Original Star Trek The Animated Series Cels Up For Auction Right Now
Original, hand-drawn animation cels from Star Trek: The Animated Series are currently being auctioned for sale. As somewhat of a revival of the Star Trek franchise is taking place on Paramount+ - including Star Trek: Prodigy, Star Trek: Lower Decks, Star Trek: Discovery, and Picard - Gene Roddenberry's sci-fi universe is booming. When the original series aired in the 60s, it expanded the cultural boundaries of sci-fi in several ways, though executives didn't realize its resonance until the late-night rerun syndications helped fans get attached to the crew of the USS Enterprise. At the center of Roddenberry's stories is the United Federation of Planets and their scientific ambassadors, Starfleet.
Roddenberry long stated thatStar Trek: The Animated Series wasn't canon. But that didn't stop plenty of Trekkies from considering it as such. It aired beginning in 1973 for two seasons and a total of 22 episodes. It followed the original, live-action series which began in 1966 and used the original core cast as voice actors, including William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley, James Doohan, Nichelle Nichols, and George Takei. Nimoy actually had to fight for Nichols and Takei to join when they weren't first included in the animation project. The series ended up winning an Emmy, becoming the first Star Trek series to do so.
Related: Picard Makes Star Trek: The Animated Series Aliens Canon
Some of the original animation cels from Star Trek: The Animated Series are now being auctioned at Heritage Auctions. The original production materials are hand-painted backgrounds with various layers of cels (celluloid sheets) laid over them to create an animated scene. Each cel layer is a different character or prop. The now-antiquated
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