Star Trek: Prodigy’s second season contains an avalanche of references to previous Star Trek shows and movies to help center the show within the wider Star Trek canon, tease younger viewers about all the fun waiting for them in more than 900 other episodes of Star Trek, and reward the longtime fans and deepen their enjoyment of what they’re watching.
With 20 new episodes, we’ve revived our Canon Connections series to recap the references, callbacks, and other cool Star Trek ephemera — and today we’re taking on the next four Season 2 entries: “Observer’s Paradox,” “Imposter Syndrome,” “The Fast and the Curious,” and “Is There in Beauty No Truth?”.
“Observer’s Paradox”
The USS Cerritos — The Doctor says that he hasn’t seen a crew as dysfunctional as the warrant officers from the Protostar since the USS Cerritos, a direct connection between Prodigy and the other modern animated show Lower Decks. This also means The Doctor has visited the Cerritos at some point, and hopefully we see that in season five or a future comic.
Holographic Hallmarks — The Doctor’s personality from Voyager really starts to shine through in this block of episodes, with a modified callback to his Voyager catchphrase (“Please state the nature of the mentorship emergency!”) and a reminder about his penchant for opera. The ten-step Anti-Anxiety for Academy Hopefuls (AAAH) program also mirrors the Doctor’s multi-step social lessons he developed for Seven.
Combadge Circuitry — We see the internal circuitry of a Starfleet combadge, which is rare – though seen previously in “Brothers” (TNG), “Coda” (VOY), and “Caves” (Lower Decks).
Gillian the Whale — Gillian the whale is named for the 20th century human scientist Gillian Taylor who was instrumental in the return of whales to the 23rd century following the Cetacean Probe incident in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home. There’s another Voyage Home callback with the idea that Murf’s language sounds different underwater, mirroring the Cetacean whale probe’s transmissions sounding like whale song when heard underwater.
Trebus — The “petroglyph used among descendants of the Ometepe Rubber Tree and Nicarao peoples of Earth, who now inhabit the ex-Federation colony on Trebus” is a quick summary of Chakotay’s backstory and the origin of the glyph that appears on the stone in his medicine bundle. Trebus is the location of Chakotay’s flashbacks in the Voyager episode “Tattoo.”
Janeway’s Ready Room — Admiral Janeway’s Ready Room includes a number of callbacks to Voyager, including a Voyager combadge, Queen Arachnia’s hair clip, Chakotay’s CHA-mood-ee river stone, a photo of her dog Molly (see in “Caretaker”), and the symbol of Bloomington, Indiana.
“Imposter Syndrome”
Astrometrics — The warrant officers are working on their “Astrometrics homework,” a field of study that Voyager advanced with its Borg technology enhanced Astrometrics Lab.
Violating Federation Treaties — Commander Tysses acknowledges that the fact that the Infinity cloaks is in violation of three Federation treaties, including most likely the Treaty of Algeron signed with the Romulan Empire that prohibits the use of Federation cloaking devices.
Doctor’s Opera — The Doctor hums “La donna è mobile,” which he famously adapted in one of his fantasies in “Tinker, Tenor, Doctor, Spy” to subdue a ponn-farr addled Tuvok, and also mentions his rendition of “Questa o quella” which opens the Voyager episode “Renaissance Man.”
Hanonian Pickle — The only edible food during the Voyager crew’s brief stay on Hanon IV during “Basics Part II” has become an idiom.
“The Fast and the Curious”
Transwarp Conduit — The Infinity uses a Borg transwarp conduit to navigate more quickly to the coordinates they believe Chakotay is located at. These kinds of conduits with a fixed aperture have been seen a number of times, most prominently in Voyager’s “Endgame.”
Sto-vo-Kor — Gwyn’s cultural studies appear to be paying off, as she references the Klingon afterlife to Zero in trying to understand what is happening.
Kazon — The Kazon First Maje of the Oglamar is Ekthi. In addition to all the usual Kazon stylings, the Oglamar were previously seen (under a different First Maje) in the Voyager episode “Maneuvers” and “Alliances.” There’s also a reference to the Kazon practice of earning a name, first seen in “Initiations.”
Yamok Sauce — Hologram Dal, with Hologram Zero’s personality, particularly enjoys the taste of the popular Cardassian condiment that appeared frequently during Deep Space Nine.
“Have you got Ceti Eels for brains?” — Because that sounds unpleasant after what they did to Captain Terrell and Commander Chekov in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.
Time Freeze — Admiral Janeway’s posture during the time freeze, with Commander Tysses refilling her coffee, is an homage to “Blink of an Eye” where Janeway is time frozen in the same position with Neelix refilling her coffee.
“Is There in Beauty No Truth?”
Non-Corporeal Species — A number of non-corporal species have gathered on the planet including the Paxans (TNG’s “Clues”), Medusans (TOS’s “Is There in Truth No Beauty?”) and Calamarains (TNG’s “Deja Q”).
Spock’s Glasses — To be safe, the Infinity crew exit the ship wearing the same protective eyewear as Spock in “Is There in Truth No Beauty?” to protect themselves against inadvertently catching a glimpse of a Medusan.
Parrises Squares — After many, many mentions of Star Trek’s most famous made up game from the 24th century that gives only 3D chess a run for its money, we finally get to see some of the gameplay of Parrises Squares.
We’ll be back with more Canon Connections soon, covering the next four episodes of Prodigy Season 2. Did we miss any of your favorite connections? Share them in the comments below!
Star Trek: Prodigy Season 2 is available to stream now on Netflix globally (excluding-Canada, Nordics, CEE, Netherlands, Spain, Portugal, Poland, Russia, Belarus, and Mainland China). The show can also be viewed on SkyShowtime in the Nordics, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and Central and Eastern Europe.