Out With A Whimper: Star Trek Phase Three Set Buries The 30th Anniversary Celebration.

The Good: Excellent images, Some interesting chase cards, Easy to collect.
The Bad: Chase are rather unsophisticated, Review cards in common set
The Basics: Decent photography in the common set does not save this dull trading card release from SkyBox.


When SkyBox had the license for Star Trek trading cards, they did a few clever gimmicks. Unfortunately, as the Fleer decided to deprioritize the non-sports line, they let SkyBox drift a bit. When the ambitious gimmicks and the financial problems meet, collectors ended up with sets like the Star Trek 30th Anniversary Reflections Of The Future Phase Three Set. The ambitious part came with the idea of doing a comprehensive, mammoth 30th anniversary set. This was accomplished by breaking the huge set into three smaller sets with Phase One (reviewed here!) focusing on ships and technology and Phase Two (reviewed here!) focusing on aliens and characters in the Star Trek universe. Because a third set had been promised, SkyBox felt obligated to release it and Phase Three included the cosmic phenomenon of the Star Trek universe as well as tributes to Star Trek. It is in the latter half that the set truly collapses, but where the first two sets were remarkably specific and well-conceived, "Phase Three" is too nebulous and it becomes clear when looking through it that the designers were at something of a loss as to how to cap off the series.

Basics/Set Composition

The "Phase Three" set is a 132 card set featuring a 100 card common set and thirty-two bonus cards, all but two of which are available in boxes of the trading cards. The "Phase Three" set was originally released in boxes of thirty-six packs, which each contained eight "Phase Three" cards. There was a manufacturer-created binder that bore the same logo as the box top and those are long since gone from hobby and collectible shops (since SkyBox lost the Star Trek license almost a decade ago). The packs generally had good collation and the basic set and the lower levels of chase cards were easy enough to come by to make them collectable but not so easy as to make one consider them overproduced. With the "Reflections Of The Future" series, SkyBox hit a fair production run. With "Phase Three," the cards easily met demand and they remain - by far - the easiest of the 30th Anniversary boxes to find in the secondary market now.

Common Cards

The "Phase Three" set features the cosmic phenomenon from the Star Trek franchise and tributes to the Star Trek franchise in both the common set and the bonus cards. The common card set consists of 100 cards, numbered 201 - 300. The common set is broken down with 63 cosmic phenomenon cards, 28 tribute cards, 6 starship review cards, 2 checklists, and a Star Trek fan club card. As far as the series breakdown goes, this is a fairly balanced set with 17 Star Trek, 11 Star Trek: The Animated Series, 9 Star Trek film, 32 Star Trek: The Next Generation, 12 Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, 6 Star Trek: Voyager cards. There is also a nine-card mural which combines images from all of the series'. This is actually very cool in that it recreates the box tops from the various boxes, which won awards for box design the year the cards were released. Each card is protected from light damage by a UV resistant coating.

The common card set is a decent collection featuring digital image captures that allow incredible transfers of the special effects shots and crewmember/ship photographs (which is what most of the "tribute" section is comprised of) used to document the subject of the cards. Whenever possible, the images on the front and back are different to illustrate the extent and scale of the cosmic phenomenon. So, for example, card #204 illustrates Apollo's hand on the front holding the Enterprise in its grip. The back has a small image of the hand from the viewscreen. This is fairly clever and utilizes the full-bleed front quite well.

The backs are well-written with a great deal of detail (as much as a trading card can carry) on the cosmic phenomenon and the tributes. The tributes include a time line of Star Trek history, awards the various shows won, and notable guest stars who appeared in episodes or Star Trek movies.

The common set is somewhat weakened by the last seven pre-checklist cards. These cards focus on starships, which were covered in the "Phase One" set. While there were several notable ships omitted for space, the "Phase Three" set rectifies that. But the First Contact preview card is even more inane than the review cards and the final card of the set with the Fan Club advertisement just seems desperate and lousy.

The common cards themselves represent a higher level of quality as - in addition to incredible and rare images - each one is foil stamped with a Cosmic Phenomenon or Tribute logo to easily differentiate which part of the set one is in. As well, they are all - common and chase - oriented in a landscape orientation, making for wonderful consistency when looking through one's binder.

Chase Cards

The bonus cards in this set are a real mixed bag. With the "Phase Three" set, there were thirty different bonus cards that could be found in the boxes and an additional two that were a mail-away or otherwise limited release cards. These were not mass produced, which has allowed them to retain some significant value in the marketplace today. While not strictly bonus cards, the Cinema Collection advertisement card and Survey card were plentiful enough that virtually every box had at least one of each.

The first level of chase card was the Blueprint puzzle cards. One in every few packs (the odds on these are radically skewed box to box as when they pop up often there were a few in a pack!) had one of nine thin paper cards that advertised blueprint posters that could be mailed away for. Yes, for an additional $20 or $15 one could mail away for blueprints of either Deep Space Nine or the U.S.S. Enterprise. This is a terrible chase card as all it does is attempt to promote something utterly unrelated to be bought by collectors. Yes, card collectors are asked to assemble their own advertisement!

One in every six packs there was one of six Decipher Star Trek The Gaming Card Set exclusive cards. The wildly unpopular trading card game was expanded with cards featuring a Phaser Mishap, Emergency Distress Call, Turbolift Doors, Cryogenic Chambers, Organians, and the Wild card "He's Dead, Jim." These are fun for the few people who played the game, but had little crossover appeal to trading card collectors who wanted something more from the trading cards as opposed to yet another SkyBox product.
They got their wish with the tribute foil cards. In every twelve packs there was one of nine puzzle cards which have a timeline of the history of Star Trek production. This is a cool enough concept and the foil cards look great. The mural is unique to the set and features concept sketches for the original U.S.S. Enterprise, the space shuttle, and a special 30th Anniversary plaque. It's a set that a number of collectors will enjoy.

It takes three boxes with ideal collation to complete the Viewscreen lenticular set. The three M cards are an intriguing collection of multiple-frame image cards which show the viewscreens of various Star Trek ships as they encounter notable phenomenon. As a result, Apollo's Hand reaches for the Enterprise, the Crystalline Entity rushes toward the Enterprise-D and the Badlands destroy a Cardassian vessel on Voyager's viewscreen! These are interesting enough, but their value seems to have plummeted in the secondary market of late. When the high end item in a box drops in value, it's hard to justify the box prices!

The final bonus card that might still be pulled from the boxes and packs is a SkyMotion Redemption card (which looks virtually identical to the Survey card on the front!). The Redemption cards have long since expired, but true completists will want them. Redemption cards were inserted into one in every five boxes.

Non-Box/Pack Cards

The actual SkyMotion card is a neat card. It is a thick plastic card that when held up to the light and tilted, it illustrates thirty frames of an image! In this case, the image is of the Bajoran Wormhole opening for the first time from "Emissary!" In addition to the standard SkyMotion card, that was only available from the use of redemption cards, there was also a double-sized jumbo SkyMotion card which is a bit more clear, though it contains the same image. There were no other promotional cards in this set, making it a surprisingly easy set to complete (and yet valuable nonetheless!).

Overall

Boxes of the "Phase Three" cards have tanked in value because they were overproduced in proportion to the interest in their subject matter. SkyBox assumed that because fans had invested in the first two sets that they could put together the final set with little enthusiasm and the result is a set that is far less inspired than the others. As a result, it is much easier to pass on this one than the others.

This set culls images from:
Star Trek
Star Trek: The Animated Series
The Star Trek films
Star Trek: The Next Generation
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Star Trek: Voyager - Season 1

This is a set of trading cards I sell in my online store! Check out my full inventory of them by clicking here!

3.5/10

For other trading card reviews, check out my Trading Card Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2012, 2008 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.

| | |

The BEST Pre-Autograph Star Trek Trading Card Set: "Reflections Of The Future" Phase Two Cards!

The Good: Excellent images, Some truly great chase cards, Great subject matter, Easy to collect.
The Bad: Chase are a little unsophisticated, Preview cards in common set, Unnumbered card 200.
The Basics: In as close to a perfect set as Star Trek cards got before autographs and costume cards, the "Phase Two" set is a strong common set with wonderful chase cards!


I, as I've alluded to many times in the course of my reviews, have a side business selling Star Trek trading and gaming cards at conventions which keeps me busy some weekends and gives me something to do that is fun and different from the rest of my life. The conventions are a lot of fun and one of the ways I attempt to sell the trading cards (I'm terrible at Sales!) is that they offer a wonderful alternative to 8x10s for getting autographed by the celebrities at the shows. Virtually every star and guest star from the Star Trek franchise has appeared on a trading or gaming card.

In this function, nothing sells itself quite as easily as the Star Trek 30th Anniversary Reflections Of The Future Phase Two set, which focuses on the Aliens and Personnel of the Star Trek franchise! These cards all have wonderful, large images that make them ideal for getting signed, making them highly sought after by people who are neither trading card collectors nor, traditionally, straight out Star Trek fans. Following the same format at the rather successful "Phase One" series (reviewed here!), this set represents the best SkyBox produced before the advent of autograph cards. This 30th Anniversary tribute was remarkably, like its predecessor, including the original Star Trek, Star Trek: The Animated Series, the Star Trek film collections, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and the first season of Star Trek: Voyager. This is a remarkably comprehensive set for fans of the entire Star Trek franchise and it is a treasure trove of information and images of the alien races and personnel (characters) of the franchise.

The "Phase Two" set is a 124 card set featuring a 100 card common set and twenty-four bonus cards, all but three of which are available in boxes of the trading cards. The "Phase Two" set was originally released in boxes of thirty-six packs, which each contained eight "Phase Two" cards. There was a manufacturer-created binder that bore the same logo as the box top and those are long since gone from hobby and collectible shops (since SkyBox lost the Star Trek license almost a decade ago). The packs generally had good collation and the basic set and the lower levels of chase cards were easy enough to come by to make them collectable but not so easy as to make one consider them overproduced. With the "Reflections Of The Future" series, SkyBox hit a fair production run. With "Phase Two," the cards hit a demand level that was almost impossible to meet, so these boxes are harder than some to come by.

The "Phase Two" set features the aliens and personnel from the Star Trek franchise in both the common set and the bonus cards. The common card set consists of 100 cards, numbered 101 - 199 with an annoying unnumbered card 200. The common set is broken down with 45 alien race cards, 45 crew member cards, 7 Stellar Phenomenon preview cards, 2 checklists, and the Title Card. As far as the series breakdown goes, this is a remarkably balanced set with 27 Star Trek, 3 "Star Trek: The Animated Series," 10 Star Trek film, 29 Star Trek: The Next Generation, 17 Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and 12 Star Trek: Voyager cards. Each card is protected from light damage by a UV resistant coating.

The common card set is a beautiful looking collection featuring digital image captures that allow incredible transfers of the alien and crewmember photographs used to document the subject of the cards. For the aliens, wherever possible, the card front contains an image of either gender of the race and the back has a small image of the other gender! So, for example, card 101 has a Vulcan woman (T'Pau) on the front and a Vulcan male (Sarek) on the back. This is a nice touch. Similarly, most of the personnel cards have a big image on the front of an early appearance of the character and the back has a smaller image of a later appearance; this is most pronounced in the Star Trek images which have each cast member as they appeared during the series on the front and how they appear in the Star Trek films on the back!

The backs are well-written with a great deal of detail (as much as a trading card can carry) on the aliens and personnel. They document the one-hit aliens like the Denevan Neural Parasites and the Mugato as well as the recurring aliens, like Q, Mr. Homn, and the Ferengi. The inclusion of the Vidiians from Star Trek: Voyager is a wonderful (if ugly) way to cap that part of the set.

The character half is an amazing collection that has some of the best, least replicated and most intriguing shots of the characters available on trading cards (or anywhere else!). They include the main cast of each series, as well as the most significant recurring characters. So, for example, Yeoman Rand, Lieutenant Saavik, Guinan, Ro, Dr. Pulsaski, and Rom each have cards! In fact, the only real surprise was that SkyBox chose to include Keiko over Nog!

The common set is somewhat weakened by the last seven pre-checklist cards. These cards focus on spatial phenomenon and basically serve to advertise the "Phase Three" set. One suspects fans would have found the set without nine cards being taken out of this set to devote to the next one and I could easily come up with seven more alien race or recurring star cards that could have been done! This is not enough to knock it out of the niche I usually reserve for absolute perfection. This is, truly, quite close enough for a trading card set, even with the preview cards.

The common cards themselves represent a higher level of quality as - in addition to incredible and rare images - each one is foil stamped with an Alien or Personnel logo to easily differentiate which part of the set one is in. As well, they are all - common and chase - oriented in a landscape orientation, making for wonderful consistency when looking through one's binder.

The bonus cards in this set are easily the best pre-autograph inserts found in packs of Star Trek trading cards. Autograph cards changed everything right around the time the "Phase Three" set was released (the first Star Trek autograph card was in boxes of Star Trek: First Contact trading cards) and these bonus cards still work as something intriguing, even following the high end autograph cards that were on the cusp of creation when this set was released. With the "Phase Two" set, there were twenty-one different bonus cards that could be found in the boxes and an additional three that were either mail-away or otherwise limited release cards. These were not mass produced, which has allowed them to retain some significant value in the marketplace today. While not strictly bonus cards, the Microsoft Network advertisement card and Survey card were plentiful enough that virtually every box had at least one of each.

The first level of chase card was the Doppleganger foil cards. One in every twelve packs had one of nine foil cards that featured popular characters from the Star Trek franchise in forms that were not quite our heroes! So, for example, these nine cards included four characters from the Mirror Universe, including the bearded Spock and Intendant Kira! There are the transporter duplicates of Kirk and Riker, Lore, the retired Captain Picard from "All Good Things. . ." and the Vidiian-split B'Elanna Torres! With rich red Spectra-etched foil backgrounds framing the clear, smooth - slightly embossed - head shots of the alternate crewmembers, these are exceptionally good-looking cards! These cards, numbered F1 - F9, look great in a binder. It takes three boxes with ideal collation to complete this set.

It takes five boxes with ideal collation to complete the Undercover Personnel lenticular set. The nine L cards are a beautiful collection of two-frame image cards which show the popular personnel from the Star Trek franchise as they normally appear, then in one of their undercover roles! This set does not follow any logical order (Chakotay is L5 in the center!), but they look great. The cards include Kirk as a Romulan, Spock as an Iotian and Kira as a Cardassian! This set is so clever that it coordinated the background colors with the colors of the Aliens and Personnel icons! So, for example, the image of Worf has a red background, but when one moves the card and the image changes to Worf masquerading as a Boraalan, the background is green! The images are remarkably clear for lenticular cards!

The final bonus card that might still be pulled from the boxes and packs is a SkyMotion Redemption card (which looks virtually identical to the Survey card on the front!). The Redemption cards have long since expired, but true completists will want them. Redemption cards were inserted into one in every five boxes.

The actual SkyMotion card is a neat card. It is a thick plastic card that when held up to the light and tilted, it illustrates thirty frames of an image! In this case, the image is of Odo morphing for the first time from "Emissary" when he has a mace thrown through his head! In addition to the standard SkyMotion card, that was only available from the use of redemption cards, there was also a double-sized jumbo SkyMotion card which is a bit more clear, though it contains the same image. There were no other promotional cards in this set, making it a surprisingly easy set to complete (and yet valuable nonetheless!).

Boxes of the "Phase Two" cards have retained their value well because the sets and the bonus cards have held their value as well. This is a great set for fans of Star Trek who are just getting into card collecting, because outside of the three cards, everything is in the boxes, if you buy enough of them! Most boxes contain two common sets with a healthy start to a third. And this was a set that had great box design as well (it's a bit bulky for my taste, but it won awards in the industry at the time and the images on them - there are very cool murals under the lid flap - are very creative and cool!) and makes for an all around wonderful release that still holds up in a world of autograph and costume cards. Actually, this set is remarkably balanced because in order to finish the Lenticular set (there are only two of those cards per box) one needs to purchase five boxes, which is the same odds as the highest level of chase card, the Redemption card!

This is a must have for Star Trek trading card collectors!

This set culls images from:
Star Trek
Star Trek: The Animated Series
The Star Trek films
Star Trek: The Next Generation
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Star Trek: Voyager - Season 1

This is a set of cards I proudly sell in my online store! Check out my current inventory of them here!

9.5/10

For other card reviews, please visit my Card Review Index Page for an organized listing of the card reviews I have written!

© 2012, 2008 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.

| | |

Starships And Phasers And Gold Plaques (Oh My!) "Reflections Of The Future" Phase One Cards!

The Good: Excellent images, Some truly great chase cards, Good subject matter, Easy to collect.
The Bad: Chase are a little unsophisticated, Preview cards in common set.
The Basics: With its wonderful images and great bonus cards (even if some are hard to find!)the "Phase One" set is a real winner for Star Trek fans and trading card collectors!


Star Trek trading cards very seldom take risks. They appeal to their niche market and tend to be very safe collections of cards that usually focus on one of the many series' of Star Trek with a very narrow focus. When it comes to anniversaries - usually dictated by the debut of the original Star Trek series - occasionally the trading card companies go more ambitious and focus on the whole franchise. While SkyBox held the license, they looked at the entirety of the franchise and produced three sets of trading cards to commemorate the 30th Anniversary of Star Trek. The three sets (well, two of the three) remain to this day arguably the most popular pre-autograph releases.

The first of these sets, which set a new higher standard for Star Trek card releases was the Star Trek 30th Anniversary Reflections Of The Future Phase One set and it looked at the ships and technology aspects of the Star Trek franchise. It was remarkably thorough, including the original Star Trek, Star Trek: The Animated Series, the Star Trek film collections, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and the first season of Star Trek: Voyager. This, then, becomes a remarkably comprehensive set for fans of the entire Star Trek franchise and it is a treasure trove of information and images for the ships and technology of the franchise.

The "Phase One" set is a 129 card set featuring a 100 card common set and twenty-nine bonus cards, all but five of which are available in boxes of the trading cards. The "Phase One" set was originally released in boxes of thirty-six packs, which each contained eight "Phase One" cards. There was a manufacturer-created binder that bore the same logo as the box top and those are long since gone from hobby and collectible shops (since SkyBox lost the Star Trek license almost a decade ago). The packs generally had good collation and the basic set and the lower levels of chase cards were easy enough to come by to make them collectable but not so easy as to make one consider them overproduced. With the "Reflections Of The Future" series, SkyBox hit a fair production run.

The "Phase One" set features the ships and technology from the Star Trek franchise in both the common set and the bonus cards. The common card set consists of 100 cards, numbered 1 - 100 and the set is broken down with 54 starship cards, 35 technology cards, 9 Alien race/character preview cards, and the two checklists. As far as the series breakdown goes, this is a remarkably balanced set (though because Star Trek: The Next Generation had the most hours of material at the time, it might seem a little tipped toward that series) with 33 Star Trek, 3 Star Trek: The Animated Series, 13 Star Trek film, 37 Star Trek: The Next Generation, 9 Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and 3 Star Trek: Voyager cards. Each card is protected from light damage by a UV resistant coating.

The common card set is a beautiful looking collection featuring digital image captures that allow incredible transfers of the starship and prop photographs used to document the subject of the cards. For the starships, wherever possible, the card front contains an external shot of the starship and the back has a small image of the bridge of the ship! Similarly, most of the technology cards have a big image on the front and the back has a smaller image of the technology piece in use or close up illustrating more detail.

The backs are well-written with a great deal of detail (as much as a trading card can carry) on the ships and devices. They document the differences between phasers in the different time periods of Star Trek and tell a brief story about the ship being illustrated. One of the nice things about that is that because some of the ships are either obscure (Star Trek: The Animated Series' S.S. Huron), destroyed (the U.S.S. Grissom from Star Trek III: The Search For Spock) or visually repetitive (there are several cards that have images of Galaxy Class starships on the front), the text on the back clearly differentiates the starship types (i.e. Galaxy Class) from the individual ships (U.S.S. Odyssey). For the most part, the producers at SkyBox picked great images and intriguing ships, wisely devoting the first six cards to Enterprises!

The technology half likewise commits to the popular (phasers, communicators) and the obscure (the Transmuter from "Catspaw"). There are some intriguing cards of obscure props that one might never see as detailed elsewhere. The set also reveals with side by sides how Paramount sometimes reuses and redresses props! It's a wonderful and informative set for anyone who loves Star Trek starships or the gadgets of the series.

The common set is somewhat weakened by the last nine pre-checklist cards. These cards focus on aliens and characters and basically serve to advertise the "Phase Two" set. One suspects fans would have found the set without nine cards being taken out of this set to devote to the next one and I could easily come up with nine more technology cards that could have been done! The common cards themselves represent a higher level of quality as - in addition to incredible and rare images - each one is foil stamped with a Ship or Technology logo to easily differentiate which part of the set one is in. As well, they are all - common and chase - oriented in a landscape orientation, making for wonderful consistency when looking through one's binder.

The bonus cards in this set are some of the best and most intriguing pre-autograph inserts. Autograph cards changed everything and it is sometimes hard for collectors to look back at their collections and see what used to entertain and satisfy them as fans and collectors. With the "Phase One" set, there were twenty-four different bonus cards that could be found in the boxes and an additional five that were either mail-away or otherwise limited release cards. These were not mass produced, which has allowed them to retain some significant value in the marketplace today. While not strictly bonus cards, the Cinema Collection advertisement card and Survey card were plentiful enough that virtually every box had at least one of each.

The first level of chase card was the technology foil cards. One in every twelve packs had one of nine foil cards that featured technology - Phasers, Communicators and Tricorders - from the Star Trek franchise. The neat thing about these nine cards were they illustrated the development of each item from the mid-23rd Century (original Star Trek) to late-23rd Century (Star Trek films) to the 24th Century (Star Trek: The Next Generation). This is a very neat guide to the three most commonly represented pieces of technology in the franchise and the E1 - E9 cards tend to look great in a binder. It takes three boxes with ideal collation to complete this set.

It also takes three boxes with ideal collation to complete the Die Cut Weapons set. The three D cards are concept cards that have been laser cut to have shapes that are different from the standard trading card. So, for example, the D1 card focuses on the d'k tang Klingon Blade and the top of the card is serrated like the Klingon knife! The other two cards in the set have holes in them representing the blast patterns of some of the firearms. This is an interesting concept, but it is executed in a fashion that is ultimately somewhat disappointing. Points for effort, but it's hard to get excited about these weapon cards with the funny shape. Fortunately, there are only the three!

The most incredible chase cards in this set are the Ship Registry Plaque cards. All StarFleet vessels have a plaque on the bridge that clearly denotes the vessel and they were replicated from the actual props from the Star Trek shows! The back of each card has a wonderfully vivid image of the starship whose plaque is represented on the front. As well, the card text and edges are embossed, making it very much like a ship plaque! These cards were one in every OTHER box! That means to complete this set with ideal collation still takes eighteen boxes of cards! This turned off a lot of collectors at the time and these ship plaque cards have retained their value over the years. They still command prices of $50 or more in the secondary market, pushing the value of a master set up a bit. The only disappointing aspect of the Registry Plaque cards is that there was not one done for the U.S.S. Defiant (from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine). Given that U.S.S. Voyager made it into the set, the lack of a Defiant ship plaque is a letdown, especially when one considers that such one-episode wonders as the U.S.S. Stargazer, U.S.S. Brittain, and U.S.S. Sutherland made the release! The four different Enterprises represented make some sense, but to include the Brittain and not the Defiant is just wrong!

The final bonus card that might still be pulled from the boxes and packs is a SkyMotion Redemption card (which looks virtually identical to the Survey card on the front!). The Redemption cards have long since expired, but true completists will want them. Redemption cards were inserted into one in every five boxes.

The actual SkyMotion card is a neat card. It is a thick plastic card that when held up to the light and tilted, it illustrates thirty frames of images! In this case, the image is the U.S.S. Enterprise cresting Earth from Star Trek: The Motion Picture! In addition to the standard SkyMotion card, that was only available from the use of redemption cards, there was also a double-sized jumbo SkyMotion card which is a bit more clear, though it contains the same image. There was a double-sized promotional card as well that can be fairly easily tracked down in the secondary market. There was another promotional card that was an exclusive to Non-Sport Update Magazine (reviewed here!). That card is only differentiated from card #1 in the set by the text on the back.

The real bear to find for this set (outside the ship Registry plaques and the jumbo SkyMotion card) is the Mastercard Exclusive promotional card. This card advertises the complete "Reflections Of The Future" series but remains exceptionally hard-to-find because they were sent to customers who used their Star Trek Mastercard once and many people who received them simply tossed them out! As a result, this final card in the set can run well over $100 when one can find it, even though it in nothing truly spectacular.

But it does finish off well a fairly spectacular set. Boxes of the "Phase One" cards have retained their value well because the sets and the bonus cards have held their value as well. This is a great set for fans of Star Trek who are just getting into card collecting, despite the difficulty in assembling a Registry Plaque set. Most boxes contain two common sets with a healthy start to a third. And this was a set that had great box design as well (it's a bit bulky for my taste, but it won awards in the industry at the time and the images on them - there are very cool murals under the lid flap - are very creative and cool!) and makes for an all around wonderful release that still holds up in a world of autograph and costume cards.

This is a must have for Star Trek trading card collectors!

This set culls images from:
Star Trek
Star Trek: The Animated Series
The Star Trek films
Star Trek: The Next Generation
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Star Trek: Voyager - Season 1

This set of trading cards is one I proudly sell through my online store! Be sure to check out my current inventory of them!

8/10

For other card reviews, check out my Card Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2012, 2008 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.

| | |

Unpopular Trek, Deeply Cool Trading Cards: The Complete Star Trek: The Animated Series Trading Cards!

The Good: Detailed, Interesting chase cards, Decent concept, Well-executed set, Collectibility
The Bad: Somewhat lame subject matter
The Basics: Rittenhouse Archives took a rather unpopular television series and proved there was money to be made from it with their amazingly detailed and quality-oriented The Complete Star Trek: The Animated Series trading cards!


Is it possible to create a great set of trading cards off mediocre or even poor source material? I would never have thought "yes" could be the answer until I came upon Rittenhouse Archives The Complete Star Trek: The Animated Series trading cards. This set, detailing with exceptional thoroughness, the most neglected Star Trek series, is a masterwork of images, writing and creating valuable chase cards. At the time, it was probably the biggest Star Trek risk that Rittenhouse had taken, but it paid off big as fans quickly bought up the boxes and illustrated to Paramount Pictures that there was a clear interest from fans for Star Trek: The Animated Series to be released on DVD.

For those unfamiliar with it, Star Trek: The Animated Series (reviewed here!) was a series of twenty-two half-hour episodes released in the early 1970s, which were designed to continue the adventures of the U.S.S. Enterprise on its five-year mission. Voiced by actors from the original Star Trek (save Walter Koenig) and written by original Star Trek writers, Star Trek: The Animated Series was often plagued by clunky, child-oriented dialogue and canon issues, but it was still Star Trek and fans wanted anything they could get from it. Rittenhouse Archives met that need with one of the most extensive, impressive trading card sets they ever produced!

Basics/Set Composition

It is hard not to say a set is truly massive when the cards not available in the boxes and packs exceed the number of cards in some (many!) master sets. But that is how it is with the extensive Star Trek: The Animated Series set from Rittenhouse Archives. Ironically, this is both one of the most collectible and least difficult to collect sets Rittenhouse Archives produced. Loaded with great autographs from main cast members, The Complete Star Trek: The Animated Series trading cards is a decent mix of quirky common and impressive value with some of the chase cards.

The Complete Star Trek: The Animated Series trading cards are comprised of 524 cards (though five of them aren't actually cards at all). Let's repeat that: FIVE HUNDRED TWENTY FOUR cards in the complete set! Those looking to complete a master set certainly have a lot to hunt down. But it is not all doom and gloom for collectors: 259 of the cards are not even available in the boxes or packs and they are traditionally sold in large blocks (see below under "Non-Box/Pack Cards"). And of the 265 cards that are available in the boxes, two hundred are part of the common set!

Properly assembled, a master set of The Complete Star Trek: The Animated Series trading cards is made up of two hundred common cards and three hundred twenty-four bonus cards, two hundred fifty-nine of which aren't even available in the packs! This card set was originally released in boxes of forty packs, with nine cards per pack.

Common Cards

Two hundred common cards for a series of Star Trek that actually offers the lowest amount of source material! How did Rittenhouse Archives do it? Well, they made this THE definitive (and thus only one that will ever be needed) set of Star Trek: The Animated Series cards. Each of the twenty-two episodes is given nine cards of treatment. Yes, in order to make this mammoth set, every episode had a full nine-card page in the binder.

The images on each card were diverse and were spread among the entire episode in question and each of the twenty-two episodes was given nine cards. The back of each of the nine cards spelled out in great detail the events of the episode. So, when placed in a binder, the front of each page told the visual story of the entire episode that was the focus of the page and the back spelled out exactly what happened with every twist and turn. The entire Star Trek: The Animated Series was essentially rewritten in trading card form.

One of the nice touches to the common set was that each episode, which naturally formed a nine-card page in the standard trading card binder sheet, was differentiated from each other episode by the color of the border of the card. As a result, every card for a particular episode had a border around the image, almost as if the trading card was a little television screen. The "screen" of the card contained an image from the episode, the "television" was a colored border. It added a great sense of unity and style that each episode had its own border color and as a result, each page in a binder is left feeling like it truly was a whole episode.

As for the images themselves, Rittenhouse Archives painstakingly cleaned up the images. Gone are the specks and dust from the original film and instead, each image is pristine and clear. As well, Rittenhouse Archives had them color corrected, so the colors are bright in a way that most people never actually saw the Star Trek: The Animated Series. It is impressive the time and care that went into the creation of each card.

Equally impressive is the writing on the back of each card. Every nine cards tells a complete story of an animated adventure from Star Trek and - lacking some of the canned dialogue and abysmal 1970's animation - Rittenhouse Archives makes the episodes sound intriguing enough to watch! As well, there are sidebars on each card that provide details about production, voices that James Doohan provided in the episode, etc. There is a lot of information packed into each card and this set appears to have been painstakingly proofread, making it one of the best written Star Trek trading card sets!

In addition to the 198 common cards focusing on the twenty-two episodes, there are two checklist cards.

Chase Cards

With three hundred twenty-four bonus cards, boxes would seem to be packed with value. However, two hundred fifty-nine of the cards are not even available in the boxes, no matter how many one opens! The sixty-five bonus cards available in the boxes include: James Doohan Tribute cards, Enterprise Bridge Crew, Captain Kirk In Motion, Micro-Cels, Autograph cards and boxtopper CD-ROMs!

The most common bonus set in The Complete Star Trek: The Animated Series card set is the James Doohan Tribute set. Like the common card set, these tended to be found one whole set in a box as there were nine cards in the set and there was one James Doohan Tribute card in every four packs. This set was a simple collection of images of each and every character, creature or machine James Doohan provided a voice for on the Star Trek: The Animated Series. This is a giant mural and the fronts are foil cards and that makes for a nice touch. The back has an image of James Doohan as Scotty as well and that is cool. It is impressive how much of the work one actor carried for the series!

At one in every eight packs are the Bridge Crew cards. Foil cards as well, this set of nine features the main bridge cast of the U.S.S. Enterprise for the Star Trek: The Animated Series. Gone is Chekov, but in his place there are cards of M'Ress and Lt. Arex. These cards, featuring the animated likenesses of Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Sulu, Scotty, Uhura, and Chapel have a primary, colored image on the front with several thumbnail images that look more like sketches in the background. This is an intriguing set and one that has retained its value well.

At only two per box are the Kirk In Motion cards. These thin, lenticular cards were plastic cels that had images that moved, featuring Captain James T. Kirk's animated likeness flipping open his communicator or shooting his phaser or such. These looked good and generally used the movement about as well as the Star Trek: The Animated Series used it in the show!

Also at two per box were the grail of this set, the Micro-Cels. The Micro-Cels were very cool, original cards and there were twenty-two of them. One per episode, these double-thick cards had embedded in each one two frames from the film of Star Trek: The Animated Series! Detailed and every card technically unique, this was a real find and an amazing work of love from Rittenhouse Archives.

At only one per box were the autograph cards. There were eleven autograph cards found in the packs and they included all of the main cast (save George Takei, who was the binder exclusive) and some even got double treatment. James Doohan signed as both Scotty and Lt. Arex (Doohan's human likeness appears on the back of both trading cards) and Majel Barrett signed as both Nurse Chapel and Lt. M'Ress! As well, Dorothy Fontana, Director Hal Sutherland, and Producers Lou Scheimer and Norm Prescott signed cards from the behind-the-scenes staff! None of these autographs is impossible or stiflingly priced to find, and with at least two of the signers being dead now, boxes of the cards can have some real value in the autograph cards alone!

At the bottom of each box was the boxtopper and for this set, Rittenhouse Archives again did something quite different. Instead of a boxtopper trading card, there were one of five die-cut (shaped) CD-ROMs featuring the likeness of an Animated Star Trek persona. Kirk, McCoy, Scotty, Sulu and Spock each had one CD-ROM and while the faces on each one was different, the content was the same. Each disc includes an interview with D.C. Fontana talking about the series, wallpaper and a computer screensaver!

Non-Box/Pack Cards

With two-hundred fifty-nine insert cards not even found in boxes of The Complete Star Trek: The Animated Series, collectors might be instantly wary. However, these sets are remarkably easy to complete. First, two of the cards are available in the Rittenhouse Archives binder for the set, which is a good way to display and protect the cards anyway. Those are the P3 promotional card and the A3 George Takei autograph card. The binders are easily available still in the secondary market.

Also easy to acquire are the general distribution promotional card of the Animated U.S.S. Enterprise and the Non-Sports Update Magazine promotional card of the main crew beaming down. Neither of these ought to cost more than $5.00 when found.

A bit harder to find is the package of three "Enterprise In Motion" casetopper cards. Like the "Kirk In Motion" cards, this set of three cards was found one per case and features the Animated starship Enterprise moving across the screen and firing phasers. It is a beautiful set, but harder to find.

The other two hundred-fifty two cards seem like they would be intimidating to track down, but they are actually quite easy. Both were sold as exclusive additional sets. Dealers who bought cases were entitled to buy (and resell) foil sets of the Star Trek: The Animated Series cards. These were the exact same cards as the common set, save that they were reprinted as silver foil cards! This set, unlike the common set which sells for approximately $20, sells on average for $100 when it can be found!

As well, in the boxes, there were cards that were part of a giveaway of unique art cels from the Star Trek: The Animated Series. There were two seriacels (which are essentially prints of original artwork used to create the panels on the show) and fifty unique production cels (the ACTUAL cels used to create the animation for the television show!). Because these cards turned up about one per case for any of those type cards, Rittenhouse Archives did its best to appease the trading card collectors by reprinting the set of fifty-two cards as voided cards and selling them as a set. That was decent of them and those sets tend to sell for about $100 as well.

Overall

Boxes of The Complete Star Trek: The Animated Series trading cards are getting harder to find, but they are packed with surprising value. Rittenhouse Archives took a potentially shaky subject matter and made it into a surprisingly strong product by adding a lot that was impressive to the set and making it seem indispensable.

For other Star Trek card sets, please be sure to check out my reviews of:
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Series Premiere Trading Cards
Star Trek: The Next Generation Season Three
Legends Of Captain James T. Kirk

9.5/10

For other card reviews, please visit my index page on the subject!

© 2011, 2009 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.

| | |

The Final Outing Of Star Trek: The Animated Adventures Is Typically Poor With "Volume 11!"

The Good: Use of mythology for one episode
The Bad: Terrible animation, Vocal presentations are mediocre, Lack of scientific basis makes one a children's story!
The Basics: Kirk is abducted by a Mayan/Aztec god and Spock watches as the crew gets significantly younger in this volume of the Animated Series!


I know there are those who might like the Star Trek: The Animated Series. I tend not to be one of them. At times, it is the natural successor to Star Trek, presenting adult storylines as best as can be crammed into half an hour, the remainder of the time, it is the most disappointing of children's programming relying on the silliest standards and obvious plot devices that only a child would find fresh and new. In other words, at times, this series is Star Trek and the rest of the time, it is something far worse. And the result is quite disappointing.

With the "Volume 11" VHS of the Star Trek: The Animated Series, the series concludes and it goes out on a downbeat with "How Sharper Than A Serpent's Tooth" and "The Counter-Clock Incident" the viewer is subjected to one of the most dismal pairings of episodes on the volumes of the series. "How Sharper Than A Serpent's Tooth" is cerebral and a strangely complex remixing of "The Cage" (reviewed here!) and "Who Mourns For Adonais?" (reviewed here!). "The Counter-Clock Incident" finds the crews de-aging in a story that is pure children's fare. The result of watching this final pairing of episodes is a viewing experience that will leave neither children nor adults truly satisfied.

"How Sharper Than A Serpent's Tooth" finds the Enterprise following an alien probe which leads it to an immense alien ship. Trapped by the huge ship, the Enterprise is hailed by a hologram of the Mayan/Aztec god Kukulkan, which suddenly abducts Kirk, McCoy, Scotty and the ethnically convenient Ensign Walking Bear. Trapped in a menagerie of life forms Kukulkan has saved, the quartet struggles to get released, despite the god's benevolent intentions.

"The Counter-Clock Incident" finds the Enterprise transporting Robert April and his wife, two dignitaries headed toward a retirement colony. April, as it turns out, is the first and original captain of the Enterprise, preceding Captain Pike. While aboard, the crew begins to de-age, quickly becoming children. As the crew becomes incapacitated, Robert April becomes the only hope for the ship and its crew!

First the positive: "How Sharper Than A Serpent's Tooth" has a strong sense of mythology and a relatively clever gimmick for presenting the Mayan-Aztec god. The episode is mostly about understanding human heritage and the value of all of the different peoples of the Earth. The episode promotes the lessons of working together and growth through understanding of history. With "The Counter-Clock Incident," children - because the episode is clearly intended for a younger audience - are implored to treat elders with respect and so see the value of the contributions of the elder generation.

Beyond that, though, the episodes fall down. And hard. "How Sharper Than A Serpent's Tooth" is heavily plot-driven and there is no genuine character development in it. Moreover, it seems like a lesson more than an actual episode of the series as there is a great deal of exposition needed to explain the circumstances and backstory.

And far worse than that is "The Counter-Clock Incident." That episode is all about a gimmick, a condition where the crew begins to shrink into children. There is no scientific or pseudo scientific explanation of the phenomenon and as a result, it is wiped away as a children's cartoon conceit. This is much like the fact that the episode should be wiped away from memory!

The problem with "The Counter-Clock Incident" is that it is a kid's cartoons more than they are an animated reimagining of Star Trek. For a series that promised sophisticated stories and character development for adults, Star Trek: The Animated Series here degenerates into pretty standard Saturday morning cartoon fare. That is a huge disappointment, especially in comparison to the educated and vaguely adult "How Sharper Than A Serpent's Tooth;" "The Counter-Clock Incident" seems largely silly and childish.

The animation in Star Trek: The Animated Series is pretty terrible and on the videos, it is not cleaned up like it was for the DVD versions. Even on DVD, the animation is choppy and rather generic. Backgrounds are looped in both episodes. The only genuine benefit of the animation comes in the creature design and ability to do some actual starship maneuvering, which were not possible in Star Trek. "How Sharper Than A Serpent's Tooth" makes use of this with the Enterprise encountering the zooship of Kukulan, though the animation is still pretty primitive looking. In "How Sharper Than A Serpent's Tooth," there are also several creatures visible in the zooship.

The thing is, many of those creatures could have been very easy to pull off in a live-action series, at least as they are imagined and presented in "How Sharper Than A Serpent's Tooth." As well, the de-aged crew of the Enterprise could easily been performed in a live-action episode using the talents of child actors. I suppose the episode was easier in this regard utilizing the animation, despite how silly it looks with the kids with their big black dot eyes.

Neither episode involves genuine character development. The episodes do not enhance or progress Kirk, Spock, McCoy or any of the supplemental characters' character. Indeed, there is never a moment that the viewer doubts Kirk and the others will escape from the alien ship and Robert April becomes the essential character in "The Counter-Clock Incident" In fact, far from developing, Kirk lets another rescue the Enterprise!

The voice acting in these episodes is homogeneously unremarkable. The actors give performances that sometimes feel like straightforward line readings and it is odd to see the minimally expressive animation with the more expressive vocals when they are. Even James Doohan, who voices many of the supporting guest roles, gives a surprisingly inexpressive performance and the result is a bland characterization of the various aliens. Between the blockish animation, the dull voice-overs, the recycled plots and the minimal growth of character, these episodes truly are unremarkable.

[Knowing that VHS is essentially a dead medium, it's worth looking into Star Trek: The Animated Series on DVD, which is also a better economical choice than buying the VHS. Read my review of the complete collection here!
Thanks!]

"How Sharper Than A Serpent's Tooth" - 2.5/10
"The Counter-Clock Incident" - .5/10
VHS - 1/10

Check out how these episodes stack up against the others and get direct links to the other episode reviews by visiting the index page here!

© 2011, 2008 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.

| | |

One Fair, One Absolutely Abysmal Episode Tears Apart Star Trek: The Animated Adventures Volume 10!

The Good: Tension and plot of "The Pirates Of Orion."
The Bad: Terrible animation, Vocal presentations are mediocre, Lack of scientific basis makes one a children's story!
The Basics: Spock contracts a fatal disease that Kirk must negotiate medicine for and the Enterprise falls victims to dumb pranks in this volume of the Animated Series!


Star Trek: The Animated Series is a problematic collection of inconsistent television. At times, it is the natural successor to Star Trek, presenting adult storylines as best as can be crammed into half an hour, the remainder of the time, it is the most disappointing of children's programming relying on the silliest standards and obvious plot devices that only a child would find fresh and new. In other words, at times, this series is Star Trek and the rest of the time, it is something far worse. And the result is ultimately disappointing. While some episodes rise above being simplistic and childish recreations of Star Trek, some of them are just children's programming. And those tend to be pretty unremarkable, if not outright terrible kid's programming.

With the "Volume 10" VHS of the Star Trek: The Animated Series, "The Pirates Of Orion" and "The Practical Joker" the viewer is subjected to one of the most disconcerting pairings of episodes on the volumes of the series. "The Practical Joker" is entirely a silly children's story, while "The Pirates Of Orion" is far too intense and realistic for most children. The result is a viewing experience that will leave neither group satisfied.

"The Pirates Of Orion" has Spock contracting a case of choriocytosis, a disease that is a mere annoyance to humans, but fatal to Vulcans. While Doctor McCoy struggles to keep Spock alive, Kirk takes the Enterprise in search of the drug needed to save Spock's life, strobolin. Spock needs naturally-occurring strobolin, the nearest supply of which has just been hijacked by Orion pirates. As Spock lays dying, Kirk and the crew must negotiate and outwit the Orions.

"The Practical Joker" finds the Enterprise near the Romulan Neutral Zone where the ship comes under attack by three Romulan ships. Fleeing, the Enterprise encounters an energy field which essentially causes the computer to have a nervous breakdown. The computer begins altering reality around the crew, condemning them to a series of annoying pranks and hijinx all the while the ship is under the threat of the Romulans returning.

First the positive: "The Pirates Of Orion" has some genuine tension to it and it is a surprisingly strong idea for the Animated Series. Spock and Dr. McCoy are put in a medical drama and there is a strong sense of political drama as Kirk works to get the strobolin. Despite the certainty in the mind of the viewers that Spock will not die, the episode plays the threat out remarkably well and in a fairly adult fashion.

Beyond that, though, the episodes fall down. And hard. "The Pirates Of Orion" is heavily plot-driven and there is no genuine character development in it. Moreover, even the aspects with the mysterious Orions gives us little new information about them - despite the fact that this is the first time in the franchise that male Orions appear.

And even worst than that is "The Practical Joker." That episode is all about a gimmick, a spatial anomaly that allows dumb pranks to be pulled on members of the crew. Yes, to be clear, the big gimmick of "The Practical Joker" is that the computer is altered to play tricks on the crew like writing "Kirk Is A Jerk" on the back of the Captain's uniform shirt. There is no scientific or pseudo scientific explanation of the anomaly and as a result, it is wiped away as a children's cartoon conceit.

The problem with "The Practical Joker" is that it is a kid's cartoons more than they are an animated reimagining of Star Trek. For a series that promised sophisticated stories and character development for adults, Star Trek: The Animated Series here degenerates into pretty standard Saturday morning cartoon fare. That is a huge disappointment. Especially in comparison to the more tense and adult "The Pirates Of Orion," "The Practical Joker" seems largely silly and childish. But even that is not entirely consistent; "The Pirates Of Orion" guts Star Trek continuity by introducing force field belts so Kirk can be beamed to an asteroid without atmosphere, instead of the classic environmental suits fans would be familiar with.

The animation in Star Trek: The Animated Series is pretty terrible and on the videos, it is not cleaned up like it was for the DVD versions. Even on DVD, the animation is choppy and rather generic. Backgrounds are looped in both episodes. The only genuine benefit of the animation comes in the creature design and ability to do some actual starship battles, which were not possible in Star Trek. "The Practical Joker" makes use of this with the Enterprise under attack by Romulans, though the animation is still pretty primitive looking. In "The Pirates Of Orion," the male Orions are introduced.

The thing is, the Orions could have been very easy to pull off in a live-action series, at least as they are imagined and presented in "The Pirates Of Orion." In fact, they look very '70's cartoonish with their round heads and bright color schemes.

The animation is fair at best by today's standards and the look of the series is a little more blockish than reality. As a result, Kirk has more in common with Captain America in terms of physique than the live-action William Shatner Kirk. Similarly, Spock seems surprisingly ripped (though not in a way that is extreme) and Uhura's uniform actually seems a little longer! All the animation truly allows this incarnation of Star Trek to do that it could not before is make more interesting alien races and this set does that, even if they still look somewhat off.

Neither episode involves genuine character development. The episodes do not enhance or progress Kirk, Spock, McCoy or any of the supplemental characters' character. Indeed, there is never a moment that the viewer doubts Dr. McCoy's determination to save Spock in "The Pirates Of Orion" and the preoccupation with the anomaly and the ridiculous pranks that follow in "The Practical Joker" makes for little or no time to focus on the heroism of our recurring protagonists. In fact, far from developing, Kirk rescues the Enterprise from that scenario the way he usually does.

The voice acting in these episodes is homogeneously unremarkable. The actors give performances that sometimes feel like straightforward line readings and it is odd to see the minimally expressive animation with the more expressive vocals when they are. Even James Doohan, who voices many of the supporting guest roles, gives a surprisingly inexpressive performance and the result is a bland characterization of the various aliens. Between the blockish animation, the dull voice-overs, the recycled plots and the minimal growth of character, these episodes truly are unremarkable.

[Knowing that VHS is essentially a dead medium, it's worth looking into Star Trek: The Animated Series on DVD, which is also a better economical choice than buying the VHS. Read my review of the complete collection here!
Thanks!]

"The Pirates Of Orion" - 5/10
"The Practical Joker" - 1/10
VHS - 2.5/10

For other Star Trek reviews, please be sure to visit my index page on the subject and click here!

© 2011 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.

| | |

Mildly Interesting "Bem" Drags Down The Surprisingly Intense "Albatross" On Star Trek: The Animated Adventures - Volume 9!

The Good: Some interesting conceptual ideas, Plot of "Albatross."
The Bad: Terrible animation, Vocal presentations are mediocre, Lack of scientific basis makes one a children's story!
The Basics: When McCoy is put on trial for genocide and a creature of the week who can split himself in two arrives, viewers just shudder at the Star Trek: The Animated Adventures.


There is something of an irony in the history of Star Trek in that the Star Trek: The Animated Series was fairly easily renewed for a second season while fans had to fight so very hard for each season of the original, live action Star Trek (reviewed here!). Sure, the second season of the animated version was canceled far quicker and more definitively, but that it had the smooth sailing of a renewal before that is either laughable or indicates a seriously deep game going on in the mind of the executives in charge of the show. This is further ironic because there are so few episodes of the twenty-two minute per episode Star Trek: The Animated Series that one might consider worth watching, especially as an adult. While some episodes rise above being simplistic and childish recreations of Star Trek, some of them are just children's programming. And those tend to be pretty unremarkable, if not outright terrible kid's programming.

With the "Volume 9" VHS of the Star Trek: The Animated Series, "Bem" and "Albatross" subject viewers to one of the most disconcerting pairings of episodes on the volumes of the series. "Bem" is in many ways a silly children's story, while "Albatross" is far too intense and realististic for most children. The result is a viewing experience that will leave neither group satisfied.

"Bem" finds the Enterprise in orbit around a primitive planet where they have been establishing monitoring posts of the natives. A Federation special ambassador, Bem, insists on accompanying Kirk, Spock, Sulu and Scotty down to the planet, despite Kirk's protests. Bem swaps out the phasers and communicators with fakes and essentially strands Kirk and Spock. On the planet, Bem does all he can to escape or defy the Enterprise crew and in the process, he makes contacts with the native life forms and their god.

"Albatross" puts Dr. McCoy on trial for genocide when the Dramians arrest him following a successful mission performed by the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise. McCoy, having visited the planet Dramia almost twenty years earlier on an inoculation mission is being charged with killing, rather than inoculating, the Dramians. The plague that wiped out many of them puts Kirk in the position of distrusting the Dramians and their courts and leaves Dr. McCoy swinging in the wind.

First the positive: "Albatross" has some genuine tension to it and it is a surprisingly strong idea for the Animated Series. Dr. McCoy is put in a legal dilemma and there are no simple answers, despite the certainty in the mind of the viewers that McCoy could not possibly have tried to commit genocide. That the Prime Directive is brought to bear even in the less sophisticated animated adventures makes for better television than one might expect.

Second, in "Bem" there is a refreshing moment when Uhura, essentially in command, orders Scotty to return to the Enterprise. It is her leadership and assertiveness that we so seldom were privileged to see in the show that comes shining through and it is a refreshing thing.

What these two episodes share is a strong sense of moral . . . sort of. "Albatross" is big on the "we must respect different cultures" concept. It's good to know children in the early '70s were being taught that genocide was wrong, too! "Bem," one wants to believe, has a similarly honorable moral, but the problem is it is not executed that way. Instead, the novelty of Bem being a creature that can disassemble itself is what the episode becomes preoccupied with.

Yes, to be clear, the big gimmick of "Bem" is that his torso can detach and go off to do one thing (like pick Kirk and Spock's pockets with little hands stored inside the torso) while the upper half is hanging around appearing to be intact. Bem is apparently made up of little self-sufficient bits, like a colony, but no one knew that prior to the mission. There is no scientific or pseudo scientific explanation of the character or his abilities and as a result, it is wiped away as a children's cartoon conceit.

The problem with "Bem" is that it is a kid's cartoons more than they are an animated reimagining of Star Trek. For a series that promised sophisticated stories and character development for adults, Star Trek: The Animated Series here degenerates into pretty standard Saturday morning cartoon fare. That is a huge disappointment. Especially in comparison to the more verbose "Albatross," "Bem" seems largely silly and childish.

The animation in Star Trek: The Animated Series is pretty terrible and on the videos, it is not cleaned up like it was for the DVD versions. Even on DVD, the animation is choppy and rather generic. Backgrounds are looped in both episodes. The only genuine benefit of the animation comes in the creature design and ability to do some actual starship battles, which were not possible in Star Trek. While there are no significant starship actions in these episodes, there is a decent use of character design in both.

The Dramians and Bem would have been difficult to pull off with Star Trek on the live action show, as their design is fairly complicated. Now, by "fairly complicated," I mean that they with Bem splitting in two and having a little creature arms doing things it would have been tough to have had people in suits or puppets to make it work for a live-action episode. The Dramians are basically creatures with big, lizard-like heads and they might have been possible, like the Gorn from "Arena" (reviewed here!) to do, but it seems unlikely they could have done it well. Sadly, the creatures in both episodes are still pretty clunky 70's animation.

The animation is fair at best by today's standards and the look of the series is a little more blockish than reality. As a result, Kirk has more in common with Captain America in terms of physique than the live-action William Shatner Kirk. Similarly, Spock seems surprisingly ripped (though not in a way that is extreme) and Uhura's uniform actually seems a little longer! All the animation truly allows this incarnation of Star Trek to do that it could not before is make more interesting alien races and this set does that, even if they still look somewhat off.

Neither episode involves genuine character development. Uhura has the chance to step up while in command of the Enterprise, so it's not all bad. But the episodes do not enhance or progress Kirk, Spock, McCoy or any of the supplemental characters' character. Indeed, there is never a moment that the viewer doubts Dr. McCoy in "Albatross" and the preoccupation with "Bem" in his episode makes for little or no time to focus on the genius of our recurring protagonists.

The voice acting in these episodes is homogeneously unremarkable. The actors give performances that sometimes feel like straightforward line readings and it is odd to see the minimally expressive animation with the more expressive vocals when they are. Even James Doohan, who voices many of the supporting guest roles, gives a surprisingly inexpressive performance and the result is a bland characterization of the various aliens. Between the blockish animation, the dull voice-overs, the recycled plots and the minimal growth of character, these episodes truly are unremarkable.


[Knowing that VHS is essentially a dead medium, it's worth looking into Star Trek: The Animated Series on DVD, which is also a better economical choice than buying the VHS. Read my review of the complete collection here!
Thanks!]

"Bem" - 2/10
"Albatross" - 4/10
VHS - 2.5/10

For other television reviews, please visit my index page on the subject by clicking here!

© 2011, 2008 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.

| | |

Pretty Bad, The Star Trek: The Animated Series Continues On Volume 8.

The Good: This time, you've got me.
The Bad: Two VERY lame episodes, Terrible animation, Vocal presentations are mediocre, Children's stories! Lack of character.
The Basics: When Kirk and Spock are put in a zoo and Uhura is captured by robots, viewers just shudder at the Star Trek: The Animated Adventures.


One of the strongest arguments to be made against the Star Trek: The Animated Series is that it is largely children's programming. While some episodes rise above being simplistic and childish recreations of Star Trek, some of them are just children's programming. And those tend to be pretty unremarkable, if not outright terrible kid's programming. With the "Volume 8" VHS of the Star Trek: The Animated Series, "The Eye Of The Beholder" and "Once Upon A Planet" subject viewers to some of the worst that the Star Trek: The Animated Series could do, with formulaic children's programming and cheap rewrites. They are a terrific disappointment and it's hard to see how the argument that this is a worthy continuation of Star Trek could be made with episodes like this.

For those unfamiliar with Star Trek: The Animated Series, the two seasons aired in the early-1970s and acted as a bridge between Star Trek (reviewed here!) and Star Trek: The Motion Picture (reviewed here!). These episodes aired in 1974 and represented the attempt on the part of Paramount and Filmation to gauge the interest in new Star Trek material while working around the busy schedules of the principle talent from Star Trek. This series continued the five-year mission of the U.S.S. Enterprise under the command of Captain James T. Kirk and featured the voice talents of most of the Star Trek cast as well as writing from some of the better Star Trek writers.

"The Eye Of The Beholder" finds the Enterprise searching for survivors of the U.S.S. Ariel around Lactra VII. Kirk, Spock and McCoy beam down to the planet where they encounter the giant slug-like Lactrans, who are telepathic and highly evolved. The Lactrans put the landing party in their zoo, where they find the survivors of the other starship, one of whom is seriously wounded. As they work to escape, Spock comes to realize just how powerful the Lactrans are.

"Once Upon A Planet" has the U.S.S. Enterprise visiting the "Shore Leave" planet where Dr. McCoy and Uhura almost immediately find that things have changed. Uhura is abducted by robots and McCoy barely makes it back to the ship alive when the Queen Of Hearts starts chasing him. Kirk and Spock mount a rescue for Uhura while trying to figure out what has happened on the planet and how to make it safe again for visitors. Unfortunately, they soon make a discovery that reveals how difficult it could be for them to restore the planet to its working order.

First the positive: "Once Upon A Planet" attempts to establish a decent sense of continuity by returning to the planet from "Shore Leave" (reviewed here!). The idea of more continuity in the series is a good thing to me. Moreover, the use of Uhura - even if she is yet again insulted - is always a good thing. The opportunity for Uhura to participate and try to develop her character is a worthwhile endeavor.

Finally, the idea that the Enterprise and its crew might well be outmatched, even by a bunch of twenty-foot slugs, is a good thing. In Star Trek, the Enterprise was more frequently than we'd like to remember outmatched by an adversary. Having that carry over into the Star Trek: The Animated Series works quite well, especially when the more powerful force is not a bland hostile.

Unlike other episodes of Star Trek: The Animated Series, these two episodes are pretty low on moral. Whenever the series does a particularly lame children's programming-type episode, usually it falls into one of the typical "obvious moral" categories. So, for example, the viewer might be plagued with "everybody needs to work together" or "different types of people all have value" stories, which are fine but formulaic. Instead, in this volume, the viewer is subjected to the even lesser plot formula. Like earlier episodes that manage to be the generic "Bermuda Triangle" episode, "Once Upon A Planet" is "robots run amuck!" plot #2.

And that seems cheap for the Star Trek franchise.

"The Eye Of The Beholder" is a little tougher to classify (other than just "boring"), but it essentially is a rewrite of "The Cage" (reviewed here!) without the panache. It is lacking in a strong message or an original plot and the result is twenty-two minutes of "ho-hum" boredom.

The problem with both episodes is that they are kid's cartoons more than they are an animated reimagining of Star Trek. For a series that promised sophisticated stories and character development for adults, Star Trek: The Animated Series here degenerates into pretty standard Saturday morning cartoon fare. That is a huge disappointment. Virtually every Saturday morning cartoon does a "robots run amuck" type episode.

There is nothing particularly engaging for adults in either of these episodes.

The animation in Star Trek: The Animated Series is pretty terrible and on the videos, it is not cleaned up like it was for the DVD versions. Even on DVD, the animation is choppy and rather generic. Backgrounds are looped in both episodes. The only genuine benefit of the animation comes in the creature design and ability to do some actual starship battles, which were not possible in Star Trek. While there are no significant starship actions in these episodes, there is a decent use of character design in both.

The Lactrans and the robots would have been difficult to pull off with Star Trek on the live action show, as their design is fairly complicated. Now, by "fairly complicated," I mean that they look like giant slugs and spindly robots that couldn't have had people in suits and they have a scale that would have been prohibitive to make for a live-action episode. Sadly, they are still pretty clunky 70's animation.

The animation is fair at best by today's standards and the look of the series is a little more blockish than reality. As a result, Kirk has more in common with Captain America in terms of physique than the live-action William Shatner Kirk. Similarly, Spock seems surprisingly ripped (though not in a way that is extreme) and Uhura's uniform actually seems a little longer! All the animation truly allows this incarnation of Star Trek to do that it could not before is make more interesting alien races and this set does that, even if they still look somewhat off.

Neither episode involves genuine character development. Uhura takes the brunt of insults in "Once Upon A Planet" again, but the robots get their comeuppance, so it's not all bad. But the episodes do not enhance or progress Kirk, Spock, McCoy or any of the supplemental characters' character. Indeed, the only notable aspect is that we are treated to Lt. Arex, the three armed, three legged helmsman who takes command of the ship when Kirk is off ship.

The voice acting in these episodes is homogeneously unremarkable. The actors give performances that sometimes feel like straightforward line readings and it is odd to see the minimally expressive animation with the more expressive vocals when they are. Even James Doohan, who voices many of the supporting guest roles and Lt. Arex, gives a surprisingly inexpressive performance and the result is a bland characterization of the various aliens. Between the blockish animation, the dull voice-overs, the recycled plots and the minimal growth of character, these episodes truly are unremarkable.

[Knowing that VHS is essentialxly a dead medium, it's worth looking into Star Trek: The Animated Series on DVD, which is also a better economical choice than buying the VHS. Read my review of the complete collection here!
Thanks!]

"Eye Of The Beholder" - 2/10
"Once Upon A Planet" - 3/10
VHS - 2/10

For other Star Trek reviews, please be sure to visit my index page by clicking here!

© 2011 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.

| | |