In April we learned more about Kate Mulgrew’s role in Star Trek: Prodigy, the animated kids series coming to Paramount+ this year. Today, details on the rest of the voice cast and characters were revealed, including a few deep cuts into Star Trek lore. We also got a first look at images from the show.
Meet the kids of Star Trek: Prodigy
Earlier this year we got our first look at characters of Star Trek: Prodigy, the upcoming CG-animated kids series that follows a “motley crew of young aliens who must figure out how to work together while navigating a greater galaxy, in search for a better future.” Together the kids commandeer a derelict Starfleet ship in the Delta Quadrant, where they meet an Emergency Training Hologram based on Captain Janeway, voiced by Star Trek: Voyager’s Kate Mulgrew.
Today Paramount+ introduced their lineup of voice talent behind the six young alien starship crew members, along with character names and descriptions. The following is the official breakdown for each character.
Rok-Tahk
An unusually bright eight-year-old girl from Brikar, Rok is a bit shy, but not when it comes to her love for animals. Voiced by Rylee Alazraqui (Doug Unplugs, Home Economics), daughter of prolific voice actor Carlos Alazraqui.
Dal
A 17-year-old and member of an unknown species, he fancies himself a maverick, who even in the toughest times, holds strong onto his unwavering hope. Voiced by Brett Gray (On My Block, When They See Us).
Zero
A Medusan: a noncorporeal, genderless, energy-based lifeform. Since others would go mad at the sight of their true self, Zero wears a containment suit they made themselves to protect others. Voiced by Angus Imrie (The Crown, Emma).
Jankom Pog
A 16-year-old Tellarite. Tellarites are known to relish an argument, and Jankom is no different. Regardless of opinion, he will always play devil’s advocate for the sake of hearing all sides. Voiced by Jason Mantzoukas (Infinite, Big Mouth, The Good Place).
Gwyn
A 17-year-old Vau N’Akat who was raised on her father’s bleak mining planet and grew up dreaming of exploring the stars. Voiced by Ella Purnell (Army of the Dead, Sweetbitter).
Murf
Age and species is unknown, but Murf is an endearing, indestructible blob with curiously good timing and an insatiable appetite for ship parts. Dee Bradley Baker (SpongeBob SquarePants, Dora the Explorer).
First look at Prodigy
Paramount+ also released the first-ever images from Star Trek: Prodigy, showing off the animation style. The first image is of Dal on what could be the bridge of the Starfleet ship the kids commandeer.
There is another shot of Dal, this time looking to be in distress. This could be a shot from the first episode where the kids are initially incarcerated on an obscure planet, as revealed recently by Kate Mulgrew.
Next up is a shot of Gwyn, showing a bit more detail on her face and costume.
Finally we have Rok-Tahk, who appears to be doing some welding.
Star Trek connections
Prodigy is set in the Delta Quadrant, the same setting as Star Trek: Voyager, although none of the characters revealed so far have a connection to that series. However, there are connections to the original Star Trek, and the extended universe of Trek.
The most familiar is Jankom Pog. Tellarites were first introduced in the original Star Trek episode “Journey to Babel,” and are one of the founding races of the United Federation of Planets, along with Humans, Vulcans, and Andorians. Tellarites have appeared multiple times on multiple Star Trek series, including Discovery, Lower Decks, and Picard.
Tellarite from “Journey to Babel”
A more surprising connection comes with the character Zero. Previously assumed by most to be a robot due to the design of the character, Zero has been revealed to be a Medusan in a “containment suit.” This mysterious telepathic non-corporal race first appeared in the original Star Trek episode “Is There in Truth No Beauty?” There have also been some mentions of Medusans in the extended Star Trek universe of books and games.
Medusan from “Is There in Truth No Beauty?”
And the deepest cut from the character reveals is for Rok-Tahk. Brikarians are a Federation race first introduced by author Peter David in the Starfleet Academy TNG-era series novel with a character named Zak Kebron, Kebron went on to be featured in David’s New Frontier novel series.
Brikarian from the comic cover of “Star Trek: New Frontier: Turnaround”
Star Trek: Prodigy will debut later this year on Paramount+ in the USA and CTV Sci-Fi in Canada. It isn’t currently known where or when it will be available internationally.
Find more Star Trek: Prodigy news and analysis.
A Brikarian AND a Medusan? Very nice move, guys!
Brikarians are canon now!
I’m wondering if we’ll be being her develop and change over the course of the show.
Wow! Besides the presence of a Hologram Janeway, this will be the FIRST trek series featuring a exclusively alien cast. That I find amazing…
And still an exclusively non-human core cast, since “Janeway” is a hologram. A first for the franchise!
Yeah I have to admit, I wasn’t completely in love with not having the real Janeway on board but that didn’t last long. I love the fact the captain is a hologram, another big first. This is Star Trek to me, to see technology evolve and it’s cool we basically have an A.I. running the show.
Ironically I THOUGHT we might see some A.I. holographic captains running the ships once we got to the 32nd century on Discovery but I guess the Federation still like keeping it old school. ;)
I don’t get the impression that he holographic Janeway will be the “captain” in the traditional sense. She’s supposed to be an “emergency training hologram,” helping the kids with the unfamiliar Starfleet technology of this ship they end up on.
As for Discovery, who’s to say that one or more of the captains we saw at Federation HQ isn’t a hologram? We didn’t spend much time with any of them. (Not enough time for Georgiou to blink them away, at least.)
I know obviously but she is still referred to as Captain Janeway by the producers, so I assume she will take a leadership role since I doubt a bunch of kids knows anything about running a starship or how to make contact with other planets.
And good point about Discovery, but it seems like if we have seen a holographic captain, they would’ve made it clear on the show. And of course they can still show one later. We haven’t been aboard any of the 32nd ships yet either.
well maybe there are some ships with entire holographic crew cause i remember there was a ship or two with holographic hulls mentioned in season 3
While a holographic hull is kind of dangerous (imagine a power outage) there might be some reasons speaking for it. But a fully holographic crew doesn’t make sense. Why would the computer use holograms to interact with itself? Holograms only make sense if they interact with a “real” crew.
Holo-Janeway will be there to Dispense Wisdom to the motley crew of lawless teens. Nothing more, nothing less.
TENET this project is not.
Tellarites, Medusans and Murf, the gelatenous Smurf… oh my :-)
I love it! Two TOS species along with Trek’s take on my favourite kind of lifeform: nerdy gelatenous freaks… Yaphit is my favourite character on ORV, so I’m so much looking forward to meeting this slimey package of fun…
The Medusans… awwww! When I came up with some fan fiction back in the 90s, the heydays of Babylon 5, I always wanted them to stand in for the mysterious Vorlons in the Trek universe. This character seems more like a Pixar version of them, but I’m still glad they are back…
Tellarite, not Talaxian… Yep. Good choice as there has never been a Tellarite main character yet.
Not sure about the Brikarians. Never heard of them. Sounds like a neat telling name made of “bricks” and stones :-) Rok-Tagh, the Brikarian girl… also has “rock” in it :-)
Vau N’Akat.. looks complicated. Is this a primer? Never heard of them… It will take some time to spell that correctly but then I’ve never managed to spell Goa’uld without looking it up :-)
Exciting gang… Bring them on….
BUt wait a minute… What’s a Tellarite, a Medusan and a Rock doing in the Delta Quadrant? Do they commandeer the ship back in the Alpha Quadrant and then get lost?
I got the impression this show is set quite far into the future, some time a fair bit after the 25th century era of Picard and before the 29th century era when Captain Braxton & the Aeon/Relativity came from; far enough ahead that rapid intragalactic travel is fairly easy, but before time travel becomes a common thing.
It’s already been confirmed Prodigy is set in 2383, five years after Voyager makes it back to the Alpha quadrant. I was kind of hoping the show was set in the 26th or 27th century too, but this is probably a better direction since they can continue some of the canon we seen set up in Voyager and it’s probably a way to bring in some former Voyager characters, both from the Alpha and Delta quadrant. Don’t be too shocked to see Neelix show up at some point. ;)
Hmm… That’s gonna take some explaining then. Hope they will actually explain it & won’t just use the excuse of “Don’t be so obsessed with canon” to excuse inconsistencies…
No, it’s not. Supreme beings snap Alpha Quadrant beings to far flung corners of the galaxy all the time, in the Trek universe. It’s almost as common as time travel with no lasting consequences.
It takes place in the 24th century.
Vau N’akat… Maybe there will be a Warner Cut of the show after Warner Discovery swallows Viacom :-)
SMURF?!?,,, rather “Les barbapapa” ;)
Re: what a Tellarite, Medusan and Brikari are doing out in the DQ: maybe their parents’ ships were grabbed by the Caretaker, and they’ve been stuck out there ever since!
That makes a lot of sense. Surely Voyager and Equinox were not the only ships ever to get grabbed. Maybe a couple of those crew are native Delta Quadrant species, though. I guess the question then is, where does a ship with Janeway as a hologram come from, since it would likely have to come from the Alpha Quadrant post-Voyager? Maybe there are more of the Caretaker’s species out there than we were led to believe, OR the ship somehow falls through a wormhole / experimental slipstream drive, etc.
Could be from the future.
Garth Lorca, I think you’ll like the Brikarian.
The species was created by Peter David for the YA Starfleet Academy series. A Brikarian was Worf’s first roommate at the Academy. So, there’s a well established history for the planet, and it was featured in later novels.
I really like this deep cut to the first Trek book series targeted to kids, and I expect that we can thank Trek author David Mack for this as he is a consultant for the show.
As a species Brikarians are too heavy to function in normal gravity so they wear anti-grav tech, presumably the armbands and belt for this character.
They are supposed to be reddish with more wrinkled skin when younger, and become smoother and more rocklike in adulthood.
I like this image in this Memory Alpha post better.
https://memory-beta.fandom.com/wiki/Zak_Kebron
“Brikiarian.” Because they’re solid as a brick.
Subtlety ain’t Peter David’s forte, I guess.
The species was created for a kid’s series and the character was intended to be a foil for young Worf.
Worf running into a brick wall basically.
But a good metaphor for kids to decode.
This will be the first series in which a Tellarite is a main character. Very cool. The show looks beautiful, can’t wait.
Not just that, but the first series where most of the main characters are species that haven’t been main characters before. Not only that, it’s the first show where most of the main characters are totally new species, at least on screen (counting Brikarians as new since they haven’t been seen in a screen production before) – four new ones, and three established (Tellarite, Medusan, hologram).
I continue to be happy with every bit of news I read on this show. Most of the cast I’m not familiar with, but I’ve loved both Mantzoukas and Baker in multiple other projects, and of course we know Mulgrew will be a great Janeway, holographic or otherwise. I’m excited!
Some people rag on The Orville for “ripping-off” Star Trek (kinda the point of a spoof), but Murf is an obvious near-direct (barring the colour) copy of Yaphit… 🤔
You’re joking, right? Did you actually think Orville was the first series to have a character like that? You’re like one of those people who accuse shows of ripping off Star Wars or Harry Potter, despite both of them being ripoffs of older, better franchises.
I’m not just talking about the form, although that is semi-unique, I’m talking about the whole character. Your argument is like if one car maker makes an almost direct copy of a model made by another manufacturer, and then excuses it by saying “Other companies make cars too”.
*Cough* ODO
Right, Trek is filled with shapeshifters. Blobs in Star Trek are nothing new, as anyone who has watched DS9 should know.
A shapeshifter who only appears in liquid form for seconds is not a gelatenous character. Yaphit and Murf are very special. But then, I don’t accuse anyone of ripping off anything. I celebrate them for doing it,
Very cool! I’m not acquainted with anything from the younger cast members, but I love what work I’ve seen from both Mantzoukas and Baker.
As for the characters, I knew from something I’d read that there’d be connections to classic TOS stuff, but still didn’t foresee that we’d get a Medusan (!). The suit makes all the sense in the world, now, though. Lots of folks thought the Tellarite character would be a Talaxian (to be fair, it makes sense for the setting, and the stylization of the character design can be read as either pretty easily), but I did see at least one person who suggested four months ago, when these characters were first seen, that it could be a Tellarite. But who knew they’d bring in a species from the novels?!
That was me!
Seriously, I couldn’t figure how people thought he was Talaxian give the porcine snout, cloven hoof-hand and tusk.
And I had been trying to convince everyone that the one on the right was a Brikarian, first introduced in the Starfleet Academy novels, but was getting no takers.
I’m still thinking that the one from “an unknown species” will turn out to be Talaxian, but that’s likely to be a plot point for the young viewers.
Because they don’t look anything alike. Maybe it is some sort of dimorphism between their genders or races? Anyway congrats to your good guess. I’m happy you were right. I highly appreciate that they brought something from the novels to canon. :)
…and sorry, I mean sexes not genders of course.
We’ve seen a few different versions of Tellarites.
My thought is that we haven’t seen an adolescent Tellarite before, and kids can take on some interesting features as they grow and develop.
But I actually like the Discovery version of Tellarites best.
I always thought the TOS ones were awful, especially as they reminded me of a pretty bad early 1960s movie where people on Atlantis turned prisoners into pig-faced people. It looked like the same prosthetic makeup was used.
I have to hand it to you, you seriously know your Trek man. It never hit me it was a Tellarite even though it was literally right in front of us lol. Like many I thought it was a Talaxian OR one mixed with something else. Never heard of a Brikarian until now. But I can imagine that’s getting a lot of google hits today. ;)
But I do like that the new shows is using more of the book canon to tell their stories just like Star Wars started doing with the old E.U. books and comics. Again, it makes things just feel more whole and a nice shout out to the book readers.
All sounds and looks great so far!
Very interesting half the crew come from the Alpha quadrant, so I guess we are going to get an interesting backstory how they all ended up in the Delta quadrant, especially being kids no less. And it does make you wonder now will they pull a Voyager and it’s about trying to get back to Federation space as well?
And the first Tellarite as a main cast member, doubly cool! Although funny it never occurred it actually was one lol. I kind of thought maybe it would be a Talaxian.
Dying to see what the new Starship looks like, but I’m guessing it won’t be the Voyager A. ;)
Actually Peter David first introduced Zak Kebron in the Starfleet Academy series as a rival for Worf while Worf was at the academy.
Sounds a lot like Zac Efron :-)
Laurie will be pleased that Rok-Tahk is a girl!
This show seems awfully promising so far. I wish they’d give us a premiere date.
I hoped they would go the Hank Mccoy route with Rok, in which the character who looks the most dim-witted is in fact the smartest. Good choice from them. Like what I see so far. Only the name Zero is kind of lame.
My guess: it’s short for something else–a nickname.
The Medusan cause me to raise an eyebrow. Gotta say that one has the potential to be an inspired choice. Very interesting…
I’m now more curious to see where they are going with this show.
Hmm, the proposed Star Trek: Final Frontier cartoon had a character in a ‘containment suit’ named Zero… hoping that’s either a weird coincidence or maybe one or more people on that team are now on Prodigy…
http://www.startrekff.com/
It’s probably the case that ViacomCBS owns the rights to the characters.
I’m thinking that part of the legal framework that allows fan productions to play in the universe is that ViacomCBS can use character concepts and names and bring them into canon.
I know that this is the case for all the litverse tie-in novels. That’s why the Brikarian can be used without royalties to author Peter David who created the planet Brikar and the species.
I wonder if the alpha quadrant kids are there because of the Caretaker? There were other ships brought to the Delta Quadrant aside from Voyager and the Equinox, maybe they were kept by the Caretaker for some reason or another?
Nice touch with the Medusan. With telekinetic abilities, a functional suit seems to be a natural extension of the species.
And people are surprised Q is showing up again. ;)
I don’t think anyone ever saw that species coming back, certainly not on a kids show based in the Delta quadrant. That’s some real out-of-the-box thinking! (no pun intended ;))
But I think based on the kinds of things we been seeing again from the last few seasons from Pike and Talos IV to GOF/Carl and the Borg, all in just the last two years, nothing is off the table anymore. I been saying this for awhile. And you go this deep of a cut with such an obscure species, people have to expect the marquee players eventually making a return again.
The Trek playground is V-A-S-T and these guys really want to play in it. And since all these shows are now covering every major of Star Trek and then some, it stops literally no one from showing up at some point.
I’m getting excited to see what other species will pop up on this show. The ‘crew’ is not only diverse but probably the most random set of aliens we’ve ever had lol. And even bolder they didn’t do any of the more ‘traditional’ aliens like a Vulcan, Klingon, Bajoran or Ferengi.
I have this image in my head of the Hageman brothers sending Trek author and series consultant a memo asking him to send them a memo listing off-beat canon and litverse species for consideration.
In particular, I can see them asking if there is any large superstrong species, that could loom like the Trolls in Trollhunters. And Mack would just shoot over a precis of the Brikarians, noting that they were created for the Starfleet Academy novels, and that would be it.
I don’t pretend to know these guys or their work (but I keep saying I’m going to watch Trollhunters a bit and I DID finally get around to watching TAS so you know I’m not just saying that ;)), but clearly you do. And based on the VERY little we’ve seen so far, I have to say I am impressed so far.
Everything about the show feels and sounds fresh thus far but also sounds like it will still tell stories like classic Trek did. Although I’m 100% sure it was Kurtzman/CBS idea to get Kate Mulgrew involved in the show as Janeway to draw old fans in (and it’s working lol) it does seem like they are coming up with some different angles and wildly varied characters to give us deep dives into species we know zip or very little about. Also the fact there isn’t a single human on the crew also tells you they want this show to feel more ‘alien’ than all the previous ones. And moving it out of Federation space at the same time makes the premise of this show probably the most unconventional show so far from all the others…and that’s a great thing!
But I expect to see TONS of cameos from Voyager and possibly other shows, flashbacks to the Alpha quadrant etc,; especially since the point is probably to get kids to check out the other shows like VOY/TNG/DS9 etc. But it does seem like it’s going to go in a unique direction we haven’t seen in a long time. But I’m probably overthinking it again. ;)
Eitherway this is beyond what I originally expected when I heard the original premise and was kind of iffy on it. Now I’m totally intrigued about all of and we haven’t seen a trailer yet.
After I heard that the Hageman brothers will do Star Trek I checked out some episodes of Trollhunters and was pleasantly surprised. Just by the name of it, I thought this was some kind of cheap cash grab, but the opposite was the case. You could really see that the makers put a lot of love and thought into it. It remembered me of Disney’s Gargoyles, which I also quite enjoyed back in the day. If you not already know that, you should check this out for the Trek connections. I know you are a fan huge of Frakes.
I actually remember Gargoyles when I was younger. I’ve never watched it though. I just checked and that’s on Disney+ which I have. So maybe I’ll check them both out but I’ll try Trollhunters first since so many seem to really like that one, but thanks!
Gee, didn’t Peter David and Bill Mumy already cover some of this same ground with SPACE CASES back in the 1990’s?
Not really.
I keep waiting for someone to mention that Dee Bradley Baker voices all clone troopers in a popular space fantasy franchise. Or that he voiced Dark Helmet in Spaceballs: The Animated Series.
You call it a Kaminoan cloning facility, I call it a dee bradley bakery
LOL. Good one Fred :-)
I don’t know if it’s the heat or I’ve been watching Star Trek too long but the first thing I saw in that image of Dal looking out the view screen is the outline of the Enterprise in the nebula!
Huh. That kid played young Patrick Stewart in The Kid Who Would Be King. Cool coincidence
I have been a fan of all things Trek since I was 9 years old(1966…), and all I can say is YEEEEEESSSSSS!!!!