‘Children are not allowed on the bridge!” said Captain Picard in Star Trek: The Next Generation’s pilot episode. Nowadays, that attitude has softened, with Trek about to get its own animated series as an antidote to the smörgåsbord of F-bombs, Klingon boobs and decapitated Romulans that populate its live-action incarnations. Alongside Netflix’s Camp Cretaceous – which turns the Jurassic World franchise into a family-friendly cartoon – it’s part of a trend for creating versions of sci-fi shows for children that haven’t lost their power to shock – but won’t give kids nightmares.
It’s a move that raises all sorts of questions. How scary is too scary? Who is allowed to die? And how do you stay true to the essence of a long-running franchise for grownups while reimagining it for a far younger audience?
