“A Tribble Called Quest” and “Cracked Mirror” are two fun stand-alone adventures that are more pointedly aimed at the younger set. Similar to “The Fast and the Curious” and “Is There in Beauty No Truth?” from earlier in the season, they mostly take a break from the main story line action to introduce newer fans to classic Star Trek setups — with a Prodigy spin. They manage to do justice to the tribble and the Mirror Universe concepts by maintaining the inherent silliness of both within well-structured adventures that had my kids spellbound.
 
My kids are still relative newcomers to the Star Trek universe, but even they know what tribbles are. When they were very little I used to tell them the story of “The Trouble With Tribbles” as a non-scary campfire story (“There was even a tribble in his coffee cup!”). So when the title screen popped up on “A Tribble Called Quest,” we were all excited for them to have a tribble episode of their very own.
 

But first there’s the matter of the protodrive needing fuel. And as Rok (Rylee Alazraqui) tells us in the opening voice over, that matter is “bosonite” which, as far as I can tell, is a made up substance that happens to have “all the exotic properties” they need. And Holo-Janeway just happens to have found a planet with a rich supply. Now, I’m not above Star Trek technobabbling things away occasionally, but I did find it a little disappointing that at the end of the last episode, Dal says that they are going to “build a star” and that building a star ends up just consisting of a typical “find the resource” away mission.

But to make up for it, we have tribbles! The crew beams down and come across what appears to be normal tribbles — but I only understood this from dialogue, because the animation style gives them a more “rocky” appearance to me than a soft and furry one. There’s a great call back to the first episode of the season as Dal (Brett Gray) mentions that Rok studied tribbles for her Starfleet Admission thesis, which is what we must have heard her presenting in “Into the Breach.”

We get a little Tribble 101 from Rok — for the watchers who are having their first tribble encounter — while we enjoy the familiar soothing sounds of the tribble “coo.” We live in this scene long enough for even first timers to understand that it is unusual when Rok gets bitten by one of her “cute babies.” And the fact that this bite was strong enough to hurt a rock person is enough to make these tribbles menacing, even before we are introduced to the gigantic boulder-sized tribbles rumbling down their path. They makes the giant tribbles in “More Tribbles, More Troubles” look like pebbles!

We get some great edge-of-a-cliff action as Murf (Dee Bradley Baker) helps everyone get below the overhang, and saves Dal from pitching off completely. They don’t come out of the ordeal unscathed, however, as Zero (Angus Imrie) gets trampled by the rolling horde and hurts their leg. They mention that “the tumbling was exhilarating,” one of many mentions since Zero got their body in “Is There in Beauty No Truth?” of them enjoying experiencing different feelings and physical sensations.

I love these little moments as it’s really nice to see Zero getting to have all these new experiences. It’s also nice to reflect on how lucky we are as corporeal beings to get to experience these things. Like, yeah, it’s kind of cool when the hairs on your neck stand up when you’re scared. And, while I wouldn’t want to break my leg, I’m pretty sure getting tumbled around with a herd of gigantic tribbles is pretty exhilarating. I hope my kids have picked up on these little moments of celebrating the physical as well.

Zero and Jankom (Jason Mantzoukas) head to sickbay. Zero’s body does not respond to any treatment, and they realize they might not have as much time with their body as they hoped. We don’t often get the pairing of Zero and Jankom, so it’s really interesting to watch as they have a nice little friendship moment. Jankom comforts Zero with the idea that if you can’t fix something, maybe you can build something even better.

Gwyn (Ella Purnell) and Maj’el (Michaela Dietz) also have a nice little friendship moment in this episode talking about the group dynamics, the plan, and where they fit in. It’s great to see all the different friendships among the crew blossom and evolve. I hope we get some more infrequently paired character moments this season.

We then meet Dr. K’Ruvang (Jorge Gutiérrez) a Klingon scientist, a geneticist. It’s always a treat to run into Klingons in other professions besides “warrior” — and it’s a lot of fun getting all the little Klingon trappings here. His science lab is his gorgeous Bird of Prey, revealed to us after decloaking with the soothing and familiar sounds and shimmers. He name drops Chancellor Martok — one of the all-time best Klingons — and its great to know he’s still in charge.

Dal laughs when Dr. K’Ruvang calls the tribbles the Empire’s “ancient blood enemy”, which is always a funny joke and made even funnier when Gwyn shakes her head at him that it’s not a laughing matter to the Klingons. It turns out, the gigantic, toothed tribbles are a result of Dr. K’Ruvang’s experiments and he has lost his honor since he can not figure out a way to fix his mistake.

Luckily, we have our resident expert on all things cute and cuddly and Rok comes up with a solution right away. The events of “Time Amok” are referenced in a really funny way as Chakotay (Robert Beltran) asked Dal exactly how smart Rok is and Dal recounts everything she accomplished in “ten minutes.” My kids thought this was really funny and it sent them off on another round of conversation about exactly how long Rok was alone during that episode, which is something that sparked conversations between my kids for a long time after that episode dropped.

I have to say, seeing just how great at so many different areas of science she’s been this season, my estimate for her alone time has increased. I’m still in awe of how Prodigy truly earned their “science genius” with that fantastic episode and it’s been really satisfying seeing them take advantage of it this season.

So Rok works on synthesizing a virus to return the tribbles to their natural state. They plan to release the virus (through spiked quadrotriticale — nice touch!) into the “omega tribble nest” — which also happens to be where the bosonite deposit is. Our crew venturing into the Star Trek version of a monster den on a treasure hunt? Sign me up!

But first we hit a little snag in the lab as Rok’s research produces an unexpected variable. Introducing Bribble, a tribble infused with Brikar DNA from Rok’s sneeze. Putting aside all the scientific and ethical questions Bribble’s existence raises, the little guy is incredibly cute. My daughter squealed at the reveal, but caught herself quickly and said “Murf’s cuter.” True, but giving our cadet crew a pet/mascot tribble is a really fun idea. It does, however, undermine the point they are trying to make about Rok being frustrated at her mistakes when the “mistake” is this adorable.

Dal and Gwyn are lowered into the heart of the tribble nest armed with traditional Star Trek pattern enhancers and they are able to transport the bosonite into the protocore. The animation of the pylons activating and connecting signals into a neon blue triangle is gorgeous. It was a really fantastic visualization that I took advantage of to pause and have a quick geometry lesson on why you need three data points to locate something and that’s why it’s called “triangulating” the signal. (Can’t stop won’t stop mom-ing!)

Gwyn and Dal can’t get beamed out of the nest because here come the giant attack tribbles who knock down the pattern enhancers. The rest of the crew come to the rescue, phasers blazing but they get surrounded. Luckily, however, Bribble isn’t just cute — they speak to the tribble mob, who completely back off. A great lesson on how sometimes “mistakes” can be an indispensable part of the process.

Dr. K’Ruvang and the crew have time for a round of a classic Klingon victory song and they head out. Rok’s tribble cure was a success. The crew activate the magic rocks in the protodrive — look, I’ve made my peace with it, okay? — and set a course for Voyager.

My kids knew what to expect as soon as they saw the word “Tribble” in the episode title, “A Tribble Called Quest”, but the “Mirror” in the next episode title eluded them — so we paused while I gleeful explained what to expect! I’ve really enjoyed getting to share the meaning behind such thoughtfully meta titles as “Who Saves the Saviors” and “Is There In Beauty No Truth?” or last season’s “First Con-tact” and “Time Amok.” My son appreciatively said they all are “inside jokes” and I think he liked me letting him in on them. So they were prepared for some alternate-reality action.

The Protostar is back in peak performance with both warp and protowarp drives fully functional, as the crew make their way back to the Voyager-A. Chakotay is being very cute about seeing Janeway once more, and Dal makes a hilarious — and surprisingly suggestive — joke about Chakoatay being sent to the Admiral’s ready room. Prodigy has done a great job of expanding on Chakotay’s feelings about Janeway.

Only hinted at in Voyager, here they are completely obvious but at the same time not intrusive; it’s not a focus of the plot, but just another layer on a very well defined character. He’s not trying to hide his feelings, or his nervousness at seeing her again. I find it incredibly endearing.

But the reunion will have to wait as the gang soon realize they are in an alternate universe where Janeway, Tysess, and Noum went on the Infinity mission — instead of the Protostar gang — and perished. I liked learning this about their mission because it adds something good about the Protostar crew’s interference with the timeline. This universe’s version of the EMH (Robert Picardo) beams away to meet them at sickbay and the gang take turbolifts… but end up on decks that exist in other parallel universes.

Dal, Gwyn, Jankom, Maj’el, Murf, and Chakotay end up in a reality where the Vau N’Akat weapon destroyed the Federation. It’s eerie to see this abandoned ship in such a dark timeline, lightened a bit by an unfortunate reunion with Okona (Billy Campbell) who is salvaging Voyager and outrageous-ing all over the place. In the conference room, they reason out what happened.

Gwyn revives Wesley’s sweater metaphor to describe their proto-warp punching a hole in the weakened fabric of the universe. The animation of the Protostar trapped between different universe “shards” is beautiful and reminds me of one of my favorite Discovery visuals, when the NCC-1031 is stuck halfway between our universe and the mycelial network in “Saints of Imperfection”.

Each deck is a different reality, similar to the Voyager episode “Shattered,” and it’s a nice oblique reference to that episode when Chakotay says “I’ve been through something like this before.” It’s truly a shame that “Shattered Mirror” is already an episode of Star Trek, because that would have been a perfect title and reference to an amazing episode of Voyager that really showcases Chakotay. I’m definitely adding “Shattered” to the list of episodes to watch with my kids!

Zero and Rok, meanwhile, have taken another turbolift and end up on a Voyager in much better shape. One with Enderprizian crew members from “All the World’s a Stage” and a captain named Tuvix (complete with an orchid cameo)! What two very delightful surprise references. My kids recognized the Enderprizians right away but didn’t know who Tuvix was. I just told them he was a character who is dead in our universe.

I didn’t have the heart to tell them it was Janeway who murdered him. Awkward! They can watch that episode someday and draw their own conclusions. (I’m definitely not adding “Tuvix” to the list of episodes to watch with my kids!).

Maj’el comes up with the tech solution, involving modifying the deflector dish to create an inverse tachyon pulse and between her and Chakotay, the technobabble here is so good that it almost has a melodical quality to it. But to repair the interphasic rift, they have to make their way to the bridge.

The bridge is eight decks away, and despite her claims to the contrary, Gwyn can not handle that many reality shifts. They have Okona try to beam them there. He beams them to another reality, but which one?

The reveal is delicious. Stepping into frame is Mirror Janeway (Kate Mulgrew) and she is glorious. Voyager never had a mirror universe episode — the closest we ever got was the false history in “Living Witness” — and this feels specifically like the Prodigy writers trying to make up for that. Mirror Janeway has the classic Mirror Universe swagger, rolling up in a leather uniform and slicked back hair, rocking both a cool scar and a Seven of Nine-style Borg implant. Pinch me.

Kate Mulgrew has a lot of fun leaning into the sarcastic side of evil, giving us yet another flavor of Janeway in the way only she could. Prodigy somehow manages to imply an intimate relationship between Mirror Janeway and Mirror Chakotay — who wears the classic Mirror Universe facial hair very well — while still maintaining the show’s kid-friendly status. It was just provocative enough to be a fun tease to the “will they or won’t they” status between their prime universe counterparts this season.

Before anyone is subjected to the good old agonizer booth (henceforth known as the “mean machine”), Murf subdues Mirror Chakotay incredibly easily, and Prime Chakotay poses as his counterpart. A little bit of Jankom’s thorium grease stands in for the goatee — Dal’s deadpan “And now you’re evil” made me laugh. Murf gets in on the Mirror Universe evil facial hair, too, and my kids awwwed appropriately at such a cute visual.

Mirror Janeway is not fooled for a second, though, so it becomes a chase as they hurry to the bridge. After a thrilling chase, including being ratted out by an evil whale (Mirror Gillian was a fan-favorite in my house), they arrive at the bridge at the same time as the Loom show up. I had almost forgot about the wider threat during all the excitement of these two episodes and it’s very menacing that they showed up here: you can’t hide from the Loom!

This sequence gets incredibly suspenseful as they run out of time trying to explain to Mirror Janeway what is happening as the Loom burst through the defenses. A Loom gets too close for comfort here to both Chakotay and Gwyn and we were all on the edge of our seats until Gwyn reached the deflector and put everything back to normal. Phew!

As the episode ends, we get the reunion scene that we’ve been waiting for between Prime Chakotay and Prime Janeway. It’s an incredibly lovely and understated moment played exactly the way you’d think these two characters would react in this situation. You can feel the love between these two and, for now at least, there is no reason to try to define the type of love that is.

These two episodes were a joy to watch with my kids, as I could see them falling in love with the silly side of Star Trek that I adore. One really big strength of this season is the wide variety of types of episodes in a way that is pretty representative of the longer seasons of classic ‘90s Trek — and they were a really great lead-in to the reunion we’ve been waiting for.

And now that everyone is back where they belong, it’s time to save the universe!