Star Trek: The Next Generation could serve as an intro point to the franchise for younger fans.
While Star Trek has always broached adult topics, for the most part, it was never adult-themed. Until Bad Robot got their little grubs on it. Things like swearing, sex, and drug use weren’t all that common in the older series, and served as family-friendly entertainment, even if the topics weren’t exactly child-inclusive. Sure, the complexities of conflict resolution aren’t horrifying to watch, but they’re not exactly easy to understand. That’s why Star Trek has largely been a series that didn’t target the child-aged audience until more recently.
Star Trek.com knows that you probably shouldn’t let your kids watch the newer shows, certainly some questionable material for children in those, let alone for Star Trek fans, but The Next Generation was largely a much more child-friendly show. It’s not completely child-safe, however, and there are episodes you certainly should hold off showing the youngster.
Yet, if you are so inclined to get your offspring into Star Trek, their dot com has five great episodes to consider starting with.
The five episodes Star Trek.com recommend introducing your child to.
Data’s Day (Season 4, Episode 11)
The episode follows Data as he records a typical day for him in order to provide Commander Bruce Maddox with a background on how Data interacts with people in his day to day. The episode is especially important due to it being the wedding of Chief Miles O’Brien and his wife Keiko. Not a major character in Next Generation but O’Brien would be a starring character in Deep Space Nine and Keiko would have a prominent role.
Encounter at Farpoint (Season 1, Episodes 1 & 2)
The pilot episode of the series. It sets everything in place, and introduces the viewers to Q, arguably the most recognizable antagonist from Star Trek: The Next Generation. It also featured space jellyfish. So you know, it’s educational.
Rascals (Season 6, Episode 7)
The Ferengi are terrible and even kids can outsmart them. That’s the plot of Rascals, which sees several main characters be reduced to children and forced to deal with the invading Ferengi threat.
True Q (Season 6, Episode 6)
True Q focuses on a young member of the crew who has Q-abilities and is forced to either accept her new reality or potentially be destroyed by Q for doing nothing, other than existing. It’s an intriguing episode but not one kids may easily get.
Fistful of Datas (Season 6, Episode 8)
It’s a western. Kid’s love westerns. Right?