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Prodigy Season 1 Star Trek

Lost And Found, Parts 1 & 2

Star Trek: ProdigyStardate unknown: In the Delta Quadrant, on the planet Tars Lamora, the Diviner rules over a population of captured slave laborers with an army of robotic guards and his chief enforcer, Drednok. The Diviner’s daughter, Gwyn, has grown up on Tars Lamora, and has never known any other life. Neither has Dal R’El, a rebellious, teenaged slave who can’t even identify what species he is, and has no memory of his parents or life before Tars Lamora. Drednok questions him about the whereabouts of an escaped fugitive named “Zero”, but later, once he’s out of earshot, Dal begins planning an escape, one which goes badly, largely because his escape plan involved using a wheeled ground vehicle to launch himself into space via an enormous ramp. Succeeding only in wrecking the vehicle, Dal is taken prisoner and questioned by Gwyn. Dal is sent back into the deep core mines with an enormous Brikar with whom he can’t even communicate; a near-fatal accident at that depth reveals to them a completely intact Federation starship, U.S.S. Protostar, which has no crew aboard. Accidentally awakening the ship’s systems, Dal and Rok-Tah, the Brikar, can suddenly understand one another and communicate – and they find they’ve been followed aboard by Zero, who has escaped the Diviner’s service. Zero is a Medusan, a non-corporeal entity who, if seen by humanoids, will drive them mad; the Diviner has been using Zero as a weapon, a life Zero wants no part of. Now that the combadge discovered by Rok-Tahk allows them to communicate with other species, the three recruit a young Tellarite, Jankom Pog, for his engineering skills. But their escape attempt is cut short by Gwyn, whose father has been searching for the Protostar for his own purposes. Drednok and his robot army arrive, and Gwyn is sent aboard the Protostar to make sure that no other fugitives are aboard. Jankom Pog and Rok-Tahk start fighting back against the robots, and with Zero in tow, they board the ship and take off. After a fierce fight, Rok-Tahk captures Gwyn and she is tied down to the captain’s chair at the center of the bridge. The Protostar’s shields are still disabled, however, until Dal – still clinging to the outer hull as the ship escapes through the massive underground caverns – can install a new power cell. Drednok also climbs onto the ship to stop Dal from doing that, but Dal is eventually able to power up the shields, climb back into the ship, and they escape into deep space with the Diviner and his forces in hot pursuit. Only then do they discover that the ship have a training hologram, modeled after a Starfleet Captain named Janeway, who thinks they’re all cadets.

Order DVDswritten by Kevin & Dan Hageman
directed by Ben Hibon
music by Nami Melamud
Star Trek: Prodigy main theme by Michael Giacchino

Star Trek DiscoveryCast: Brett Gray (Dal R’El), Ella Purnell (Gwyn), Jason Mantzoukas (Jankom Pog), Angus Imrie (Zero), Rylee Alazraqui (Rok-Tahk), Dee Bradley Baker (Murf), Jimmi Simpson (Drednok), John Noble (Diviner), Kate Mulgrew (Captain Janeway)

Notes: The first Star Trek series since the 1970s designed specifically for a younger viewing audience, Star Trek: Prodigy was intended from the outset to be aired on the cable channel Nickelodeon, but the CBS/Viacom merger in 2019 saw Prodigy slide over to the streaming world via Paramount Plus (formerly CBS All Access), which is where it eventually saw its premiere in 2021, with Nickelodeon to air the already-streamed episodes at a later date. This is the third animated Star Trek series after The Animated Series and Lower Decks. The Medusans were introduced in an episode of the original Star Trek, Is There In Truth No Beauty?, in 1968. Though Tellarites have been seen in the original series, The Animated Series, and Enterprise, this is the first time a Tellarite has been a regular character in a Star Trek series.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Prodigy Season 1 Star Trek

Starstruck

Star Trek: ProdigyStardate unknown: Welcoming what she assumes is a fresh batch of cadets to the Protostar, the hologram of Captain Janeway offers an introduction to the Federation’s history, purpose, and structure, and that of its Starfleet as well. While Zero, Rok-Tahk, Jankom Pog, and even the gelatinous life form nicknamed Murf immediately find this appealing, Dal is annoyed by their enthusiasm – to him, the Federation sounds like yet another group of authority figures who will tell him what to do, and he opts to set the ship on a course further away from Federation space. When the hologram of Janeway tries to warn him of what lies in his path, he shuts her down quite literally. He also throws Gwyn in the brig, and claims the captain’s quarters for himself. He’s ready to claim the privileges of authority for himself, but his distrust of the nearest authority figure – namely Janeway – leaves the Protostar in a catastrophically dire position near a dying star.

Order DVDswritten by Chad Quandt
directed by Alan Wan
music by Nami Melamud
Star Trek: Prodigy main theme by Michael Giacchino

Star Trek DiscoveryCast: Brett Gray (Dal R’El), Ella Purnell (Gwyn), Jason Mantzoukas (Jankom Pog), Angus Imrie (Zero), Rylee Alazraqui (Rok-Tahk), Dee Bradley Baker (Murf), Jimmi Simpson (Drednok), John Noble (Diviner), Kate Mulgrew (Captain Janeway), Bonnie Gordon (Ship Computer)

Notes: The holographic “slide show” used by Hologram Janeway to illustrate the histories of the Federation and Starfleet are packed with easter eggs, including line-art representations of Archer’s Enterprise, Janeway’s Voyager, the Defiant (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine), Discovery, the Enterprise-D (Star Trek: The Next Generation), and the Enterprise and shuttlecraft Galileo from the original Star Trek, along with humans, Vulcans, Andorians, and Tellarites (the Federation’s founding member races), and the accompanying lines are actually one of the better introductions to/explanations of the Federation in the history of the franchise. (Technically, since all records of Discovery and its mission were purged from official Federation history, Discovery shouldn’t appear in this lineup of famous ships.)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Prodigy Season 1 Star Trek

Dreamcatcher

Star Trek: ProdigyStardate not given: In the wake of their most recent adventure, Dal and the others get a crash course in ship operations from the holographic Captain Janeway, who patiently overlooks how strangely untrained her cadets are. Gwyn remains in the brig. Janeway decides that an uncharted class M planet in the Hirogen system is a good place to test her crew’s new skills, but bringing the Protostar in for a landing when the Diviner is still looking for it seems like a bad idea to Dal. He overcomes his reluctance when introduced to tricorders, phasers, and a wheeled vehicle called the Runaway, but as usual, Dal zooms off in the Runaway by himself rather than taking his new crew with him. They each wander into situations that seem to contradict Janeway’s assessment that there’s nothing more than plant life on the planet, including Dal, who realizes almost too late that the entire planet is alive…and feeds on those who it convinces to stay there with comforting illusions. Worse yet, Gwyn escapes from the brig and plans to leave with the Protostar, stranding her former captors there.

Order DVDswritten by Lisa Schultz Boyd
directed by Steve In Chang Ahn and Sung Shin
music by Nami Melamud
Star Trek: Prodigy main theme by Michael Giacchino

Star Trek DiscoveryCast: Brett Gray (Dal R’El), Ella Purnell (Gwyn), Jason Mantzoukas (Jankom Pog), Angus Imrie (Zero), Rylee Alazraqui (Rok-Tahk), Dee Bradley Baker (Murf), Jimmi Simpson (Drednok), John Noble (Diviner), Kate Mulgrew (Captain Janeway), Bonnie Gordon (Ship Computer)

Notes: Presumably the Hirogen – introduced in the Star Trek: Voyager episode Message In A Bottle (1998) as a species of armored trophy-hunters – have no objections to a Federation starship wandering into their home system…or perhaps they just know better than to bother with this particular planet. Given that both Hirogen space and the Protostar are in the Delta Quadrant, it’s possible that the anomaly/life form encountered in Bliss (1999) may somehow be related to this planet. Hologram Janeway can’t leave the Protostar, so apparently the future technology of the mobile emitter used by Voyager’s holographic Doctor from Future’s End (1996) forward has yet to be reverse-engineered.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Prodigy Season 1 Star Trek

Terror Firma

Star Trek: ProdigyStardate not given: After watching the planet’s vegetation drag the Protostar back to the ground, moments after a shuttle containing Gwyn and Murf escape from it, Dal and his team are worried that they’ve just become stranded. Now that they’re all aware of the planet’s illusory powers, those illusions are now less benevolent and more terrifying, and the planet swallows the Runaway whole, leaving them unable to see the homing signal being generated by the Janeway hologram to lead them home. They take shelter in the wreckage of a Klingon Bird of Prey, where Dal decides to see if they can navigate back to the Protostar using the stars. But the Diviner and Drednok are waiting for them when they arrive…and the injured Gwyn will find out for herself whether her father places a higher value on her safety or that of the wayward Federation ship.

Order DVDswritten by Julie Benson & Shawna Benson
directed by Olga Ulanova
music by Nami Melamud
Star Trek: Prodigy main theme by Michael Giacchino

Star Trek DiscoveryCast: Brett Gray (Dal R’El), Ella Purnell (Gwyn), Jason Mantzoukas (Jankom Pog), Angus Imrie (Zero), Rylee Alazraqui (Rok-Tahk), Dee Bradley Baker (Murf), Jimmi Simpson (Drednok), John Noble (Diviner), Kate Mulgrew (Captain Janeway), Bonnie Gordon (Ship Computer)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Prodigy Season 1 Star Trek

Kobayashi

Star Trek: ProdigyStardate 43929.9: After fruitless years of searching for the Federation starship Protostar, the Diviner – last of the Vau N’Akat species – uses his own genetic material to create his progeny, a new Vau N’Akat to take up the search in case his frail condition prevents him from finding the ship…

Stardate not given: The Protostar’s proto-drive doesn’t just leave the Diviner behind, it leaves him behind to the tune of 4,000 light years in mere seconds. After that unlikely thrust – something that Jankom Pog can’t even bring himself to believe – the proto-drive shuts down and goes inoperative, and the hologram of Captain Janeway, who knew nothing of the drive’s existence, can’t help bring it back online. At this point, Pog, Rok-Tahk and Zero insist to Dal that their best bet for safety is to contact the Federation. Upset that his simply saying “no” to this proposition isn’t putting an end to the discussion, Dal’s discovery of the holodeck, and a Starfleet simulation called the Kobayashi Maru test, seems fortuitous. Surely he can ace this test and prove his worthiness as leader to the Protostar’s new crew. With the best of the best of Starfleet’s past backing him up, how hard could it be?

Order DVDswritten by Aaron J. Waltke
directed by Alan Wan
music by Nami Melamud
Star Trek: Prodigy main theme by Michael Giacchino

Star Trek DiscoveryCast: Brett Gray (Dal R’El), Ella Purnell (Gwyn), Jason Mantzoukas (Jankom Pog), Angus Imrie (Zero), Rylee Alazraqui (Rok-Tahk), Dee Bradley Baker (Murf / Klingon 2 / Gentleman Caller), Jimmi Simpson (Drednok), John Noble (Diviner), Kate Mulgrew (Hologram Janeway), Robert Beltran (Captain Chakotay), Rene Auberjonois (Odo), James Doohan (Scotty), Nichelle Nichols (Uhura), Leonard Nimoy (Spock), David Ruprecht (Kobayashi Maru Captain), Bonnie Gordon (Ship Computer), Gates McFadden (Dr. Beverly Crusher), Brook Chalmers (Klingon 1)

Notes: The flashback to the Diviner’s decision to create Gwyn is noted as having happened 17 years ago; the stardate for the flashback places it between the Star Trek: The Next Generation episodes Sarek and Menage a Troi, making it seem likely that whether intentionally or not, the Protostar time traveled from a period of time after Star Trek: Voyager‘s series finale into its own past, before the Protostar was actually built. Dedicated to the memories of Leonard Nimoy, James Doohan, and Rene Auberjonois, this episode uses dialogue from prior Star Trek episodes and movies featuring those characters (and Uhura) to revive those characters in holographic form. The only new dialogue recorded for this episode by a past Trek character appears to have been performed by Gates McFadden as Dr. Beverly Crusher. The Kobayashi Maru test originated in Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan (1982), but has been referenced heavily in other movies such as the 2009 Star Trek film and as recently as the season opener of Star Trek: Discovery‘s fourth season.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Prodigy Season 1 Star Trek

First Con-tact

Star Trek: ProdigyStardate not given: Dal and his crew are discovering the wonder that is the Protostar’s transporter system when a distress call is picked up. The signal comes from a Ferengi ship claiming to be carrying orphans – a claim Dal finds familiar. Sure enough, the Ferengi ship is commanded by DaiMon Nandi, who gave Dal shelter growing up. When Dal claims to have stolen the Protostar, Nandi asks him to use the Protostar – and the Federation – as a front to obtain a valuable crystal from a developing species, contact with whom would normally be forbidden by the Prime Directive. The species has the ability to shape matter with sound and harmonics, and Nandi is unimpressed when she presents a (worthless) gift and receives only a song in return. She snatches a crystal and runs, leaving Dal and the Protostar crew to find their own escape route. Dal confronts his old friend, and discovers while fighting to recover and return the crystal that he wasn’t kidnapped by the Diviner…he was sold to him. And Nandi will gladly sell him out again.

Order DVDswritten by Diandra Pendleton-Thompson
directed by Steve In Chang Ahn and Sung Shin
music by Nami Melamud
Star Trek: Prodigy main theme by Michael Giacchino

Star Trek DiscoveryCast: Brett Gray (Dal R’El), Ella Purnell (Gwyn), Jason Mantzoukas (Jankom Pog), Angus Imrie (Zero), Rylee Alazraqui (Rok-Tahk), Dee Bradley Baker (Murf), Jimmi Simpson (Drednok), John Noble (Diviner), Kate Mulgrew (Hologram Janeway), Robert Beltran (Captain Chakotay), Grey Griffin (Nandi), Melissa Villasenor (Nandi / Frail Woman)

Notes: If Nandi has been a DaiMon of a Ferengi ship for much of Dal’s early life, she either hid her gender or perhaps more reform has been underway on Ferenginar than episodes of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine might have led us to believe.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Prodigy Season 1 Star Trek

Time Amok

Star Trek: ProdigyStardate 607125.6: Following the misadventure with Nandi, the Janeway training hologram decides to the Protostar’s misfit crew through some basic problem-solving drills in the holodeck, but when even those fall through, Dal admits to Janeway that the Protostar was stolen – she isn’t dealing with an unusually troublesome batch of Starfleet Academy cadets. The Diviner is contacted by Nandi with information on the Protostar’s whereabouts – too far for the Diviner’s ship to reach, but his knowledge of the ship’s systems means he can interfere from afar. With the crew too distracted and dejected to guide the ship from the bridge, the Protostar drifts into a tachyon storm which destabilizes the proto drive, which emits a wave that passes through everyone at a different moment, splitting them into different segments of time. For Jankom, time is accelerated, and he is unable to stop the destruction of the ship; Zero has only slightly more time and devises a means of saving the ship, but they are unable to implement that solution themselves. Gwyn has a bit more time than Zero, but finds herself contending with a copy of Drednok uploaded to the Protostar’s vehicle replicator by her father. The fate of the ship falls to Rok-Tahk, who has only a message from Gwyn and Zero’s schematics to go by – and, thanks to Drednok, not even the Janeway hologram for company.

Order DVDswritten by Nikhil S. Jayaram
directed by Olga Ulanova and Sung Shin
music by Nami Melamud
Star Trek: Prodigy main theme by Michael Giacchino

Star Trek DiscoveryCast: Brett Gray (Dal R’El), Ella Purnell (Gwyn), Jason Mantzoukas (Jankom Pog), Angus Imrie (Zero), Rylee Alazraqui (Rok-Tahk), Dee Bradley Baker (Murf), Jimmi Simpson (Drednok / Dred 2), John Noble (Diviner), Kate Mulgrew (Hologram Janeway), Robert Beltran (Captain Chakotay), Bonnie Gordon (Ship Computer), Grey Griffin (Nandi)

Notes: According to Star Trek: Prodigy writer Aaron Waltke, the unusual stardate at the beginning of the episode is indicative of the temporal problems caused by the tachyon storm in the ship’s path.

LogBook entry by Earl Green