Today is Star Trek Day, the 59th anniversary of Star Trek‘s TV debut on September 8, 1966. To mark the occasion, the franchise is boldly going where it’s never gone before: YouTube. Star Trek: Scouts, a new animated series aimed at the preschool demographic, has just premiered its first two episodes on YouTube.

A production of Nick Jr, Scouts will chronicle the adventures of a trio of eight-year-old friends with aspirations to become Starfleet explorers. From their Earthbound base, the trio of JR, Roo, and Sprocket (the latter, a Vulcan with an Inspector Gadget-style robotic arm) defend Earth from spaceborne menaces with giant rubber ducks and meatball-destroying forks. Each one also has a pet; one is an adorable-but-malodorous targ, the pig/dog creature that hails from Kronos, the homeworld of the Klingons. Each episode will run from three to four minutes long. The first two episodes are available now, and the rest of the show’s twenty-episode first season will roll out into next year.

What Other ‘Star Trek’ Animated Series Are There?

Star Trek made its first foray into the world of animation with Star Trek: The Animated Series. Launching in 1973 and airing 22 episodes over two seasons, the series features most of the original series’ cast and several of its writers; it chronicles the further adventures of Captain Kirk and company on the USS Enterprise. The series introduced a number of elements into Star Trek continuity, including the holodeck, the Caitian and Edosian species, and the Enterprise‘s first captain, Robert April. The franchise wouldn’t produce another animated series for almost 50 years, but debuted two very different animated projects in recent years. Star Trek: Lower Decks premiered in 2020; it starred a cast of lower-level Starfleet officers, and poked gentle fun at Star Trek‘s conventions and clichés while simultaneously serving as an extended love letter to the franchise. Star Trek: Prodigy debuted on Nickelodeon in 2021, and documented the adventures of a crew of outcast teenage aliens as they adventured aboard a prototype Starfleet ship. To commemorate the 50th anniversary of The Animated Series, Too Many Cooks‘ Casper Kelly produced a series of surreal Star Trek: Very Short Treks animated shorts.

Star Trek: Scouts is the latest foray from a legacy franchise into preschool animation. Other examples include Marvel‘s Spidey and His Amazing Friends, DC’s Batwheels, Star Wars‘ Young Jedi Adventures, and the Universal Monsters‘ Mighty MonsterWheelies.

The first two episodes of Star Trek: Scouts are available to watch on YouTube now.

via Collider