[Prodigy review starts at 13:44]
Tony and Laurie, as always, start with the news: Discovery and Picard picked up three Saturn awards, the new Center Seat documentary premieres in November, and you can expect (at some point) to see Lower Decks books and comics. They talk about the SyFy Sistas’ takeover of the Shuttle Pod podcast and Tony tells Laurie about his evening at the Star Trek: Prodigy premiere event in Los Angeles.
And at last, they review the Prodigy premiere, talking about the characters, the story, the animation, the music, and the Star Trekness of it all—and Tony’s niece and nephew Ani (age 12) and David (age 9) chime in as Star Trek newbies (and the target audience for the show).
They wrap up with a look at politicians in an age-old debate (Star Trek vs. Star Wars) and an upcoming Prodigy event Laurie’s hosting on Zoom.
Links:
‘Star Trek: Discovery’ And ‘Picard’ Pick Up 3 Saturn Awards
‘The Center Seat’ Star Trek Docuseries To Debut On History Channel In November
Review: ‘The Toys That Made Us’ Delivers A Fun History Of Star Trek Toys
INTERVIEW: Producer of New History Channel Documentary Talks “50 Years Of Star Trek”
SyFy Sistas Shuttle Pod Takeover: Black Representation In Star Trek Cinema
MikeMcMahan and John Van Citters talk Lower Decks books and comics (Twitter)
Eaglemoss’ USS Cerritos (Entertainment Earth)
TrekMovie at the Star Trek: Prodigy premiere in L.A. (Twitter)
Trekbits:
Tony: Watch unconventional debate between Booker, Malinowski, Kim, Koning
Laurie: Join me for a Prodigy Zoom “after-watch party” on Thursday, Nov. 4 at The Watercooler
Let us know what you think of the episode in the comments, and please post your suggestions for topics we should cover in the future as well as guests you’d like us to have on.
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Hey guys. Is it worth exploring the feasibility of using the animation technology on display in Prodigy to provide a platform for more legacy characters to return to the Trek universe in their original timelines? Obviously age is no longer an issue with this new technology. There is no shortage of stories out there!
Where do I sign the petition for a visit from Neelix?
:)
I think a TAS reboot would be awesome.
The amazing thing would be if they got all the voice files from the cancelled Interplay Star Trek: Secret of Vulcan Fury and then finished the CGI as a show (the game was to be a CGI part 3 to 25th anniversary and Judgement Rites, two of the best Trek games out there). My understanding is all the voices were recorded, story written by DC Fontana, etc.
Just think a whole new TOS episode with the original actors doing the voices in episodes written by DC Fontana!
that would be absolutely amazing! Make it so!
Here is an actual trailer for the game – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DoSUk8eeFKE
Also some scenes – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZT_qg0jH0U
Not bad for CGI at the time but I think you redo it all to modern standards.
Secret of Vulcan Fury would be a crazy amazing animated movie. Frustrating and confusing all the assets sit unused for a quarter century.
I’ve had that exact same fantasy for years.
I thought it was going to be very juvenile and cutesy. Generally speaking, the pilot episode was extraordinarily well done. Amazing sound design. Excellent animation. Great mix of appealing to young and old. Sure, lots of tropes, you have to forgive that. But truly a cinematic quality animated offering. Better than Discovery S3.
It shows tons of promise but the overall feel is a bit too star warsy in the first episode. Interested to see where it goes now.
I agree. It started out way too Star wars for my taste. But since it is serialized, I’m hoping it gets closer to trek as it moves on.
I keep hearing that Star Wars complaint – if you mean entertaining, fun, not preachy and visually stunning, I agree.
This is a (good) kids show, can we please just let it be what it is — and not try to force 55 years of minutia and (mostly) low-budget mediocrity onto it.
I’m really hoping cartoon Janeway isn’t a Federation propaganda machine. Nothing will bore kids (and adults) faster.
Well, it’s not a bad thing. In fact Star Wars, in my opinion, set the tone for dark villain, dark apprentice kind of storylines. I don’t mind trek learning from the franchise and kids do like Star Wars more than trek. I’m confident though the comparison will end after the pilot. It’s ok to mix a little rock and roll into classical music sometimes.
I didn’t hate it. I loved the animation, characters, and story. But, it’s hard not to see a Star Wars comparison in the beginning of the pilot.
I am a little annoyed that I couldn’t find a way to get any english subtitles for the alien languages spoken in the episode, but other than that it was really good.
I think that this was one of the educational points of the episode
– that you need to be able to communicate with one another, and that without communication we will make wildly inaccurate assumptions about one another.
The other lesson was to be tenacious and not give into despair.
There weren’t any. The point is that nobody can understand each other. It wouldn’t work if we knew she was saying “hey, need a hand?” or something.
More observations from kids would be welcome.
Our kids gave me a real reality check on what works in kids’ television now. (They’re still doing it now that they are teens, but they aren’t the target audience for this show. They did like the premiere though. It may be their favourite of the SH series so far.)