I've heard it said, and I can't recall from where (and, let's be honest, I'm too damn lazy to look), that kids give the most genuine acting performances because they haven't yet become self-conscious. They want to be Batman? They will be Batman, no matter how ridiculous it might look, because they simply don't care. In a way, the same can be true about how they feel about things they experience. There's very little filtering going on there. And, to top it off, their experiences are far less likely to be colored by what they've experienced in the past, because they have a lot less of it. So, while it doesn't necessarily make them good critics, it makes them honest critics. So, since I have two of them, I figured they'd make for pretty good guinea pigs (it's payback for all the times they've brought home whatever viruses and bacteria they could get their hands on at school). They had never seen a bit of Star Trek. Hell, they had never really seen science fiction. So, I spent some time on the last few weeks of their summer vacation burning through the Trek movies (and yes, starting with First Contact, they were PG-13, but they're pretty tame PG-13, and besides, they made it through my wife showing them Titanic without being mentally scarred by tits and frozen corpses). And, while each and every parent usually finds their own children to be absolutely far more fascinating than anyone else's, I found what they thought about the Star Trek movies to be very surprising, not only about what it says about youth, but what it says about Star Trek. K1 - Age Nine Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan Star Trek (2009) Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country Star Trek: First Contact Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home Star Trek: The Motion Picture Star Trek: Insurrection Star Trek: Nemesis Star Trek III: The Search for Spock Star Trek V: The Final Frontier Star Trek: Into Darkness Star Trek: Generations K2 - Age Six Star Trek III: The Search for Spock Star Trek (2009) Star Trek: Nemesis Star Trek: Insurrection Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country Star Trek: Into Darkness Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home Star Trek: The Motion Picture Star Trek V: The Final Frontier Star Trek: Generations Star Trek: First Contact First of all, they both really loved it (much to my wife's dismay, I suspect, but hey, it's better than watching a guy bounce off a propeller at the tail-end of a three-hour movie over...and over...and over...). So much so that they often begged to watch one after I came home from work in the evening. After we got through them all, K2 insisted that there must be more Star Trek movies, and refused to believe they had seen them all. So, proud geek dad moment there. The points of similarity are familiar to anyone who are honest with themselves. They both put Generations at or near the bottom of the list because they were so put off by Kirk's death. The Final Frontier was ranked 10th on both of their lists because they said it made no sense, putting them in agreement with virtually every Star Trek fan on the planet (K1 had a difficult time even remembering it, when I reminded him of the talking head that claimed to be God, he immediately shifted the DVD case down). What I found especially surprising is the difference between the two. When I asked them to rank them (separately), I figured they'd both be pretty much the same, and I had guessed that they'd be heavy on the later films. And for K2, that proved to be true, more or less. But for K1, well, look at it. I'd say that there are probably quite a few adults who feel much the same way as him. He stated that he liked the older films because, and this will bring a tear to the eye of @Forbin, the ships looked more real. He also appreciated the slower, more deliberate pace of the films, though stated that he enjoyed Star Trek (2009) because of the action sequences. K2, meanwhile, listed First Contact last for being "too scary," and Star Trek III in the prime spot on the list for "self-destructing the Enterprise." He definitely enjoyed the action a lot more, with the space battles in the upper spots defining the experience for him. Incredibly, they both sat still and watched the entirety of Star Trek: The Motion Picture in one sitting, something I'm not even sure I have ever done, and any parent out there knows how challenging it is to get one kid, let alone two, to sit still for two hours. We'll occasionally watch an episode on Netflix, and their preference is always for TOS over TNG. They've seen me watching Voyager a few times, and have picked up that it's Star Trek, but don't worry, I haven't subjected my children to the television equivalent of waterboarding. In summary, it seems like there's three sets of Star Trek films - Good quality productions, popcorn cinema, and, well, The Final Frontier and Generations. And there's two kids that will at least go to see sci-fi movies with their dad now, since the wife won't.
Kids, a wife, what is this madness?!? Interesting experiment though, I was expecting this to be one of those Youtube videos where they expose kids to something from before their time.
Congrats on the kiddies. My 8 year old daughter is a Dr. Who fanatic and she's getting into Star Wars. Perhaps I should try this experiment with her. I have all of the DVDs except for Nemeshit.
I should probably be happy to say I have no idea what this sentence is about. Good idea for an experiment, and a thread. Am I a spoilsport for pointing out a Dad can't control what expectations he signals for his kids' preferences? Probably, so I won't. But your children's love for Nemesis and Insurrection is troubling. Other than that, K1 has taste, even if the poor kid has been tricked by JJ's lens flares into thinking they saw a movie, like so many adults. Someone tell K2 he's practically right: There are hundreds of additional hours of Trek, and many among them are better than the bottom half of the movies. There are years of shared screen time with their Dad ahead!
They came as a package deal with the wife. Good thing I like having 'em around. K1 has mentioned wanting to see Doctor Who a few times. I just don't know where I could get him started in it - it'd be a hell of a time investment in getting him up-to-speed since the '05 relaunch, but at the same time, there's a lot of good stuff there. And, if anything, I'd say making her watch Episodes I-III of Star Wars is a bigger sin than making her watch Nemesis. Talk about a fall from grace. Uh oh, if it wasn't a valid experiment, I probably shouldn't have strapped them into the Clockwork Orange chairs... As for their love of Nemesis, they are still little boys - they lost their shit when the Argo showed up. And, I've said it before, and I'll say it again. Insurrection is not a fantastic movie. But it's impossible to deny that it wouldn't fit right in as an episode of TNG, so I find the hatred of it to be rather amusing. I watched The Doomsday Machine with them the other day - I had forgotten how good it was.
Do you have broadcast TV? Classic "Dr. Who" from 8-9pm M-F on Channel 27 (Retro TV). They're about up to the 2nd Doctor by now. Or 2 hours of it from 6-8 on Saturdays (which is when I watch). This weekend they wrapped up "The Sensorites" and "Planet of Giants," so they're still in the Hartnell with Barbara, Ian, and Susan episodes.
Kyle you may appreciate this anecdote about my daughter, then about age six. When my wife was pregnant four years ago we went out a lot less, so I endeavored to get myself into Doctor Who. She was interested in Tennants Tenth Doctor and would watch them well enough, but it was The Eleventh Hour, the premier episode of Eleven, that hooked her. It didn't hurt that the episode centers on a six year old girl who befriends the Doctor then grows up to be his companion. Seriously, I watched it happen, she was enraptured, and completely bought in at that moment. She's a Whovian now, she can watch old episodes, and has transitioned seamlessly to the new Bitter Old Man Doctor. I'd start there.
My 7 year old son loves the new Abramstrek......but he doesn't like any of the other movies, or TV shows. Gods knows I tried!
"The Eleventh Hour" was very, very good. One of the good things of the shitty reality of sitting trapped in a farmhouse in rural Wisconsin a few winters ago, watching my Mom die was that the local PBS affiliate had nuWho. I've seen a couple Eccleston episodes and liked them well enough. I'd seen a Tennant episode or two and didn't hate them, although they seemed to entail a bit much running around frantically and waving the Magic Sonic Screwdriver at everything for my tastes. I discovered it was being aired when they showed the last Tennant episode, where he regenerates. I found it god-awful. So bad and depressing that I almost decided not to watch anymore nuWho. But I decided to give Smith a shot and after "The Eleventh Hour" the magic was back and it was like I was a little kid again.
@Kyle If I were you I'd be a bit concerned about the kids. Rating Into Darkness so low and Nemesis so high may be a sign of a learning disability.
The Tennant era loved the depressing series finale. It worked for me the first time, but after that it turned into a joke. I can't help but snicker when I see this now.
Ah, yes, that would be an adventure. "Yes, her spine is glowing while she's bouncing on top of him because, uh, she's a robot. Yeah." If she had, she'll have the honor of having dated a future president, I'm sure.
