News 'Star Trek': Second Animated Series, More 'Short Treks' - Hollywood Reporter

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/l...ore-short-treks-coming-cbs-all-access-1174218

The new Short Treks will be animated, and will premier after Season 2 of Discovery ends.

The second animated series is geared towards kids, and might not be exclusive to CBS All Access.

Kurtzman also claims that 'Lower Decks' will not have humour at the expense of Star Trek itself. "It's embracing and loving of all the tropes of Star Trek but it's never laughing at it."

 

Some very good news coming from THR

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/l...ore-short-treks-coming-cbs-all-access-1174218

Some very good news, I also like this quote:
"His larger plan includes appealing to young children, which is the central reason he's interested in animated Trek series."

 

Uh can a mod change the tag from Spoilers to News? If that's possible.

 

I've been wanting them to do an animated series to get the kids watching the movies since 2009.

Of course, now they're finally doing it, the film franchise has died. Typical.

 

Pretty pessimistic about the animated stuff to be honest. A personal quirk no doubt, but there's not many animated series I like.

Actually, I can't think of any.

 

Translation: CBS just figured out Trek needs to sell merch and Discovery doesn't lend itself to that.

 

Nope.

 

I read the article a few times and I can kinda understand what Kurtsman was trying to say. We really do only see the best of the best in Star Trek and while we might see them as role models, it's hard to really relate to them. That's really the thing that draws me to The Orville. Is it all about Nostalgia, sure. It also has fun characters I started to care about last season and I hope this season turns things around and we don't see this show as a one season wonder.

I'm actually excited for the prospect of Star Trek being for everyone. I like variety, and what Kurtsman has in mind seems to be treading on that Star Trek is for everyone theme. I hope the quality is good but reading his comments, I'm a little more optimistic about what he has in mind (especially with the animated series) than I was before.

 

Kurtzman also says this in the article: “I go back to my childhood and Luke Skywalker, the [Star Wars] farm boy who looks out at the twin suns of Tatooine and imagines his future. Trek never gave me that. Trek was always fully formed adults, already in Starfleet and people who have decided who they are. And it never was aspirational that way," Kurtzman said. "It's important to me to find a way to go back and reach younger kids in a way that Trek should and never really has."

Maybe it’s me, but that never bothered me as a kid watching Trek in the 1970s.

It’s also sort of funny considering that at the time most people considered Star Trek a “kid’s show” anyway.

 

How many animated series have you watched? There can be some interesting, from both the West and Japan, if you keep an open mind. Animation is in a better state now then it has been for a while.

Kurtzman may have a point, its not the 70s anymore, kids do not lack entertainment options and appealing to children is important to getting new fans, rather than appealing to the same old ones.

I am fine with a Star Trek cartoon aimed at kids, most of the Trek series from the 60s, 80s, and 90s were suitable for all audiences, with perhaps the occasional dark scene or episode (DS9 had some choice dark scenes and the other series had their moments). Again my biggest concern is making Star Trek exciting for kids today and not lose what makes Star Trek what it is, exploration of the human condition, social commentary, harder sci-fi, moral dilemmas, etc. I wouldn't want a Star Trek cartoon to just be the Enterprise blowing up Romulan ships for half an hour. Though I think cartoons nowadays have more complex stories than ones from say the 70s or 80s.

However, I think it would be cool to have animated short Treks featuring M'Ress and Arex.

 

Aimed at kids can mean a lot of different things. Will it have anything for adults to enjoy, or will it be all bright lights and noise?

 

Well, I'm more looking forward to annoucements of live action TV series. Couldn't care less about cartoons.

So what about Starfleet Academy or the Khan mini-series?

 

Well, I've watched some of all of the Star Wars shows, which I don't really like, one or two Japanese shows like Cowboy Bebop my son has tried to interest me in, mainstream Family Guy and Simpsons shows. Star Trek animated.

I've not liked any very much, neither the writing nor as a format. I have enjoyed some animated movies though - early Pixar was great, some Disney, Into The Spiderverse was fantastic.

 

That is a fairly small sample. I think despite the fact most cartoons are still aimed at kids, most of them better written today then they were in the past. Something like Gravity Falls would be a horror/comedy, which you wouldn't see when I was a kid. Batan the Animated series is classic and still holds up today though. Avatar the Last Airbender is another one of those classic shows.

There is also the Netflix stuff, some people love Bojack Horseman, not my cup of tea, but I do like F is Family and the few episodes of Big Mouth I have seen are pretty funny, but not for everyone, they are pretty dirty sometimes. My favorite new cartoon is Castlevania, clearly aimed at adults, not a comedy and written by legendary comic book writer Warren Ellis.

 

My concern is that Kurtzman is trying to fit a square peg into a circle. Star Wars and Star Trek had different audiences, with different expectations. I feel Kurtzman is not finding what he found in Star Wars with Star Trek and attempting to make the latter more like the former.

 

It is. That wasn't an exclusive list, just what I came up with off the top of my head.

It's way to big a genre for me to be able to say with any certainty that there aren't shows I'd like, especially as there are animated films I enjoy. Just that I don't have any fondness for animated series.

 

If they do make an animated childrens' series to move merchandise FOR THE LOVE OF GOD please partner with LEGO.

 

This, a hundred times. If they ever want to be relevant in the 5-12 yo segment. Combined with a youth-oriented new show.

 

I do like the idea of well made new Star Trek cartoons.

 

I didn't like the first animated Star Trek, so I don't think I'll like a new one