Eager Young Space Cadet

One of the Ur Examples.

A Discredited Trope from the early Pulp Magazine days of media science fiction (peaked in the 1950's in movie serials and TV shows), involving a hero who was part of an organization that handles law and order in outer space, much like in a Western... in space. Frequently the titular Eager Young Space Cadet was a child or teen who was a new recruit or a sidekick to an older hero. May be the equivalent of Walking the Earth with isolated outposts and frontier planets; especially strange when the Kid Hero seems not to have a family at home.

The name comes from the best-known example of the trope in the early 21st century, Duck Dodgers in the 24½th Century

Examples of Eager Young Space Cadet include:

Multimedia

• Tom Corbett, Space Cadet (based on Heinlein's novel)
• Buck Rogers, especially in the comic strip and movie serial, where the kid sidekick Buddy was added.

Anime and Manga

• Sasami was cast as this in the Tenchi Muyo! OVA special Mihoshi's Space Police Adventure. Of course, that's not all she was there for...

Film

• Commando Cody.
• Buzz Lightyear from Toy Story is an homage/parody of this trope.

Literature

• Space Cadet: Robert A. Heinlein novel, best known for its opening pages being so prophetic as to not read like Science Fiction today.
  • His earlier story Misfit also fits the trope, and makes the inspiration from the Depression-era Civilian Conservation Corps more explicit.
• The Lucky Starr series of books by Isaac Asimov, which started with David Starr, Space Ranger.
  • Jeff Wells of Isaac and Janet Asimov's Norby series is also technically a space cadet, although most of his adventures are unofficial ones.
• Various midshipmen throughout David Weber's Honor Harrington stories, including Harrington herself in the novella "Ms. Midshipwoman Harrington".

Live-Action TV

• Space Patrol (1950's radio and TV)
• Captain Video and his Video Rangers
• Rocky Jones, Space Ranger
• Rod Brown of the Rocket Rangers
• Wesley Crusher represents the best example in the Star Trek universe. As a child prodigy, he represented an Audience Surrogate for a young viewer and could be considered a "sidekick" to Picard. Later in the series, Wesley became a literal cadet in Starfleet.
  • In Deep Space Nine, Nog plays the trope straight, while "Red Squad" is something of a Deconstruction of the trope.
  • Harry Kim is the closest example in Star Trek: Voyager.

Tabletop Games

• Tales of the Solar Patrol, as a homage to Golden Age science fiction, has "Patrol Cadet" as one of the playable character archetypes.

Western Animation

• Galaxy High plays this trope semi-straight.
• Porky Pig's title in the Looney Tunes short Duck Dodgers in the 24½th Century (and the series based on it) is actually Eager Young Space Cadet, making his character the Trope Namer.