The other day we
had the official announcement that Paramount would release
Star Trek: The Animated Series - All 22 Episodes of the Animated Adventures of Gene Roddenberry's Star Trek. This 4-DVD set arrives on
November 21st, in a spiffy package (see below) for just $35 SRP. We've already listed the confirmed extras that you can be sure to find on this release, but here they are again:
- "Drawn to the Final Frontier - The Making of Star Trek: The Animated Series"
- "What's the Star Trek Connection?"
- Photo Gallery
- Show History
- Wallpaper
- AIM Icons
- Text Commentaries by Michael Okuda and Denise Okuda ("Yesteryear," "The Eye of the Beholder," "The Counter-Clock Incident")
Notice, though, that the announcement said "confirmed extras." Not necessarily the complete list, then? Right you are! Because we've gotten word from folks in-the-know that more bonus material is on the way, and some of it's just been recorded, or about to be recorded!
TVShowsOnDVD has learned that Interviews and Commentary Tracks with the people behind the scenes of these animated adventures are being produced! Filmation's Lou Scheimer is part of this, and so is Director Hal Sutherland. Associate Producer/Story Editor/"Yesteryear" Writer D.C. Fontana is also supposed to be involved, we hear.
And YOU willl hear from David Wise, the Co-Writer of the episode "How Sharper Than A Serpent's Tooth." Writer David Gerrold is also going to be found on these DVDs, talking about his episodes "BEM" and the Cyrano Jones sequel, "More Tribbles, More Troubles." We've also heard that Judith and Garfield Reese-Stevens (
Enterprise Writers/Co-Producers, and also Co-Authors of
The Art of Star Trek) may also be on hand, to discuss their perspective on the show's place in
Trek history. It's also possible that Walter Koenig himself (who did NOT voice act in
The Animated Series, but rather was the Writer of the episode "The Infinite Vulcan") might make the scene.
Anything we sound unsure of, treat it as a rumor. There's only a few of those names that we're absolutely sure about. The rest are "maybes." If we get a definite list, we'll be back to provide it to you.
[CORRECTION, 7/20: Overnight we received an e-mail from David Wise, informing us that he had indeed provided a commentary track, but none was provided - to his knowledge, anyway - by his co-writer Russell Bates. This was apparently a misunderstanding on our part, by not fully comprehending the message from our original source, so our apologies for that. Also, David points out that the original announcement's comment that the story "How Sharper Than A Serpent's Tooth" was a "Peabody award-winning episode" was mistaken. He informs us that "The episode was the one the Emmy judges viewed and on the basis of this the series won Best Children's Show." Thanks to him, and to reader Andrew Beal, for the correction on that information; we were basing that on the info taken from the official announcement. The original text above has been changed to reflect these two corrections. TVShowsOnDVD regrets the errors. - David Lambert]
Scheimer and Gerrold also did some misc. voice acting on a few of these episodes, so keep a sharp ear out for them! Also, don't forget that the second-season episode "The Practical Joker" was the very first time we saw the "recreation room," which was the first ancestor of what became
TNG's "holodeck." In case you don't remember, McCoy and Sulu and Uhura got trapped in there, in a number of changing dangerous conditions, including a blizzard! It's all part of the complete
Animated Series DVDs! Here's another look at the packaging:
