Recap/Review: ‘Star Trek: Prodigy’ Goes Boldly In “Supernova, Part 2”

“Supernova, Part 2”

Star Trek: Prodigy Season 1, Episode 20 – Debuted Thursday, December 29, 2022
Written by Kevin & Dan Hageman
Directed by Ben Hibon

An emotionally dense episode masterfully wraps up the first season with a bit more action and a lot more heart.

Starfleet needed to come up with some new ships anyway, right?

 

WARNING: Spoilers below!

RECAP

“We’ve got one shot at this.”

With annihilation of the Starfleet armada imminent as more ships warp in and get infected, the only remaining way to stop the perilous signal dawns on Dal… they have to destroy the Protostar. There is a snag: Blowing up the proto-core would actually wipe out the star system and all the ships in it. However, if they can detonate just as the drive kicks in, they could spread the damage out, saving what’s left of the Starfleet task force. With controls fried, Dal volunteers, but Holo Janeway steps up to take his place. Rok objects in a sweet moment, calling the holo their “friend,” Holo Janeway assures the kids they can just take a copy of her along with them in the quickie shuttle they build with the vehicle replicator. Dal orders the ship to create some distance from the battling fleet as Admiral Janeway looks on, explaining to her beleaguered Dauntless crew how those Protostar kids are “saving us all.” She gets it.

As Jankom preps the proto-drive to go boom, Rok builds a no-frills (and no-seats) shuttle that doesn’t even have navigation, there’s just not enough time to make something more sophisticated, and Holo Janeway can handle the navigation for them when her copy arrives. Unfortunately—and you probably guessed where this was heading—the ETH learns her program no longer fits on an isolinear chip. When Dal arrives to pick up the copy, she bluffs her way through with a quip about how they now have two of her. The kids take a moment to say a difficult goodbye to the USS Protostar, their life-changing home for many months. Rok says just the right thing: “Think of it as letting a young star become what it’s meant to be.” Holo Janeway says farewell for what they don’t realize is the last time, telling them what an honor it has been to serve with them. As their escape craft falls away, they watch as a resigned, resolute Holo Janeway takes command, engages the proto-drive, and with one last smile… orders the ship to “go fast.” She gets it too… or got it… sorry, too soon?

I’m not crying… you’re crying.

“That crew just saved Starfleet.”

Janeway’s sacrifice sees the exploding USS Protostar streak away, creating something both beautiful and sad. The timing couldn’t be better, as the Klingon ship protecting the USS Dauntless just lost shields and another photon torpedo is about to be fired at them. Thankfully, the Protostar plan worked: Weapons are disengaged and control returns to the fleet. Janeway orders a search party, even if it will take months to find the kids who are just now confused to find that the isolinear chip only has a recording instead of a hologram. In her final message, Holo Janeway apologizes for the deception; her program had just grown too rich and complex to be stored on a little chip. They are crushed, but she explains she did what she had to do so they could fulfill their potential and tells them how proud she is of them all. Even without her to guide them, she’s sure they will figure out how to get back to Starfleet “because together your potential is infinite.” Her only regret is not being there when they arrive on the steps of Starfleet Academy. Still sad, but that’s nice.

One month later, the kids are still MIA as Admiral Janeway is briefed at Starfleet HQ about how her counterpart delivered one last surprise. The Protostar’s destructive path across space-time created a wormhole that duplicated the one that sent Chakotay and his crew into the future, and they’ve picked up a signal sent back through time in which her former first officer briefs Starfleet about how he and his remaining crew were trying to hang on. “He’s alive, and she pointed us in the right direction.” Holo Janeway turned the Protostar’s destruction into a fighting chance to live. The admiral vows to lead the mission to explore the wormhole just as she learns the kids have returned, doing a little Voyage Home homage in San Francisco Bay.

Do you have any wormholes in green?

“Is there a better living embodiment of what our alliance represents?”

Continuing that theme, the kids face a tribunal for stealing a Starfleet ship and other various offenses, but their defense counsel from the firm of Janeway and Janeway reminds the Starfleet judges the kids did everything in an effort to warn them. The glowering judges are even more skeptical of the idea that the kids could be accepted straight into Starfleet Academy, especially that Augment. Ouch. There are protocols, procedures, tests, and the like… and these kids are (at best) good-intentioned reckless criminals. Janeway digs deep with an impassioned plea, hyping the prodigies’ epic journey to eventually save Starfleet. Their arrival is actually the embodiment of the mission of the Protostar to seek out new life across the galaxy that shared their ideals—and as for Dal, he may be engineered, but he is no attempt at creating an enhanced superbeing, rather he’s mix of the infinite diversity that makes the Federation the Federation. Take that!

The admiral’s argument carries the day, more or less. Charges are dropped, but it’s not fair to let the kids cut the line into the Academy. Bummer. They are overjoyed to learn that in the meantime they have been assigned to the admiral to join her new mission as warrant officers in training… that includes Dal, and even Murf! But it’s only for five; Gwyn breaks the news she will not be joining them as she is taking on a new mission to save the Vau N’Akat and will head to Solum with the help of Starfleet. The kids are sad she isn’t joining but proud to see her new purpose, with Zero dubbing her “Gwyndala the Unifier.” She and Dal finally have the time to share a nice moment—and a proper kiss—as they reflect on the journey that brought them to San Francisco, promising to see each other again. We see the others get help from various Starfleet officers, as Rok gets a science tip on Xenobiology, Jankom bonds with engineers, and Zero is given a fancy new containment suit. After Gwyn departs, the admiral shows her new charges the latest Protostar-class ship, but that’s not actually going to be their new ship and home. She leaves them hanging with the mischievous statement “Oh, I have a much bigger plan for us.”  And that’s a season.

Can the court reporter read back what that Mellanoid Slime Worm just called me?

ANALYSIS

That’s how you do it

“Supernova, Part 2” is as good as it gets when it comes to season finales. It stands alone as an excellent episode but also ties in well with Part 1 to create an even richer and more deeply emotional experience. Importantly, it ties up the remaining plot and character arcs beautifully while teasing new arcs to come for season 2. This second part had less action than the first, wrapping up the battle action surprisingly quickly. This gave it time for more character exploration, allowing some key moments like the sacrifice of Hologram Janeway to land. Co-creators Dan and Kevin Hageman penned this episode by wearing the strong themes of the series (and Trek) openly: taking tragedy and turning it into hope, and an appeal for inclusivity. Experts in the genre, they never talk down to or manipulate their audience, making all of the resulting emotions feel organic and earned.

Composer Nami Melumad did some of her best work to take the audience on this ride using a beautiful mix of the show’s own themes with some classic stings that included homages to her mentor (and main theme composer) Michael Giacchino. Director and creative lead Ben Hibon was also crucial in creating little moments like the subtle facial animations during Holo Janeway’s extended goodbye, to transforming the destruction of the USS Protostar into something beautiful. Throughout the season, Hibon and his creative team (including the Emmy-winning production designer Allessandro Taini) have created something quite remarkable with cinema-level work on the more limited TV animation budget.

The Janeway Nebula?

A key to making this finale work was the performance of Kate Mulgrew on double duty with Hologram Janeway’s farewell and Admiral Janeway’s impassioned advocacy for the Protostar crew. Each Janeway has become their own unique character, making the loss of one all the harder. The rest of the crew is also delivering, Rylee Alazraqui is worth highlighting for making us believe this young giant Brikar has a heart of gold and the soul of a poet, finding just the right thing to say at just the right time. Rok-Tahk’s exuberant introduction to xenobiology was the best example of how each of these characters brought closure to their season 1 arcs while setting up the next steps for their journeys.

Things wrapped up nicely for Dal and Gwyn with just the right touch for their romantic subplot. Pog got a bit of love too, showing his percussive engineering has incorporated some finesse. However, Zero continues to be underserved and it isn’t clear where they are going with the character beyond giving them a shiny new Starfleet containment suit. Murf remains a delightful little mystery, but it seems a bit premature for Starfleet to recognize him as a fellow official trainee when it still isn’t clear how mature the evolving little blob is. This is an example of one of those shortcuts the series is forced to take due to the short run time, leaving fans to use headcanon to answer certain questions, like how exactly did they survive and make their way to Earth in that makeshift shuttle… and what were the conditions on board after a month?

Janeway ponders the air quality of the kids’ shuttle.

Going back… to the future

The season finale was also noteworthy for some of the choices made about what to exclude. While fans love a good guest star pop-in and a classic hero ship moment, it was a good call to leave the heroics to the kids and the Janeways. However, it might have been nice to see Janeway make (and win) her case against Ronny Cox’s Jellico instead of just nameless judges. Also interesting was the choice not to check in on the new big bad, Asencia/The Vindicator, who popped off with Drednok midway through the previous episode. Watched together in a binge, her absence is less noticeable, but a brief moment to show the threat she still poses could have helped maintain the stakes during the extended epilogue.

Speaking of the Vau N’Akat, there was a nice poetry dubbing Gwyn as “The Unifier,” taking over her father The Diviner’s mission to save the people of Solum. The final moments of the episode gave us just enough of a sense of what is to come in season 2 as Gwyn is headed to the present version of Solum to circumvent the disastrous fallout from the original first contact. Hopefully, she has some Starfleet help in what’s clearly a very risky mission. This leaves Admiral Janeway and the rest of the gang on a mission (in a new ship) to the new wormhole and presumably into the (specifically noted as “alternate”) future where Chakotay and what remains of his original Protostar crew are trapped. The weird timey-wimey nature of this dual temporal-pronged trip to Solum will likely make sense once they can do more exposition in season 2. Many questions remain, but they are more fun areas of speculation and not hanging threads… check back with TrekMovie soon as there may be some fun clues in this finale for us to ponder.

Oh boy, a new ship for us to blow up.

Final thoughts

“Supernova, Part 2” is a triumphant end for a near-perfect introductory season (or volume 2 of the season), a rare finale that wraps up pretty much everything for the serialized plot and characters. By cutting the action a bit short, it allowed time for big character moments and set up the next season without leaving fans hanging off a cliff. Most importantly, it fulfills the promise to take new audiences on a journey starting from scratch all the way to embracing and building on everything that makes Star Trek endure.

I’ll miss you most of all, you gooey blue thing.

RANDOM BITS

  • Destroying the Protostar was said to create an interspatial flexure, first seen in the Voyager episode “Counterpoint”—an episode also referenced in Part 1 of the finale.
  • The explosion caused by the destruction of the Protostar was described as having a diameter of 50 million miles, a bit less than the distance between the sun and Venus, although it was said it would destroy the entire star system (Sun to Neptune is 2.8 billion miles).
  • Jankom Pog referred to himself as a “miracle worker,” a term first used for legendary engineer Montgomery “Scotty” Scott.
  • The Enterprise-E designation could be seen even clearer on nacelles of the Sovereign class models used for the two-part finale, which included one severely damaged ship.
  • The kids’ new Starfleet trainee uniforms were similar in design to the Starfleet uniforms they wore on the Protostar, but with the lighter and darker colors reversed.
  • Gwyn’s heirloom sword integrated into the shoulders of her Starfleet uniform.
  • Gwyn’s “I know” response to Dal saying he didn’t want to see her go could be an homage to Han’s goodbye to Leia in The Empire Strikes Back.
  • Star Trek science advisor Dr. Erin Macdonald provided the voice for Dr. MacDonald (who advised Rok to look into xenobiology).
  • An Enterprizian (from the episode “All the World’s a Stage”) could be seen in the Starfleet HQ science lab.

Has anyone told you, you sound a lot like William Shatner?

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 PodcastsSpotifyPocket CastsStitcher 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.

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wow. just wow. what an amazing first season. really love this show. outstanding work.

So, the Voyager A for season 2 then 😉

I’m hoping it’s the second Protostar Class vessel.

I think Janeway said it wouldn’t be the new Protostar class, but I could be wrong

I was hoping the new ship would be Voyager.

Yeah I think most of us are pulling for the Voyager A now!

And since the real Janeway will be leading the show next season, it just makes sense. I liked the Dauntless but it just wasn’t the same as being on Voyager. It would be like having Kirk leading the Excelsior.

There are comics of Kirk commanding Excelsior

A good season finale but very predictable end to the construct story-line.
As a whole S1 of prodigy has been enjoyable it wouldn’t be in the top 10 of seasons of Trek to me but it’s been pretty good.
Looking forward to S2 and i hope someday we see the kids in a live-action show.

Personally I think that was one of the strongest first seasons of Trek ever put to screen.

I feel like episodes 11-20 it took a bit of a nose dive. Not a critical one, but one that affected the overall quality.

Throughout the second half of the season I found myself thinking I was hearing very clear call outs to Giacchino’s Kelvin scores, it was a nice touch and woven in well!

Yes I noticed that too. The scoring for this show has been absolutely outstanding. Nami Melumad is an incredible talent.

Soo… I guess you missed the fact that we got to see a shuttle of a certain NCC-74656-A?
I mean, we are talking about Voyager here….

Hey, good eye! Voyager A would be fun to see.

Voyager, NCC-74656, could still easily be in service. Not this again! I guess hero ships now have 10-year lifespans?

No Federation ships have way longer lifespans. That said, Voyager at this moment is probably sitting on the Presidio like Alt Adm. Janeway said. Before that though all the technology she gathered along with the anti borg enhancements. Were being picked apart by the Starfleet Corp of Engineers. So the commissioning of a new Voyager isn’t out of the realm of possibility.

Yeah this would fit in with canon and also Voyager took s beating in those 7 years and was a mashup of technology that it would have made sense to decommission it to make use of a study the delta quadrant technology

Didn’t they establish in one of the episodes, or it may’ve been a log, that Voyager was decommissioned upon returning to the Alpha Quadrant.

Not missed at all. The review teases as much. Stay tuned, there’s a separate article coming soon.

Where in the episode was this?

We think Kathryn Janeway had her best episode ever on the season finale to Prodigy today, easily the best Star Trek show in 20 years. This was to us the most emotional episode or movie since The Wrath of Khan.

Agreed. Prodigy is my favorite show since Voyager and my favorite show out of all the modern shows. Just a really great season of Star Trek.

I started tearing up a few minutes into the episode and stayed that way for pretty much the entire runtime.

Just beautiful. Masterfully done. Touching. Inspiring. I had a tear when Holo Janeway died. This show is just such a joy. Totally Trek to the core. I was very much against animated Trek. Now I believe the entire franchise should be turned over to the Prodigy team.

Agreed and well said, Luke.

The explosion caused by the destruction of the Protostar was described as having a diameter of 50 million miles, a bit less than the distance between the sun and Venus, although it was said it would destroy the entire star system (Sun to Neptune is 2.8 billion miles).

Some star systems are MUCH smaller than others. TRAPPIST-1, with its so-far-discovered exoplanets, would fit handily inside the orbit of Mercury!

So well done. I think Dal has finally grown on me.

Dal’s arc has been incredible, a total transformation and in such a short space of time. A credit to the writers.

What a great end to a spectacular season of Star Trek.

Prodigy reminded me of why I love Star Trek so much. I really enjoyed season one of SNW and I love Lower Decks, but there’s something special about Prodigy. I think it’s how they’ve given so much time to develop their characters and how they’ve played with the main troupes and themes of Trek in really creative and respectful ways. From the Kobayashi Maru, to first contact, to the Prime Directive, and time travel hijinks, I’ve enjoyed it all. And I love how they’ve always kept the core principles of Star Trek’s optimistic vision of the future as the guiding light for every element.

What a surprise it has been. Very thankful for the Prodigy team for giving us this show and I cannot wait for season 2.

Now that it’s over I have to say what a total surprise this show turned out to be for me, and my favorite from these showrunners. Someone said someplace this is the best new Trek we’ve had since the early 90’s, and I agree 100%.

SNW’s first season was enjoyable as well, but the canon bending/breaking and legacy-character pandering/altering (imo) puts it in 2nd place for me.

Prodigy just “feels” like a Trek show, funny and suspenseful, optimistic, tightly written, respectful of Trek lore without trampling on it, and in some parts of this season, actually wondrous. Kudos to all involved for one he*l of an introductory season I’ll be visiting again (and again). If this is really for kids, then this 56-year old kid thanks you.

Looking forward to PIC S3, and hoping it won’t crash and burn like the last two seasons. Cautiously optimistic. Cheers, and Happy New Year to all.

Yep, as pretty much always Danpaine we are in total agreement! Prodigy is the best of Berman era Star Trek for me (my favorite era by far) and it’s my favorite show in modern Star Trek! I love both LDS and SNW, but Prodigy just tell its story in a way that honors everything that came before. It has just the right amount of fan service but doesn’t hit you over the head with it like LDS and SNW does (but I don’t mind being over the head that much ;)). And yes while I loved SNW, the canon issues still bothers me but not like it less just not as much as Prodigy which has done a phenomenal job with canon.

This show is just incredible to me and probably the best first season of any Star Trek IMO. And I really hope a lot of kids are watching this and it will motivate them to watch the other classic shows as they get older…but I’m guessing that was the point. ;)

Oh BTW, waaaay off topic but I don’t know if you remembered but you suggested I should watch the show Severance. I actually did a month ago. Apple TV gave me 3 free months to subscribe (for Roku owners) and it was the first show I watched last month. A really great show (but still no Star Trek ;)).

Oh Good, glad you caught Severance! Not Trek-like of course but a little mind-bending fun. I found it interesting. And written by Ben Stiller, which I also find interesting.

Definitely looking forward to season 2 of Prodigy, but here comes Picard S3. I really hope this season is a winner, after the last two letdown seasons. Here’s hoping!

Oh yeah it definitely was a great show. I’m so happy I went in blind! I didn’t know Ben Stiller directed the show until I started watching it. I’ll probably get Apple TV again whenever season 2 comes out.

Yes finger cross for Picard once again lol. It kills me this is my least favorite show although it was easily the one I was the most excited for. So yeah let’s hope third time will be the charm. The good thing about about a lot of the shows third season is when things turn around greatly so hopefully it will go the same way with this show too.

The trial was strange. I see no reason for release any kind of charges in the first place for “stealing the ship”.
They found an abandoned ship in non federation territory, so the Kids just become the new owners.
Its not good what they suggest to the young viewers in this case.

‘Legitimate Salvage’ in the characterization of another show outside the franchise ;)

The fact that the kids were doing their best to return the ship to the Federation, until they realized the threat it was, overrides even the need to argue salvage.

I agree that it’s an unnecessary moral exception and friction for a children’s show.

The midseason finale’s use of Zero’s madness-inducing power on the Diviner was also questionable choice as a moral decision in a children’s show. My spouse called that one out, and we’d hoped to see Zero wrestle with it later. We can agree with TrekMovie’s assessment that Zero has been underserved. There’s still room for the show to address Zero’s having used their power in a harmful way against their abuser.

I have a theory about season 2 that…ok I just made up in my head.. but the Hageman brothers have said there are more legacy characters appearing in season 2.

So on the rescue mission to find Chakotay I think we will be getting the Voyager-A captained by… Harry Kim.
Wouldn’t that be a fun way of playing on his eternal ensign rank joke, but also giving the character a totally new lease of life in a new role where we could see how he’s grown?

Also, there seems to be Delta quadrant races everywhere now because of the unmanned Borg transwarp network, so I hope we get to see Neelix again somewhere along the line. If any past VOY character was perfect for a kids show it’s him.

Nope, it will be Lt. (Junior Grade) Harry Kim.

🤣

I know people like to joke about Kim’s status but he was a Captain in the alternate future in Endgame (which is basically the time period the Picard show is now) so my guess is he will have been promoted higher by now if he stayed on the same course as the alternate timeline suggested.

I really don’t like Harry Kim. If we’re having a ship under the command of a Voyager character, I’d prefer to see Captain Tuvok.

Yeah I didn’t care much for Kim either but I think that was more so down to the writer’s inability to create anything compelling about the character. I’d be interested in seeing what these talented guys can do with him.
Tuvok would be good fun too! But when he appeared in Lower Decks most recent season they referred to him as Commander Tuvok, right? And I think it’s pretty much the same time period so not sure if that’d be possible to see him as Captain.

Well, Tuvok can be recently promoted, if it’s a new ship and all. :-)

PRO takes place 3-4 years after LDS, so it’s possible he could’ve been promoted to captain by then. And this is the same people who made Seven a Captain as a ‘field promotion’ by Picard when she wasn’t even in Starfleet at the time and is a first officer on the Titan now. They also made Tilly a first officer on Discovery who was still just an ensign. Let’s not get into Burnhams crazy see-saw rankingss in the first three seasons of Discovery. And the same group who made a 3 year cadet into a captain in like a week in that other universe, so I don’t think that hard about any of this stuff anymore lol.

If they decide to bring back Tuvok on Prodigy he can definitely be a captain. Like seriously, what stops him from being one at this point?

Yeah that’s true! Tbh I had completely forgotten about Tilly. My DISCO callback is almost zero as I haven’t been able to bring myself to rewatch any of it, thanks for the reminder!

And now that I think of it, didn’t Tuvok serve as a cadet instructor at Starfleet Academy? So he’d be perfect for getting the PROD kids into shape quickly. I also forgot how old he is, so he definitely has the experience for being a captain at this stage after having served under Sulu and his time at the academy and on Voyager. I think Tuvok is a great prospect for this!

😢 😢 😢 had me crying. This was a starfleet show. What Star Trek is about? Family diversity, teamwork and sacrifice to solve problems.

A spectacular finale for a spectacular show!

This was Star Trek done right all season and did a great job of wrapping up everything. Yeah, it was mostly predictable. We knew they would figure out a way to stop the Living Construct and ultimately become part of Starfleet. And this was such a great way to do it, to be part Admiral’s Janeway ship (but will really miss hologram Janeway). And yes, I am crossing my fingers it will be the Voyager A!!!! How fantastic that would be, although I would’ve just been happy to see them back on the new Protostar.

Season 2 is going to be interesting to see them officially part of a ship and on their way to find Chakotay in the future! And if they are on the Voyager A, we may see another Voyager legacy character on that ship too (c’mon, give me another version of the Doctor…just do it!!!). Next season could feel like an even stronger Voyager spin off show now that Janeway is back leading the charge.

But Prodigy has become my favorite show in the modern era and the best Star Trek in 20 years! It’s now my fourth favorite show overall after DS9, TNG and VOY. I love both LDS and SNW but Prodigy is the best of all Star Trek to me.

But now we are finally leaving the 24th century (and we been in this era for a long time now with both LDS and PRO airing back to back) and a return of not only live action Star Trek but back to the 25th century with the beloved TNG crew returning! Let’s hope that season is done right!

It’s a great time to be a Star Trek fan! :)

I had my doubts about animated Star Trek, but Prodigy’s initial season was simply outstanding! Perhaps the best S1 since TOS.

Kudos to the writing team who managed to not only introduce a new cast, but to tell their backstory and get the audience to care for a complete crew of non-humans.

New Trek really has adapted and come a long way since that initial Fuller premiere of Discovery! The success of Prodigy really bodes well for Picard S3. Just 49 days until we get to see what is in store for the gang from TNG!

I don’t know how much Prodigy bodes for other shows. Within Secret Hideout, this show and LDS were really Heather Kadin’s projects and she’s move on to lead another production company.

Unlike many, as a parent who saw the need for it, I was totally positive about an animated series targeted for kids and families – even if our own kids were always going to be beyond the target age before it was released. Knowing the Hagemans would be in charge, gave me confidence it would be elegantly made.

What really confounded me was the initial public pitch about a group of ‘lawless teens’.

Fortunately, the packaging of that early pitch doesn’t really have much to say about the actual show. Something we should all keep in mind as we hear the two-line summaries for other Trek shows in development….or the next hype about the grail of another cinematic feature.

Agreed DeanH, it is crazy how the new shows have come full circle since that first season of Discovery. It feels like it took them time to figure out how to get back to the kind of Star Trek fans were missing while trying to do something new with the franchise at the same time. And I feel every show has improved for the most part.

Prodigy has done a great job of presenting a new angle to Star Trek but still feels very lived in to the rest of the classic shows. And someone mentioned this to me on another site but they noticed how the show started more ‘alien’ at the beginning of the season being on Tars Lamora and by the end was fully immersed in the Star Trek world. The show ended its season at Starfleet headquarters standing next to Janeway. That says it all.

I feel since SNW through LDS and now PRO, we had a very good year of Star Trek. It’s just been a ton of fun. While I still feel DIS and PIC fumbled their last seasons I am looking forward to season 3 of Picard. I’m just really hoping we are getting a real TNG season with everyone back and maybe a few extra surprises along the way! Let’s keep the good vibe going!!!

And someone mentioned this to me on another site but they noticed how the show started more ‘alien’ at the beginning of the season being on Tars Lamora and by the end was fully immersed in the Star Trek world.

There was an interview with the producers pretty early on where they talked about exactly this. They deliberately started the show less “Star-Treky” and introduced more and more classic Star Trek elements over the course of the season.
I guess it was their way of pulling new audiences in without overwhelming them.

Or maybe their way of appeasing studio executives who still thought ‘new Star Trek’ should mean ‘anything but Star Trek’.

Wow that is interesting. It worked really well too. It was a smart way to ease not just the kids in the show but the real kids watching it into the universe slowly. It’s the complete opposite of Lower Decks lol. But they both work so well for their intended audiences.

Thank you, Prodigy writers, for getting Star Trek back to truly feel like itself again after such a long time! And in just one season, no less — what an accomplishment! I wouldn’t mind at all for these characters to show up in live action eventually, either. 🤩

The current order for me to enjoy Trek on TV the most: DS9 (nearly unbeatable), The Orville (😜), TNG, VOY, PRO, ENT, PIC, TOS, SNW, LDS, [there might be some overlap above here and there, then a big gap, then…] DSC. 🖖🤨

For me, it’s currently:

-DS9
-TNG
-VOY
-PRO
-TOS
-ENT
-LDS
-SNW
-DIS
-PIC

And honestly, with the exception of PIC and DIS, I love them all anyway. So I’m really really hoping both those shows just surprise me in their next season. Lower Decks and Strange New Worlds is really a tie for me if I’m being honest, so I just listed those by alphabetical order.

But Prodigy really surprised me. I can’t believe how much I enjoyed it. It’s no way I thought I would rate it this high, especially after just a season. And I agree, it’s nice for Star Trek to truly feel like Star Trek again. I haven’t felt this way about Star Trek since the 90s.

Niiice! 😁👍 I bet quite a few others on here would agree on the first four — maybe not in that particular order, but it appears that PRO has definitely surprised most of us!

I had the hardest time deciding which order to put SNW and LDS in, myself! Then decided that, while LDS heaps on fan service by the truckload, and is set smack-dab in my favorite era, its tone is just “off” a little too often. 🤷‍♂️

I hope that S3 will propel PIC at least past DSC for you, even if The Burnham Show itself finally moves past its plethora of issues. (I’m still really trying hard to care for it!) 🤞 But last place would be a very sad place to be in, for a show with that many characters from your second favorite! ☝️😯

Yeah Prodigy has definitely surprised many people. I don’t think anyone thought it would be as layered and so attuned to canon as it is. In fact I kind of thought the canon stuff wouldn’t be so prevalent since it’s for kids and they won’t catch the references like the Benari in the final episode thanking Janeway for what she did for her group in Counterpoint. It’s that kind of reference that makes the old fans smile but will get new fans to appreciate this show more if and when they watch Voyager some day.

I just really respect these guys and how thoughtful they are to canon. Maybe Discovery would be higher on our lists from day one if they put in the same kind of thought into that show, but I digress. ;)

As far as Picard, it’s basically tied with Discovery if I’m being honest. I’m just disappointed with that show for so many reasons, but I just had higher expectations for it once you bring back such a legacy character after nearly 20 years. I was always 50/50 on Discovery because it was new and I hated it was a prequel show in the beginning. And then such a BAD prequel show only made it worse lol. But Picard my expectations were so high and why I’m so disappointed with it. The irony is with Prodigy it was quite low in the beginning. Now I think the best idea is for every show to start with low expectations lol. SNW they were more moderate but paid off well since I fell in love with that show early on.

And I hear you about Lower Decks. I love it, but yeah it can definitely be an acquired taste for some.

Prodigy certainly surprised me. For Secret Hideout to make something that didn’t outright suck is truly amazing. I feel like Prodigy was a mistake for them. But let’s not kid ourselves. As decent as Prodigy is, let’s not anoint it as King of all Trek. It just isn’t THAT good.

If we are doing this again…

TOS
DS9
ENT
VOY
TNG
PRO
PIC
SNW
LDX
Star Trek Discovery.

And let’s face it… The gap separating the bottom 3 is awfully small. The recent season of LDX shot it down to near Discovery level.

The season was good overall, but I didn’t love this finale. It really just felt like this was just the ending of the previous episode, instead of its own story. And it was just odd that there was the whole thing about how the shuttle didn’t have navigation, and they could be anywhere, but then they just find their way to Earth off screen a couple of scenes later.

Yeah… Much of their solution didn’t make a lot of sense. Which is part of what made this ending a bit of a let down. But overall I feel like this show legitimately tries. Something I just don’t feel from the other shows. So even when the show stumbles I’m willing to give them the benefit of the doubt.

For now.

Loved it! Now thatza Star Trek!
For myself, Trek is at its best when the stakes are high. “We need warp speed in 3 minutes, or we’re all dead!” moments.
Mulgrew has stated that the Hageman brothers are geniuses.
I agree. This show works on many levels. The adults can watch it while it still entertains a younger audience.
Yes, give these brothers a live-action Trek.
If only we could get Taylor Sheridan (Yellowstone) to develop a live-action Trek….

So are they going to tie this in to Picard so that someone will mention the Enterprise-E was lost when the Protostar returned? What about that starship graveyard including the Defiant? I really was expecting that they’d do something that would reverse the destruction of all those starfleet ships. Maybe in season two?

There was more than one Empire Strikes back reference. When the crew is watching Gwen’s ship fly away it is very reminiscent of the ending scene of that movie, when Lando takes the Falcon.

Welp… A little underwhelmed. I mean… I didn’t suck. But it wasn’t great either. Jest ended on a ‘meh’. Not really sure what else to say. This “meh” show is easily the best thing Secret Hideout has made. Which isn’t exactly a glowing resume of results. I still mostly like the characters. But I feel like the show was let down by plotting and story. I feel things moved awfully fast. I don’t know if that is a function of the half our format or what. But Rebels, for example, seems aimed for a similar demographic and it managed to have decent pacing.

Anyway, I guess I should just be happy to have a Trek show that doesn’t suck.

P+ is off again until the next Trek comes.