What was the first Star Trek series to win an Emmy?

In the 1960s, television was boldly going where it had never gone before. From "The Twilight Zone" to "Lost in Space," science fiction was having a moment. "Star Trek" would become one of the most influential shows of all time - but which version of the series would be the first to earn television's highest honor?

Click below to answer.

Or scroll past the quiz to reveal the answer!

Reveal answer and learn more:

▼

The answer is: "Star Trek: The Animated Series"

"Star Trek: The Animated Series" snagged the franchise's first Emmy for Outstanding Entertainment Children's Series in 1975. The original series had broken ground with groundbreaking stories - now its cartoon cousin was breaking awards barriers.

The switch to animation unleashed the crew's imagination. Lt. Arex, sporting three arms and matching legs, calmly plotted courses from the bridge. The Enterprise met crystalline entities, energy beings, and creatures that would have melted the original show's effects budget. Even the ship itself cut loose, pulling maneuvers that would have snapped any physical model in half.

Gene Roddenberry brought back the original cast, cramming them into recording booths instead of onto sets. William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, and DeForest Kelley returned to their roles, their voices carrying the same weight as their physical performances. Veteran "Trek" writer D.C. Fontana and her team crafted scripts about consciousness, immortality, and the price of progress - just with fewer rubber-suited aliens.

Over 22 episodes spanning two seasons, "The Animated Series" refused to play it safe. Time paradoxes? They tackled three. Parallel universes? They mapped them all. The nature of reality? They questioned it weekly. The Emmy voters noticed what fans already knew - "Star Trek" could soar in any format.

For years, Paramount kept "The Animated Series" at arm's length, marking it as non-canonical. But that Emmy trophy tells a different story. Between the end of the original series and the birth of the movies, "Star Trek" found a new way to explore strange new worlds - it just took a quick detour through the animation studio to get there.