Star Trek: Short Treks: Very Short Treks

September 29, 2023 9:31 AM - All Seasons

A very special quasi-season of ST:ST, these are micro-episodes of Trek done in the style of Star Trek: The Animated Series. [CW: some gore, improbable aliens]

They're created by Casper Kelly, who also did Too Many Cooks and Your Pretty Face is Going to Hell, and if you know anything about either one of those, you may have some idea of what's in store. They're being posted on YouTube, with a total of five in the series, with one left to be posted. Oh, and "anything but canon", although I'm holding out hope that the Knickersonians cross over into canonicity.

posted by Halloween Jack (14 comments total)

Thanks for posting. I was aware of these, but somehow missed they were on Youtube! I know the reception has been somewhat mixed with at least one person stating the first couple were essentially what everyone feared Lower Decks would be, versus what it actually turned out to be. I'll zip back around after watching!
posted by Atreides at 11:54 AM on September 29, 2023 [1 favorite]

They're pretty terrible.
posted by kyrademon at 12:15 PM on September 29, 2023 [6 favorites]

I'd heard about these, but kept forgetting to check them out because apparently they're not posted on Paramount Plus with all of the other Trek stuff. Knowing that Casper Kelly is involved has me intrigued, but I'm not thrilled about having to track them down on Youtube like I'm a 12-year-old foraging for Minecraft Let's Plays, instead of on the specific service I subscribe to as my Star Trek delivery mechanism.
posted by Strange Interlude at 12:20 PM on September 29, 2023 [2 favorites]

Here are all that have been posted so far:

Skin a Cat
Holiday Party
Worst Contact
Holograms All the Way Down
posted by 1970s Antihero at 2:13 PM on September 29, 2023 [1 favorite]

The best bit is the opening "Star Trek" animation done in a Filmation style, with some VHS-like sound distortion on the fanfare.

Beyond that, they're fine! They're not deep content but they're also, like, three minutes long.
posted by thecaddy at 2:36 PM on September 29, 2023 [4 favorites]

Holograms All the Way Down is good.

The rest, eh.
posted by cuscutis at 5:48 PM on September 29, 2023 [1 favorite]

I love that Peck is game for anything. He's a clear standout for me in both Skin A Cat and Holiday Party.

"I have others — she has dumped me for other men several times."

And yeah, Holograms All the Way Down is the pick of the lot so far, I was hoping they'd all be more like that one.
posted by fifteen schnitzengruben is my limit at 7:10 PM on September 29, 2023 [1 favorite]

I really liked "Skin a Cat", not only because the "you thought that it was OK to kill/eat/use/ruin the environment of X, only you found out that X was sentient, don't you feel bad" is a recurrent trope in Trek, but that, when Kirk is imagining the person who will save the ship, when she manifests, she's wearing glasses--it's that little touch for his dream woman (which he didn't even say out loud) that makes it convincing that he'd immediately try to woo her instead of letting her save the ship.

Also, I'm pretty sure that the Knickersonians could be canon if it's established that the knickers aren't actually part of them but just their traditional dress.
posted by Halloween Jack at 7:20 PM on September 29, 2023

This baffled me, too, but the person sitting in the captain’s chair in “Skin a Cat” is not Kirk, the credit at the YouTube page is merely (Captain), I gather the visual representation is that of the voice talent: Pete Holmes.
posted by channaher at 9:21 AM on September 30, 2023

The last one, "Walk, Don't Run" has dropped. The start is not promising (almost a rehash of "Skin a Cat", tbh), but the payoff is gold.
posted by hanov3r at 2:19 PM on October 4, 2023 [1 favorite]

I thought these were unfathomably terrible. Liked the Gazelle Automations shorts created Filmation style shorts much better:

Star Trek the Next Generation: The Animated Series

Star Trek Voyager: The Animated Series

How We Animated Star Trek: TNG: TAS
posted by juiceCake at 5:41 PM on October 5, 2023

Trek Culture has posted their "Ups and Downs" for the whole Very Short Treks run. Spoiler alert: it's not terribly favorable, especially to the first few.

And I pretty much agree with every word Seán says.
posted by hanov3r at 12:13 PM on October 13, 2023 [1 favorite]

Meh, some of these Very Short Treks OK just before bedtime after one bourbon too many and you want a few minutes to settle the mind after watching something more meaningful. Leans a bit too heavy on the nostalgia and irony and it's a bit of an overworked trope after years of Adult Swim. I think Robert Smigel's Saturday TV Funhouse did this kind of thing best, but it's fun to see some of it in Star Trek.

Best bit for me so far was Walk, Don't Run which features Riker singing

It doesn't matter your species
if you're old generation or new,
if you're animated on 2's or 6's.
Love is the answer.

Animating on 6s not being a thing that anyone would do other than as a dire cost savings measure. Love is not the answer to animating on 6s: an animation budget is the answer. Which TAS famously did not have.

But I feel this joke hits new now that everyone's seen Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. If they were paying attention they are now aware of how animating on 2s or 3s can create jazz-like syncopation. It's an interesting technique when used well, it's not just cost savings. Sadly TAS lacked any of that artistry. It made up for it with cat people.
posted by Nelson at 8:12 AM on October 17, 2023 [2 favorites]

Wow, those were... I'll be nice and say not for me.
posted by Space Kitty at 8:22 PM on October 21, 2023