General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20266 min read

Star Trek: Very Short Treks

Star Trek: Very Short Treks is a series of five animated promotional comedy shorts produced by CBS Studios in 2023 to mark the 50th anniversary of Star Trek: The Animated Series, the franchise's first animated series. The shorts parody different eras of Star Trek in a deliberately irreverent comic tone, using a visual style inspired by the 1973 animated series, and feature franchise actors reprising their voice roles.¹^•²

Key fact	Detail
Format	Five animated promotional shorts, each roughly 3 to 5 minutes, in the style of Star Trek: The Animated Series¹^•²
Occasion	50th anniversary of Star Trek: The Animated Series, launched as part of Star Trek Day on September 8, 2023¹
Creative lead	Casper Kelly, creative consultant, known for Too Many Cooks, Star Trek: Short Treks, and Adult Swim work³
Release	First short on September 8, 2023, exclusively on StarTrek.com and the official Star Trek YouTube channel; four more weekly on Wednesdays through October 4³
Voice cast	Jonathan Frakes (Will Riker), Doug Jones (Saru), Armin Shimerman (Quark), Ethan Peck (Spock), Gates McFadden (Dr. Beverly Crusher), Celia Rose Gooding (Uhura), Connor Trinneer (Trip Tucker), Bruce Horak (Hemmer), Noël Wells (Tendi), and George Takei (Sulu)¹
Canon status	Playful, non-canon celebrations rather than essential timeline chapters²
Companion comic	Star Trek: The Animated Celebration Presents The Scheimer Barrier, with IDW Publishing, debuting digitally on September 8³

Spoilers

Episodes and release

The first short, "Skin a Cat," debuted on Star Trek Day, September 8, 2023, at 10:00 am PT / 1:00 pm ET, exclusively on StarTrek.com and the official Star Trek YouTube channel, with four additional spots rolling out weekly on Wednesdays through October 4.³ The full schedule ran:⁹

September 8 – "Skin a Cat"
September 13 – "Holiday Party"
September 20 – "Worst Contact"
September 27 – "Holograms, All the Way Down"
October 4 – "Walk, Don't Run"

"Skin a Cat" centers on a parody captain whose colloquial, unintentionally offensive speech repeatedly lands him in trouble with his bridge crew, including the Caitian lieutenant M'Ress from The Animated Series.⁷^•¹⁰ "Worst Contact" brings back Jonathan Frakes and Gates McFadden as Will Riker and Beverly Crusher for a first-contact meeting with a new alien species whose customs prove unappealing for Federation membership.¹¹ The finale, "Walk, Don't Run," features an exclusive musical duet from two of Star Trek's most beloved characters and appearances from crews past and present, which StarTrek.com describes as a celebration across generations.¹²

Purpose and context

The shorts formed the video centerpiece of Star Trek: The Animated Celebration, a salute to the 50th anniversary of Star Trek: The Animated Series, which ran for 22 episodes over two seasons from September 1973 to October 1974 on NBC.⁴^•⁵ According to StarTrek.com, the series pays tribute to the show that kicked off Star Trek's animated legacy while incorporating all corners of the Star Trek universe in a fun and irreverent manner.⁶

The project was first announced in July 2023 at San Diego Comic-Con's Star Trek panel.⁷ According to its Shorty Awards entry, the series aimed to depict every era of the Star Trek franchise in the distinctive Filmation look of the original cartoon, filtered through Casper Kelly's offbeat comedic perspective, while stretching what counts as humor and remaining faithful to Star Trek's central characters and values.⁸

Production

Casper Kelly, an Adult Swim veteran best known for the viral short Too Many Cooks, served as creative consultant and is credited by Comic Movie DB as director.³^•² He wrote the shorts alongside Saturday Night Live writer Claire Friedman and Aaron Waltke, who wrote on Star Trek: Prodigy.¹³ The animation was produced with the creative team from Awesome Inc.¹⁴

Kelly had a personal connection to the source material: as a young boy in the 1970s he was among the viewers upset when The Animated Series ended in 1974 after two seasons.¹³ In the behind-the-scenes feature The Making of 'Star Trek: very Short Treks' with Casper Kelly he acknowledged that he was not "that conscious" about celebrating the original series and "just focused on what's funny."¹⁵ He compared the approach to Adult Swim reimaginings of older Hanna-Barbera cartoons such as Space Ghost and Sealab 2021, and said the series takes even more risks than the animated series that came before it.¹³ According to TVLine, Star Trek franchise head Alex Kurtzman, a fan of Kelly's work, specifically wanted him to get strange with the series.¹⁶

Reception

Fan and critical reception was divided. Comic Movie DB gave the series a 6/10 editorial score, writing that its value lies in seeing Star Trek laugh at its own history and animation legacy while experimenting with a deliberately exaggerated tone, and that the shorts are designed for fans who understand the references being twisted.² Gizmodo's review of "Worst Contact" argued the anthology was drifting from knowing Trek humor toward low-brow gross-out comedy, noting that Star Trek: Lower Decks had already proved Star Trek comedy could also be really good Star Trek.¹¹ Daily Star Trek News called the run "a puzzling mess" and quoted fan criticism on Twitter describing the shorts as redundant, pointless, and incoherent.¹⁰ The Shorty Awards stated that the project succeeded in surprising fans and creating lively digital conversation around what the Star Trek universe can offer.⁸

Relationship to Short Treks

Despite the similar name, Very Short Treks is distinct from Star Trek: Short Treks, the 2018 to 2020 anthology of 10- to 15-minute standalone stories tied to Star Trek: Discovery and the broader Star Trek universe.¹⁷ Kelly had previously worked on Short Treks, and the new series reuses the short-form format for promotional comedy rather than canon storytelling.³^•²

References

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 21, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026