New Admiral Janeway Log Connects ‘Star Trek: Prodigy’ To ‘Picard’

In the fourth entry of the new series of Star Trek Logs on Instagram, Vice Admiral Janeway (voiced by Kate Mulgrew) starts making some more connections to Star Trek lore.

Janeway not dissuaded by Protostar crew looking like kids

In the new log today, Admiral Janeway reflects on learning in episode 14 (“Crossroads”) that the “outlaws” who have control of the USS Protostar are “little more than teenagers,” but that doesn’t change her resolve, citing examples of the rapid-maturing Ocampa (from Voyager) and slow-aging natives of the planet Miri (from TOS).  She also picks up the story from the Romulan encounter at the end of the episode.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Star Trek Logs (@startreklogs)

Janeway is determined to capture the USS Protostar and “download their logs” to get to the bottom of things, noting that is “per Starfleet regulations.” This is exactly what the Diviner hoped will happen when he hid the weapon on the Protostar, and it’s why the kids in command of the ship are trying to keep it as far away from the USS Dauntless and the rest of Starfleet, although their attempt to bury the ship in ice last week ended up backfiring.

Connecting to Picard

The log ended with Admiral Janeway’s concern about following the USS Protostar into the Romulan Neutral Zone, noting:

We nearly endangered our fragile truce with the Romulans and the evacuation dealings there. Jean-Luc would never forgive me.

The first season of Prodigy is set in the year 2384, which is five years after Star Trek: Nemesis. And, as established in Star Trek: Picard, at this point the Romulan sun is heading to a supernova; Jean-Luc Picard has been promoted to admiral and is heading up the Federations refugee efforts. The first season of Picard included a number of flashbacks to 2385 as Admiral Picard worked to help the Romulans, which explains Admiral Janeway’s concern about his reaction to her endangering the truce.

A flashback scene from “Absolute Candor” with Admiral Picard and Romulan refugees

This connection to Picard and the dealings with the Romulans was hinted at last week when Commander Tyses expressed his concern over unspecified “negotiations” with the Romulans. When this scene was highlighted on Twitter by Larry Nemecek, Prodigy co-executive producer Aaron Waltke (who writes the Janeway logs) noted that line from Tyses “says so much with so little.”

With Prodigy, Lower Decks, and elements of Picard all set in this post-Nemesis decade of Star Trek’s future history, we should probably expect more of these kinds of connections, especially as the Protostar gets closer to the Federation.


Keep up with news about the Star Trek Universe at TrekMovie.com.

44 Comments
oldest
newest
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments

“The Ocampa are adults at nine years of age.” Shouldn’t this be “one year”?

Yeah. They die at nine.

The producer clarified she meant full adults, as in maximum lifespan. Either way, her statement is correct.

It’s not incorrect, but it’s odd within the context of the statement, which is that apparent ages can be deceiving. It’s like saying that a human is an adult at 100 — yeah, you don’t stop being an adult. It’s when you first become an adult that’s noteworthy.

Mulgrew forgot how to pronounce “Ocampa,” too.

Tomato tomato
Ocampa Ocampa
Pecan pecan
It doesn’t matter.
.
Exception: Data data. Polish polish.

I have the vague impression that Voyager slowly phased “Ocampa” out in favour of “Ocampans.” Star Trek has always had a peculiar relationship with non-standard plurals.

It’s not the only error. On Miri’s planet, the children suffered an unnatural extended childhood, then suddenly aged up and died on reaching adulthood. The disease was cured, after which I assumed that they went back to a human lifespan (the planet was an exact duplicate of Earth).
A better analogy would be the race from Voyager’s ‘Innocence’, who age in reverse.

Also, it’s curious that everyone apparently call the planet “Miri,” when that was the name of a character. At least they’re consistent on that.

Not sure how pointing out that those on the Miri homeworld had an extended childhood that lasted unnaturally long makes her statement an error. It backs up her point that apparent age can be deceiving.

What prevents the kids in the Protostar from deploying a probe with the ship’s logs and an account of what’s happened since the first episode as told by Hologram Janeway and sending it over to the Dauntless with a warning about the weapon that keeps them from approaching Federation space?

Further, what prevents Hologram Janeway from sending herself over to the Dauntless like the Doctor sent himself to the Alpha Quadrant?

A probe containing logs uploaded with code from a ship with a weapon designed to infiltrate and corrupt ship systems doesn’t seem like a safe bet.

Actually what they could do is project the message in light on the hull of Dauntless, kind of the way protesters are using projectors on buildings.

For that to work, they would first need to establish some form of contact to tell Dauntless that they will project a message onto the hull. It’s not like Admiral Janeway will allow them to get close and wait patiently for some sort of message.

What if Okona carried a message for them?

Okona doesn’t have the best reputation, either. Remember he was arrested in the last episode.
But, yeah, they could drop Okona off on a planet or so to wait for Janeway to find (and arrest?) him.

Makes the most sense.

Is Hologram Janeway infected with the same code?

Anything tech from the ship would infect Starfleet. But an analogue solution like a handwritten note or an explanation related through a neutral person or a non-Protostar recording device would do the trick.

Okona could be their messenger.

And one whom Starfleet has trouble believing, which would be a plausible way to keep their suspicion of the crew going.

Indeed.

Prodigy, Strange New Worlds, and Lower decks are all awesome. I am really enjoying them.

Same! 👍

Star Trek done right!

I agree and Discovery and Picard are equally as awesome too.

Eh, both of those shows are too much of a dumpster fire for me… but happy you and others enjoy them!

Ditto.

Discovery and Picard are much better than the other three.

It still brings a huge smile to my face Kate Mulgrew is back in Star Trek again. And really hoping we see a live action version of Janeway pop up at some point! Maybe in Picard season 3…maybe!

I have a hunch she will show up for Seven. Maybe at the end of the season, to set the stage for the new show!?!

I think if she was they would have announced it at the Star Trek Day thing, or the SD and NYC comic-cons.

Kate has said she wants to do it, the Kurtzman says there are talks happening, but nothing is set in stone yet.

Not necessarily. We didn’t know Wesley was showing up in season 2. She could still show up it might just be a small surprise cameo.

Wait a minute, the Romulan sun goes Supernova? I thought Star Trek 2009 established it was a star that was lightyears away and somehow this supernova was FTL?

Picard’s premiere identifies it as the Romulan sun.

Which doesn’t quite make sense, since destroying the supernova with red matter still wouldn’t have saved Romulus in that case. Nero really had no reason to be mad at Spock.

Yep exactly. It kinda erases the whole point of ST 2009

Nero never had a particularly strong motivation.

That’s true. But more to the point, Spock’s plan still would have made no sense. Even if you stop the supernova. If Romulus’ sun goes supernova and you stop it, the solar system can’t survive without the sun. Forget for a minute there is no het from the sun to let the life survive, there is no gravity to keep the planets in orbit, there are so many reasons why life would die off fast.

The fact that there any plan to actually stop the supernova, successful or otherwise, seems weirdly forgotten by the time of Picard.

Yeah, he stopped it some time after it had destroyed Romulus — because it was apparently expanding infinitely at near-warp speed and threatening to destroy the galaxy (or something), hence the Vulcan weapon, I think Nero was angry that they hadn’t evacuated sooner or something. Also, none of this has ever been clearly explained or has ever made sense.

But of the various Protostar crew, she knows the species of at least four, and knows they don’t age unnaturally. Does she think the other two are adults manipulating them?

The children on Miri homeworld had a disease that caused them to retaim the appearance of being children for unnaturally long.

I really, really want to get into this but the aesthetic repulses me. I’m not being dramatic, I mean literally repulsive. There’s just something about this style of animation – specifically the design, not the animation itself – that really stabs it’s way into a very primitive part of my brain and jolts at something…unpleasant. I’d honestly feel more comfortable looking at an open wound or maybe licking a battery. The feeling is somewhere between the two and somehow worse than both.

Might it be the ‘uncanny valley’ (where people start to look realistic, but somehow just look wrong)?