This is discussion archived from a time before the current discussion method was installed.
Does Tom Corbett really belong here? I've read one of the novels, and he's not a teen; he and the other cadets are clearly university age: Adults, not teens or kids.
arromdee: I didn't even know there were novels, aside from the Heinlein novel used as source (which featured a teen, who wasn't named Tom Corbett).
Whitewings: Yes, eight novels, a television series, at least one movie serial, a radio series, and possibly others. And in all of them, Corbett and the other cadets are grown men, in their early 20s, not teens or kids.
SAMAS: I move to rename this sucker Eager Young Space Cadet, on the grounds that my brain keeps adding in those first two words.
arromdee: Wikipedia claims the protagonist of the Heinlein book is a teen.
I think I'm just going to edit the trope to be a little wider, since what info I can google shows me that Lucky Starr wasn't a teen either, but they were all obviously part of the same trend.
arromdee: Gorf had "space cadet", but as a title for the player. It wasn't itself an insult, although it was used when insulting the player, and it was only the lowest of six titles, which ended in "space avenger".
