Star Trek: Prodigy is back! The animated series’ 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 from the season’s first four episodes: “Into the Breach,” “Who Saves the Saviors,” and “Temporal Mechanics 101.”
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“Into the Breach, Parts I and II”
Polygeminus Rex — Rok is in the middle of a presentation when she receives her summons from Janeway, about how she has potentially invented a way to slow the reproductive rate of the tribbles. In her presentation, Rok namechecks both Edward Larkin (the idiot from the Short Trek “The Trouble with Edward”) and one of the tribbles scientific names, “Polygeminus Rex”(which appeared on a chart in Keiko O’Brien’s classroom in the first season of Deep Space Nine.)
The Doctor and his Holonovels — The Doctor makes his first appearance in Star Trek since “Endgame,” with the first of several of the famous “I’m a doctor, not a…” catchphrases — and a reference to his holonovel“Photons be Free” from the late Voyager episode, “Author, Author.”
Voyager-A — The Voyager-A is in drydock in orbit of Mars, strongly implying it is docked at the Utopia Planitia shipyards above that planet. The Doctor makes reference to the original Voyager being part of “a floating museum,” as seen in Star Trek: Picard’s third season.
Romulan Evacuation — The Doctor also namechecks the ongoing evacuation of Romulus, which at this point is being directed by Admiral Jean-Luc Picard to evacuate the Romulan homeworld (and surrounding colonies) to save people from the effects of the expected Romulan supernova.
Slipstream — The Voyager-A is equipped with a slipstream drive, a technology discovered by Voyager on its journey to the Alpha Quadrant (and seemingly perfected upon their return to the Alpha Quadrant).
Cetacean Ops — Seen in more detail later in the season. Prodigyis the second show to depict Cetacean Ops (after Lower Decks), a starship locale obliquely referenced in The Next Generation episode “The Perfect Mate,” after being initially created as a concept for the Star Trek: The Next Generation Technical Manual.
Turbolifts Move Both Ways — After many years of being seen in ship schematics and in action sequences like Discovery’s “That Hope is You, Part II,” it is only now confirmed in dialogue that turboliftsin the 24th century move both vertically and horizontally through the ship to get its passengers to their destination.
First Contact Protocols — Gwyn thoroughly reviews Starfleet’s First Contact protocols before arriving on Solum. These are the formal set of rules and procedures that govern the Federation’s First Contact processes, previously mentioned in episodes like DS9’s “Captive Pursuit,” and Discovery’s “Si Vis Pacem Para Bellum.”
Nova Squadron — Maj’el is a member of Nova Squadron, the elite corps of Starfleet Academy cadets established in the Next Generation episode “The First Duty.”
Vulcan Telepathy — Maj’el states that Vulcan telepathy is enhanced in the presence of other telepaths, something we’ve seen in previous Star Trek episodes like Voyager’s “Random Thoughts.”
Delta Radiation — Zero contends that warp cores are beautiful up close because of the delta radiation that they emit, which was first established in “The Menagerie, Part I” and seen in later Star Trek episodes like “In a Mirror Darkly, Part I.”
Sonic Toilet — After years of references to sonic showers in Star Trek, we get our first-ever reference to a sonic toilet. The bidet of the future, I suppose?
“Who Saves the Saviors”
Vulcan Headband — Maj’el hides her Vulcan heritage with a headband, just like Spock in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home.
A Closed Loop — While discussing their need to make their trip to the future a closed time loop, so that the Protostar returns to Tars Lamora, Maj’el provides examples of other closed temporal loops: the Bell Riots (seen in the Deep Space Nine two-parter “Past Tense”) and the “Cochrane warp tests,”a reference to Zefram Cochrane’s first flight of the Phoenix in Star Trek: First Contact.
Vulcans Don’t Lie — Maj’el repeats the often-cited fact that Vulcans don’t lie, echoing Spock from episodes and movies past like Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home.
Galactic Traders – Dal and crew hide their identity from Captain Chakotay and Commander Adreek by posing as “galactic traders,” likely a winking nod to Kirk and Spock’s disguises on Organaia in “The Errand of Mercy.”
Hello Again, Old Friend… — When Dal lays eyes on the Protostar, he says “Hello again, old friend…” echoing Captain Jean-Luc Picard’s words upon returning to the USS Stargazer for the first time since it was abandoned after the Battle of Maxia in “The Battle.”
In Another Time… — Dal tells Chakotay that “I’d like to think in another time, we could have been friends.” The Romulan Commander said the same words to Captain James T. Kirk at the end of their battle in “Balance of Terror” (and to Captain Pike in the Strange New Worlds episode “A Quality of Mercy”).
Chronitons and Tachyons — As the timeline changes, Voyager detects chroniton emissions and tachyon irregularities, two common side effects of time travel as seen in episodes like Voyager’s “Before and After” and “Fury,” and The Next Generation’s “All Good Things…”
Vulcan Never Pinch or Hand Chop? — When Chakotay calls out Maj’el for her Vulcan Nerve Pinch of a Solum baddie, Dal says, “A Vulcan what? That was more of a hand chop. Everyone does that.” Surely a salute to the myriad of hand-chopping happening in Star Trek through the years.
“Temporal Mechanics 101”
Sacagawea — Gwyn’s shuttle was the Sacagawea. A shuttle of the same name was part of the complement of shuttles on Voyager, and appeared in Season 3 episodes like “Macrocosm.”
Cryptic Text Messages — Using a cryptic text message to set a character on a particular direction is a favorite of Wesley Crusher, as previously seen in Picard Season 2.
Quantum Signature — Gwyn’s quantum signature is displaced by changes to the timeline. The quantum signature is a specific marker for identifying which timeline someone originates from; it was explored in most detail in The Next Generation episode “Parallels.”
Interspatial Flexure — The wormhole is referred to as an interspatial flexure, a specific type of wormhole first named in Voyager’s “Counterpoint.”
Phase Discriminator Temporal Stabilizer — The Doctor invents a device that allows Gwyn to continue to exist in the timeline despite its changes, utilizing a phase discriminator. A similar armband allowed Picard, Data, Geordi and Deanna to travel between different temporal states in “Timescape.”
Stellar Cartography — Murf’s meeting with the mysterious light being (who later turns out to be Wesley Crusher) takes place in the ship’s Stellar Cartography lab, modeled off the version of Stellar Cartography seen in Star Trek: Generations.
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.
Star Trek: Prodigy Season 2 one of the most scientifically-twisted storylines in recent memory — with multiple wormholes, travels to parallel universes, several rounds of time travel, temporal paradoxes, and more.
Guiding the series writers through this timey-wimey adventure is Star Trek franchise science advisor Dr. Erin Macdonald, who has spent the last several years helping out on different series behind the scenes — and is now on the upcoming Starfleet Academy series.
We had the opportunity to chat with “Doctor Erin” this week about her background, the challenges of balancing the science in science fiction, and more.
The 24th century version of Dr. Erin Macdonald, first seen in STAR TREK: PRODIGY Season 1. (CBS Studios)
TREKCORE: Famously, we know you’re a PhD in astrophysics, but I was wondering a little bit about what your focus was — or any particular research topics you’re interested in within that broad field.
DR. ERIN MACDONALD: Yeah, it’s broad, for sure! I started out as an undergrad doing research at the University of Colorado, where I was doing my undergrad degree, and I studied radio astronomy. That was my first sort of passion which was exciting for me because originally what got the bug in me to be an astronomer was Contact and Jodie Foster’s character, Dr. Ellie Arroway. The first time I got to go to a radio telescope and hit the button and the whole thing moved, I was like, “I did it. I’m in Contact. I’m Dr. Arroway!”
I did that, and then I was looking for PhD positions, and I really wanted to live overseas. My family’s from Scotland; we’d been there a bunch when I was a kid and I wanted to go back. I didn’t have time to study abroad when I was an undergrad, and their PhD programs fit what I was looking for just in terms of time and depth and all of that.
And so I applied to a bunch of them, and I ended up speaking with a professor at the University of Glasgow who had come from radio astronomy, but was now working in gravitational waves.
I’m looking for more people with this background,” he told me. “It’s mostly people with a engineering, science, physics background who are building detectors. Now, we need people who kind of understand the astrophysics side of it and why neutron stars do what they do and all of that stuff.”
So I got pulled into gravitational waves. I was with the LIGO Collaboration and this was all before their Nobel Prize-winning detection. It was a very small community at that time. And 2014 is when I left academia…. and in 2016, they detected them and won the Nobel Prize, which is fine. (Laughs)
— Star Trek on Paramount+ (@StarTrekOnPPlus) January 4, 2023
TREKCORE: I can see how that translates to the type of science used throughout Star Trek. So how did you land a job as the franchise’s official science advisor?
MACDONALD: I didn’t discover Star Trek until I was in college as an undergraduate. I didn’t grow up in a sci-fi household — I watched The X-Files in secret –but I like to joke that the Venn diagram of physics majors and Star Trek fans is almost a perfect circle.
I was very much exposed to Star Trek in my undergraduate and fell in love. I mean, it’s absolutely my alley. When I was living in Scotland, and I fell in love with Voyager — I just watched Voyager all the time because of Kathryn Janeway. I just loved her, and felt like she was a mentor to me. She was the type of woman I wanted to be.
Because I didn’t have a career plan — I just wanted to do a PhD, and I didn’t know what I was gonna do after that — I wanted to give up a lot. And every time I would, I would watch Voyager and I would be like, “Oh, Janeway would be so disappointed in me if I quit. I have to keep going!”
But I was also procrastinating a lot by watching Voyager, watching science-heavy episodes and trying to figure out how warp drive worked — really dissecting the science in the show. When I eventually got into aerospace engineering, I missed teaching so much that I would go to conventions and just give talks on the physics behind warp drive, that sort of thing… and that’s where those things began to intersect.
TREKCORE: So you have your head-canon ideas about how all the Star Trek science works, and now you get to actually invent those and put them into the show!
MACDONALD: Exactly!
TREKCORE: Prodigy Season 2 must have been very challenging because of how deep it goes into theoretical physics — and then spreads it out over multiple episodes versus, like, a science of the week. What was the process there?
MACDONALD: Thankfully, for Season 2 of Prodigy, I was involved pretty much right away — so as they were coming up with ideas like Chakotay’s struggle to power up the ship in “Last Flight of the Protostar.” I’m proud that we really drove home that dilithium is not the fuel for a starship — that you need matter and anti-matter, that’s how it works. I’m like, “Yes! We got that across.”
But really, all the time travel was a huge challenge, like that scene at the end of “Ouroboros, Part 2” when Wesley and Rok-Tahk and Zero are all trying to figure out the timeline. Like — that was us. We were sitting there and I just felt, “I feel like this can close… we don’t need to have sort of these branching wormholes that are just kind of like abandoned or snipped off. This can be one whole path for the Protostar to go through.”
So that’s how we ended up doing it — and the little touch that I just love so much is the badge that Dal leaves on the bridge to close the loop back to the series premiere. It’s just so good. As a sci-fi time-travel fan, I love that you can go back to watch the pilot and know how much more it means. I get chills thinking about it!
Dal learns about temporal mechanics. (CBS Studios)
TREKCORE: I have three kids, and they love Prodigy, and they were very excited to hear that I was talking to their Temporal Mechanics 101 professor! So this one’s from the kids: How do you know about so many different kinds of science — and how do you research outside your comfort zone?
MACDONALD: Well, one of the things you learn when you become a scientist is how to ask the right questions and interpret results — and how to know what is trustworthy.
If I get presented with a problem that I don’t know the answer to — which can happen, since I don’t have a background in biology or medicine — I either will call an expert, or I will try to find what information I can. Because I have scientific training, I have enough background knowledge that I can kind of filter through to the right answer, and then interpret that in a way that will make sense to everyone else.
The best training that I got in doing that was working at a science museum — that’s the best training you can get to be a science communicator. You’ll talk to all sorts of people there, from a five-year-old who just learned about black holes to a retired aerospace engineer who wants to hear about the Mars program… and you do that for hours a day, every day.
I learned a lot, and I got comfortable saying, “I don’t know.” That’s a huge hurdle to get over, especially if people are coming to you as an expert, to say “That’s a good question. I actually don’t know the answer. Let me look it up.”
TREKCORE: After that humble start, What does it mean to you, now that you have a wider reach as a science communicator and ambassador?
MACDONALD: It’s really wonderful — and I feel like it’s important for people to see that I am a multifaceted human. I have a lot of tattoos, I love heavy metal music, I play video games… but I’m also a scientist. I think the more representation we can get out in front of people where they can say like, “Oh, that’s cool. I can like all these things, and I can be a scientist, too!”
So many times, we feel like it’s a very monolithic identity that people are assigned as scientists. The best compliment I’ve ever been paid was when someone called me the “Julia Child of science,” and I was like “That’s what I wanna be!”
I want to be someone who is comfortable in their authentic self and their identity — because being a genuine, enthusiastic person can make people excited and also make hard things accessible. That’s what I love doing.
Introducing the concept of time travel to Starfleet cadets. (CBS Studios)
TREKCORE: So I don’t often get a chance to pick the brain of an astrophysicist — so let me ask you some science questions! Do you think time travel is possible?
MACDONALD: So I think time travel in terms of like, “Press a button and go anywhere!” is not possible. My training is on mathematical explanations of space-time — we have little coefficients in front of space, which means I can move within space as much as I want, in whatever direction.
Time, though, that’s a fixed constant — and there’s nothing we can do to manipulate that. Our current understanding doesn’t allow us to mess around with the time dimension… but there are ways that we can change it a little bit.
There’s the idea of time dilatation — that you can travel close to the speed of light, and experience time at a different rate, or gravitational time dilation, which I think people are most familiar with. There’s a great Voyager episode called “Blink of an Eye” about that, but more commonly people probably know Interstellar, right?
When you’re on the surface of a planet in a deep gravity well, you experience time differently than people outside that gravity well — and that is true. We experience time slower on the surface than GPS satellites, and they actually need to account for that time difference if you want to know exactly where you are.
That’s a practical application, but that’s us just experiencing time slower. We’re still not controlling it.
TREKCORE: What about multiple universes?
MACDONALD: I do believe in multiverses. My favorite multiverse theory is something called the dripping black hole theory, which is where you get a black hole in our universe, which then merge, then grow, then migrate to the center of galaxies — and that’s where we have supermassive black holes. All of this matter is falling into it, and it’s converting it into energy. It’s tearing it apart.
We don’t know what really happens in there, but the dripping black hole theory is that it reaches a critical mass or critical amount of energy, and it explodes, and it gives birth to it. That’s the Big Bang in another universe. And so now that expands, all of that energy starts condensing into matter, and then it continues expanding because of all of the material that’s continuing to fall into the parent black hole. And so it’s like this dripping black hole image like it’s black holes all the way down. That’s my favorite multiverse theory.
TREKCORE: So we probably couldn’t travel in between universes.
MACDONALD: Not yet. Not unless we could figure out how to get inside a black hole and not die! (Laughs)
Crossing universe? Probably not very likely. (CBS Studios)
TREKCORE: I’m assuming that your theories and views on that have changed since you first started watching Voyager, where I think they did an excellent job of being kind of “of the moment” with all these ideas. Do you have a favorite example of a cutting-edge idea that you’ve proposed for the modern Trek shows?
MACDONALD: We did some really fun stuff in Discovery, especially with the DMA and the idea of dark matter, gravitational waves, and all of that stuff — this sort of roaming black hole. Those were all sort of really interesting things. I also loved the challenge of the musical episode of Strange New Worlds.
It’s so funny because we have, you know as a Star Trek fan, there’s a lot of random, goofy episodes, and when I get presented with anything like that, I’m like… just don’t explain it. It’s fine.
But when Strange New Worlds wanted to do a musical, they insisted: “This is Star Trek, there’s going to be a scientific explanation for the musical.” So that’s how we ended up with the explanation about knitting multiverses together. It was a fun challenge, for sure.
Then, weirdly — and I haven’t really talked about this yet — there’s an episode of Prodigy where they land on a planet and Rok-Tahk goes, “Oh, it’s sulfur and hydrogen sulfide.” We were writing that when the Hyperion plant here in LA had an accident, and it smelled awful because of the hydrogen sulfide in the atmosphere.
So we knew exactly what chemicals they’d be smelling! (Laughs)
TREKCORE: What’s the most outlandish thing the writers have tried to slip past you? Have there been any times when you were just like, “Uh, no.”
MACDONALD: I will say that the most outlandish thing — they didn’t try to slip past me, but they definitely were like, “We’re sorry!” — was just the concept of the protostar drive in Prodigy, having the star contained within the ship.
I didn’t join the show until they already had their ideas planned out for Season 1, and they had the idea of the protostar engine very early on. We came up with a good explanation — that it’s this super dense, really hot material that doesn’t give off much energy — and then we used these gravitational compressors to condense it even further.
That causes it to start fusing — which happens inside a star — and that gives off the energy needed to build a wormhole for the warp bubble to go through. Then in Season 2, they said, “Oh, we’re actually going to build a protostar.”
TREKCORE: Like, come on, guys! (Laughs)
MACDONALD: It was exotic matter! (Laughs) Let’s do it. Sometimes it’s just easier to throw those words in there and just let it be.
‘Dr. Erin’ takes her cadets to the next level. (CBS Studios)
TREKCORE: And then with the ‘pretend’ science, how do you contribute to that? Like, when to call back to something like Worf’s universe hopping in “Parallels,” or the interspatial flexure from “Counterpoint”?
MACDONALD: I’m so glad you mentioned the interspatial flexure! “Counterpoint” is my favorite episode of all Star Trek. It’s my favorite one — and that scene is one of my favorite scenes in my favorite episode of all Trek.
TREKCORE: It’s one of Janeway’s best episodes.
MACDONALD: I have been wanting to work interspatial flexure into Star Trek as much as possible, and we did it twice in Prodigy — once in the finale, and one in my Temporal Mechanics 101 explainer video — and it makes me so happy. But, I mean, that is part of my job, too; to be the keeper of the Star Trek science and to really understand it.
Thankfully, I’m a fan, and I don’t have to go through 800 episodes every time we have a question about things. There are a lot of times I can just call up two or three episodes to watch to cover a certain topic.
TREKCORE: Right, yeah. We can find something to justify this.
MACDONALD: That went back to my first job, which was for the Burn in Discovery Season 3. I had to go back to research dilithium, and was like, “Okay, how have we talked about dilithium in the past? What can we do different here?”
TREKCORE: So we know future you teaches Temporal Mechanics 101 and Temporal Mechanics 201 — but what would be your dream class at Starfleet Academy?
MACDONALD: Definitely Warp Mechanics or Warp Theory, either as a student or teacher. But I really want to know all the details that humanity has figured out through the Cochrane era up until the ‘now’ of current Star Trek.
Since I was in graduate school, I’ve loved Starfleet Academy. That’s really all I wanted to do — but that wasn’t a job option, I bought a license plate frame for my car that said “Starfleet Academy Faculty member,” and still have it on my car today.
And now it’s legitimate!
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
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.
On this week’s episode of WeeklyTrek — TrekCore’s news podcast — host Alex Perry is joined by TrekCore’s own Jenn Tifftto discuss all the latest Star Trek news.
This week, Alex and his guest discuss the following stories from TrekCore and around the web — starting with a special interview with Prodigy creators Kevin & Dan Hageman.
In addition, stick around to hear Jenn’s opinion that more fans should just relax and enjoy their head-canon ideas, and Alex’s opinion that Star Trek: Prodigy Season 2 provides a superior adaptation to a story from a seminal Star Trek book series.<
WeeklyTrek is available to subscribe and download each week on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, and Spotify— and we’ll be sharing the details of each new episode right here on TrekCore each week if you’re simply just looking to listen in from the web.
Do you have a wish or theory you’d like to share on the show? Tweet to Alex at @WeeklyTrek, or email us with your thoughts about wishes, theories, or anything else about the latest in Star Trek news!
The first season of Star Trek: Prodigy delighted Voyager fans as Kate Mulgrew and Robert Beltran extended the story of Kathryn Janeway and Chakotay — and to up the Delta Quadrant delights for year two, Robert Picardo returned to the final frontier to reprise his role as the Emergency Medical Hologram.
We had the chance to speak with Picardo as Star Trek: Prodigy beamed the Star Trek: Voyager star aboard the USS Voyager-A to mentor the animated series’ Starfleet hopefuls.
The Doctor meets one of his biggest fans. (CBS Studios / Netflix)
TREKCORE: How did you feel about reprising your role as the Doctor — and how do you think Prodigy handled the character?
ROBERT PICARDO: Well, because Kate Mulgrew and I are such close friends, I had heard the Prodigy team was thinking about Season 2 and were interested in bringing back the Doctor. She was very secretive, of course — we have to be with these sort of things – but I knew then that they were at least thinking about it.
So I wasn’t exactly surprised when they reached out to me. I didn’t know what I’d be doing, of course, but when I started to read the scripts, it was fun to see how well they used the character. How they played upon how much he loved talking about himself; that he was still self-absorbed and delighted to talk about whatever holo-novel he was working on.
They were writing very well for the Doctor as comic relief — but they also gave me some very nice dramatic moments, where his counsel is sought by Janeway… or hologram Janeway. Some moments where the chips are down, and he has to try and save Gwyn’s life, and all that. So I liked that it was fully fleshed out — there was his humorous side, but that in a dramatic situation, he still could make a serious contribution to solving the problem.
TREKCORE: Was it tricky to get back into character?
PICARDO: Well, the interesting coincidence is that during COVID — because this all started when they first approached me back during lockdown — I had started a YouTube channel, inspired by Brent Spiner who had done a hilarious video series. I just thought that was a great way to keep up your skills as a performer, but also give loyal fans little gifts of amusement.
My daughter Gina suggested I do something that was sort of Star Trek-related, and after thinking about it a bit I decided to start doing famous speeches from my time on Voyager, performed in a beautiful, natural setting. So I did these things I called ‘technobabble al fresco,’ like 20 or 30 of them. Most were word-perfect from Voyager episodes, but then I starting having some fun trying to fool the fans who were watching – and I would make up something that sound like it might have been from Voyager.
So when I heard from Prodigy, I had been doing this for a couple of months and the Doctor’s voice was already in my head — because I had reviewed some of Voyager, which I really hadn’t seen in a while, so that I could perform these videos in character.
TREKCORE: Did you have any input on the Doctor’s new animated look?
PICARDO: We get approval, so they sent it to me — and as I recall, only had maybe one note. I don’t remember what it was. They make us look trimmer and younger, obviously, so I like the way the character looks. I mean, I wish I looked that good!
You know, it’s more about capturing essences. Certainly they get a lot of our features right — I mean, Janeway is clearly identifiable as Janeway — but it’s important that we’re not photorealistic. That wouldn’t fit with the other art in the show.
So I think they found a very nice balance of taking all of our features and fitting them into the Prodigy world.
TREKCORE: Did you have to change your performance much to fit with the animated presentation?
PICARDO: Mostly I just tried to pitch my voice up into the same register as when I was doing Voyager. As I’ve gotten older, my voice has gotten lower, but even back in the day on Star Trek there was a lot of artifice that was intentional on my parts — like in Season 1 and 2, where the Doctor really talked like he was just listening to his own voice. I wanted him to be a bit more machine-like, in his posture and intonation, so that as he became more human everything would slowly and subtly change.
I don’t like my performance in the first two seasons of Voyager! (Laughs) You know, the rather snooty way that I talk, it just seems so mannered that now I think, “I can’t wait until I start to get a little more human!”
But I think it worked well for the character, because you wanted to see a newly-activated, never-tested artificial intelligence. It had to be something with a place to go. Once I understood the basic arc of what the writers had in mind, I was happy that I started with that artifice… but I still don’t enjoy most of my earlier episodes, for those personal reasons.
The Doctor back in action with Admiral Janeway and Captain Chakotay. (CBS Studios / Netflix)
TREKCORE: Have you ever been approached about coming back to Trek in live-action — would you be interested in that at all?
PICARDO: I was completely enchanted and delighted by all of my Star Trek colleagues from The Next Generation coming back for Picard Season 3, which was a spectacular success. Terry Matalas was an assistant to Brannon Braga on our show; what a brilliant job he did in conceiving that.
I thought they had carefully thought out where the characters were now, what had happened in the intervening years — how they had changed, how they had stayed the same, how they had grown. All of that was done so well that I wouldn’t be surprised if in the future, they do consider bringing some of the other legacy actors back. I’ve seen videos where Kate has tried to put Alex Kurtzman on the spot about it. (Laughs)
It would be delightful, of course, but there is zero talk that I am aware of — ZERO! — of a Voyager reunion, as much as I would love that. (Laughs) The fans, I think, would like it, after seeing what Picard did… even as a one-off thing, now that Star Trek is doing kind of what Star Wars is doing, with Section 31 and the amazing Michelle Yeoh.
I loved her character on Discovery, and I think it’s great that they can now take something and do what never seemed possible before. A reunion movie made just for the streaming platform, and not need to do a theatrical feature release? All of that seems possible, but like I said there’s zero talk that I’m aware of. I can’t speak for my Voyager colleagues, but have to think they’d all be interested in doing something like that.
Maj’el isn’t so impressed with the Doctor’s “Dirk Danger” holonovel pitch. (CBS Studios / Netflix)
TREKCORE: Then if Prodigy were to continue, I assume you’d enjoy spending more time as the Doctor in animation?
PICARDO: I hope! The Hagemans are just very good writers, and lovely people. The love Star Trek, they love the show, and most importantly, they love the new characters they’ve created — these would-be cadets. Their looks are all so unique, and so are their voices. The great thing about animation is that you can do things that are so imaginative… but are still a bit beyond what you could do in live-action. The look of the show is just delightful.
You could tell how it not only captures young audience members, but it’s the kind of thing where adults could watch it alone, or sit down and watch it with their kids — I think it’s a huge success, and I hope that Netflix pays attention to the response it’s getting.
The fans seem to love it, and hopefully the numbers are good enough that Netflix would decide to produce a third season. That would be great.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
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.
Beyond the big Star Trek Universe panels at San Diego Comic Con later this month, there’s another featured Trek event scheduled for the annual genre bash in California — this time, with another big sci-fi franchise along for the ride.
Star Trek franchise boss Alex Kurtzman will be joined by Doctor Who showrunner Russell T Davies on Saturday, July 27 at 5:30PM (Room 6A) for a panel set to kick off a co-franchise “Intergalactic Friendship Day” event on July 30. Attendees to the creator conversation will each receive a special Doctor Who x Star Trek poster designed by artist Dusty Abell.
Showrunners and Executive Producers Russell T. Davies and Alex Kurtzman Will Kick Off the Celebration with an Exclusive Conversation at This Year’s San Diego Comic-Con on July 27
July 12, 2024 – Through 15 doctors and over a dozen brave captains, sci-fi fans have travelled on journeys spanning the cosmos, and on July 30 fans will rejoice as the Doctor Who and Star Trek franchises come together to celebrate the creation of the inaugural Intergalactic Friendship Day. The celebration aligns with International Friendship Day which was established in 2011 with the idea that friendship between peoples, countries, cultures and individuals can inspire peace efforts and build bridges between communities.
Throughout both franchises’ long histories, there have been numerous on-screen nods to each other that delight fans, and now the two pop culture titans Doctor Who and Star Trek are joining forces to spotlight shared values of friendship, hope and fandom with fan celebrations, digital activations and special giveaways.
The collaboration will kick off at San Diego Comic-Con, where Alex Kurtzman, showrunner and executive producer of the Star Trekfranchise, and Russell T Davies, showrunner and executive producer spearheading the Doctor Who Whoniverse, come together for an exclusive creator-to-creator conversation about the art of storytelling in alternative universes and to celebrate the power of friendship.
In addition to the Saturday evening panel, there will also be a co-branded “gallery experience” in the nearby Gaslamp Quarter outside SDCC, running all convention weekend — featuring props and costumes from both Star Trek and Doctor Who history.
“Friendship is Universal,” an Exclusive Gallery Experience Featuring Star Trek and Doctor Who Costumes and Props, Will Be Running Through SDCC Weekend in the Gaslamp Quarter
Under the banner of “Friendship is Universal,” Star Trek and Doctor Who will operate a special celebratory gallery experience at 226 and 230 5th Avenue in the Gaslamp Quarter of San Diego. The gallery experience will feature original costumes and props from across the storied histories of both, highlighting themes of friendship and shared values between the two universes. There will also be photo opportunities for fans as well as special friendship bracelet giveaways.
“Friendship is Universal” activation hours of operation are Thursday, July 25 through Saturday, July 27 11:00 AM – 8:00 PM, and Sunday July 28 11:00 AM – 5:00 PM. Admission is free. “Friendship is Universal” is not an official SDCC activation, therefore no badge is required for entry.
After the setup in “Into the Breach,”Star Trek: Prodigy begins the overall arc of the season with two episodes of temporal shenanigans worthy of Star Trek‘s proud and varied history of mucking up the timeline.
The time travel conceits in “Who Saves the Saviors” and “Temporal Mechanics 101” are pulled off with an expert flare that gives the impression that not only was the internal logic of the time travel poured over for consistency, but also that it was done so with love for this kind of stuff: by time travel buffs, for time travel buffs.
Maj’el and Dal aboard the runaway Infinity. (CBS Studios / Netflix)
“Who Saves the Saviors” is one of the best episodes of the season, reveling in the playfulness of a good causal time loop while maintaining the seriousness of the high stakes. It picks up with Dal (Brett Grey), Zero (Angus Imrie), Jankom (Jason Mantzoukas) and Nova Squadron member Maj’el (Michaela Dietz) as they ride the Infinity through the wormhole. They land on Solum — 52 years in the future, yet still too early. As they recall, Janeway said they had to save Chakotay after he launches the Protostar, but the ship (and Chakotay himself) is still there.
They have four hours. The set up is clearly laid out, even for younger viewers, and the just-right timing they need adds to the adrenaline rush of it all. Maj’el is already proving to be a valuable addition to the group as she reminds them and the viewers of Starfleet’s temporal rules, while donning a classic Vulcan disguise — her headband made me grin.
Based on her name and character design alone, I was already predispositioned to love Maj’el, but getting to know her a little here cemented her standing as another Prodigy youth that I love and want to protect. By the end of the season, she was my son’s favorite character — sorry Rok-Tahk, he still loves you, too! Also, having someone in the gang that knows all the Starfleet “rules” makes things a lot easier in-universe… and for the younger viewers who this is all new to.
A destroyed Solum, 52 years in the future. (CBS Studios / Netflix)
Knowing the rules, it’s almost a relief when they get captured — as Zero reminds them that if they are in a prison cell, then they can’t interfere with previous events. But the relief only lasts for a second as they are led to a cell containing Chakotay himself. I have to admit it was a bit of a thrill to see Chakotay (Robert Beltran) finally, after trying to find him for so long. Dal greeting him with “Nice tattoo!” was a hilarious icebreaker that brought me back to the present.
Robert Beltran’s performance as Chakotay this season is really wonderfully nuanced. He’s the Chakotay we all know, but a little bit looser and with more presence. His performance reminds me of Jeri Ryan’s performance in Star Trek: Picard — taking the character we all know and extrapolating that to the character’s growth through the years we didn’t see. Prodigy Chakotay feels more lived in, and like Seven of Nine, I would be interested to learn more about what his life was like after Voyager returned home.
It’s also great to finally meet Adreek the beak, voiced with gravitas by Tommie Earl Jenkins. This beautifully animated birdman (an Aurelianof TAS invent) and original first officer of the Protostar is a character my kids and I have been curious about since we first saw a glimpse of him last season. He’s fascinating. Adreek is no-nonsense, and I love his straight man reaction to Jankom and his bird puns. My kids are very pun-y kids so they got a big kick out of those.
Commander Asteek and Captain Chakotay. (CBS Studios / Netflix)
The idea that our Protostar crew was always meant to help Chakotay and Adreek escape is philosophically poignant in a master-your-own-destiny sort of way. It’s also just a great time travel trope — who (besides Julian Bashir and his grandfather) doesn’t love a good predestination paradox?
Maj’el name drops two of Star Trek’s best examples: the Bell Riots and the Cochrane warp test from Star Trek: First Contact — which I found bold, lest this episode be compared to those masterpieces. Turns out their hubris is warranted, however, as this episode might not be as deep as “Past Tense” or as epic as First Contact — but it is a worthy addition to the canon and you can easily imagine “the Protostar incident” being used as an example in the future.
I share Zero’s sentiment of excitement (“Aha!”, they quiver) when they feel the rush of knowing that things will play out how they did originally. I love that Prodigy celebrates just how much fun this type of thing can be… though the title itself — a clever play on the Next Generation title “Who Watches the Watchers” — give away the game that all will not go as it should.
Prodigy once again makes great use of the tools at their disposal, literally in this case, as Jankom remotely controls his multi-mitt using Adreek’s tricorder. With it as their man on the outside they manage to take down the forcefield. This sequence had some great Evil Dead vibes and the prospective and multi-mitt vs. watcher droid confrontation were nicely choreographed.
The over the top distraction is also super fun and Zero’s adorable “ya-pow” is the new “pew-pew”. Angus Imrie’s choices are always as wonderfully unique as Zero themselves — besides “ya-pow” and the aforementioned excited, quivering Aha!, their absolutely inimitable delivery of the line “Star…fleet, what’s that?” had my kids absolutely rolling.
That made it even funnier that Zero called the EMH a bad liar last episode!
The gang watches as Chakotay pilots the Protostar away from Solum. (CBS Studios / Netflix)
All seems to be going according to plan until Chakotay spots a weapon that wasn’t there in the original timeline — thanks to Dal’s inadvertent actions — and manages to escape with Adreek and the Protostar. My youngest daughter gasped and said “That changes history!”, even before Maj’el helpfully tells us about spiking chroniton emissions and tachyon irregularities… both classic signs of a timeline being disrupted. So there wasn’t any confusion with my kids about just how bad this mistake was, even though they don’t know a chroniton from a tachyon.
Jumping back the present, we catch up with Gwyn (Ella Purnell) on Solum, as she challenges Asencia (Jameela Jamil) to the ancient Va’Lu’Rah ritual… as she learns what that actually means the same time we do. This ritual combat has as much grandeur as a kal-if-fee as they all gather on what is obviously a sacred spot. We hear echoes of the proud refrain spoken last season: “There is no barrier we cannot overcome, for we are Vau N’Akat”.
Solum is again shown to be strikingly beautiful. The delicate scrolling of the heirlooms are also in the clothing, the architecture, even mimicked in the landscape. We soon learn why that aesthetic is so ingrained in their culture as the scrolled dais lowers, and Gwyn is bathed in golden droplets that seem to defy gravity with a will all their own. Gwyn calls it “the source of our heirlooms,” and sure enough the droplets come together at the will of the combatants the same way the heirlooms morph.
Gwyn and Asencia face off. (CBS Studios / Netflix)
It seems like the psychic connection between the Vau N’Akat extends to — and derives from — their planet. That connection they all share makes the isolationist tendencies of some of the residents, while not sympathetic, at least understandable.
Gwyn vs. Asencia was a highlight in last season’s “Supernova, Part 1” and round two proves to be just as thrilling. Both are evenly matched, and they use the heirloom material to full benefit with just their minds. Swords and shields and projectiles: so cool. This should be a stage in a fighting video game!
Gwyn, being wiser than Asencia, realizes she doesn’t have to defeat her, just beat her back to the surface and she mind-morphs footholds to climb up. Unfortunately, this is when we catch up to the A-story: as the timeline is disrupted, we see Gwyn fade in and out and she can’t grab hold of her makeshift ladder. She falls to the bottom. The heirloom material lovingly breaks her fall.
Ilthuran, Gwyn’s future father, watches as she phases through time. (CBS Studios / Netflix)
In “Temporal Mechanics 101,” we get the full scope of the season’s big problem. The crew on the Infinity receive a mysterious message which leads them to Gwyn, and when they find her we learn that Gwyn is fading because she is out of phase with our reality. Her very existence is uncertain, as Maj’el explains, she is “proverbially trapped in Schrodinger’s box”, which was a reference my two older kids understood. (They explained what that meant to my youngest, but I think she got the gist of what was happening even without the primer.)
After some more glorious back and forth about the situation from our resident nerds Zero and Maj’el, we get the words that every lover of temporal mechanics wants to hear: “We have to build a time machine!”.
(Side note: We also learn that even though the timeline has been altered, the Infinity’s temporal shielding is preserving our reality for the meantime. Sure, why not!)
Dal humbles himself and asks Admiral Janeway (Kate Mulgrew) to send over the much referenced “Temporal Mechanics 101”. Prodigy makes a really whimsical choice here by showing us some excerpts of the lessons. Starfleet’s Dr. Erin, who first appeared last season — and is played by real life Star Trek science advisor, Dr. Erin Macdonald — is our guide through some really fun, intentionally corny, graphics and lectures about time travel.
Dr. Erin explains time to Starfleet cadets. (CBS Studios / Netflix)
Dal scrolls past what I assume to be the more “science-y” portions of the lesson for us as we get the bits most relevant to the situation. My kids were absolutely RIVETED by this as they intently listened to every word. What a fun insight for them about what a lesson at Starfleet Academy might actually be like. It’s the closest we will ever get and we all enjoyed every second of it — a definite highlight of the episode, with some great Star Trek jokes mixed in.
While Dal’s gang work to rescue Gwyn, her father Ilthuran (John Noble) — the present-day form of the Diviner — stays with Gwyn while she is phasing in and out. In a direct contrast to the events of “Terror Firma” last season, he promises to be there for her. While I get the premise here, I find the whole thing very confusing and I spend every second he’s on screen expecting him to flip. This isn’t Ebenezer Scrooge, who the ghost of Christmas past can show us wasn’t always a selfish jerk. The Diviner was a true villain: an enslaver of children, who left his own child to die on murder planet. I have a hard time squaring that circle.
The Infinity begins its time-travel journey to save Gwyn. (CBS Studios / Netflix)
Jankom — with a return to form of his true engineering style — and the rest of the crew pull off building the time machine and they make it back to present day. The animation of the equipment and H.G. Wells-style time bubble really pull off moving nowhere in space (while going backward in time) in a way that is still visually interesting and dynamic.
But Jankom is all out of miracles as he won’t be able to make the ship fly so they can get Gwyn back to the EMH on Voyager. Luckily, the magic mystery friend comes to the rescue and starts the ship. “Coulda done that earlier!”, quips Jankom in a meta line that made me laugh. Once everyone is safely home on Voyager, the EMH (Robert Picardo) is a doctor, not an exorcist, and he manages to devise a temporal stabilizer for Gwyn that keeps her rooted in our quantum reality. Cool!
Murf talks with a mysterious stranger. (CBS Studios / Netflix)
The episode ends with Murf (Dee Bradley Baker) meeting with a mysterious figure who is very reminiscent of Enterprise‘s “Future Guy.” However, so far, this mysterious figure has done nothing but try to help our crew so I remain optimistic that they are friend not foe.
Time will tell!
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Stay tuned for our next Star Trek: Prodigy review, covering Season 2’s “Observer’s Paradox” and “Imposter Syndrome,” in a few days!
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.
We’re barreling towards this year’s San Diego Comic Con event, and once again the Star Trek Universe will be a central part of the year’s entertainment panels — returning to the show’s largest stage.
On Saturday, July 27, the cast and showrunners of all the upcoming Trek productions will hit Hall H to give a 90-minute update on the state of the Star Trek franchise, with surprises likely in store for many of the projects.
— Star Trek on Paramount+ (@StarTrekOnPPlus) July 10, 2024
Here’s the breakdown of what’s coming on July 27 at 1:45 PM (PT):
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds:Cast members Anson Mount, Rebecca Romijn and Ethan Peck, alongside executive producers Alex Kurtzman, Akiva Goldsman and Henry Alonso Myers.
Star Trek: Lower Decks:Voice cast members Jack Quaid, Tawny Newsome, Noël Wells and Jerry O’Connell, along with creator and executive producer Mike McMahan and executive producer Alex Kurtzman.
Star Trek: Starfleet Academy: EPs and co-showrunners Alex Kurtzman and Noga Landau.
Star Trek: Section 31: Cast members Omari Hardwick, Sam Richardson and Kacey Rohl, along with executive producer Alex Kurtzman and director Olatunde Osunsanmi. Everything is moderated by filmmaker, director and executive producer Justin Simien.
JULY 11 UPDATE — Star Trek: Prodigy will also get its own featured panel, on Sunday July 28, where one of the new Season 2 episodes will be screened for attending fans, along with a Q & A session with the show’s creators and stars.
STAR TREK: PRODIGY panel in Room 6DE. CBS Studios invites you to a special screening of a season two episode of STAR TREK: PRODIGY, followed by an exclusive conversation with Star Trek legend and voice actor Kate Mulgrew, voice actor Brett Gray and executive producers Kevin & Dan Hageman to discuss the new season currently streaming on Netflix. Moderated by Ryan Britt, editor at Inverse, the panel will also include a special giveaway item. Sunday, July 28, 10:00–11:00 AM, PT, Room 6DE
In addition to the stage presentation, Paramount+ will also be showcasing “creatures and specimens from the Star Trek universe” at the Star Trek Menagerie Booth (#3529) on the SDCC show floor:
Behold the STAR TREK Menagerie booth on the convention floor, displaying creatures across renowned STAR TREK properties. Come one and all to get an up-close look at exciting specimens from STAR TREK: STRANGE NEW WORLDS, STAR TREK: DISCOVERY, STAR TREK: LOWER DECKS, STAR TREK: PICARD, STAR TREK: THE ORIGINAL SERIES and more!
Become part of the Menagerie yourself as you enter the human display for an immersive photo opportunity. An SDCC badge is required for entry. Booth #3529.
San Diego Comic Con begins on Thursday, July 25 and you can expect TrekCore coverage from the show floor and during the Hall H panel to bring you the latest news and updates from the Star Trek Universe.
Following the major casting of Hollywood heavyweights Holly Hunter and Paul Giamatti, CBS Studios and Paramount+ today announced the first three cadets set to join Star Trek: Starfleet Academy’s freshman class.
Relative newcomers Kerrice Brooks, Bella Shepard, and George Hawkins are the first members of Starfleet Academy’s younger cast — but that’s about all we know, as the studio has not shared character names or backstories as part of today’s announcement.
New ACADEMY cadets Kerrice Brooks (photo credit, K. Brooks), Bella Shepard (photo credit, David Muller) and George Hawkins (photo credit, Yellowbelly)
Here’s the full press release from Paramount+:
KERRICE BROOKS, BELLA SHEPARD AND GEORGE HAWKINS JOIN THE PARAMOUNT+ ORIGINAL SERIES STAR TREK: STARFLEET ACADEMY
July 9, 2024 – Paramount+ today announced that Kerrice Brooks (My Old Ass), Bella Shepard (Wolf Pack) and George Hawkins (Tell Me Everything) have joined the cast of the original series STAR TREK: STARFLEET ACADEMY. The upcoming series will follow the adventures of a new class of Starfleet cadets as they come of age in one of the most legendary places in the galaxy. Produced by CBS Studios, the new series will begin production later this summer.
Brooks, Shepard and Hawkins will play cadets, joining previously announced cast members Holly Hunter as the captain and chancellor of Starfleet Academy and Paul Giamatti as the season’s villain.
STAR TREK: STARFLEET ACADEMY introduces viewers to a young group of cadets who come together to pursue a common dream of hope and optimism. Under the watchful and demanding eyes of their instructors, they discover what it takes to become Starfleet officers as they navigate blossoming friendships, explosive rivalries, first loves and a new enemy that threatens both the Academy and the Federation itself.
Brooks, an actress and professional dancer, will make her feature film debut this year in My Old Ass produced by Margot Robbie and directed by Megan Park. She will also star in the 70s coming-of-age comedy, Feeling Randy. Brooks’ credits include The Prom, The Cypher, How We Roll and On My Block. Brooks got her start in the entertainment industry as a professional dancer performing with elite artists including Billie Eilish, Kanye West, Lil’ Nas, Kelly Rowland and more.
Shepard was recently the lead of the Paramount+ Series, Wolf Pack and is best known for her previous Brat Series’ On the Ropes and A Girl Named Jo, and as the lead in the series, Two Sides. Shepard was also seen in The Wilds, Witch Hunt,, and the iCARLY reboot . She also had a lead guest role on the final season of Orange Is the New Black, and recurring roles on Life in Pieces and Grace and Frankie.
Hawkins is best known for playing Dylan in Tell Me Everything. His previous credits include Sean in the BAFTA-nominated film Boiling Point and Adam in the feature film Gassed Up. In 2023, Hawkins graduated from London’s Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts.
It’s still going to be a while, it seems, until we know more about the new cadets’ characters — and their roles in the Starfleet Academy story — so stay tuned until Paramount+ has more to share.
Star Trek: Starfleet Academy is in preproduction now.
Greetings, Starfleet Academy hopefuls! We’ll be recapping and reviewing every episode of Star Trek: Prodigy Season 2 — two episodes at a time — here at TrekCore this summer, starting with the two-part season premiere today.
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“Into the Breach” does its duty to open the season admirably. The recap on what we missed since the Season 1 finale is short and sweet and satisfying, while the set-up of the new settings and season mystery is comprehensive and intriguing. A fabulous tone setting two-parter whose ending is somehow both self-contained and open-ended.
We start with an update on each of our Protostar crew who are attending Starfleet Academy prep school: Murf (Dee Bradley Baker)is tearing it up in security, and Rok-Tahk (Rylee Alazraqui) is flourishing in her science track, causally solving the tribble problem to everyone’s astonishment.
Ok, class, raise your hand if you thought the first Star Trek reference of the season would be to Lieutenant Edward Larkin from “The Trouble with Edward”? I certainly did not see that coming — he was an idiot! This first reference, though, is a perfect example of the depths this season plunges into Trek lore. Its just delightful to catch these deep cut references scattered like so many tachyon particles throughout the season.
The breadth of Trek connections is there, too, as this season I counted at least one reference to the Original Series, The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, Enterprise, the TOS movies, the TNG movies, the Kelvin Timeline movies, Discovery, Short Treks, Picard, and Lower Decks. Incredible!
Rok-Takh teaches her fellow students about tribbles. (CBS Studios / Netflix)
They also do a great job of referencing themselves with great little touches. Our catch-up for Zero (Angus Imrie) includes the wistful line “Ah, the joys of being corporeal…” as they witness two students interested in each other touch hands for the first time. This mimics their sincere “Ah, the joys of being non-corporeal” line from last season. Considering the Season 1 line was about not having to smell a fart, this is a nice subtle way to show how much our cadets have grown up a little.
Jankom Pog (Jason Mantzoukas) even tries to get into the spirit of growing up as he is making more of an effect in manners and hygiene. Dal (Brett Grey), though? Not so much, as we see him skipping class even before he gets his evite from Janeway. At one point he calls it a “study snooze fest”. This prompted my daughter to say “I think school is boring too, but if that was my school I wouldn’t think that!” So Prodigy does an excellent job of making the academy prep school a dreamy place to be.
The cadets gather at the bus stop to their study abroad and watch a shuttle touch down labeled with “NCC-74656-A” — the first thrilling indication of where they are headed. The direction and music do a great job of misdirection that Janeway herself might be here. And the headless shot of a blue uniform with a mobile emitter on the arm gives the seasoned Trek fans watching a split second advantage in knowing who it really is. This scene is a great introduction to the hero of the delta quadrant himself: the EMH.
He is the same as ever, proud and long-winded and not to be trifled with. He’s a doctor, not a butler, and a personal friend of the Admiral. It’s great to hear Robert Picardo play this role again and it’s a smart addition to the cast to have him be the one “in charge” of our cadets. And the debrief he gives them on the shuttle was a great refresher of relevant portions of the previous season.
The Lamarr-class USS Voyager (NCC-74656-A). (CBS Studios / Netflix)
The introduction to our new ship, the gorgeous Lamarr-class science vessel Voyager-A is a highlight of this episode. We get the classic Trek trope of coming up to the ship in space doc with admiration and astonishment on everyone’s faces and some great pans of the ship, The beautiful Voyager theme-inspired music adds to the wonder of it all.
We get the stats and a great tour of the ship. The ship tour last season in “Starstruck” was mostly directed at the kids watching, giving them a crash course on different locations in a starship. This ship tour felt like it was more for fans of the previous Voyager ship and they spent a good amount of time showing off the upgrades.
The ship itself feels a little sterile, but that is in keeping with the modern aesthetic of the show. The bridge in particular feels a little generic, but what did I expect? Carpeting? Janeway’s captain chair is great. It looks admiral-worthy and comfortable. Engineering is a highlight as the consoles and catwalks do a great job of evoking the original Voyager’s engineering set, which is one of the best engineering sets in all of Trek.
The animated warp core itself looks magical. “It’s the delta radiation!” that makes a warp core look so beautiful up close, Zero explains later. Taking the time to throw that line in made me grin. This show is such a celebration of all things Trek.
The Doctor guides the crew to their study assignments. (CBS Studios / Netflix)
Another highlight of the tour is the promise of Cetacean Ops, which according to the doctor “houses our finest navigators.” A long standing area of a starship that we’ve never gotten to see until the also animated Lower Decks finally gave us a tour of the Cerritos version of Cetacean Ops in “First First Contact.” I enjoyed the glimpses we got in “Into the Breach” and I can not wait to fully see Prodigy’s take on this legendary department.
When the EMH tells Rok that “we thought Cetacean Ops would be the place for you,” I turned to my marine biology-loving daughter and told her that I thought Cetacean Ops would be the place for her, too. And since she didn’t know what that meant, we took the time to look up the word ‘cetacean’. The look of astonishment on her face as she said “There are whales on this ship?!” made me so excited for her. Aye, darling, there be whales here!
Next Dal has a catch up call with Gwyn (Ella Purnell) who is still on her way to Solum. They use this time to try to explain how Gwyn stopping the Solum civil war won’t change history. I’m glad they took the time to mention that and try to frame it in a way that makes sense. I’m not sure I buy it, but what do I know? I’ve never read Temporal Mechanics 101 either. Further, I don’t really care. Time travel is a device that is never going to “hold up” to logical scrutiny. But it’s fun — and thought provoking!
Prodigy Season 2 does an amazing job of maintaining an internal consistency in it’s particular set of “rules” of time travel. And throughout the season they make the gears in my kids’ brains (and my own) turn in the best way.
The Voyager-A encounters multiple spatial anomalies. (CBS Studios / Netflix)
After all that setting the stage, it’s finally time for the type of cockamamie plans that we know and love from Prodigy. The crew discovers a mysterious, invisible ship — “cloaked is the proper term”, Zero informs Dal and my kids — hidden in an unmarked shuttle bay. The Infinity, which is an experimental Federation support courier with a temporal shield emitter. (I genuinely love that Jankom could tell all that by just looking at it).
A great use of Murf’s abilities here as he grabs everyone and hangs from the ceiling so they won’t get caught by Admiral Janeway (Kate Mulgrew) and her crew. It’s so comforting to hear the conversation between Janeway, Noum, Tysess, and the Doctor, as the same Star Trek loyalty and bravery present in the first Voyager crew and with our Protostar crew is on full display here as we learn of their plan to enter the wormhole.
As Part II begins, we catch up with Gwyn as she finally arrives on Solum. Solum feels like a truly fleshed out civilization here, with gorgeous architecture and fashion and cultural touchstones such as the heirlooms and dreadnoughts. The “Elders of Solum,” their guards, and their chamber itself feel very otherworldly and very much of this place. Gwyn’s dad calls his bot “The Lorekeeper”, which also feels particularly of the Vau N’Akat.
Gwyn tries to warn Solum’s leaders about Asencia’s intentions. (CBS Studios / Netflix)
The reveal of Asencia (Jameela Jamil) is delicious. Of course she traveled to Solum to provide her own isolationist spin to try to influence the Vau N’Akat. She is a political villain with the cunning of Kai Winn and the bombast of Gul Dukat. Gwyn’s frustrated “She’s trying to trick you!” also shows her a relevant and timely villain and I feel that same sense of frustration in the best way every time she’s on screen.
Jameela Jamil’s performance is a highlight of the season as she chews up her lines and spits them out with genuine super-villain venom and a little bit of camp, while still maintaining the sense of her motivation being her warped idea of “protecting” Solum rather than crossing over into just “being evil.” Absolutely delightful.
Next we are treated to a classic observation lounge briefing as Janeway dials the crew into her plan. The log Chakotay (Robert Beltran) left was a beautiful reminder of his love for Janeway, but also gave our crew personal stakes in his rescue. It’s because of his sacrifice that they all embarked on this life changing adventure in the first place. Both these pieces of information make Chakotay’s rescue relevant to kids watching who haven’t known him for seven seasons of Voyager. He saved their beloved Protostar crew; now they have to save him.
Gwyn meets a younger, kinder version of her father on Solum. (CBS Studios / Netflix)
Of course they can’t keep it a secret and the formidable Maj’el (Michaela Dietz) realizes something is up — and sends Nova Squad to the restricted hanger. The turbolift vs. Jeffries tube race is fun and the ensuing chaos in the Infinity is a plausible enough way to get the kids on their voyage into the wormhole. Zero strapping everyone in for the trip puts a nice bow on this introductory two-parter as we all strap in for whatever lies ahead this season.
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Stay tuned for our next review — covering “Who Saves the Saviors” and “Temporal Mechanics 101” — coming next week. We’ll also be keeping up with all the Star Trek franchise references with the return of our Canon Connections series along the way, because this season had enough to fill two wormholes!
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.
We’re just three weeks away from the start of this year’s massive San Diego Comic Con event — and following Factory Entertainment’s news last weekend, today we’ve got more details about new exclusive Star Trek merch launching later this month!
The first new release is a take on Captain Archer’s duty uniform from Star Trek: Enterprise, designed after the zipper-filled jumpsuit seen in the prequel series, featuring elastic around the cuffs and waist, and lined with schematics of the NX-01 starship.
(Hero Within)
NX-01 Flight Jacket
Celebrate the first warp 5 starship with the NX-01 Flight Jacket. Designed after the crew jumpsuits, this flight jacket features multiple pockets, two shoulder patches and an interior schematics of the NX-01.
Available to preorder at Hero Within SDCC booth #1943. Preorder price: $99 USD.
The second new jacket is modeled after Wesley Crusher’s acting ensign uniform from Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 1, adorned with the signature tri-color stripe and lined with an episodic image from “Where No One Has Gone Before.”
(Hero Within)
The Wesley Jacket
Represent your favorite acting Ensign and space genius with our Wesley Jacket. Inspired by Wesley Crusher’s season 1 uniform, The Wesley features a brush cotton shell, interior pockets and an inside print from “Where No One Has Gone Before” (When Wesley first meets the Traveler).
Available to preorder at Hero Within SDCC booth #1943. Preorder price: $99 USD.
Fans not attending San Diego Comic Con are likely to get their chance to see these jackets in person at Creation Entertainment’s upcoming Star Trek convention in Las Vegas, running August 1-5.
More information about these jackets will be available soon at HeroWithinStore.com.
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Hallmark is expanding their 2024 Star Trek holiday ornament lineup — which we first told you about back in April — with one more starship this summer: a special convention-exclusive variant of their upcoming USS Enterprise-B starship.
Debuting at Hallmark’s SDCC booth (#3348) on July 25, this “Nexus Damage” Enterprise-B variant ornament celebrates the 30th anniversary of Star Trek: Generations, and is limited to only 3200pc of total production.
The ‘Nexus Damage’ variant Enterprise-B holiday ornament. (Hallmark)
Retailing for $35, this will be only available in person at San Diego Comic Con and will not be available through Hallmark’s online store (with small quantities reserved for Hallmark Keepsake Ornament Club members). There will be an allotment planned for each day of the convention… so if you want it, get to Hallmark’s booth ASAP when you get to the convention.
(East Coast fans, you’ll also have an opportunity to get this ornament on site at New York Comic Con in October.)
Keep checking back to TrekCore for all the latest in Star Trek collectibles news!
