The animated series' canonical status explained

Although Star Trek: The Animated Series quickly became popular, there have long been questions about whether it belongs in the franchise's main canon, but there is a definitive answer. THE Star Trek The timeline has become much longer since The animated series ended, but the space opera's debut spinoff laid the groundwork for the future of the sci-fi saga in more ways than one. Although the announcement of new Star Trek shows no longer feel like a landmark event, Star Trek: The Animated Series'the premiere was incredibly exciting for early Trekkies.

Star Trek: The Animated Series aired for two seasons between 1973 and 1975, totaling 22 episodes. Of all the lively ones Star Trek shows, is arguably the most important to the franchise's greater future. Not only did it renew interest in Gene Roddenberry's creation, but it also opened the door to alternative means in which Star Trek Stories could be told. Regardless, there were long periods when it was difficult to determine whether Star Trek: The Animated series should only be properly appreciated in isolation, that is, linked to other Star Trek movies and TV shows.

Star Trek: The Animated Series Is Canonical to the Rest of the Franchise

USS Enterprise's 5-Year Mission Moves to Animated Project

Star Trek: The original series was canceled in 1969 after season 3. However, the show's continued popularity brought the franchise out of dormancy when Star Trek: The Animated Series started four years later. It certainly seemed like showrunner Gene Roddenberry was making his animated spinoff a direct sequel to Star Trek: The Original Seriessince there was nothing to really disprove it. The switch from live action to animation caused confusion, understandably, but any doubts should have been reasonably reduced by the return of Star Trek: The Original Series' cast to voice their respective characters.

Due to its long-standing status of occupying a nebulous place in the Star Trek canon, The animated series was largely ignored for decadesor at least it was referenced much less frequently than other franchise projects. The show has since been officially confirmed to be set in the same continuity as Star Trek: The Original Series and the other live-action Star Trek show. While it's perhaps a little unfair that such official categorization was omitted, it makes sense considering that when the show was made, canon status, especially in science fiction, is a much greater focus in the modern era.

Star Trek: the animated series was only officially released by Canon in 2010

Gene Roddenberry's stance was not consistent

Despite Roddenberry's attention to detail in making Star Trek: The Animated Series and the obvious intention of serving as a show documenting the final years of the USS Enterprise's five-year mission, the showrunner ended up changing his mind about the animated spinoff and decided it wasn't part of the main canon. While Paramount largely honored this choice, the addition of Star Trek: The Animated Series to the list of officially canon shows in 2010 means there is no longer any debate about whether the project belongs in the main continuity.

Interestingly, even before the decision to canonize Star Trek: The Animated Series by 2010, the franchise's large fanbase had already adopted the show as part of the main universe, regardless of Paramount's stance on the matter. Why there is no narrative reason to believe this The animated series can sit perfectly next to others Star Trek showIt's a pretty harmless assumption to make.

Even after Star Trek: The Animated Series was officially canonized, it took a while for other corners of the saga to begin to acknowledge its existence. When the decision was made in 2010, there was no Star Trek shows in active production, so it took until Star Trek: Discoverydebut in 2017 for integration to begin properly. The biggest movement Discovery made was the casting of Adrian Holmes as Captain Robert April - a character who debuted in Star Trek: The Animated Series. Similarly, Star Trek: Lower Decks contains several references to specific events in Star Trek: The Animated Series.

Star Trek Canon has changed a lot since the animated series

Star Trek has become a multimedia saga of epic proportions

Questions similar to those raised about Star Trek: The Animated Series'canon status hasn't gone away since the 1970s. In fact, the exponential growth of the franchise that's happened since then has resulted in more and more confusion about what's canon and what's not. Star Trek has gone far beyond just being a screen-based franchise now. There are countless books, comics, podcasts, and other forms of media that could be placed in the same continuity. However, the easiest rule to remember is that movies and TV shows take priority over everything else.

Like this Star Trek: The Animated Series was made to sit in the main canonofficially or not, others Star Trek Since then, stories far removed from the TV shows and films have adopted a similar structure. The writers of these ancillary stories will almost always take into account the franchise's canonical milestones, lore, and backstory, but that doesn't necessarily mean they're part of the main continuity. That being said, if one of the on-screen based plots directly references one of these off-screen narratives, then it is pulled into the main Star Trek canon.

All Star Trek animated series are Canon

Animation as a medium is the same as live action in Star Trek

Star Trek: The Animated Series initially seemed separate from Star Trek: The Original Serieslargely due to the former being animated and the latter not. Since then, the franchise has learned from its mistakes. For example, Star Trek: Lower Decks quickly made it clear that it was no less canon than its live-action counterparts. The biggest piece of evidence to support this is when the series' two animated characters crossed over to live action to interact with Anson Mount's Captain Pike in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2, Episode 7, "Those Old Scientists."

Similarly, Star Trek: Prodigy is an original show, but it is also essentially a legacy sequel to Star Trek: Voyager. Although it is also a standalone story, Star Trek: Prodigy makes many direct references to Star Trek: Voyager episodesand even spins off and continues certain storylines from the Kate Mulgrew-led show. At the same time, members of the Star Trek: The Next Generation cast also reprise their roles in Star Trek: Prodigy and the same is true for your returns on Star Trek: Lower Decks. So the excited Star Trek the installments are as canonical as the live-action ones.