Ancient Geeks episode 19: Star Trek The Animated Series

After the original series of Star Trek concluded, it looked as though one of our favorite bits of SF had come to an end...Until surprise! Star Trek transformed into a Saturday morning cartoon! The same cast (almost), the same writers, the same everything, but now with even more alien aliens, wild new starship designs, and wacky plots!

Spock travels back in time to help his younger self! There's a giant clone of Spock! Satan lives at the center of the galaxy, and he's our friend! Larry Niven's Kzinti become part of the Star Trek continuity! The crew starts shrinking! More tribbles, more Harry Mudd!

So strap on your phaser and communicator and join us as we we travel back to when Star Trek The Animated Series – the most mature cartoon on television at the time – was sandwiched between a Partridge family knock-off and Sigmund And The Sea Monsters!

Ancient Geeks is a podcast about two geeks of a certain age re-visiting their youth. We were there when things like science fiction, fantasy, Tolkien, Star Trek, Star Wars, D&D, Marvel and DC comics, Doctor Who, and many, many other threads of modern geek culture were still on the fringes of culture. We were geeks before it was chic!

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© 2025 Tom Grant and Steven Taylor