The Star Trek universe continues to grow with another animated series, this time for Nickeloeon.
Teen Trek
First reported to be in development earlier this year, today CBS Television Studios officially announced the greenlight of a new animated Star Trek which will debut exclusively on Nickelodeon. Touted as an opportunity to expand Star Trek for a new generation of fans, the show is being developed by Emmy Award winners Kevin and Dan Hageman (Trollhunters and Ninjago).
According to CBS, the new untitled original CG animated series follows a group of lawless teens who discover a derelict Starfleet ship and use it to search for adventure, meaning, and salvation.
The series will be from CBS’ Eye Animation Productions, CBS Television Studios’ new animation arm; Secret Hideout; and Roddenberry Entertainment. Alex Kurtzman, Heather Kadin, Katie Krentz, Rod Roddenberry, and Trevor Roth will serve as executive producers alongside Kevin and Dan Hageman. Aaron Baiers will serve as a co-executive producer.
“‘Star Trek’s’ mission is to inspire generations of dreamers to build a brighter future,” said Alex Kurtzman in a statement. “Dan and Kevin have crafted a story that honors its exploratory spirit in a way that’s never been done before, while the Nickelodeon team blew us away with their excitement at bringing ‘Trek’ to a younger generation around the world.”
“‘Star Trek,’ Nickelodeon, and the state of animation are doing incredibly ambitious things as of late. We couldn’t be more excited to jump aboard,” said Dan and Kevin Hageman.
“Partnering with CBS Television Studios and the creative masterminds behind the ‘Star Trek’ franchise is an incredible opportunity and allows our audience to discover rich characters and new stories,” said Naito. “‘Star Trek’ is a franchise loved by generations of fans around the globe, and adding Nickelodeon as home to the next animated series is a perfect fit.”
Kevin and Dan Hageman (CBS)
Star Trek’s growing animated slate
The new Nickelodeon show will be the first of the expanding Star Trek television offerings to not appear on CBS All Access, home to Star Trek: Discovery and the upcoming Picard series (which went into production earlier this week). All Access will also be home to the animated adult comedy Star Trek: Lower Decks being developed by Emmy winner Mike McMahan (Rick and Morty). There are also two animated Star Trek: Short Treks coming to All Access sometime this year.
Keep up with all the news on the upcoming Star Trek TV shows here at TrekMovie.com.
They lost me at “lawless teens”, but I guess I’m not the intended audience anyway.
Still, I’m not keen to this mentality that the only way to draw young people to Trek is to shoehorn it into the tired old cliche involving rebellious teens. My brother and I were respectively 10 and 5 years old when we discovered TOS and we were able to embrace and enjoy it despite our age (and we didn’t even speak English back then). It’s really disappointing that CBS needs to do stuff like this to continue to foster interest in the brand.
To be fair, I wasn’t a fan of Rebels when it first aired, nor was I a fan of Clone Wars. It all depends on how it’s done to be honest. If it’s an animated show that can appeal to all ages then I’ll definitely watch, if it’s an animated show solely directed at kids then it’s not for me – and I won’t be mad at it because it’s long overdue that Trek get into the long-term strategy and have something that is strictly for the kids as a gateway into expanding the fandom.
Rebels took a while to find itself but right from the outset you had a mix of adults and one kid, which seems very different from what we’re getting here.
The recent follow-up show (I think it was called Resistance?) on the other hand was terrible as the lead was your obnoxious know-it-all teen who screws up again and again while everyone else seemed to be pushed to the background. I tried to sit thru several episodes but it was all positively off-putting to me.
I’m not mad about any of this; it is what it is. I can’t help but be a little disappointed to see Trek once again apparently following the Star Wars model but at the end of the day it’s a business and it needs to be profitable and I get that.
I would just hope it takes the tone of Rebels more so than Resistance.
But I think it’s a good thing they are producing something like this on Nick.
I loved Clone Wars and Rebels. I haven’t seen the new show show yet.
A34 Rebels grew on me with season 2 being my favorite. The season 2 finale and series finale were just so great. Clone Wars is good but I wasn’t a fan of the early seasons. Resistance is a show meant specifically for kids though.
I seriously think the target audience for Resistance is a lower age than for Rebels. My son is not the nerd I was and isn’t all that interested in this stuff. So I’m the only one in my household looking at it. :)
A34 our kids don’t find these Star Wars animated offerings all that interesting.
One of them watches an episode once and that’s it. It’s not worth rewatching for them.
Meanwhile, Star Trek 90s series seem to be on infinite loop with them.
They also are cycling back through Annedroids – a very woke tween science-adventure show where kids have good relationships with their parents, struggle with social challenges and have high-stakes adventures too. (It has a 100% audience approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, but why would Kurtzman look at something like that instead of Star Wars…?)
So, I’m dubious that this Nickelodeon offering will hook kids into Trek.
Yeah, but just because you (and I) got into Star Trek as kids, doesn’t mean that there isn’t a HUGE uptapped market of kids who won’t give live action Star Trek a chance, and for whom this might be their first exposure.
It’s not “following the Star Wars model.” It’s expanding the choices available to people. There have been seven Star Trek series (including TAS), and each one of them is someone’s first Star Trek show.
Dude: it’s following the exact same Star Wars model. Star Trek seems to be the new “I’ll never get to work on Star Wars so I’ll work on this thing instead and throw all my Star Wars ideas in there.” It seems pretty clear CBS doesn’t understand how to make Star Trek either. Great.
And what’s wrong with that?
There’s nothing wrong with trying to bring in a young audience but the goal should be making the principles of Trek more accessible to children rather than making it more like Star Wars. On the other hand there’s nothing to suggest that they’re not doing the former at this stage so there’s absolutely no need for panic. just a little bit of conjecture here but a lot of people believe that the Discovery crew will find themselves in a post Federation galaxy in season 3. Might it be possible that they will use this setting for the Nickelodeon series and that these “lawless” kids will learn about the values of the Federation throughout this show and grow into traditional Starfleet officers perhaps through the tutelage of the ships emergency hologram or accessing the ships archives or something.
“It seems pretty clear CBS doesn’t understand how to make Star Trek either. Great.”
Oh, it seems they know exactly what they are doing! Following the Star Wars model is 1000% what I want. I’ve always been a fan of both franchises and what worked for Star Wars can’t be wrong for Trek either. Of course it ISN’T Star Wars – completely different set-up, you know – but the idea of getting kids started on Trek via a CGI animated show is EXACTLY the way to do it, with the wonderful side effect that we’ll be getting even more Star Trek as it goes…
On the downside of it, I guess there will be many kids (and parents) mixing this show up with the adult cartoon Lower Decks. It’ll be hard to set up clear distinctions within one and the same franchise. But I guess, it isn’t that bad either, given that most older kids watch that MA stuff anyway these days…
“…what worked for Star Wars can’t be wrong for Trek either.”
I would argue that yes it can be. But glad you’re happy and I hope I’m wrong.
Separate discussion, but what’s worked for Star Wars isn’t even working for Star Wars right now.
I am horrified by all of the “it’s so cool it isn’t like Star Trek!” comments. Making Star Trek more like Star Wars, makes it Star Wars.
When I was a kid, the wonder of the Enterprise seeking out new life and civilizations and upholding the utopian Federation values through their service in starfleet, was what made me a fan.
Yeah, the problem is that they stopped doing that when they started an all-out war in DS9, turned each and every Star Trek movie since 1998 into a TWOK rip-off, gave us the Borg on VOY, the Xindi War, the Klingon War etc…
Utopianism and exploration have been missing from Star Trek since the death of GR. The only thing that still makes it work is IDIC. Star Trek can and must “assimilate” all great genre concepts. Trek is the one franchise that is many. There is no contradiction.
Well Kurtzman’s childhood experience with Star Trek is certainly different than mine was, as this quote I found from him illustrates.
“”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.”
How is it that non-sci fi shows like BREAKING BAD or GAME OF THRONES managed to succeed without kiddie fare for the entry-level viewers?
Whatever Star Wars has done (I don’t watch it, outside of the movies), it’s hardly the only business model out there.
Well, if you’re going to follow some model, it better be a successful one. I’d say Star Wars qualify, being the closest and largest space opera franchise out there. No wrong-doing in following it. ;-)
No, blackmocco that was JJ’s approach. I think right now, the people involved understand the Star Wars business model and question why Star Trek hasn’t done the same. Go all the way back to the beginning and look at how Gene basically thew away the toy licensing for peanuts. If done with a smarter business angle, Trek will keep on living. DC films made the same mistake in thinking they’d be copying Marvel if they had followed that model of taking their time to lay the groundwork and we see how that’s worked out. There are a lot of fans that want more novels, more video games, more replicas, use STLV as this franchise’s “Celebration.” Star Trek is big enough with enough of a legacy to do it.
No, this is not “the Star Wars model.” This is a general entertainment franchise model. And it’s something Trek has done before in the 70s, and toyed with many times in the years since, with concept art actually surfacing in the mid 2000s, for a series that was to have been produced even before Clone Wars.
Come on, man. Young minds, fresh ideas.
You got to hook them when their young.
So, missing from this idiotic “animation as a gateway drug to real Trek” theory is one minor objection: kids grow up. They age out of Saturday morning cartoons.
Once they’re around, oh, 12 years old, they’ll think of cartoons as babyish and look for more sophisticated fare. (This is why you don’t see “Winnie the Pooh: The Young Adult Years” featuring an angsty teenage Christopher Robin, dutifully played by Taylor Lautner.) And so rather than leading them to check out real Trek, they’ll associate “Star Trek” with something for elementary school-aged kids and leave it behind.
Teens themselves have no desire to watch a cartoon about “lawless teens.” They’re way past that. They know when adults are patronizing them with cliched teenage characters. They want to be thought of as mature, not as kids. (I was watching real Star Trek as a teen, not Scooby and Scrappy Doo.) Thus the popularity of 13 REASONS WHY.
So this move dilutes the core franchise *and* fails at bringing in a new generation of fans. Verily, it’s a New Coke level of genius.
The best we can hope for is that there’s a Chinese wall between this series and anything else Trek, and that everyone agrees it’s completely non-canon.
I’m 40 and I still watch cartoons. You’re never old for cartoons and anime.
Amen! I may be 32, but I still watch animated shows as well.
I’m a big fan of all the animated shows Netflix have been putting out lately.
I absolutely agree with your observations about teens, especially since I have taught kids at that age. You have to take them seriously and act as maturely as you can around them because they will understand when you are not taking them seriously and they can seriously ruin your life when they understand this. I never treated my kids much different than I would treat my work colleagues. You shouldn’t dumb stuff down for them.
You couldn’t be more wrong, i’m laughing so hard.
Teens know when they’re being patronized, yes, which is why they stick with with smart, sincere shows like “Adventure Time”, “Steven Universe”, “Gravity Falls”, and “Star Vs. the Forces of Evil”. The appropriate deciders in the U.S. TV industry (at Cartoon Network, Disney, Netflix) seem to be aware of this, which is why the average dramatic quality of animated fare is so much higher than in the ’80s-’90s.
The more I think about it the more I realize that the target market is middle graders not teens.
After all, some kids seem to prefer to see characters a few years older.
But I agree that the market research seems wildly off.
At no age do kids and teens like to be patronized, especially the smart STEM saavy ones who are likely to provide the base market for any Trek offerings.
That said, the creators have a good track record.
I’ll join middle graders in our household in saying ‘give it a try’, but I’ll be watching to check whether it’s delivering Trek values over the long haul.
All teens are lawless. Plus the current president.
Hillary isn’t the president?
Haven’t read the Mueller Report yet?
No, Trump is. The one who is being investigated for multiple crimes, an accomplish in the Michael Cohen case in the campaign finance violations paying off porn stars and has been accused of 10 acts of obstruction of justice in the Mueller Report. That guy.
Preach 🙌
Actually not true at all according to studies of teens in North America and Europe.
But unfortunately, clichés are more compelling than evidence-based social-science and market research.
Yes, teens can be difficult, but by and large they and better attached and on better terms with parents and authority than recently preceding generations.
If the Federation is an ideal society, why should there be lawless teenagers?
Why has Starfleet left an un-demcommissioned ship lying about? Or un-demcommissioned sensors, communications arrays, ordnance etc.?
Is Starfleet really so incompetent that it leaves it’s tech abandoned for juveniles to find?
Will we be allowing our middle graders to watch this?
Not likely unless at the end of the first season we see Federation values been adopted and demonstrated.
As parents, we can’t trust this to be going in the right direction. Which is sad actually.
The UFP *isn’t* an ideal society. Its dramatic purpose is to be an *aspirational* society, one that has solved *some of* the problems that bedevil contemporary society, but has encountered others. It’s presented as “ideal” mainly by Starfleet officers encountering alien societies that allegorically embody said contemporary problems, but the shows have actually spent very little time among civilians.
Some people will be discontented even in paradise.
Starfleet derelicts exist in the immediate aftermath of wars, before they’ve been disposed. (Also on the fringes of explored space, but that’s not where teens from a settled world will find them.) For that matter, we don’t know how Starfleet operates away from the front lines — there may very well be inner-world boneyards operated by Starfleet’s-not-best-and-brightest, or by private-sector companies, with poor security.
I was ready to give up when I saw “lawless teens,” but then I saw that part of what they’d be searching for was “meaning and salvation,” and that sounded as if it could end up in a Trekkian place, even if it doesn’t start there.
Yeah, that’s what a “journey” is all about. A coming of age journey within the Star Trek universe is truly a great idea. Too bad it is “only” animated if it turns out good content-wise…
Yeah, this is certain to be the next STAND BY ME. Snort.
I find it brilliant. If you’re having teens, they’d better not be from Starfleet. The formula they came up with will allow the exploration of Trek’s values from a teenager’s point of view. Teenagers are usually rebellious, and it’s nice they found a way to give them a ship, where they can emulate being in Starfleet, but were not put there by Starfleet, which would be absurd. Think of it as DS9’s “Valiant” without prior Academy training. I like it! :-)
the exploration of Trek’s values from a teenager’s point of view
And who was clamoring for this, exactly? Teens themselves? Bueller? Anyone?
Here’s an idea give it a chance before writing it off.
How dare you try to inject reason into this conversation! 😂
Yeah, because building a show around a bunch of pastel colored jumpsuit wearing teens who find fulfilment prepping for trig competitions and attending classical musical recitals is a sure winner….
LOL you sure about that? 🤣
Yep, another Star Trek show for people who don’t like Star Trek.
Children on exploration spaceships like the Enterprise facing all kinds of dangers is a stupid idea. TNG was ridiculous in this regard. It made the adults look irresponsible.
So what other way to have children in a position to discover things and doing something dangerous here and there to make an exciting series? The only way to do it is to make the children do something adults wouldn’t approve of. Therefore the show makers made them lawless.
I think the premise is the only way they could come up with to get kids characters in a posititon to have a lot of adventures in space without making adults look bad.
I’m interested to see how this turns out. I think this is a great way to expose/introduce Star Trek to an audience that might assume, even if incorrectly, that Star Trek isn’t for them.
While many of us got into Star Trek while we were kids, there are lots of other kids who wouldn’t think to watch Star Trek. This can be a new “in” for people/kids.
I completely agree. I have to say it, but look at what Lucasfilm has done. If you haven’t seen them you really should check out the Star Wars Kids youtube page. They have these AMAZING animated shorts that my nephew loves and the animated shows on Disney XD have gotten him into the franchise. I’m hopeful that Trek does the same.
But how do you introduce such people to Star Trek by giving them something that is NOT Star Trek?
I mean, if my first Trek was an animated show about a bunch of lawless teens who ride through the post-apocalyptic future in a derelict Starfleet ship, I suspect that I’d find myself *terribly* bored by TNG or DS9.
Not to mention that there’s no point calling it Star Trek anyway. It could be called… for example… Gene Roddenberry’s Andromeda. ;)
And GR’s “Andromeda” was supposed to be a Star Trek show back in the very early 80s. A Fall of the Federation setting with Khan’s offsprings stepping in as what later became the Nietzscheans on AND. It only got shelved when they brought in Harve Bennett and opted for the second movie instead of GR’s spin-off show. Khan was properly used in TWOK and later GR developed his earlier Phase 2 concept into TNG (Decker/Riker, Ilia/Troy, Xon/Data). The Fall of the Federation concept was later revived by Majel Barrett-Roddenberry in the late 90s but outside the Trek universe and became AND.
So many space shows were actually supposed to be Star Trek series first. JMS proposed Babylon 5 to Paramount in the mid 80s before turning it into his own thing (DS9 later ripping some ideas off).
NuBSG only came into being because Ron Moore didn’t get to revamp VOY into an arc-based format upping the ante with a darker tone. Six was actually Seven and Balthar was a fun Brannon Braga cartoon :-)
The Orville was first a 25th century Star Trek pitch for CBS and became its own thing when CBS chose Fuller over MacFarlane.
Enough with the history lesson. Bottom line: Andromeda could have been proper Trek if only…
There is NO SUCH THING as not being proper Star Trek. Almost anything can be or become Star Trek. Star Trek is IDIC…
Garth, I’ve never heard anything like what you’re describing for FALL OF THE FED. The guy who came up with ANDROMEDA, Wolfe, was probably just getting out of high school when KHAN got developed, and he cooked it up during his tenure on DS9. Sowards did have a great little nugget that fell out of subsequent TWOK drafts, that the Feds had given up on Starfleet exploring and had them just trying to hold onto existing territory, triggering Kirk’s midlife crisis over what his career meant and if his life had been wasted.
Garth, sincerely, where’s ANY source to support that pre-Bennett Fall of Fed thing?
But Boze that’s exactly what some fans misinterpret when they see the name “Star Trek.” They automatically think that seeking out new life and new civilizations is what Star Trek is. No, that’s what the mission of the Enterprise was and the overall Starfleet mission. If you did a Star Trek Klingon show, it would be a bit different. There needs to be a way (again, like Star Wars) to differentiate that this is a show taking place in the Trek universe without it being about exploration. You could do a Tal Shiar show that’s about espionage and that’s fair game in the Trek universe. There’s a lot of greed and corruption and everything else that happens regularly outside of the Federation.
These kids could be really smart kids who have a talent for fixing things. They could find a shuttle or a small scout-like ship and get it working again, who knows.
“…that’s exactly what some fans misinterpret when they see the name “Star Trek.” They automatically think that seeking out new life and new civilizations is what Star Trek is.”
Um…
Everytime I hear about seeking out new life and new civilizations all I can think about it is forehead aliens of the week.
I must be getting dyslexic (been awake for 22hrs straight), thought I read ‘alien foreskins of the week’ up there. That’d be a new wrinkle.
Bring this man some coffee !!!
“lawless teens who discover a derelict Starfleet ship and use it to search for adventure, meaning and salvation?????????? Yeah I’m good thanks.
Reminds me of Space Cases.
Why would lawless teen be searching for meaning?
Hmmm… because they haven’t found it yet? (Which seems to be true for most teenagers, by the way…)
Maybe its the DISCOVERY they find?
You beat me to it, kmart. Meant it as a joke at first but then thought teens on a Zora-era Discovery isn’t too bad of a setup. Ties directly to other Treks, but also frees them up from canon if it’s set post-DISC.
Yup kmart, my spouse had the same dry thought when I remarked on the likelihood of Starfleet leaving ships lying about.
…isn’t that what they did with Discovery?
Now I have visions of Zora in A.I. form trying to mother a group of kids on the Discovery. “Billy, don’t you dare fire those photon torpedoes. I’m warning you, if you do it, I’m not replicating you any dinner and you will be locked in your quarters for at least a week young man!”
Is the STARGAZER still drifting around? I seem to remember one or two ships left adrift during earlier series. Of course, I wouldn’t want to look at that ship every week either, it is a real kludge, though at least not looking like the ‘Losira’ that is Discovery with its unappealing flatness.)
I wouldn’t see Zora as a mother figure, but I do think a young, inexperienced crew like this would need some kind of AI resource as a guide of some sort. I’m not kidding when I say this isn’t too bad of a premise (and you could even hire the same voice actor). Not that I think it’ll happen, of course.
You should watch that episode about Picard’s old ship. It was left abandoned also.
You don’t HAVE to watch it (It’s pretty awful), just acknowledge that ship was left floating around.
Hey if I had to sit and watch that episode, he should too.
“Creative masterminds”. Man. This sounds horrible. More “how do we make this more like Star Wars?” nonsense. I give up.
From the makers of Ninjago and Trollhunters!
… Well I guess Dave Filoni is busy. ;)
Like it or not (I do not), the Ninjago series is pretty popular and well-liked by kids (its target audience). Trollhunters from Guillermo del Toro is also well-reviewed, though I’ve never seen it.
Trollhunters is awesome, I absolutely love it.
I’m just making fun. I’m all aboard with all the Trek they’ll give me.
A derelict ship? Well it couldn’t be as big as a starship, more like the size of a Defiant from DS9 or smaller yet.
I’m hoping these teens will end up in Starfleet Academy. I always thought an animated Starfleet Academy show could have worked.
Also, I hope the show is eventually streamed on CBSAA since I do not have Nickelodeon.
If Nick is footing the bill, it’ll be on Nick.
That’s what I think will happen. And it would make a lot of sense, given how members of the Maquis were still given a second chance in Starfleet.
Also, I think this is a good route to take with kids. Not just the fact that they’ll maybe appreciate the rebellious aspect, but going deeper, it’ll show kids doing some exceptional things. And what kid wouldn’t want their own starship?
I think Nickelodeon has a streaming app but you have to subscribe to cable to use it.
Could be a ship like the Franklin. Scout ship that could crash-land on a planet. Small enough for only a few people to manage it.
In a year or 2 Viacom and CBS will re-merge, so who knows where it will end up eventually.
This is probably not for the hard core fans who know when to order a level 4 diagnostic but I look at as a way to reach new audiences with “Star Trek” and maybe experiment with the universe in the way that the comics do when they have “Doctor Who” Meeting Picard . There is room for all. IDIC.
I guess it’ll be hard to do inter-franchise crossovers, even in an animated format due to trademark issues. It works in the comic book sector as soon as a lable has the rights to various comic incarnations, but TV is an entirely different beast. Sad enough, I’d love to see all franchises combined into one giant multiverse, megaverse or omniverse at some point on screen.
Actually the only comic books I collect are crossover stories involving Star Trek and other franchises.
Well DC and TMNT just made a crossover cartoon, so there is hope after all :-)
Well, part of the problem that seems to be emerging in these comments seems to center on those who see a Level 4 Diagnostic as something deadly serious, and those who see it as more technobabble bulls**t. I have no idea why it’s so hard to accept that different incantations of Trek are still Trek. Either enjoy it, or shut up and let it’s intended audience enjoy it. Maybe if everyone would just shut up and listen a little more we’d all learn something….
“I have no idea why it’s so hard to accept that different incantations of Trek are still Trek.”
Because they aren’t. Every new Star Trek project is being created for people that would never watch Star Trek. So if Star Trek is being redesigned to appeal to the people that normally hate it, where does that leave us that always loved it for NOT being like other sci-fi?
Maybe if there was any indication they were interested in retaining actual Star Trek fans as well, maybe there wouldn’t be as much push back towards this new era of making Star Trek for people that hate it.
Where’s our show at?
Gene would have sparred us all this ongoing nonsense about what Trek is/isn’t if only his Harry Mudd or Assignment: Earth spin-off had been approved back in the 60s…
I was able to be a fan of Star Trek from birth, basically, without a show like this, but I can tell you that I was alone in that in my age range. It wasn’t until the 2009 Star Trek movie came out that I was able to talk about my love for this franchise without being made fun of.
My point is that Star Trek isn’t for everyone, and I like that they’re trying to make it appeal to more people. We’ll always have the shows we love, and future generations will have theirs now. Hopefully, in a generation, Star Trek won’t just be TOS, TNG and the others to the lay person, but a wide variety of shows that inspire others to appreciate what we all do.
Took the words right out of my mouth.
When I discovered the show all there was was TOS, and TAS, that many people also take delight in pissing on. Had there been more choices in the 70’s, I’d of gladly watched.
Me too! In the 90’s I watched everything Trek.
I’m also sure that fans of TOS in the 70’s were upset their show was being turned into a kid’s cartoon.
Just wondering if they know what this wider audience is they’re going for. “Lawless teens”? Why even say that? Every time they stray from the exploration/morality premise the audience shrinks– that happened with the later movies and likely the newest series. The only shows to ever get kids on board in large numbers were TOS and TNG. But they keep running away from the obvious. You don’t need to keep changing a show which has props (phasers and communicators) which are better known than many actors. They’re just molding Trek to resemble everything else.
“Every time they stray from the exploration/morality premise the audience shrinks” it’s pretty much the exact opposite. If they keep away from the heavy handed preaching like TOS and TNG and have more grey and more characters making difficult and sometimes wrong choices for the greater good and learning through their choices, that’s better TV and has a much better chance of imbuing the lesson than just bonk bonk on the head.
That’s funny; I think TOS, along with DS9 (and rarely TNG) are the only ones that DO show the grey to any degree.
So, MysticalDigital will this be a success in your view if kids (9-15) who already are into Trek give it a pass?
Seriously, I’m really not convinced ours will like this anymore than they do the Star Wars offerings…which is to say, not really much at all. They just watch them once to be able to keep up with their friends’ interests.
Their reaction to the announcement is ‘Hm, give it a try’.
That is, not a whole lot of excitement about the concept.
I was hoping for ‘Young Michael Burnham.”
So is the Kelvin Timeline dead? It seems like the franchise is more focused on streaming and television now. I really wanted to see more of the Kelvin Universe. Man. Looks like we will not be getting more Trek on the Big Screen.
Jeez, peeps. There will be no lawless teens on Nik. They will be curious, and cute and meeting nice Klingons with problems they help solve. It’s not like it’s going to be River’s Edge Trek.
You never watched Avatar: The Last Airbender, did you? That show, while silly sometimes, was truly epic in scale and an excellent example of how real drama can be found in children’s stories.
I didn’t, but now I just watched an “info” video about it and I guess I am missing something. Do you think a kid’s Trek show can have that quality?
I hope so! Nick has a poor reputation (thanks in no small part to slime and their terrible game shows) but some of their stuff is really high quality. I’m hoping the head writers know Trek and write mature stories for a young audience, but there’s no knowing until it happens.
And I REALLY recommend ATLA. It’s outstanding, and this is coming from someone who watched the entire series as a man in his 20’s.
As a person in his 50s, with no kids, I can see watching a few of anything good and then letting it go. But I have heard people love this show.
I don’t have cable TV :( But the show sounds cool.
More Star Trek in name only shows. Making shows less “Trekkie” makes them something else other than Star Trek. There is enough dystopian sci-fi. Star Trek is not supposed to be like that.
I wish they would make a Star Trek anime and just go wild with it.
Anime would be fun. As long as it’s not something ridiculous like Dragonball.
Why not? Spider-Pig seems to have a following. Live and let live….
There’s a lot of good sci-fi anime out there. Dragon ball z is more of a kids show.
I honestly would love to see a Trek anime like Space Dandy
I loved Space Dandy. That zombie episode had me rolling.😂🤣
I absolutely agree, I think there is so much potential for a Star Trek anime.
It’s show biz folks. Why is anybody surprised? I’ll watch it out of curiosity but I don’t have any expectations. Positive or negative. I just hope it’s well done and the core market it’s intended for enjoys it.
CG animation. That sounds fine. I’m not into “hand”drawn 2D animation at all, so I’m glad at least this could be looking interesting. The thing with CGI animation is that at least the starships and planet surfaces look 90% authentic. In cartoon style, it doesn’t really work with me. I liked Clone Wars and Rebels but I hate Resistance, and no, not because of the stories… it’s the animation level that turns me off…
I’m looking forward to this one. It will be something different, and Nickelodeon probably knows what they’re doing. Does anybody know when we can expect this? I know it takes a while to animate these shows, but I have no idea how long.
Sounds like the premise of Nickelodeon’s “Space Cases” from the 90’s
Sounds fun, different, and fresh.
Good luck with it.
I like the idea of a new animated series, but I’m not sure about the concept…A derelict Starfleet ship? Are we supposed to assume that her crew just abandoned her and is never returning to find her? What about the rest of Starfleet? Did they give up? Or is that gonna play into the story? That might be interesting…maybe they might get hunted by Starfleet.
I don’t know though. It’s all a little juvenile sounding to me, and I’m not talking about because they’re teens, but rather because the plot seems a little silly. Still it might work…maybe one of the rebellious teens is a genius Vulcan or something that can stay one step ahead of every Starfleet officer on their trail.
Then again, maybe Starfleet officers will be portrayed as incompetent like the police were in some of those old ’50s sitcoms.
“It’s all a little juvenile sounding to me, and I’m not talking about because they’re teens, but rather because the plot seems a little silly.”
did you miss the part where this is a show for children?
Then again, Data playing “lifeforms” on his CONSOLE (oy…) and telling cringy jokes feels more silly than this plot.
You are so right!
Didn’t miss that at all. What I should have said was that it might not be very feasible. Too cartoony I mean.
But it is a cartoon and I get that and I might be okay with it as long as its’ more Ben 10 than Teen Titans Go!
This is a kids show. Nickelodeon
This sounds interesting. I have Nickelodeon so I will watch this show. Star Trek is copying Star Wars now. The Clone Wars and Rebels did this already.
I see what you’re saying, but Star Trek beat Star Wars to animation by 12 years. TAS came out in ’73 and the Droids and Ewoks cartoons came out in ’85.
Looking forward to this as I can get behind the premise. It is good to see Star Trek animation back with Nickelodeon.
I will watch this.
I don’t know, all I can say is it sounds interesting to me, but I’m far from the target audience. But I’ll definitely give it a watch and judge it for myself. For some reason I thought this was going to be more of a ‘traditional’ Star Trek show since Lower Decks seem like a more alternative show and the other cartoon would just be more TOS geared like an animated Pike or even a Captain April show.
But I think its more proof Kurtzman wants all the shows to feel completely different from each other, so I’m game at least. I have to hear more than teenagers steal an old starship to determine if its going to be interesting or not.
Tiger2 this reminds me of Star Wars. Star Trek is Star Wars now, they are trying to be like The Clone Wars and Rebels now. Great Star Wars animation shows. Star Trek can work on kids.
I never watched either of those shows beyond an episode or two but that all sounds fine to me. The Star Wars cartoons seem to have better word of mouth than the actual films these days in the fanbase so they are doing something right I guess.
Whatever they think will get kids into Star Trek, even if it has to be a bit more like Star Wars to do it.
The Star Wars cartoons have Dave Filoni. The dude has told some amazing stories and made Star Wars pretty great on the small screen. Enough so, they’ve got him involved with the new live action series for Disney+, The Mandalorian. Just because it’s stories on a kids’ medium doesn’t mean it can’t be quality. Just look at shows like well, Clone Wars or Rebels. Voltron: Legendary Defender, or The Dragon Prince.
Of course I agree. Look at Pixar? They been telling some deep quality animated movies for two decades now and they are usually made for both kids and adults in mind. Disney animated movies did this first but Pixar has taken the reigns the decade or so.
If they set this in the post TNG era with the Federation being a bureaucratic command economy and these kids find a TOS/Discovery Constitution class cruiser and miss the good old TOS days..
This is something else, not that…
Dude get over it lol. And kids don’t care about any of that stuff. They will watch if the show is fun regardless of premise or era, thats it.
It’s an elevator pitch, which always sounds awful in isolation, but the proof is in the pudding. FWIW and IMHO, the Hageman Bros. efforts on “Trollhunters” and “LEGO Ninjago” can be quite nuanced — more so than what J.J. Abrams oversees.
What are the teens rebelling *against*? The Maquis were rebels. The space hippies in TOS “The Way to Eden” were rebels (um, maybe not the best example). If we learn more about civilian life in the UFP, I’m all for it. If the background plot-driver turns out to be armed conflict (yet again) and the first solution is pew-pew, I won’t be so sanguine.
As long as they don’t try to claim any of this animated garbage is canon…
It’s made by the people who own the rights to make Star Trek and determine what “canon” is. If they say it’s canon, it’s canon.
(Your mileage may vary, of course. Each viewer can make up their own rules for what does and doesn’t “count.” But canon, by definition, is determined by authority. The Council of Rome determined the canon of the Christian Bible. The canonical Sherlock Holmes is the 56 short stories and 4 novels written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. And unless CBS, who own Star Trek, say otherwise, the canonical Star Trek is the TV series (7 so far, with at least 4 more in development), 13 films, and 4 “Short Treks”.)
You’ve yet to see it and call it garbage already?
I wonder what era this will be set in.
Sounds like a hoot. Not for the dinosaurs that hang out here, which is a good thing.
“Lawless teens”!!!!!! Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo! Golly, Kurtzy got amazingly brilliant ideas!
The idea around “lawless teens” sounds bad but that can work. I want kids to love Star Trek so I’m giving this a chance. Star Trek for kids. Saturday morning cartoons.
I watched Cartoon Network as a kid. I never really watched Nickelodeon other than SpongeBob SquarePants.
This is different. “Lawless teens” and a “derelict Starfleet ship”? A shuttle? One of Scotty’s jerry-rigged designs (“A chimpanzee and two trainees could run ‘er”)? Be nice to know the era they’ve chosen so we can at least have them meet some interesting folks from other shows.
Lawless teens? Haha, I love reading this stuff written by middle-aged marketing people trying to be cool with the kids. Never ceases to entertain.
LOL Wheelie.
A solid hit.
Ugh! Teens….
What is this fascination we seem to have in the western world with ‘teen’ culture? And the more troubled, the more angst ridden and lawless, the better… apparently.
They should meet an alien who gives them all a darn good thrashing, like in the good ol’ days. ;-P
That’ll teach them.
I never know how seriously to take these brief synopsis for upcoming TREK. Remember how INTO DARKNESS’ official release:
In Star Trek: Into Darkness, the crew of the Enterprise is called back home only to find an unstoppable force of terror from within their own organization has detonated the fleet and everything it stands for.
Made people think we were going to see PEARL HARBOR in space.
.. ok, is kurtzman like the new rick berman or something and has to be involved in all of the new trek productions? I’m sorry but everytime I see his name attached to something trek related I have an un-vulcan-like display of emotion and become slightly nauseous
Yes, he basically is the new RIck Berman although he has nothing to do with the movies (although he use to ;))
Does anyone remember Space cases? I’m probably dating myself here. That’s what the plot sounds similar to.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Cases
Still, I will give it a chance. Plus, at least I don’t have to pay a monthly subscription fee to see it.
The premise is also broadly similar to “Hypernauts” (1996, a cousin to “Babylon 5”), in which the teens were cadets, went FTL-joyriding, got stuck behind enemy lines, but happened upon a human-built automated deep-exploration ship to use as a home base.
Who knows, maybe this will be awesome. But it sounds terrible to me. Feels to me like what I think of as “Star Trek” is dead, if not entirely buried. Ah, well.
This one already sounds like a parody of itself. But let’s see.
If I may offer my two centavos on this thing… Trekkies seem to give too much stock on being right in an arrogant, condescending kind of way.
“Being right” is not a popularity contest.
A well-reasoned, thoroughly researched, idea is not “proven wrong” by merely saying “many people disagree with it”. While popularity shows how many people share an opinion, numbers alone don’t prove that that opinion was actually correct in the first place. It could very well show how many people “just don’t get it”.
Jetfreak-7
I believe you’ve countered your own argument.
The challenge is that many Trek fans are looking for well-reasoned, and thoroughly-researched Trek offerings…
But Discovery has more often than not failed to meet these criteria, or when it has the science to back up the story the writing has not brought the audience along.
And it seems to be the consensus view of professional critics and not only fans. The season finale was especially critiqued for only working if one didn’t think about it too much.
There are genuine pre-production problems that have dogged the show that can account for this.
But for the moment fans are not willing to give the Kurtzman Trek products the benefit of the doubt on these criteria.
You do not speak for all fans, let alone a majority of them, but keep telling yourself that you do, it’s funny.
Hey Afterburn, I’ve never claimed to speak for all…
And I recognize that there are fans who’ve loved Discovery from the start.
While I only post here, I do read elsewhere.
And when I say a consensus among professional critics, it’s because I’ve actually read a lot of reviews from diverse sources in the past week.
I’m not insulating myself from other views.
As they in the PR business, the criticism has legs.
Getting angry that Trek fans have high expectations logic, or point our where Discovery’s writers aren’t consistent the canon they themselves created a few episodes previous, is equally a way to dismiss or write off the concerns of fans.
But most of us who have concerns would actually like for Discovery to overcome these problems that are dogging it to become a successful contribution to the franchise.
I’ll put this in the same, circular, file as the one proposal for TAS where the primary crew of the Enterprise had teen counterparts also serving aboard the ship.
Fingers crossed for a cross over with “Captain Simian & the Space Monkeys”
This sounds interesting. Probably wont interest me but until the first episodes hit one cannot say.
Star Wars The Clone Wars was a terrific show which could be watched by kids and adults (kids at heart types*) and actually improved the prequel era hugely, adds a lot of needed backstory and character building leading, to ROTS.
Hopefully this show won’t be too geared exclusively to young viewers but more a show that can possibly appeal/be watchable/enjoyable to all age groups.
I’m more excited for this than Picard I think??? I just think it could be so great
Oh joy. I hope there’s a funny cute alien pet that floats around and makes funny reactive sounds to relieve tensions in dangerous situations!!
I can see Shanter doing some voice overs in the new series. It also might be a way to tie up some loose ends with either TOS , TNG or Enterprise.
What Trek hell is this?