A lawless planet in the Neutral Zone is the unlikely setting for a huge reveal about Dal’s origins, as “Masquerade” continues the brisk pacing of the back-half of the season. A lot of big things happen in this one, and its ending reveal is one that begs Star Trek: Prodigy to keep right on rolling.
 
Dal’s opening Captain’s Log — “Stardate: who cares?” — picks us up right after las week’s episode, as the Protostar has entered the Romulan Neutral Zone to escape Admiral Janeway and the Dauntless. They need to find a starport to make repairs to the ship, and luckily they still have Okona aboard, someone who knows just the place.
 

Noble Isle is a by-the-numbers, futuristic no-man’s-land of a cityscape, but the addition of ion storms adds an air of danger to the place and gives a good excuse for the fun space elevators — which have become something of a Trek staple lately — are used to great effect when our team tries to escape the Romulans.

While the Protostar is docked at the spaceport, Admiral Janeway is working to get clearance to follow them. Unfortunately for her, the person she has to persuade is Admiral Buzzkill himself: Edward Jellico. Ronny Cox slips right back into the role, 20 years after “Chain of Command,” delivering the same smug heel-digging we’ve come to expect from the character.

The writing is completely in his voice, and I could feel my blood pressure rising listening to him patronize Janeway the same way he has other characters in the past. It’s a perfectly executed return; what an outstanding idea to bring him back and make him Janeway’s foil.

My kids were really surprised that Janeway has a “boss” — as my youngest referred to him. They found that very idea fascinating, as Janeway is so very “in charge”.

On Noble Isle, our away team makes a visit to Dr. Jago, who is Okona’s client — and an unregulated geneticist. As a character, Dr. Jago is as generic as her surroundings (although she is voiced expertly and energetically by the immensely talented Amy Hill), so it is ironic that she is the one to deliver the bombshell about Dal’s unique origin.

Dal is an Augment, a product of “artificial hybrid speciation”, between a human and 25 other species, developed from genetic engineering techniques developed by Arik Soong. His friends try to frame it as a positive — Dal is unique, and that’s cool! — but Dal doesn’t want to be unique. He wants to belong. He wants a family. Brett Grey’s delivery of the line “I don’t have any parents?” was heartbreaking.

The decision to make this Dal’s origin story is meaningful, interesting, and a really great tie-in to a great thread from Trek. Making him an Augment ties him to some of Trek’s most interesting characters — such as Khan Noonien Singh, Julian Bashir, and even Una Chin-Riley — but it also ties him to the audience in a cool way. I love celebrating all the differences between the various alien species in Star Trek, but I also love that now, through Dal, my kids can see more implicitly that there are a million different ways to be human.

I thought I would have to explain some of the science to my kids, but the episode does a really nice job of explaining the complicated situation explicitly and also in that way they frequently do on Prodigy: with good use of dual-purpose dialogue.

“I’m just some failed experiment,” Dal opines at one point — and an “experiment” is a good way to visualize what an Augment is to a kid who might be unfamiliar with that term. One of my kids suggested Dal was a “clone” and the term “mutant” also came up and we talked about the similarities and differences, and they were quickly on board with it.

Dr. Jago offers Dal a procedure that would allow him to tap into his deep well of dormant genes, and he covertly takes her up on it. Dal enjoys it at first, and when the away team is surrounded by Romulans, he uses his newfound traits to his advantage in fighting them off. Okona, meanwhile, takes the first opportunity he can to run away.

I really hope this isn’t the last we see of Okona. I always thought of his character as more of a lovable scamp than a bad dude. Leaving a bunch of teenagers to face the Romulan Tal Shiar alone, however, is a Jurassic Park-lawyer level of cowardliness I wouldn’t have ascribed to his character — here’s hoping for some redemption in the future.

The Romulans chase after the away team in a sequence of dueling space elevators. The action is well choreographed for maximum suspense, and makes great use of the setting. An elevator full of Romulan Tal Shiar soldiers is an impressive way to introduce the skills of “new” Murf.

Even while inside his adorable “gerbil ball,” Murf has been more emotionally expressive in this episode than before his transformation. When he is let out of the ball and gets unleashed on those unsuspecting Romulan agents, his ease in combat is intrinsic. This Murf is a bad-ass, and worthy of the title of security officer. My kids really got a kick out of seeing Murf in action and I think it eased the transition to accepting the change.

Our crew is finally all in their right spots, as Rok-Tahk gives her first science officers log and reiterates everyone’s role. She and medical officer Zero are able to remove Dal’s implant and bring him back to normal, so all’s well that ends well. That would have been a perfectly fine ending…. but the revelations aren’t over yet.

It seems Ensign Asencia has an epigenetic dermal implant of her own, and we see her press it and morph into a Vau N’Akat — the same species as Gwyn and the Diviner — and activate a Drednok robot of her own. My kids and I did not see this coming.

Their jaws literally dropped and my youngest incredulously screamed: “She’s a bad guy??” It was a really well-executed twist, and a great way to end an episode. I can’t wait to hear her story, and to find out if she is on the Diviner’s side — or if she is from the other faction in the great Solum civil war.

CREATOR INSIGHTS

We had the opportunity to ask series creators Kevin and Dan Hageman about one of the developments in this episode back at New York Comic Con in early October — and how it almost got blown across the internet two years ago.

KEVIN HAGEMAN: “I was really happy to get to the Asencia reveal; now people understand why we cast Jameela, and that it’s not just a throwaway role.”

 

DAN HAGEMAN: “Here’s a fun tidbit. So Acensia name was originally “Vezria,” and long ago someone had found a casting sheet, and it said ‘Vezria is a spy!'”

 

KEVIN HAGEMAN: “It said that she was undercover or something.”

 

KEVIN HAGEMAN: “So we changed the character’s name right away. ‘That can’t get out, that’ll ruin everything!'”

 

DAN HAGEMAN: “When we first brought Jameela in, we had to tell her, ‘Here’s your character – you’re this plucky ensign, but we’re going to turn you…’ So we played around with accents and her natural voice, because we really wanted to create a good spin.”

OBSERVATION LOUNGE

• When the away team takes the space elevator down to Nobile Isle, they get flashed with a video ad for Dr. Jago. Similar pop up ads were seen in Star Trek: Picard when the La Serena visited the lawless planet Freecloud in “Stardust City Rag.”
• The payload Okona was supposed to deliver to Dr. Jago is a shipment of “gelatinous putrescine.” While there’s no Trek connection here, it’s a pretty cool name for a fake substance an unethical scientist might use.

• Dr. Arik Soong gets a shout out from Dr. Jago, described , as she mentioned Dal was created by his protégés. One of the many members of the Soong line played by Brent Spiner, the character appeared in the three-part “Borderland” / “Cold Station 12” / “The Augments” trilogy in the final season of Star Trek: Enterprise.
• Dr. Jago tells Dal he is the hybrid of 26 different species. She mentions Human, Vulcan, and proto-Organian (so cool!) by name; we also see him sprout Klingon ridges, Tellarite tusks, Andorian antenna and that “third arm” he’s worried is going to burst out of his chest is probably a little Edosian in the mix.
• Dal’s DNA scan shows a number of familiar symbols which represent Star Trek alien races: Romulan, Cardassian, Ferengi, Bajoran, Risan, Hirogen, Species 8472, Xindi, Gorn, Suliban, Breen, Son’a, Reman, Tholian, and Vidiian, along with the symbol for the Dominion — which could mean Jem’Hadar, Vorta, or Founder genes. (Based on an ability Dal uses in the Supernova video game… my money’s on Jem’Hadar.)

• Oddly, the symbol of the Maquis also appears when Dr. Jago points out that he started out with “most likely homo sapien” DNA — so perhaps the original human DNA used for the process came from a Maquis rebel?
• Okona recounts the plot of “The Outragious Okona” as the group is walking around Nobile Isle, complete with the smuggling of the Jewel of Thesia. Dal reads his mind, and calls him out: taking the smuggling job and helping out the young couple was just so he would have a good story to tell. What a perfect little character detail about Okona, because of course that would be his motivation!
• This isn’t the first time Janeway’s had to contend with a member of her crew hiding their true identity; Asencia’s twist is reminiscent of Seska, the Cardassian-disguised-as-a-Bajoran who defected to the Kazon at the end of Voyager’s first season.
• The disruptors the Romulans wield are beautifully-animated versions of the energy weapons used by the Zhat Vash in Star Trek: Picard.

After the away team defeats the Romulan attackers, Janeway asks almost reverently, “Who are these kids?” It feels like a monumental shift as she works towards piecing the mystery together.

“Masquerade” is a big step towards alleviating the misunderstandings. The added wrinkles of Janeway having to now contend with both Jellico and Asencia are just deliciously intriguing — I’m not sure who’s scarier, but I’m looking forward to finding out.