‘Star Trek: Prodigy’ Producer Clarifies Details On Admiral Janeway’s USS Dauntless

An executive producer from Star Trek: Prodigy is offering some insights into an important ship for season one.

 

Dauntless details

The first half of season one of Star Trek: Prodigy wrapped up in February with a cliffhanger, revealing the very real Vice Admiral Janeway was searching for the USS Protostar. Her ship was revealed to the USS Dauntless, a new Starfleet vessel that used the same design and slipstream drive as an alien ship of the same name that was disguised as a Starfleet ship from the Star Trek: Voyager episode “Hope and Fear.”

The USS Dauntless from Prodigy

Fake USS Dauntless from Voyager

There has been some confusion about that ship, so executive producer Aaron Waltke took to Twitter to try to clear some things up. He started by explaining that even if “Dauntless 2” was a nickname used by some of the writers internally, the ship is officially just the USS Dauntless in canon.

Why Dauntless?

This post solicited a number of questions, which Waltke has been answering, which included clearing up Janeway kept the name.

Why the same design?

Waltke got into some details on how Starfleet designed the new ship based on the scans brought back by the USS Voyager.

He suggested that Janeway’s version might be a bit bigger than the fake one.

Waltke noted that the design of the original fake Dauntless was related to the function of the slipstream drive as envisioned by the original designer Rick Sternbach.

 

Why similar bridge?

Starfleet’s version of the ship also used a similar design for the bridge.

Admiral Janeway on the bridge of the real USS Dauntless

Fake USS Dauntless bridge from Voyager

Waltke found himself defending this from critiques from Star Trek novelist Christopher L. Bennet, explaining both that it was an aesthetic choice and that it wasn’t an exact match.

What about the registry?

To further clarify, he explained that the reason it isn’t the “Dauntless-A” is because the “USS Dauntless” encountered by the USS Voyager crew wasn’t a real Starfleet ship.

The fake version of the “USS Dauntless” had the registry NX-01-A. Admiral Janeway’s real USS Dauntless had the registry NCC-80816.

Registry for real USS Dauntless

Registry for fake USS Dauntless from Voyager

He also revealed the origin of the ship’s NCC registry number as the birthday of co-executive producer Patrick Krebs, and that the USS Protostar registry (NCC-76884) comes from his own birthday.

Dauntless class?

He also confirmed this ship is the first of a new class and promised we will see more of it in the second half of season one, coming up later this year.

 

More on the new Dauntless and second half of season one

In case you missed it, Waltke offered the following details on the Dauntless in his February interview with TrekMovie:

As for the ship Janeway was captaining (or admiraling?), that was indeed a Starfleet recreation of the fake (but fully functional) USS Dauntless. You’ll notice it is not the original Dauntless, as the exterior hull has more of a tritanium finish, the nacelles are a tad different, and the registry suggests it was made after Voyager’s return. If you recall, the crew of Voyager had ample time to study the alien ship version of the Dauntless that was created by Arturis—they took detailed scans of its entire ship schematics. So detailed, in fact, that Voyager was able to later construct a (mostly) functioning quantum slipstream drive from their logs using the limited resources they had in the Delta Quadrant—shaving 10,000 lightyears off their journey.

It’s now been several years since Voyager returned to Earth from the Delta Quadrant, loaded stem to stern with data they’ve collected on game-changing faster-than-light technology — quantum slipstream, Borg transwarp, coaxial warp drive, the list goes on. Starfleet has had years to study it and begin to perfect and implement these designs. This new Dauntless is among the fruits of that labor. It only makes sense that if Janeway were to mount a rescue mission back into the Delta Quadrant, she’d take something fast. This Dauntless is also equipped with standard warp technology, as Janeway mentions in the closing scene. We know from Voyager and Discovery Season 3 that quantum slipstream isn’t easily scalable to be used fleet-wide due to the rarity of benamitesynthesizing it takes yearsbut the tech still exists in the 31st century, even after the Burn. For a single ship, though, having a version of limited slipstream as an option doesn’t hurt.

And at Star Trek: Mission Chicago, co-creator Dan Hageman talked about how the second half of season one will focus on Janeway’s pursuit (aboard the Dauntless) of the USS Protostar:

We’ve introduced Admiral Janeway and her crew. And I just we just love this idea that Admiral Janeway is coming after the kids. She wants that [the Protostar], because she knows that ship leads to Chakotay. And these kids, they thought they were ready, but they don’t know what they’re in for because Admiral Janeway is not going to quit. And with the help of Hologram Janeway, they’re going to do the best they can to keep out of her sight.

Paramount has not yet given a specific date for the return of Star Trek: Prodigy except to say the second half of season one has 1o episodes and will arrive later in 2022.


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

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The letter designation is an extremely rare privilege, much less frequent than a team retiring a number and putting it up in the rafters. The Enterprise and the Voyager are amongst the only ships to get that honor.

That has never been said in any episode or film.

True. Never been said on screen. Gene Roddenberry said it at a convention.

However, we’ve seen some others with letters recently. Discovery doesn’t really count as it’s the same ship, but the Tikov, Relativity, and Excalibur all have letters.

True, but the Defiant does not.

Ufff, great comeback!

I like it.

It feels overly complicated, and finding an answer only when those questions were asked.

Probably why they didn’t try to squeeze in those answers to the show… only a very small percentage of people would even be asking the questions in the first place, so it’s not worth bogging down the pacing to explain every detail. Personally, I think it makes total sense the first quantum slipstream ship would bear the name Dauntless, especially because we see in Enterprise that in the future, the Federation has Dauntless class ships.

I’m guessing some of it will be explained on the show though. We only saw it for literally less than a minute in the finale. I don’t think they will go into huge details but they still have to explain what the ship is and how it works to its new audience; especially since the show was made for young viewers who won’t know anything about its history and why Janeway has it.

Wouldn’t it have been a lot easier to just say “well it was cheaper to reuse an existing 3d model”

A 25 year old CG model would hardly be easier to translate into modern Vfx, assuming the file still exists.

But I think that you’re missing the point. Prodigy is intended to be an entry point into the franchise. So, it needs to tie into the other shows concretely.

Voyager is currently the most successful among the tween crowd of all the classic series. It’s important for there to be reverse Easter eggs in Prodigy. When kids who watch Prodigy move onto Voyager and see that Dauntless fake, they will be able to straightforwardly connect the dots to the quantum slipstream tech in Voyager and later series.

I love the real Dauntless in Star Trek: Prodigy, to be honest. Unclear on whether or not the midseason premiere would include the “Previously this season on” segment either before the main title sequence or between that and act one.

I like the Dauntless but the fanboy in me would’ve also loved a Quantum slipstream Voyager A too. ;)

Very excited for the rest of the season. I’m really intrigued about where Prodigy is going and can’t wait until they meet up with Captain Chakotay!

That is one ugly ship.

More simple explanation: The production team only skimmed Voyager, saw some mentions of this ship on line but didn’t realize it wasn’t an actual starfleet ship.

See how short that explanation was?

Sigh

Read this and tell me does this sound like someone who just ‘skimmed’ episodes?

https://trekmovie.com/2022/02/03/interview-star-trek-prodigy-producer-aaron-waltke-talks-timelines-janeways-combadges-and-much-more/

I get people don’t like some of the new shows or think the writers don’t care about canon. But believe it or not, some actually do and take it very, very seriously. And considering this show is basically a Voyager spin off show, I think they are taking everything that show did very seriously because they know fans will ding them for it if they don’t.

Is there going to be an explanation as to why quantum slipstream didn’t replace warp drive during the dark, post-burn years, in Discovery? Or whatever prototype drive the Protostar is using.

I mean the explanation is literally in the article you supposedly read, but OK.

Slipstream uses another even more rare mineral, which also has limited possibilities for reprocessing and reuse.

I really want to put out there how absolutely delighted I am that we’re finally getting a canonical onscreen quantum slipstream Starfleet ship.

As Tiger2 would have it, it’s more proof that the. Berman era EPs were wrong when they argued that the franchise couldn’t go forward in time once Voyager returned from the Delta Quadrant.

Slipstream technology played a huge role in opening up exploration in the Relaunch Litverse, especially in the Voyager Full Circle series by Kirsten Beyer.

It works well story wise because it’s based on a mineral that’s even more rare than dilithium, and can only be reprocessed a limited number of times. It also requires specialized configuration of the ships. So it can’t be the drive for every vessel, it’s not civilian tech, and warp remains the principle FTL technology. But it’s not as unique as the spore drive so that it can be distributed across capital ships if used sparingly.

If there are to be more show moving into the 25th century, quantum slipstream will open up exploration in the Delta and Gamma Quadrants in a way not possible in the 90s series.

In terms of the model of the Dauntless, I’m not loving it. It has many of the globby stylistic elements of the 24th century ships but amped up.

I do understand why it’s essential for it to tie into the Dauntless shown in Voyager though. So it’s fine.

I just hope that later slipstream ships will have the graceful designs of the Vesta class of the Litverse. The Aventine is a gorgeous ship, it also an enormous one.

I’ll say one thing, they love their graceful chairs in front of over lit doors in the 25th century and beyond.
But I do have a question – “I do understand why it’s essential for it to tie into the Dauntless shown in Voyager though”.
I don’t at all. Why is it essential? Wasn’t that a fake Federation starship?
I guess it’s to appeal to adults who watched Voyager, but I am pretty sure for new kids they will find that blog ugly and further confused on warp vs. slipstream.

It will be an exciting reverse Easter egg when the kids move on from Prodigy to Voyager. When they get to that part of Voyager’s run they will be able to get the backstory on quantum slipstream.

I still haven’t quite figured out why it’s so, but I recognize that of all the classic series, Voyager has the greatest appeal for middle graders. While many of us loved TOS and/or TNG in after school reruns, Voyager dominates viewership in that age range now.

It was very shrewd to directly tie in the show targeted at kids with the classic series they are most likely to move onto next.

So the plan is to get kids to watch Voyager to kill the franchise again? Didn’t VOY destroy the franchise audience once enough?
Fascinating.

You obviously spoke my mind TG47! :)

Yeah obviously agree with everything you said. That’s what is great about Star Trek, they keep taking technology and enhancing it generation after generation. That’s what makes it fun. I’m really happy the makers of this show is grasping on to canon in a big way and imploring it in their stories. And let’s face it, after the Spore Drive, nothing can ever top that lol. That’s why that should’ve been designed in the 32nd century and not the 23rd, but I digress. ;)

When the show first started, I thought we would just go through old Voyager territory in the Delta Quadrant for the newbies. But now knowing the show is going to jump in all the quadrants is crazy but fun. I really hope the Jem Hadar show up at some point in the Gamma quadrant. It’s really giving kids an overview of the Star Trek universe no one show can do except Discovery right now ironically.

And I’m not a big fan of the Dauntless myself. It’s funny but if you watch Trekyards, Cockings LOVE this design and happy to see it back while Captain Foley thinks it’s one of the ugliest ships in Trek. I’m somewhere in the middle but lean closer to Foley. I would’ve loved seeing a Voyager A on this show.

Hopefully this new Dauntless, like the other Dauntless, ends up gone soon along with the over complicated irrelevant time travel plot. Why not send that forward or back in time or whatever to be the other Dauntless that it doesn’t distract from the actual fun show with the kids exploring the final frontier on the other side of the galaxy?
Maybe they’ll meet the real Admiral Janeway, realize all they are headed for is the Burn combined with the Young and the Restless on Earth and decide to turn around and go chart their own way. Janeway I think of all characters would appreciate the good script opportunities with the kids on the frontier versus the horrid writing that was most of Voyager.
If everyone really wants the real Admiral Janeway vs. holo Janeway, Admiral Janeway can decide to join them and head out there. Maybe the Dauntless gets destroyed and she has to beam over to the Prodigy to escape and they get transported far far away from the holodecks back home.