This series dates from 1973-74 and was made to meet the demand from the fans after the original series ended in 1969 and I suppose it tided people over for a while before the motion picture series started in 1979. Most of the cast from the original voice their animated counterparts except for Walter Koenig (Chekov) although he did write an episode. There are also a couple of characters added to fill Chekov's role on board the Enterprise. Apparently this was down to budgetary reasons and originally Nichelle Nichols (Uhura) & George Takei (Sulu) were going to be voiced by other actors but Leonard Nimoy (Spock) refused to do the job unless the original actors were employed as he felt they were essential to the ethnic diversity of the 23rd century.
It ran for 2 seasons and has 22 episodes and is as close to the original series to my mind as it's possible to be in regards to story style and characterisation. The animation is quite basic but it's of it's time really and isn't distracting from the entertainment of the stories. Also the format gave the writers more freedom to be creative, allowing for more alien looking other races rather than just rubber suits and more freedom of movement for them too. I've got to say I don't recall seeing any of these cartoons back in the day at all. Apparently they were shown on the BBC but I don't recall that at all.
Similar themes are explored to those of the original series as they assist planets & beings in danger and often get into scrapes themselves with strange forces trying to take over their ship. You get the familiar races from the show, Romulans, Klingons, Vulcans. The Klingons aren't as scary or menacing here though almost as if they are played for laughs judging by the strange voices of them. Tribbles return too, that's the trouble with them always popping up when you don't want them! Also Harry Mudd pops up to cause trouble. He's a character I remember from the latest Discovery series who I didn't recall from watching the original show. I probably did see him before in the original series but just forgot, it's been a while. Hey that's part of the point of going on this Star Trek marathon, (or Trek-trek if you prefer!), to remind myself of the old series I loved and catch up with all that I've missed or simply forgotten. My highlight involves Mudd as he infects the crew with some 'love crystals' which makes for a pretty funny episode for sure!
So in summary if you love Trek and haven't checked this out already then I definitely recommend it, it's a little different to the original series in some ways but is close enough I think for fans of the original cast to enjoy.
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