Video: 'Star Trek: The Animated Series' (43 clips)

(Saturday, September 8, 1973, 10:30 a.m. EDT) — Four years after the cancellation of the original Star Trek series, the science fiction program returned today on NBC-TV as a weekly 30-minute Saturday morning cartoon, also called Star Trek, and subtitled Created by Gene Roddenberry.

After the cancellation of the original series in 1969, the live action show proved popular in syndication and generated significant fan enthusiasm. This resulted in Roddenberry’s decision to continue the series in animated form.

Much of the original cast — including William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley, James Doohan, Nichelle Nichols, George Takei and Majel Barrett — returned to provide voice-overs for their characters.

Series writers David Gerrold and D. C. Fontana characterized the animated series as effectively a fourth season of the original series.

After the conclusion of the animated series, the adventures of the characters continued in live-action theatrical films, the first being the 1979 film Star Trek: The Motion Picture.