Star Trek: The Original Series the 23rd century bearing a crew dedicated to exploring the Milky Way Galaxy. Roddenberry noted a number of influences on his idea, some of which includes A. E. van Vogt's tales of the spaceship "Space Beagle", Eric Frank Russell's "Marathon" series of stories, and the film "Forbidden Planet" (1956). Some have also drawn parallels with the television series "Rocky Jones, Space Ranger" (1954), a space opera which included many of the elements that were integral to "Star Trek"—the organization, crew relationships, missions, part of the bridge layout, and some technology. Roddenberry also drew heavily from C. S. Forester's Horatio Hornblower
Star Trek expanded universe of these premises have been accepted by "Star Trek" fans as being canon, even though Paramount Pictures, owners of the "Star Trek" franchise, considers only live-action television and film productions to be canon. This has led to conflict on occasion when a TV episode or film contradicts well-established Expanded Universe backstory (most notably in the case of the prequel series, ""). "" ("TAS") was a 22 episode set of animated adventures of the "Enterprise" crew, which aired originally on NBC from 1973-1974. It featured the reappearance of popular characters from the original series, including Harry Mudd and Cyrano Jones, and