‘Star Trek: Prodigy’ Update: Murf’s Origins, New Promos, Soundtrack Release, And More

| October 30, 2021 | By: TrekMovie.com Staff 33 comments so far

This week saw the premiere of a brand new entry into the franchise with Star Trek: Prodigy. Since the Thursday debut, there have been a few updates from Paramount+ and the team behind the show.

Writers talk Murf’s origins

In an interview with Syfy, Dan and Kevin Hageman revealed that the character of Murf was not part of their original pitch for the show and was added “very late into the game.” They elaborated:

Kevin: We were falling in love with the show, and the characters, more and more. And we were like: “Wouldn’t it be funny if, for whatever reason, the last beat in the [pilot] script is — what if Dal (voiced by Brett Gray) comes back from getting sent to the planet’s surface, he quickly finds out he has been replaced by this semi-sentient blob?”

Dan: And I think we ended up including Rok-Tahk, the one who brings Murf onboard [the starship Protostar], in a slightly different way. But it started off as a joke. And, the more we thought about it, we just kind of love this idea that — because it is for a Nickelodeon show — there should be like a dog-type character, you know? Something the kids can easily lock onto. Our goal here was, if the typical Star Trek shows are [about] fully formed adults, let’s see kids who are growing and failing.

Prodigy writer Julie Benson revealed some of the various names the writers considered before she thought of a driver she worked with on The 100 named “Murph.”

We still don’t know exactly what Murf is, and writer Aaron Waltke teased that there is some canon connection no one has guessed yet. The TrekMovie team is going to guess some connection to that blu bio-neural gel used by the USS Voyager.

New promo video

This promo shows off some of what’s coming in the first season.

Cast, creatives, and a clip on Ready Room

The Hageman brothers and Kate Mulgrew joined The Ready Room, along with a clip from episode 3 (coming next week).

And here is some more from the cast and producers, giving an overview on the series.

 

Character sheets

Paramount+ has put out a series of character sheets with details on each.

Click on thumbnails below to enlarge

 

BTW it’s PRO

In case you were wondering, Waltke also confirmed the official three-letter abbreviation used for Prodigy is “PRO.”

Another Voyager Easter Egg

While the canon connections for this first episode for a show designed to bring in new fans were few, the writers still got a few in (as noted by our review). One we missed was pointed out by writer Aaron Waltke with Dal’s mention of the “Window Of Dreams,” originally coming from the Voyager episode Body and Soul.”

Gwyn and the “Balance” of friendship

Pilot Soundtrack available digitally now

Nami Melumad’s score for the first two episodes has been released digitally and is available now at Spotify, Apple, Pandora, and other music streaming services.

Paramount+ giveaway

Paramount+ is running a giveaway on Twitter where you can win a $100 gift card just by commenting on a tweet. The deadline is midnight Sunday, October 31.

New episodes of Prodigy premiere on Thursdays on Paramount+ in the U.S. and on CTV Sci-Fi Channel in Canada, where it’s also available to stream on Crave. It is available on Paramount+ in Latin American, the Nordic Countries, and Australia. It will debut in 2022 in other parts of Europe with the launch of the Paramouint+ Sky partnership.

Keep up with all the news and reviews from the new Star Trek Universe on TV at TrekMovie.com.

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My prediction for Murf this season: He dies tragically in the finale but ressurected next season because bridge crew always comes back!

He so adorable. He is clearly there to sell toys but I think it’s going to work lol.

I don’t want to jump too far ahead too soon (we seen how that’s worked out in the past ;)) but I think most fans are going to really enjoy this show. Like Lower Decks, it’s not really something I thought Star Trek needed until we got it. It’s just nice to see the franchise being expanded on for both in universe and its fanbase.

Ok, here’s my kind of out there theory: He’s a Changling.

He was one of the 100, along with Odo, Laas, and the baby Odo met and worked with. However, he some how wound up on Tars Lamora somehow. Without guidance from Dr. Mora this is how he developed naturally and perhaps doesn’t quite know that he can shape shift.

As I see it there are two cons in the theory: 1. He seemed to be eating starship parts and 2. He doesn’t look like how the Changelings looked in their liquid states on DS9. As for #1 did we see him actually digest what he was consuming, maybe he was just studying it by absorbing it. As for #2. It wouldn’t be the first time we’ve seen a redesign of an iconic alien, ala the Romulans, Klingons, and now the Ferengi.

He said it’s a very obscure connection to canon. How could a Changeling be considered obscure when they were the Big Bad of DS9? So… no.

I’ve seen speculation in other social media that Murf could be a good version of Armus (Skin of Evil). This would track on the indestructible gelatinous composition and in the machinery digesting behaviour.

But we have no reason to believe that the species Armus was extracted from was also gelatinous. And Armus isn’t what many of us would consider obscure.

My own theory is that it might be the life form that Voyager encountered that made a duplicate of the crew. (Demon & Oblivion, Silver Blood two part in Voyager.) This would make some sense as it was a Delta Quadrant life form.

I like your theory a lot. “Course:Oblivion” upset me a lot back in the day. It was so depressing and bleak. But if that fake crew ended up giving birth to this adorable life form, it would give meaning to that storyline. I can hear hear TMP’s Admiral Kirk saying: Have we just seen the beginning of a new lifeform? :-)

The glowing stars inside Murf also remind me of that strange alien boxer from chaotic space that Chakotay had to fight in a very obscure VOY episode :-) Actually, that episode “The Fight” was the next ep after “Course Oblivion”… Maybe what was left of the fake VOY crew was sucked into chaotic space and reassembled into Murf :-)

Armus… nah… I still believe Armus is a rejected Changeling / Founder. He was extracted to create the Great Link and left on Viagra III to rot.

That’s Vagra II actually (but I believe that was an intentional pun on your part.)

BTW according to Memory Alpha’s account of the TNG episode Skin of Evil, the departed Vagrans were supposedly “celestially” beautiful.

As some of the reviewers describe Murf as attractive to kids due to its nebula like colouring with stars, that might be one in the Murf as Vagran column.

Personally, I agree that having Murf be a happy outcome from Course: Oblivion would be excellent. Unlike you, I found the Demon/Oblivion excellent and some of the most genuinely edgy high concept sci-fi in Trek. The ending was incredibly sad, and damming of the choice made by Janeway, but great writing about the risks and consequences of bold decisions. (TOS and TNG avoided this by not following up with consequences.)

Did you say Vi’gr’?

Murf’s origins… I’m guessing Yahpet from The Orville.

Because “The Orville“ invented the concept of the Blob lifeform.
Oh wait, it was around at least since “The Blob“ im the 60s…
Seriously, next accusation is “they copy from Orvill cause they also have humanoid characters LOL

But the Orville is a clear homage to Trek. So if they copy a character from them, so what?

Or…. Dave was clearly kidding.

R.I.P. Norm Macdonald

Loving Prodigy right from the start. I do not have a problem ‘playing’ with my inner child, even in my 60s! The show looks cinematic on my cinema screen and in surround sound. Good work to all involved.

PS if anything is going to get Paramount/CBS to digitally upgrade Voyager, I’m hoping the renaissance of Janeway here will make it so!

That would be a nice trade off if it gets a lot of new viewers to start watching Voyager because of this show! Sadly I still don’t really see it happening and it could be years away but who knows? I hope you’re listening though CBS/Paramount! As Janeway says, do it!

Given the Netflix viewing stats for the older Trek series, and how many people on social media say that Voyager reruns got them into Trek, it seems likely that Prodigy is intentionally trying to get new viewers to get into the Voyager library.

After all, if Prodigy brings in parents and older siblings who have no prior Trek exposure, Voyager would be the first stop.

I expect that it is entirely without coincidence that Voyager’s run on Netflix and the premiere of Prodigy happened in the same month.

Definitely agree!

In fact, I was saying this as far back as 2018 once Picard was announced that CBS is going to do everything possible to get new viewers watching all the old shows as much as the new ones. Some people were suggesting the opposite and they would try and find a way to ignore some of the older shows like VOY. That’s just not how media companies think, especially when they can find ways to sell more merchandise of their older shows/movies to a newer generation. It’s a win-win for them!

But I’m actually surprised how much attention Voyager is getting these days. You have characters showing up in three separate shows and PRO seems like it will essentially be a VOY spin off now that we know Chakotay is involved too. My guess is we are going to see a lot more VOY characters on this show as well.

And yes thanks to streaming all these shows now have new generations of people watching them for the first time. It’s crazy to think there may be more people watching Voyager today than 20 years ago because it’s more accessible and in more places today. There were literally people IN America who couldn’t watch the show if their area didn’t have UPN at the time. Now you can watch it on multiple sites and it’s on in 190 countries thanks to netflix. Technology gave new life to all these shows.

This seems to be Trek’s attempt at Baby Yoda. Haven’t seen the show yet, living in the UK,so can’t comment on how well it works. I hope it’s a smash.

It’s nothing of the sort, no.

Surprisingly, I enjoyed this show. But I do have a question – how did a Tellarite end up stranded in the Delta Quadrant with no knowledge of the Federation or Starfleet?

Same goes for a Medusan. And we saw a Lurian and a Caitian as well. Presumably we will be getting answers eventually.

Same goes for the bajorans. Saw it recently in VOY, when 7o9 was contacted by 3 ex-Borgs. One character was Bajoran and nobody was surprised to encounter a Bajoran.

The Borg have been to the Alpha Quadrant and assimilated people there, and then brought them back to the Delta Quadrant as drones. The Bajoran was probably at Wolf 359 or something. That explanation doesn’t really work for any of the aliens at the prison camp though, since none of them were drones.

My guess is they probably been in the Delta Quadrant most of their life or even born there.

Caretaker abducted tons of ships – and its implied they are as far into the Delta Quadrant as where Caretaker was since there was a Kazon lurking about. Just a theory nothing to go on, but if they never explain it then it would be reasonable head cannon.

I’m more interest in Dal’s background. I’m wondering if he’s a proto-Jem’Hadar, as in before the Founders engineered them. It would track with his look and how deep they are cutting some of the canon and beta canon.

I really am wondering if Gwyn and the Diviner are members of Arturus Species. They both have an affinity for languages, are from the Delta Quadrant, and know of the Federation and Voyager.

They say they are the last of the Vau N’Kat, but it could be a related species.

Any news about the 2 left TOS movies and the TNG movies on 4K blu ray? And will “Birthright”, “Descent” and “Gambit” come out as feature-length blu rays too?

Murf? I bet he comes from the… Smurfs!

Murf is a Nacene.
Child of the 2 caretakers sent to the Delta Quadrant.
Remember how to Caretaker on the Array devolved into that stone fragment. Before that final phase, the Caretaker looked like a non-solid blob.

Ok. Good hypothesis.

Now we have 3 that aren’t anything obvious (unlike the Founder hypothesis).

“Gretchen, stop trying to make ‘fetch’ happen. It’s not going to happen.”

My prediction is that Murf is a Denebian Slime Devil