Star Trek: Now in Vibrant Technicolor

Whether you like Star Trek or not, I think there are two things almost everybody will agree on. First, Star Trek is classic science fiction that has influenced the culture and permeated almost every medium, for better or worse. Second, Star Trek has been bled to death. Five TV series and ten movies, the last two of which stank, have left the franchise on life support. Overexposure kills. That's why I was pleased to see that Paramount's latest attempt to squeeze cash out of trekkies focuses on the most underexposed bit of Trek-dom; the early 70's animated series, or "cartoon" if you'll pardon the vernacular, is coming to DVD. I have little opinion on the quality of the series for the simple reason that I believe, in my entire life, I have seen a grand total of one episode. And that was twenty years ago. But that's why I actually like this move by Paramount. At least they're putting some Trek episodes on the market that most people haven't seen a zillion times already. Be forewarned, however, if you're a Chekov fan, you're out of luck. For some reason, he didn't make the cut for the animated series.