Star Trek: Prodigy returns this Thursday to close out its 20-episode first season, and here’s a first look at images from “Supernova, Part 2” for your review!
After the Living Construct aboard the Protostar began to turn Starfleet’s mighty armada against itself — with more Federation ships joining the self-destructive fight each passing minute — Dal and the gang must find a way to shut down the Vau N’Kat weapon before it’s too late.
Here are six images from this week’s season finale:
SUPERNOVA, PART 2 — As the Federation hangs in the balance, the crew must make the ultimate sacrifice to save Starfleet’s future.
Written by Kevin & Dan Hageman. Directed by Ben Hibon.
Star Trek: Prodigy Season 1 concludes with “Supernova, Part 2” on Thursday, December 29 on Paramount+ in the United States, and on December 30 in Latin America, Australia, Italy and the U.K. and other territories.
Star Trek: Prodigy begins its two-part season finale with “Supernova, Part 1,” a thrilling installment that has our heroes seeming to exhausting every last option to save themselves — and Starfleet — from annihilation from the Vau N’Akat weapon. Prodigy is almost indistinguishable from live action Trek here, as this episode has all the hallmarks of a great year-ending climax.
The action, the villain, the writing, the direction, and the starships(!) all transcend what you would expect from an all-ages animated program. It’s an incredibly successful cliffhanger, leaving you wondering where the Prodigy story can possibly go from here.
No time to ease into things, we start the episode with Admiral Janeway in the Dauntless brig while the Protostar is surrounded by Federation ships. Admiral Jellico is back on the Dauntless viewscreen, he’s furious about the Protostar being in Federation space. It’s almost a comforting presence to have someone connected to the greater Trek universe here — even someone I love to hate, like Jellico.
It grounds the episode in the reality that they are close to “our” part of the universe, and really ups the danger quotient. It’s also great that he ends up being wrong, as he approves Asencia’s plan to disrupt the Protostar’s shields and board the ship.
Admiral Jellico. (Paramount+)
The crew’s practicing in the holodeck has paid off as they perform like any good Starfleet crew — doing things like rerouting power to the shields and taking evasive maneuvers. Dal and Zero take advantage of the Protostar’s small size and weave around the bigger ships, avoiding fire and correcting course as necessary. It’s great to be at this point with these characters, and it feels like they really earned it over these last 18 episodes.
More than ever they seem like true Starfeet material — and it doesn’t seem so far fetched when Dal talks about them “laughing about it one day at Starfleet Academy.” Knowing about the Augment ban, however, his words are an effective punch to the gut as Rok wants to tell Dal that future isn’t possible, when Gwyn stops her: it’s not the right moment.
We don’t have to wait long for that shoe to drop, however. When their shields drop and Gwyn finds herself alone with Dal in the armory, the takes that moment to tell him about the Augment ban. Unfortunately, what could have just remained a sweet moment of compassion is ruined by having Dal misconstrue the situation and kiss Gwyn — uninvited — full on the lips.
Gwyn is surprised, and asks him what he’s doing; Dal immediately apologizes, but its still a real disappointment. Dal thought they were “having a moment,” which they were… just not a physical one.
Dal immediately regrets his impulsiveness. (Paramount+)
Gwyn wanting to break the news to him herself alone is intimate and loving, and I can see why it might have stirred Dal’s feelings, but that is why you ask first. With Gwyn and Dal, Prodigy had a real opportunity to model positive consent in their first kiss.
I had been looking forward to a cute, awkward moment between the two when it finally happened. Instead, I had to use it as a teachable moment for my kids and remind them that you never kiss anyone without their permission. (That’s not something I thought would come up watching this, of all shows.)
On a positive note, we get a completely unexpected, touching moment while Janeway is in the brig. The Dauntless ensign guarding her simply lets her out, and her explanation why is a wonderful deep-cut reveal. The ensign is Brenari, and as a child was one of the refugees Janeway smuggled out of Devore space in “Counterpoint” — one of Janeway’s finest moments. The “Counterpoint” reference is welcome, yet surprising, and I was equal parts delighted at a favorite episode being referenced this way and taken aback by the seemingly randomness of it — which is completely the point.
One of Prodigy’s themes is that if you put good out into the world, than good might find you back when you most need it. We saw it last week when Janeway’s kindness inspired even The Diviner to help her and we see this theme again in a big way at the end of this episode. This seemingly random encounter actually ties the theme together nicely.
Janeway gets help from an unexpected source. (Paramount+)
Meanwhile, the Vindicator has given up her Asencia persona, revealing herself in the Dauntless transporter room. She’s all business as she incapacitates two officers and gives an evil little grin as Drednok takes out the third. Jameela Jamil’s delicious performance lends an air of sinister finesse to the Vindicator, calling to mind performances of other classic Trek villains — Khan and Nero in particular— as larger than life characters with pure revenge on their minds.
The scenes on the Protostar really showcase what a fantastic villain the Vindicator is. Singularly focused on her mission, she locks the Diviner in with the Living Construct, and tries to take out Gwyn — her only remaining obstacle. The Vindicator is a perfect counterpart to Gwyn, and their fight is as fascinating visually as it is psychologically. Both fight with a version of Gwyn’s fretwork, with Gwyn’s youth and the Vindicator’s experience giving each one Vau N’Akat an advantage.
Once again, Prodigy takes full advantage of the idea of this unique item, as we see it morph into different shapes throughout the fight. At one point, Gwyn manages to land a blow, giving the Vindicator a long scar across one eye — adding a wonderfully gritty detail to the design of the character, hopefully to be seen again in a future season.
The Diviner faces a choice. (Paramount+)
Eventually the Vindicator overpowers Gwyn, and uses her as a hostage to control the Diviner. He uses his mind to send the fretwork screaming towards the Vindicator’s face, and she nimbly catches it, sending it careening straight into his abdomen.
It’s the last minute act of a father trying to protect his daughter, and if I didn’t witness him abandon her to die on murder planet back in “Terror Firma,” I might even find it heartwarming. As it is, his death is not a mournful one for me, but one that might give Gwyn some comfort in her grief at least. Him dissipating into a fizz of blue energy was really unexpected, and leaves me wondering if he somehow imbued Gwyn with some of his power as it touched her.
Outside the bridge, Drednok is keeping the other members of the Protostar crew occupied in another exciting fight sequence. Drednok “bugs out” again with extra limbs like we saw back in “Lost and Found” — as far as killer robots go, it’s one really cool and threatening design. He incapacitates Jankom and Rok with a gravity mine, and Zero with some kind of energy disruptor. It’s very realistic that the crew is no match for the killer bot, but very Starfleet that they try anyway.
Murf, our cute little security officer comes closest, distracting Drednok from choking Dal with some crazy moves of his own before Drednok freezes him to the wall and cuffs Dal to the wall by his neck. They couldn’t have done a better job of making it seem hopeless for our crew — I almost wondered if time travel was going to be involved to walk it back.
But luckily, the Brikar has brains, and sets into motion a Rube Goldberg-esque sequence where Rok uses Jankom’s multi-mitt torch to melt the frosty Murf, Murf frees Zero from the energy disrupter, Zero frees Dal, and Dal knocks away the gravity mine with his restraint. It’s such a lovely moment of teamwork and togetherness for our crew.
Drednok scores a temporary win. (Paramount+)
They make it to the bridge… but not before the Vindicator deploys the Living Construct weapon against the Federation fleet, grinning manically as her plan comes to fruition. Time for one more spectacular villain moment: the crew sets her up with a classic “You’ll pay for this,” and her delivery of “Maybe. But not today!” is an all-time line reading. Drednok ups his transformer cred by turning into an escape pod.
The Vindicator doesn’t even turn around — she just nonchalantly steps back into it, grins again, and blasts straight out of the top of the Protostar, breaching the hull. What an exit. What a villain. (More, more, more of her, please!)
How this episode is only 20+ minutes long is baffling, because there’s somehow still time for one last moment of excitement and emotion as the universal translators break as part of the deployment of the Living Construct. It’s a lovely callback to the beginning of “Lost and Found” when no one on Tars Lamora could understand each other.
Dal and Janeway work together — it’s great to see — to come up with a plan of asking ships with non-Federation signatures to help. It’s Gwyn’s time to shine, as she can speak the languages. She gives an impassioned plea for assistance to a nearby Klingon captain.
Gwyn pleads for help. (Paramount+)
My cold, cynical Grinch heart does not believe this would have worked, but it doesn’t matter – my kids watching people help each other is what matters. The whole over-arching theme of why Starfleet is important matters.
Doing your best to help people when you can, and them helping you when they can, is something I want to believe in and want my kids to believe in. Seeing all those different ships helping was pretty powerful imagery of that, especially when the Klingon Bird of Prey steps between the Dauntless and a phaser blast at the last second which took my breath away. A really heartfelt moment.
The relief and joy is short-lived, however, as more Starfleet ships come too, in response to the automatic distress signals being sent out by the infected ships. They will keep coming, until the entirety of Starfleet will eventually be infected. The word ‘annihilation’ is used, and it’s hard to see how Dal and the gang will get out of this one — and how Starfleet and the Federation will avoid total destruction.
Now that’s how you set up a season finale!
Not great. (Paramount+)
OBSERVATION LOUNGE
When Janeway is in the brig, she uses the phrase “Blink of an Eye,”which happens to be the title of one of the best episodes of Star Trek: Voyager.
“The Slippery Dipsy-Doodle” may not work so well as the name for a starship flight maneuver, but it would be a great name for a Prodigy-themed beverage or ice cream sundae!
The Protostar armory is stocked with multiple sizes of phaser rifles, along with the hand phasers introduced earlier this season.
The massive transporter room aboard the Dauntless is houses a huge control station that seems like it would need two officers to properly manage.
The transporter room aboard the USS Dauntless. (Paramount+)
Both the Vau Nu’kat fretwork and Drednok technologies get great moments in this episode, and it’s such a terrific detail that both transforming technologies originate on the same planet.
Language buffs are fed well, as we hear snippets of Klingon, Tellarite, Brikar, and Andorian languages.
Klingon Captain Trij is played by Debra Wilson, the former MADtv star who lent her voice to marooned Starfleet captain Lisa Cusak in Deep Space Nine’s“The Sound of Her Voice.”
From top: the USS Centaur, the USS Thunderchild, and the USS Sovereign. (Paramount+)
A few starships duplicate the legible ship registries — there are at least two USS Sovereigns — likely due to animation production time constraints; digital models like the Sovereign design are missing the red impulse engine grilles in the back of its saucer section.
Several alien vessels come to Starfleet’s aid, including multiple Klingon Birds of Prey, civilian-controlled Vulcan Suurak-class ring ships, a Gorn trading vessel, an old Petarian bulk freighter, a D’Kora-class Ferengi marauder and a Tellarite freighter.
Of course we can’t ignore the appearance of the Defiant-class USS Defiant (NX-74205), the hero starship assigned to starbase Deep Space 9! Last seen in 1999’s “What You Leave Behind,” this is the first appearance of the starship Defiant in modern Trek, as the ship was not docked at DS9 when the Cerritos visited in “Hear All, Trust Nothing.”
(Star Trek: Prodigy is set in 2384, which means the second Defiant has remained in service for at least nine years — “What You Leave Behind” takes place in 2375.)
Still a tough little ship. (Paramount+)
“Supernova, Part 1” is emotional, exciting, and everything you could want from the start of a season finale. It also manages to drive home the very heart of the show: found family, belonging, and helping others, with enough good feelings to revel in for a week even though everyone is in danger still. That’s a problem for next week’s conclusion!
Star Trek: Prodigy will conclude its first season with “Supernova, Part 2” on Thursday, December 29 on Paramount+ in the United States, and on December 30 in Paramount+ international territories. Prodigy Season 2 is expected to air sometime in late 2023.
Tomorrow brings the penultimate episode of Star Trek: Prodigy‘s lengthy first season, and today we’ve got an exclusive first look at a clip from “Supernova, Part 1” — where the young crew of the USS Protostar has to evade Admiral Janeway’s Dauntless while surrounded by a mighty Federation armada.
Dal and the gang finally made it to Federation territory in last week’s “Mindwalk,”only to find the last thing they wanted — a fleet of Starfleet vessels unknowingly within range of the dangerous Living Construct weapon aboard the Protostar, ready and waiting to infect the starships.
First contact with Starfleet’s armada in “Mindwalk.” (Paramount+)
With Akira,Sovereign, Defiant, and Centaur-class ships circling them, the Protostar must outrun the Dauntless and the other vessels’ weapons — while Gwyn and Rok-Tahk must keep Dal from finding out that genetically-modified Augments like himself can’t join Starfleet service.
Check out this exclusive clip from “Supernova, Part 1” below:
In addition to this new clip, which for the first time illustrates the size disparity between the Protostar and those other well-known Starfleet designs — including the USS Centaur (NCC-42043) itself — we have several new images from this week’s episode to share.
STAR TREK: PRODIGY — 'Supernova, Part 1'
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SUPERNOVA, PART 1 — Surrounded by the Federation armada, the crew attempts to stop their ship from destroying all of Starfleet.
Written by Erin McNamara. Directed by Andrew L. Schmidt.
Star Trek: Prodigy will return with “Supernova, Part 1” on Thursday, December 22 on Paramount+ in the United States, and on December 23 in Paramount+ international territories.
Nine months after its 13-episode run concluded, Star Trek: Discovery Season 4 arrives on Blu-ray with a collection of new behind-the-scenes special features, illustrating the difficult task of bringing the show back into production during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Available now on DVD, on Blu-ray, and in special Blu-ray Steelbook packaging — as with the previous three years — Season 4 is a four-disc collection which includes 105 minutes of supplemental features spread across four documentaries, a gag reel, and a collection of deleted scenes, and an audio commentary track on “Coming Home,” the season finale.
President Rillak (Chelah Horsdal) and Captain Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green). (CBS Home Entertainment)
Season 4 follows Captain Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) and the USS Discovery crew — including first officer Saru (Doug Jones), Dr. Hugh Culber (Wilson Cruz), Commander Paul Stamets (Anthony Rapp), newly-promoted Lieutenant Sylvia Tilly (Mary Wiseman), and Ensign Adira Tal (Blu del Barrio) — as they race to stop a dangerous anomaly which destroyed the homeworld of Cleveland “Book” Booker (David Ajala) and threatens the entire galaxy.
The season also includes recurring characters like Federation President Laira Rillak (Chelah Horsdal), Fleet Admiral Charles Vance (Oded Fehr), Grey Tal (Ian Alexander), renegade scientist Ruon Tarka (Shawn Doyle), the still-mysterious Dr. Kovich (David Cronenberg), United Earth’s General Ndoye (Phumzile Sitole), and Ni’Var leader President T’Rina (Tara Rosling).
Our edition of choice is of course the lovely Steelbook edition, which features striking art of Captain Burnham on the glossy exterior, and a moment from Saru’s return to Starfleet duty on the interior. The standard Blu-ray edition contains the same discs of course, but for our tastes the four years of Steelbooks look much better on our shelf.
The standard Blu-ray edition this season does not include a slipcover on the US release, which we know is a disappointment to some Blu-ray collectors who value such things; we have confirmed the UK release includes a slipcover, however, so this seems to be a regional variation.
I am a person who loves extra features, and if streaming services had an add-on tier that included audio commentaries I would gladly pay a few extra bucks a month for it. So I’m pleased that Paramount continues to produce additional content for its physical media releases — and frankly, I’m please that Paramount is still releasing physical media at all!
A Trill zhian’tara ritual cut from “Choose to Live.” (CBS Home Entertainment)
The four Deleted Scenes (4:05) are interesting, but it’s also pretty apparent that their episodes wouldn’t (and don’t) suffer from their omission. A cut moment from “Choose to Live” does offer some interesting insight into how the actors ‘use’ the computer’s holo-interface while shooting a scene — they literally just poke and twist and swipe at empty air, which makes the final seamless effect all the more impressive.
There is also a nice, 90-second sequence from “Choose to Live” which would have been nice to include in the original episode — showing the full Trill zhian’tara ceremony — but it would have slowed down the pace of the adventurous story (and probably raised too many questions about how a hologram could perform a mental transference). It’s good to include here for completists, though.
Another short cut from “The Examples” features Stamets and Saru discussing the failed DMA-replication experiment, as the scientist apologies for not listening to Saru’s order to shut things down. Finally, a very quick insert shot of Detmer having her eye implant calibrated in sickbay — the loss of this scene isn’t materially significant, but given how little we know about or even acknowledge her cybernetics after four whole seasons, this cut moment from “Rosetta” would have been nice to keep just for that.
Doug Jones goofs off on the ‘Discovery’ set. (CBS Home Entertainment)The Season 4 Gag Reel (2:46) is surprisingly short, and is unfortunately also rather sterile. Gag reels are a fun chance to see the cast and crew goofing around, blowing a line, and keeping each other entertained between takes — and while this one is all that, it never really feels candid to me. People flub their lines, everyone smiles and laughs politely, and Doug Jones says things like “Good gosh.” It’s all very… restrained.
Wilson Cruz, Jones, and Anthony Rapp in masks between scenes. (CBS Home Entertainment)
However, this restraint is almost certainly a result of the intensive COVID prevention protocols in place on set which are explored in detail in The Toll It Took (11:50). This feature, in which the cast and crew discuss the physical, mental, and emotional tolls of filming a show in the middle of a global pandemic is undoubtedly important, and a presentation that will likely become even more significant as time goes on.
It’s a great time capsule of a peculiar — but very significant — element of film and television production in the early 2020s. That said, the folks who are interviewed are so uniformly somber about the whole experience that by the end I found myself feeling bad about being a viewer of the final product of their efforts. It was almost as if the interviewees were saying, “Thank you for watching me sing and dance, and here are all the ways performing for your entertainment hurt me.” Yikes.
Martin-Green and guest star Stacey Abrams on the set of “Coming Home.” (CBS Home Entertainment)
The Voyage of Season 4 (52:24), the longest of the features, is the exploration of Discovery’s latest season and what it all meant to the characters, producers, and performers — including “President of Earth” guest star Stacy Abrams. There are some interesting moments (Ian Alexander wears some incredible earrings) and the discussion of T’Rina and Saru’s budding courtship is nice.
Tara Rosling and Doug Jones are as pleased about their characters quietly and respectfully getting together as I am. Overall though, not much about this feature will come as a revelation to anyone who watched the season and witnessed the stories, themes, and character growth for themselves.
Martin-Green gives a tour of Burnham’s new quarters. (CBS Home Entertainment)
Being Michael Burnham: The Captain’s Log (14:21) is a contemplative look at the ways Sonequa Martin-Green’s personal and emotional journey to where she is today has mirrored Burnham’s journey to the captain’s chair, and is sprinkled throughout with candid recordings Martin-Green made during the season’s filming.
Seeing and understanding the actor’s experiences and perspectives on race, emotional vulnerability, motherhood and responsibility, and grief — including discussions around having a new baby just ahead of Season 4 production, and the loss of both her parents in 2020 — adds extra dimension to her already powerful performance as Burnham.
The casts reviews the script on the AR wall production set. (CBS Home Entertainment)
Creating Space (19:36) is a very thorough look at how the AR wall functions — a new addition to Discovery production for Season 4 — and how both its limitations and the opportunities it creates touch nearly all aspects of production. The production crew is rightfully proud of their big new toy, and it’s nice that they’ve been given the opportunity to show it off.
Beyond the logistical and technical discussions about how exactly the wrap-around projection and camera tracking system (which the crew appropriately calls ‘the holodeck’) is used, we learn about the impact that minimizing traditional green-screen VFX shots has on everything from the number of takes that are needed to film a single scene, to opening up the writing process to include more exotic location shots that can now be filmed much more affordably.
‘Discovery’ executive producer/showrunner Michelle Paradise. (CBS Home Entertainment)
Finally, the “Coming Home” Audio Commentary is a lively discussion between executive producer/showrunner Michelle Paradise, executive producer/director Olatunde Osunsanmi, and actors Sonequa Martin-Green and David Ajala. As I mentioned, I am an enjoyer of audio commentaries and have watched/listened to a lot of them, and I know that sometimes commentaries can be sparse in relevant detail — not so here, though!
All four of the participants seem thoroughly interested in being there, and there’s very little downtime in the discussion. While “Coming Home” isn’t going to earn a place in the Star Trek commentary hall of fame (nothing will top the infamously fun and funny Frakes/Sirtis Star Trek: Insurrection track), this one is engaging and certainly worth a listen.
Doug Jones wears both Saru prosthetics and a complicated spacesuit in “Rosetta.” (CBS Home Entertainment)
With the still-challenging efforts to view Star Trek: Discovery in many regions since the show departed Netflix in late 2021, bringing home Season 4 on Blu-ray may be the easiest way to catch up on the show for those who can’t yet access Paramount+.
The discs are region-free and can be viewed on Blu-ray players around the world without issue, so if you’ve been missing out, any version of the retail release will work for you if imported to your country.
Even if you’re a loyal Paramount+ subscriber, the additional bonus content is enough of a reason to add Star Trek: Discovery Season 4 to your home collection, especially for the focus on COVID production and the detailed look into AR wall technology — and of course, in these tumultuous days of streaming uncertainty, knowing you permanently own the season is always nice, too.
Burnham and Book (David Ajala) share a final moment before he departs Discovery. (CBS Home Entertainment)
Star Trek: Discovery’s fifth season will return sometime in 2023 on Paramount+ in the United States and several international territories, and on CTV Sci Fi Channel and Crave in Canada.
This week’s Star Trek: Prodigy outing finally bridged the gap between Dal’s Prototar crew and Admiral Janeway’s pursuing USS Dauntless — but not in the way anyone expected, as the two starship commanders swapped bodies in a hilarious and heartwarming telepathic mixup.
We spoke to the writers of the latest Prodigy episode — sister writing partners Julie and Shawna Benson — about their most recent tale, and what it took to bring the “Mindwalk” story to life.
TREKCORE: How challenging was all that to get your heads around all the storypoints in play as “Mindwalk” began — the Dauntless vs. the Protostar, Asencia and the Diviner, and Janeway’s incapacitation?
JULIE BENSON: It’s a big episode, isn’t it? We get to turn over a lot of cards in this episode, so that was fun.
SHAWNA BENSON: We wanted to have that episode where you saw the backstory of these characters, and you get to this place where your like, “Oh, my gosh. What’s going to happen to Admiral Janeway?” — and then we take you to what’s happening on the Protostar during those events in “Ghost in the Machine” — and now those events have caught up to the present. So, for us it was figuring out how to get it all to meet at the same place so that we could then do this episode and tell this story.
TREKCORE: Where the did the inspiration for the body swap come from? It’s something seen quite rarely in Star Trek.
JULIE: We are just big fans of body swap movies; the Freaky Friday thing is such a trope. In the writers room, we came up with a list of some Star Trek tropes — to see what we could ground certain stories around — and this was on the board. When we realized we had no way for the Protostar crew to communicate with Janeway — and the story got to a point where we absolutely had to have the Admiral learn about the weapon — this was sort of the way to do it.
SHAWNA: Even though it wasn’t a specific Trek trope, it definitely fell into a sci-fi trope. Julie and I were big fans of Quantum Leap back in the day, so we knew there had to be a way to just have this be kind of fun, too. You know — kids are our primary audience, but we want to make sure that everyone remembers that although there is some heavy, serious stuff happening, there is lightness to this show, just like any other Star Trek series, honestly.
It also became one of those things that definitely made even more sense after we explored Dal’s backstory in “Masquerade.”Once we sort of knew what Dal was, we suddenly had an open where somebody could say, “Wait a minute — I think I know how we can do this.”
TREKCORE: And you tapped in the Organians for that.
SHAWNA: That was definitely a little bit of a deeper cut, because we also established that Dal has Vulcan DNA in his genetic makeup, so it wasn’t the only thing to leverage — but Organian really made sense so we said, “Let’s go with that.”
JULIE: And getting to see Kate and Brett — they nailed each other’s vocalizations and delivery so well.
SHAWNA: They were incredible. Amazing.
TREKCORE: Did you give the actors any performance notes, or did they work out all of that on their own?
JULIE: We were quarantined during the pandemic, so all of the recording happened without us — but I did ask Kevin Hageman when I saw him at the Emmys last weekend to confirm a suspicion we had: Brett recorded Dal-in-Janeway’s lines, and Kate apparently recorded Janeway-in-Dal’s lines, so the two were able to hear how the other would deliver the dialogue. That gave them something to work from, which I think is incredibly insightful.
Even if they hadn’t, I think they would have nailed those characters having lived with them this long — but oh my gosh, we were blown away by the final result.
SHAWNA: There’s like four different versions of Janeway that Kate has to play in this episode: Holo-Janeway, Admiral Janeway, Dal-in-Janeway being himself, and Dal trying to BE Admiral Janeway in front of the Dauntless crew — so she really gets to stretch.
We were a little worried. We weren’t sure how she was going to feel about it, but we talked to her at last year’s Star Trek Day event and she seemed so happy with how it all turned out — she got to let her hair down a little bit.
JULIE: I think she got to have a lot of fun.
TREKCORE: How did you put together that lovely discussion between Admiral Janeway and the Janeway hologram? At one point, I think there’s even a moment where you can see three Janeways on screen at the same time…
JULIE: We really wanted it to be a heartfelt scene, where we had to immediately get it across that holo-Janeway would recognize that Dal is telling the truth — and that the real Admiral is inside of him. We just did a lot of research and tried to go back into our own memory banks — since we’d already mentioned her dog Molly in a previous episode, we thought we’d have her talk about her sister and talk about painting, and getting that across really quick. We wrote it as the camera transitions so we finally see them as their true selves, but the animators did it better than we could have ever written.
SHAWNA: There are definitely a lot of great visual interpretations the animators did with that. The way that we had talked about it, the two Janeways would be watching the record of what happened to Chakotay and his crew.
Once Admiral Janeway was on board, we’d have her use admiral command codes which would supersede anything the Vau N’Akat had done. Because holo-Janeway has no access, even Dal’s command code wouldn’t work, so you get to the major override that allows them to see what the true record was.
So when we did that, we were just going to do it on a flat screen in our heads — as we forgot that there are holo-emitters all over this ship [laughs] — so the animators did this in a holographic way…
JULIE: …so you end up with all three of them on camera, which is insane.
TREKCORE: The moment where Dal says, “I’d do anything for Gwyn, too,” is really powerful moment. Can you talk about what the Diviner’s motivation was in letting Janeway free? What state of mind is he in in contrast with Asencia, and how did you make the decision to have him do that?
JULIE: Right now, he’s spent a lot of time aboard the Dauntless, and around Janeway’s crew — Starfleet is very influential and very inspiring. I think he has been seeing the good that they can do, but still has his mission. It’s still very important to him, but here I think it’s a bit of an “I owe you one” act.
SHAWNA: He’s seeing the world through a new filter. He doesn’t have his memory, so he’s not seeing it through the point of view he had — back when all he could see was the terrible aftereffect of Starfleet coming. So now he is sort of seeing the good all around him. And even though Asencia tells him everything, there is still this doubt: “I’ve seen this with my own eyes now, so I don’t know how to feel.”
He wants to do his mission, but he also wants to do right by Janeway. So that is where we came to in the story, with him empathizing, at least, with her plight and wanting to help her.
JULIE: It’s the best thing we learned from working on a show like The 100 before Prodigy, where everything on that series was a shade of grey. Every villain and every hero had to be in the grey, and you had to make the best worst decision out of all the bad decisions you have.
SHAWNA: But for the Diviner, his daughter is the key component. Gwyn is basically the only memory he has been able to retain, and her coming back to him in a way and remembering how important she is to him — but seeing it again through a new lens.
She is not important to him because she has a purpose, she’s important to him because she’s his daughter — and that’s the other switch we made: he stops calling her ‘progeny’ and he starts calling her ‘daughter.’
JULIE: I don’t know if anyone noticed that!
SHAWNA: It was a subtle clue to show that his relationship with her has really changed at this point.
This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.
Star Trek: Prodigy will return with “Supernova, Part 1” on Thursday, December 22 on Paramount+ in the United States, and on December 23 in Latin America, Australia, Italy, the UK, and additional territories.
Every once in a while an episode of television airs that — as you are watching it — you know it’s special, and is going to become a favorite. Such is it with this week’s brilliant “Mindwalk,” an exciting, hilarious, smart and poignant episode which both sets up the coming two-part Star Trek: Prodigy season finale, but also completely stands on its own.
It’s also just pure off-the-walls bonkers Trek in the absolute best way possible, and watching it with my children was one of the best experiences I’ve had watching television with them. An instant classic in my book!
After a two-episode respite, it’s time for things to really start moving before the two-part season finale. “Mindwalk” really comes to play, setting up for the finale in a clever way: aligning our Protostar crew and Admiral Janeway so they can focus on the shared goal of defeating the Living Construct. It’s also a vehicle to showcase the deep talents of both Brett Gray and the legendary Kate Mulgrew, and getting there is an absolute joy.
With the crew locked out of the controls, the Protostar leaves the Neutral Zone and comes face-to-face with the Dauntless. Right away the tone and the physicality of the humor in this episode is set, as Dr. Noum sees them out a window and does a double-take as Murf blows raspberries at him. This episode manages a perfect balance between irreverent, physical comedy and the seriousness of the situation — and walks that tightrope throughout, keeping you laughing and at the edge of your seat the whole time.
There’s also plenty of great classic Star Trek techno-goodness, as the Protostar jumps to warp… in order to not lose them, the Dauntless merges their warp bubbles together. A very cool piece of Trek physics, it’s great that those things are still included in the ‘kids’ show. Prodigy never forgets either audience, as Zero looks at a panel and there’s a really well-designed graphic that pictures exactly what it means to ‘merge warp bubbles,’ which is helpful for younger viewers to understand what happened.
It’s in the duel warp bubble, with the Dauntless firing phasers at the Protostar, when Zero suggests they take advantage of Dal’s newly discovered blended-with-aliens DNA to try and reach Admiral Janeway telepathically to try to explain the situation. It’s while trying to establish this connection that Dal and Janeway swap neural patterns.
A lot of strange things happen in Star Trek — sometimes the “scientific” explanation for them is better than others — but I have to say that I completely buy into the explanation here enough to roll with it (especially since the combination of the phaser burst occurring at the same time as the attempted mind-link then plays into the solution of swapping Dal and Janeway’s minds back at the end of the episode).
The whole conceit is well crafted and thought out, with a “connected by energy beams” explanation simple enough for young fans to understand. My kids were definitely rolling with it as well. The mind swap itself is such a fun concept, and it’s executed absolutely perfectly here.
The animation of the way the characters move and express themselves is fully immersed in the idea of the swap. Under Janeway’s control, Dal’s skull ganglia waves majestically as if in the wind, and his body stands taller, with the authority and posture of the Admiral’s mind within.
Under Dal’s control, Admiral Janeway’s body moves like the frantic teenage mind inside. The physical comedy in seeing “Janeway” run around manically, face panicked — even giving officers it’s-all-good finger guns — was just pulled off beautifully.
But the absolute MVPs of the episode are Brett Gray and Kate Mulgrew, whose performances as each other are so spot on that there’s not a single moment of confusion, not a single moment of doubt of who is who at any giving time — even for the youngest viewers. Brett Gray is almost regal as he takes charge on the bridge as Admiral Janeway. He says “How do we fix this? Ideas!” and you can almost hear it in Mulgrew’s voice, as if she was around the conference table on Voyager.
Kate Mulgrew plays the swap in a way we’ve never seen Janeway before, and it’s incredibly satisfying to watch her let loose here. She has the cadence of Brett Gray’s deliveries down pat, and hearing these words she would never say coming out of Janeway’s mouth is so much fun to watch. She never exaggerates, it never feels like a farce, it feels straight up like Dal. It’s truly an incredible performance.
My kids were in hysterics watching Mulgrew’s performance as a freaked out Dal in Janeway’s body. I wish I could bottle the sound of the absolute belly laughs that were coming from all of them. Mulgrew’s performance combined with the ridiculous — but very much in character for Dal — dialogue and the reactions of everyone else on the Dauntless all came together perfectly for maximum humor. “He’s not even trying!” one of my kids giggled, as they all laughed with sheer delight when Dal spit out the coffee. Truly some of the most fun I’ve ever had watching television with my kids. A really special sequence.
After the laughs, the episode doesn’t let up: it’s back to the Protostar, where we get a very heartfelt and cathartic scene between the real and holographic Janeways. They make the choice to show Admiral Janeway as herself, although she is still in Dal’s body, and it’s a choice I’m really glad they made as it made it easier to focus on the emotional impact of the scene instead of having to filter it through the visual of Dal. (My kids caught on fine to what was happening.)
Mulgrew has done a surperb job this season making Holo Janeway her own character, and seeing the two characters together really highlights her talent. Admiral Janeway mentoring Holo Janeway through her self-doubt, and being the one to purge the virus from her program — rebooting her systems and restoring her deleted memories — was a really sweet moment for both characters. Watching them both watch the footage together of Chakotay being boarded as Holo Janeway reclaims her lost memories was heartbreaking.
The Protostar crew realizes that they have to recreate the connection in order to swap the two officers back, and they come up with the plan for the two to space walk outside the ships and touch hands. Another hilarious moment as they play charades through the windows to let Dal in on the plan. On the way to execute the plan, however, due to “Janeway’s” odd behavior, Dr. Noum uses his medical authority to send her to sickbay.
The suspense is real, watching Janeway — Dal, really — be incapacitated when she has somewhere very important to go.
Unexpectedly, it’s the Diviner himself who ends up freeing Janeway from sickbay. He appears conflicted as he explains that he is still on board with his original mission, but is confused by the kindness he has received from Janeway and the rest of Starfleet since they rescued him from Tars Lamora.
He makes a deal to free her, if she promises to watch out for Gwyn if he fails his mission. I am not interested in a redemption arc for someone who’s been so profoundly evil as the Diviner, but it works pretty well plot-wise for him to be the one to free her — if for no other reason then to hear Dal/”Janeway” deliver the great line, “You know, I get it… I’d do anything for Gwyn, too.”
Pure action excitement follows our two heroes outside the ships and towards each other. This scene has it all. The danger feels real, and as Dal loses his phaser, it burns up at the edge of the warp bubble — a very effective visual. There’s a great use of Murf’s abilities here, as he stretches for Admiral Janeway, acting as a tether between the two characters. A perfect moment of suspense as they almost reach each other and then a tractor beam pulls the Admiral’s body back towards the Dauntless. We were all at the edge of our seats!
Finally Janeway fires her phaser at Dal to make the connection, and they switch back. An exciting moment with a satisfying payoff. With everyone back where they belong, Dal explains that he’s not sure Janeway knowing the truth will be very helpful, because his actions caused the Dauntless crew to question her sanity and — sure enough — we return to her body only to find the ally Admiral locked up in the brig.
Once again the Prodigy cliffhanger machine is operating on all cylinders, as the Protostar drops out of warp and into Federation space. They are surrounded by a fleet of Starfleet’s finest, with many familiar starship designs ready for battle. Now that’s how you set up for a season finale!
OBSERVATION LOUNGE
The mind-swap accident was blamed on Dal’s hybrid DNA, which apparently contains segments of Organian — we saw Organians inhabit the minds of Captain Archer’s Enterprise in “Observer Effect.”
We’ve seen ships merge warp bubbles before, like the memorable sequence from “Divergence” where Enterprise NX-01 and Columbia NX-02 must merge warp fields to rescue Captain Archer’s ship — that episode also featured a dangerous spacewalk, as Trip Tucker had to traverse the distance between the ships along a tether.
For the second time in 2022, Star Trek takes on the Freaky Friday-style body swap trope — following the Spock-T’Pring katra exchange in June’s “Spock Amok.” While we’ve seen plenty of other instances of bodies being inhabited by outside consciousnesses (or computer programs, like Voyager’s “Body and Soul”), the only true ‘body swap’ prior to 2022 was “Turnabout Intruder.”
We get to see a lot of the Dauntless interior this episode, with plenty of new panels and display screens for starship geeks to pour over.
This is not the first time Janeway has had a conversation with another version of herself — the discussion between Admiral Janeway and Hologram Janeway carried shades of the double-Janeway encounters from “Deadlock” and “Endgame.”
Admiral Janeway drops a surprising “Threshold” reference, sharing that she was once transformed into a salamander — the first time any member of Voyager’s crew has mentioned the incident since the events of that episode. (It’s time for these kids to learn that weird is part of the job!)
Though she’s mentioned her sister in passing — in episodes like “Sacred Ground” and “Coda” — this is the first time Kathryn Janeway’s sister Phoebe is named in dialogue. The name “Phoebe” was first introduced in Jeri Taylor’s 1996 Star Trek: Voyager novel Mosaic,and has been used in several post-Voyager tie-in novels since.
Janeway tells Rok-Tahk that she will make a great science officer one day is especially poignant, as Janeway was a science officer herself before taking her career to the command track.
“Mindwalk” is one of the best Star Trek episodes of the year. Prodigy is completely comfortable in its own skin here and does what it’s best at wholeheartedly and unapologetically. A great example of the magic this show has as being truly for everyone and just a super enjoyable and rewatchable episode of television. The finale has a lot to live up to!
Star Trek: Prodigy will return with “Supernova, Part 1” on Thursday, December 22 on Paramount+ in the United States, and on December 23 in Latin America, Australia, Italy, the UK, and additional territories.
The first season of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is headed to Blu-ray and DVD early next year, and we’ve got all the details on the just-announced release for you today!
Beaming down on Blu-ray, DVD, and a collectible Blu-ray Steelbook edition, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds – Season Onewill arrive on physical media in North America on March 21, 2023. (Fans in the UK will get the set March 20, and in Australia on March 29).
STRANGE NEW WORLDS Season 1 Blu-ray and Steelbook packaging. (CBS Home Entertainment)
In addition to all ten episodes from Strange New Worlds’ first year, the three-disc set will also include these bonus features, noted as running more than 90 minutes, along with a commentary track on the series premiere episode.
PIKE’S PEAK — Anson Mount takes fans through his journey as Captain Christopher Pike in the first season of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, providing a glimpse into his portrayal with intimate footage throughout the season.
WORLD BUILDING — Led by Production Designer Jonathan Lee and his team, the season’s production design utilized cutting-edge technology to create worlds prior to shoots, allowing the actors to fully immerse themselves into scenes rather than imagine the worlds around them in a green room. Through interviews with producers, cast and crew, fans will learn about the expertise involved in the development process and how the powerful technology was seamlessly integrated into the show.
EXPLORING NEW WORLDS — Fans will explore the storylines and characters that bring Star Trek: Strange New Worlds to life with writers, cast and crew.
COMMENTARY — Anson Mount and Akiva Goldsman: “Strange New Worlds”
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GAG REEL
The release will include English and French subtitles, and the Blu-ray editions will include English 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio and 5.1 Dolby Digital in French. The DVD edition will have 5.1 Dolby Digital audio in English and French.
It’s awards season for the Star Trek franchise, as this week the animated Star Trek: Prodigy brought home its first Emmy Award, Trek veteran LeVar Burton was honored by the Television Academy, and Star Trek: Lower Decks caught critics’ attention.
Still in the midst of its first season, Star Trek: Prodigy was nominated for two awards at the first annual Children’s & Family Emmy Awards: the prestigious Outstanding Animated Series award, for which it was bested by the Netflix series City of Ghosts, and Outstanding Individual Achievement in Production Design, for which series art director Alessandro Taini brought home the win.
I am the winner an EMMY AWARD for #StarTrekProdigy for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Production Design!!!!! 🏆
A Huge thanks, to Ben Hibon!! With out him we would not have achieved this. And to all the super talented artists who has been working for us!#Nickelodeon
The “Individual Achievement” category works differently than the primary award process, as Animation Magazine describes it:
Panels of expert animation peers evaluate the work of talented individual artists and animators, with submissions drawn from a single episode of a series or a special. Judges view and evaluate original artwork, video and other documentation from the disciplines of Background, Character Animation, Character Design, Color, Production Design and Storyboard. They consequently convene to discuss the detail and finer points of each submission in order to determine winners.
In addition, Star Trek: The Next Generation veteran LeVar Burton received a lifetime achievement Emmy Award at the ceremony — after a decades-long career of inspiring young readers through his television show Reading Rainbow, and the digital forums he’s moved into since the conclusion of the series.
An actor, director and educator, Burton has taught multiple generations of children about the joys of reading through his work on “Reading Rainbow”.
He has been honored with 13 Emmy Awards, three NAACP Awards, a Grammy Award for Spoken Word Album, a Peabody Award, the Fred Rogers Award, the Inamori Prize for Ethics in Entertainment, and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. The City of Sacramento dedicated LeVar Burton Park in his honor and President Bill Clinton appointed Burton as Commissioner of the National Commission on Libraries and Information Sciences.
Burton is the award-winning author of The Rhino Who Swallowed a Storm, A Kids Book About Imagination, and his Grammy Nominated book, Aftermath. His podcast, LeVar Burton Reads, has been downloaded more than 25 million times. Recently, he launched the LeVar Burton Book Club via the Fable app.
Finally, Star Trek: Lower Decks has also caught the eye of award voters, as the Critics Choice Association nominated the show as one of six Best Animated Series for 2022.
Along with Disney+’s Bluey, Fox’s Bob’s Burgers, Adult Swim’s Genndy Tartakovsky’s Primal, HBO Max’s Harley Quinn, and Prime Video’s Undone, the animated Trek series landed the nomination for its recently concluded third season.
The 28th Annual Critics Choice Awards will take place Sunday, January 15, 2023 in Los Angeles.
Keep checking back to TrekCore for more Star Trek franchise news!
In addition, stick around to hear Bill’s wish to find a Star Trek: Strange New Worlds soundtrack waiting for him under his Christmas tree this year, and Alex’s wish that we’ll hear soon about the future of Star Trek starship models after the Eaglemoss bankruptcy.
WeeklyTrek is available to subscribe and download each week on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, YouTube, 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!
If you want to get ready for the final season of Star Trek: Picard, the company has released a 16-piece dinnerware set based on Starfleet’s 25th century era — which will actually be seen in Picard Season 3, since the set was commissioned for use in production. In fact, Star Trek: Picard showrunner Terry Matalas shared an image of the in-use dishware on social media more than a year ago.
The 16-piece set is available now for $129.99, and includes four dinner plates, four side plates, four bowls, and four mugs.
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'Star Trek' USS Enterprise Dinnerware Set
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If you’d rather dine like it’s the 2260s, the company’s just-released 8-piece USS Enterprise-themed place settings may be for you, with plates designed to mimic the saucer section of Captain Kirk’s famous starship.
The 8-piece set is available now for $74.99, and includes four dinner plates and four bowls.
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'Star Trek: TNG' Steel Storage Containers
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Star Trek Unlimited has one more new kitchen product, a set of four Next Generation-themed food storage containers that have come right out of the Enterprise-D cargo bay. These four stainless steel, airtight containers have Starfleet deltas on their lids, and familiar Okudagram capsule-shaped labels — since we don’t yet have replicator technology figured out.
The 4-piece set is available now for $74.99, sized 790ml, 1000ml, 1300ml, and 1800ml each.
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'Star Trek' Collapsible Storage Bins
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Moving out of the kitchen, the company introduced a line of 13-inch collapsible storage bins late last month, compatible with a wide range of shelving units — and depending on your preference, you can line your cube shelves with either Original Series or Next Generation-themed designs.
Both sets of storage bins are available in 3-packs at a price of $49.99; the Original Series set is emblazoned with the USS Enterprise’s registry and primary division symbols, and the Next Generation set comes in bright division colors.
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'Star Trek' Horga'hn Lamp
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If you need to light up your own corner of the galaxy, Star Trek Unlimited has the latest from Risa: a new lamp based upon the famous horga’hn idol from the Alpha Quadrant’s most famous pleasure planet.
Finally, if you want to celebrate the many times the famed desert location has been visited across Star Trek history, the company’s new Vasquez Rocks garden sculpture is definitely a unique product for fans!
The real Vasquez Rocks is located in southern California, of course, and served as the setting for “Arena,” “Shore Leave,” “Who Watches the Watchers,” Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, “Maps and Legends,” and many more Star Trek tales — and this “small scale replica” (which measures 7″ by 5″) is a neat way to honor the franchise’s California roots.
