It’s awards season for the Star Trek franchise, as this week the animated Star Trek: Prodigy brought home its first Emmy Award, Trek veteran LeVar Burton was honored by the Television Academy, and Star Trek: Lower Decks caught critics’ attention.
Still in the midst of its first season, Star Trek: Prodigy was nominated for two awards at the first annual Children’s & Family Emmy Awards: the prestigious Outstanding Animated Series award, for which it was bested by the Netflix series City of Ghosts, and Outstanding Individual Achievement in Production Design, for which series art director Alessandro Taini brought home the win.
I am the winner an EMMY AWARD for #StarTrekProdigy for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Production Design!!!!! 🏆
A Huge thanks, to Ben Hibon!! With out him we would not have achieved this.
And to all the super talented artists who has been working for us!#Nickelodeon— Alessandro Taini (@Talexiart) December 11, 2022
The “Individual Achievement” category works differently than the primary award process, as Animation Magazine describes it:
Panels of expert animation peers evaluate the work of talented individual artists and animators, with submissions drawn from a single episode of a series or a special. Judges view and evaluate original artwork, video and other documentation from the disciplines of Background, Character Animation, Character Design, Color, Production Design and Storyboard. They consequently convene to discuss the detail and finer points of each submission in order to determine winners.
In addition, Star Trek: The Next Generation veteran LeVar Burton received a lifetime achievement Emmy Award at the ceremony — after a decades-long career of inspiring young readers through his television show Reading Rainbow, and the digital forums he’s moved into since the conclusion of the series.
An actor, director and educator, Burton has taught multiple generations of children about the joys of reading through his work on “Reading Rainbow”.
He has been honored with 13 Emmy Awards, three NAACP Awards, a Grammy Award for Spoken Word Album, a Peabody Award, the Fred Rogers Award, the Inamori Prize for Ethics in Entertainment, and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. The City of Sacramento dedicated LeVar Burton Park in his honor and President Bill Clinton appointed Burton as Commissioner of the National Commission on Libraries and Information Sciences.
Burton is the award-winning author of The Rhino Who Swallowed a Storm, A Kids Book About Imagination, and his Grammy Nominated book, Aftermath. His podcast, LeVar Burton Reads, has been downloaded more than 25 million times. Recently, he launched the LeVar Burton Book Club via the Fable app.
Finally, Star Trek: Lower Decks has also caught the eye of award voters, as the Critics Choice Association nominated the show as one of six Best Animated Series for 2022.
Along with Disney+’s Bluey, Fox’s Bob’s Burgers, Adult Swim’s Genndy Tartakovsky’s Primal, HBO Max’s Harley Quinn, and Prime Video’s Undone, the animated Trek series landed the nomination for its recently concluded third season.
The 28th Annual Critics Choice Awards will take place Sunday, January 15, 2023 in Los Angeles.
Keep checking back to TrekCore for more Star Trek franchise news!