Star Trek, for toddlers.
December 17, 2016 4:52 PM   Subscribe

Recommend me some specific episodes of Star Trek (any series), Doctor Who, or (your show of choice), that would be good for a toddler.

I prefer eps with low violence, no "bad guys", but scary things (monsters, ship damage) is okay.

My list so far:
- TNG: Inner light (which toddler won't grok), quality of life, Disaster
- TOS: Corbomite Maneuver
- DS9: HAHA, NICE TRY... I don't want to watch Move Along Home.
- TAS, VOY, ENT???
- Doctor Who...hm.

Toddler likes ships, repairing things, competence porn.
posted by gregglind to Media & Arts (17 answers total) 2 users marked this as a favorite
 
TOS: The Trouble with Tribbles shows a lot of incompetence, and nothing gets overtly repaired, but it happens on a ship. Plus, who can resist the rain of tribbles when the hatch is opened?
posted by maudlin at 5:01 PM on December 17, 2016 [8 favorites]


A toddler?? The age range commonly understood to be 1-3 years old? None of these.
posted by BlahLaLa at 5:09 PM on December 17, 2016 [4 favorites]


Response by poster: Won't threadsit. Child in question is 4. Substitute "young child" for "toddler", my fault! Child has seen Tribbles, and enjoyed it.
posted by gregglind at 5:11 PM on December 17, 2016


I mean, to be honest, at that age I didn't really understand the content of basically any media produced for adults. I only vaguely had a narrative grasp of Saturday morning cartoons, and anything beyond Sesame Street and Mister Rogers was fairly mystifying. There is no way this kid is going to understand anything in these shows at all. Like, to the point where I doubt they "enjoyed" The Trouble With Tribbles, they just acted like they did because the grownups around them thought it was cute. The way I "liked" Star Wars at that age despite understanding pretty much none of it beyond "all the grownups laugh when I say light-saber".

I'm a trekkie from way back, but I was at least 7-8 before I even understood "there's this guy who is named Mister Spock and he's an alien, but a chill alien, and he has pointy ears and does this cool hand signal thing."

For Star Trek, anything that doesn't involve Deanna Troi getting raped or the wholesale genocide of Bajorans is probably fine. For Doctor Who, this is tougher because so many episodes revolve around the plotline of "Oh No, Scary Monsters Are Coming", and I do think little kids can usually pick up on that particular narrative element even in media for grownups. I would probably not show any Doctor Who to a kid under 6.
posted by Sara C. at 5:30 PM on December 17, 2016 [2 favorites]


Best answer: Maybe gregglind's kid is ahead of the curve. Mine is. He has seen very little Star Trek, but he has already identified that The Doctor from Voyager occupies the same role as Data or Spock. "He's the one with no emotions in this episode, right, Dad?" Kid can't keep terms for episiode/series/story arc straight, but he does totally grasp story arcs. He prefers the Flash ("Dad, that wheelchair guy from the future is acting like he's trying to help the Flash, but I think he is secretly a bad guy. In the last episode, he said mean things about the Flash, right? Behind the Flash's back?")

BLF Junior is 3.5 years old, for what it's worth. Perhaps gregglind's kid is similarly ahead of the curve. So I would suggest Star Trek 4: The Voyage Home, because BLF Jr laughed his head off when Scotty was trying to talk to the computer by talking into the mouse.

YMMV.
posted by BrunoLatourFanclub at 5:51 PM on December 17, 2016 [2 favorites]


Best answer: DS9 has an episode, Trials and Tribble-ations, that digitally inserts characters into footage from the Tribble episode from TOS. I think it's kid-friendly? But maybe watch it first to be sure. It's S05E06.
posted by zebra at 6:23 PM on December 17, 2016


Best answer: From TNG:

- Remember Me (Season 4): Dr. Crusher gets trapped in a warp bubble. No bad guy, people keep trying to rescue Beverly through a scary-looking vortex thingy. Meanwhile, people keep disappearing out of Beverly's reality. I might be concerned that a fear of people vanishing would be a side effect, but if that's not a concern, this is pretty decent.
- The Game (Season 5): Technically there's a whole bunch of bad guys, but they're primarily the Enterprise crew. It's a neat episode and there's little violence. (They hold down Wesley in a chair, there's some chasing, forcefields, etc)
- Hero Worship (Season 5): A kid starts to mimic Data. No bad guys, IIRC.
- Conundrum (Season 5): The crew's memory is wiped. Technically there's a bad guy, but it's great to see who takes over what position with no memories. (Warning: implied sex between two characters.)
- Cause & Effect (Season 5): Has no bad guys and the Enterprise blows up several times! Highly recommend.
- Relics (Season 6): Scotty shows up on the Enterprise D and they encounter a Dyson Sphere.
- Rascals (Season 6): Picard, Ro, Guinan and Keiko have their bodies turned into those of children. Meanwhile, the Ferengi take over the ship. That said, they're the Ferengi and so aren't terribly threatening as bad guys. Some good comic relief here.
- Second Chances (Season 6): William T. Riker, meet William T. Riker. No bad guys, IIRC.

There are more. Some in the seventh season might strike the right note too -- Lower Decks, Thine Own Self, Emergence maybe -- but that ought to get you started.
posted by juliebug at 6:31 PM on December 17, 2016 [2 favorites]


Best answer: I was just watching The Doctor Who episode The Runaway Bride (s3e1) with my four year old today.
posted by soren_lorensen at 6:34 PM on December 17, 2016


I grew up watching Star Trek with my mom and went to my first convention at age 7 to meet my idol, Deanna Troy. I was 5 when TNG came out and watched it from day 1. My understanding and appreciation certainly changed over time as I grew older, but I still liked it as a young kid - action! space! (Some Weird Stuff In Space episodes might be good) I watched all the TOS movies with my mom, too, and ADORED IV (the one with the whales) as a kid. This is not at all unreasonable. I'd honestly suggest you rewatch some of your favorites, let kiddo join you and figure out favorite characters and themes, and go from there.
posted by olinerd at 7:18 PM on December 17, 2016


The Animated Series holds up better than you expect.
posted by fings at 7:55 PM on December 17, 2016 [2 favorites]


Best answer: Hmm, it's been a while since I watched a few of these so I can't be entirely sure if there is more violence than I remember, but for Voyager, you might look into some of these. (In season order)

Heroes and Demons: There is some violence of a sort in this one but it mostly takes place on the holodeck where Harry Kim's Beowolf program starts taking on a life of its own. It's one of the more enjoyable holodeck centered episodes, featuring the Doctor as the hero before they decided he had to argue with Janeway about holographic rights all the time.

Twisted: The conundrum in this episode is over Voyager itself becoming rearranged, with the crew unable to find the areas they need to go to. There is the threat of death, which the crew prepares for, but, obviously, they find a way out of the problem. It's not one of my favorites personally, but the idea of the ship rearranging itself might prove interesting to a young child. I think I might have found ti so anyway. There are some dreary bits with Neelix and Kes that slow things down a bit though.

Message in a Bottle: This one is pretty fun, with the Doctor getting send through a wormhole to the Alpha quadrant by Voyager thinking they have contact with a Federation ship, but it turns out to have been one taken over by Romulans, so the Doctor and Andy Dick as the holographic doctor from that ship have to retake the vessel from the Romulans and somehow get the Doc back to Voyager. This is one where I am shaky about the violence, so someone else might be able to give a better judgement on that end.

Demon: This one is interesting, but maybe a little too conceptual or not engaging enough for a youngster. Voyager is looking for fuel on a "demon class" planet, where harsh conditions make it unable to sustain human life, and Tom and Harry encounter a strange mercurylike pool and are rendered unconscious. The crew seaches for them and appears to find them alive without their spacesuits, but on taking them back to Voyager the two collapse in the purified environment of the ship. It turns out there is something strange about that pool and maybe Tom, Harry, and the planet aren't what they seem. (There is a fine continuation of this episode in season 5, Oblivion, but that one might be, I think, too much for a youngster.)

One: Another episode that may or may not work for a youngster is this, um, one, where Seven of Nine and the Doctor are the only two characters who are able to remain functioning during a month long trip through a hazardous nebula, the rest of the crew being in stasis. The focus of the episode is on Seven overcoming her fear of being alone and accepting the responsibility of taking care of the ship on her own. So in that sense it may have a sort of teaching angle to it, but it could seem frightening to a child afraid of being alone and it might not be otherwise interesting enough since it is a more character driven episode.

Blink of an Eye: This is one of my favorite episodes from the series and is pretty packed with events, but might be a little difficult for some kids to appreciate since it is focused on a society that lives on a planet where time passes exceptionally fast from the perspective of Voyager, which is trapped in its orbit. While trapped, Voyager witnesses and shapes the whole history of the planet below, from stone age to space age. The show is split between the perspective of those on Voyager and those on the planet in two different time frames, so it could be confusing, but it might be enjoyable enough even so given all the events that go on.

The Haunting of Deck Twelve: Finally, I thought this episode might be worth mentioning since it is structured around Neelix telling some of the children on board Voyager a "ghost story" about events that may or may not be actually unfolding as he tells the tale as a way to keep them calm during power outages and worry. His story, and perhaps that of Voyager, is tied to the encounter of a strange life form from a nebula Voyager passed through that's been "haunting" the ship in increasingly dangerous ways.

(I could have perhaps included Timeless, another favorite from the series, where the episode starts out with Harry and Chakotay 15 years in the future finding the wreck of Voyager encased in ice on a planet in the Alpha System, but the premise of the show might be a bit much given its one where alternative time lines allow for deaths that are later "erased" but none the less violent for being so. It doesn't have a villain and does have a guest appearance by Geordi from STTNG, so if alterna deaths are okay, it's a lot of fun.)


Really though, Voyager might not be all that great for kids compared to TNG or TOS since the crew isn't as much fun to begin with, and later the better plots are fairly heavy on subtext and some more adult themes much of the time, while the bad ones aren't really interesting enough to be worth anyone's time. The villains they do face are pretty intense, Borg, a species that frightened even the Borg, aliens wishing to steal body parts and space hunter types who identify with Nazis. The best episodes are on the heavy side, and the lighter ones are often holodeck driven or kind of a mess, with Neelix being completely annoying for the first few seasons and then the Doctor being a pain in the last few. Maybe someone else has a better take, but other than a few episodes, it isn't a series I'd think kids would automatically dig unless they love anything Trek. Of course when I was around that age, favorite show was probably Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, so my take might not be all that close to your own child's.
posted by gusottertrout at 9:33 PM on December 17, 2016 [1 favorite]


Best answer: The episode of Doctor Who were they meet Van Gogh ("Vincent And The Doctor") would be great. Just a scary monster, lotsa competence porn, and it's never too early to start your crush on Bill Nighy.
posted by bleep at 11:35 PM on December 17, 2016


Best answer: One of my fav episodes of TNG growing up was "Data's Day".
posted by bleep at 11:42 PM on December 17, 2016 [2 favorites]


Best answer: If you like Doctor Who but find it a bit intense and often hard to follow for a child, there's a spin-off of sorts: The Sarah Jane Adventures. It's a Russell T Davies brainchild, with Elisabeth Sladen back in her role as Sarah Jane Smith, the same character she played back on Doctor Who in the Pertwee/Baker days. It is mostly Sarah Jane adventuring around on earth with some teenage companions, running into various (often somewhat comical) bad guys or bad aliens, usually in a two-part half hour serial format, which is conveniently short enough to hold a child's attention, unlike the hour-long shows mentioned above. There are occasional crossovers from Doctor Who, so it is an interesting introduction into that world. The show didn't have the production values or budget of Doctor Who, but they cranked out five seasons and only stopped because Elisabeth Sladen fell ill and passed away.

It looks like some of the episodes may be on YouTube. Check a few out. The show has a general consistency of quality to it, so if you like one, chances are good you'd like the others. It is absolutely aimed at kids and less "behind the sofa" than Doctor Who. The plots are not complicated and usually formulaic and tend to be predictable.
posted by jgreco at 4:55 AM on December 18, 2016


Best answer: Star Trek 4: The Voyage Home (first watched at age 5) is probably 99% of the reason that I love Star Trek to this day.
posted by magnetsphere at 8:41 AM on December 18, 2016 [1 favorite]


Best answer: TNG: Booby Trap (s3e6) checks most all of your boxes.

Ships: They're investigating a starship from a long-dead civilization, and end up caught in the same asteroid-based booby trap that stranded it there originally. To solve the problem Laforge goes back to the ship's original design specs and ends up using the holodeck to recreate the warp engines' lead design engineer and her room at the Utopia Planitia shipbuilding yards to help him brainstorm a solution; floating outside the window is an under construction Galaxy Class starship. When they do figure a way out at the end, the audience is treated to some of the Enterprise-D's most visually dramatic flight scenes outside of combat sequences, and it even puts some of those to shame.

Repairs: They have to jury-rig things on the derelict ship to even pull a full log from it, to find out information about the booby trap. They also have to set up temporary lifeesupport on the Enterprise for the eventuality that the booby trap makes them lose power. Finally, Geordi's holodeck simulation is him investigating what alterations need to be made to the warp system to get them out.

Competence: Geordie going back to the orignal design environment to get a fresh look at what can be tweaked is the kind of inspired problem solving that would be expected of the Chief Engineer of the most prestigious ship in Starfleet. But when the best solution that the holodeck simulation comes up with doesn't work reliably in their test runs, he comes up with a better solution by turning the problem on its head. Captain Picard himself has his own moment of awesome, because the final solution, the one that every life on the ship is depending on, requires that the ship be navigated using a short impulse burst and then minimal use manual thrusters for steering. Not willing to delegate everyone's survival, he takes the helm himself (a position that he served on for years at a lower rank, so he has the requisite experience) and tackles the unique challenges of the situation with resourcefulness.

No Bad Guys: The asteroid minefield was planted over a thousand years prior to the episode, the two warring species long since extinct.

One caution: the episode's "B plot" centers around LaForge's lackluster lovelife, so the opening scene with his failed date, as well as him getting flirty with the holodeck simulation of the design engineer (and the Computer making her be flirty right back at him, presumably because it's thinking "Oh, Geordie is on the holodeck again and acting that way, he must want this to be one of those programs. Engineering department's all like that, he's almost as bad as Lt. Barclay") may be a bit much in the way of subject matter for a 4 year old.

Then again, when the engineer shows up again in season 4 (ep.16, Galaxy's Child), this time in the flesh, and there's some major awkwardness over the facts that 1.) she's happily married, and 2.) Geordi made a cringey holodeck simulation of her, there's a good teaching moment there -- Just because you can learn a lot of things about someone by using a computer, it doesn't mean you know them, and more importantly, don't be a creeper.
posted by radwolf76 at 10:20 AM on December 18, 2016 [1 favorite]


TOS: The Ultimate Computer
posted by DrAstroZoom at 11:23 AM on December 20, 2016 [1 favorite]


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