In the sixth entry of the new series of Star Trek Logs on Instagram, Vice Admiral Janeway (voiced by Kate Mulgrew in a log written by co-executive producer Aaron Waltke) finds her confronting the truth about the Protostar kids, and her own past.
Janeway puts the pieces together
In the new log today, Vice Admiral Janeway reflects on what she learned during episode 16 (“Preludes“) about the kids on the USS Protostar, identifying the Watson Network (first revealed on Star Trek: Voyager) as the source of the new information provided to her by Commander Tyses. Unlike previous logs, this one appears to have been recorded shortly before the episode cliffhanger. Janeway now knows the kids were being held prisoner on Tars Lamora, forced to work the mines, by someone named “The Diviner,” who issued a bounty for “The Unwanted.” Putting it all together Janeway concludes: “Perhaps these Unwanted on the Protostar are not the criminals we thought… and this “Diviner” is our true quarry.”
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Janeway wraps up her log determined to get “the truth” from her guest, who she didn’t know was “The Diviner,” and unfortunately she discovered Ensign Asencia was also a Vau N’Akat in disguise before The Diviner knocked her out with a classic karate chop to the neck.
Again with the Kazon
Janeway also learned that The Diviner was working with the Kazon, her first adversaries when she entered the Delta Quadrant in Star Trek: Voyager. A group she thought she left behind during her long trip home. However, since the first episode of Prodigy, we saw that a Kazon captain was supplying The Diviner with his prison labor. In “Preludes” we saw how Zero, Rok-Tahk, and Jankom were all sold to The Diviner by the Kazon.
Kazon leads Rok-Tahk off in “Preludes”
Janeway explains how the Kazon have traveled so far from their base deep in the Delta Quadrant with regret:
Captured by rogue Kazon, hauled across the quadrant by an illicit transwarp network, stripped of their rights… then sentenced to work in those forsaken mines. It pains me to think crippling the Borg all those years ago would leave this power vacuum – a place where such injustice could thrive.
In the series finale of Star Trek: Voyager “Endgame” the USS Voyager crippled the Borg transwarp network. And a future version of Janeway killed the Borg Queen, which disrupted the Borg Collective for decades. Vice Admiral Janeway is now expressing some regret on one of the unintended consequence of this is that others are using what is left of the transwarp network, including at least one sect of the Kazon. This explains why Prodigy has shown Kazon as far away as the Beta Quadrant.
A Kazon at Denaxi depot in “Crossroads”
It gets even worse
In “Preludes” we saw the Kazon capture Zero using the same protective goggles and containment device to protect themselves from Medusans as the Federation used. This was first seen in the Star Trek: The Original Series episode “Is There in Truth No Beauty.”
A Kazon captures Zero in “Preludes”
This leads to the question: how would the Kazon know about Medusans and the protective devices? The answer appears to be the USS Voyager itself. During the run of the series the Kazon infiltrated the ship and even took it over. They were helped by the character Seska, a Maquis member of Janeway’s crew who turned out to be a Cardassian spy, and later defected to the Kazon.
Kazon Maje Cullah and Seska in command of the USS Voyager
This connection was confirmed by Prodigy co-executive producer Aaron Waltke (who wrote the Zero segment for “Preludes”) in response to a tweet from eagle-eyed fan Jorg Hillebrand pointing out the TOS/Prodigy connection.
Putting that Voyager Federation database to good use. Thanks, Seska!
— Aaron J. Waltke (@GoodAaron) December 4, 2022
So Janeway has a lot to think about regarding her actions in the Delta Quadrant and how they continue to reverberate over a decade later.
New episodes of Prodigy debut on Thursdays exclusively on Paramount+ in the U.S., and on Fridays in Latin America, Australia, U.K., Italy, and now in France as well. The series will debut later this week in Germany, Austria and Switzerland with the launch of Paramount Plus.
Keep up with news about the Star Trek Universe at TrekMovie.com.
That answers my question regarding how the Kazon made it to the Alpha Quadrant. Someone should close the transwarp conduits…..
Didn’t they use one in Discovery? It would seem that they can’t be closed.
And I think they used one in S1 PIC too. If they’re open in the 32nd century then, I guess they can’t.
Too late!
I don’t quite get this. Wasn’t the entire point of destroying the transwarp hub to make the transwarp conduits unavailable? That was one of the main arguments that the Janeways were having. Once they destroyed the hub, they wouldn’t be able to use the conduits to get home. So, how come destroying the hub seems to have made the conduits available to everyone.
I think with the infection of the Borg Queen, it made it difficult or nearly impossible for Borg specifically to coordinate and use the hubs. We see in PIC and DIS they are used by others.
Those aren’t the transwarp conduits they are using in Disco and Picard, but just the new fx for travelling at warp. The old stretchy stars treatment is of ye olde past.
No, there are two instances in Picard and Discovery where they literally use abandoned transwarp conduits as a shortcut. By the time of DIS, they are full of junk and are used by couriers, due to no one maintaining them.
Michael and Book used a transwarp conduit at the end of season 3 to catch up with Discovery after Osyrra spore-jumped it to Federation HQ.
But then why did Voyager need to destroy the transwarp hub, if the Borg are no longer able to use it anyway? And why did they keep acting as if destroying the transwarp hub would be destroying their one opportunity to get home if their are still plenty of available transwarp conduits that are no longer being monitored by the Borg?
They destroyed the one that led to right outside Earth. Given they found so many other faster than warp transportation methods (quantum slipstream, Vadwuaar under space, null space slingshots, etc.) they were just being dramatic for the finale.
I think this is why this is now my favorite in with the new shows, it goes the distance in both how its telling its story and its total devotion to canon. These guys really get Star Trek!
I still like SNW better but this is easily #2
They really need to make these clips part of the show. This one especially answers so many questions.
I’m okay with these as they got Mulgrew to record them. Less fuzzy as to whether they are canon.
Contrast that with the lengths Michael Chabon went to during season 1 of Picard to explain backstory minutiae, only for very little of that to ever make it to the screen.
They’re still not canon. Canon is just the shows and movies.
They likely will in later episodes. At least we have the answer for now.
Looks like the kazon finally have learned how to use a shower and wash their hair for the first time…lol
If you recall, in their first appearance on the Ocampan homeworld, they had a bit of a water shortage :)
Maybe instead of helping them steal replicators and transporters, Seska should have given them sonic shower technology.
She did give them replicator technology so they should have water.
So, now I have paramount+ in germany and still can`t be up to date with the shows? If this won’t change soon paramount+ will be a short adventure for me. :-(