The toys should be better (and easier to find). There should be more games — preferably arcade shooters along the same lines of Star Trek DAC, or, for variety, games like the classic ones from the eighties, nineties. Those were fun to play. We need more kid-friendly merchandise.

We need a new animated series now, CGI rendered. It could re-tell the stories of the original series and original animated series in the universe of the latest movie, as well as some new ones. Five seasons for five years, ideally. Format it like Star Wars: The Clone Wars, hopefully it could make the same network and time slot.

We need some more action-adventure stories — science is okay, but don’t overdo it.

In all, there are just so many ways you could spread the appeal of Trek to ALL ages. I’ll admit that although I’m a lifelong Trek fan, whenever I saw episodes that looked like a soap opera (I blame YOU, DS9!) or a science lesson (Star Trek: TMP), I was turned off. Episodes formatted like the original series, meshed with some Clone Wars, would be the best way to appeal to wide audiences.

And these are not just my opinions, either. My 11-year-old brother agrees. He’s more of a Star Wars fan, but has been known to watch Captain Picard movies. He didn’t like Shatner’s Kirk because the first time he saw him he was “a hip young OLD person” whose butt was creamed by a mad doctor on a mountaintop. His attitude intensified as we watched TOS-R. But now that Star Trek Abrams has come out, he’s a big fan of THIS vision of Kirk, whom he calls “cool” (I’m inclined to agree, unfortunately — please don’t judge).

We need a better balance between what we know as Star Trek and what kids are interested in these days. Unless someone’s shooting lasers or phasers at someone else, or a spaceship gets blown up, kids aren’t going to be interested. The only way they will otherwise is if we see more episodes like “The Man Trap” or “Tomorrow is Yesterday.” Or “The Doomsday Machine.”

I’ve said enough. Peace out, y’all.

What a positive response from the Trek community. Great article. Love hanging with your family on Halloween.

cheers
greg UK

That’ll keep them ( and me ) happy…

I just attended a big collectible show in Edmonton Canada and was shocked how litte Star Trek merchandise there was. Meanwhile, huge gobs of Star Wars stuff was stacked everywhere. Even shows such as Stargate and Firefly had more to offer than Trek. It seems that at least from a merchandising standpoint, Trek just doesn’t sell right now. Hopefully, the new film will change that. Meantime, I scrounge for what I can find at local stores, shop online, plus visit the Vegas Hilton and get to the odd convention when I can.

We have also showed them most of the non-TNG movies. (Still haven’t seen the first though) A few weeks ago we saw Generations. Here is what my daughter said: “Piccard is just a dummy. He just sits there and when he does do something it’s stupid.” While I find that a tad harsh, her point is well taken. TOS was fun and full of action. It worked because of the great cast, plenty of action and interesting stories. It was no technical marvel, it didn’t have to be.

I hope the new movie returns to that character. Special effects are great, but they don’t make up for a bad plot and character development.

CBS / Paramount could do themselves a great service and pull TOSR from syndication and air it on CBS on a Friday or Saturday night and advertise the hell out of it. I bet they would get decent ratings that are better than what they get now with the show airing at differnet times in different parts of the US.

Most people I know that like Sci-Fi didn’t even know Enterprise was on the air, the same with the remastered TOS. How can you hope to bring new fans in when they can’t find the shows to watch them.

Agreed! We do not have a cell phone that is completely independent & can call to a vessel out in space, and as you list, no transporters or warp drives. Our experimental weapons are not even in the same conversation with the fictional Phasers….and replicators? Yeah, sure. Real life is still in the Stone Age compared to Trek, so if kids do not find it appealing, it must be the recent history where ST suffered from few good and no great general concepts and stories, along with being brainwashed by the simple excitement of Star Wars, Matrix and video games…not the myth of real-tech catching up with Trek-tech.