Yesterday’s Borg-heavy Star Trek: Prodigy adventure allowed our Medusan friend Zero to overcome their anxiety over inadvertently injuring Gwyn in “A Moral Star, Part 2,” and to find comfort in their place among the Protostar crew.
 
We had a chance to speak with Zero voice actor Angus Imrie ahead of the episode’s airing, to discuss his character’s experiences in “Let Sleeping Borg Lie,” all of Zero’s amusing exclamations, and what’s next for the Medusan navigator.

TREKCORE: What is it like playing a character who is recovering from abuse, with the trauma and the guilt that Zero has associated with that — is your process any different because it’s a children’s show?

ANGUS IMRIE: Truthfully, I think my process changes with every job. I don’t think I would specifically say, “Oh, well, because this is a children’s show, I need to approach it in any particular method.” You’re always trying to work through play. And rather than doubling down and making it exclusively about Zero’s trauma, you still want the nature of the show and the nature of the character to have moments of light and dark and you just grasp an understanding of where their heart is really.

A massive motivator to Zero is the fact that they were used as a weapon on Tars Lamora by the Diviner. They hold on to that. So when they exposed themselves to the Diviner in “A Moral Star, Part 2,” it’s this great moment for them to experience justice, and yet it’s complicated by the fact that Gwyn catches sight of them.

The last thing Zero ever wants to do again is to harm anyone. And so I think we see in this episode, with Zero’s encounter with the Borg, their real determination to make up for that, to make amends, to protect their family — their Prodigy crew.

TREKCORE: Zero makes the choice to fight off assimilation, and chooses the Protostar collective over the Borg — but Zero also has a history with the Medusan collective. Would that be a more difficult decision if they were confronted with the choice of returning to their Medusan hive mind?

IMRIE: The greatness of Star Trek: Prodigy, I think, is that it plays with two elements. It plays with the fact that all of these characters are different species and yet they find family with one another. That’s the most profound thing that keeps them together and keeps them looking after one another, but that isn’t at the expense of a curiosity about who they really are.

They’re all displaced. They were all prisoners. They were fugitives on Tars Lamora. So there are two things propelling them. There’s this incredibly tight-knit closeness that they form with one another when they’re thrown together. Like anything in our lives, when you’re put in difficult situations with people, it brings you really, really closer together — but it’s not at the expense of them continuously being curious about who they really are or where they’re from, rather.

Both of those things can exist together. Zero is forever interested in where they came from, that they were a hive mind as a Medusan — and we’ll see in later episodes, their curiosity of what they could be as well if they were to sort of break out of those boundaries that are set by being a non-corporeal entity.

TREKCORE: Zero always seems wise beyond their years, at least compared to the rest of the crew – so it will be interesting to see them confront their past and explore their future.

IMRIE: They are, that’s for sure. It’s great because Zero is so outward-looking. They’re almost in service of the others so much of the time, but we will get a sense of what Zero likes to do on their own.

We will see the personal exploration happen in further episodes where Zero starts to encounter sensations they’ve never experienced before. It’s really wonderful.

TREKCORE: Is there any particular element to Zero that you’ve imagined which informs how you portray the character?

IMRIE: Well, you might have noticed some of the certain vocalizations that Zero makes…

TREKCORE: Hoot hoot!

IMRIE: Yes! Yip-Yip and hoot hoot! Those sorts of things were not in the script, ever. They were kind of my invention. Zero doesn’t have breath, you know, and that’s quite a challenge as a voice actor — because everything is all about the breath when you’re trying to explore.

So my understanding is that Zero sort of listens to other people’s expressions of joy or expressions of laughing, that kind of exhalation, and makes a kind of attempt at what they might be. For some reason they’ve come out as the yip-yips, and it’s become who that character is, you know. So we see Zero does, I think, feel, but they’re not quite sure how to express that vocally.

It’s a kind of learned behavior, but very peculiar in and of itself.

TREKCORE: That’s interesting because they kind of frame Zero as the Spock or the Data character of the show – the outsider character — but it comes out in their own individual way.

IMRIE: Exactly.

TREKCORE: How fun was it in this episode to get to say, “Resistance is futile”?

IMRIE: Resistance is futile. Oh, fantastic. That was just bliss. You just have to relish those moments. That’s the fun of being part of the Star Trek series, is the way that everything feeds into one another and you feel part of this wonderful body of storytelling that’s been so influential in people’s lives.

And it’s no good being scared of it. You’ve got to dive in, and it was quite fun being Zero who was assimilated by the Borg.

TREKCORE: The animators conveyed it visually with green, instead of Zero’s typical blues and the purples, and we could hear it in your delivery of the lines as well.

IMRIE: It goes monotone, doesn’t it? Sort of like it’s emotionless and characterless, almost. That was a challenge to still be Zero and yet Borg. That was great.

TREKCORE: Well, my kids and I are certainly looking forward to hearing more from Zero as Prodigy continues — thank you so much for your time!

IMRIE: It was great to talk, and I hope your children continue to love the show.

This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.

Star Trek: Prodigy will return with “All the World’s a Stage” on Thursday, November 10 on Paramount+ in the United States, and on October 28 in Latin America, Australia, Italy and the U.K. The series will arrive in France, Germany, Switzerland, and Austria in December.