If you wanted to catch Star Trek Prodigy but haven't yet, better watch it soon!

[Benjamin Olson]

As someone who enjoyed TOS aged 3, I don't think Prodigy is too difficult.

For a kid with the attention span for something not made specifically for them and no prior Star Trek knowledge, the average episode of TOS was probably in some ways easier to follow than Prodigy. It's slower paced and usually drops fewer difficult concepts (since there isn't a long franchise legacy to plop things in from with limited explanation).

But I'm going to peg you as an outlier in any case. I think they probably did not make Prodigy as intellectually accessible to enough kids to watch on their own as they needed to for it to find a sufficient "kids watching cartoons on their own" audience, even if there are a fair number of little Paul Farquhars out there ready to eat it right up.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I learned to read with a Star Trek annual, then progressed to Target Doctor Who novelisations.

Technobabble is my first language.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

I was 4 when it started its run. I found it inspiring.

Wild! Kids vary so much in some ways, even if a lot of it seems to even out by 10-12. I remember seeing TOS at like 5-7 and just thinking it was weird, boring and creepy. I think I worked out later that I'd seen a selection of basically the worst TOS episodes (all S2) - if we had 1980s TV guides for the UK we could probably pin down which lol but I don't think they've been digitized. Whereas OldWho I obsessively watched from behind the sofa (Davison/Baker/McCoy for me).

I learned to read with a Star Trek annual, then progressed to Target Doctor Who novelisations.

Technobabble is my first language.

The Doctor Who Technical Manual was an article of faith for me at age 8 (despite apparently being unable to read a full sentence the year before - I may just have been being difficult). I practically memorized the damn thing, which introduced me to a whole lot of before-my-time deep Who lore.

 

[Ryujin]

Wild! Kids vary so much in some ways, even if a lot of it seems to even out by 10-12. I remember seeing TOS at like 5-7 and just thinking it was weird, boring and creepy. I think I worked out later that I'd seen a selection of basically the worst TOS episodes (all S2) - if we had 1980s TV guides for the UK we could probably pin down which lol but I don't think they've been digitized. Whereas OldWho I obsessively watched from behind the sofa (Davison/Baker/McCoy for me).

The Doctor Who Technical Manual was an article of faith for me at age 8 (despite apparently being unable to read a full sentence the year before - I may just have been being difficult). I practically memorized the damn thing, which introduced me to a whole lot of before-my-time deep Who lore.

I can't really say that I was a "normal" kid, though. I was reading Von Daniken at 7 and noting the logical fallacies. Giving my parents news about the US withdrawal from Viet Nam when they came home from work.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I don't think they've been digitized.

They had definitely not been remastered at that point (I think it's the BBC2 reruns you are referring to). The FX where looking decidedly ropy by then. I first saw it on a tiny 1970 black and white TV, so it didn't look so bad. We didn't get a colour TV until a couple of years later.

 

[Ryujin]

They had definitely not been remastered at that point (I think that was the BBC2 reruns). The FX where looking decidedly ropy by then. I first saw it on a tiny 1970 black and white TV, so it didn't look so bad. We didn't get a colour TV until a couple of years later.

They were also originally made for something like a 48 minute run-time. Broadcast TV in North America is more like 44 minutes to the hour now, to allow for the greater number of commercial breaks, so older shows are either cut down or edited to play slightly faster.

 

[Rabulias]

Just to follow up on this, Star Trek: Prodigy is making its way to Netflix in the US, with season 1 making its Netflix premiere Dec 25, 2023, and season 2 showing up sometime in early 2024.

 

[Mort]

Just to follow up on this, Star Trek: Prodigy is making its way to Netflix in the US, with season 1 making its Netflix premiere Dec 25, 2023, and season 2 showing up sometime in early 2024.

While this is good news (the show was fun), shows ping-ponging between different (paid) streaming services is getting irritating!

There are even instances (here in the U.S.) where some seasons of a show are on one (paid) streaming service and others are on a completely different (paid) streaming service. It's exhausting!

Doctor Who for example: Current series - on Max. Current Specials - Disney+. Old series - britbox or Tubi.