ALL SCI-FI

[Pow]

Early concept for ST: TAS. The original crew would train new teenagers who were Starfleet Academy cadets on board the starship Excalibur.

Mr. Spock would mentor a young Vulcan named Steve. Steve? Dr. McCoy would instruct a young Africa-American named Bob.
Sulu would guide a Chinese male named Stick. Stick? Captain Kirk, Chekov, and Uhuru would also be training cadets.

Gene Roddenberry rejected this premise. "It has to be real Star Trek with the real cast."

[Pow]

Gene Roddenberry had writer D.C. Fontana as story editor on the animated series. She had written for the original show, and had been close to the production, starting off as GR's secretary prior to scripting episodes. GR knew that she would be an excellent choice for the series. She would be the primary guardian of the series, adhering to GR's vision for Star Trek.

Fontana leveraged her professional relationships in order to enlist notable science fiction writers to write scripts for the show. Not an easy task given that the pay was only $1,300 for writing an episode. She got David Gerrold ("The Trouble with Tribbles") to script a sequel "More Tribbles, More Tribbles, as well as "Jihad," and "BEM." She convinced sf author Larry Niven to adapt his short story "The Soft Weapon" to the episode "The Slaver Weapon."

James Doohan would provide over 40 other voices for the series, in addition to his voiceover work for Scotty on the series.