While efforts to find Star Trek: Prodigy a new streaming home continue — three months after the series was unceremoniously removed from Paramount+ — the remainder of the animated series’ first season is finally warping home on Blu-ray and DVD.
Though the second ten episodes of Season 1 live on through digital purchase options through iTunes and Prime Video, actually holding a physical copy of the otherwise-unavailable episodes is a welcome relief while the behind-the-scenes efforts to bring Season 2 to the public trudge along silently.
Star Trek: Prodigy — Season 1 (Episodes 11-20) is a two-disc Blu-ray collection which contains a few behind-the-scenes bonus features, along with episodes “Asylum,” “Let Sleeping Borg Lie,” “All the World’s a Stage,” “Crossroads,” “Masquerade,” “Preludes,” “Ghost in the Machine,” “Mindwalk,” and the two-part “Supernova” season finale.
The back half of the season holds the strongest elements of the Prodigy story, including the Protostar crew’s full embrace of Starfleet ideals, backstory reveals on all of the young heroes, cat-and-mouse escapes from Admiral Janeway (Kate Mulgrew) and the USS Dauntless, and of course, Dal (Brett Grey) and the gang’s ultimate arrival to the heart of the United Federation of Planets.
The lovely animation of course transfers beautifully to the high-definition Blu-ray release, so there’s nothing to fret about there, but unfortunately the audio options remain limited with only English, Spanish, French, and German audio and subtitles included.
As for the trio of bonus features, here’s what’s included.
THE ODYSSEY OF PRODIGY (21:01)
Creators Kevin and Dan Hageman and co-producer Aaron Waltke touch upon the major plot elements of the episodes — the Living Contruct weapon buried inside the Protostar’s code, encountering the Borg, Admiral Janeway’s pursuit, et cetera — along with some minor commentary from series actors Kate Mulgrew, Brett Grey, and Ella Purnell (clipped from 2022 publicity interviews).
Director Ben Hibon also comments on the body-swap acting of “Mindwalk” where Gray and Mulgrew must play each other’s character.
PRODUCING PRODIGY: THE PLANETS (14:15)
As its name implies, this piece covers the various alien worlds visited by the Protostar crew. Director Ben Hibon and senior supervising producer Patrick Krebs share their insights on the digital design work which bring each environment to life, along with interesting input from concept artists Gus Mendonca, Bastien Grivet and Jessica Rossier. Series composer Nami Melumad also talks about her musical score, a topic sorely missing from the first Blu-ray release.
Thankfully, the lovely concept artwork and graphic design work featured in this piece are no longer constricted to a small box on the screen — one of our main complaints about the first Prodigy Blu-ray set.
PRODUCING PRODIGY: THE SHIPS (12:39)
“The 2380s are a really interesting time in Star Trek,” opens Aaron Waltke in this piece that covers the design of both the exterior and interior of the Dauntless, as well as the effort that went into creating the ship’s LCARS design elements — and the the Borg Cube seen in “Let Sleeping Borg Lie.”
There are also good looks at the digital models of the various legacy-design Starfleet and alien starships brought back for the Living Construct battle in “Supernova.”
Additionally, like the first Prodigy Blu-ray release, this set also includes both a gloss-print slipcover as well as a four-pack of character art cards (this time with Zero, Jankom Pog, Murf, and Drednok), each of which includes information about the various Trek elements encountered by the Protostar crew.
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Star Trek: Prodigy lives in a unique space within the Trek franchise; at present it’s the only series without easy streaming availability, and the only one with a murky future. During this era of uncertainty, it’s comforting to know that fans won’t be cut off from the show we’ve experienced so far, at least — and we’re sure that the second Prodigy Blu-ray release will be a treasured part of fans’ home media collections.
Until CBS Studios announces a new home for the show — and when we’ll get to see the story of Dal, Gwyn, Rok-Tahk, Zero, Jankom Pog, Murf, and Admiral Janeway continue — we’ll be revisiting the series on disc to keep the Protostar saga alive.
Star Trek: Prodigy — Season 1 (Episodes 11-20) is in stores Tuesday.