LeVar Burton is back with a mission that matters far more than any bold trek: he’s going to teach your kids to read.

The man who brought the world Reading Rainbow has returned, and it looks like he still knows exactly what children are looking for in entertainment. Just as Reading Rainbow managed to be a television show that encouraged children to love books, Burton is planning a new series that will do just the same thing — on your iPad.

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Believe it or not, Doctor Who was originally designed exclusively for children: it was an educational show that was meant to teach kids history by way of a time traveling alien. That in itself is a truly brilliant concept, but the show quickly morphed far beyond that into a sweeping, epic tale about that alien — his friends and enemies, his trials and adventures, his meddling and madcap sense of humor. The villains eventually received quite a bit more screen time, and every Whovian who has seen interviews or talked to a fan who watched “back in the day” has undoubtedly heard the classic story about hiding behind the sofa every time the Daleks appeared on screen.

The good old horror hook: you’re terrified, but you can’t look away. That is one of the deepest traditions Doctor Who has, a contract with its initial target audience, and it stems from a belief that campfire tales confirm every time — kids love to be scared.

[Please save me from the monsters...]

Rock and roll music? Bad for you. Comic books? They promote deviant behavior. Rap music? Dangerous.

Ditto for the internet, heavy metal and role-playing games. All were feared when they first arrived. Each in its own way was supposed to corrupt the youth of America.

[Read more about the corruption of young souls]

So, here we are again. That time of year when we're supposed to make resolutions for the coming twelve-months. Newspapers and magazine shows love it—it gives them an excuse to run stories on weight-loss programs and basket-weaving classes, the kind of stuff that doesn't require...well, anything in the way of actual reporting. I've always sort of wondered who these people are, the ones who make solemn promises about the year to come, but now I have joined their ranks. Not to lose weight, or improve myself in some unattainable way, but recapture something that I lost somewhere along the road from then to now.

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“Miri”
Written by Adrian Spies
Directed by Vincent McEveety

Season 1, Episode 8
Production episode: 1x11
Original air date: October 27, 1966
Star date: 2713.5

Mission summary
The Enterprise picks up an S.O.S. and follows it to a planet eerily similar to Earth, as it was in the mid-twentieth century. Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Janice, and two red shirts beam down to the surface. They find the planet is a desolate wasteland (that looks remarkably like a late ’60s Hollywood lot...), uninhabited for at least 300 years. Doctor McCoy bends down to examine a tricycle sitting atop a huge heap of garbage, and a disfigured humanoid creature leaps out at him. The creature claims the tricycle is his, and in the broken thoughts of a child whose toy has been seized, he attacks the landing party. A brief skirmish breaks out until the boy-creature succumbs to seizures and dies. McCoy, somewhat stunned, takes a few readings and realizes: “Its metabolic rate. It’s impossibly high, as if it’s burning itself up, almost as if it aged a century in just the past few minutes.”

[No, you can’t use it for weight loss.]