| Star Trek: The Animated Series or 'to be, or not to be...' |
| Website design By Andriech. Original website graphics by Vengaurd. Copyright 2006-2010 by Star Traveler Publications |
| Star Trek. Com: are they confused? Star Trek: The Animated Series (Star Trek :TAS) premiered on television on NBC, Saturday Sept. 8, 1973: exactly 7 years to the day the original series debuted. Whether this series should be considered canon in the Trek universe is hotly debated by fans. It was, in fact, created by Gene Roddenberry's with the idea that animation could truly take us places that the realities of television filming could not at the time and won an Emmy during it's run. It included many episodes written by notable Trek writers, including Walter Koenig's "The Infinite Vulcan."After it's demise, however, Gene was apparently disappointed in how the idea played out and was quoted as telling Paramount not to consider the animated episodes part of the official Star Trek history timeline. The Pavel Chekov site now discusses this series for one main reason: every fan knows that our favorite Navigator was not included in the cast of TAS due to budgetary reasons. Many of the cast voiced several different characters to keep costs down, in fact. Walter Koenig has been quoted as saying: "It was probably for the best: I don't look good in acetate and ink." Strangely enough, however, StarTrek.com has now added an animated portrait of Pavel Chekov to the "official" TAS cast list on their site and added his name (and possibly his image) to the episode credits for "More Troubles, More Tribbles". This is probably an attempt by 'The Powers That Be' to correct what is now an obvious, huge mistake on their part. Where did they come up with this "chekov", however? As always, we're here to try to address this confusion... and add our own two cents....er....kopeks. |
| Initial Plans and TAS Concept Drawings During the initial planning for The Animated Series, the original ideas were to have the Original Series crew be seen in either adventures from their past, to be teamed up with younger versions of themselves, or to be teamed up with Academy cadets as mentors. According to "The Art of Star Trek" (by Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens) this idea "lasted all of about thirty minutes." While in the planning stages, however, concept drawing of the crew were done and included both Pavel Chekov and a young version of the Ensign. You'll not be surprised to find that the StarTrek.com 'cast' picture of Chekov is this original drawing inked as though he was included as part of the crew on celluoid. These copies of original art concepts are from "The Art of Star Trek". Chekov is on the far right with his childhood self in the crew drawing. (Notice our 'young hippie Uhura, too!') |
| Star Trek: TAS, the Way It Should Have Been Done It doesn't matter what StarTrek.com scrambles to try to correct: the fact is that Pavel Chekov was NOT a part of the TAS crew, for whatever reason. The fact is also that Star Trek fans have been recognizing-- and correcting-- the mistakes of 'The Powers That Be' long before they ever saw them: and BETTER than the studio ever could. This brings us to... |
| These fans, headed by Kail Tescar, have been producing high quality on-line comic books based on the TAS series and art since 1999. With one notable exception: Chekov is in the TAS crew. (didn't get that?) Chekov is in the TAS crew. (still didn't understand?) CHEKOV IS IN THE TAS CREW!!! Where he should have been all along! |
| Kail Tescar has done a remarkable job creating a TAS style Chekov we can all recognize... and includes him in the action where he belongs. Chekov's first appearance was in comic # 2 "From Nature to Eternity" where he was at Starfleet Command receiving specialized Security training. |
From Kail Tescar: "So please come and spend some time with us, enjoy the many sights and sounds we have to offer and help us celebrate the ‘lost' treks of "Star Trek: The Animated Series"! " |
| The Pavel Chekov Site is grateful to Kail Tescar for the wonderful wallpapers featured below that he provided of his TAS Pavel Chekov! Be sure to visit the Star Trek: The Animated Series Comic site to enjoy these new adventures of our crew and our Navigator, Pavel Chekov! |
| Chekov returned (as planned for Star Trek: Phase II, and as seen in TMP) in later issues of the comics as a Lieutenant in charge of security on the Enterprise. His latest adventures can be seen in comic #8, "The Patient Parasites", written by Russell Bates ("How Sharper Than a Serpants Tooth") |
