“Supernova, Part 1”
Star Trek: Prodigy Season 1, Episode 19 – Debuted Thursday, December 22, 2022
Written by Erin McNamara
Directed by Andrew L. Schmidt
An excellent episode that rises to the level of the big stakes on display with big payoffs for character and plot points that have been building for the whole series, while still leaving plenty to do in part 2 of the finale.
Maybe we should have painted a warning on the side of the ship?
WARNING: Spoilers below!
RECAP
“They may be many, but we are fast.”
The prodigies finally made it to Starfleet, but not the way they wanted. Facing a hostile armada, they cannot open a hail to explain things for obvious Construct-killing-everyone reasons. While Admiral Janeway is now up to speed, Dal says his short time in her body didn’t do her reputation any favors, admitting, “They think she’s crazy.” Stuck in the Dauntless brig, the admiral’s dire warnings seem to be falling on deaf ears as Tysess gets orders from an indignant Admiral Jellico to take down the Protostar’s shields and board the wayward ship… just as Asencia/The Vindicator wants. Left with no other choice, the Protostar crew (thanks to Zero’s “hotwiring”) take back control of the ship and put all their evasive maneuvering practice to work, buoyed by an inspirational speech from their captain—Dal talks of how they will all laugh about this one day at Starfleet Academy… umm. Gwyn cuts off Rok from spilling the beans… ixnay on the no augmentsway.
Back in the brig, Janeway finds a sympathetic ear with the brig officer, discovering this ensign she didn’t recognize was a former refugee she saved back in her Voyager days. That history of trust gets the admiral out of the brig as the fleet continues to hammer the Protostar. Gwyn decides it’s time to arm up to repel boarders, but Dal stops her, worried firing at Starfleet officers could look bad on her Academy application. She knows it’s time to tell him the truth but as she starts, Dal reads things wrong and picks this moment to make his big move… with a big ol’ kiss! Oh boy. After a lot of back-and-forth cringe, Gwyn drops the truth bomb: The admiral said he can never get into Starfleet. The news crushes the kid, but as the shields fail, he rallies with: “We all deserve to be somewhere.” He will be the one to take on the boarders to make sure the rest of his crew can join Starfleet. What a guy.
Can you remind me which button is for going left?
“Starfleet’s destruction is our salvation.”
Asencia is done Trilling around and goes full Vindicator in the Dauntless transporter room, taking out the boarding party so the Vau N’Akat trio can board the Protostar and complete their mission… because The Living Construct requires a manual uplink, in case you were wondering. On the Protostar, Drednok takes on all the kids with the exception of Gwyn; she’s hiding out on the bridge as The Vindicator arrives, hitting Holo Janeway’s off switch so she can engage in some classic villain monologuing with gems like “Years we have waited for this, years they will suffer.” Concerned about his loyalty to his daughter, she tricks The Diviner into getting locked in the underdeck just as Gwyn reveals herself, armed with her heirloom. Of course The Vindicator has one too, so it’s time for some cool smart sword-thing fight action. Even after Gwyn lands a scar-inducing blow, the “You dare stand in the way of the Vau N’Akat” harangue continues. Naturally.
The rest of the kids have been pinned down, literally, by Drednok with a variety of the robot’s dastardly devices; security officer Murf is the last to be frozen (literally) following some fun and impressive ninja blob moves. Things are even worse on the bridge, as The Vindicator is getting the upper hand, calling Gwyn “a mistake… that shouldn’t exist.” Uncool, Asencia. The Diviner returns and is ordered to complete the mission as The Vindicator threatens Gwyn. And he makes his choice… for his daughter, using telekinesis to send his old heirloom straight at the Vindicator. But the younger Vau N’Akat is too fast, catching it and throwing it right back into his chest. As Gwyn cradles her dying father, a triumphant Vindicator opens a channel. Admiral Janeway shows up on the Dauntless bridge a second too late as the Construct pulses through the fleet. Complete with a maniacal laugh, The Vindicator has the audience she craves, informing Starfleet it’s payback time. And so it begins, as the ships all start firing on each other in a cruel pantomime of the Vau N’Akat civil war… revenge for a thing that hasn’t even happened yet. The Vindicator doesn’t do nuance.
I am the captain now.
“I can bring them together”
Rok rallies the trapped kids using her big ol’ brain to free Murf, who frees Zero, who frees Dal (and so on), and soon enough they rush the bridge, vowing to make The Vindicator pay for what she’s done. Alas, she decides to bounce using her Drednok as an escape pod launched straight through the bridge canopy. They can do that? Gwyn cries over her father as he quite literally fades away, bestowing his mission to save Solum unto his daughter in his final moment, hoping she can find a way to peace that he could not. The girl has no time to grieve as the Living Construct has one last surprise—it shuts down the Universal Translator across the battling fleet. As his own crew also loses the ability to communicate, Dal sees the irony: It’s just like how they started back on Tars Lamora. Gwyn steps up, first comforting Rok and Pog. She studied languages as part of a plan to pit different species against each other, but now she can use her superpower for good, telling Admiral Janeway she stands by to act as a translator for the fleet.
Now Dal has a bright idea: if the Construct only affects Starfleet ships, why not ask others for help? And for this task, he gives the captain’s chair to Gwyn. When a dubious Klingon answers the distress call, Gwyn makes the hard sell with an impassioned speech that would impress Jean-Luc Picard, reminding the warrior that the Federation has always been there to help others. Well, it was worth a try. Things continue to deteriorate as Admiral Janeway braces for what looks like a fatal torpedo… but the Dauntless is saved as a Bird of Prey warps in to take the shot at the last moment, joined by more aliens and allies willing to put themselves in harm’s way. Beautiful. Things are looking up and the translators got fixed too, so maybe they are going to make it. Then a bunch more Starfleet ships arrive only to get infected and start firing at each other, and more automated distress calls mean even more waves of Starfleet reinforcements will come. Channeling her inner Ackbar, Rok points out the obvious: It’s a trap. With the Protostar unable to escape and without enough allied aliens to help, “there is nothing we can do… it’s an annihilation.” And that’s how you do a “Part 1.”
Um actually, I am the captain.
ANALYSIS
It’s all connected
Things escalated quickly in this beautifully paced action-packed episode that paid off a number of emotional character beats. While only the first half of the finale, “Supernova, Part 1” delivered a complete episode, even with the dramatic cliffhanger. What makes this episode rise to an even higher level is how well it delivers the core messages and themes of Star Trek itself. You can sense how this crew has become a family and how they raise each other up. And you can see how they have come to embody the ideals of Starfleet (and therefore Star Trek), especially though Gwyn’s impassioned plea. “Everyone needs to know there is a place out there willing to accept us all no matter how different we think we are” is a message that resonates through the generations. You didn’t have to be a fan to feel the powerful emotion of this episode, but if are, it quite possibly brought a tear to your eye at least once.
All of this made the episode especially poignant for Gwyn, with Ella Purnell doing her best work on the series so far as she moved from action to heartbreak to inspiring. Her hero moment as the only one who could communicate was beautifully bookended with the series premiere and the “Babel” of Tars Lamora. The journey began working for the enemy, but she earned this moment of taking the captain’s chair, showing just how smart the development has been in this series for her and other characters. In his new interview with TrekMovie, John Noble said, “The Diviner’s redemption is necessary,” and we can see that here, as the actor shows off his prowess and completes the character’s long journey from the mysterious adversary of the series premiere to his final sacrifice for his daughter, evoking Darth Vader’s death in the arms of his son. Right as The Diviner becomes nuanced, Jameela Jamil has jumped in as the now deliciously over-the-top Vindicator, who peaced out just in time to return as the new big bad for the show.
All of the Vau N’Akat drama and action—including the super cool telekinesis/heirloom sword fight—was just part of a densely packed episode with standout moments for all of our characters along with big progression on the plot. When you think back, it’s astounding how much fit into this first half, including Dal’s double gut punch of a failed attempt at a kiss followed by learning he can’t get into Starfleet. BTW, Gwyn’s message about the Federation and Starfleet accepting everyone sort of belies this, but in the end could win the day. The potential romance between Dal and Gwyn has been telegraphed but once again the show finds a way of delivering something expected in an unexpected way. Plus there was still time for everyone else from the Janeways to the rest of the kids to have sweet and heroic moments, true to their characters, including some more adorable Murf-fu.
Dal, stop with the heroic posing, we have work to do.
Can we talk?
Returning to Gwyn’s hero moment of being the only one who could communicate, Trek fans may need to do some of their own headcanon technobabble to explain away why disabling the Universal Translator prevented Starfleet officers, who should all have a working knowledge of Federation Standard, from being able to communicate with each other. Perhaps the Construct was also scrambling voices so they could only be heard in their native tongues, but somehow that wasn’t the case on the USS Protostar itself. Maybe Holo Janeway fixed it so Gwyn could talk to Rok, Pog, and Admiral Janeway. It seems that Dal speaks Federation Standard as his native tongue, so perhaps Nandi (the Ferengi who raised him) uses this as a sort of universal trading language.
While we are down the nitpick rabbit hole, one might have been wondering for the last couple of episodes why the kids don’t try to sabotage or even destroy the USS Protostar. Even before Zero was able to “hotwire” control back from the Construct, Jankom Pog’s “percussive maintenance” abilities surely could have destroyed or removed something vital to keep the ship going. Trek fans may be hearing echoes of Lily in First Contact telling the kids to “blow up the damn ship,” but perhaps the clue is in the title and this obvious solution will finally dawn on the kids in “Supernova, Part 2.” Nitpicking is a time-honored Trek tradition, but these issues mostly come down to how this show is taking a few shortcuts because it is both time-limited and primarily geared to younger and non-Trekkie audiences. Thankfully, Prodigy avoids idiot plot-type tropes just to keep the action going. Also, longtime fans still get rewarded with scenes like Janeway’s unexpected ally from a deep-cut episode of Voyager.
Admiral, did you just call me “Antennas” again?
Final thoughts
This is one of (if not the) best episodes of the series so far. It’s also one of the strongest episodes of Star Trek, not just of the Paramount+ era but of the entire franchise. Prodigy is ending its exceptional first season (or season 1, volume 2, if you prefer) with a bang. The impressive writing, music, visuals, and acting that earned this series an Emmy nomination are on full display here, and even surpassed in some cases. And it’s only “Part 1.”
No Rok, uh, Jankom thinks you are as light as a feather.
RANDOM BITS
- This is the third two-part episode in the series so far.
- “Supernova” is also the name of the Prodigy video game released in October.
- Starfleet Order 104 Section C regarding a medical officer removing a commanding officer was first mentioned in the TOS episode “The Doomsday Machine.”
- Not only did the Starfleet armada include multiple Sovereign-class, Akira-class, Defiant-class, and Centaur-type ships, but also their namesakes the USS Sovereign, USS Akira, USS Defiant, and USS Centaur.
- It’s possible all the ships of each class were actually just copies of the same individual ship models for simplicity.
- The ships coming to aid Starfleet included a Klingon Bird of Prey, a Talarian freighter, a Ferengi D’Kora-class Maurader, a Vulcan Surak-class, and a Gorn trading ship.
- The Brenari ensign who freed Janeway recounted the events of the Voyager episode “Counterpoint,” which included two unnamed Brenari girls saved by Janeway.
- The Brenari ensign was voiced by Bonnie Gordon, who voices the USS Protostar computer.
- Klingon Captain Trij was voiced by MadTV almnus Debra Wilson who has provided background voices on Prodigy before. Her first Star Trek role was as the voice of Captain Lisa Cusak in the DS9 episode, “The Sound of Her Voice.”
- Zero wasn’t able to take off their suit, but would seeing a Medusan actually drive a Drednok robot crazy?
The Ferengi will be invoicing Starfleet for this, naturally.
More to come
Every Friday, the TrekMovie.com All Access Star Trek podcast covers the latest news in the Star Trek Universe. The podcast is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pocket Casts, Stitcher and is part of the TrekMovie Podcast Network.
New episodes of Prodigy debut on Thursdays exclusively on Paramount+ in the U.S., and on Fridays in Latin America and select countries in Europe. The series is also carried on SkyShowtime in the rest of Europe with the second half of season one expected to arrive in 2023.
Keep up with all the news and reviews from the new Star Trek Universe on TV at TrekMovie.com.
It was a decent episode i was glad they are getting the weapon story over with as i was getting a little tired of that story. I liked the shots of the fleet it was nice seeing certain classes again. I have a feeling that time travel is going to be involved in fixing what happened in this episode. Hopefully Part 2 will be a better episode and tie up most of the loose ends of the season. I hope season 2 is a brand new story.
Season 2 will identifying what Dal really is I bet. The augment story doesn’t fit right with me an sound more like a cover story
I get it. My main beef with the 20 episodes was they returned to the Federation pretty quick. I feel like the characters needed a lot more time on their own before getting to this point. But honestly that’s not a huge issue. Just something I think might have helped some.
I found the return to the Federation a bit quick too.
I’m keeping in mind this is a kids show that’s intended to introduce kids to the Trek universe. The powers that be won’t want to leave actual interaction with the Federation too long after they have sold the audience in Starfleet being a desirable thing.
Also, I suspect that between the need to rescue Chakotay and Dal’s marginalization as an augment, we will see another arc with the kids far away from the Federation.
I enjoyed this episode, but the reused ship names pulled me out a tad.
What’s wrong with reused ship names?
It just was a bit jarring to me. For example, in one scene, the Protostar flew over the Sovereign and you can clearly make out its name. A few minutes later the Sovereign arrives and is A big deal because they then learn of the SOS.
It’s a minor nitpick.
They had a USS Defiant with an NX registry. That ship was destroyed by the Breen weapon during the dominion war.
Actually, the replacement Defiant is depicted with 2 registry numbers during What Your Leave Behind:
NCC-75633 and NX-74205
Loved it. I thought the first half of the season was decent. The second half however has put it above both Lower Decks and Strange New Worlds as my favorite of the new series. Of all of them I think the does the best job of bringing new ideas/stories/characters to the franchise while still giving plenty of nostalgia and references.
This is a good place to point to regarding Starfleet’s newer ship designs, ala Picard Season 1. Starfleet needed a good quickly replicatable ship for times of emergency. The disaster at Utopia Planetia being a second time that Starfleet ships were wiped out.
Also potentially explains why the E-F is in Picard Season 3 and not the E-E.
Wow. I’m glad we don’t have to wait three months (or eight or more!) for the next episode.
I got a little teary. That was amazing writing and beautiful visuals. It actually felt long, but in a good way.
I started to tear up during Gwen’s speech a bit TBH
There’s enough starship p0rn to keep the hardware fans happy for a while…..
Umm….Did anyone notice that they used the exact registration NCC-73811 for the USS SOVEREIGN from Star Trek: Bridge Commander?!?! I loved that game so I freaked out the wife when I jumped in excitement! Think that DiCaprio meme on steroids hahahah!
The Enterprise E is also in the Fleet. I did not personally see it, but Memory Alpha has screen shots.
The original USS Defiant was there too.
Negative. The original Defiant vanished into the Mirror Universe in the Tholian Web. The original DS9 Defiant was destroyed by the Breen as well. So the one in this episode is at best the replacement Defiant from DS9.
But it has an “NX” registry which the replacement Defiant in DS9 didn’t have.
There was nothing special about the Protostar. Gwyn said that she had learnt all of those languages so she was directly speaking to Rok and Pog in their native languages, Janeway in Standard and the Klingon officer in Klingon so the universal translator was not involved at all.
Whole thing could have been avoided if they had just written a sign and put it on the hull…
That being said, it’s still fun.
I understand people’s frustrations with this, but then again if they had done that we would’ve been robbed of the body-swapping episode and the “um…the admiral’s on the hull” bit.
So I, for one, am glad that they ignored all of the obvious to produce that absolutely hilarious scenario.
And who would have believed such a sign?
Amazing. This team should run the whole franchise.
Yeah, Prodigy has become my favorite show with modern Star Trek. I love McMahan and LDS as well but this team has proven just how amazing they can tell a prolong story (take notes Picard and Discovery) and do it in a way that captures both old and new fans imaginations alike. And do it in a way that’s completely in canon. Both Prodigy and Lower Decks has become the ‘glue’ to canon I didn’t see coming at all but it’s been such a fun few months watching both of them together.
100% this
I can understand the desire for that given the results of the other shows.
But I sorta feel like they should not branch out beyond Prodigy and the entire franchise should be run by people who have a better feel for what not only makes for good Star Trek but what makes for a good short season TV series.
Totally agreed. This show is both amazingly fun and displays pure love and devotion to the franchise. It doesn’t try to cry or break canon every 5 minutes because “story”
Even after they deployed the weapon, I kept screaming, some one, anyone, start pulling out the isolinear chips!
Do they still use isolinear chips, or is it all bioneural gel packs now? Either way, I’m sure the living construct can put force fields up around vital systems.
Maybe. But when the ships are getting destroyed left and right, those shields will eventually fail.
Right? You have to imagine there is a manual way of stopping this
This was an amazing episode. I was on the edge of my seat from beginning to end. And I really loved that connection Janeway had with that Brenari officer. It was so touching and a great reminder of who Janeway is why I love her so much as a character.
And all those ships, fantastic! Nice to know the cut and paste ship fleet of Picard season 1 are long behind us. And I have to be honest, I was actually surprised the Living Construct was unleashed. I know, that probably sounds so naive lol, especially knowing it was a two-part finale, but for some reason I thought they would get it deactivated. I’m glad they didn’t because it turned into a great sequence. And I really liked it felt like we were going to get a feel good Lower Decks moment and they win out the day when other ships came to help but nope! It only made things worse for everyone.
This was a great finale and can’t wait to see how it’s resolved! And btw, with all the talk over the Gorn being ‘monsters’ on SNW, it was nice to see one show up 120 years later and suggest their relationship with the Federation have improved to now becoming allies like the Klingons ultimately became. This is why Star Trek is an optimistic show despite all the problems in the galaxy.
Strange New Worlds just used Gene’s notes from what became Andromeda, where the Gorn became the Magog.
Never seen Andromeda or know anything about it outside of the fallen Federation back story but will take your word for it.
@Tiger2
Andromeda was originally one of Gene’s ideas to get Trek back on TV, so was Earth Final Conflict (I think though no confirmation that this was the Gary Seven show originally)
The Magog are a predatory intelligent species that reproduce by planting their eggs in other intelligent beings. At some point in the near past of when the show started the Systems Commonwealth (Federation obviously) had recently been able to finally make peace with the Magog. One member species however, the Nietzschians (originally Khan’s descendants) rebelled against the Commonwealth because of this causing the fall of civilization.
The starship Andromeda (originally Enterprise) was trapped in the event horizon of a black hole for 300 years with her captain Dylan Hunt dedicating himself to restoring the commonwealth.
Massive amounts of this material has already been re-infused into Trek in Discovery (as I knew was coming due to Rodd’s EP status since he owns Andromeda, not CBS). The Gorn in Strange New Worlds are the Magog, and so is the one in Arena, at the point of establishing peaceful relations. Nothing about Strange New Worlds contradicts Arena either. The entire Fed colony was gone, wiped out or abducted, no bodies either.
In the original notes Kirk making peace in Arena would lay the seeds for the eventual fall of the Federation. Much the way A Quality of Mercy showed, sometimes peace is the right and wrong choice.
Wow interesting, thank you! I never seen Andromeda but I did watch Earth: Final Conflict, at least up to the fourth season. Never watched the final one. I thought the first 3 seasons were solid. I know a lot of fans said Discovery season 3 basically copied Andromeda.
I don’t have a major issue with SNW using the Gorn, but their portrayal so far leaves me a bit cold. I really hate the whole ‘monster’ thing they are doing with them. But knowing that the Gorn and Federation will have an alliance in the 24th century thanks to Prodigy, I’m willing to see where they go with them on SNW and hopefully see a different side of them if they are going to stick around through the entire show.
I think you’re overemphasizing Andromeda.
It wasn’t necessarily a Trek reboot concept, rather Roddenberry’s take on the post-Armageddon sci-fi trope.
That show concept was Roddenberry’s mark III idea for a ‘Dylan Hunt’ the great and ethical guy finds himself in a dystopian future. The first two were Genesis II and Planet Earth. Both those actually made it to Pilot in the 70s, but weren’t greenlighted, and up being shown as made for television movies.
On the Magog, there’s the Gorn egg-laying parasitic element, but there’s also the established fact that the batlike face of the Magog was Roddenberry’s original concept for the Ferengi for TNG. The prosthetics team made several attempts to create a reasonable bat-eared humanoid but weren’t satisfied. The switch to the big round ears was done relatively close to the wire.
You may be right that the Roddenberry estate may wish to exploit the IP, but it’s also that none of the versions were particularly great, including Andromeda. Not all Roddenberry’s ideas were great, but it’s certainly true that he kept reworking some of them.
Well said, agree with everything – especially the part about the optimism and the Gorn ship showing up!
I also never thought we’d see the living construct come to life, or see ships being fired upon with the implication that lives were being lost as we saw them blow up. I didn’t expect Prodigy to ever go that far with the narrative or the stakes, but it always keeps on surprising me in the best ways.
Yeah it’s crazy it never even occurred to me the Living Construct would be used. But as said, I’m happy that wasn’t the case. It’s actually one of those great season enders where the bad guys are winning and all hope seems to be lost ala BOBW and Call to Arms. I really can’t wait to see how they get out of it.
This show is so amazing. I plan to rewatch the entire season after the finale.
I have a theory on their “resolution”. But I’ll keep specifics to myself for now except to say I don’t think this storyline gets wrapped up next week.
Since Chakotay is still stuck in 25th century, I don’t think so either. And they still don’t know where Solum is. There will probably be a time travel element of some kind. So yeah we probably have a ways to go.
To be fair, I felt that if they made it back the device would indeed get lit up. I just thought it would happen much later than episode 19.
Yes, I noticed that too. About the Gorn mention, that is. But them showing up here, unlike in SNW, is NOT a canon violation. In fact, I was always curious if there were future meetings between the UFP and the Gorn. Did they just leave each other alone? Did they ever at least establish trade? Set borders? What?
The connection with the Brenari was just awesome! I loved that ep of VOY and I am NOT a VOY fan lol.
I loved how many different ships there were but tbh I found at least one continuity flaw. Not that I am throwing up an arms over it. the defiant class USS Defiant had an NX registry which should only belong to the original defiant class ship which was destroyed during the dominion war by the breen.
This was an absolutely terrific ep. I can’t wait to see how the Janeways and the kids solve this.
Amazing episode. I can’t believe this is a kids show though with all the death. Not just Gwynn’s father, but all the people on those ships. It a lot.
Here’s hoping for something awesome next week to save them. I’m really digging this show.
While the Diviner does indeed die, they don’t show the weapon actually hitting him. That happens out of frame.
Also, once the ships start shooting at each other, they inflict damage but don’t outright destroy each other. The show also cuts back to the Dauntless and Janeway ordering everyone to abandon ship, which suggests that the crew is able to escape even if the ship is destroyed.
I guess the important part in terms of age rating is probably that they don’t show any gore. Sure, there is destruction, but they don’t actually show people getting killed so it stays kind of abstract.
This was great.
I can’t remember being this invested in a serialised doomsday-type Trek storyline since The Xindi on ENT. We’ve seen it done so many times recently, particularly on PIC and DISCO, but for me in the case of Prodigy the tension and stakes of this current scenario feels so earned.
I think that credit for this has to go to the creators and writers. They have purposefully invested the time, over the last 19 episodes, in really fleshing out these new characters in a way that we have become so emotionally invested in them that their conflict and the dangers that face both them and the Federation matters. The scene with the universal translator failing was a lovely way of highlighting how far these characters have come from the first episode in the way they worked through it so swiftly as a result of how they’ve all grown and become a successful team along the way.
This really has been such an incredibly well realised and consistent narrative and I am so impressed by what they have achieved, especially given the dual audience that they have to cater for; life long Trek fans and children. What they’re doing is taking that classic narrative device of the hero’s journey and injecting into the world of Star Trek, focusing in on its core values and spirit and all the while respecting what has gone before. It’s really remarkable that they’ve been able to do this so well.
I have to agree with others who have said that they’d like the whole franchise to be handed over to the Prodigy creatives. But if nothing else I hope writers of future Trek shows are taking notes on the overwhelmingly positive response that Prodigy has earned and dissecting what has made it successful and trying to figure out ways of capturing that magic for their own versions.
I must also say that the scoring for every episode has been truly gorgeous, but this episode in particular was phenomenal. Nami Melumad is an incredible asset to this show and extraordinarily talented. This is film level scoring.
Prodigy just keeps showing us the heart of Star Trek over and over again, and it never gets old, because the heart of Star Trek is just so joyous!
That episode really got to me for some reason. Even the episode of DS9 that involved the Breen energy dampening weapons didn’t have the same impact. But since the storyline already includes a time travel aspect, I strongly suspect that everything that occurred at the end of Part 1 will be undone by the end of Part 2. I would hate to think of what happened at the end of that episode carving out a piece of history in Star Trek canon and legend. Additionally, I am having a lot of trouble thinking that this really was appropriate for an audience that is supposed to be mostly children. This is after all, a Nickelodeon production, correct? True, there are barely any scenes of people actually dying. But I betcha two slips of gold-pressed platinum that, after watching this episode, a good many parents might be having to answer some very difficult questions.
Those things being said, the writing in the show has been absolutely extraordinary, and the music so very much befits that of the best of Star Trek. Kudos on both counts.
It got to me as well.
It reminded me of that stunned feeling the first time we were left at Wolf 359 in the TNG season finale Best of Both Worlds part 1.
I don’t know how we managed with cliffhanger season finales like that.
I think that’s why they had the references to Admiral Janeway ordering the ships evacuated. Kids think that there is no one else still on them during the Battle.
At least that’s what my 6 year old thought. I asked him and he said that Admiral Janeway told them to leave.
First people I saw die on tv were various Stormtroopers and Rebels before I saw Darth Vader manually strangle someone. Then I saw Ben Kenobi have Vader assist in his suicide. Shortly thereafter I saw billions of Alderraneans snuffed out. I was 2 years old. People need to just stop especially since the people who usually make the most noise about death or violence in kids programming aren’t parents and never will be.
I watched Return of the Jedi when I was about 6 in the theater. I turned out fine.
Well, as far as this stuff goes, anyway.
Well, you do you, but don’t tell me that graphic violence is fine for kids.
The evidence is out there and fairly established. I am a parent, and my spouse and I certainly did take care with what our kids (now late teens) watched when they were younger.
I usually got tagged as the parent to prewatch things to filter out what we knew they weren’t ready for.
They still don’t think a lot of what older people think is edgy or cool belongs in Trek or most shows. I hear a lot of “Why did they have to do that?!!”
I stopped prewatching a couple of years back only to have one of our teens be so turned off by the abattoir scene in Picard season one that they still complain. More, they have refused to watch any more of the new live action shows until the seasons have run completely and I can assure them there hasn’t been a repeat of that.
If I think about it, ours wouldn’t have been up for Prodigy in early primary grades, but by grades 4 or 5, they would have been fine for sure. We started them on TAS with the DVD set, and then moved onto a curated set of TNG episodes by that age.
Yes, that’s our kids, not everyone’s. But when people wonder what age this is suitable for, it’s true that some of this will definitely be too scary for some of the younger ones.
My opinion: I like TG’s statement.
Diplomatic in reply… and a good example of parent engagement. Reminds me of the scene in “The Incredibles” where passive parent Bob is just sitting at the dinner table letting the kids run wild as active parent Helen tries to bring the kids back to order while screaming at Bob to “ENGAGE!!”.
TG is Helen.
@WhoCares nailed the description of the person who has no kids and never will be. That is me. I am a 51 year old black man with no kids and I never will have them. But.. so what if I do or don’t?
I live in a world that is populated by the kids of those who did have them, which means every day of my life I either suffer from the effects of bad parents or I benefit from the blessings of good parenting. When I look at the news every night and see story after story of young black teens and black 20-somethings doing horrible things in American cities, it breaks me to think of the parenting they had (or did not have). It breaks me further to think of what sort of parents they will be.
As Trek has modeled over the years (Picard & Pike went in first with diplomacy and negotiation… Sisko went in with emotions high and weapons hot… Kirk went in with a carrot, a stick, and a refusal to be bound by any constraint)… the governing principles of those who set the tone will be modeled by those under, who are required to hear and follow that tone. Kids absolutely model what they see and hear. To say, “I turned out all right” is quite immaterial if you are the outlier and the rest of the kids under the bulk of the bell curve did not turn out all right. Look at the broader society. Look at the evening news. We are altogether not all right.
A little more care with the young minds that are being molded is a justified ask.
As a parent I’m just gonna say, ya’ll don’t have any meaningful information on kids shows.
The Clone Wars is one of the most violent kid shows I ever watched lol. Plenty of people died every episode including a lot of the heroes. Sane with Rebels. I agree with you, people seem to think kids don’t watch violent stuff on TV when that’s far from the case. The only thing I think kids shows don’t show a lot of is blood (and I can be wrong on that too) but death and kills is par for the course on a lot of these shows today.
Yeah. Even back when I was the target audience, kids shows could get surprisingly dark – Batman TAS, Gargoyles, Thundercats, the D&D cartoon and so on. Heck, there were episodes of Bravestarr where people just straight up died – old age, got blown away, or OD’d on space heroin in the very special Just Say No episode. I think sometimes we just misremember how sanitized kiddie media is/was.
Well… To be fair if you’ve been watching the previous 18 episodes you would see this show is definitely not geared for young children. I’d say tween and up and I tended to be pretty liberal with what my kid watched.
Hearing that from you ML31, and based on our previous discussions, your kid seemed to have much higher tolerances than ours for the same ages, just confirms my sense that it’s not for primary grades and younger.
Decent. I’m engaged.
The one issue I had was the weak plea to the Klingons. We knew they were going to show but it would have been better had there been a smidgen of incentive for them to do so.
Apart from that, an entertaining watch.
Does anyone remember when everybody, I mean everybody, was one hundred percent sure this was an idiotic idea, doomed to fail from the start?
Good episode, but if I might nitpick, I found the whole “fleet destroying itself” section visually repetitive, a little confusing, and not really conveying the newness and devastation of what’s being wrought by the living construct. Just a lot of ships shooting phasers at each other to my eyes. And how is it that the entire fleet seems to get there on a dime? Think how many times over Trek history the Enterprise has had to face a galaxy-threatening adversary on it’s own because “it’s the only ship in the quadrant…”
I think the reason there are so many ships is they reference this planetary system is close to Sol. It seems like, from other events, the Federation has beefed up patrols of the core sectors around Earth.
Especially after the Dominion War and possible Romunlan incursion from Nemesis
I was amused by the “lights on infected ships turn red” thing. Just like in comics people’s eyes turn red when they’re possessed/infected.
Prediction: Dal orders abandon ship and triggers self destruct (winds up in escape pod with Gwyn). All the red lights go out (and ships top fighting) once the Protostar is destroyed. Then Chakotay shows up bringing the Protastar from the future.
I wonder if the 1701-E was “offed” / destroyed in this battle and thats why we have the F in Picard S3. That ruined sovereign at tge end of the ep could eaxilly be the E if tgey said so.
Would be a very very cool way end her / link to both films and picard too.
Not only was there a USS Defiant “Defiant class” starship, but it also appeared to have an “NX” registry. That shouldn’t be possible because only the first USS Defiant had that and that ship was destroyed during the Dominion War by the Breen weapon.
In “What You Leave Behind” the Defiant is depicted with two registry numbers:
NCC-75633 and NX-74205
That would imply that “What You Leave Behind” reused some stock VFX footage with the old registry number and didn’t update it.