I think there's a glitch in the Matrix!But will it be Č̨̤̗̜̫͈̙̰͐̊̒̐̋͗̊̅̇a̢̲̤͇̘̠̝̮̦̔͗̊̈́͑̀̑͊̇͘ͅǹ̨͉̞̞̬̝͍͙̯͛̈͐̍͋̎̉̅͝ͅȍ͈̗͙̘̠̺̣͙͓̺̒̏̀̈́̆̂̆̂͘ṅ̰̯̝͚̱̻̘̝̯̥̀̿̉̀͊̓̎̈́͗?
Animated Trek series coming to Nickelodeon
- Thread starter F. King Daniel
- Start date
As long as they assume children are intelligent enough to understand sci-fi concepts and dramatic stories it could be good. My ideal version would be something along the lines of Batman TAS and Tron: Uprising.
Honestly, classic Trek was often plenty kid-friendly as it was. It had limited graphic violence, next-to-no sexual content, and no bad words. Also, the didactic nature of most if the "issue" episodes lends itself to kids TV, as you'd need to be quite unaware to not figure out what the message the show was trying to teach was.
You're seeing it through modern eyes. Broadcast standards have grown much laxer over the decades, as have sexual mores. At the time TOS was new, it was as adult as any show on the air, and actually rather racy compared to most. Back then, you couldn't even say "hell" or "damn" as a curse word on TV; you could only get away with "Hell" as a literal place name (like Matt Decker's "a demon right out of Hell") or "damn" as a verb (as in Kirk's "The evidence is damning" in "Court Martial"). Kirk's "Let's get the hell out of here" at the end of "The City on the Edge of Forever" was something the producers had to fight to keep in over the network censors' protests.
Similarly, TOS was constantly pushing the envelope in terms of how much sexual content and bare skin it could get away with. They'd often send the censors edits that were even sexier than what they intended to show, so that they could then cut it down to what they actually wanted and make the censors think they'd won. And they got away with some pretty daring sexual themes, like Spock's compulsory mating drive in "Amok Time" or the mention of contraception in "The Mark of Gideon" -- not to mention the scene of Kirk putting his boots back on after being alone in his quarters with Deela, Queen of Scalos for a while, which was pretty bold at the time.
As for violence, TOS was about on a par with anything else on the air at the time. Censors in the '60s were very strict on depictions of violence. Even on a spy show or Western with lots of gunplay, you couldn't show bullet wounds; people would just mime getting shot and fall down with no sign of blood. And if blood were shown onscreen, it'd be a small patch of unnaturally bright red paint that didn't look at all like the real thing.
The quote is about something that Star Wars had that Star Trek didn't have much of, which would appeal to kids. I don't know how you got forcing Trek into a Star Wars mold from that. The idea is having characters kids can identify more with, as in instead of just showing the space men they want to be when they grew up, show another young person who wants to be the space man when they grow up. You know, like Luke Skywalker. That's a broad category of character that can appear in any number of franchises, not a restricting mold. Is there any reason not to have such characters other than because Star Wars? Would it not be a way to aim the series at younger people ("good idea")?
Frankly, I think Star Trek Discovery tries too hard to appeal to adults sometimes (I do not need F bombs in Star Trek), so I wouldn't mind a more kid-friendly Star Trek and getting kids interested in the property is key to its survival.
I think a key question is can you make something appealing to kids that still captures the ethos of Star Trek.
You can't have a cartoon where Riker and Picard debate morality in a conference room for most of the episode, but a Star Trek show shouldn't be blowing up Romulan ships for 30 minutes either.
So what do people here think this Star Trek cartoon should be about and when should it be set?
I think a key question is can you make something appealing to kids that still captures the ethos of Star Trek.
You can't have a cartoon where Riker and Picard debate morality in a conference room for most of the episode, but a Star Trek show shouldn't be blowing up Romulan ships for 30 minutes either.
So what do people here think this Star Trek cartoon should be about and when should it be set?
The original intent behind Star Trek when it was created was to be the first adult science fiction drama that wasn't an anthology. As I said before, it pushed the envelope of adult content for its time, and Kirk saying "Let's get the hell out of here" was as controversial in 1967 as Tilly's and Stamets's F-bombs are today. It's just that the goalposts of what defines "adult" content have shifted enormously in the past 50 years. Heck, I'm amazed at how much you can get away with on TV these days. And not just in adult programming -- it's shocking to me how much scatological humor is now permissible in children's TV. (And yet even though some basic cable channels now allow uncensored F-bombs, you'll still never see a single female nipple on non-premium TV. Heck, even PBS is now censoring nudity that it would've shown uncensored 30 years ago. It's weird.)
That said, I agree with you up to a point. There's nothing wrong with being adult, but it's good for a franchise to have content that draws in the younger generation too. That's why it's good that there are multiple Trek shows now in development -- we don't have to choose one or the other, since they'll both exist together.
I was surprised to see this won't be on CBSAA, and I'm happy about it. For a long time now I've wished we could get a new Star Trek Animated series, and now we're getting two series and some animated Short Treks. As an animation and Trek fan, I couldn't be happier right now.
Frankly it should be a simple exploration show. Do something wild and have it set in like the 26th/27th/28th century in the Delta or Gamma Quadrant (or maybe another galaxy) on the Enterprise-L/M/N (depending on when its set). Give it distance from the current canon and don't talk about stuff from earlier in the timeline.
I'd rather see at some point in the 24th Century so we can get appearances by some of the TNG, DS9, or VOY cast members. Animation would be the perfect place to bring them back since we wouldn't have to worry about how much they've aged, or how different they look today.
And a substantial number of the 24th-century cast members have significant experience with animation voice work -- Patrick Stewart, Jonathan Frakes, Michael Dorn, Brent Spiner, Marina Sirtis, Wil Wheaton, LeVar Burton, John DeLancie, Rene Auberjonois, Armin Shimerman, Kate Mulgrew, Robert Picardo, a few others with more limited animation credits.
Its' a balancing act that I think can be done. The key is to not expect those elements to be in a manner that you (the general you) think it should be. Like Discovery and most likely the Picard show it's going to very likely destroy the norms one might want or be used to. It's going to be as loud, active, and dynamic as any other modern show and it should be.
Of course you can make something that captures the "ethos" of Trek but appeals to kids. After all, TOS was always popular with kids, despite being aimed at adults. And TAS was made with both children and adults in mind, and it was an authentic continuation of the original.
Great, now I want a Bruce Timm style animated Star Trek! Probably not what we're gonna get, though...
Probably not, but we can dream.Great, now I want a Bruce Timm style animated Star Trek! Probably not what we're gonna get, though...
Part of me wants them to go back all the way to the unused TAS pilot where the Enterprise crew are training a bunch of tweenage cadets (child soldiers ftw) who end up saving the ship.
Wesley and Friends.
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