posted
I tend to think that a 6 year old is going to be much more forgiving of TOS special effects than an older person, simply because he'll have less to compare it to. Unless he's super advanced for his age (and yes, everyone thinks that their kid is advanced) he's much more likely than adults to see a ship, rather than a big wooden model (I don't think kids completely understand cartoons until they're around 8, for that matter).
So yeah, show him some TOS. I'd go with BOT (for super fight battles), Arena (for manly man battles), Amok Time (to make him like the characters), Doomsday Machine (space battles again, everyone loves them), and then whatever. And, as Tim said, if he doesn't like it switch to TNG. Although I'd be very selective about the first couple of seasons there, too.
Also, don't overload him. Do one or two episodes at a time. Don't sit him down and try and get him through a season in a week.
If he likes TOS, you could always get him TWOK for Christmas...
-------------------- Yes, you're despicable, and... and picable... and... and you're definitely, definitely despicable. How a person can get so despicable in one lifetime is beyond me. It isn't as though I haven't met a lot of people. Goodness knows it isn't that. It isn't just that... it isn't... it's... it's despicable.
Registered: Mar 1999
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I grew up on TOS re-runs (parents were fans from the get-go), and I loved them, even though I didn't always get what was going on. By the time I was twelve, I had my brain wrapped all the way round it, and was perfectly primed for TVH and TNG. By that time, I was already writing, drawing, and gaming Trek. And no, I didn't lead a sheltered childhood.
My only real suggestion would be to make sure you keep track of the timeline. Start him on DS9 at the appropriate point in TNG's run. Ditto for Voyager. I actually did something really cruel for a friend of mine who I was taking on a crash course through Trek -- I showed the first act of Generations up to the loss of Kirk after TUC. Then I hit stop and the rest didn't get seen until the end of TNG. For him, it was exquisite agony, and seeing Kirk in the Nexus had a lot more impact (as did his later death[?]). Your milage may vary.
--Jonah
-------------------- "That's what I like about these high school girls, I keep getting older, they stay the same age."
--David "Woody" Wooderson, Dazed and Confused
Registered: Feb 2001
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Wow, to be able to experience that for the first time - i.e. not even seeing Generations for the first time but just all of TOS and the TOS movies UP till that scene. And then jump to Encounter at Farpoint.
-------------------- "Bears. Beets. Battlestar Galactica." - Jim Halpert. (The Office)
But I'd tend to think that any time-sorted order might be lost on someone that age. At least with regards to TOS. How many arguments have been made about what that order is, and I suspect a six-year-old would find little benefit there. The confounding temporal quality kind-of works in your favor, TK. At that age I knew that my dad liked it a lot, and that my dad was smart, and so I got a lot just out of watching it with him. (also plaguing him with questions).
Which is to say that I grew up on TOS and I'd say it played a big part in my morality and fascination with the sciences. I worry that we're focusing too much on the 'adult' TOS episodes. Things like "I Mudd", "Devil in the Dark" "Plato's Stepchildren", "Mark Of Gideon", "Savage Curtain" and "Shore Leave" (gads, even "Charlie X") are gonna catch their attention, focus it. Bright colors, action, unambiguous morality. "Last Battlefield" left a big impression, and I only found out why much later. I do remember the first time I watched "Space Seed" and there's that speech at the end speculating about coming to see the fruit of what they planted here today (mind you, this was before TWOK). I too wondered what might become of Kahn and his supermen. It had a big impact. And then my favorite movie of all time ever came out and answered my question for me.
Registered: Sep 2000
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-------------------- Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. -Aeschylus, Agamemnon
Registered: Aug 2002
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I had no problem suspending disbelief when I saw the TOS-ep with the silicon cave monster, I actually felt for it when seeing the cavern of crushed eggs and hearing Spock's paraphrasing during the mind meld. And Bones was the funny too. This was when I was 12, ie twice as dumb as six, so your squirt would like a lot of the eps, I'll wager. Although I don't think Mudd is so appropriate, kids can't relate to boozing, whoring smugglers until they've seen and accepted Han Solo, so I fear he might be at a loss with Mudd.
Registered: Aug 1999
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Oh - I've ALWAYS loved "Devil in the Dark" - the mind-meld scene is AMAZING. As I've said elsewhere previously - I'm a TNG/DS9 introductee - not TOS - so when the episode can distract me from the "sixties-ness" of everything - it had to be a good episode.
What happened another time was that on cable here they had a TOS season 1 marathon - before that i'd only ever seen a scattering of TOS - after about the first 6 episodes - the "sixties-ness" - the film grain, the low-quality effects etc became unnoticable - and I began watching and appreciating the episodes for what they were. They are amazing stories no matter what. I was able to experience Trek like someone who was watching it for the first time when it first aired.
And YES - that woman with no face was freaky!
-------------------- "Bears. Beets. Battlestar Galactica." - Jim Halpert. (The Office)
posted
I was 13 when TOS came out. I saw some of the episodes in black and white because we didn't have a color set yet. It was wonderful, like nothing I ever seen before. You son should adore it. You must remember that if the newer series' were not flashier with better special effects and equal good stories for their time there would not have been 5 series and a cartoon series and nearly a dozen movies. If yoy haven't seen the later ones the earlier ones work real well and you have a foundation to really appreciate the newest ones.
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