Newsgroup: it.fan.startrek
Titolo: TAS, una nuova serie?

http://www.startrek.com/startrek/view/news/article/34575.html
	11.17.2006
Takei: Animated Trek Should Be Revived
George Takei believes that animated Star Trek should be given another
chance. Star Trek: The Animated Series ran for 22 episodes on Saturday
mornings in the 1973-74 TV season, and it will finally be released on DVD
this Tuesday, November 21. To promote the release Takei spoke to a variety
of press outlets on Friday, and in our conversation with him he floated the
possibility that if the DVD proves popular, it could lead to a revival of
animated Trek — with the original Enterprise crew, involving the original
living cast, with other voice talent impersonating Dr. McCoy and Scotty. At
least, that's what he'd like to see happen, so that the "potentials" of
animation in the Star Trek landscape "can be fully explored."
Our 15-minute talk with George this afternoon is as follows, verbatim:
STARTREK.COM
: So tell us, how's life?
George Takei: Life is glorious! Having a great time. Here we are in
Southern California, I was up in San Francisco last weekend on a speaking
engagement and it was bone-chilling, in fact it rained the day before and
then on the following day it was very cold. And the week before that I was
in New York, and you know New York in early November!
STC: I hear it was very rainy there at one point.
GT: Yes it was. So I am reveling in this glorious golden sunshine.
STC: Well, we're always glad to have you home in one piece. So you're
talking about the Animated Series today, and it's coming out on DVD this
Tuesday — finally after all this time — and so what are your thoughts about
the Animated Series?
GT: Well, it's been a long time since I saw it. Paramount sent over some
DVDs, so I took a look at some of the episodes, and it was déjà vu! The
charmingly cheesy quality of the live-action Star Trek is [laugh] well
echoed in the animated versions. You know, on the live action shows our
sets trembled sometimes, and the buttons were jelly bean-type little
plastic things, and in the animated version they've replicated that all
very precisely! And the acting seems as wooden as some of the actors were!
[Laugh] You know, in the animated versions the movement of the actors is
rather stiff, the heads don't turn when they talk. And it filled me with a
little nostalgia.
STC: So let me ask your opinion on the quality of the Animated Series, in
every respect — the animation, the writing...
GT: The writing I think is wonderful — I mean, it really dealt with Star
Trek ideas and Star Trek themes. The animation I thought could have been
done a little bit more fluently. And, you know, with the animated version
you have the potential, the possibility of letting the imagination really
go, and have phantasmagoric alien civilizations where gravity and
engineering don't have to play a role, as it did on the [live-action] set —
you know, we had gravity, we had budgets to worry about — and the alien
lifeforms didn't need to be so humanoid.
STC: Exactly.
GT: With animation you had the possibility of doing really imaginative,
fantastical lifeforms. And I hope that the success of this animated version
will prompt another series of animated Star Treks so that those potentials
can be fully explored.
STC: Really? Are you thinking in terms of the original Enterprise crew for
a new animated show, or possibly an animated Next Generation?
GT: Well, obviously I have a vested interest in the original! And the
original is what is undebatably the most popular of all the series. So
yeah, I'd like to see our generation of Star Trek revived in animated form.
And, our voices more-or-less still resemble what we sounded like 40 years
ago, so I think the original actors could be brought back for that. And
then there are some amazing people who can do remarkable take-offs on
Scotty's voice and on McCoy's voice. So I think that would be a fascinating
idea.
STC: Well, it's a wonderful proposition!
GT: And if the animated version should be revived, all the writers are
there — David Gerrold, Dorothy Fontana ... and Walter! [Koenig, who wrote
"The Infinite Vulcan."]
STC: They're all still around!
GT: Yes indeed.
STC: The big debate that's always surrounded the Animated Series is: should
those 22 episodes be considered part of Star Trek "canon"? In other words,
should those adventures, presumably in the fourth year of the five-year
mission, be considered part of official Star Trek history? Do you have any
thoughts on that?
GT: Well, I don't want to insert myself into some treacherous territory!
[Laughs] But I think if it were done selectively and, you know, judiciously
incorporated into the canon, and parts that seem to be contrary to what has
been established not be incorporated, I think that would be perfectly all
right. The animated versions are a fun sort of thing, you know, but there
have been some shows [subsequent Star Trek episodes] that have incorporated
elements that happened in the animated version, so I certainly wouldn't
quarrel with it.
STC: Now, like James Doohan and Majel Barrett, you played more characters
than just Sulu in the animated show.
GT: You know, I did, but I can't remember which ones. But I gotta get this
in on this conversation: The reason that Nichelle [Nichols] and I are in
the animated show, we owe to Leonard Nimoy. Because originally when they
cast the voices for the animated version, the people who were asked to join
that project were Bill [Shatner], Leonard, DeForest [Kelley], Jimmy Doohan,
and Majel. And Jimmy was to do both Scotty and Sulu's voice, and Majel was
to do Chapel and Uhura's voice. But when Leonard found out about this, he
said, "Wait a minute. One of the pillars of Star Trek is the strength that
the Enterprise gets from its diversity. And the two people who most
represent diversity on the show are Nichelle and George. And if they're not
going to be a part of this, then you don't want me." And Leonard used his
clout — I mean, they absolutely needed Leonard — to include Nichelle and me
in the animated version. So we owe that participation to an actor of great
integrity who was willing to sacrifice his own involvement for, first of
all, the fundamental idea of the show, and to make it possible for us to
continue to be associated with Star Trek.
STC: We're very glad about that.
GT: I am! And my accountant, especially!
STC: Yeah, exactly! You do get a little bit of residuals from this, don't
you! Now, wasn't there some controversy back then about the Animated show,
particularly in Los Angeles?
GT: Oh, yes, yes! I ran for Los Angeles City Council, just at the time that
the Animated Series began running. And Channel 13 was also, at the same
time, airing the live-action Star Trek. I was running against something
like 17 other people for that council seat, and Channel 13 ran a rerun — I
forget what the episode was — but I was on-screen for about 14 minutes, and
all the 17 other candidates for the city council seat claimed equal time.
Now, the Federal Communications Commission has this stupid ruling called
the Equal Time ruling, which means that if a candidate for public office
gets exposure on TV, then all of the other candidates are entitled to equal
time. But, you know, I was on screen as a character, mouthing words written
by a writer. They weren't as me, George Takei, talking on my own personal
thoughts. But their claim based on those 14 minutes of me as Sulu
prevailed, and so that poor station, Channel 13, had to give away a whole
boring evening, a parade of people running for city council saying "My name
is Joe Smith and this is my position on taxation" or "My name is Mary Jones
and this is my position on education." They were able to speak as
themselves on issues based on my 14 minutes as an actor playing a role and
saying things that were written for me. It was absolutely unequal. And
because the stations — both the station playing the reruns of the
live-action series as well as the one airing the Animated Series — didn't
want to do that, they pulled all the episodes that I participated in. And
so, you know, it was a crazy thing that they did.
[Note: Takei barely lost that 1973 election, but was later appointed to a
city transportation board position by Mayor Tom Bradley.]
The other side of that is — you know, we all get paid residuals for reruns
— but I as an individual actor might be willing to forgo my residuals to
run for public office, but when they pulled the episodes that I was on, all
of the other people on the show — actors, writers, directors — also lost
their residual payment. And I felt terribly about that! Because of my
decision to run for public office, they had an economic penalty put on
them. So I learned a lesson from that — I cannot run for public office. And
I'm kinda glad! [Laugh]
STC: That's interesting. Makes you wonder how Arnold Schwarzenegger has
gotten away with what he has. But the controversy only affected Los
Angeles, correct?
GT: No, the show wasn't pulled in other parts of the country, just in L.A.
But you know, this was an animated version — you know, drawings of me! And
the only thing real that was George Takei about that was my voice! And yet
that too had to be counted under the Equal Time ruling. And so they
completely pulled the Animated Series for the duration of the election
campaign [in September 1973].
I was just given the sign that our time is up, and there's another person
trying to call in.
STC: Another time we'll talk about your "New Voyages" episode. Thank you so
much!
If you want to ask questions of George yourself, he will be conducting a
live video chat — along with Walter and Nichelle — at TVLand.com this
Sunday, Nov. 19, starting at 9 p.m. Eastern, 6:00 Pacific. To participate,
you must register with the site — visit the TVLand.com Star Trek page,
disable any pop-up blockers in your browser, and click on "Chat Live Now!
With George Takei, Walter Koenig and Nichelle Nichols." You can also submit
questions in advance.
In other George Takei news, word has surfaced that he will make a guest
appearance in NBC's sci-fi hit Heroes. He will play the father of
time-traveling fanboy Hiro Nakamura (Masi Oka) in the season cliffhanger on
Monday, January 29. The official announcement is expected to be made in the
Nov. 27 issue of TV Guide, due out next week. 
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 Takei: Animated Trek Should Be Revived
Il ritorno dei morti viventi.
Ciao,
luigi
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Law of the Perversity of Nature: You cannot successfully determine 
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