Stardate 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.
written 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
Cast: 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