WISH UPON A PROTOSTAR

AS THE UNIVERSE CONTINUES TO EXPAND, THE LATEST INSTALMENT – – GENUINELY BOLDLY GOES WHERE NO TREK HAS GONE BEFORE

- TARA BENNETT

IN THE 55 YEARS OF ITS EXISTENCE IN pop culture, Star Trek has explored every kind of mood and tone across television, film and in animation. But what it has never done is aim unabashedly at a younger audience. Sure, families around the globe have watched the myriad of iterations together and there have been teenage characters like Wesley Crusher to bring in younger interest, but no Star Trek series or film has been made just for a child audience – until now, with Star Trek: Prodigy.

The CG animated series is produced by Nickelodeon Animation Studio and Roddenberry Entertainment and was developed by Alex Kurtzman’s Secret Hideout, which is currently steering the creative behind all of the recent Star Trek series.

Kurtzman tells SFX that as they were blue-skying new ideas in the universe, it occurred to them that Star Trek has never done the kind of active outreach to younger kids that other franchises have, like Jurassic Park or Star Wars. “We found that there was this amazing opportunity, because Star Trek is about so many things that are formative. It’s the idea that our best selves will emerge in the future, and that our better angels will lead us to an optimistic place where all the things that divide us now are gone.

“And what I love so much about Star Trek is that each generation that finds it keeps finding that message again and again. We felt that at this particular moment in time, to bring that message to young kids, who are going to be not only the ones who inherit Star Trek, but who inherit our planet and the choices that we’re making going forward... it just felt like the perfect time to bring it to them.”

JANEWAY TO GO