Star Trek: Prodigy returns this Thursday for the fourth episode of its fall run, and today we’ve got new images from “Crossroads” for your review!
The Protostar crew visits a remote trading outpost to find a way to get to the Federation without risking infecting Starfleet with the Diviner’s weapon — when Vice Admiral Janeway and her team from the Dauntless unexpectedly arrive on the scene.
Here are eighteen images from this week’s new episode, which also features the first return appearance of Thadiun Okona (Billy Campbell):
STAR TREK: PRODIGY — 'Crossroads'
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CROSSROADS — When the crew attempts to secure transport to the Federation, they unwittingly cross paths with the Vice Admiral who is hunting them.
Written by Lisa Schultz Boyd. Directed by Steve In Chang Ahn & Sung Shin.
Star Trek: Prodigy will return with “Crossroads” on Thursday, November 17 on Paramount+ in the United States, and on November 18 in Latin America, Australia, Italy and the U.K. The series will arrive in France, Germany, Switzerland, and Austria in December.
The fall run of Star Trek: Prodigy episodes keep delivering with “All the World’s a Stage,” an episode of television that is only possible in a show with as rich a history — and as un-muddled of an ethos — as Star Trek.
The episode is absolutely off the scales when it comes to being self-referential, but not just for it’s own sake, and it legitimately resides in a place that fits within the established boundaries of the Star Trek universe — continuing the legacy of episodes with prime directive violations in a really fun and clever way. Beyond that, it manages to be a story about overcoming self-doubt, and what it means to be a part of something bigger than yourself.
The episode starts off with a check-in on the Dauntless, as the Diviner has awoken from his coma-like state with what appears to be some memory loss. He tells Admiral Janeway that Chakotay was captured, and she changes the mission parameters from a rescue operation to a “manhunt”, which seems ominous.
It’s very classically Janeway, the way she acts when she’s focused on a mission and — if it wasn’t aimed at the darling Protostar crew — I would be very excited to watch her follow through here, like old times. The Dauntless scenes continue to very smoothly advance towards the inevitable meeting of the two ships and help the younger audience get to know Admiral Janeway, and understand her perspective of the Protostar crew.
Back on the Protostar, the crew has detected a distress signal and beam down to investigate. They meet the locals. What an incredible delight! When we meet James’T and Sool’U, it’s immediately obvious that they are fans of our classic heroes, even if we don’t know why — or how.
Their homemade uniforms, their incorrect finger placement in the Vulcan salute, their use of the term “Live logs and proper” — every detail is ‘off’ by just the perfect amount for maximum endearment towards these “Enderprizians.” And their entire vibe of excitement at the arrival of a real “Star-Flight” crew was infectious.
Then they “play the logs” by performing a play of how they ended up this way. This was a really effective method of delivering the story to us, but also just such fun. We learn that a mysterious person named “En Son” crash-landed on their planet and he told them stories of our beloved NCC-1701.
We also learn of the mysterious “Gallows” — a monster that poisons the land, which we’ll eventually learn is the Galileo shuttle — and that as En Son died, he promised that Star-Flight will come someday and rid them of the monster. So it seems that the Enderprizians were not ready for first contact and their society got polluted from the arrival of an ensign who taught them about the Enterprise. What a wonderful extension of a classic Star Trek idea!
While I was enjoying every minute of this TOS love fest, none of it was landing with my kids. They simply don’t have any of the reference points necessary not just to get the homage, but the entire concept of a society corrupted in this way. They were a little confused about what was happening and who these people were.
This episode felt more directed towards legacy fans then the others so far, save for the first half of the season’s “Kobayashi”. “Kobayashi” also had a deep homage to Treks past, but basing it around the idea of Dal playing a video game gave the kids a landmark to grab onto that is missing in the high-concepts in “All the World’s a Stage”. This is an episode that will be easier for them to understand with repeat viewing.
Also, I can picture kid fans returning to this episode someday when they get a little older and have more cultural touchstones regarding Trek under their belts and really appreciating it on more levels.
What they can appreciate and relate to is Dal’s sense of self-doubt and impostor syndrome as he feels like they are “cosplaying” Starfleet just as much as the Enderprizians. It’s something everyone deals with sometimes, even our own TOS hero Captain Kirk. We see Kirk and another character, Ensign Garrovick, second-guess the decisions they have made in the TOS episode “Obsession,” so when we later find out that En Son is Ensign Garrovick, its a lovely connection — and a truly wonderful deep c ut of a reference.
Dal and the young “cadet” Huur’A contract a mysterious illness when she returns from exploring near the Gallows. Gwyn, Rok-Tahk, and Jankom explore to find the cause of the illness so that Zero can synthesize a cure, another great Trek standard. They figure out that En Son’s shuttle — another TOS cameo, the Galileo shuttlecraft — has been continuously leaking plasma into a dilithium-rich cave and causing radiation pollution. This is enough for Zero to synthesize an antidote.
Our Protostar crew absolutely rocks this mission. But it’s not over, as the transporter can not get a lock on Jankom, Rok-Tahk, and Gwyn. The Protostar needs to get closer. Down three crew members, Dal trusts three Enderprizians to help. The looks on their faces matched mine when they get on the ship and Dal holo-projects the NCC-1701 back panels and helm controls onto the Protostar bridge. It was a great choice to have it blend into the Protostar bridge on the sides, instead of having it be a full overlay. It looks amazing.
What a moment of triumph for all four of the Starfleet hopefuls on the bridge — and all the ones watching at home who’ve always dreamed of being on that bridge. I looked around with a tear in my eye and my kids, again, were completed unaffected by this. Okay. Maybe someday.
OBSERVATION LOUNGE
Where to begin! Our new friends that live on New Enderprize have a society corrupted by humans, similar to TOS episodes “A Piece of the Action” and “Patterns of Force”. We meet James’T (complete with Shatner-like cadence to his voice), Sool’U, Sprok, Huur’A, Doctor Boons, and Scott’Ee (who also appears to have a familiar way of speaking).
They are fans of Star-Flight and the Fed’ration, and salute each other with the phrase “live logs and proper” with fingers splayed slightly differently to the classic Vulcan gesture. When we first meet them they are practicing stage fights, and performing very familiar fighting moves, such as the two-hand punch favored by Kirk. During the play, they shake around to represent the ship in distress the way Trek actors always do.
The ensign who crashed was Ensign Garrovick, seen in the TOS episode “Obsession.” He crashes in the shuttle Galileo, seen in various episodes of TOS. It’s same-named predecessor was also lost, in “The Galileo Seven”.
Star Trek: Lower Decks and voice-acting legend Fred Tatasciore voices many of our Enderprizians and Ensign Garrovick.
“All the World’s a Stage” continues the grand Star Trek tradition of Shakespearean titles.
Throughout the episode, Murf appears to be sick, with Rok-Tahk and then Holo Janeway take care of our resident Mellanoid slime worm. At the very end of the episode, Rok finds Murf in a blue and purple cocoon. My kids were screaming — literally screaming with excitement. Prodigy really knows how to leave their audience wanting more!
One of the funniest lines was Jankom Pog’s “Who’s this guy?” when random red shirt En Son shows up in the play. So meta. Also, I’m waiting to see Jankom eating popcorn as a reaction GIF.
The Enderprizians’ play recalls another episode of Star Trek where Starfleet members inspired theater. In Voyager’s “Muse,” the locals performed a play based on B’Elanna Torres and her crewmates. Another wonderful episode about the power of the idea of Starfleet.
“Playing the logs” also brought to mind the “historical documents” of another group of alien fans: the Thermians from Galaxy Quest.
Holo Janeway refers to the mission as a “second contact,” and what a successful one at that. Captain Carol Freeman would be so proud of this crew!
The away mission ends with a supplemental log entry from Dal, where he calls the Enderprizians “a new chapter of Starfleet” — and the resolution here is poignant and heartfelt and wonderfully inclusive. Anyone can be a part of this. As Doctor Boons tells Dal, “You don’t need a real ship to believe in what it stands for,” and who you are isn’t just what shows up on a bioscan. It’s what you chose to do that makes you who you are — and Starfleet, like love, is a verb, not a noun.
Watching “All the World’s a Stage,” my kids might not have gotten the specific references, but they got the moral of the story — and I got reminded of why I love Star Trek in the first place.
Star Trek: Prodigy will return with “Masquerade” on Thursday, November 17 on Paramount+ in the United States, and on November 18 in Latin America, Australia, Italy and the U.K. The series will arrive in France, Germany, Switzerland, and Austria in December.
For the second year in a row, fans have the opportunity to make the final frontier part of the holidays with a Star Trek advent countdown calendar — but this time, it’s Numskull warping your December into the 24th century.
It arrived in festive silver wrapping paper — and including a multi-piece Star Trek: The Next Generation-era combadge-shaped display stand, the 2360s Federation flagship slowly grows into the vessel commanded by Captain Picard and crew over 24 days as each day in December adds another part for construction.
Some days have more substantial additions than others, of course; for each day you get a large piece like the base of the stardrive section or the upper half of the Enterprise-D’s saucer, there are two days where you may get one part of a five-piece warp nacelle or the small golden deflector dish that clips in at the front of the starship.
The snap-together nature of the model makes it easy for novice builders; there’s no glue, labels, other adhesives needed, and even the smallest parts only fit “one way” into their required positions, making it tough to place a part in the “wrong place” or stick an impulse engine into its slot backwards.
The sculpt of the 9.5-inch-long model has very crisp and clean lines, as it’s entirely made with injection-molded plastic (rather than the sometimes soft-detailed die-cast metal utilized in Eaglemoss models), and the robin-egg blue hull coloring, gold and tan surface details, and red-orange-blue warp nacelle highlights are nice and bright.
Even tiny pieces like an impulse engine can only fit ‘one way’ in its designated spot.
Another difference from the long-used Eaglemoss Enterprise-D model? The two shuttlebays on the back of the ship’s “neck” are nearly correctly sized — with the smaller Shuttlebay 3 on the left, and larger Shuttlebay 2 on the right — compared to the incorrect equally-sized aft shuttlebays on Eaglemoss’s build.
There’s still a bit of a feeling that the Numskull team had to really stretch this build out to full 24 days, as a full 12 days of the build-up is comprised of engine components — each warp nacelle takes five days to complete, which seems a bit excessive. It’s fun to pop in the bridge module or the underslung captain’s yacht as part of the Enterprise-D puzzle, but when the only thing in a day’s box is a tiny sliver of plastic (impulse engine), it’s a disappointing reveal.
If Numskull revisits this again for 2023, it might be worth making a few days of parts add up to a small shuttlecraft (or similar companion build) to both quell the need to drag out the large build with multiple tiny one-a-day pieces — it would also allow collectors to have the satisfaction of a completed build mid-month, while the overall larger build will feel less over-extended.
(Also, if there’s any way to shave the price down a bit, it would become much more attractive to collectors, surely; while materials costs and distribution is certainly more expensive than ever, the $90+ USD cost still feels high for the end product.)
Numskull STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION Countdown Calendar
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Numskull (top) vs. Eaglemoss (bottom left)
Overall, Numskull’s Enterprise-D countdown calendar is a huge step up from the first Trek advent calendar and hopefully just the first of this style of annual build-up kits — maybe a Deep Space 9 and Defiant calendar next year for the thirtieth anniversary of Deep Space Nine? One can only hope.
Star Trek: Prodigy returns this Thursday for the third episode of its fall run, and today we’ve got new images from “All the World’s a Stage” for your review!
The Protostar crew continues its efforts to do good out in the galaxy, since they can’t approach the Federation with the active weapon aboard their ship — but after receiving a strange distress call, Dal and the gang find a connection to Starfleet they weren’t expecting.
Here are nineteen images from this week’s new episode:
STAR TREK: PRODIGY — 'All the World's a Stage'
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ALL THE WORLD’S A STAGE — The crew answers a distress call to find a colony trapped in Starfleet’s past.
Written by Aaron J. Waltke. Directed by Andrew Schmidt.
Star Trek: Prodigy will return with “All the World’s a Stage” on Thursday, November 10 on Paramount+ in the United States, and on November 11 in Latin America, Australia, Italy and the U.K. The series will arrive in France, Germany, Switzerland, and Austria in December.
What do you buy for a Trekkie who has expanded their crew with a new ghu this holiday season? Why, the latest collection of Star Trek board books: Smart Pop’s My First Book of Colors and My First Book of Space, and Insight Kids’ Baby’s First Klingon Words — which is how I learned that the Klingon word for baby is ghu!
Star Trek: Baby's First Klingon Words
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The first new title I’d like to highlight is Baby’s First Klingon Words, from publisher Insight Kids. This adorable board book illustrates several important words that your little ghu will want to learn in Klingon — with fabulous artwork from illustrator Ilaria Vescovo — words like: nose, hand, honor, success, enemy, and [censored].
The illustrations are bright and charming, and are sure to keep your ghu entranced. But what sold me on this book were all the humorous bits for us Trekkie parents. Let’s just say that the page on planets, particularly the depiction of romuluS, was very well done.
I was also a fan of the parmaq illustration — love is a battlefield, you know! You get ten points if you can guess which alien won the honor of being depicted for the Klingon word jagh (enemy).
Star Trek: Baby’s First Klingon Words retails for $11.99, and is also available on Kindle for $4.99.
Star Trek: My First Book of Colors
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Another new favorite is Robb Pearlman’s My First Book of Colors, which features a blue Andorian, a green Gorn, and a white Mugato on the cover, and is adorably illustrated by Jason Kayser.
This board book does such a great job of highlighting characters, scenes, and ships from across several Star Trek series. The first spread features a stunning illustration of station Deep Space 9and the Bajoran wormhole! I loved seeing the jellyfish aliens from “Encounter at Farpoint,” along with Armus from “Skin of Evil.”
There were several references to classic Original Series episodes, an illustration of the USS Voyager, and depictions of the kaleidoscope of uniforms from across the franchise. Every Trekkie-in-training should learn what gold lamé looks like, and this book will teach them!
Star Trek: My First Book of Colors retails for $11.99, and is also available on Kindle for $4.99.
Star Trek: My First Book of Space
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Last and certainly not least My First Book of Space, from the eminently-qualified mind of Dr. Erin McDonald. “Dr. Erin” currently serves as a science advisor for Star Trek, so she is the perfect person to pen such a book!
She does such a wonderful job providing child appropriate descriptions of space, while also cleverly injecting little references to the Star Trek universe — especially that Janeway coffee nebula reference, Dr. Erin!
I have to give a shout out to illustrator Jason Kayser, who ensured we got another majestic depiction of Deep Space 9 in this book as well! His artwork combines beautifully with images of real space phenomena from NASA, to create brightly colored and engaging spreads that your young ghu is sure to enjoy!
Like the other two books, Star Trek: My First Book of Space retails for $11.99, and is also available on Kindle for $4.99.
Those are my thoughts on these adorable new books, but from the target audience, what does my toddler have to say? His official review: “Ba ba ba ba ba.”
I think it’s safe to say he likes them!
Keep checking back to TrekCore for the latest in Star Trek merchandise news and reviews!
Yesterday’s Borg-heavy Star Trek: Prodigy adventure allowed our Medusan friend Zero to overcome their anxiety over inadvertently injuring Gwyn in “A Moral Star, Part 2,” and to find comfort in their place among the Protostar crew.
We had a chance to speak with Zero voice actor Angus Imrie ahead of the episode’s airing, to discuss his character’s experiences in “Let Sleeping Borg Lie,” all of Zero’s amusing exclamations, and what’s next for the Medusan navigator.
L-R: Angus Imrie (Zero), PRODIGY creators Dan and Kevin Hageman, Kate Mulgrew (Janeway), Ella Purnell (Gwyn), and producer/director Ben Hibon at the UK series premiere. (Nickelodeon)
TREKCORE: What is it like playing a character who is recovering from abuse, with the trauma and the guilt that Zero has associated with that — is your process any different because it’s a children’s show?
ANGUS IMRIE: Truthfully, I think my process changes with every job. I don’t think I would specifically say, “Oh, well, because this is a children’s show, I need to approach it in any particular method.” You’re always trying to work through play. And rather than doubling down and making it exclusively about Zero’s trauma, you still want the nature of the show and the nature of the character to have moments of light and dark and you just grasp an understanding of where their heart is really.
A massive motivator to Zero is the fact that they were used as a weapon on Tars Lamora by the Diviner. They hold on to that. So when they exposed themselves to the Diviner in “A Moral Star, Part 2,” it’s this great moment for them to experience justice, and yet it’s complicated by the fact that Gwyn catches sight of them.
The last thing Zero ever wants to do again is to harm anyone. And so I think we see in this episode, with Zero’s encounter with the Borg, their real determination to make up for that, to make amends, to protect their family — their Prodigy crew.
Zero fights off Borg assimilation. (Paramount+)
TREKCORE: Zero makes the choice to fight off assimilation, and chooses the Protostar collective over the Borg — but Zero also has a history with the Medusan collective. Would that be a more difficult decision if they were confronted with the choice of returning to their Medusan hive mind?
IMRIE: The greatness of Star Trek: Prodigy, I think, is that it plays with two elements. It plays with the fact that all of these characters are different species and yet they find family with one another. That’s the most profound thing that keeps them together and keeps them looking after one another, but that isn’t at the expense of a curiosity about who they really are.
They’re all displaced. They were all prisoners. They were fugitives on Tars Lamora. So there are two things propelling them. There’s this incredibly tight-knit closeness that they form with one another when they’re thrown together. Like anything in our lives, when you’re put in difficult situations with people, it brings you really, really closer together — but it’s not at the expense of them continuously being curious about who they really are or where they’re from, rather.
Both of those things can exist together. Zero is forever interested in where they came from, that they were a hive mind as a Medusan — and we’ll see in later episodes, their curiosity of what they could be as well if they were to sort of break out of those boundaries that are set by being a non-corporeal entity.
Zero scans Gwyn in the Protostar sickbay. (Paramount+)
TREKCORE: Zero always seems wise beyond their years, at least compared to the rest of the crew – so it will be interesting to see them confront their past and explore their future.
IMRIE: They are, that’s for sure. It’s great because Zero is so outward-looking. They’re almost in service of the others so much of the time, but we will get a sense of what Zero likes to do on their own.
We will see the personal exploration happen in further episodes where Zero starts to encounter sensations they’ve never experienced before. It’s really wonderful.
TREKCORE: Is there any particular element to Zero that you’ve imagined which informs how you portray the character?
IMRIE: Well, you might have noticed some of the certain vocalizations that Zero makes…
TREKCORE: Hoot hoot!
IMRIE: Yes! Yip-Yip and hoot hoot! Those sorts of things were not in the script, ever. They were kind of my invention. Zero doesn’t have breath, you know, and that’s quite a challenge as a voice actor — because everything is all about the breath when you’re trying to explore.
So my understanding is that Zero sort of listens to other people’s expressions of joy or expressions of laughing, that kind of exhalation, and makes a kind of attempt at what they might be. For some reason they’ve come out as the yip-yips, and it’s become who that character is, you know. So we see Zero does, I think, feel, but they’re not quite sure how to express that vocally.
It’s a kind of learned behavior, but very peculiar in and of itself.
Zero temporarily falls under the sway of the Borg Collective. (Paramount+)
TREKCORE: That’s interesting because they kind of frame Zero as the Spock or the Data character of the show – the outsider character — but it comes out in their own individual way.
IMRIE: Exactly.
TREKCORE: How fun was it in this episode to get to say, “Resistance is futile”?
IMRIE: Resistance is futile. Oh, fantastic. That was just bliss. You just have to relish those moments. That’s the fun of being part of the Star Trek series, is the way that everything feeds into one another and you feel part of this wonderful body of storytelling that’s been so influential in people’s lives.
And it’s no good being scared of it. You’ve got to dive in, and it was quite fun being Zero who was assimilated by the Borg.
TREKCORE: The animators conveyed it visually with green, instead of Zero’s typical blues and the purples, and we could hear it in your delivery of the lines as well.
IMRIE: It goes monotone, doesn’t it? Sort of like it’s emotionless and characterless, almost. That was a challenge to still be Zero and yet Borg. That was great.
TREKCORE: Well, my kids and I are certainly looking forward to hearing more from Zero as Prodigy continues — thank you so much for your time!
IMRIE: It was great to talk, and I hope your children continue to love the show.
This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.
Star Trek: Prodigy will return with “All the World’s a Stage” on Thursday, November 10 on Paramount+ in the United States, and on October 28 in Latin America, Australia, Italy and the U.K. The series will arrive in France, Germany, Switzerland, and Austria in December.
Star Trek: Prodigy continues to assert its place in history with an episode that adds to the legacy of one of Trek’s most famous foes. “Let Sleeping Borg Lie” doesn’t just use the Borg as window dressing, but rather uses their unique narrative specifically as a rich demonstration of the power of love and forgiveness — and it also adds the the mythos of the Borg by showing us a side of the collective we’ve never seen before.
The episode starts with a holodeck reconstruction of the events in “A Moral Star, Part 2,” which serves, it appears, as a reminder to the audience specifically of the time travel aspect of the story — that the Federation will make first contact with Solum, the Vau N’Akat homeworld, sometime in the future.
Starting an episode in the holodeck is a great classic Trek fake out and I was happy to see that it confused my kids at first. They soon caught on it was a simulation as it ran while the crew talked — until it was almost time for Zero’s defense against the Diviner and Zero halted the program, their guilt about the situation still obviously in the front of their mind.
Zero’s arc here is a heavy topic for a “kids’” show. Their story is an example of how Prodigy trusts their audience, not just with scientific sci-fi jargon, but with mature, emotional topics as well. Zero’s guilt and trauma from their abuse on Tars Lamora being something that they have to work through is true to the character.
Nothing is being swept under the rug in this show. I appreciate that as an adult fan, but also I remember what if felt like to be a kid and have a TV show not talk down to you the way so much kids’ programming does — those were the ones that stuck with you.
But the crew has a more immediate problem: they know they have a powerful weapon aboard their ship, but they have no idea where it is. The audience knows where it is from the shot last week, panning down under the floor boards of the bridge. Our crew find it in a really fun way: Jankom locates some Vau N’Akat script, which activates Gwyn’s heirloom into the shape of a key. It’s a moment worthy of a good scavenger hunt movie, and that same vibe continues as a hidden door opens and Jankom bravely offers to go last — which of course got a big laugh from my crew.
I love the design of this weapon, which evokes a feel of a mirror universe protostar. Entombed in the bottom of the ship, it almost feels alive as it hums and pulsates and casts a red glow on our crew in this otherwise empty and silent chamber. They discard the idea of transporting it out into space, realizing someone could still end up using it. Jankom tries some of his patented percussive maintenance in the form of a phaser blast.
The animation and sound design on the weapon are exquisite here, as the weapon protects itself from the blast. This thing is legit scary — and as confirmed by the Hageman brothers on Twitter this week, it’s the circular design the Diviner was drawing on the cave floor at the end of “A Moral Star, Part 2.”
And just when you thought things couldn’t get more creepy, the Protostar detects a vessel… and the viewscreen fills with none other than a Borg Cube. My children had absolutely no idea what this was — but with the gorgeously detailed animation and the classic dramatic music cues, they could tell right away it was sinister.
They also instinctively knew to listen to Hologram Janeway, who delivers a high level primer on the Borg that was really easy for kids to understand. When she recommended they run away, my kids said “Listen to her!” My kids’ initial reaction to the Borg showed right away what a really effective horror piece this was for them. It made me remember the way I felt about the Borg when I was their age, when we were all introduced to the Borg in “Q Who” — back when the Borg were unknown and that was part of what made them so terrifying.
I told them that Janeway was a Borg expert and I would listen to her, too. But, alas, the Protostar crew is bravely — and naively — determined to find out whether the Borg might have a way to disable the weapon. Even with the Borg all asleep, this is an extremely dangerous mission. But taking on such a dangerous mission for altruistic purposes is such a Trek-ian thing to do that you can’t help but respect the “Go boldly”-ness of it.
The atmosphere inside the Borg cube is exquisitely creepy; the initial walkthrough has a real “kids walking through a haunted house” feel to it. Everything bathed in the green glow of the cube was the icing on the cake, leading my ten year old to exclaim, “This should be a Halloween episode!”. The whole episode truly does manage to maintain the same aura of other Trek horror classics.
They find the central control and discover that in order to access the knowledge of the Borg Collective, someone is going to have to plug themselves into it. Zero has experienced a hive mind before — with other Medusans — which makes them a logical choice, and they bravely stepped up to the plate.
When Zero plugs into the Collective, we see it from a unique perspective: instead of an external depiction of the assimilation, we get to see what is happening internally. Zero speaks to the Collective, asking about the weapon. There’s give and take about assimilating the crew and Zero handles themselves with determination and purpose.
The visuals are very dynamic, depicting the Borg as a web of interconnected tentacles and conduits, the green tinge on everything punctuated only by the visualization of Zero and their blue and purple haze. It’s captivating and creepy.
These scenes mesmerized my kids and really facilitated their understanding of the significance of what was happening. This is a great example of Prodigy excelling at taking Trek concepts and presenting them in a way that someone who is having their first encounter with the Borg can understand — while still building on that Trek foundation in a way that is still interesting and fresh to the legacy fans.
This is the first time we’ve ever seen the assimilation process presented this way, internally as a person’s mind/soul/essence is subsumed into the Collective; it’s a fresh angle on an old enemy. Just an amazing tightrope walk that Prodigy continues to perform.
The mood and the stakes are established so well, that when the Borg awoke, my kids were completely invested. The action-packed fight was as good as any Borg fight we’ve seen before and everyone got a moment to shine. When Gwyn escapes — and Janeway tells her to put away her weapon — my kids were on hyper-alert from all the action. My youngest shouted: “I hope she’s right!”
I can’t tell you how much fun it was for me to watch them learn about the Borg in real time like this. We all collectively held our breath as Gwyn walked past the group of drones… what a moment!
Gwyn finds the rest of the crew on the assimilation tables as Zero walks in, the haze in their “eye” now green. Gwyn and Zero continue to be a great pairing as she talks them down and helps them both resist the Borg Collective and come to terms with their guilt over harming Gwyn.
Protecting her was an act of love, she tells them, and this love was manifested visually in a gorgeous way — we see Zero internally struggle against the Borg tentacles, and as Zero sends a signal and puts the drones back into their dormant state, their blues and purples overtake the green.
Putting Zero into this situation with the Borg was an effective way for them to come to terms with their past; to forgive themselves and choose to help people going forward. Zero’s time at Tars Lamora and the harm they caused not of their own volition makes their experience extremely similar to that of an ex-Borg — and there are more than one of those that I hope we get to see interact with our crew someday.
It wasn’t just a useful mission for Zero personally, because they did learn some useful information about the weapon, or the Living Construct(as the Borg Collective so eloquently referred to it) — it can not be removed or destroyed. So for now, our crew has decided to avoid the Federation and help out where they can.
While I do love “Go Fast!”, Dal sitting in the captain’s chair and saying “Let’s do some good!” has a really a nice ring to it.
OBSERVATION LOUNGE
There are a ton of great classic Trek engineering materials referenced in this episode! Jankom’s bridge scan reveals tritanium and duranium alloys, along with transparent aluminum. He is impressed by the Borg cube’s monotanium aperture valves. We also get to see one of the Protostar’s Jeffries tubes as they search the ship. “It’s an engineer’s dream!”, just like the Borg cube.
The processing center at the heart of the Borg cube is called the vinculum, a piece of Borg tech recovered by Voyager “Infinite Regress,” responsible for giving Seven some personality indigestion in that episode.
A Borg vinculum, as seen in PRODIGY (left) and in VOYAGER’s “Infinite Regress.”
The Borg drones lie dormant due to a neurolytic pathogen — and we have the silver-haired future version of Admiral Janeway to thank for this, after offering herself up for assimilation directly to the Borg Queen to infect the Collective in “Endgame.” This was probably part of the off-screen briefing Holo Janeway gave to the crew when she offered to tell them “everything she knows” about the Borg.
Rear Admiral Janeway on the Dauntless is drinking tea instead of her trademark coffee, which also fits in with her future self from “Endgame,” where she says she made the switch due to doctor’s orders.
Gwyn’s heirloom turns into a gorgeous bat’leth during the fight with the drones, and she has a great action line — “Let’s see how they adapt to this!” — very reminiscent of Worf’s classic “Assimilate this!” line from Star Trek: First Contact.
We get to hear the classic phrase “Resistance is futile” four times in this episode. As they fight off assimilation, we hear Zero say “Resistance is NOT futile!’ — and I have to admit that my Grinch heart grew three sizes that day.
Though it was absent last week, the Star Trek franchise opening title card returns today with the Protostar swooping in to form the delta symbol — like Pike’s Enterprise for Strange New Worlds and the Cerritos for Lower Decks. The series-specific variation also includes the Tars Lamora asteroid in the nebulous background.
“Let Sleeping Borg Lie” is a fun and effective horror episode that connects organically to solid character growth for Zero. It’s a great introduction to one of Trek’s most iconic antagonists but also a really strong installment in the Borg’s 33-year history — and another episode that both new and seasoned fans can equally enjoy.
Star Trek: Prodigy will return with “All the World’s a Stage” on Thursday, November 10 on Paramount+ in the United States, and on October 28 in Latin America, Australia, Italy and the U.K. The series will arrive in France, Germany, Switzerland, and Austria in December.
Star Trek: Prodigy returns this Thursday for the second episode of its fall run, and today we’ve got new images from “Let Sleeping Borg Lie” for your review!
After narrowly escaping the destruction at relay station CR-721 last week, the Protostar crew this week encounters the feared Borg Collective — and it’s up to Zero (Angus Imrie) to find a way for the team to escape.
Here are twenty images from this week’s new episode:
STAR TREK: PRODIGY — 'Let Sleeping Borg Lie'
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LET SLEEPING BORG LIE — When the crew encounters a dormant Borg Cube, Zero risks everything to save their ship.
Written by Diandra Pendleton-Thompson. Directed by Olga Ulanova & Sung Shin.
Star Trek: Prodigy will return with “Let Sleeping Borg Lie” on Thursday, November 3 on Paramount+ in the United States, and on October 28 in Latin America, Australia, Italy and the U.K. The series will arrive in France, Germany, Switzerland, and Austria in December.
After launching their first wave and second wave of Star Trek: The Next Generation “ReAction” figures, San Francisco-based toy company Super7 is expanding their foothold into the 24th century with the next generation of TNG figures!
Super7’s latest ULTIMATES! are ready to beam into your collection! Introducing Star Trek: The Next Generation ULTIMATES!
Wave 1, featuring Lieutenant Commander Data, Guinan, Commander Riker, and Locutus of Borg! Super7 is taking these Star Trek: The Next Generation figures where no one has gone before: the highly detailed, intricately designed world of 7” scale ULTIMATES!
Collectors are going to be assimilating these made-to-order figures into their collective, er… collection, faster than a Borg cube!
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Their new Lt. Commander Data figure includes three heads (one with a poker visor and another with an electronic diagnostic cable), multiple hands including one with playing cards, a violin, poker chips, a phaser, tricorder, and of course his beloved cat Spot — this figure is available for preorder at $55 today, with an anticipated October 2023 delivery.
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Their new Commander Will Riker figure includes two heads (one with a classic Riker smirk), multiple hands including one with playing cards, a phaser, a spare deck of cards, his favorite Captain Picard day sculpture, and his trusty trombone — this figure is available for preorder at $55 today, with an anticipated October 2023 delivery.
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Their new Guinan figure includes two heads (one with a look of concern), multiple hands, four beverage options, the Ten Forward tabletop game, a beverage tray, and her sparking rifle from Magus III — this figure is available for preorder at $55 today, with an anticipated October 2023 delivery.
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Their final entry in the first TNG Ultimates collection is Locutus of Borg, with multiple heads to represent Captain Picard’s assimilation progress from “The Best of Both Worlds,” along with a spare hand for gripping — this figure is available for preorder at $55 today, with an anticipated October 2023 delivery.
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Along with the four individual releases, Super7 is also offering a four-pack preorder for $220 at this link — like the standalone figures the company projects delivery to collectors in October 2023.
For both the separate and four-pack releases, fans have until Friday, December 2nd to preorder these figures; it’s unknown at this time if any purchases will be possible after the preorder window ends.
Finally, if you missed it on our social media feeds, Super7 also released an additional Captain Picard figure at New York Comic Con earlier this month — emulating the transporter effect as he beams down to a strange new world.
Keep checking back to TrekCore for all the latest in Star Trek product news — and let us know what you think about Super7’s new figures in the comments below!
Star Trek: Lower Decks wraps up its third season with the Mike McMahan-scripted “The Stars at Night,” another barnstormer of a finale which capably wraps up some of the story threads that have been developed this season — without leaning on any flashy legacy characters or concepts — and it’s exciting to see the show having reached this level of self-confidence.
Be sure you watched the post-credits scene!
Don’t get me wrong, I adore “No Small Parts” and “First First Contact” for their thrilling legacy character connections, and those two finales are probably slightly stronger finales than “The Stars at Night” overall. But it’s exciting that in this time around, Lower Decks decided to focus on the lore it has built for itself over the last three seasons, and ground that exclusively with its own characters.
As the show continues to evolve and develop, it’s got its own recurring cast of characters and story beats that are developing their own depth and wiring the nostalgic connections in our brains that make us want to see more of them. I can’t be the only one who cheered at that surprising post-credit scene!
“The Stars at Night” picks up after the events of last week’s “Trusted Sources,” with the Cerritos in for repair at Douglas Station — while Captain Freeman consults with Starfleet Command on Earth. The successful debut of the fully automated Texas-class leads Admiral Buenamigo to make a bold proposition; that the California-class be retired, and the Texas-class assume the responsibility of second contact for Starfleet.
When the Cerritos loses a race against the Texas-class USS Aledo — to complete a prescribed set of missions trying to prove that the California is king — Freeman uncovers a loophole that allows her to challenge the proposal to retire the California-class. Which is when it is revealed that Admiral Buenamigo is the ambitious Starfleet command officer who had Rutherford’s memory erased, and that the code used to run the Texas-class ships was developed by Rutherford… and it’s the same code base as used for Badgey.
The artificial intelligence on the Texas-class ships goes haywire, killing Admiral Buenamigo, and begins attacking Starfleet. It’s only with the assembled might of the whole California-class, brought together by Mariner who has decided that her place is in Starfleet, that the Texas-class is destroyed and the unique skills of the California-class ships demonstrated.
It was fun to see the conclusion of the Rutherford story, and to learn how that backstory was being sewn into the entire season without viewers realizing it. To have that story ultimately tie into the origin of Badgey, who hasn’t been seen in two years — but who was briefly glimpsed in the post-credits sequence — is another way that Lower Decks is building out its own mythos.
Even though he doesn’t have as big of a role in “The Stars at Night” as the two other Lower Decks finales, it’s also clear how far Boimler has come too. The moment on the bridge where he cuts through the arguing and tells the bridge crew to listen to Shaxs’ suggestion is very far from the timid Boimler from Season 1.
Boimler’s decision to be bolder and grow into his own confidence authentically is on display here, even if he still can’t stand the idea that a senior officer is mad at him. (Some things will never change!)
Mariner’s arc in this episode, though, is perhaps the most satisfying. Seeing her work through the possibility of life outside of Starfleet, and decide that she was actually better off within the organization, is a delight to see.
And the way that her solution relies on teamwork and trusting others — rather than the renegade Mariner who wants to fix everything herself that we started the series with — is a delightful rounding out of that character arc. Mariner really has come a long way since season one, and this episode shows that full force.
If I have one criticism of Star Trek: Lower Decks’ third big, action packed finale for, it’s maybe that. It’s big… and action packed… again! So big and action packed, that for the third year in a row, the Cerritos ends the season needing a long stay at a starbase repair facility.
It feels a touch repetitive in that way, even going so far as to end the season on a celebration in the Cerritos bar while the ship is under repair. But I’m a huge sucker for a big, action packed finale, so… I can’t get too worked up about that.
And then there’s the post-credit scene. Rutherford’s original implant, ripped from his head in “No Small Parts,” was seen floating in the debris field in the opening moments of “A Mathematically Perfect Redemption” — and now someone’s recovered it, along with its repository of Badgey computer code.
Is it the Drookmani scavengers, always looking to loot technology? An agent of A.G.I.M.U.S. and Peanut Hamper? Newly-recruited Section 31 agent William Boimler? What an ominous tease for Season 4!
TREK TROPE TRIBUTES
Admiral Buenamigo is a classic Star Trek “bad-miral.” That’s one of those admirals who does something evil — not necessarily always with evil intentions — whose hubris is ultimately revealed to them, normally right before they die.
Freeman even explicitly calls it out in dialogue, telling Buenamigo that he’s “not one of those bad-faith admirals that’s up to no good!”
CANON CONNECTIONS
The Cerritos starts the episode at Douglas Station, which is where it was at the opening of the pilot “Second Contact.” The Galardoniansfrom that episode also make a quick appearance.
Starfleet Command’s exterior mirrors its appearance from DS9’s “Home Front,” with its design based off the General Motors pavilion from the 1969 World’s Fair.
Starfleet Command in live-action, and in animated form.
Mariner and Aberdeen’s route to Qualor takes them through the Bitrus Expanse. The Cerritos was previously headed to the Bitrus Expanse after the events of “Strange Energies.”
Freeman is offered promotion to the rank of Fleet Captain, a rarely heard rank in Star Trek but that was previously held by Christopher Pike after he left the Enterprise.
Doctor T’Ana’s previous posting was aboard an Oberth-class ship, the science vessel that debuted in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock. She served there for what I’m sure was a completely coincidental seven years.
If you didn’t think the Texas-class would turn out to be evil starship AIs when you saw the computer terminal Admiral Buenamigo used to communicate with the starships was very similar to the M-5 computer from “The Ultimate Computer,” then you need to re-watch that episode!
Qualor II was previously visited by Mariner and Tendi in “We’ll Always Have Tom Paris.”
M-5 interfaces on automated starships? Not good.
Petra Aberdeen and the Independent Archeologists Guild are funded by Admiral Jean-Luc Picard, making this the earliest reference in the timeline to Picard being an Admiral. Mariner was hoping it would be a Xindicabal so she’d have more of a reason to go back to Starfleet.
When the Cerritos increases speed to try and outrun the Texas-class ships, the warm core thrum increases, just like in “Where No One Has Gone Before.” The ejection sequence also mirrors that of Voyager ejecting its warp core in “Day of Honor.”
T’Lyn is wearing a provisional rank insignia — seen most prominently on the Maquis crew members on Voyager — signifying that serves aboard a Starfleet ship, but is not originally of Starfleet training.
OTHER OBSERVATIONS
The episode’s title “The Stars at Night,” is the opening line from the song “Deep In the Heart of Texas.”
Hans Federov is the full name of the ‘Towel Guy’ often seen roaming the corridors; he’s the Cerritos’ gossip king.
Mariner’s escape from Ferengi grave robbers is clearly inspired by Indiana Jones, all the way down to a very John Williams-esque score.
Commander Ransom teaches the famous Riker sit. “You need to sit, cross your leg over the back of it, and slam down. Command that chair!”
The Cerritos conducts a full self-awareness assessment on the sand where they build the outpost, likely inspired by the events of “Home Soil.”
Meridian isn’t the only phasing planet.
Ockmenic 9, the planet that phases into our universe for only a couple of hours a year, is also clearly inspired by planet Meridian.
The three Texas-class ships were the Aledo, the Dallas, and the Corpus Christie.
The Sovereign-class USS Van Citters (NCC-72584) is named after John Van Citters, the longtime head of licensing for the Star Trek brand, who is now the Vice President of Star Trek Brand Development.
The Carlsbad appeared earlier this season in “Mining the Mind’s Mines,” the USS Oakland in “Much Ado About Boimler,” the USS Merced in “Moist Vessel,” the USS Inglewood in “The Least Dangerous Game.”
Four California-class ships with variations in hull-paint designs, both in division color and design.
Including the Cerritos, the California-class fleet includes 24 ships — each with subtly different hull paint designs: the Oakland, Alhambra, San Diego, San Clemente, Sherman Oaks, Vacaville, Burbank, Fresno, Santa Monica, San Jose, Sacramento, Culver City, Anaheim, Riverside, Vallejo, West Covina, Pacific Palisades, Redding, Eureka, Mount Shasta, Merced, Carlsbad, and the Inglewood.
A battle between California against Texas seems like a bit of a commentary on today’s American political landscape, doesn’t it?
The fleet of only California-class ships may be a subtle wry nod at the derided “copy and paste” Inquiry-class fleet led by Will Riker in Star Trek: Picard’s first-season finale.
After a year of waiting, Vulcan outcast T’Lyn makes her first appearance after being sent to Starfleet in “wej duj” — and it looks like we’ll be seeing a lot more of her in Season 4.
Overall, I really enjoyed “The Stars at Night,” and Season 3 as a whole. While I think Season 2 was slightly better overall, the show has done something important this year: it has started to stand on its own two feet, and not simply rest on the shoulders of Star Trek’s previous adventures.
If Lower Decks was just a parade of easter eggs loosely connected by jokes, I think even the biggest Star Trek fan in the world would eventually get tired of it — but a Lower Decks that has its own stories, characters, and arcs that come to the fore more prominently than the easter eggs? That’s a Lower Decks that can last forever.
Star Trek: Lower Decks will return with new episodes in 2023.
