this for over 50 years! Take care!
I actually became a Trek fan because of TAS. It was only because of TAS that I watched TOS and the movies, and I stayed a fan too, right up until I saw that dreadful JJ Abrams movie, then, as far as I was concerned, the Cannon had closed, the book had shut. Long live Romulus!
Mad Monkee I became a fan of TOS in syndication, then TAS, and I've been enjoying Star Trek for decades, until JJA's films, then Discovery. For me, real Trek ended with the finale of Enterprise.
When you look at still images from the animated series, you can tell the designers really wanted to get the characters and backgrounds right and to stretch their creativity. There just wasn't time or money to animate the series well - to do all the individual drawings per second that good animation requires. It's a shame, because some of the people who worked on it clearly put their hearts in it.
Was able to get the dvd box set a couple of years ago and still loved it as much as I did as a kid. I consider it Canon since it has the original actors voicing the characters
I completely agree with your logic (pun fun fully intended) and l have always considered STTAS to be the canonical final two years of Kirk's first five year mission.
There are some decent episodes (I especially liked the one with young Spock), but there are a lot of things on the show that don't really "fit" with the rest of the franchise.
But it can't be cannon because chekov is missing snd he was there for whole 5 year mission....s.1 he was not bridge crew as explained in wrath of khan novel but he was still on ship.
I vividly remember the animated series appearing on TV in 1973. Us kids could not believe it - what luck! Although I don't remember specific series plots, I do remember us all enjoying the show thoroughly. As I grew up I totally forgot about it until a few months ago when I stumbled across an episode on some random website, and wow what a trip down memory lane. There is something incredibly comforting to see the series with *all* the original cast members (ok, minus Chekov) doing their thing. It felt totally in sync with the '60s TV series we already knew by rote. It's amazing how much fun we had from such a crudely animated series. I contrast that with the gadgets, conveniences and entertainment available to us today at the drop of a hat, and I have to say I feel even less entertained now than I did then. There was something about looking forward to a show that came on once a week, and *having* to be present at the moment of broadcast, that made it special. Of course, the entire '70s were special, the best time in history to be a child - but that's my just grouchy opinion. :)
What I actually remember watching the animated series in first run on NBC was that as time went on, the amount of time between the premieres of "new" (heretofore unseen) episodes became longer... and longer... and longer. By the onset of its second and final season (the one with no input from any original Star Trek veteran writers), the waiting became almost interminable. I think eventually I just gave up.
When I was a kid and watch this on TV, I actually thought this was the real Star Trek and couldn't tell the difference. If memory serves, the show didn't come on until 11:30 in the morning on Saturday.
I remember D.C. Fontana presenting the then-forthcoming series at a Star Trek convention and saying that it starts where the original series left off... "...at the end of the second season." It got a big laugh. Third season got no respect.
I have this animated series in a full dvd set. It came in a plastic case that is shaped like a tri-corder. It is very cool for Star Trek fans, which I am one. I pull it out and watch an episode or two every once in a while. Good stuff.
I was born in the '60s, right around the time STTOS was canceled, but then syndicated... so from early boyhood, I soaked it all up in reruns... then there was a bout of time when the reruns had stopped being aired (before they once again returned), where I truly felt the loss - but when STTAS had begun, I was overwhelmed with joy! My childhood was all the better due to its presence in my life, as Gene's "moral plays" found a way to feed my growth, and those of other children (of all ages), in a manner I've always felt has been invaluable. Particularly those of us who were fatherless, and needed to bring ourselves up with whatever valuable (if any) moral lessons we could learn in whatever we might observe in society and the media.
WHAT does this jerk mean the animation on this show is "dated"? Just WHAT is he comparing it to? .. . Spongebob Square Pants? . . The PowerPuff Girls? . . The Simpsons? . . Family Guy? . . South Park? . . Bevis And Butthead? . .. oh yeah, THIS shows animation is really inferior grade compared to THAT very sophisticated stuff! LMAO!!
I didn't know that guy had three arms and three legs and I used to watch it when it first came out! I was always interested in him and the cat lady wondering why they were there and if Kirk would hit on her because she had that purring voice, lol.
Some may question the production quality of the series but it was also about the stories. True, the series did not do them justice but Alan Dean Fosters novelizations of the episodes did. He was able to flesh out the stories to make them more enjoyable and the last 4 episodes of the series he adapted into full novels. A must read if you can find them. Think there were about 10 in the series. Star Trek has always been distinguished by the quality of the stories it tried to tell.
I think ADF went way too far on those last stories, but hey...he certainly fleshed all of them out well in general. It's especially notable when compared to the first series' novelizations by James Blish in the 60's - where you could read an episode in about 15 minutes.
Our dad wouldn't allow us to watch Star Trek when I was in junior high, thought it was light weight. I actually watched the animated series in high school before finding the syndicated show years later, becoming an instant Trekkie, "Mirror, Mirror" being my fave episode. Also love the books "The Federation, the First 150 Years," & "The Autobiography of James T. Kirk." TOS is still the best representative of the Trek Universe, in my opinion. I have the original on series on DVD, my son Maurice got the animated series. Live long & prosper.
Nimoy also pushed for other cast members to be included in the ST movies as the movie makers wanted to hire other actor to play their parts( see ST the motion picture) full marks to Nimoy.(RIP) Nerd Nimoy was already a actor in films and tv shows like Mission Impossible and many detective shows.
The show is now cannon according to Paramount. One element you forgot to mention that IS cannon is the first Captain of the Enterprise, which is Robert April.
According to Voyages of Imagination, the Animated Series was officially removed from canon at Gene Roddenberry's request in 1988, with the exception of some parts involving Spock's youth, from Fontana's episode "Yesteryear". This had already been confirmed previously by reference book author Mike Okuda in the introductions of his works. (Star Trek Chronology (2nd ed., p. vii); Star Trek Encyclopedia (4th ed., vol. 1, p. introduction) Paramount Pictures has followed suit by elevating the request to policy, having officially declared the series non-canon. (Star Trek Encyclopedia (1st ed., p. iii)) www.ex-astris-scientia.org/inconsistencies/tas_continuity.htm It's still up in the air even with official sources.
In Roddenberry's original concept for Star Trek (" Wagon Train to the Stars"), the ship was the USS Yorktown, and the Captain is Robert April. It is reproduced in the 1968 book. 'Making of Star Trek"
@@Ririten TAS was a good show, but it's not canon. I don't care what the "official" Star Trek website says. The creator of Star Trek himself said it wasn't canon, therefore it is not.
There are sets of novelizations of the animated series by Alan Dean Foster and novelizations of the original series by James Blish as well. The ADF novels were really well written and fleshed out the stories greatly.
I agree. I've never found the writing for the Clone Wars animated series to be that interesting, but I love the animation. Also, there's a series on Netflix called "The Dragon Prince" that is beautifully animated. They could even fix LT Arex!
Number One and Uhura rock in command! Just a couple of tiny corrections: 1. M'Ress is pronounced "Murr-ESS", "murr" rhyming with "purr" for a meowy sort of feel 🐈😁. 2. "Lorelei" is pronounced "Lorel-eye", just like in the original German. 3. Walter Koenig pronounces his name "KAY-nig" and George Takei is "Ta-KAY" ("kay" rhymes with "yay"). Thanks for an awesome video that finally gives TAS some love! Meow! 😊🐈🖖😀
@@JanetStarChild You know all these speech synthesizers; Its just a matter of time before you can type in any text and have it speak in any famous persons voice you choose. LOL. Sorry if that depresses you.
"Ay-mok" time? So, when someone goes wild you say he ran "ay-mok?" Is that a British thing? In ST4 Kirk didn't say "Scotty, beam me in," he said "Scotty, beam me up." And the Star Trek reboot young Spock scene didn't recreate the TAS. scene, they both echoed the TOS episode "Journey to Babel" where Spock's mother recalled Spock's troubled childhood being bullied for being half human. I doubt JJ Abrams was trying to recreate something from TAS.
As a kid watching the original series, I loved it and still do, and when the animated show came along it really got you hooked and I would rush home after school to watch it. Now re watching the series as an adult in his 50s it makes me appreciate it even more. The story telling, the cast and as a fan have always seen and felt this as the extension to the original series and like the original was disappointed when the series had finished. This show brings back memories of times and places of who and where I was and how I felt, not just for the show’s entertainment value. Thank you for sharing and making this video, from an old fan from Tasmania Australia, “ live long and prosper “ :)
"I thought with the animated version we could have really exotic alien lifeforms or alien civilizations that could not be recreated on a sound stage but none of that was explored." - George Takei (as still frames of those very things are shown during his voiceover)
Yeah, well, but there is still the first year missing. When TOS launched, the crew of the ENT were said to be in the outer space for some time already by that point.
If you've never seen the professionally produced Star Trek Continues here on RU-vid, it perfectly wraps up Kirk's 5 year mission. It's every bit as good as the original!
Yes,I saw this animated show in grade school,in 1973.And,I really enjoyed it!It was a great show!They don’t make these kind of show’s,anymore!It’s nice 👍 that it’s saved on DVD!
This was a beautiful video. I learned a lot. The beauty of star trek, they didn't have diversity just for the sake of being PC. They wanted to show a future when qualified people of all types were working together. I wish life was like star trek.
The multi-ethnic cast was enormously conspicuous and (to we the audience) very clearly deliberate. No other show was anything like it. More than groundbreaking television, it was a revolutionary vision of society. It was part of Star Trek's fundamental premise: the future belonged to diversity. Do not underestimate the influence of the television show on the development of American society: Uhura was the first sexy black woman we ever saw. All us schoolboys had a crush on her. It is no coincidence that the first cell phones (now called clamshell) looked like Star Trek communicators, or that the first space shuttle was named Enterprise. For many, the society of Star Trek has become an idealized future.
There's no reason one shouldn't regard it as canon - same creator, same story head, a number of the same writers, some episodes originally meant for TOS, it being used as inspiration for other live-action Star Trek since, not to mention all the main cast voices bar Koenig (who wrote an episode). Roddenberry was simply not correct - it was taken with all seriousness as a canon-type series, and it stands up as such. The animation itself doesn't bother me at all - it only means more focus on the story, and a lot of them were as good as TOS because they would have been on TOS given the chance. They had more opportunity to do non-anthropomorphic aliens, give us some great backgrounds and settings, etc. If you think of how they've tried to restore rival Doctor Who missing episodes with animation, you realise the standard isn't worse here with TAS. Effectively with two seasons of TAS and 22 episodes the five-year mission came as close to finish as it could be hoped for. Great idea on a budget, and its significance was that it kept fans happy and alive, and perhaps made possible the ST movies.
@@mosespray4510 some are already released on DVD, basically they're First or Second Doctor episodes that were lost. Others have been animated or will be. You can start here regarding those: nerdist.com/article/doctor-who-missing-episodes-animation-faceless-ones/
A lot of weird pronunciations in this presentation - which should not have been an issue since you could watch the show and hear how names, etc. are pronounced, but...eh...
*have an LP record that has two (or three) audio adventures set in this narrative universe...M'Ress plays a pivotal role in saving the ship from a telepathic cat/pet that is being transported for an ambassador when the pet becomes frightened and starts projecting fear and hostility to everyone near it as a defense...as the chaos grows so does the projection of fear and Spock speculates they could lose control of the Enterprise but M'Ress calms the pet down being of feline ancestry and saves the ship...good story...obviously since i remember it from over 40 years ago*
To be quite honest, after all this time, I've lost most of my original feelings for the animated series. Don't get me wrong, the stories were very well done. What I now can't take is Filmations cost cutting methods, especially using the same scenes over and over on the bridge. I really wish Hanna Barbera had done the animated, as they did with Jonny Quest.
@@zoppie I understand what you're saying. The LIS pilot was a step down to what could've been done with the series. Also, the pilot came almost ten years after the Jonny Quest series. I always thought the head of their animation department didn't want to waste their time creating characters whose facial features were too realistic. I wished some young genius out there would take one of the TAS episodes and using CGI showed show the series would've looked like. I still believe the TAS would've benefited from HB creative touches.
Hanna Barbera quality ran the gamut from Jonny Quest at the high end to Hong Kong Phooey at the low, and the original Scoobie Doo was full of those awful cost-saving tricks. I think it's all a matter of budget.
Star Trek Animated was like water to a thirsty man in the desert for us Star Trek fans growing up in the 1970s fearing the age of Star Trek was gone forever. I think this show played a vital role in keeping the dream alive until the movies and then later Next Generation rekindled the flames. For that alone it is one of my favorite cartoons of all time. Also, Filmation for all its shortcomings was awesome. :-)
I always thought it would have been great if the events of 'The Terratin Incident' had been referenced on ST: Enterprise. Archer and his crew get a signal that Colony Terra Ten is in some kind of danger, but get pulled away by something else, only to discover at ep's end that the colony is apparently gone. Their comm equipment is too primitive to catch the signal the 1701 did in 'Terratin' so they depart with a mystery. Star Trek seemed to have a LOT of 'lost' Human colonies. It's hard to recall, because the issue really wasn't that good (nor was the series) but the original comic book mini-series of TNG (six issues, 5 now reviewed by Linkara - yes, that bad!) finished up with the 1701-D returning to a dimension visited in the Animated Series.
At age 11 after TOS went off in 1969, I took in a little consolation there would be endless stream of reruns on many UHF stations across the U.S. But much to my surprise AND delight then as a 16 yr. old in high school, the series was back on...in animated form. As we close in on TAS 50 Anniversary, I chuckle at some these behind the 'what it took' behind the scenes stuff like this that enhances my amazement we're still trekkin' after all these years.
Oddly until I grew up and got to see them all over again the thing I remembered the most… Was the aqua shuttle. Remember that? They had a shuttle craft that could also dive like a submarine
The "really exotic life forms" that George Tekei talks about were put in Seth MacFarlane's The Orville, where a phlegm ball (voiced by the late Norm MacDonald) played a crewman.
I saw this show on Saturday morning’s in 1973.And,yes!They were re-running Star Trek on television back in the late 1970”s.Up until 1977,back then.Star Trek is still a good 👍 show,today!And,let’s not forget;James Blish,who wrote the storie’s of Star Trek.too!He had also done a good job!His book’s are still on sale,today!Live long and prosper!
Hello JonnyBaak. That was really well done. I enjoyed it a lot. I have all the series on DVD and have watched all the special features, and you still brought new information in with this. Thank you!
My crazy idea is to take the Star Trek Set Tour (aka New Voyages) sets, body double actors and deep fake technology like in Star Wars to de-animate an episode of the ST:TAS into a live-action episode. I think this would be cool and interesting but I don't know how it would be received and even so there'd need to be some CGI for Lt Arex or M'Ress (but Star Trek Continues managed to show Arex so it's not a show-stopper).
Star Trek Continues did an excellent job of completing the 5 year mission of the enterprise and her crew. I loved when Kirk appeared at the end in the uniform from Star Trek the Motion Picture. A beautiful homage to the continuation of the adventure. And how many noticed the nod to Star Trek Discovery?
You left out how the animated episodes were novelized by Alan Dean Foster in the Star Trek Log (1 - 10) series. Those were written prior to the absolute explosion of original Star Trek novels.
I never had an interest in the animated series as a 7 year old but watched sometimes. 46 years later i purchased season 1 and 2 from Amazon Prime on my Roku box.. And i'm glad i bought them. Brought back some memories. Way better now watching on my 70 inch flat screen vs my parents 19" tube TV.
... Which grew out of one of his rejected episode pitches. A cut chase scene (from Tribbles, I think ...) grew into another Gerrold novel, Yesterday's Children (not Trek) ...Gerrold got all the mileage he could out of his ideas, but they were good miles.
Larry Niven was the author of the "Man - Kzin Wars" series of non-Star Trek sci-fi novels and was a close friend of Gene Roddenberry. The Kzinti episode was written by him and he gave permission for the Star Trek franchise to again use the Kzinti in Star Trek V (when Kirk is attacked by a Kzinti female in a bar). ADB's "Star Fleet Battles" table top wargame (1979 to present) had to seek permission from Larry Niven to include the Kzinti in the game as a race. However the computer version "Star Fleet Command" didn't have the Kzinti included as they didn't have permission. In "Star Fleet Command II" the Kzinti are renamed the Mirak and have undergone a civil war resulting in a regime change, hence the reason for the change in name (thus avoiding copyright issues).
I forgot the guy who played Cyrano Jones he was also another original character who went to the cartoon beside Hall cool Fenton Mudd it was a mark of their authentic reality that they would get the original guys to voice their original characters to make it quality and not get somebody else to voice them it made the cartoon more believable review me I miss the days of Saturday morning cartoons kids nowadays will never know the pleasure of getting up on the morning pouring yourself a cold bowl of cereal and watching cartoons all morning so your parents can sleep in it was a wonderful era
This has just cleared up something that has bugged me for years. Once, when I was a teenager, I was just going past the front room in our house and I glanced in at the TV. I had a just glimpse of a cartoon - Captain Kirk, Mr Spock, and a PEARSON'S PUPPETEER! I was a teenager, so I had to be somewhere urgently (of course), so I didn't stay to see the whole episode. But it stayed with me. What was going on? Merging Known Space with the Star Trek universe? Did I imagine it? Now I know - they hired Larry Niven to write an episode. (And presumably, since it was early days before Star Trek canon became practically a religion, and it was The Animated Series to boot, they just said WTH and let him bring all his toys with him!) Incidentally, was that I Kzin I saw earlier?
The folks at CBS Digital apparently think it's canon too. They replaced the reused shot of the Botany Bay as the robot ship in "The Ultimate Computer" with a robot ship model seen in "More Tribbles, More Troubles".
Favorite episodes were "More Tribbles More Troubles." "Time Trap." And of course, "Yesteryear." Imagine what they would have been in live action episodes.
George Takei had it exactly right. Animation can go a LOT farther into the different and the bizarre but the animated Star Trek didn't really explore that. Still good though.
InformationIsTheEdge The budget was just too low and time too short. They couldn't make the characters too exotic (e.g., Lt. Arik) or the backgrounds too exotic because of this.
InformationIsTheEdge I was looking at some others, like "The Infinite Vulcan" and "Beyond the Farthest Star", and I have to admit, the stills were pretty good! As someone else mentioned, it's reminiscent of something from Miyazaki/Studio Ghibli!
Since we have the soundtracks with the original actors voices, why not put new animation to them? I like them the way they are but they could be truly awesome with sophisticated animation.
gordon great idie,a animation upgrade I CGI like the Star Wars animations. CGI, in clone wars yes that would be a great upgrade, that did up grade with effect on the original 3 year tv Star Trek series, yes, that would be good, but sadly will never happen now with all the bulk crap, that would do a Discovery upgrade an destroy it all to gether
The network wasn't hell-bent on destroying the show. They asked for a second pilot because they'd really wanted a high quality sci-fi show. And they gave it a third season that they really didn't want to give, just so it would have enough episodes to have a chance to thrive in syndication. The show simply didn't perform as well in the ratings as they would have liked, although had they started measuring shows by demographics a year or two earlier, they would never have cancelled it.
@JonnyBaak: You left out how Larry Niven's cross-posting of his work into Star Trek cartoon had cause massive problems, and charted new territory in Intellectual Property Law in the U.S., by including such things as: the Thrint, Bandersnatch, and of course: The Kzinti!
They also incorporated the puppeteers, the 3 legged, 2 headed characters whose hand were their mouths. As well as the SPringfield itself from Larry Niven.
@ancient old ones: Yep! All of that! Larry Niven borrowed from his own books to write for Star Trek Cartoon, and caused a shit-storm of both copyright, and contract lawsuits!
I do remember the cartoon series and use to watch it as a kid. I have started to rewatch it on Netflix but I find the voice acting with the original cast really bad?