Star Trek: Prodigy - Season 1 Review, Part 2

This week on Sci-Fi Adventures, I'm writing about Star Trek: Prodigy! Or Nickelodeon: Star Trek - Prodigy, according to the logo up there. I'm going to be covering four episodes this time, which I have listed in a convenient list below for your convenience:

• 1-04 - Dreamcatcher
  
• 1-05 - Terror Firma
  
• 1-06 - Kobayashi
  
• 1-07 - First Con-tact
  

There will be SPOILERS, for these episodes and earlier ones, but nothing that comes after them. Partly because I wrote about each episode right after watching them and I didn't actually know anything else at the time, partly because I don't want to ruin anything for other people who are watching it for the first time.

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Note: I rate episodes on a 1-9 scale, with 5 being where my attention starts to fail.

Star Trek: Prodigy - Season 1
1-04	Dreamcatcher		6
Episode: 004 | Writer: Lisa Schultz Boyd | Director: Steve Ahn & Sung Shin | Air Date: 11-Nov-2021 Janeway blackmails Captain Dal into bringing the Protostar down onto a strange new M class world for some Star Trek exploration, but he drives off in the ship's Runaway buggy on his own and leaves the others to explore on their own. Each of them sees a hallucination intended to keep them on the planet, but Dal realises something's wrong and rescues the others in the Runaway. Meanwhile Gywn breaks out of the brig and steals the Protostar, but the planet grabs it with tendrils and she has to abandon ship with Murf as the vessel crashes down. I'm surprised that Prodigy went with the 'creepy planet using illusions to make you stay so it can eat you' trope for its very first strange new world, but it's not a bad idea. It reminds me of how the first two live action Treks put a 'virus reduces the crew's inhibitions' episode early in their first season, with the intention of showing us who they actually are as people. Revealing what each of the characters wants gives us a better understanding of them. Well... in theory. Dal saw his parents, and we learn that he doesn't remember what they look like. I guess he also wants advice from Janeway, as she popped up at the same time. Zero saw the engine core of the Protostar, which is kind of weird. You don't have to go into a creepy maze on an alien to find one of them because they've got one at home and Zero never seemed that interested in it until now. I wonder if we're supposed to notice a connection between Zero's homemade containment suit and the design of the core, because there's a bit of a resemblance. Jankom Pog saw food, so we didn't learn anything new there. But he did mention that he was on a Tellarite sleeper ship, which would explain how he got to the Delta Quadrant. It could explain why he doesn't know about the Federation as well, because he might actually be older than it. Also they said he was affected by spores, but he and Zero were both wearing protective suits, so that's a bit weird. Rok-Tahk just wants cute little animals to be her friend and not run off in terror, which isn't really new information either. I mean she was the one who adopted Murf. She's not all that reassured that Dal came racing over to save her, but he was trying to make her feel better at least. It's not clear if Murf saw anything, but we already know he just wants to eat things. He doesn't seem to have a great deal of depth at the moment. And Gwyn just wants her dad to come and tell her he's proud of her. Which is a bit tragic, because when she actually gets what she wants it's so bizarre and out of character for him that she can't accept that it's really happening. The episode really took a turn into horror by the end, but then it stopped on a cliffhanger just when the story was getting started! That came as a bit of a surprise to me as well. Unfortunately Prodigy has the same problem with its endings that Enterprise had with its teasers: it's hard to end an episode with a dramatic stinger when you're leading into music that's the opposite of dramatic. The show could really do with a new ending theme with a bit more energy to it. Something that gets you fired up for part two. Part one did give us one bit of crucial information though, as now we know where in the galaxy the Protostar is. Kind of. They visit the Hirogen system, which presumably puts them pretty deep in the Delta Quadrant. It's not as far from Earth as Voyager was, but if the crew starts heading there now using warp drive they'll be in their 50s when they arrive. That probably won't be necessary however, as the opening credits have already spoiled that the Protostar is equipped with something a bit more interesting than a warp drive. I'm also interested in what Holo Janeway is up to. Does she honestly believe that they're actually cadets or is she one step ahead and deceiving them? Overall this wasn't my favourite story, but it's still early in season one so that's not a surprise or a concern. I'm still figuring out what Prodigy is, and Prodigy's still figuring out what Prodigy is too. It's already treading on Strange New Worlds' territory with its visit to a beautiful CGI planet, though this one's not exactly inhabited. It's going to be interesting to see what happens when they land on a planet with people on and learn about the Prime Directive. • IMPORTANT OBSERVATION The Protostar also has its own model of tricorders. They were first used to detect a gaseous anomaly coming out of Jankom Pog's butt. The ship also has its own model of phasers. They were first used to shoot Jankom Pog's dumb ass. If the phaser had been set to kill or vaporise this would've been a Very Special Episode about gun safety.
1-05	Terror Firma		6
Episode: 005 | Writer: Julie & Shawna Benson | Director: Alan Wan & Olga Ulanova | Air Date: 18-Nov-2021 The kids hike towards the Protostar, while Holo Janeway tries to think of a way to save her cadets and the Diviner arrives to take the ship for himself. Fortunately the crew gets to the Protostar first and Dal rescues Gwyn, who saves them all by activating the ship's protostar core and sending them beyond the Diviner's maps. Congratulations to anyone on the internet who left a comment somewhere guessing that the USS Protostar contains an actual protostar in its third core, you nailed it! The Protostar engine takes a bit of inspiration from the engine cores on Romulan Warbirds, except it's apparently packing something way more powerful than a tiny singularity as it has the ability to jump right off the map of known space. I always knew it had a super drive, it was given away in the sneak preview of the opening credits that was revealed days before the show started, but it's nice to finally see it in action. Plus it was Gwyn who activated it, from the captain's chair. It this foreshadowing that she's going to fight Dal for the leadership role? Because honestly right now she seems a lot more suited to the job, seeing as she's the only person who has any idea what she's doing. Well, except for when she got the word 'constellation' mixed up with the word 'constipation', which is weird seeing as language skills are her thing. Though Jankom Pog did have the right idea when he wore the space suit, which he keep rubbing in everyone's face. Fortunately that meant that he wasn't rubbing his farts in everyone's face, so they all won really. He also got to name the planet, which means that the first world to be visited in Star Trek's first kid's show is literally called Murder Planet. For real. It's the title of its Memory Alpha page and everything. The episode's all about redeeming Gwyn and getting the others to accept her, which happened pretty damn easily actually. Rok-Tahk softened on her when she rescued Murf, Jankom Pog and Zero didn't really give a damn, and Dal came around after one (nicely written) chat with her about his parents and what species he is. Turns out he doesn't know, so there's another mystery to add the pile. Last episode we got the first clue to the mystery of how a Tellarite got to the Delta Quadrant (he was on a sleeper ship), but now they've added another mystery of how a Klingon Bird of Prey ended up there. At least there's no mystery of what happened to its Klingon crew (they were all murdered on Murder Planet). Plus once again the series has taken the opportunity to be educational as we learn what a Klingon mek'leth is. We also learn that you can navigate by the stars, which is handy when your planet's landmarks keep moving around. Though hang on, didn't they have a tricorder? Couldn't they have just used that? I liked the scenes of Holo Janeway alone on the Protostar as without the kids around it was like I was watching actual Star Trek for a bit. Not that I don't like Prodigy's tone, it just made it feel more legit. Also seeing Holo Janeway freaking out for a bit was great, as it's nice to see the series treat her more like an actual character instead of a 24th century version of Microsoft's Clippy. Plus I have to admit that the episode got me with the twist, when Janeway opens the door to let the crew on, not realising that it's actually the Diviner out there... except it really is the crew walking up the ramp and it's the Diviner who was tricked! (Stitched together shot) In my notes I wrote down "Hey, how did Gwyn get to the ship first?", as I was a bit confused about how she beat the others there when she was crawling and they had a head start. But it turns out that she didn't, she was at an illusionary ship created to lure the Diviner in with what he wants. Though this just raises the question of why the Diviner beamed down so far away from the real ship. There's also a question of why Janeway didn't beam any of them back, or suggest to Dal that he beam Gwyn back. Does the Protostar not have transporters? We still don't know why the Diviner wants the Protostar, but he called it his salvation and he left his daughter to die when given a choice between saving her or the ship, so it seems kind of important to him. Signs are pointing towards him either needing Federation medical technology, or a ship that can get him somewhere he can be cured, but the series has proven to be sneaky and misleading about these things. Like Zero seeing the protostar core in the maze seemed like it was hinting at their interest in it, when really it was the mystery that had them fascinated. It could've been any random object from the ship, it's just that the writers needed to get us thinking about the core to set up the ending when they protowarp away. Speaking of the ending, I'm still bothered by that music. What kind of cartoon doesn't have a catchy end theme? Overall I thought this episode wasn't bad, but it could've been better. I'm probably going to like the series more when the crew gets slightly more competent and has better things to do than spend whole episodes walking around in the dark being clueless. • IMPORTANT OBSERVATIONS There have been Trek episodes that were both written and directed by women, but this is the first to also have a female composer. The title Terror Firma is really close to the season 3 Discovery episode Terra Firma.
1-06	Kobayashi		8
Episode: 006 | Writer: Aaron J. Waltke | Director: Alan Wan | Air Date: 06-Jan-2022 Dal's stubbornness and insecurity leads him to keep taking the Kobayashi Maru test over and over again until he passes, not knowing that it's unwinnable. Meanwhile Gwyn and Zero try to get classified information out of Holo Janeway's memory while Murf eats a photon grenade. Damn, it took Prodigy just six episodes to reach its own Trials and Tribble-ations! Or maybe I should say it's own Star Trek: Timelines, or some other free to play game where you assemble a crew of legends on a famous ship and maybe even get some sound clips from their series if you're lucky. I'm not saying that's a bad thing though, actually the opposite. It was really obvious that the episode was using clips from other episodes for the voices, and not just because of the varying sound quality, but hey it's the holodeck so I'll let it off. They did as good of a job as they could've done. In fact the writer went to the trouble of watching dozens of episodes trying to find the right lines with the right delivery. I guess watching a lot of Star Trek also had the side effect of making him good at writing Star Trek, because this was a really solid story. I like how the episode managed to give Dal his Kobayashi 'win' without claiming he's better than literally every other cadet who's taken the test, as he had a million tries to get it right. Plus even though he accidentally sabotaged his run at the moment it looked like he'd won, it's a no-win test so I'm sure something else would've come along. He's got to be a better captain now though after all that practice. Not only does he have a basic grasp of the capabilities of a starship, he's also learned to be less of a dick, and to listen to what his crew needs. Meanwhile the rest of the crew were busy working on getting a basic grasp of what the Protostar is and how it got in the Delta Quadrant. Turns out that has some connection with Gwyn's people and it was sent there deliberately, commanded by Captain Chakotay! Good on him for not getting thrown into that New Zealand rehab facility for his Maquis crimes, though he may have suffered a far worse fate. We've learned that the present day date is 2383, a few years after Lower Decks, though the Protostar was apparently already lost 17 years ago, as stardate 43929.9 is between the episodes Sarek and Ménage à Troi in Next Gen season 3. Clearly there's been a bit of time travel going on here, as there's no way Chakotay took a prototype Starfleet ship out to Delta Quadrant five years before Voyager got there. Does this mean that Chakotay's at least 17 years older than he should be now? I doubt the series is going do that to the poor guy, but who knows? We actually get six returning Trek characters in this episode: Chakotay, Spock, Uhura, Odo, Dr Crusher and Scotty. Personally Odo wouldn't have been my choice for the guy who fires the phasers, that was never really his thing, but it's not like I'm going to say no to more Odo and I'm glad DS9 got some representation as that crew was extremely TOS heavy. I suppose TNG got extra representation from the ship itself.  Prodigy has been doing its own thing up to this point, but here it's really strayed into Lower Decks' territory. Because of all the references, and also because the episode was pure joy. Well, except for bringing back the faux AC/DC when they beamed over to the Klingon ship. Everything besides that was good.  Though next time I want to see them load up the Count Dracula program instead. It'll give them something to do as they go through months of data to discover the secret of the ship. There's lots going on here in this 20 minute episode. In fact I feel like it pretty much succeeds at everything Prodigy's trying to do: Dal learns a lesson about how to be a better captain and a better person. The test gives us more insight into his character. The cameos give new viewers a teaser for the rest of Star Trek. There's a comedy side plot with Murf being cute and funny, complete with a fart joke. The overall arc moves forward, with questions answered and new mysteries revealed. Now the characters are 4000 light years away from the Diviner and his labour camp, which puts them... in space somewhere. We didn't know where they were exactly before and we don't know where they are now either. Maybe they're in the Gamma Quadrant, maybe they're not. Doesn't much matter either way I guess, as they're years away from anyone we'd recognise. • IMPORTANT OBSERVATIONS This is only the fourth ever Star Trek episode to begin with K. Enterprise's Kir'Shara was the first in 2004, 38 years after Star Trek started. Then 17 years later we got Lower Deck's Kayshon, His Eyes Open, Discovery's Kobayashi Maru and Prodigy's Kobayashi within a six month period. And that's just weird. Plus this is the second time in a row they've had a title that sounds like a recent Discovery episode.
1-07	First Con-tact		4
Episode: 007 | Writer: Diandra Pendleton-Thompson | Director: Steve Ahn & Sung Shin | Air Date: 13-Jan-2022 Dal runs into his adoptive mother, a Ferengi called Nandi living alone on her own starship, and together they go to a sand planet to meet aliens. But Nandi steals one of their precious crystals so Dal has to come up with a smart plan to get it back. This episode of Prodigy teaches new viewers about three more aspects of Star Trek: the transporter, the Ferengi and the Prime Directive, and on that level it's a total success. We see how the transporter functions, that you can lock onto the combadges, that it doesn't work through shields... it's all made clear here. Plus I like how every time the kids learn about new Starfleet technology they end up nearly killing themselves with it; this time they managed to beam Murf out into space! We also learn what the Prime Directive is and that if you break it you end up making Holo Janeway disappointed in you. She makes it clear that the crew have seriously screwed up here and their actions will have consequences this time. First contact with aliens can really mess a planet up! On the plus side at least the aliens they met will be a bit more wary about thieves now, and hopefully won't just invite strangers into their crystal chamber anymore. So this is yet another 'Dal screws up and learns a lesson' story, though this time we get some backstory to explain a little bit about how he became who he is. Turns out that he was raised by a Ferengi who eventually sold him to a labour camp, so that actually explains a lot really! I thought poor Nog had it bad in Deep Space Nine, but at least his dad didn't sell him. As a story though, this really didn't grab me. It started to fall apart when the Protostar just happened to run into Dal's adoptive mother, four years at maximum warp from where she left him, and fifty years from Ferenginar. In fact she's the first person they've met out here! That's so unlikely that it may as well be impossible. The episode still had time to win me back, but it managed to lose me even more once they reached the sand planet and had to communicate with the sandstorm aliens. It felt like it'd shifted into slow motion and the last of my remaining interest drained away. So this is easily my least favourite episode so far. It was a bit too childish, a bit too ridiculous, and a bit too dull for me. • IMPORTANT OBSERVATION There's no Discovery episode title that sounds anything like First Con-tact, so the streak is broken. Though it does sound a lot like the Next Gen episode First Contact, the movie First Contact and the recent Lower Decks story First First Contact.

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NEXT TIME

Next on Sci-Fi Adventures, I'm covering the last three episodes of the first half of Star Trek: Prodigy season one, starting with Time Amok!

There's still ten more episodes of season one to go after that but I can't write about them yet because the series took an eight month break and we're still waiting for it to come back.