Star Trek: The Animated Series joins the remaining sets of Star Trek: Voyager and all seasons of Star Trek: Enterprise expected to be released in the coming year, while new details have been revealed about the Star Trek: First Contact special edition scheduled to arrive next March.

IGN FilmForce reports that the animated series DVDs have been scheduled to be released on March 15th, 2005. Utilizing many of the original series writers, the animated series ran from 1973-75 with William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley, James Doohan, Nichelle Nichols, George Takei and Majel Barrett voicing their original characters plus in several cases new ones as well.

Sci Fi Universe reported the initial rumour about the animated series release as coming from David Gerrold, one of the writers. IGN added that rumors had swirled that The Animated Series might never be released because executive producer Rick Berman believed that the show "weakened" the franchise. Now it is scheduled for DVD release on the same day as a new two-disc set for First Contact, the very successful eighth feature film.

The Region 1 release, which is expected to sell for $19.99, will offer audio commentary by director Jonathan Frakes and screenwriters Brannon Braga and Ron Moore, according to TrekWeb. Text commentary by Michael and Denise Okuda will accompany the film as well.

Though DVD Answers noted that no deleted scenes are expected to be included on the release, there will be a tribute to composer Jerry Goldsmith, a featurette on the legacy of Zefram Cochrane, a guide to Unimatrix One, a featurette on the Borg Queen and a production section on the art and design of the film. Storyboards, galleries and two trailers will round out the second disc.

Discuss this news item at Trek BBS!
 Add TrekToday RSS feed to your news reader or My Yahoo!
Also a CSI: Crime Scene Investigation fan? Then visit CSIFiles.com!