The Nickelodeon animated Star Trek series geared for kids got its first major update since it was first announced in April 2019.
Star Trek: Prodigy coming to Nickelodeon next year
During the big Comic-Con@Home Star Trek Universe panel executive producers Alex Kurtzman and Heather Kadin gave an update on the Nickelodeon Star Trek series, announcing the title to be Star Trek: Prodigy. CBS has also provided a logo and some more details.
Star Trek: Prodigy logo shown during Comic-Con@Home panel
The CG-animated series will debut exclusively on Nickelodeon in 2021, aimed at a new generation of fans.
The story of Star Trek: Prodigy follows a group of lawless teens who discover a derelict Starfleet ship and use it to search for adventure, meaning, and salvation.
Prodigy is being developed by Emmy-winners Kevin and Dan Hageman (Trollhunters, Ninjago). 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.
Prodigy logo released by CBS today
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Why
Why not?
What?
very nice… finally feels like whoever is in charge knows what they are doing… they should have been building a young audience for trek years ago…for decades trek has been random… though im looking forward to the adult x rated trek… Real Trek After Dark
At least young kids get their own Star Trek show on Nickelodeon.
Agreed. It a kids-targeted product long overdue.
I loved TAS in first run, and we used the TAS DVD collection to introduce our kids to Trek.
I have no interest any adult 18+ rated Trek, and neither does my spouse, and I don’t see what the benefit would be to the franchise strategically.
that was a joke lol…
If it helps, I figured it was quite obviously a joke.
*Facepalm emoji.
Real Trek After Dark was a hilarious joke.
Okay guys, I fully admit to being a parent who recently spent the better part of a decade watching mostly kid-rated shows so that went right by me.
I’m never sure how much Tom Riker is speaking with tough firmly and dryly in cheek.
Despite my detour from non-kids television, it’s been very cool though to see shows I’d loved through their eyes, and also to see some of the truly great kids content out there now.
One can’t tell much from a title, and CBS has yet to establish its own identity in animation, but I don’t know what to make of the style they’ve chosen for Prodigy. I’m not sure if it will be 2D or 3D.
To be honest it’s giving me a My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Vibe than Trolls. Not what I’d expected.
TG47, did you ever saw the 1885 kid series “The little Vampire”? It was a Canadian-German Coproduction which I always found quite charming. I wonder if it was or still is populär in Canada?
I missed that one odarek.
The older shows seem to rotate through the Ontario and British Columbia public television channels on some unfathomable basis, and the private premium cable stations are all about their own libraries.
I can’t see who has the distribution rights for “The Little Vampire.” In any event, it wasn’t on when our kids were of the right age. I did see an astonishing amount of “My Big, Big Friend” in one phase, which is a Brazilian co-production. My spouse mercifully has just sufficiently different tastes to have covered off some of the ones that I had limited appreciation for: it got us through an intense “Shaun the Sheep” phase.
But as a Trek fan, I’m so glad to have seen “Odd Squad” with the kids. “The Trouble with Centigurps” is one of many episodes with clear Trek roots.
And I’m looking forward to Star Trek brand cream cheese. Can’t wait.
Followed by Shuttlecraft Dashboard Confessions.
How about Hallmark Star Trek Holiday Romances?
There has got to be a niche for that, and Hallmark already has the necessary line of Christmas ornaments.
We had an adult version of ST, and presumably Paramount sat on it until the prospect director/producer/undecided moved on.
So basically…nick is bringing back Space Cases as Star Trek
Haha! I was thinking the same thing!
‘Star Trek: Prodigy’ –
Okay… I understand that this show is for kids. I’m not the target demographic for this show and that’s good. Star Trek needs younger fans to stay relevant. Maybe it can deliver.
Grown ups like me don’t watch a Nickelodeon for crying out loud. Last time I watched a Nickelodeon TV show was Avatar: The Last Airbender on Netflix a long time ago. That show was my favorite thing about my childhood.
Star Trek: Prodigy is intended for the next generation of Star Trek fans.
“Star Trek: Prodigy is intended for the next generation of Star Trek fans.”
Well…there used to be a time when “The Next Generation” was for the next generation of Star Trek fans :-)
Seriously… Prodigy is way more interesting that LD. Although I still have my reservations about any animated series, I’d rather go for the kid-friendly anime than the “adult” animated comedy… Clone Wars / Rebels for Trek instead of Detours…
How is it ‘more interesting’ than LDS when we literally know nothing about it?
Well, we all have our tastes. The good news is that SH is trying to expand the reach of the brand with their different types of Trek. Not everything will be embraced by everyone. That said, given the explanation of the plot of Prodigy I know that if I were that age I would likely skip it without even giving it a chance. The idea of “lawless teens” just sounds to idiotic for me. It does now and it would have to me then. Give me a more edgy teen and above animated Trek comedy any day.
It bears noting that Star Trek has survived 50 years without (TAS notwithstanding) having a kiddie show to hook the next generation of fans.
And there’s no better way to turn a teenager off something than by saying it’s for “teens only,” because you’re not ready for the real thing.
From what I can tell based on everything I’ve heard about it it is aimed squarely at the single digit age crowd. Doubtful teenagers would even be interested.
The day Trek goes anime is the day I turn in my pips.
Gross.
Lol nobody is going to miss you then..that would be an interesting take than the animation style of LD….if they had an animation style akind to say castlevania or Voltron LD you’ll have me hook line and sinker
Uh, there are FIVE OTHER SHOWS coming! Why do some people act like EVERY show has to be for them??? Maybe just MAYBE they are making so many shows to attract different demographics. What is wrong with that? When you have big franchises like Marvel, Star Wars, Star Trek, etc you can make your franchise for more than just one audience even knowing the most hardcore group will most likely watch it all anyway.
If you don’t like ‘anime’ fine, there are four live action shows (in theory anyway) for you to watch.
Isn’t the premise here just DS9’s Valiant where a bunch of rogue Red Squad cadets tried to fight the Dominion War all on their own?
It depends what they’re doing with the ship.
Not really. Those were Starfleet cadets. These just sound like regular kids. And my guess is they won’t be fighting a war, just using it to explore different places, hence Star Trek.
Well I hope they end up in Starfleet Academy sometime. Star Trek without Starfleet just doesn’t feel right.
We don’t have enough information to situate this show in the rest of the Trek universe.
This doesn’t add much information other than confirming the title from a group that CBS registered a while ago.
For my part, I’d be happy to see what’s beyond Starfleet, but would like the show to show the connection.
I’m not against this, and I hope it is good. Q knows, I will still watch it . . .
But my reaction when seeing this announcement was an exhausted sigh.
Whether it’s Disney for Star Wars, or CBS for Star Trek, it seems like everyone is on the fast track to franchise fatigue.
So, we have Discovery and Picard, are about to have Strange New Worlds, Lower Decks, and now this Prodigy thing? Five shows in the works at a time?
Truly I wish them luck, and I hope it’s the best thing ever. But . . . oof.
Six. You forgot Section 31.
And wasn’t there said to be two unannounced projects in the works earlier this year, before Strange New Worlds was unveiled? So that would be seven with one not yet announced.
Yep Thorny you’re right. They said they were working on two other live action shows along with Section 31. We now know SNW is one of those but still no clue what the other is yet.
So yes in reality there are SEVEN shows all in some form of production. We still don’t know what the other one is but the Starfleet Academy show seems to be one possibility.
Here is the link if anyone wants their memory jogged!
https://trekmovie.com/2020/01/15/star-trek-producers-say-section-31-and-2-more-live-action-shows-in-the-works/
Exactly.
Let’s be real, you’re not gonna watch 5 series. You’ll watch 3, max. That’s the point. Prodigy isn’t really for you, but it will be for the kids. And even if you watch 3 series, get 30 episodes out of a year’s worth of programming – isn’t that about the same as one old-fashioned season of Star Trek? So no, I don’t think there will be fatigue. I think people will watch what they’re interested in.
I realize I am far from the target audience here but I speak for myself back when I was 9 or 10…. The premise of this show would NOT engage me. And it’s been a decade since my kid was in that age group so I really don’t know what exactly is passing for young people’s programming today. The thing that turns me off to it… The line in the description about “lawless teens”. If it was “lost” or “abandoned” they might have something. But lawless makes them sound like a bunch of thugs and naer-do-wells. If my kid was in the target demo that phrase would have me wanting to check it out first before allowing him to see it. And that didn’t happen very much back in the day at all.
Absolutely agreed. My autistic brother generally watches Sesame Street and other young kids shows. I knew this would be targeted a bit above his ability to comprehend, but I thought it would still be a way for him to have a Star Trek for him. Between the absolute disaster that was Picard and the description here he won’t be able to see a single episode. Shame on Kurtzman and crew for needing to add “edgy-ness” into every series.
Eh just sounds like a modern version of Space Cases, an old Nick show with a Trek Skin. It was fun watching when I was 9/10 in 96/97.
I think that you’ve hit it exactly right ML31.
The word “lawless” would have been a question mark for us about 5 years back when our kids were in the demographic.
“Lost” , or “abandoned” or some other way to show marginalization would have been just as compelling and less concerning.
The word “salvation” seems a bit overwrought too.
This doesn’t sound like much to me, but who knows, maybe it’ll be great.
So it’s CGI Space Cases
DS9 did that, it was called Valiant, and it did not end well…
Anyway, the premise alone sounds terrible. Calling it Star Trek is kind of insulting.
This is like the first round of Star Trek toys that was just vaguely space-related toys with a Star Trek or Mr Spock sticker slapped on it.
Back in the day, there were kids who were 6 and 8 and 10 who discovered TOS and remained fans 40 and 50 years on.
I think it’ll be great – a bunch of bratty, derelict children who learn and grow through their adventures, come to accept responsibility. Maybe as they go throughout the universe they learn more about Starfleet, aspire to become like them. That would be a beautiful series. I hope this succeeds in every way! Children need Star Trek. I do, too, but unfortunately all I get is Kurtzman garbage.
“The story of Star Trek: Prodigy follows a group of lawless teens who discover a derelict Starfleet ship and use it to search for adventure, meaning, and salvation.”
Lawlessness! YES! That’s fitting right in with the zeitgeist, the unquenchable thirst of Americans for anarchy, riots and iconoclasm, to help bring down one of the most advanced civilizations of human history in division and fear! What better way than a Star Trek cartoon to instil in youngsters already the VALUES of vigilante social justice, disrespect of authority and hatred for that EVIL hierarchy?
I imagine one of the first missions will be those awesome teens steering their starship to Earth in a top secret mission, for aerial bombardment of the statue of Zefram Cochrane, that wh!te, sex!st p!g who stole Lily Sloane’s work to further his supremacist goals to oppress the galaxy.
After mission accomplished, at the end of the episode, our teen crew will be honored with Medals of Valor by “Galactic Antifa”.
;)
Harsh… But it certainly would be art imitating life!
If you think so. The joke still was funnier before VS stole it from RikersMailbox.
Actually good point, really should be Lily’s statue….or at least she deserves one
..if kurtzman is anywhere near it, no thank you. Same for strange new worlds. He knows nothing of trek and merely uses the name as a platform to spew his political propaganda
There’s some additional context coming out from Twitter.
One podcast has tweeted that Trek Science Consultant Dr Erin MacDonald is very closely involved with this one due to its particular target audience.
Which suggests that there will be a deliberate effort to generate enthusiasm for science. We’ve followed the STEM for kids shows pretty closely. It’s definitely a growing niche, and those shows really held our kids attention (Annedroids, Wild Kratts, Dino Dan/Dana, Odd Squad, Endlings). Nickelodeon hasn’t been particularly strong in this area with recent products so a Trek branded STEM show would likely a smart choice.
Also, David Mack is a consultant on this one (as well as Lower Decks). He knows his Trek canon which bodes well.
Last thought, our kids really liked a Canadian series pilot called “The Adventure Club” that was released as a TV movie / DVD but didn’t get a series buy. It was directed by Jonathan Frakes. The kids weren’t lawless, but they did get into a STEMish problem. Something about Prodigy reminds me of this.
I’m all for a show like this. I think it could be a great way to get younger kids interested in the franchise. It could well serve as great entry level Trek, so long as it avoids underestimating their intellect and glamorising stupid characters. I will give this a look with my two young daughters in mind.
Sully if they’re in the primary grades give “Odd Squad” a try if you haven’t already.
It’s smart and you’ll find it amusing too.
It’s definitely one of the new shows that I looked forward to watching with the kids. It’s well enough done that our kids liked it even though they were pretty far ahead of the math lessons it offers.
I actually still hope there will be another “catch-all” Star Trek show one day. You know, largely family-friendly, but neither dumb, nor purely comical. Just like Star Trek used to be. It’s not that I don’t enjoy the thought of many new Star Trek shows, but the Powers That Be seem to think that the “balkanization” of the franchise is the way to go…
It’s probably just more of a “safe bet” not to invest too much creative resources into one show and instead just throw tons of shows at the wall to see which are the ones that stick.
I hope Prodigy achieves what Clone Wars did for Star Wars. First just seen as a regular kids show with an awful start (rescue Jabba jr), becoming a show creating a ton of new fans and also tell stories also the fan parent can watch and get new insights. I really wish this for the show. Or we just get another TAS…
[[‘Star Trek: Prodigy’ — Title Revealed For New Nickelodeon Animated Series]]
I guess “Star Trek: CompuServe” was taken.