Whatcha Watchin?

The tablet and Netflix are a dangerous combination.  When we moved to the new house we made the decision to not have a TV in the master.  Somewhere I'd read that you sleep better if when you go to bed you go to sleep (other nocturnal activities not withstanding).  In any case, between the iPad, Slingbox, and Netflix - maybe throw in HBOGO and the TBS and TNT and various other channel apps; it's become fairly clear to me that one of the tablets major functions is television.

So I've been just pounding down TV series (and simultaneously really skewing the Netflix "you might like" engine).  I started with Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip.  Then I moved on to Sportsnight.  Next up was all of Red Dwarf.  How i missed Red Dwarf all those years ago escapes me.  

After that I went on a little X-Men cartoon binge, you can see those titles in the last post.  When I came to the end of the last X-Men series I had a real choice to make.  I was thinking about going through all the Star Trek Deep Space Nine episodes.  I really like that show.  I did watch the one where they sail the lightship to Cardassia, and then also the Tribble episode. I probably will surrender and watch the whole thing, but for the time being I put it off.

For what you ask?  Something even further into my past:

I decided to rewatch Star Trek, The Animated Series.  I remember watching these AGES ago.  Some things really strike me now.  First is that the voices are mostly the actors from the series.  Second is that the look and feel of the cartoon so closely matches the live action show.  The set up and transition shots of the Enterprise are nearly identical, and they've been very faithful to the design.  I even recognize the pattern of windows on the ship.  It's possible that the scoring is better for the cartoon.  I'll have to watch an original episode to be sure.  The one huge difference is their adoration for shots like the one above, with one character's face filling nearly the entire frame.  That'd look different with live actors.

Something else that's struck me is that the writing isn't dumbed down at all for the cartoon.  One of the first episodes dealt with wiping and restoring Spock to the timeline, fairly complex stuff for Saturday morning consumption.  I'm only halfway through season one and we've seen the Guardian of Forever, Tribbles, and the Shore Leave world as well as left the universe entirely for a story with witches and Satan.

Seem how I just don't think later generations got the same things out of The Smurfs.