Short But Sweet

Readers of my blog have enjoyed (or tolerated, or ignored) my many Star Trek reviews. In particular, I try to keep up with all the new Star Trek within a week of its release. But there was one release in 2023 that I have yet to write about -- a release that quite a few Star Trek fans don't even know of: Very Short Treks.

In September 2023, to mark the 50th anniversary of the original Star Trek: The Animated Series, five new cartoons were released. They were unusual in every conceivable way. They were, as the name promises, very short. Where the Short Treks from a few years ago ran about 10-15 minutes each, these Very Short Treks are all under 5 minutes. They're all deliberately done in the animation style of the original animated series (most lovingly recreated). They each focus on different time periods and different characters throughout the Star Trek franchise. They were made available not on the Paramount+ app, but on YouTube. And they are declared to be "anything but canon."

If you watch them all back to back, it's really like watching an episode of Saturday Night Live in which every sketch is about Star Trek. Each episode is basically one joke taken to the extreme, some funnier than others. All five really do have their moments, but in the way of an SNL sketch, some probably do go on a little too long.

They were released one at a time over the course of five weeks, so there is nominally an order to them. Still, that order hardly matters, so I'll quickly recount them in my personal order of preference. I won't say much about any of them, because to say more would be to spoil the joke -- the whole point of even watching them.

My favorite was "Worst Contact," a Next Generation cartoon centered on Riker and Crusher beaming down to make first contact with an alien race we quickly learn to be contenders for the most disgusting creatures in the known universe. (And the fact that it really is Jonathan Frakes and Gates McFadden doing the voices definitely makes it funnier.)

A close second was "Holograms All the Way Down," a hard one to discuss at all, but one that gives all kinds of quick one-off jokes and delightful cameos along the way.

"Holiday Party" showcases Ethan Peck in the most hilarious way, as Spock tries to entertain the crew with his understanding of a blooper reel.

"Skin a Cat" is a fun riff on the human-centric nature of Starfleet.

"Walk, Don't Run" is the capper of the whole affair, the episode that breaks the fourth wall to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Animated Series... but it isn't exactly funny so much as celebratory.

If you haven't watched these Very Short Treks (or, indeed, even heard of their existence), you should take the time to check them out. It will barely take you 15 minutes... maybe more depending on the ads YouTube makes you watch first. Your favorites may be different from mine, but I think you'll find they're good for a few laughs, regardless of your taste. I give the collection a B+.