As to the artistry:

The animation is an exact duplication of Filmation’s techniques. The likenesses of Carter, Tacket, Smithfield and Prescott are rendered exactly like those of Kirk, Spock and McCoy. The limited motion, the eye blinking, the slow pans, the close ups with small push ins, the head turns and the raised eyebrows are all there. The soaring, jaunty Starship Farragut theme is adapted nicely to this animated episode’s opening credits. (The credits also include a nice little tour of the Solar system by the starship.) Original themes from Star Trek: The Animated Series are used in the rest of the act. I found them to be well coordinated with the action. The sound effects were dead on. The ship exteriors and interior were up to snuff. The expansive engineering room with all its blinking lights, endless panels and high ceiling was especially well rendered.

The voiceover work by the Farragut cast was quite good -- that of Holly Bednar was specifically outstanding. Her voice was quite "animated." The dialog was tight, and the story moved along. As this episode progressed, my first impression was that the Farragut voice talent was settling in quite nicely to do the voiceovers on the episode. The second thing was that Chris Doohan, son of James "Scotty" Doohan, was doing the voiceover for the Andorian navigator, Thelin, from the TAS episode "Yesteryear." As you may recall, the senior Doohan originally did that voiceover back in 1973 as well as a great many others for both in TOS and TAS. In addition, Captain Glenn, the Azrael's skipper, is voiced Jason LeBlanc with a DeForest Kelley-like flair and gruffness. I continued to be amazed at the craftsmanship of the animation, soundtrack and sound effects. It was dead-on Filmation quality. So yes, we are watching an actual animated episode of Star Trek. Hats off to the NEO f/x team -- producer Michael Struck, lead artist and associate producer Kail Tescar (of startrekanimated.com fame), music composer Hetoreyn (he also voices the helmsman), sound effects guru Ralph Miller, and illustrator/artists Ken Thomson Jr., Guy Davis and Charles Barnard. They really have outdone themselves with this project.

As to the story:

In Act I, writer Thomas J. Scott lays out the mystery to be solved in this episode quite well. The Farragut is headed to the Quorus system to locate the Federation starship U.S.S. Azrael, a Saladin-class vessel with the typical saucer upper hull and one warp nacelle below. She was investigating some alien technology recently discovered in that star system. (The name of this ship sheds some light on the other two acts; Azrael is the archangel of death.) The Farragut suddenly encounters the Azrael which fires photon torpedoes at the Farragut, disables her warp drive, and then flies off. While the warp drive is being repaired, the Farragut crew studies the Azrael mission log extracts provided by Starfleet. The logs show that the alien technology is apparently affecting the crew of the scout ship.

In Act II, the Farragut proceeds to the Quorus system and engages the Azrael again after the repairs were completed. They find their sister starship in orbit around Quorus V. Captain Carter has leads an away team to board the Saladin-class vessel to investigate further. They find the crew definitely being affected by the alien technology, and they find out what is causing it. There are satellites around the planet drawing energy from it, i.e. "the Power Source."

In Act III, the story concludes or rather inconcludes. No one is sure what the alien technology was for. At first, I found this to be somewhat unsatisfactory. After considering this for a bit, I thought "Does everything need to be wrapped up into a neat package at the end of Star Trek episode?". Life isn’t like that, so why should Star Trek be like this (at least, occasionally). This ending leaves you to consider the possibilities.