As part of their celebration of the 50th anniversary of Star Trek: The Animated Series CBS Studios is launching a new series of animated promotional spots in the style of TAS featuring characters voiced by familiar Star Trek celebs.
Very Short Treks
First teased at SDCC, today CBS Studios revealed these shorts will be titled Very Short Treks. Five shorts will be released through September and October with the first episode “Skin a Cat” arriving on Friday, September 8 as part of the Star Trek Day celebration.
Check out the trailer…
As noted in the trailer, the key difference with the two-season series Star Trek: Short Treks is that these five animated shorts are not considered canon. However, there are a number of familiar stars reprising their roles for these shorts, including Jonathan Frakes as Will Riker, Doug Jones as Saru and Armin Shimerman as Quark, and a new line-up of exciting voices, including Ethan Peck as Spock, Gates McFadden as Dr. Beverly Crusher, Celia Rose Gooding as Uhura, Connor Trinneer as Trip Tucker, Bruce Horak as Hemmer, Noël Wells as Tendi, and the legendary George Takei as Sulu.
Star Trek: Very Short Treks comes from creative consultant Casper Kelly, best known for the viral smash hit “Too Many Cooks” and his work on Star Trek: Short Treks and Adult Swim.
The first animated spot will launch on Star Trek Day, Sept. 8, exclusively on StarTrek.com and the official Star Trek YouTube channel, with four additional animated spots rolling out weekly on Wednesdays through Oct. 4 at 10:00 A.M., PT/1:00 P.M., ET.
Titles and release schedule:
Sept. 8 – “Skin a Cat”
Sept. 13 – “Holiday Party”
Sept. 20 – “Worst Contact”
Sept. 27 – “Holograms, All the Way Down”
Oct. 4 – “Walk, Don’t Run”
CBS also released a new poster for their animation celebration.
Prodigy writer/producer wrote an episode
I wrote “Holograms, All the Way Down.” It’s strange and fun, a la Adult Swim. A loving tribute. Absolutely not canon.
Hope folks enjoy it! #VeryShortTreks https://t.co/PaxSYG9RWS
— Aaron J. Waltke (@GoodAaron) September 5, 2023
Animated celebration comic book too
Casper Kelly will also release a new comic book with IDW Publishing, “Star Trek: The Animated Celebration Presents The Scheimer Barrier.” The first chapter of the comic will debut digitally on Sept. 8 on StarTrek.com with physical copies available at New York Comic Con in October. Additional chapters of the comic will drop weekly on Wednesdays on StarTrek.com at 10:00 A.M., PT/1:00 P.M., ET.
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- From IDW’s The Scheimer Barrier
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- From IDW’s The Scheimer Barrier
For more on Star Trek Day, check out our previous report.
Keep up with news for the Star Trek Universe at TrekMovie.com.
Color me happy!
To quote Kirk “Sounds fun.”. Also Trip Tucker back. 👍👍
“Anything but canon” dashed my hopes of a secret reveal Trip survived. But yes, lovely to see that news!
Agree.
He survived in the novels.
I hope they don’t use that terrible 70s style animation.
You’re kidding… right? For one thing, this is a celebration of the ’70s cartoon. For another, the trailer is very clearly drawn in that style.
The art style is fine, but I hope the actual animation is more modern than what they used back then.
Not at all. the 70s cartoon animation was cheap and bland.
I’m sure you guys can stomach it for one very short Trek. Yeah, it was cheap for the time, yeah it didn’t have too many frames, but it can be appreciated in the same way that TOS uses long takes and has, for our standards, cheap looking sets (although certainly not cheap for the time). There’s a nostalgia factor at play here and it works perfectly for the Filmation style they’re emulating.
AWESOME! Cant wait to watch.
Is this Canon btw?
Someone’s gonna complain about this. Not me, though, I’m pretty pleased to see the franchise explored in strange new ways….
Why would anyone complain about this lol. These look like a ton of fun.
YAAAAAY, Trip Tuker is back!!!
That better be Night Bird he’s playing.
Honestly, even with the non-canon, promotional nature, I’m really excited for this. The list of actors is pretty great. I love that they’re bringing on Trip, as the first Enterprise character to return in the modern era. Also, as someone whose favorite modern show is Prodigy, I’m especially looking forward to “Holograms, All the Way Down,” written by Aaron Waltke (my favorite Prodigy writer).
Still no official release of the original animated series on iTunes though. I really can’t believe it’s anything but an oversight at this point… :(
Never mind, they added it! THEY FINALLY ADDED IT TO ITUNES!!! I don’t know if anyone here helped with that but if you did, THANK YOU! I have been waiting for this for years!!! :) :) :)
iTunes still exists?
Yep! And know ST: TAS is available on it! Woo-HOO!!! :) :) :)
Yes, but it tries desperately to shove Apple Music down your throat.
Way to persevere! Next best thing to owning a physical copy in my book. And Apple upgrades old files to 4K as they become available.
EXACTLY! Thanks for understanding, Ian. I really love that series and part of me wanted to see it take its place with the others since it was the only one missing. And now it has, woo-HOO!! :) :) :)
How short is very short?
TAS is my favorite animated trek. I count it as year 4 of Kirk’s 5 year mission. It’s an amazing show written by amazing sci fi writers. I’m looking forward to the celebration of this show.
I see Enterprise gets some love. Finally!
Were these done before the strike, or are they covered by the animation contract?
Did Casper Kelly write this ATHF episode?
Drewbacca, a shaved Wookie, is a member of a Star Trek tribute band.
It blows my mind they can’t find a role for Shatner anywhere.
He gets paid to show up at conventions. His action hero days are long gone.
A lot of action hero stunts required for voice actors in animation, are there?
I suspect that Shatner is either uninterested or is asking for too much money. I’m sure they would have loved to have Shatner do one of these if it was possible.
At least we got George..so one TOS cast member…
So how short is VERY short?
I have just started AI up-ressing Enterprise to 4K to rewatch the series. So happy Trip is coming back and I’m loving ‘… anything but canon!’ – a chance for some real fun, I’m hoping!
These look fun. Can’t wait to see Tendi on the original Enterprise even if it’s just a holodeck version. Still wish she could’ve been on the real one with Boims and Mariner.
And Trip Tucker is making a reappearance. This made me smile even if it’s not canon, still really cool.
I’m very excited for these shorts now.
If they’re not concidered cannon than why waste the money on these & make things that are cannon. Yay for Trip.
lol someone doesn’t like having fun I guess?
Why would we treat these as canon – they’re a celebration of a show for its anniversary. It’s like the kinda stuff studios make for any anniversary, except this time they’re having fun with animation. Seems like a great use of money to me
Its funny, just a few days ago in the LD s3 thread I posted about the idea of doing a LD crossover using TAS footage, a la TRIALS & TRIBBLEATIONS.
They’re really going to blow up the Enterprise AGAIN……. >.>
Honestly most excited I’ve been for a Trek production in years
If it’s on screen, it’s canon by definition. That’s how it works. I think they’re just poking fun at the original confusion introduced by Roddenberry after TAS’s original run when he at first denied it was canon, but then years later he changed his mind. Since this series is commemorating TAS, I suspect they’re just giving a tongue-in-cheek nod to that by saying it’s “non-canon” when of course it has to because it’s it’s on-screen.
Also, I found it really strange that this article didn’t even mention that Ethan Philips is apparently reprising his role as Neelix, as depicted in the trailer.
What a horror. Is it necessary to continue parodying Star Trek? The best homage would be to produce new animations of action, of intrigue, of something that doesn’t necessarily look like Rick and Morty.