UNCUT REACTION - Star Trek TAS ep2 - Yesteryear
Added 2023-06-04 14:01:01 +0000 UTCSpock's parents are back! Woo!
We continue our journey through The Animated Series with the second episode Yesteryear written by the legend D. C. Fontana!
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Comments
I'd say it's pretty widely accepted this episode was the peak of TAS storytelling. D.C. Fontana did a great job adding to the lore and telling a meaningful story about loss, growing up and finding yourself. Even when TAS was widely considered non canon, I think most tended to make an exception for this episode. Back when I was going through the franchise in 2017 for the first time in over a decade(almost 2 decades for some of the shows), I had started with TOS and TAS even though I was largely going through chronologically, mostly because I wanted to get the more dated stuff out of the way. At first I was just bingeing the eps, but halfway through S1 of TOS I decided to go to the trek wiki(memory alpha) and read up on all the background info for the various episodes before watching them, as well as watching the VFX comparisons and the original trailers. I had this whole OCD process I'd go through for each episode, really dig deep and get into the behind the scenes stuff. I remember when I got to this episode I was kind of shocked that in contrast to the background info which usually ranged from 2-3 pages on the low side to 12-15 on the high side, this animated episode had over 35 pages of background info on the wiki. TMP was around twice that when I got to the movies. Lots of cool stuff in there, but reading all that took longer than watching the episode. The story here builds nicely off what we was in Journey to Babel, and gives us a nice look at Spock's formative years. The question does arise like in all time loop paradoxes how the chain got started in the first place? I do like however that Spock's death didn't result in the destruction of the federation or something catastrophic. Even with all the critical events he took part in, someone else (Thelin) just played his role in those events and things worked out pretty much the same. Great episode, even if the kid's voice acting was pretty bad. I guess that's the reason they just get women to voice kids in animation these days.
Timothy Nikiforovs
2024-05-13 20:34:21 +0000 UTCAnd another 9% of the women are Nichelle Nichols.
James H
2023-06-07 20:23:37 +0000 UTC90% of the universe in the animated series is voiced by James Doohan and Majel Barret depending on whether they are male or female.
Chuck Rice
2023-06-07 04:01:31 +0000 UTCRespectfully disagree. There's lots of good episodes to come and even the episodes that are kind of silly are still entertaining. All Star Trek is good Star Trek, at least where the original is concerned.
MntrTodd
2023-06-06 20:25:05 +0000 UTCI'm sorry to say that its all downhill from here. This is undoubtedly the pinnacle episode of TAS. Some of others are okay and have interesting concepts, but unfortunately there are also a fair amount that are just slow and dull and almost feel like a chore to get through. Just my opinion though, maybe I can discover new positive attributes through your fresh watch of the episodes. I would be happy to find a good reason to like TAS better than a lot of the current Trek lol (SNW excepted).
Tristan Rose
2023-06-06 03:51:02 +0000 UTCWith the Animated Series, there were many times ships, aliens & landscapes had weird colors. It turned out that Hal Sutherland who worked for Filmation & directed all the episodes of the show was color blind & never knew it. When it came time to select colors for things not established in TOS he would pick what he think would work not being able to see the colors properly & non of the people under him said anything because he was the boss & they were afraid to question his choices so he never knew he was colorblind till many years later when someone finally said something to him
Retro Tom
2023-06-06 00:13:19 +0000 UTCThat was definitely a great game in the classic adventure game genre from the early '90s. Presented as separate episodes, and it even had a sequel.
Joe Concepts
2023-06-05 20:10:30 +0000 UTCI loved the old guy made me sad when he got euthanised
AzoriusMage
2023-06-05 10:21:35 +0000 UTCThis episode won a few awards and universally heralded as the best animated handling of the difficult lesson of euthanasia directed to children who would face it. This series didn’t try to be a child’s program, it was simply Star Trek that young adults could watch
Scarpad’s Domain
2023-06-05 07:31:44 +0000 UTCI loved this as a kid! I watched it around the same time as TOS reruns were on in the 80s, before TNG came out. The episode quality varies, but there are some excellent ones. Yesteryear is one the best, though there's some good ones to come and more callbacks/continuity with TOS. You're in for a treat!
Bret Kay
2023-06-05 00:22:33 +0000 UTCThis is probably the high watermark of the series. Still more quality episodes throughout, but this is basically the standard this show set for itself in terms of being able to write a children's show that could also be enjoyed by an adult audience/Star Trek fans. The balls to actually talk about death and loss, the struggles of pleasing your parents. One of the few things the JJ film did right was to draw some of its imagery and story ideas from this episode. ALSO, The city you can see in Star Trek remastered, in Amok Time? Same city you see here. The city of ShiKahr. The folks doing the remaster wanted to pay homage to TAS. For me TAS was a laaaaate watch. Enterprise had been cancelled, the JJ films were not yet a thing, it was in that really depressing period where a lot of us were like "Wow, Star Trek is really dead." My friend told me about the animated series and i *ahem* acquired it. Watched it. Love some of it, find some of it very dull. There is no denying that it's Star Trek though. And the original cast are my favorite, any time I can see or hear more of them, the better. I've mentioned this on other reactions, but, the "Star Trek 25th Anniversary" video game was the last time the original cast got together to perform the roles before we lost Deforest Kelley. In ways it feels like an Animated Series 2.0. Someone was actually going to take all of the voice lines from the game and turn them into animations with Blender before Paramount/CBS started going hard on fan productions.
Steven Johnson
2023-06-04 23:28:25 +0000 UTCMan, these are actually great :D makes me wish I had watched this sooner. But hey. This way there's some classic trek for me to watch for the first time with you. - BTW, not sure if you're aware, there were dome classic point and click adventures for trek. Two for TOS and one for TNG , in case you ever want to check those out :)
Andreas Schmitt
2023-06-04 22:51:38 +0000 UTCI watched this way back and I am pleasantly surprised how well they stand up. Seeing the shear joy on your faces is so good, glad you are enjoying it.
AzoriusMage
2023-06-04 20:43:08 +0000 UTCMy favorite paradox in all this is that Spock taught himself the nerve pinch.
James H
2023-06-04 18:58:50 +0000 UTCThis was great. Whoever thought that melding (pun intended!) The City on the Edge of Forever and Journey to Babel would turn out so well. We do get some fantastic additions to lore here such as the Vulcan city ShiKahr, getting to see a Sehlat, Amanda's maiden name of Grayson and Spock's early family life as well as the revelation that Vulcan children are most likely jerks! lol. Also good writing to give the Andorian Thelin a point of view so that he isn't just a disposable character.
Dion James Pitman
2023-06-04 18:52:12 +0000 UTCI am with James and Dale: this was the best episode of TAS. I think this story would have to be considered canon regardless of whether the rest of TAS was. Alex: great job remembering the line from Amanda in Journey to Babel about the pet sehlat that Spock had as a child: a live teddy bear with 6 inch fangs.
Collin Freeman
2023-06-04 18:50:46 +0000 UTC50 YEARS??? oh Jesus. I am three days older than dirt. I’m gonna go take a nap.
Rich Cirivilleri
2023-06-04 18:03:03 +0000 UTCYes, they will start releasing later this week into next weekend
Josh (Target Audience)
2023-06-04 17:38:06 +0000 UTCFirst thanks for reminding me this was 50 years ago, when you said it at the end I literally said out load 50 YEARS I was 7-8 years old. But I had been watching TOS on reruns for a while. When I heard the TAS was coming out I was as excited as waiting for birthday. This is my favorite episode I enjoyed all Hope you enjoy the rest. Really enjoyed watching your reactions to this episode.
Robert Elliott
2023-06-04 17:22:08 +0000 UTCAs I can't watch along on Patreon will there be edited YouTube versions of the animated series so I can see some of it?
Brad Barter
2023-06-04 17:18:33 +0000 UTCAlso after you finish watching the Animated Series and before you watch Star Trek The Motion Picture. May I make a surjection three thing that you might want to watch before hit the movies. First Filmation who produced the Star Trek animated series produced a show a year later called The Secret Lives of Waldo Kitty. Where the main character would day dream he was famous characters like The Lone Ranger, Robin Hood to name a few. In two episodes called "Cat Trek" and "Ping or Pongo" the main character becomes a cat version of Captain Kirk. Also watch the famous Saturday Night Live Skit about Star Trek called Star Trek The Last Voyage.
Jeffrey Lindenblatt
2023-06-04 15:56:51 +0000 UTCWhen you mention if a kid who never saw Star Trek who found this show would like it. Well, this is what happen to me in real life the animated series aired when I was between the ages of 5 and 7. At the time Star Trek the live action aired rerun in New York but aired past my bedtime. In Fall of 1974 the show started airing six times a week at 6pm. That is when I really was hooked.
Jeffrey Lindenblatt
2023-06-04 15:48:49 +0000 UTCMark Lenard did do the voice for Sarek and it was probably at the last minute because one of the times I met Jimmy Doohan in the 80's he said he was the voice of Sarek. He pretty much did all the male guest voices in this episode. And I am sure he recorded the lines but in the end, it was Mark. This was when TAS was out of circulation so he'd have no way of knowing the voice change, Billy Simpson is young Spock. He was considered for the part, given the script and as an audition sent a cassette tape of all of young Spock's lines thinking if he got the part they would have him come to the studio. Well, he got the part and they USED his audition tape which he never thought would be his actual performance.
Mike Rogers
2023-06-04 15:24:54 +0000 UTCAbsolutely the best of the animated series! Only D.C. Fontana would write such an excellent story of Spock's past and utilize the Guardian of Forever! Mark Lenard returns as the voice of Sarek. Just a great Star Trek story! :)
Dale Gonyea
2023-06-04 14:57:20 +0000 UTCThis is universally acclaimed as the best animated episode. That was indeed the voice of the original Sarek, Mark Lenard. The city of ShiKahr as seen in this episode was put into the background in the remastered effects for Amok Time. The kid could have done better, but his rehearsal take was used as the final. He explained that on the Enterprise Incidents podcast.
James H
2023-06-04 14:49:42 +0000 UTC
