Some of you, like me, are conditioned to watch anything that bears the name Star Trek regardless of its quality and are just here to get an idea of what to expect. Of course, if you’re reading this, odds are you are not a child between eight and twelve, you’re a jaded adult who wants to know if this new corner of the Star Trek universe might be of interest to you. Now, if Viacom wants to get kids into Star Trek, they’re going to have to meet them where they’re at, and since that teased Fortnite crossover apparently didn’t pan out, that means a youth-targeted animated series that can be rerun on Nickelodeon. It didn’t seem to matter that neither The Next Generation, nor Deep Space Nine, nor Voyager was made specifically or kids - kids watched them anyway, either with their parents or on their own, because frankly there were not as many shows to watch and altogether fewer things to do with your weeknights after school at the time.
I grew up during the peak of Trek ’s popularity, when there were two series and a film franchise running concurrently, a new PC game out every year, books being published for every reading level, and multiple toy lines. I don’t really have the right to criticize this obvious attempt to “get ‘em while they’re young.” Star Trek got me while I was young, and I’d be a fundamentally different person if it hadn’t. It’s created by Kevin and Dan Hageman, best known for their work on the hit Netflix series Trollhunters, which spawned two spin-offs of its own. The latest spin-off is Star Trek: Prodigy, a computer-animated series aimed at kids, presumably as a way to cultivate a new generation of fans not yet born the last time Star Trek played on free TV.
Each new show takes a different approach to the Star Trek universe, catering to a slightly different corner of the fanbase. Rather than try to mold a single product to satisfy all audiences, producer Alex Kurtzman has taken a prismatic approach to Trek, commissioning five separate series for streaming platform Paramount+. Since the franchise was relaunched on streaming television in 2017 with Star Trek: Discovery, CBSViacom has sought to expand Star Trek into a four-quadrant brand, something it hasn’t been since the mid-1990s, if ever.
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