After 20 episodes, the first season of Star Trek: Prodigy wrapped up last week. Now the executive producers and co-creators are talking about their big plans for season 2.
More familiar faces in season 2
In a video feature released by Paramount+, Dan and Kevin Hageman talked about season 2, and Kevin teased that there are more legacy stars on the way:
In season 2, we’re going to see a lot more familiar faces.
In addition to having Kate Mulgrew as the two Janeways, season 1 featured Robert Beltran as Chakotay, Billy Campbell as Thadiun Okona, and Ronny Cox as Admiral Jellico, and now we know there are more coming. Season 2 will also feature a new ship for Admiral Janeway which both brothers also teased, and it too may have a big canon connection.
The brothers wrapped up their conversation by saying…
We promise we’re going to to deliver the goods in season 2. It’s magical.
Admiral Jellico (Ronny Cox) speaking to Vice Admiral Janeway (Kate Mulgrew) in “Masquerade”
A new dynamic between the kids and Admiral Janeway
Dan also talked about how the finale set up season 2:
The end of season one is a bit of a handoff. The kids have had Hologram Janeway—who’s a kid-friendly Janeway—and now they’ve graduated to an Admiral Janeway. She’s no-nonsense. So what you’re going to see in season 2 is you’re gonna see that relationship blossom.
The season finale saw Hologram Janeway sacrifice herself and the USS Protostar, and put the kids (except for Gwyn who has her own mission to Solum) now under the care of Admiral Janeway as “warrant officers in training” on her new ship. In an interview with CinemaBlend, Dan talked about how this will change things for the kids:
Hologram Janeway was their mentor and we knew when we pitched it they were going to be losing their mentor. But they’re going to be getting a new one, and it’s going to give them a new opportunity to grow. They’re not going to be coddled like they were in season 1. In order to get into Starfleet, things get tougher. That’s a big thing.
Kevin added how Vice Admiral Janeway has “other responsibilities” compared to Hologram Janeway, who was “designed to support their every need and to be there for them.” So being on a new ship probably means the kids will be interacting with other people in Starfleet, possibly even some of those legacy characters.
Dan also talked to CinemaBlend about how their roles on Janeway’s ship are part of their goal to get into Starfleet Academy:
They’ve still got more hills to climb to get to that place they want now that they’ve tasted it they want it. That really is one of the engines of season 2. As warrant officers, it allows us to actually get them onto a ship, they’re almost like consultants, so to speak. I would say that they’re more like cadets in training, but they’re not Starfleet Academy.
Actor Brett Gray offers a little insight into this in the Paramount+ video, talking about how things are different for Dal on Janeway’s new ship:
Dal, now he’s gonna go from the captain of his own ship, to an entire world of people who are also training to be those things and really learning his actual place in the universe. I just hope that Dal can come to terms with letting someone else lead and if he can truly sacrifice his own ego, and become a member of the team.
Finally, in her Ready Room post-finale interview, Kate Mulgrew teased this about season 2:
Where tension was suggested in season 1—by virtue of the circumstances—it is realized in season 2. You will be on the edge of your seat for every single character.
The five “warrant officers in training” from the season finale
Keep up with all the news and reviews from the new Star Trek Universe on TV at TrekMovie.com.
I’m not sure why but the more I hear about the next season and more ‘legacy’ characters I’m getting a serious Project: Full Circle vibe.
I thought the same.
Do you remember me asking you about this idea in the first half of season one TG47? I have never read those novels (I have never read any Star Trek novels ;)), but I remember hearing about the Voyager novels somewhere and fans were talking about the idea of using the Full Circle story line in Prodigy. I can’t remember what your response was at the time, but do you suspect now that might be a thing in season 2?
I think we will get something like that. Trekyards put out a video today theorizing there will be at least two hero ships next season, the new Protostar ship and Voyager. I think that would be such a cool idea, at least part of the season. And possibly more ships if the story line ends becoming bigger.
Full Circle? Could someone shed some light on this?
Long story short Jay, it’s a Voyager novel Kirsten Beyer wrote that was about a convoy of ships returning to the Delta Quadrant after Voyager returned home. I never read it, but here is a good synopsis about it on Memory Alpha.
https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Full_Circle
It’s a little funny that Beyer herself is not involved show since it’s basically a Voyager spin off, even as a consultant. But it obvious the writers really have a grasp on that show and its canon.
Thank you, will take a look and read more about the plot. I don’t read novels either, but I know her, I remember reading great reviews about her Voyager stories. The Hageman Brothers can’t hide their excitement talking about Season 2. Look forward to learn more about it.
No worries Jay!
I been curious about this idea since the beginning of the show once I heard about it. And I don’t think William is talking about the story line in the novel itself, just the basic concept of multiple ships exploring together and more of the old Voyager crew coming together. I would love to see it go that direction because once again, it’s a new idea we never seen before, at least on screen.
Essentially yes in my meaning. Project: Full Circle was an interesting concept that found Voyager and its crew (minus Tuvok) returning to the Delta Quadrant to pick up where Voyager left off.
The Full Circle Fleet consisted of several vessels including traditional explorers, an engineering vessel, a hospital ship, and even a hydroponic vessel. It was originally led by an Admiral, but Janeway eventually returned to command after some shenanigans.
Let’s just call this my blurb for the series. There is a lot more to this.
‘Full Circle’ was the first of a series of Relaunch novels with Voyager as part of an intentional return to the Delta Quadrant to explore in the wake of the absence of the Borg.
It was still viewed as a very dangerous place to explore. More, Voyager had only traversed a relatively small slice of the quadrant.
So, the series very much had an ‘anything can happen’ feel to it. The novels definitely leaned into unexpected, bigger and weirder Delta Quadrant stuff, with a good mix of the completely new civilizations and species as well as deliberate checking in on some that Voyager had made contact with.
All the ships, including the refit Voyager, had quantum slipstream drives. So, they had the capability to get back to the Federation quickly if needed, and moved independently of any legacy Borg Transwarp corridors. (Those are something introduced in the new streaming series, but having some kind of remaining corridor infrastructure makes more sense than not. I can see why Prodigy has leaned into that.)
In terms of author Kirsten Beyer, it’s possible that she might have been consulted a bit on Prodigy season two. While she’s been moving up the writers room chain with Discovery since the start and has a cocreator credit for Picard, I believe she’s still been who SNW checks in with as a canon resource.
David Mack has been clear that his stint as a consultant for Prodigy was for the first season only. So, it’s possible that either they thought Aaron Waltke is a sufficient Trek fan not to need one of the authors as a resource or they decided Kirsten would be their best one for where they were taking the storyline.
I only remember all the praise Beyer received after Voyager. I remember fans pushing for a Voyager movie. Decades later, now I get it. :D
This plot is fascinating. If the Hageman Brothers take these Full Circle elements, Season 2 will be very interesting.
I have to admit, those novels really do sound amazing. Just very creative and takes Voyager’s mythology in a whole new and interesting direction. And it’s obvious why Kirsten Beyer got the job to work on these shows. So I would love a Full Circle story line on Prodigy.
And I know I harp on this a lot, but it’s just more proof when you heard fans with apparently no imagination at all saying that there was nothing more you can do in a post-Nemesis setting and why we should just get boring prequels for the next 20 years. Like every story has been told. It was SO eye rolling, especially because you had authors and stories like this already out there that proved just the opposite and there were plenty of new stories to tell and to broaden old characters while bringing in new ones. There were tons of eager writers out there and now we are getting them thanks to Prodigy, Lower Decks and Picard.
Prodigy is some of the best story telling in YEARS, on the level of 90’s Star Trek. It’s expanding the 24th century in a way we haven’t seen since DS9. I love Lower Decks as you know (and very so-so on Picard thus far) but Prodigy is the more ‘traditional’ Star Trek show and just really sparks my imagination in a way none of the new shows have done yet. And it’s aimed at 8 year olds lol. That’s the crazy thing about it, it’s not even suppose to be for us in a way the other shows are and yet it speaks to me better than everything else at the moment!
I hope it ties into Voyager stronger as it goes but just having more 24th century stories with these new characters and Janeway is a win already!
Full Circle added years to my life, so I hope you’re right.
I’m asking honestly: are kids responding to this? Because I worry about losing some by getting too deep in Trek minutiae. That said, I was hooked on TOS by age 5 and watched TNG as a teen.
Check out the Mission Log: Prodigy podcast from Roddenberry, they have kids reactions to each episode
Same, same, I loved TNG as a kid and I LIVED Voyager (and DS9 to a point) as a tweeny teeny type person. I think kids are doing okay with Prodigy–it’s going to depend on the kid and how into the story they are. But I think Prodigy does a good job maturing with its audiences and not getting SO into the Trekiness as to lose anyone. I think it’s only going to get more mature and complicated, tho, with the expectation that its main viewers are getting older. That’s the awesome thing about modern kids programing, it doesn’t always have to reset and stay at the same level.
I would think this is still overwhelmingly being watched by adults, the same with Star Wars cartoons. I have 4 nephews age 6-11 and none of them watch any cartoons, its all gaming for them.
I watch Prodigy with my 10 year old daughter. It’s the only Star Trek she likes.
It’s odd how people complained about the lack of legacy characters in the new Trek shows at first- but reading comments on this website and elsewhere, the problem now seems to be the fact we are getting legacy characters in the new Trek shows.
So many times I’ve seen “enough with the legacy characters, this shows can’t stand on their own because of them”- which feels way off base to me.
It often occurs to me that a lot of fandoms don’t really know what they want from their shows.
I think fashions kind of rise and fall, someone is loudly mad about “poorly written” new characters “no one cares about” and then later someone else decries “fanservice” when older characters appear; the suggestable masses glom on to one idea and then the other because well-worded loudness is often attractive and some people will always enjoy being critical/up in arms and acting that way is a lot easier when you feel like you have many similar voices behind you. (Many people in fandom and the general public come to believe that “everyone” thinks a certain way, as well. It’s never, ever true, but it makes people feel like they’re either going to be in the in group or the out group. People also need others to help them learn their own tastes, and there’s always (IMO) a stage in that where you just basically agree with any well presented argument for or against any particular thing.)
Me, I love a mix of new characters and legacies provided that the latter don’t overshadow the former and the plots don’t rely fully on *nostalgia but bring in legacy characters for a good reason. (And I consider “the actor was available and we had a good idea” to be fine, tbh.) I don’t think it’s so much that fandoms don’t know, it’s that they’re made up of a lot of people with different ideas and likes and dislikes and tend to function as a sort of course correction. And ya know “Give us what we want and we’ll just want something else because we don’t know how to function in a state of satisfaction.”
(Well, some of us do. And we end up really sad b/c things inevitably shift, esp when creatives are trying to please everyone.)
*Nostalgia is relative. I’ve watched multiple movies that the word nostalgia is near-universally used to describe and loved them despite either not having seen the original until *just* prior, or not having a particular affection towards the thing “everyone” is supposedly nostalgic about.
“It often occurs to me that a lot of fandoms don’t really know what they want from their shows”
Of course not, because “fandoms” don’t exist. There are millions of individuals who all have different opinions, different favourites and tastes. With franchises like Star Trek, Star Wars or Doctor Who having become extremely huge, everyone picks their favourites and disses other incarnations. I’m more of a nostalgia guy who loves ship-based shows, cameos, an episodic structure, bright colors and optimism. Others want fresh premises, original characters, a serialized structure, a darker tone and more sinister concepts..There will never be a unified opinion about franchises and indivudual incarnations. Never.
For me, I’ve always been on both sides of the fence with this. On one hand, I think it’s good for a show to be it’s own thing and create unique characters because it just feels more original. Whether you love or hate the Berman era, that’s one of the reasons I love it so much, because he tried to make every show it’s own unique thing. He could’ve easily just did a Riker spin off show on another starship instead of Deep Space 9 and it would’ve been crazy popular lol. Same for Voyager, they could’ve just thrown a bunch of legacy characters on that crew and be done with it as well. Sure there were tons of crossovers and Worf joined DS9, but what makes them all stand out today is because those shows all had their own separate identity.
But I also have zero issues of having legacy characters on these shows too. For instance, I was already becoming a bigger fan of DS9 in its early days, but I was BEYOND excited when it was announced Worf was coming to the show lol. I was in school at the time and all my Star Trek geek friends were ecstatic over it because they were big TNG fans. There were people who had never watched more than a few episodes of that show who became invested once they heard Worf being on it. A lot of news headlines was suddenly talking about DS9 again over it. Again, people seem to have short memories over this stuff but DS9 had little to no hype after it’s first season until Worf joined the cast and then suddenly people were talking about the show again. And it was just one character. That’s why they keep adding these characters, because it works!
Now today, things are very different. All these new shows do have their own identity and certainly feel different from each other, but they do rely on legacy characters to market and sell them. That’s just a fact. They all rely on nostalgia bait in a way none of the classic shows did. Sure, Picard showed up in the first episode of DS9, but he didn’t show up for the entire season the way Pike did on Discovery. They found a way to do a few crossovers of TNG characters on Voyager and Troi and Barclay had recurring roles on the show, but it was never a revolving door of legacy characters the way SNW and LDS seems to be doing. And I don’t know if a show like Prodigy would’ve gotten approved unless they had a legacy character at the helm because there was probably a fear older fans wouldn’t watch a ‘kid’s show’ unless there was an iconic character involved and enter Janeway.
But as Garth said, fans are not a monolith either. There are fans who really want original characters and settings. Those are the fans who constantly push to go forward in the timeline, etc. They want NEW ideas. And then there are fans who just want more Kirk, Picard or Janeway and only care if they are getting those characters again. And now they are lol. So, you can obviously have both. It’s not either/or situation.
And I think because everyone is now paying for Star Trek today this is simply a way to get more fans to at least check out new shows. I’m convinced every show from this point on will have TNG/VOY/TOS characters of some kind. It’s just easier to market and get the casual fans onboard. This is simply the new normal for Star Trek IMO.
I feel you! I was in my mid-teens when Worf joined DS9, and even though I was one of the few I knew who watched Trek that had already quite liked the show thus far, it really took off from there! 🚀👍
Crossovers, even if just done by familiar characters showing up here and there, made the franchise feel rich and (despite it running the obvious risk of appearing small-universe) even more vast! 😃✨️
I don’t really need or want constant self-referencial fan service in the way that LDS was dishing it out for most of its first two seasons, and possibly a little less severely for season 3, but the way the Prodigy writers sprinkle in and cleverly employ this tool, totally works for me! 😁
It doesn’t have me screaming “more,” but smile from ear to ear, and think “this is just right!” Now, if they truly give us even more in season 2, of course I’m gonna see how it’s done (obviously, Adm. Janeway would have connections that would seem organic to bring in) before I reject an onslaught of legacy folk… 😉
There is no denial however you felt about DS9 as a show at the time, that adding Worf just gave the show extra life after that. The show would’ve still been an amazing show without him, but I honestly think a lot less people would’ve been watching if he wasn’t on it. And season 4 was really the break out season for the show IMO. It definitely improved in season 3 when the Dominion story line started, but season 4 is really the season the show came into it’s own and knew where it was going from then on. It just had a lot more energy from that point on as well. But Worf really changed the dynamic in a great way.
But as far as adding legacy characters and all of that, I don’t have a single issue with it as long as it works! And this is the thing, for all the bashing that goes on with Kurtzman and some of his shows, what nearly everyone seems to agree on is that the legacy characters has been a big success overall! And of course they know that and so like every TV production out there, they are just trying to give fans what they feel they are positively responding to. I mean Discovery still feels soooo divisive four seasons later but nearly EVERYONE loved Pike and Spock in season 2. It’s why SNW even exists. And being TV producers the thinking probably went something like, ‘hey, if they loved that we brought back Pike, Spock and Number One, then let’s bring in Uhura, Chapel, Kirk and on and on.” So the PIke show has essentially become a TOS show by proxy basically because we know we’re only getting more TOS characters coming. And few people are complaining about it. ;)
Same issue with Picard. First season was NOT a very popular season overall, but look what everyone responded to? They loved having Seven of Nine there obviously. People were divided on the finale, but what were the two bits people were talking about? The Data and Picard goodbye scene and Riker coming to the rescue. Those were easily the biggest scenes in the finale. And speaking of Riker, what was the episode everyone seem to love in first season? It was Nepenthe. Even if you thought the season was total dog shit, that episode seem to have been a stand out show just having Picard, Riker and Troi in a room together reminiscing.
So for all the issues fans are having with Picard, all the legacy and nostalgia stuffed worked with most fans. So is it any surprise they decided to just bring the entire cast back in season 3?
That’s both the gift and the curse. TV (or streaming) is a very reactive medium. They are always trying to find ways to keep the audience they have happy and bring in more audiences as a show progress. It’s funny, some people are complaining it’s too many legacy characters but they are still going to watch lol. That’s human nature of course but they know it’s a draw EITHER way.
Yep! 😊
“Even if you thought the season was total dog shit, that episode seem to have been a stand out show just having Picard, Riker and Troi in a room together reminiscing.”
And not just reminiscing, but Troi was actually written to use her abilities COMPETENTLY! That’s something even TNG was hardly ever able to accomplish… 😜
Just one more reason why I’m cautiously optimistic, and looking very much forward to S3! 🤞😬
I’ve always loved Troi and there were plenty of examples where she used her abilities in a strong way in TNG. But I definitely agree, how they used her in Nepenthe was one of the strongest for sure. And that’s the other thing, they have really used most of the returning character’s strengths in the best ways and why people are positive on most of them being there.
Now I know there has been some division like with Picard himself and some fans think he hasn’t really shined like he did on the show. It’s still great seeing him but ironically out of all the returning characters, he’s the one that hasn’t been used in the best light IMO. BUT according to some people whose seen season 3, he is back to the old Picard, so yeah another reason to be cautiously optimistic season 3 will be the season we been waiting for.
No lie I wasn’t a DS9 fan for a long time, like years. I only cared about TNG and VOY. I could not get into DS9 even though I tried. I started watching it and thought it was OK but just not pulling me in like the other two shows.
But I got to fourth season and watched Way of the Warrior and OMG!!! Everything after that episode changed for me. Seeing Worf was a total thrill and the show was feeling awesome after that!
DS9 went from OK to badass. The show was just better but Worfs presence made me appreciate the show a lot more for someone who didn’t even look at DS9 as a real Star Trek show. But my feelings changed quickly after season four. 👍
I was a big DS9 supporter from the start, but I didn’t love it at the beginning either. It took some time, probably by season 3 I became a big fan of it. But for years, probably until the fourth season, it was my least favorite show out of the four at the time. It was that season where that started to change and every season after that just got stronger for me. And not because of Worf obviously, the show in general was firing on all cylinders by then, but having Worf definitely created more excitement for the show.
And your situation sounded like a lot of TNG fans who couldn’t get into the show back in the day. Again, people forget, but DS9 was really considered the black sheep of the family at the time. That’s kind of why Voyager was created, to basically be the anti-DS9. I wouldn’t say the same analogy is as equal, but that’s how SNW feels to me when compared to Discovery and it’s kind of feeks like the anti-Discovery show because like Voyager, it has a lighter tone and vibe to that show. Certainly more optimistic and upbeat. It’s not a shock why it’s so much more popular (that and better written too ;)).
Both SNW and VOY are very much comfort food Star Trek where as DS9 and DIS was bolder and less formulaic than those shows (although DIS is becoming more of that I guess as they constantly try to make the show more appealing). They were made for fans who complained DS9 and DIS was just too dark and different.
But there were a lot of TOS/TNG fans who could not get into DS9 and there are still many today who can’t, some on this very board I really love talking to and respect. But having Worf made it a little more tolerable for some of those fans at the time for sure.
As usual I agree with you! 👍
For me Voyager is exactly like SNW and why I love that show now. Comfort food is a great way to describe them.
DS9 was not comfort food lol. It was very complicated at times and I just didn’t care about Bajoran/Cardassian stuff. Didn’t like most of the characters. It felt too stuffy for me at the time.
Even my best friend who got me into Star Trek hated it too. But he also hated Voyager. He thought it was badly written with horrible characters. We argued about it every week and it was so much fun at the time bro! I miss our arguing over Star Trek and Baywatch lol. Trek was kiddie stuff compared to our Baywatch arguments… but I digress!
And I admit when I saw Threshold for the first time I finally understood why he hated the show so much! 😂🙄
But the difference was Voyager was still real Star Trek to him and he watched it every week, just thought it bad Star Trek. But DS9 wasn’t even Star Trek to him and he stopped watching it after the second season. I’m sure later he watched it and changed his mind. Not on Voyager I’m sure he still hates that show today lol, but probably likes DS9 more today I’m guessing. I do notice a lot more people appreciate it more now including me. It’s my second favorite show and I like it more than Voyager.
The Bajorans and Cardassians are now some of my favorite species!
But he totally LOVED Enterprise. Said it was the best representation of TOS while I thought that show was the worst thing ever. I gave up on that one after 12 episodes and like DS9 never thought I would like it. And I didn’t hate DS9 like Enterprise, it just wasn’t for me then. But he couldn’t get how I loved Voyager but hated Enterprise and I had the complete opposite view! I don’t know how we stayed friends at the time but we both idolized TNG at least so that saved it I guess. 😂
Haven’t spoken in years but I always wondered if he likes Discovery or not? For some reason I can imagine him really loving that show since I hate it so much! 🤣
Dude you always make me laugh lol!
And this is a really good post, because it proves as I always say Star Trek fans are not a monolith. One of the problems with message boards, especially message boards like this where people are older (over 40) is that everyone is pretty much stuck in their ways, ie, people who has been watching Star Trek at least since the 80s if not since it started. There is this constant narrative that fans like these set of shows but hate these other set of shows and so on. And it’s hard to have objective conversations at times when you are talking to a lot of older fans (and I am definitely an older fan too lol), but I digress.
And I was never one of these people who don’t consider such and such show or movie as not ‘real’ Star Trek, but you definitely get a lot fans like that and yes that includes mostly older fans. I’m guessing your friend was probably watching Star Trek by the 70s or 80s.
It’s the problem with fans today who don’t see NuTrek as ‘real’ Star Trek and idolizes the classic shows and films. And I do too but Discovery is just much as Star Trek as ‘real’ Star Trek as everything else. The irony is that’s exactly what a lot of people said about DS9 as your friend did. And then Enterprise. And then the Kelvin movies lol. It’s a constant circle and it’s soooo annoying. Just like what you like without trying to get the stuff you hate deemed as non-canon. They are just TV shows, relax. You don’t have to love any of these shows or movies, but you should still recognize they all have fans and we have very different and usually complicated thoughts on all of them.
And I got my best friend into Star Trek at the time, too. Mostly TOS and TNG when we were in high school. He was a bigger TNG fan for sure.He adored that show. We both liked DS9 too. He didn’t like Voyager as much as I did but tolerated it. And he hated Enterprise at the time, but I wasn’t a big fan either, but never hated it. We both just didn’t like prequels that was the biggest issue. And why I know he would totally hate Discovery lol, at least the first two seasons. I could be wrong, he may love it, but I just don’t see it at all. Same for Lower Decks. He would see it as making of Star Trek, but again I could be wrong. Picard would be 50/50. I really don’t know. I’m sure he would love Prodigy and SNW though.
LOL, I went off topic again. I just love talking Star Trek with RATIONAL people. ;)
One more question, what does your friend think of the Kelvin movies? If he liked TOS and Enterprise, he probably loves those too I’m guessing.
And call me an apologist, but I never thought Threshold was THAT bad (but yeah, still pretty bad lol).
Unfortunately we lost touch after college. He moved to another country and all of that at the time and years before those movies started.
But if I had to guess if he liked them or not, I would say definitely because he was a hardcore TOS fan and just having Nimoy showing up in the first movie would’ve been worth it alone I think. I can guarantee you he at least liked them more than I did because no one hates them worse than me! 🤣
And we just had different tastes overall except for TNG. He did really like Janeway a lot and a big reason he watched Voyager but hated the show overall. I think he liked Sisko too.
And we were born the same year and he started watching Trek in the mid eighties. But this is the thing, this guy came from a Trekkie family. And what I mean is his parents were hardcore fans. Let me stress this, his dad was one of the people who wrote into NBC for the letter writing campaign to save Star Trek and he was just a teenager.
His dad was a hardcore fan in every sense of the word. He became friends with the couple who started that letter writing campaign later in the 70s. I can’t remember their names but I know all you nerds do! 😂
They had dinner a few times meeting at conventions. His dad
actually went to the very first Star Trek convention I think in the 70s? He met Roddenberry and Majal Barrett. When the original Enterprise model opened at the Smithsonian he and his wife drove from California to DC to be there when it opened.
I remember one summer going to their house and they had all signed picture autographs from all the TOS and TNG actors. They got them all at conventions. They had most of the DS9 cast and was halfway through the Voyager cast. This was around 1999!
They had a photo album with just pictures of them with most of the cast members from all the shows and staff. I still remembered the with him, his wife and Kate Mulgrew making silly faces together. He said her, Leonard Nimoy and Johnathan Frakes we’re thier favorite people to get take pictures with. But you want to know who was their favorite actor out of all time they met? The o-n-e actor they would not stop talking about because he was so nice to them:
Garrett Wang! 😁😂
His dad would not stop talking how great he was and said it was like talking to one of their kids. He was so personable and they apparently all been to the same city in Taiwan or something and they talked for nearly an hour.
And my friend was really picky over what he liked but not his parents. That was the crazy thing. They were fans of all the shows at the time. They were both TOS fans first
of course but Voyager was his mother’s second favorite show after TOS even though he hated it. I got along well with his mother. 😁
When TNG premiered, they rented out a space at a local hotel in their city in Northern California and invited 50 Trekkie friends to watch it together. They did the same thing seven years later for All Good Things and almost twice as many people came for that.
Bro they went to every movie premiere through Insurrection at the time. They went to the TMP premiere and his mother cried because Roddenberry hugged her and told them all of this only happened because of fans like them who kept the show alive. They loved all of them except TFF and Generations. They only didn’t like that one because Kirk was killed off. And they had every movie poster displayed on their wall at home.
These people were hardcore! But it proves not every old fan are picky either. They loved Star Trek so much. But they never went online either so maybe that was the secret. 😁
What’s sad is I still wasn’t a big fan at the time so it wasn’t that big a deal. I loved hearing all the stories but I was still barely a fan at the time so it just didn’t register like now. I remember when I first met met my friend and he showed showed me a picture of his family with an actor and I asked who it was? He gave me this weird look and said “that’s Patrick Stewart dumbass.”
This was in 1998 yall. I was so green at the time! 🤣
Wow, your friend certainly had a fantastic history with Star Trek. I been a Trek fan since the 70s and most of my experience with the show was just to watch them or the movies outside of going to a few conventions in the 90s. But that’s been pretty much it lol. But these guys lives obviously revolved around the show. That’s pretty impressive, especially being one of the people who wrote in to NBC to save the show.
I would’ve love to have people like this and just pick their brain. It sounds like when you met them you were just getting into the show. I can imagine would be different today. Thanks for sharing! :)
Oh and I heard Garret Wang is actually one of the friendliest cast members when interacting with fans. There was even a Reddit thread about him not too long ago and posters sharing their interactions with him. Who knew? But that’s what makes the franchise great, the community between the fans and people who make the shows/movies. That’s still not very common for a lot of long time franchises the way it is in Star Trek!
Same for me. The beginning and end of DS9 are like 2 totally different shows for me. I never got into the Maquis stuff for example. And the Cardassians on their own were boring bad guys. It really was the Dominon that changed everything for me
Hey man, yep I agree. DS9 was a very different show than where it started. But I love the entire show today. DS9 is the show I rewatch the most today although TNG and VOY I have probably rewatched both of them from beginning to end about a dozen times each since I got into Star Trek.
I really hated the Cardassians in the beginning like I hated the Kazon and the Orc Klingons from Discovery. But the Cardassians turned it around for me by the fourth season and became my second favorite villains once they aligned themselves with the Dominion in fifth season. That show was on fire then!
Yep the cardassians really grew as a species for me when they became almost the sympathetic slave race to the dominion.
For me, adding Worf to DS9 was kind of cool, but it really didn’t affect my already great love for the show, and I certainly don’t think his rather minimal role, which did increase for certain eps, was that important in the overall legacy of popularity of that series.
It’s not really comparable to bringing in Seven on Voyager. That show was turning in to a ratings diving, dumpster fire that might’ve got canceled — bringing her in both as a sexy presence and a good actress stabilized the ratings and pretty much saved the series and gave it more direction with the Borg involvement.
Mainly I’m just sick of all the force-fitted geriatric guest stars. If you’re going to go back and do legacy then do it right by recasting them like in with JJ Abrams movies or like in Strange New Worlds. This will probably sound harsh but I really don’t need a new Picard season where the season arc plot device is focused around a 73-year-old actress in an adventure that involves getting a message to an 83-year-old actor. I know I’m in the minority of on this, but we’ll see what this season looks like… The more I see the more worried I get — the “bad guy out for revenge” actor’s scene looks very lame (she makes me laugh in the wrong way), and the latest Brent Spinner “actors welfare” forced-in role looks completely unnecessary.
In live action, its more difficult to get away with legacy characters who have visibly aged.
Strange New Worlds have already recast Kirk, Spock and Uhura for one thing.
In some cases, today, you can also use AI and adaptive algorithms to reuse legacy characters faces and their voices in live action and portray them as young ones too (if you want to strictly stick to what came before).
For an animated series such as ST: Prodigy, all you need to do is create and animate the legacy characters in younger capacity but give them real life actors voices (which would remain mostly the same).
And heck, many people can actually emulate other people’s voices accurately… even if some actors were unavailable but you got their consent, you could hire someone else who could do the same voiceover in the same manner.
I think what Prodigy is doing is great.
VOY definitely deserved more in terms of seeing where things ended up and pushing the characters further and via PRO series, we are getting that.
While ‘some’ legacy characters will return, not all of them will in fact.
I guess the problem that some of the fandom has with ‘tributes’ to what came before is a bit too constant referencing.
Its fine if they do it occasionally, but constant can be a bit tiring.
Prodigy is indeed honouring what came before, but they are using legacy cast to tell new stories, while the series will STILL be focused on the kids.
The Legacy characters are mostly ‘supporting cast members’… but PRO series ties into VOY series excellently since the kids DID stumble upon Chakotay’s ship, and it was VA Janeway who eventually found them (because she was looking for Chakotay and the Protostar – it stands to reason she would have personal reason to go into this mission).
You make a lot of good comments there. Thanks
I suppose Gwyn isn’t returning for the second season despite having her own mission.
She is part of this young crew. Gwyn, Asencia, and the Younger Diviner should be in Season 2.
I think there will be two parallel stories. Gwyn in Solum and the rest of the team with Starfleet.
I suspect you’re correct Jay.
The Hagemans are speaking as though the show will be following Gwyn to Solum for at least the opening of the season.
Really hope so. She is one of the main characters…and now with the romantic element, will be heavy to leave her in pause for the upcoming 20 episodes.
I just cannot wait for this. Such an awesome show! I’m so glad they are moving the plot and dynamics forwards, much as I’ve enjoyed season one this sounds even better…
So, these kids will get promoted in less time than Harry Kim did, right?
First they must become Official Starfleet Kadets, before we can talk about Starfleet Ranks. There is still a change that they can become independent, but supported trough Admiral Janeway, until they are old Enough to select for themselves where to spent their Futures
Indeed. For now they’re non-commissioned officers like O’Brien, no?
No. Harry Kim was a graduate of SF Academy… and while I agree he should have been promoted to a LT. JG or full Liutenant by about season 3 or 4, he probably DID get a better promotion once VOY returned to Earth (probably a full Liutenant Commander – effectively skipping Lt. JG and full Lt. ranks).
It was the show writers who wanted to fire the actor portraying him, but instead, because he was (at the time) stated to be one of the sexiest men alive, they kept him on the show, but prevented his rank from being increased (I wouldn’t be surprised if Janeway pushed Starfleet into giving Kim a great promotion deal – as a possible way of making up for not promoting him earlier).
The kids are basically part of SF and warrant officers in training.
All they got is basically an opportunity to become officers of SF at some point (right now, they are part of SF, but more like advisors without any rank).
Whether or not they will have to (eventually) enroll into SF Academy or not remains to be seen, but I suspect that SF will deem their training under VA Janeway as sufficient enough to grant them at least field promotions into actual officers (of the lowest rank) if they go through all ordeals that Academy would put young cadets through normally.
A ship full of Wesley Crushers, heh.
Actually Garret Wang put that ‘sexiest man alive’ rumor to rest on the Delta Flyers. He said it was never true, his job was never in jeopardy. It was one of those urban legends that started and only got bigger in time.
Hah
Yeah that makes sense. If Berman wanted him gone, he would be gone.
They “killed” Prime Harry anyway. The one we have “alive“ is from a parallel universe, if I remember correctly.
YEEESSS, sounds exciting!
I am really hoping they are not just on the Voyager A but we get a few more Voyager characters to be part of the crew. First season of Prodigy was such a fun ride and I’m even more excited about season 2 now. I think we’re going to get a lot of fun stuff with the kid’s being part of a real crew now, will be time travel based heading into the 25th century to save Chakotay and hopefully lots more weird trippy stories like they did in the first season.
Let’s have a reverse story line of the episode Rascals where the kids all become adults! Or maybe an episode where they meet another version of their ship in the future ala the Enterprise episode E2. Or an episode where they make first contact with a planet where all the sea life has evolved into a sentient species. That’s the beauty of animation, you can do more creative stuff like that and we never seen it before in Star Trek.
But I have faith (of the heart) we’re going to get a lot of fun stories next season and it’s great this show is carrying on the Voyager legacy and will get new fans into that show in the future.
It’s really quite sad to see every one of these new Trek shows flooded with “legacy characters”, and in particular seeing the showrunners boast about it, as if it’s something to be proud of. That said, reading comments online, it seems seeing familiar faces is all the fans want these days, so who can blame them. It’s a surefire way for Trek to stagnate though.
Yeah, I think in retrospect, in just a couple years we’re going to look back at this as a huge mistake.
As I said above to another poster, it’s not that black or white. I think there just as many fans like you who wants to see new characters, settings, time periods, etc. I know this because we had MULTIPLE successful shows with new characters and most of them thrived, TNG the most obvious. That’s kind of the irony about these discussions because as someone pointed out in another thread, these ‘legacy’ characters were once new characters as well and people started to fall in love them the more they grew and developed.
So fans have NO issues with new characters. Most will happily watch as long as they are interesting on their own. And I will also say a lot of the new characters we have gotten has become popular at least. You have some divisive characters like Burnham or Mariner right now but you also have some more popular ones from the start like Rios (yeah…I know), Tendi (probably my favorite), Rutherford, Saru, Rok, etc.
And actually the biggest irony about Picard was that I think people generally accepted the idea all those new characters were going to anchor the spin off show once Stewart was done. Remember the first episode of season 2? People seem generally excited over a Rios Stargazer show. There were all these posts of fans throwing out ideas of how all the characters can just be on the Stargazer together. Raffie was going to be the first officer. Soji was going to work in medical or engineering. Elnor was going to be a security officer. Seven could end up as Chief engineer or let’s go the nostalgia route and have her in Astrometrics again. ;)
People seemed generally excited for this direction. But then we learned they fired most of those guys to bring back the Next Generation crew again and naturally people became more excited over that idea instead, me included.
But the point is, I think it’s unfair to say fans ONLY want legacy characters. I think most would be fine with new ones. But of course it you give them Spock, Picard, Q, Worf, Seven, Tuvok, Janeway, Riker or Sisko, people will naturally become more excited and that’s what CBS seems to be pushing for. But that’s the case in every franchise out there. There has been just as many legacy characters showing up on all the Star Wars shows lately as there are on Star Trek. It’s just easier market at the end of tthe day.
That’s why everyone seems convinced you can’t even MAKE a Star Trek movie unless you have iconic characters to get casual fans to even go to one. I have literally heard people on this very board say they won’t even SEE a movie unless legacy characters are in it and that’s exactly why the movies are currently stagnant IMO. At least with the shows, you can still be more creative.
It’s a mistake they have been making since the Abrams films, believing that Star Trek is about iconic characters, not ideas.
I totally agree. I think the ‘problem’ started in 2009 with the first Kelvin movie and where it stems today. The Kelvin movie was a little different since it was a reboot, but obviously it brought back all the TOS characters. And that’s not a BAD thing in itself of course, but it created the same issue that the shows are having now where it’s more about pushing nostalgia with legacy characters than it is about new ideas and stories.
And you can certainly do both, but that’s why we got something like STID in the first place and fucking Khan. Most of the shows from LDS to SNW are great which I’m enjoying, but obviously they are there to push nostalgia as much tell new stories. They are both meant to appeal to old fans as much as possible, certainly LDS. But SNW is not far behind either. Let’s not kid ourselves. Obviously so is Picard. The one show that ISN’T doing that is Discovery, but that’s mostly due to it’s circumstances now.
That is the big difference from the classic shows. DS9 and VOY wasn’t created to push nostalgia. They were obviously there to make you feel immersed in the Star Trek universe and had call backs to other stories and characters but they really did set out to do their own thing. The shows today do their own thing at times, but a lot it is steeped into past characters and story lines like Discovery’s second season and every season of Picard lol.
But it works. That is the irony about Enterprise. People didn’t like it that much because it basically avoided a lot of TOS tie ins. But everyone seems to love season 4 because yeah, that’s when the nostalgia ramped up and they were pushing more TOS story lines, characters and species.
But that show still didn’t have a different legacy character showing up every two episodes like most of the new shows are doing today. And no one was related to Spock, Khan or Picard either. ;)
Bro, Mariner is NOT divisive. . she’s just misunderstood! 🤣
In all seriousness I agree with a lot of this. For me I love having the legacy characters. But it doesn’t mean I can’t fall in love with new ones either. I love Tendi, Zero, Rutherford, Rok, Boimler, Dr T’Ana, Shaxs, Jankom, Mariner and Gwyn as much I like a lot my legacy characters.
And it’s interesting because they are the animated characters. I just love both of those shows so much.
That is interesting all your favorite new characters come from the animated shows. I think it shows that these shows have basically become equal to the live actions shows in a lot of fans eyes. Same thing happened with Star Wars and The Clone Wars and Rebels. At first, they were those kiddie SW shows and today they are just as important if not MORE important for a lot of fans as the live action stuff. All the live action SW shows and movies have taken characters and story lines from the animated shows from the Mandalorian to Obi Wan. That’s literally why a live action Ashoka show is coming this year! I doubt a decade anyone would’ve saw that coming.
And we’re already getting live action versions of the Lower Decks characters this year too! And I bet you the Prodigy characters won’t be far behind, especially if live action Janeway starts popping up in future shows or her own show.
But as time goes on, LDS and PRO canon will become incorporated into the live action shows as the characters just becomes more popular like with the LDS/SNW crossover. And boy I can’t WAIT for that episode! :)
I really don’t understand why they are going this direction? Why does this great series concept need to follow the whole lower decks thing with the canon winks and the legacy characters? This series does not need more legacy characters.
And we’re hearing that Strange New Worlds is supposed to go in the direction of trying to really top season 1 in a really big way. Again, I don’t like hearing this.
Instead, it would be great if Kurtzman told us that in prodigy season 2 and stange new world season 2, we’re going to give you more of the same of what you saw in season 1 without radical departures to make it bigger and better . That’s what I want to be hearing.
ps: This is my new name here for 2023 (I was formerly One Lon)
The kids on the frontier storyline was great and knocked it out of the park (with holo Janeway) only for the Voyager baggage complete with nonsensical time travel to ruin in. It’s too bad time travel isn’t real because they really need to build a Time Machine, go back in time and remove that boorish nonsense
I just hope that Holo-Janeway gave some sort of Logbook to Admiral-Janeway to give a bit Background wisdom for Kickstart with them. I bet these Kids are going to casual talk to Admiral-Janeway on the Bridge, and perhaps the Officers will make Big Eyes, since these Kids are used to Holo-Janeway. So i hope they do not get Mad about these Kids of not show Respect to her Admiral Rang. But the Kids should also learn fast that this is not “Mommy” Janeway from Protostar. Sure she can become one, but it should take some time for both Sides without surrounding Damage about this
Well, let’s see what the Writer room has in Stocks for Admiral Janeway and these Kids. In the end it is “for the Kids!” Show
I don’t mind the legacy characters so long as it remains the kids’ show. Part of my saltiness over PIC is that I thought the new characters were the most interesting part of both seasons, but the show made it clear time and again that only the legacy characters matter, so it really feels like the show wasted my time for two seasons on that front. For PRO, though, I wouldn’t mind if Bashir had a guest spot to give Dal some words of advice on being an augment in Starfleet, for example, or if we get a some mentorship from Beverly to Rok. I just want the legacy characters to support the new ones, not upstage them.
Well let’s see. I hade thought that Dall is perhaps some sort like Tuvix. But well, seems like i was totally wrong on him
I think the kids will still be the focus because end of the day the show is aimed at kids. So they want them to identify with those characters while getting to know the legacy characters as well. I really liked the balance in first season. The kids were ALWAYS the focus every episode, but as the show went on, we got more Janeway (literally two of her lol) and introduced others like Chakotay, Okuna and Jellico. But they were just part of the story.
I’m excited to see which legacy characters show up, but I don’t think they will overtake the show. Janeway will obviously be the standout character because it’s Janeway. But the kids are being developed in a really strong way and will probably always be the main focus. The show is really about them becoming Starfleet officers so as long as that stays the focus, it should be fine.
Agreed. I like catching up with the legacy characters – now that the door has officially been closed on the old novelverse, we’ve got an enormous swath of post-Nemesis Trek timeline that we don’t even have conditional canon on, and I want to know what they’ve all been up to. I just don’t like the feeling that new characters are good enough to make do with until the real stars show up.
Yeah I could not agree more. I loved Picard season one and was really looking forward to the new crew kind of leading in the the adventures, and limiting the legacy characters to primarily Picard and Seven. Then it was quite obvious the way they pushed aside almost all of the new characters in season two to make a way for the fan service season three with all the TNG legacy characters.
And maybe the forced-in reunion of all the legacy characters in season three will be great, but I personally haven’t been rewarded in life in situations like this where when there’s a “blabbermouth” type of personality pronouncing over and over how great something new is going to be, over and over, and then it arrives and everyone is disappointed. Think New Coke.
PS: I have just switched my name going forward in this new year from One Lion to this new name.
I would have preferred another season of the kids being independent and having their own adventures. I’m not as interested in them being the underlings of real Janeway.
I actually wouldn’t have minded that either. I think there was probably the fear it will feel too much like a stretch that these kids are just riding around one of the Federation’s newest starships and not get caught at some point.
But I originally thought that the end of the first season the protostar would’ve just ended up in the 25th century around the time Chakotay is and it would’ve been easier to justify it. Guess not! ;)
100% agree. They are really forcing his legacy character stuff done our throats now on both animated series. I was hoping they would leave most of that to lower decks, but I guess not
I don’t really get this legacy character argument to be honest. It’s not like it’s a new thing in Star Trek. They’ve always played with legacy characters in some way from TNG onwards, be it in cameo form or recurring roles from Scotty in Relics, to Worf joining DS9, Lwaxana showing up in DS9, Barclay and Troi in VOY, Riker and Troi ending ENT, Janeway in Nemesis etc.
I think to have grievances about this now is a little odd as Star Trek has always been self-referential in this way.
Yes I’d agree that it’s happening more regularly now in these new shows, and some of the choices have been really baffling like shoehoring the Khan ancestry into SNW…and PIC pretty much just being a greatest hits of TNG. But again, it is what it is. It’s not unusual for Trek and it’s not going to disappear any time soon.
But I think in Prodigy’s case the Hageman’s have proved that they have the goods when it comes to writing a compelling and strong story and that they are totally invested in developing the new original characters they’ve created, so I have faith in them to keep on delivering the goods in season 2.
For me I didn’t really care about NuTrek at all until they announced the Picard show and we were finally getting legacy characters back. Of course I like having new characters but what drives my interest in NuTrek is having Picard, Seven, Worf, Janeway, Riker, Crusher, Kira and on and on all back.
I just love these characters and actors so much. I am liking the new people, especially on Lower Decks and Prodigy but I’m more invested when a legacy actor shows up! But love all the characters on Prodigy. The only character I didn’t like was Dal but now love him. He’ll probably be a Captain before Mariner will ever be! 😂
And Prodigy is such an awesome show because how strongly it’s tying into Voyager as you said. The guys running it has my deep respect because they have gotten all the canon so right from that show. I’m impressed with how great it all ties together. And when new fans watch Voyager for the first time they will see how great it all fits in.
When you do it right like Prodigy, you get fans loving it from the start. When you do it badly like other NuTrek shows, then you just get a lot of bitter fans no matter what legacy characters show up. They can only do so much when they appear on badly written shows and doesn’t stick to canon.
And if we get another Voyager next season, that’s just as great as getting the Enterprise F on Picard in season 3! 😎
Give me more of my legacy characters! This has been some of the best Star Trek since Voyager ended for me. And not hard since I practically hated everything that came after Voyager lol.
And to have Admiral Janeway back on Voyager next season is a dream if it happens. I never thought we would see it again. 👍
Season 2 can’t come soon enough!
Well, my point is that they are doing so much of that in lower decks already — plus Picard is going full legacy this season —.that I don’t think it’s really needed for prodigy. It seems unnecessary beyond Janeway to me
Hey guys, I tried watching it, but cannot. It’s too childish. Nevertheless I want to know what’s relevant for Canon. Does anyone know a good summary-video on YouTube or another platform? Thanks
Well it’s good you gave it a shot! I truly love this show but yeah not everyone’s cup of Earl Grey.
As far as ‘summary’ videos on YouTube, there are a few for sure but they are obviously reviewing the episodes. But there are a few I watch who makes their review episodes under 10 minutes and has a good synopsis.
First one is called ‘Star Trek Central’. Their reviews are usually under 10 minutes.
Another YouTuber is called ‘Sci Fi Fanatics’. Same usually under 10 minutes.
There are many more but they usually go longer and if you’re not that interested in analysis, etc, those two would probably work best for you! :)
Thanks :) I’ll check them out.
I really hope you do. They are both great sources for the show.
Prodigy has really surprised me. Despite Holo-Janeway and Admiral Janeway, Chakotay, Jellico, and a few other legacies this show has really kept its focus on its core cast. I can’t wait for Season 2!