The Animated Series

aka The Animated Adventures of Gene Roddenberry’s Star Trek

Intended to be a direct continuation of The Original Series (TOS), The Animated Series (TAS) ran two short seasons from 1973 to 1974. The series was “re-cannonized” by CBS in 2009 with a full-series DVD rerelease and distribution on various streaming platforms. TAS picks up the adventures of Kirk and company aboard the Federation starship Enterprise in the 2260s.

All episodes are listed for each season. Each episode is indicated with either a “W” for watch or an “S” for skip. I also opted to order my viewing in “chronological order” as best determined by the initial stardate given in the episode. If there isn’t a stardate, I placed it where it made the most sense relative to the other episodes. Each title below link to a post that lightly discusses the reasoning for seeing an episode or skipping an episode.

Lastly, episodes that are “essential” are indicated with an * in the Ep. No. column. Essential episodes are selected on a number of factors including character development, other cannon connections, and cultural impact. In other words, these often are best of the best of each season.

Season 1

Stardates continue to be an issue, with some episodes occurring chronologically throughout the three seasons of TOS. For instance, “The Magicks of Megas-Tu” was, at the time of its production, the earliest stated stardate of the entire franchise- predating the first regular episode of the first season of TOS. However, given that Doctor McCoy is present, it must occur later (see my head-cannon hand waving in the episode link to understand my placement of this episode in the timeline). Further, “The Slaver Weapon” occurs after the TOS episode “Bread and Circuses“, and “Mudd’s Passion” occurs before the TOS episode “The Enterprise Incident.” Almost all of TAS Season 1 occurs throughout the third season of TOS. For simplicity, I’ve listed each episode in chronological order for the series here.

At the end of my rewatch, I selected 50% of the episodes produced. Of those, 4 episodes are deemed essential.

Ep. No.	Title	Stardate	See/Skip
1×08	The Magicks of Megas-Tu	2154.4 (a.k.a 1254.4)	S
1×14	The Slaver Weapon	4187.3	S
1×10*	Mudd’s Passion	4978.5	W
1×06	The Survivor	5143.3	W
1×01	Beyond the Farthest Star	5221.3	W
1×12	The Time Trap	5267.2	W
1×03	One of Our Planets is Missing	5371.3	S
1×02*	Yesteryear	5374.4	W
1×05*	More Tribbles, More Troubles	5392.4	W
1×04	The Lorelei Signal	5483.7	S
1×13	The Ambergris Element	5499.9	S
1×15	The Eye of the Beholder	5501.2	W
1×07*	The Infinite Vulcan	5554.4	W
1×11	The Terratin Incident	5577.3	S
1×09	Once Upon a Planet	5591.2	S
1×16	The Jihad	5683.1	S

Season 2

Season Two of TAS was very short in length and in quality. Again the season is plagued with errant stardates. For simplicity, they are listed in chronological order for the season. “The Practical Joker” occurs after the TOS episode “The Return of the Archons“, and “Albatross” occurs after the TOS episode “The Empath“, with the remainder wrapping up the original crew’s lauded five-year mission.

Again, Season Two resulted in a 50% watch rating, with 2 episodes making it to the essential list.

Ep. No.	Title	Stardate	See/Skip
2×03	The Practical Joker	3183.3	W
2×04	Albatross	5275.6	S
2×05	How Sharper Than a Serpent’s Tooth	6063.4	S
2×01*	The Pirates of Orion	6334.1	W
2×06*	The Counter-clock Incident	6770.1	W
2×02	Bem	7403.6	S

In total, the entire series averages 50% watch rating. 27% of episodes are categorized as essential.