Every once in a while an episode of television airs that — as you are watching it — you know it’s special, and is going to become a favorite. Such is it with this week’s brilliant “Mindwalk,” an exciting, hilarious, smart and poignant episode which both sets up the coming two-part Star Trek: Prodigy season finale, but also completely stands on its own.
 
It’s also just pure off-the-walls bonkers Trek in the absolute best way possible, and watching it with my children was one of the best experiences I’ve had watching television with them. An instant classic in my book!
 
After a two-episode respite, it’s time for things to really start moving before the two-part season finale. “Mindwalk” really comes to play, setting up for the finale in a clever way: aligning our Protostar crew and Admiral Janeway so they can focus on the shared goal of defeating the Living Construct. It’s also a vehicle to showcase the deep talents of both Brett Gray and the legendary Kate Mulgrew, and getting there is an absolute joy.
 

With the crew locked out of the controls, the Protostar leaves the Neutral Zone and comes face-to-face with the Dauntless. Right away the tone and the physicality of the humor in this episode is set, as Dr. Noum sees them out a window and does a double-take as Murf blows raspberries at him. This episode manages a perfect balance between irreverent, physical comedy and the seriousness of the situation — and walks that tightrope throughout, keeping you laughing and at the edge of your seat the whole time.

There’s also plenty of great classic Star Trek techno-goodness, as the Protostar jumps to warp… in order to not lose them, the Dauntless merges their warp bubbles together. A very cool piece of Trek physics, it’s great that those things are still included in the ‘kids’ show. Prodigy never forgets either audience, as Zero looks at a panel and there’s a really well-designed graphic that pictures exactly what it means to ‘merge warp bubbles,’ which is helpful for younger viewers to understand what happened.

It’s in the duel warp bubble, with the Dauntless firing phasers at the Protostar, when Zero suggests they take advantage of Dal’s newly discovered blended-with-aliens DNA to try and reach Admiral Janeway telepathically to try to explain the situation. It’s while trying to establish this connection that Dal and Janeway swap neural patterns.

A lot of strange things happen in Star Trek — sometimes the “scientific” explanation for them is better than others — but I have to say that I completely buy into the explanation here enough to roll with it (especially since the combination of the phaser burst occurring at the same time as the attempted mind-link then plays into the solution of swapping Dal and Janeway’s minds back at the end of the episode).

The whole conceit is well crafted and thought out, with a “connected by energy beams” explanation simple enough for young fans to understand. My kids were definitely rolling with it as well. The mind swap itself is such a fun concept, and it’s executed absolutely perfectly here.

The animation of the way the characters move and express themselves is fully immersed in the idea of the swap. Under Janeway’s control, Dal’s skull ganglia waves majestically as if in the wind, and his body stands taller, with the authority and posture of the Admiral’s mind within.

Under Dal’s control, Admiral Janeway’s body moves like the frantic teenage mind inside. The physical comedy in seeing “Janeway” run around manically, face panicked — even giving officers it’s-all-good finger guns — was just pulled off beautifully.

But the absolute MVPs of the episode are Brett Gray and Kate Mulgrew, whose performances as each other are so spot on that there’s not a single moment of confusion, not a single moment of doubt of who is who at any giving time — even for the youngest viewers. Brett Gray is almost regal as he takes charge on the bridge as Admiral Janeway. He says “How do we fix this? Ideas!” and you can almost hear it in Mulgrew’s voice, as if she was around the conference table on Voyager.

Kate Mulgrew plays the swap in a way we’ve never seen Janeway before, and it’s incredibly satisfying to watch her let loose here. She has the cadence of Brett Gray’s deliveries down pat, and hearing these words she would never say coming out of Janeway’s mouth is so much fun to watch. She never exaggerates, it never feels like a farce, it feels straight up like Dal. It’s truly an incredible performance.

My kids were in hysterics watching Mulgrew’s performance as a freaked out Dal in Janeway’s body. I wish I could bottle the sound of the absolute belly laughs that were coming from all of them. Mulgrew’s performance combined with the ridiculous — but very much in character for Dal — dialogue and the reactions of everyone else on the Dauntless all came together perfectly for maximum humor. “He’s not even trying!” one of my kids giggled, as they all laughed with sheer delight when Dal spit out the coffee. Truly some of the most fun I’ve ever had watching television with my kids. A really special sequence.

After the laughs, the episode doesn’t let up: it’s back to the Protostar, where we get a very heartfelt and cathartic scene between the real and holographic Janeways. They make the choice to show Admiral Janeway as herself, although she is still in Dal’s body, and it’s a choice I’m really glad they made as it made it easier to focus on the emotional impact of the scene instead of having to filter it through the visual of Dal. (My kids caught on fine to what was happening.)

Mulgrew has done a surperb job this season making Holo Janeway her own character, and seeing the two characters together really highlights her talent. Admiral Janeway mentoring Holo Janeway through her self-doubt, and being the one to purge the virus from her program  — rebooting her systems and restoring her deleted memories — was a really sweet moment for both characters. Watching them both watch the footage together of Chakotay being boarded as Holo Janeway reclaims her lost memories was heartbreaking.

The Protostar crew realizes that they have to recreate the connection in order to swap the two officers back, and they come up with the plan for the two to space walk outside the ships and touch hands. Another hilarious moment as they play charades through the windows to let Dal in on the plan. On the way to execute the plan, however, due to “Janeway’s” odd behavior, Dr. Noum uses his medical authority to send her to sickbay.

The suspense is real, watching Janeway — Dal, really — be incapacitated when she has somewhere very important to go.

Unexpectedly, it’s the Diviner himself who ends up freeing Janeway from sickbay. He appears conflicted as he explains that he is still on board with his original mission, but is confused by the kindness he has received from Janeway and the rest of Starfleet since they rescued him from Tars Lamora.

He makes a deal to free her, if she promises to watch out for Gwyn if he fails his mission. I am not interested in a redemption arc for someone who’s been so profoundly evil as the Diviner, but it works pretty well plot-wise for him to be the one to free her — if for no other reason then to hear Dal/”Janeway” deliver the great line, “You know, I get it… I’d do anything for Gwyn, too.”

Pure action excitement follows our two heroes outside the ships and towards each other. This scene has it all. The danger feels real, and as Dal loses his phaser, it burns up at the edge of the warp bubble — a very effective visual. There’s a great use of Murf’s abilities here, as he stretches for Admiral Janeway, acting as a tether between the two characters. A perfect moment of suspense as they almost reach each other and then a tractor beam pulls the Admiral’s body back towards the Dauntless. We were all at the edge of our seats!

Finally Janeway fires her phaser at Dal to make the connection, and they switch back. An exciting moment with a satisfying payoff. With everyone back where they belong, Dal explains that he’s not sure Janeway knowing the truth will be very helpful, because his actions caused the Dauntless crew to question her sanity and —  sure enough — we return to her body only to find the ally Admiral locked up in the brig.

Once again the Prodigy cliffhanger machine is operating on all cylinders, as the Protostar drops out of warp and into Federation space. They are surrounded by a fleet of Starfleet’s finest, with many familiar starship designs ready for battle. Now that’s how you set up for a season finale!

OBSERVATION LOUNGE

• The mind-swap accident was blamed on Dal’s hybrid DNA, which apparently contains segments of Organian — we saw Organians inhabit the minds of Captain Archer’s Enterprise in “Observer Effect.”
• We’ve seen ships merge warp bubbles before, like the memorable sequence from “Divergence” where Enterprise NX-01 and Columbia NX-02 must merge warp fields to rescue Captain Archer’s ship — that episode also featured a dangerous spacewalk, as Trip Tucker had to traverse the distance between the ships along a tether.
• For the second time in 2022, Star Trek takes on the Freaky Friday-style body swap trope — following the Spock-T’Pring katra exchange in June’s “Spock Amok.” While we’ve seen plenty of other instances of bodies being inhabited by outside consciousnesses (or computer programs, like Voyager’s “Body and Soul”), the only true ‘body swap’ prior to 2022 was “Turnabout Intruder.”
• We get to see a lot of the Dauntless interior this episode, with plenty of new panels and display screens for starship geeks to pour over.

• This is not the first time Janeway has had a conversation with another version of herself — the discussion between Admiral Janeway and Hologram Janeway carried shades of the double-Janeway encounters from “Deadlock” and “Endgame.”
• Admiral Janeway drops a surprising “Threshold” reference, sharing that she was once transformed into a salamander — the first time any member of Voyager’s crew has mentioned the incident since the events of that episode. (It’s time for these kids to learn that weird is part of the job!)
• Though she’s mentioned her sister in passing — in episodes like “Sacred Ground” and “Coda” — this is the first time Kathryn Janeway’s sister Phoebe is named in dialogue. The name “Phoebe” was first introduced in Jeri Taylor’s 1996 Star Trek: Voyager novel Mosaic, and has been used in several post-Voyager tie-in novels since.
• Janeway tells Rok-Tahk that she will make a great science officer one day is especially poignant, as Janeway was a science officer herself before taking her career to the command track.
• As the Dauntless and Protostar drop out of warp, they encounter a Federation fleet comprised of several familiar designs, including Sovereign-class, Centaur-class, Akira-class, and Defiant-class starships.

“Mindwalk” is one of the best Star Trek episodes of the year. Prodigy is completely comfortable in its own skin here and does what it’s best at wholeheartedly and unapologetically. A great example of the magic this show has as being truly for everyone and just a super enjoyable and rewatchable episode of television. The finale has a lot to live up to!

Star Trek: Prodigy will return with “Supernova, Part 1” on Thursday, December 22 on Paramount+ in the United States, and on December 23 in Latin America, Australia, Italy, the UK, and additional territories.