Star Trek: Prodigy may not be on Paramount+ anymore, but work on the second season has continued as Paramount+ looks for a new home for the animated series. And at the 57-Year Mission convention in Las Vegas on Saturday, the show’s producers shared a clip from season 2 along with some encouraging comments. The clip is now available online.
Prodigy season 2 clip
Prodigy co-creators and executive producers Dan and Kevin Hageman brought a clip from episode 1 of season 2. Kevin set up the clip:
The gang has just gotten back together because they’ve been an individual tracks trying to get into Starfleet Academy. And Admiral Janeway has just commissioned them to join her crew on a new mission and they are on their way to go meet Admiral Janeway.
You can watch it at startrek.com.
Producers confident Prodigy will find new home
Before showing the clip, the Hagemans talked about how grateful they were to see the fan response to save Star Trek: Prodigy. Kevin Hageman gave an update on the current status, telling the Las Vegas crowd:
Right now, there are active talks happening and I’m being 100% honest with you, we are 99% confident that there will be a new home for our show.
Later he again sounded even more confident:
It’s going to happen. We are going to find a home.
Dan Hageman jumped in, adding a key point:
Again, they’re paying for us to complete the series. Studios don’t pay to not show something. It will be seen.
The Doctor and The Voyager-A!
The clip had a couple of big reveals for season 2. In addition to showing off the young prodigies in new uniforms as they work to try to get into Starfleet Academy, the clip revealed the return to the franchise of Robert Picardo as The Doctor, Star Trek: Voyager‘s EMH.
The clip also revealed that Admiral Janeway’s ship in season 2 is the USS-Voyager-A, the replacement for her original USS Voyager (which has been turned into a museum) and the USS Dauntless from season 1. The Voyager is a Lamarr class, named for celebrated scientist and Old Hollywood actress Hedy Lamarr.
We will have additional reporting on the Prodigy panel and more from STLV 2023.
Keep up with news about the Star Trek Universe at TrekMovie.com.
I’m glad the Doctor’s coming back. At this point, I think Harry, Neelix, and B’elanna are the only Voyager characters who haven’t come back. Well, and Kes, but I’m not holding my breath there.
Me too man! I’m super excited if we get Harry, B’Elanna, Tuvok and Paris all back even if they show up in a cameo!
Who cares about good story-telling, just cram legacy characters in and fans are happy.
Prodigy first season was amazing! I loved every episode. It was great old school Star Trek IMO.
But I think season 2 is going to be even better because now they have a specific mission: save Chakotay!
But if you didn’t like it that’s cool! 😎
Grow up Emily is the phrase your looking for TG.
Yet you are the one personally attacking someone. You disagree with Emily, fine, but there’s no need to insult her — that’s the only lack of maturity I am seeing from anyone in this thread.
Well I do always try to avoid confrontation… unless I’m talking to my sisters. Then I relish the fight!!!!
And it’s OK if she feels that way, but I think Prodigy is a great show on it’s own and I fell in love with the new characters too. Internet is a strange place sometimes. No one said we only care about the old characters. I grew to love Dal, Gwynn, Rok, Zero, Murf and Jankom too. You can just like both old and new. It’s not illegal… unless Trump gets back into power! 😂🙄
C’mon now Riker, yeah, there was a degree of implied criticism of TG in Emily’s remarks (might even call it snark), but I think TG’s polite response was first rate. Yours, not so much.
Do we really want to save Chakotay ?
I do!
Naaaah, just let him go.
That’s not the Starfleet way dude. They never leave their own behind. You would never graduate from the Academy with that attitude. ;)
I’ll tell you who cares about good storytelling: the people who make “Prodigy.”
👍
Couldn’t have said it bety.
Which is why they don’t need to do all that fan service…just tell great stories and stop shoehorning in the old guard.
Exactly
True.
Also agreed. Prodigy is not my favorite show because Janeway is there (but it doesn’t hurt lol) it’s because the show tell great stories. Can’t wait for more now!
The funny thing is, this is a very good show and IT DOES NEED MORE OF THE FAN SERVICE SHOE-HORNED CHARACTERS. Especially that overrated Doctor.
You need to relax a little, Upper. It’s just a show.
True!
Ummm that’s the point. No fans, no show! If they wanted something that fans didn’t want to see, then they wouldn’t have made a Star Trek show.
And that’s how you get terrible Star Trek.
Tuvok appeared in Season 3 of Picard
B’elanna is in the new comics.
“It’s Hedley.”
Dang… I just posted that before scrolling down.
OH HELL YEAH!!!! 😀
This clip got me so pumped now. Seeing The Doctor part of the show on that beautiful Voyager A makes this a dream come true for me. I’m totally loving all the Voyager love we been getting in NuTrek. Janeway and The Doctor searching for Chakotay with the kids is going to be amazing season!
This is the Star Trek I been wanting and missing like we got in Picard this year. Wherever the show lands I’ll pay whatever. Can’t wait!
I really like Voyager-A and it looks like a natural evolution of the Intrepid.
Can’t wait to see that beautiful girl in her full glory! ♥️
Prodigy is also the first NuTrek show to just have beautiful sleek ships again. The Discovery was so ugly and awkward looking when it was first revealed I questioned even watching that show. Then we got Picard and that ridiculous junkyard ship. And the Cerritos was also ugly but that was the point of that ship I guess. And I like it more now.
The Protostar was really the first ship since Voyager that I fell in love with a ship on first sight.
The Voager A is now the second! 🙂
Actually I would say the Shenzhou is a very nice looking ship too. I think a lot of fans would’ve preferred that ship over Discovery IMO. But I do love Prodigy’s ship designs too. The Protostar basically felt like an extension of the Enterprise E/Voyager period .
Good point on the Shenzhou. It does look better than Discovery. But I was mostly talking about the hero ships of each show. That probably should’ve been the one over the ugly pizza cutter.
I sometimes wish I can ask Fuller how many drugs was he on when coming up with ideas for that show.
LOL!
The Protostar is the Nubian J-Type of Star Trek, in a very good way. :)
La Sirena looked reasonable for what it was – a cargo ship that was maybe hot-rodded a little, and the Van Halen paint job was, at least, original. They wanted a ship that could make the Kessel Run in less than 12 parsecs and they got it.
Cerritos looked reasonable for a midsize multimission ship, a workhorse class. I think if I have any design quibbles with it, it’s those stumpy cylindrical Bussard collectors, and trying to think about the logistics of why the deflector array pod is down between the nacelles. Is main engineering there? That’s a long turbolift ride…
Ok like I said I gotten used to the Cerritos today and like it. With the La Sirena though it’s still just a cargo ship.
I don’t watch Star Trek for cargo ships. I want the shiny gleaming starships like all the Enterprises or what we are getting with the Voyager A. I want to see people in uniforms walking down corridors and have the most advanced technology at their fingertips like what we finally got with the Titan A.
And I didn’t love that ship either but will take it over a cargo ship any day. But this ship looks amazing and it’s nice we finally get something at the level, aesthetics and size of the Enterprise E again.
But I still love and miss the Protostar too! Tough little ship. 😎
It’s looks even more like the front 2/3 of Battlestar Galactica than the original Voyager did. It’s always been an ugly ripoff design that did not logically follow from previous Starfleet starship design lineage.
Every time I see it it takes me out of that ep, as I keep expecting Adama to be shown in the next scene…lol
You think Voyager looks like the Batlestar Galactica? Is this sarcasm?
You need to get your eyes checked.
I’m very impressed with it too. The Trekyard guys are going to have a field day lol.
from the back it looks more like a sovereign-class ship.
Back did look Sovereign, but the front looked very Intrepid to me.
It actually reminds me a lot of the Intrepid Refit from the Voyager Relaunch novels.
Good eye William! 👍
I think that’s the direction they are going in too. I loved those books.
This looks great; something I will really look forward to in the hopefully not too distant future. I do wish that DS9 could receive some similar treatment beyond Quark and Kira on LDS. What has happened to Sisko?
Oh look. More legacy characters shoe-horned in. More legacy ships. What a surprise. Gotta cram these new Trek shows with as much nostalgia and fan service as humanly possible.
Season 1 worked well enough so I’m gonna guve them the benefit of the doubt on this makes total sense for the Doctor to ahow up given his relationship with Janeway
Oh look. Emily is complaining on legacy characters again. What a surprise. Some of us old folks like to see characters we loved years ago, as long as they’re not the major focus, and so far they haven’t been. For the record, I don’t want a legacy show precisely because of this, so we don’t completely disagree.
Right the story is still about Dal and the kids, it’s not about Janeway and it’s been only two characters. Three if you count the two episodes that whatshisface was in. Who also didn’t really effect the story that much, all he did was lead to the reveal that Dal was an augment who he was really just a supporting character like Janeway.
Agreed. I know Janeway will be a huge part of it but the story will be focused on the kids and how they develop learning the ropes of Starfleet.
I can only speak for me, but it was first revealed Janeway would be on the show, that’s what I thought the show would be and they somehow landed on a Federation ship which she somehow joins too and they become part of her crew.
She’s right though
I’m really looking forward to seeing reactions if more characters show up, because I think they will.
I’m convinced more will definitely show up and can’t wait! 😃
I get some people complain about too many old characters on these shows but that’s NEVER been me. 🤣
I’m aaallll about the fan service! As Mariner recently said on the Enterprise I thrive on the fan service! I require the fan service.
I have no shame saying that because it’s just entertainment. No one is watching these shows but old fans. None of it matters so just enjoy it!
But if it’s sucky fan service like white Khan, NuKirk or we get awful stuff like TATV, STID and the first two seasons of Picard, then I get angry too. It still has to be good and make sense.
So bring in Seven, Kira, Spock, Riker, Archer, Dax, Tuvok, Q, The Doctor, Uhura, (hot) Chapel, Worf, Bashir, T’Pol, Martok, Shran, Janeway, Sisko, and on and on I’ll happily watch it all! 😎👍
No Neelix though (the line must be drawn somewhere)
Agreed. I’m a fan. I would like to be serviced.
Exactly! You’re only a fan of something because you want to see familiar elements again and again. I will watch the same characters for the next 30 years like I do comic books and video games. Those stay popular because they mire in fan service.
How many times have we read or watched Superman’s origin story? Too many times to count. But it’s not just an important part of the character, it’s ingrained in every fan just as much as Lex Luthor or Braniac is a vital part of that character’s story. Tell a fan one day they will stop using those elements (because it’s all been done) and see where it gets you?
Stagnant franchise.
For you maybe but not for me. Not for a lot of us.
I love LDS, PRO and SNW because it all feels like 90s Star Trek to me. That’s what I fell in love with and have no problem to have those characters and type of story telling back.
And you have Discovery, at least one more season. That’s it’s own thing with no legacy characters and not in the 23rd or 24th century….and you see how popular that show is lol.
These newer shows work because it’s old school Trek again with iconic characters.
No one is forcing you to watch these new shows but you’re still watching them like the rest of us. 😉
Then, honestly, why do you watch? Even better, if it is such a stagnant franchise, why are you even on this board? Trolling.
I’m a fan but I prefer to see new characters and not the same old, same old over and over again.
I literally read in the other thread you want more Kelvin movies. So what’s the difference??
I also said I wanted new characters and no enterprise involved
Yes you did. OK, that’s fair. And me too btw.
That’s why I love Lower Decks so much!
I want Brunt back. He can be both agimus and Brunt in the same series. He’s done it before and it’s probably easier to do it again in animation. Do I expect to get Brunt back? Not really. But LD S4 sure has the perfect opportunity to do it.
Yeah I want Brunt (FCA!!!) back too. And maybe you’re right he will show up with Leeta and Rom on Lower Decks next season. I didn’t think about that until now.
That would be Awesome!!! 😎
I can’t lie I’ve been thinking about that since the trailer. This is really the best place for him to return. He doesn’t really fit anywhere else but I don’t expect it. If he doesn’t, I’ll just say it just wasn’t meant to be right now and move on. Maybe someday he will or that day may never come.
But Combs is popular and it’s amazing that we haven’t had any of his legacy characters return yet. Will also take more new ones at the same time. And if they want to do it, the time to do it is now because someday the world will lose him but g-d forbid that day be anytime soon. I hope he makes it at least three more decades.
The fact still reminds that he’s not getting any younger so if animation is the best way to do it then -Picard voice- make it so.
It is surprising they haven’t used Combs more as well. I remember when there was talk about playing the doctor from The Cage.
I remember you were hoping we see Weyoun in Picard but that was a mere pipe dream since we only saw a few Founders. Don’t get me started on that.
I think he will be in season 4 as the evil computer though. But hoping for more too.
It always was a pipe dream there honestly. While I wouldn’t put it past them to be like lol the Salome Jens changeling lied and there was more Weyoun DNA, at the same time I expect them to still abide by that if we ever see the Vorta again at all. Which I hope we will. I love them. The rest though, Shran, Brunt, maybe one of the one episode characters like Tiron or Penk. Any one of those is ones that could return. Weyoun just may or may not be one of them.
However yes, we’ll probably just get agimus. But I’m also hoping for more.
I laughed out loud how you distinguished the Chapels as the hot one lol.
I think this is how 99% of most casual fans think. Here we over think this stuff, but you go on YouTube, Reddit, Facebook, etc, it’s a constant drumbeat of ‘when will we see Janeway, Q, Kirk, Worf, Dax, T’Pol’ and on and on. And I know we’ve seen most of these guys now, but that’s also the point because before we saw them, that’s what people have been begging for for years now on all those sites. Basically since Enterprise ended up until Discovery, many fans held out hope we would get more shows and we would get a lot of these characters back once Trek returned to TV.
Now we are. We been getting them for 14 years now (I know some people look at the Kelvin characters ‘differently’ it’s still Kirk and Spock regardless, it doesn’t matter). And as long as Kurtzman is in charge we’re going to keep getting them.
This is the guy who tried to bring back Khan for his own show after reintroducing him (badly) in STID, probably threw a lot of money at Patrick Stewart and Kate Mulgrew to bring back Picard and Janeway while currently shoehorning in Kirk on a show he shouldn’t even be on yet for probably several more years. NO ONE should be surprised lol.
I just don’t get it? Aren’t we fans?? What is wrong with wanting to see your favorite characters?
I grew up reading comic books. This may shock some people but we were always excited that our favorite characters in those stories showed up in movies and TV shows too. Batman is my favorite character and I been watching him show up on movies and TV shows over and over again for over 30 years now…because I’m a Batman fan. It doesn’t mean I ONLY want to see Batman, I’m just happy when he shows up too.
I’m just really confused? Why do people not want to see Kirk or Picard or Janeway again if those are the characters that made you fans of Star Trek in the first place??? All I heard when JJ verse was coming out that old TOS fans were excited again because the characters they grew up with was returning. Is that bad??? Why? That’s why they became fans. And a lot of those guys turned their noses up at new characters Picard, Sisko or Janeway at the time. Which is fine, it doesn’t matter, it’s just entertainment, so like what you like.
But no one HERE is doing that. I’m always happy to have new characters in Trek and have new adventures with them too, I just want the old ones as well, that’s all.
It’s a weird mindset. No one has this for comic book movies, Star Wars or video game stories: which I was all a fan of before I was ever a Star Trek fan.
Let us have the characters that made us fans in the first place. There is still room for new characters too so what’s the problem?
And yeah Kurtzman likes money. That’s why he’s making Star Trek now. He knows people want to see Kirk, Kira, The Doctor, Uhura, Janeway, Riker and all the others again. The people he hired to make the shows also want to see them because those characters made them fans of the franchise too. That’s why they show up.
When Nolan made the Batman movies, he knew he wasn’t the first one to do it, but he grew up and loved Batman and knew the same people whose been watching Batman since the 60s or earlier would still watch his movies. Not just comic book fans or DC fans but BATMAN fans. And we’ll keep watching them as long as new people make them.
I guess I will never understand some Trekkies?
I think most people reading this also agree. You’re right, we are invested in the same characters in multiple mediums for literally a life time, so why is Star Trek treated so differently for some fans? People grow up reading the same characters in comic books literally all their lives. And then as you said watch them in TV and movies. No one gets on someone’s case because they happen to like Spider-Man and then shockingly wants to see Spider-Man in other shows and movies.
But if someone wants to see Spock again, apparently fans can’t move on or something. I don’t know if people will agree but with Star Trek there are two extreme camps. One camp just want Star Trek to be Batman or Spider-Man and you just literally reboot the same characters over and over again. You modernize them for the times, maybe make deeper changes to the characters to keep them fresh but it’s basically just retelling or rebooting the same characters and even stories. And yes I think for older TOS fans, this probably describes a lot of those fans since it started with TOS and for at least 20 years that’s all it was. Again, I only mean a minority of fans. I am an older TOS fan as well but no, this would bore me to tears and I would’ve stopped watching it long ago. But yeah, this is common in a lot of franchises, especially older ones.
And then there is the opposite extreme and that Star Trek should always be evolving and changing. I ‘think’ this is more in line with Emily’s view and that Star Trek DOESN’T look back, it keeps going forward the same way real life does. We don’t get to reboot ourselves every 20 years. We live our lives in one direction and then that’s it. Life is always progressing forward and every one has a new story of some kind. So Trek should be pushing for new characters, time periods, settings and on and on. Some people want to see Trek grow outward and not backward or inward which I completely understand what someone like Emily is worried about. A lot of Trek today is pushing outward on one hand but looking also inward in another. That’s the main critique of Picard season 3. I fully agree with that criticism. But other people don’t care because being a fan means you CAN do both in their view.
But as I said, those are extremes. I think the overwhelming majority are somewhere in the middle meaning they have no issues with seeing Trek grow with new settings and characters, they just don’t mind when old ones return for a visit either. That’s why I loved the Berman era, because none of the characters really went away (except for Kirk lol) but the universe was greatly expanded. But some fans still complained it wasn’t expanded enough.
I don’t care if its old or new characters, I only care that you can tell new or interesting stories with them. Again, Picard season 3 is criticized because it looked inward bringing back the Borg, etc, but it was also praised because the characters were allowed to grow and be different people. So for me, I think that was great and won people over.
For me, my biggest issue is when you want to just recycle the same stories or do a ‘reboot’ where you’re just modernizing old characters or stories…say like STID. I have no problem having more Kirk and Spock, but only if you can do something NEW with them. If you’re just rehashing the 5 year mission again, then count me out.
But others could rewatch that for the rest of their lives, just rebooted every 10 years or something. So everyone is different.
Although I’m not big on the TOS era I have no problem if they made another TOS show if enough people wanted it. But that’s purely fan service as well. And I certainly don’t want a redo of Voyager either. This is a better idea to use some of the characters in a new situation exactly like Picard did it. It’s not a direct sequel but there is a symbiotic relationship between the two shows. That’s cool.
But for comic book fans we love to get new heroes but we always stick to our favorites no matter what. That’s exactly how I treat Star Trek.
Voyager will always be my first love like a lot of people out there. Janeway is a very iconic character today so it’s exciting to see her back even if it’s not live action…yet. 😉
And I certainly met some old TOS fanboys who just want TOS all the time and nothing else. I don’t see many these days though. I think most of them accepted Star Trek will just continue to grow. And nothing erases your DVDs of the show so life will go on.
I was prepared not to see characters like Janeway, Seven, Tuvok and The Doctor ever again. Now they are back. NuTrrek isn’t amazing but Kurtzman gets credit for giving the fans what they want. I can certainly admit that. No Discovery Klingons on SNW either…guy is on a roll. 😂
Next season could be as great as Picard season 3 and based on how well season 1 turned out.
Another TOS wouldn’t be for me but I’d be glad for the people it is for. Also I could throw it way back to my very first Trek crush then. (mmm Scotty 💚 I really like engineers.)
My brain suddenly: imagine. Vorta engineer.
I’m sure those do exist in the gamma quadrant but if one ever was serving on a starfleet ship… You’d either have to undo some of their genetic limitations, accommodate them or lean into the comedic value of an engineer who can’t see worth a shit.
I think for most people SNW seem to be enough. I wouldn’t have an issue if they gave Una a spin show when that show was over or something because it’s at least something new. No one here seems that interested in more TOS. I’m not talking about the TOS era, just a remake of the original show. Most people seem to either want to go forward or come up with new ideas. Prodigy is a good mix of new ideas and going forward while also adding old elements for old fans. That’s probably the best of both worlds for a lot of people, a mix of old and new.
I do agree. Scotty is the main reason I’d have for caring and I could live without him returning.
I agree as well. I really want more stories in the 24th and 25th century. They can all be new characters too but I want more stories there because at least we’re going forward and not backwards.
Looking at places like here, Trekcore and Reddit that’s what most fans seem to want.
My favorite is still Geordie although I love Scotty too obviously. Actually I like all the engineers with Trip, B’Elanna and O’Brien too.
I was hoping B’Elanna show up in second season in fact. She still might but having The Doctor is already a huge win. You can see how excited fans are that he’s back. And he has to sing opera in at least one episode! 😁
I was hoping for B’Elanna all during last season. I want to see her mentoring Jankom myself. When it comes to the Doctor I’m excited but they already had Noum. Will there just be two medical officers then or what
Me too. I thought maybe she would be on the the Dauntless with Janeway last season. I was actually disappointed none of the Voyager crew was there to help find Chakotay.
As far the Doctor and Noum, it’s a huge ship, they can just have two. 😎
That’s never made any sense to me, you have the Enterprise D with a thousand people aboard, multiple aliens serving and you can end up in battle at any time or contract a deadly virus to incapacitate the crew or and you have ONE doctor??? That was always one of the bigger nonsensical things about Star Trek.
I’ll give Discovery credit…they were at least smart enough to have two doctors aboard ( But if you mention to anyone about this exchange or that I gave Discovery credit for something, I’ll find where you live and force you to watch Shades of Gray on a loop).
It really is getting tiresome. And either the Voyager fans didn’t show up in numbers to save this series or the number of Voyager fans is vastly overrated….I think it’s the latter. There’s always been a lot of unsubstantiated BS, or at best, anecdotal information, regarding Voyager’s supposedly high popularity levels.
I had read somewhere that Voyager was very popular when it was on Netflix…
Yeah, that bit of info from Netflix is largely where the urban legend of Voyager’s popularity comes from. Back in 2017, Netflix reported that “Endgame: Parts 1 & 2” was the most RE-WATCHED episode among all VOY and TNG eps on Netflix at the. All that meant was, for those fans who watch and ep more than once, that VOY ep was the most re-watched. There were no total numbers given at all — so, for example it could have ben 2000 fans who watched it 4 times which would have put it on top in terms of re-watches (so 6000 re-watches), while in comparison, for example, 5000 fans who watched The Best of Both Worlds twice (so 5000 re-watches). So in this example, we can see that the audience of re-watchers for TNG’s best ep was actually 2.5 times the size of the audience of re-watchers for VOY’s best ep.
So that’s meaningless in terms of rating the overall popularity of VOY since we never get the total audience numbers. Additionally, fans were gobbling up TNG HD discs that were being release at that time period, so that limited the TNG viewing at Netflix for that time period, obviously.
Now, when you have a new series which major elements from VOY to prop it up, and it’s gets cancelled — there you go with a real critical judgement of the popularity of VOY.
So TNG fans successfully propped up Picard, and TOS fans propped up SNW, but the VOY fans were not able to prop up Prodigy. There you go — VOY obviously has a substantially lesser number of fans than TOS and TNG.
Bro all those Netflix viewings came mostly from me! 😂
You’re welcome Voyager… you’re welcome! 😎
(But any viewings of Spirit Folk, Threshold, The Fight or any episodes starring Neelix were not made by me however)
Emily every time I see a post from you, 99% of them seems to be about this issue lol. I get it, this is your hill to die on. Nothing wrong with taking a stance and sticking with it. But unfortunately you been losing this battle since 2009 once they decided to bring back the TOS characters and even Nimoy as old Spock to sweeten the deal. It’s now 2023, and it’s only gotten more widespread with every new show. Not a single product of NuTrek has been untouched by this.
It’s no longer the Berman Trek era when every show tried to introduce an entire crew of new characters and settings. The irony is now all those characters are showing up on these shows today. But it makes sense because that era is probably the largest group in the fanbase today and they are trying (very hard) to get them to watch these new shows. You didn’t have to pay for the old shows (at least in America), it’s a different deal today. It’s also why I’m 100% convinced the Legacy show will happen because look how big Picard and SNW are? You bring in a few more TNG, DS9 and VOY characters along with Seven (even in just recurring roles), you have a hit show out of the gate.
I’m fine either way, but if it was up to me, Discovery would’ve started 50-100 years post-Nemesis. Start anew and faaaar enough where all the old characters are most likely dead, ala, TNG. Ironically that’s what a lot of fans wanted. Many didn’t want more TOS or TNG, they wanted to start fresh in a new setting and build on that.
But of course if that’s what you offer them, they will happily watch it. You’re still watching too, correct? So…yeah.
ngl I wasn’t really interesting in the current era of Trek until LD and PRO because it was moving forward in the Berman era with mostly new main characters but I sure wasn’t complaining about seeing Janeway again. PIC wasn’t interesting to me at all because it really wasn’t what would appeal to me. SNW and Disco don’t really appeal to me either with a few exceptions and a few characters that I got invested in. (Hemmer, Liam Shaw, Paul Stamets and Hugh Culber. Also Ryn [the Andorian with no antennae from disco S3]. I just really really like guys from Andoria.)
Yeah, I don’t think you’re really too alone in that. Now I do think tons of people were truly excited about Picard because until Discovery jumped into the far future, we were finally getting ‘present’ day Star Trek again with the original TNG era characters and that excited a lot of people. There were actually more people excited to see Seven again because they grew up on Voyager first. But I WILL say many were disappointed too, not because they thought the show sucked (but that was an issue lol) because yeah, they wanted to be back on a starship again and of course if Riker, Worf or Troi showed up too all the better. It is funny every season the show got more Starfleet-y than the last because that’s what fans wanted and the producers knew it.
I think LDS and PRO worked for a lot of fans (but not everybody) because they were back on a starship again in the 24th century, the era people your age or younger grew up with. And not old fogies like me when it was JUST TOS and nothing else (AND WE LIKED IT JUST FINE DAMMIT!!!!!!!). I notice for example TG1701 seems to love those two shows the most because they feel the closest to that era again while pushing the universe forward as you said.
Now of course we can’t forget Prodigy was cancelled so I’m not going to pretend it was a super popular show or anything. But I think the biggest issue some fans had with it other than being animated and marketed to kids (two big no-nos for a lot of fans it seems) is that it wasn’t a proper Starfleet show just like Picard wasn’t either.
Now it is. Now I don’t know if the show will be anymore popular. I’m guessing most people who gave up on it before still won’t be convinced. But I do think it will actually be more popular now with fans who are watching it because now it’s Admiral Janeway giving orders on the bridge on a new Voyager. For most people, that’s what Star Trek always will be. You may get away from being on an Enterprise or having any legacy characters, but at its core it will always be about Starfleet officers on a sleek starship exploring. In terms of settings, time period, etc will just come down to personal tastes or what Star Trek you were first introduced to.
But I said it 100 times, I loved Prodigy out of the gate. Just like Picard, I didn’t have an issue it wasn’t a more traditional Starfleet show and it felt more adult to me than LDS did lol (and I love that show too). I would’ve had no issues if the show just stayed in the Delta Quadrant with the kids on the ship and we never ran into a single Voyager or legacy character again. But other people are different and we all have different expectations and tastes.
As much as I loved “We’ll Always Have Tom Paris” for the return of Tom Paris, I loved the other plot in the episode so much more. I’ll take learning that Quark franchised, learning that Klingons have acid punk bands and everything with the Orions in that episode again and again because it moved things forward in small ways but ways that worked.
Of course part of me was like damn I wanna see Quark himself, how is he doing, I’d be lying if I said I didn’t think that. I didn’t have long to wait but my favorite parts of that episode (Hear All, Trust Nothing) actually wasn’t seeing Quark or Kira or DS9 itself again. I loved that but man I’ll take Carol Freeman negotiating with the Karemma again and again in different locations all over the galaxy. I’ll take Tendi being an all around badass over and over again over seeing the station again.
Then we get to Trusted Sources and the best part of that was hands down the Breen and now I’m like wait no go back to the Breen, tell me how they’ve been in the last decade. Show me something new with them.
Sorry for replying to myself but I’ve seen people discussing what they think the scariest species in Trek are and to me it’s hands down the Breen. Because it doesn’t really matter who you are, if they’re coming at you you’re gonna lose. And the scariest part of the whole thing is we don’t even know why or how they’re that efficient. Maybe development will make them less scary but at the same time I’ll still take it if it means we learn why they’re like that. Which is part of what I would like from LD if they bring them back because tbh the only reason why the AI ships won in Trusted Sources was because they had the element of surprise.
To this day I still laugh over the line when Worf says the Klingon sent an invading army to conquer the Breen homeworld and they were never heard from again. And what makes the Breen even cooler is they never bothered to attack in retaliation. It just wasn’t worth their time lol. Yeah you don’t fuck with the Breen, you have no idea what’s going on underneath those suits. Until Enterprise and the Xindi showed up, they were the only species successful enough to attack Earth. Although that really shouldn’t be much of an accomplishment since apparently Earth has no defenses to speak of for literally centuries now but I digress.
I also loved seeing them in LDS, but I do wonder how well they can use them? They seem to stay away from the Borg too, just use them in holodeck simulations. Some species they may be deadly to have in a comedic show but maybe McMahan will surprise us next season.
I think the Breen is who should’ve been the main villains on SNW because they can basically be as deadly and mysterious the Gorn can and not break any canon. But that’s another topic.
Here’s what I think can be done with the Breen if LD is leaning into showing part of the aftermath of the Dominion War.
Say that the ones on Brekka went rogue and insane after the war ended because they lost and their leader vanished (or bring him back finally either works) and the rest of the Breen Confederacy is like we don’t care you deal with them. [Also establish that the Dominion only worked with a group that was loyal to Thot Gor and the rest weren’t really too involved in it and the other groups have different appearances.]
Oh yeah for sure man! I definitely want the Breen back too. Such an intimidating and mysterious villain at the same time no one wants to cross them.
I think even the Borg stays away. 😂
Really hope they show up again on LDS next season. 🤞
I just wish they didn’t look like Princess Leia pretending to be a bounty hunter.
Yeah but wasn’t that deliberate and doesn’t take away from how scary they are. But also that’s more reasons to have them around more, have groups that wear different helmets.
It would be amazing if every Breen looked like a hot human princess. It would just mystify them even more.
Yes. Yes, it would.
Yeah dude I’m with you lol! That’s why I love Lower Decks. It takes the tiniest bits of canon and explore it in a fun and yes sometimes silly way. Sometimes it gets frustrating when you have to explain to people why you like the show. It’s fine if they don’t like it but we don’t all watch the show so we can see Mariner name drop Kirk’s name or catch the some obscure Voyager easter egg (I mean, it doesn’t hurt thought ;)), we generally like watching a different but smaller view of Starfleet life and learn where things have progressed by this period. I’ve always loved the B stories on TNG, DS9 and VOY. That’s what LDS is, we learn little nuggets about how Starfleet works and these low ranking characters grow into it.
I can watch stuff like this all day. I’m a Star Trek nerd, I had no problem watching an episode of Boimler and Mariner mining a Starfleet recruitment booth or learn from Tendi that Orions stopped pirating 5 years ago lol. or when they have to pick up strange anomalies in different departments. Give me more of that!
And I always love when a legacy character drops in. But that’s the other beauty about Lower Decks, those characters are really used only in very small spurts. I can’t think of a single episode where they were the A story. They are usually the B story. Most of them are only in a few scenes like Paris or Riker. As for Riker, so far he’s the only character that has been in more than one episode. Everyone else has shown up once and never again. Maybe that will change this season but I doubt it. I thought Kira and Quark had strong roles but it was still focused on the main characters.
Then look at legacy characters on the other shows. Pike and Spock literally took over Discovery for a season. Picard fired nearly all its new characters just to bring back the TNG cast. On SNW not only is most of the cast legacy characters even the guest stars like Kirk and T’Pring are recurring. T’Pring I can understand but they are literally running out of ways to have Kirk show up on that ship lol. Next season he’ll somehow be involved with the Enterprise annual marathon, there will be an officer inspection Pike is given the responsibility for which will conveniently be on the Enterprise or they will fine his clone version on a planet or something. Talk about shoe horning lol.
LDS is pretty conservative with legacy appearances oddly enough.
Hit.it.on.yhe.head! How I feel too 😃
Didn’t care about Discovery at all because it was another useless prequel in an era I didn’t care about because all my favorite characters haven’t even been born yet except Dax. 😂😒
Picard I was excited about but I quickly learned it wasn’t the show for me either. But LDS and Prodigy were just shows I identified with right away. And you have to remind people LDS didn’t have any Legacy characters until the first season finale. I don’t even count Q, that was just a gag cameo. But I fell in love with those characters on their own before Riker and Troi showed up to save the day.
NGL, but Prodigy mostly got my attention because Janeway was on it. But that’s not why I fell in love with it. It was just good Star Trek again. The kids were actually exploring and all had interesting backstories. The villain was actually complex and not another JJ verse Marvel super villain who wanted revenge for silly reasons. It also looks beautiful and the stories were complex and smart.
I loved the episode when Dal goes on the Enterprise D and recreate the Kobyashi Maru with Spock, Uhura and Odo and Let Sleeping Borg Lie (huge Borg fan). But my favorite episode of the season was All the Worlds a Stage. It’s Star Trek in the best ways possible. I loved the message from that episode and it just had a lot of heart. Both Prodigy and LDS thrive on that though like TNG and VOY did when I got into those.
But like you said those shows brought back the 24th century and characters I missed. And we were finally exploring again.
I really like SNW, but for me that show is on par with Enterprise and TOS. I like all those shows but they are just not my era of Star Trek personally but they are all good shows for sure. But I want to have more stories with Archer, T’Pol and your favorite guy Shran. 😂
Stop bullying
Dude I been responding to you again recently, yes? If you’re going to just go back to trolling then I will happily ignore you again.
Entertaining storytelling is rendered totally moot the second a legacy character shows up, got it.
Sooooo basically you want a Star Trek show that isn’t related to or mentions or has any Star Trek characters in it. Right? You want a generic Sci-Fi show that takes place in space and has nothing related to Trek. Because that is what it sounds like.
Go and cry in the corner by yourself. Nobody else shares your opninion
Does a new home imply more seasons or just a place to show S2 and then it’s still over?
I’m under the impression it could go either way. As in, deoends on the success of season 2 and whether the new platform want to order more
This is what I’m thinking too. They probably have a deal with someone to release season 2 and if it’s strong enough they’ll make a season 3. Keep all your options open.
But this is a unique situation because how many cancelled shows already have a new season ready o air too? So I was never that worried it wouldn’t find a new home because they already have the content. And to be honest because it’s 20 episodes they can even split it up and market it as a season 2 and 3. So some good advantages for whoever picks it up!
Dan Hagamen said “Again, they’re paying for us to complete the series.” To me this indicates nothing beyond season 2, at least when it comes to Paramount paying for it. However, if it’s a big hit (will need better marketing than season one got, especially when it came to being released on Nickelodeon) then
who knows. The new home might order more or Paramount could do an about face.
Wait!
Don’t these producers know that Phil and Denny C both wrote here about two weeks ago that this could not happen and to move on (Phil) and that there would be no discussion among the producers and the studio on Prodigy’s fate (Denny C)?
Are they trying to tell us that Phil and Denny C aren’t being included in these meetings on Prodigy’s future?
Lol ;-)
Yah crazy. Phil has never been wrong. Next thing you know they’ll go make Star Trek 4 and then he’ll have to go in hiding.
I never been wrong about Star Trek 4 either. I never believed any of Paramount’s trolling. I did think maybe the Tarantino one could happen until the guy opened his mouth and couldn’t even understand how a parallel universe worked with JJ verse and then I was like NOPE! 😂
Paramount don’t have $200 million to spend on another potential bomb. That dream died 5 years ago now.
It just hit me but I think it was this month a year ago (where does the time go???) when Paramount took the last movie off the schedule and we heard nothing since lol. Nada. Zilch. Zero.
Although the TV side is having its own turmoil at the moment (see Prodigy ;)), it’s still 100 times more stable than the movie side is fortunately.
But I do think they will eventually try again in the near future, but I don’t see another movie showing up in a theater until 3-5 years from now the earliest. And I’m hoping it will be with new cast of characters and setting; but that’s more a personal preference than a prediction. But Paramount has no ideas on what to do with the movies right now, so who the fuck knows other than Phil lol?
That’s pretty funny! 😂
And a year later, does anyone really care? Nooooope! And Paramount knows it.
And for the record I never said there would never be a Star Trek movie again. 🙄
Of course there will be. I was only saying I knew Paramount was just talking BS with the others because that’s all it was, talk. These clowns never signed any of the cast, never had one completed script except the Thor one or a starting date. It was just useless press releases of what they PLANNED to do…and then nothing.
The only time they were at least serious was with the Thor movie and that fell apart because Paramount didn’t have the money like they did before and was afraid it was going to bomb. After that it’s just been BS since.
The last one they pretended harder because they acted like they had a start date, cast, director and even MONEY this time but the second we heard these fools didn’t even bother to call the cast and tell them they were in the movie I knew there was never going to be a movie lol.
One day it will be. When they find a script and a cast cheep enough to make one at a lower price, hire those guys, a director who can talk about the movie and talk about the plan to MAKE it, and finally actors and crew show up on sets and costumes OK we know a movie is happening then.
Maybe it will be in 5 years. Maybe it will be on 2 years. Or maybe 10 years.I have no idea. But until they show they really want to make one, don’t hold your breath.
Especially when movie that used to actually earn a lot of money like Transformers and Mission Impossible are struggling these days. Star Trek never did. No one even cares about another Star Trek movie except Trekkies and that’s the other problem.
Yeah a movie can certainly happen sooner, but Paramount just seems to be in a major bind and as I been saying over and over, they want more sure bets because that’s all they can afford right now. It’s actually crazy Mission Impossible is not doing better than it it is. I honestly thought it would make $800 million minimum and that look like it will only pull a little over $500 million right now. Maybe crawl it’s way to $600 million but doubtful. I think the whole Barbenheimer craze just sucked all the energy out of the room. But the scary thing is none of the big franchises are performing anywhere they were pre-pandemic outside of a very few. DC movies are bombing left and right and they also delivered several billion dollar hits in the past. Not these days lol. The Flash made less money than all the Kelvin movies did and people were predicting it to also make around $800 million.
So in this climate where nothing is guaranteed right now, I don’t see a movie happening unless they make one on the cheaper side for a $400 million projection. And I don’t think even if that is very doable right now. Maybe $300 million but no one makes movies anymore just to earn $300 million unless its a very low budget movie, $50-80 million. Another reason why I think it will be years away before they start over with something new and roll the dice again with a cheaper cast and production altogether.
My understanding is that no previous MISSION IMPOSSIBLE movie drew in that kind of revenue. The problem is that costs are spiralling out of control (some of this due to Covid). The same was true with Indiana Jones, yet another example of an expensive nostalgia play.
Well the last movie came pretty close actually. It made around $780 million worldwide and the biggest MI movie to date.
So I think the expectation was to make a bit more than that one but also unlike the last one, that’s how much money it needed to even earn a profit sine as you mentioned the prices for a lot of these movies went up due to Covid. I read this movie cost around $290 million and basically went $100 million over it’s original budget. This movie was one of the few that filmed when Covid was at its worst. Sadly it would at least be making a profit now if the original budget stayed.
But yeah, it’s not as bad as Indiana Jones. That movie bombed hard since it had the same cost as Mission Impossible but barely made over $360 million. Whoever thought an Indiana Jones movie would bomb this hard? The last one made over $300 million in America alone and that was 15 years ago.
So if people think Paramount is motivated to make another pricey Star Trek movie after the last one already bombed better think again lol. When the biggest IPs in Hollywood are now struggling the next Star Trek movie could make even far less than Beyond did seven years ago. Hell Indiana Jones barely made more than it.
So if and when they do try for another movie, it will probably be on the (much) cheaper side. I’m guessing everyone is just happy to stick to the TV side and just make cheap TV movies for awhile like the Section 31 movie which will probably cost under $50 million.
The next Star Trek movie shouldn’t cost more than $80 million. $100 million tops. They know only Trekkies will mostly see the next one and many of them will probably just wait until it comes to streaming unless there is something special about it besides bigger CGI explosions.
Like you said when Indiana Jones can’t even make $400 million don’t expect Trek to make that when it only did it once 10 years ago lol.
And if they spend more than $20 million on the Section 31 movie I would be surprised. Maybe $30 million but nothing over that.
I think $100 million is the most realistic at this point. Again it could be more but it shouldn’t be that much more. So many big IPs are getting their clocks clean and streaming has made it much harder to motivate people to the theaters.
But like I said, I think a Star Trek movie is very much on the back burner these days because Paramount’s once sure fire hits are not making a big impact these days. I just went and looked at Transformers latest movie box office and that only mustered up $430 million. This is the same franchise that once made two 1 billion dollar movies back to back. And now they are basically breaking even today. What is going on???
Maybe people are getting tired of all the old IPs and heavy nostalgia….or they are just waiting for them to arrive on streaming instead. It’s probably a little bit of both and neither bold well for Star Trek.
Here’s a stunning idea: get Christopher Nolan to do a proper, serious science fiction, TMP-style Star Trek movie.
Shockingly, that’s what happens when you putatively “revive” Star Trek for a decade but do almost nothing other than fan service, nostalgia/memberberries, legacy characters, stoopid hijinks, Sam and Diane retreads, crossover episodes, sitcoms, cartoons, kids’ shows, etc.
I still remember back when TNG was a legit mainstream hit.
#EmilyIsRight
I will say when the first Kelvin movie came out, things were very different and it was actually a clever idea to make a reboot with the original characters because it was nostalgia for old fans but introducing them to new and younger fans at the same time.
But today it’s just a different world. As you said there is now tons of new Star Trek on, one where Kirk and Spock are back on TV too. And yeah even for Trek fans themselves, most are probably just happy to be watching new Star Trek on TV because that’s what most fans wanted.
Back in 2009 and when there was no other Trek around anymore, it felt fresh and like an event. By the time Beyond rolled around, it was just feeling like another Star Trek movie even though there was still no new Star Trek in the market place. It just doesn’t have the same hook and excitement it did 14 years ago and not something either new or even old fans are that motivated to run out to.
As far as the new shows, I’m not as cynical about it as you are but I agree TNG was a very different animal and one that tapped into the mainstream in a way Trek never has since. Again though that too was just a different time and when it was exciting to have a new Star Trek show on since TOS. That was also 35 years ago now. You’re never going to repeat that kind of success again.
I agree with some of that but the main reason JJ verse ultimately failed is because it was the same tired dumb down formula of facing off another Marvel villain who wanted to destroy the galaxy or something.
They just kept doing the same thing to attract teenagers but most Trekkies stopped caring and ‘new’ fans never really cared besides just being another generic big summer movie. By then MCU was bigger than ever and Star Wars was back so they lost interest in these movies because they weren’t really fans in the first place.
The reality is these movies should be up the fifth one now if they scaled their budget back, stopped trying to compete with Marvel and made movies more for the fans again.
But they were trying to billion dollar blockbusters but now can’t even get a big enough audience to make back it’s budget and why JJ verse died out so quickly.
And with so much Trek on TV now, even if it is mostly fan service stuff ike SNW and Picard, it’s one less reason to go to the movies when all your favorite characters are already on streaming.
When it does finally come out, and it will, it’s going to be funny for the handful here who have been doubling down multiple times by insisting it’s never going to happen.
Read what they said again. Paramount had already committed to paying to complete the remaining episodes. They also said that they were intending to shop the series. Continuing beyond what Paramount has already committed to? That’s not what they’re saying here.
What they are saying is that they think they found a home to air them. Possible candidate? The CW, which has already picked up the cancelled “61st Street” from AMC (giving them the previously aired season 1 and unaired season 2) and a number of original Canadian series that are new to American audiences but well established in Canada. In addition to the home of inexpensive unscripted programming, the CW is becoming the home for repurposed, previously produced, unseen original content and Prodigy qualifies (and Paramount still owns a minority stake of 12.5%).
So, Paramount is finding a home to air the remaining unaired episodes, not a home to produce new ones.
WOW! That clip brought tremendous HOPE and a vision of FUN AND GRAND ADVENTURE TO COME for this young crew that is just starting out – and with Janeway aboard an all-new USS Voyager, to boot! Chakotay needs to be found, and what better way to undertake the mission and LEARN ALONG THE WAY than with this cast of characters. Yes, the holographic Doctor is not only welcome, but seeing and hearing his voice again is a wild ride even in the clip! What other surprises has this show have in store for us Trekkies and Trekkers? We can’t wait to find out!
You sound more excited than I do! 🤣😂
When I saw The Doctor I nearly lost it. All my FB Trekkie friends went crazy too!
This was the kind of stuff a lot of us was hoping we would get. Now that we got it, I can’t wait!!!
Finally good Trek again instead of live action crap.
I like some of the new live action Trek but the animated shows stands above them.
lamarr class uss voyager-a
28 decks
crew of 800
a mix of the sovereign and intrepid designs but a bit larger in size then a sovereign class going by the number decks being 4 more then the ent-e has and a very cool design
i want to see more pics of it without the drydock so i can try and make a model of it or get someone to design a 3d printable file
Wow this looks amazing!!! People seem very excited about this. When I saw The Doctor I almost squealed lol. I just rewatched Renaissance Man right before I saw this news too. I always said I wouldn’t be shocked if he appeared in season 2, he’s just too popular a character and too close to Janeway to not have.
And great news it sounds like the show will have a new home soon. So it sounds like its all working out. And with a bigger on Voyager next season, it will probably get a little more interest from some of the old fans . Fingers crossed. Can’t wait! :)
Being dropped from Paramount+ may work to the shows benefit. Wherever it lands it will be marketed much differently than it was for Paramount+ and Nickelodeon (more of a focus on legacy characters than a show originally intended for kids).
Yeah I think this news has picked a lot of us up. If it lands somewhere that’s doing better than P+, we may get more than just season 2. I’m not getting my hopes up, but at least give us season 2, geesh.
And yeah I think the biggest difference is it won’t be marketed as a kids show. Push the Voyager brand more this time since that’s clearly what season 2 is anyway. And make it clear this show is just as much for old Trek fans as it is for newer fans and that it’s bringing back some of your old characters you grew up with while focused on a young set of up and coming Starfleet officers.
I think most of us were (pleasantly) surprised at just how good Prodigy is. Would love to see more but the current state of the industry makes that an iffy proposition. Anything beyond SNW is up in the air at this point.
Yeah agreed. I’m still worried SNW will even see past season 3 as well the way things are going.
Paramount is spending north of $100 million per season and after what Terry Matalas pulled off with season 3 of Picard with a much leaner budget, they may expect the same for SNW moving forward.
LOL You’re hoping for too much.
The Hagermans get it. They honor the characters and canon while pushing the universe forward. They don’t **** over legacy characters and they don’t dumb things down. They write stories that aren’t filled with plot holes. I truly believe the wrong show was cancelled.
Exactly! That’s why I LOVED the first season so much. They respected canon and all the legacy characters so well. I like SNW, but let’s be honest both the canon and the characters almost feel like they are happening in a different universe at times. I get they are just trying to modernize them but most of them minus Uhura and I guess Spock don’t truly feel like the originals to me.I’m not saying it’s good or bad, I just appreciate shows that really gets things as right as possible, that’s all. The new Kirk sort of feels like the old Kirk but Janeway is 100% Janeway. And that probably helps because the original actor are also playing them.
Send help I’ve been listening to “I’m the X” on repeat for the last hour.
That aside, yeah, from the few episodes of SNW that I’ve watched, those two do feel like they can evolve into the TOS versions.
PRO I liked for everything, Janeway was Janeway but more importantly the new characters were interesting and their arcs were too and I got invested in them.
Yep, totally agreed. Like LDS, I really didn’t even know how invested I would get into Prodigy or the new characters because I felt neither show was made for me directly. SNW, PIC and yes even DIS lol was made for me; but not the animated shows. Those are geared for younger people even if both of them feel like a celebration to all things Star Trek. And yet, those and their characters won me over faster than all the live action shows did. End of the day good stories are good stories.
And I can call the cops if you need someone to pull you away from that song lol.
My headphones finally died so I had to stop listening to it lol.
NuKirk still blows man. I swear he feels much more like Jim Carrey than he does William Shatner. What were they thinking? 🙄
I like him a little more now but yeah still doesn’t make a very convincing Kirk IMO.
Well I will grudgingly admit NuKirk has a nice singing voice! That’s probably how he gets the ladies.
I like Prodigy a lot and am sad there won’t be many more seasons.
But if it was a choice between canceling Prodigy or SNW, they made the right choice.
SNW is a far superior show. Full stop.
I’m still a bigger Prodigy fan but I realize I’m in the minority.
I still prefer the animated shows personally but a big part of that is the era they take place in. SNW is definitely a great live action return to TOS and 90s Trek.
I am so heartened by this.
Just let us know where and when, and we’ll be there…
Good looking ship!
Very good news for Prodigy. With live action Trek production suspended for the foreseeable future and the SNW S2 finale arriving this week, who knows when Pike, Spock and the Enterprise will return. And with Discovery on its final legs, animated Star Trek may be all that we have for the next year and maybe longer.
Sounds like a Prodigy S2 announcement will arrive soon and would not be surprised to see another season added, especially if the strikes continue to drag on.
I hope I’m not being too much of a downer by pointing out the animated shows are still affected by the SAG-AFTRA strike, just not the WGA one. Writers on the animated shows are under TAG rather than WGA, but actors on both are all SAG-AFTRA.
Still, it does illustrate one of the ways I think the cancellation was a shortsighted move. For a few weeks, the WGA strike had shut down live-action shows and movies, while animation productions continued until shut down by the SAG strike a bit later. Prodigy and Lower Decks could have both continued production for a while after the WGA strike began. In fact I wonder how far Lower Decks got with Season 5 – did the actors record any of it? All of it? If they finished recording the season before the SAG strike, that show could continue production all the way to the completion of S5, but I don’t know whether they’d begun recording yet, finished it, gotten it partway through, or what. But at any rate, Prodigy is clearly getting its second season completed, but a third will require a resolution to the SAG strike as well as a renewal.
(Tangentially, just so no one has any uncertainty about where my sympathies and priorities lie any time I discuss here how the strikes affect Star Trek, I want to make it clear that however much I want my space shows I’m still very much on the side of the striking artists. My getting new Star Trek on time, or even at all, is of vastly less importance than the writers, actors, and others who create it being able to do so under acceptable conditions and for just compensation.)
Thanks for the much needed info and clarification.
As for the labour action, I have to agree with you. Wrt to one of the many grievances, AI is good for many things, but creative writing and acting should stay in the realm of the living.
As tech progresses, one will not be able to differentiate between real living actors AND computer generated characters on film and television. And we all know the studios would be happy to pay some IT guys a few bucks to generate cheap unpaid characters or scripts.
And AI is just one of the issues.
Sorry the edit time limit expired. I was just going to end by saying, I think the industry really is at a creative inflexion point and actors and writers are bound to be immensely impacted by the agreements that are negotiated ovef the coming months.
Ultimately, these contracts are going to impact many different industries. I can’t imagine what this is going to mean for patents created by individuals and teams, while still working under corporate conditions.
Wow thanks for explaining as well man! I didn’t know any of this either.
Anybody else see a noticeable improvement in the animation quality? Looks great!
Totally Votagerized complete with the old and already finished decades ago Vs kids on the frontier, no wonder they cancelled it pre launch
It’s Hedley
Yes I mention the constant, never-ending shoe-horning in of fan service and easter eggs, and yes I know that fans lap it up, that’s why the producers do it. I just find it all quite sad and tedious. Star Trek has well and truly stagnated.
But oh look! Voyager-A, Enterprise-G! Because of course. Gotta get the nostalgia-bait in, instead of legitimately pushing the Star Trek universe FORWARD.
To be fair, Discovery seasons 3 and 4 is the only series actually trying to push Trek forward… unfortunately, it’s rubbish.
TNG charted its own path. DS9 charted its own path. So did Voyager. So did Enterprise, mostly. Now we just have lots of shows that make us all think back to a time when Trek used to be good, used to be bold.
These shows all feature legacy characters, but they also all move forward and introduce new elements to the franchise.
TNG, DS9, and VOY featured brand new characters that people fell in love with, and also moved the franchise forward. Ironically there isn’t going to be much of a “legacy” in 20/30 years time given Trek is so obsessed with the past.
Legacy inclusions aside, do you really not think Prodigy is good and/or bold?
I do. But now we have the Doctor, and Voyager-A, and no doubt a ton more cameos…
I don’t know if it’s an American problem or a human problem, but there’s a distinct absence of imagination. Even within the confines of a heavily managed intellectual property that’s more widget than wonder. A lot of sweethearts (Aaron, Michelle, Terry) making really expensive and pointless fan films (Akiva and Mike are doing that too but those dudes are legit bad people).
“TNG charted its own path. DS9 charted its own path. So did Voyager. So did Enterprise, mostly. Now we just have lots of shows that make us all think back to a time when Trek used to be good, used to be bold.”
Yes you’re right obviously and something I responded to you in another post. I miss these times too btw but that was also a very different time.
And no offense Emily, but it’s frustrating to try and have a discussion with you because all you do on this board is just make shot gun posts and repeat the same thing over and over but never actually respond or interact with anyone who challenges your view as it’s been throughout this entire thread.
But again, I don’t think people really disagree with you either. I think most of us would have no problem if NuTrek tried to do less nostalgia and sticking in old characters on every show. I just don’t think fans are really that bothered by it either AS LONG AS the show themselves are good. And this is where the frustration comes in because you seem to ignore the fact most of these shows today, Prodigy included, are considered very good shows on their own; so adding legacy characters is just a bonus. Same for SNW and Picard.
And also, what you constantly fail to argue is that having legacy characters alone doesn’t mean fans will just like the shows or movies as the first two seasons of Picard showed. Picard season 3 had a very different reaction and I know some thought it was just too much nostalgia bait. And that’s a valid argument. But for most people season 3 was just a better season regardless. It was just better written, introspective and stuck to landing. Season 2 could’ve had the entire TNG cast back but trust me if they had the exact same story line, it would’ve still gotten the same bad reception as that season did.
SNW is full of nostalgia bait for sure, but I don’t think just because they are back on the (second) original Enterprise is why the show is so highly rated. The irony in this show is that it simply went back to the same structure and story telling of the classic shows like TOS/TNG/VOY/ENT and especially a strong mix of TOS and TNG. That’s why fans are reacting to it so positively, it’s episodic again. It’ weird trippy Star Trek again (last episode really proved that one lol). It’s about science and exploration again. It’s exactly the reason why fans fell in love with all those shows. But sure having Kirk randomly show up every three episode helps (I guess), but I don’t think that’s why people love the show either. I think they love it because it just feels like old school Trek again, which is ironic because that in itself is going backwards in a way. But hey, if it works…
When TNG and those other shows came out, they could afford to create new characters because Star Trek had become a big deal and frankly they knew fans would watch it because many were younger and new and was up for variation (but even that was still within reason). Yes the later spin offs weren’t as successful as TNG, but no show runs 7 years unless someone is making money somewhere. Today it’s very different. Streaming is very competitive and you have to stand out any way possible. It’s much easier to do that with shows starring Janeway, Spock, Seven or Picard than new characters.
That’s just the reality like it or not. It’s no longer the 90s.
The reality is every franchise out there uses legacy characters to attract an audience today. I have friends who are giddy over the Ashoka show coming soon and one is even rewatching The Clone Wars and Rebels now.
That’s why bringing back legacy characters works, it builds excitement in a way new characters simply can’t.
But I agree what made 90s Trek more special is that they wanted each show to have it’s own identity. They didn’t just make new characters they also made new aliens too. Well Voyager didn’t have a choice lol. But that’s the reason why they are so watchable today because you fell in love with all those characters and species and people still want to see them now.
I think if the old shows like Voyager wasn’t popular today then we wouldn’t have most of these shows now and it would probably be all new characters in the 23rd or 24th century. But that’s exactly why the TOS characters never went away because fans have become attached to all these characters. And now you have an even larger fan base who grew up with Picard, Sisko and Janeway.
Of course I would love it if we had more 90s Trek again where the shows can more bolder and not just have shows like LDS, SNW or PIC constantly going ‘hey remember this?’
But can anyone tell me what franchises today are not doing that either? I watched Flash a week ago and it was nothing but nostalgia with a few new characters. Same for Indiana Jones. Same for Star Wars.
I seen you point this out to someone last week, they all do it today. Star Trek is just part of a bigger Hollywood symptom, ie, nostalgia overload.
If people want all new stuff then they probably have to set it in a whole new universe in the 25th century or something and start from scratch. The minute they went back to the Prime Universe no one should’ve been surprised this is what we are getting or why bother going back at all?
“If people want all new stuff then they probably have to set it in a whole new universe in the 25th century or something and start from scratch. The minute they went back to the Prime Universe no one should’ve been surprised this is what we are getting or why bother going back at all?”
This is probably the only way we will ever get a clean slate for Trek. In fact I had assumed when we it was announced a new Star Trek show was coming I didn’t think it would be in the prime universe. I thought it was just going to be a full on reboot especially the way Fuller discussed Discovery originally. And I always believed that’s what he wanted but the executives were probably like ‘hell no’ especially with all the push back fans made over the Kelvin universe. I guess a third one would’ve been too much. But Discovery would’ve had a much better reaction if it was just a clean reboot instead of trying to attach the show to 50 year old canon and try (laughingly) to pretend it was connected to TOS. That was still their biggest mistake.
And I’ve said I’m all for a reboot. Yeah, just start all over and go a new direction. Of course that would probably just mean another TOS or TNG show but I would like to avoid all those and just revamp everything. TOS, TNG, DS9, etc doesn’t need to even exist, just go a completely different way.
But the chances of that happening are about the same chances of Quark being a Starfleet Admiral.
The first episode of TNG had a cameo from McCoy… not to mention the ship was named Enterprise. How many episodes referred to a TOS character? They even did a sequel of a TOS episode. They had Spock… and Scotty in it! DSP built on TNG and even went back INTO a TOS episode. Have you not watched these shows??? Wow,
I believe TNG did have a rule early on that they weren’t supposed to reference TOS. Even though they obviously violated that rule immediately by having McCoy show up and then just flat out remaking The Naked Time. I remember hearing that there was a whole thing when they wanted to have Sarek mention Spock in Sarek.
That’s not really the same thing though. Those were mostly guest starring roles or cameos. She’s complaining that the new shows have taken legacy characters like Pike, Picard and Janeway and put them into starring roles when the old days the shows starred brand new characters.
There was actually a tradition back in those 90’s Trek shows that in the pilot episode of the show someone from the previous shows always appeared (Cochrane in Enterprise). I actually miss this tradition and instead of having starring roles in the new shows legacy characters would have worked better if they carried on with this tradition. I mean there are literatlly hundreds of starships out there and each one of them can have its own show. I just don’t get why they always have to circle back to the Enterprise.
You’re right McCoy was indeed in about 45 seconds of the two part opener.
45 seconds or not. It was the fan service you talked about. Same with Sarek and Spock and Scotty.
Again I’m going to defend Emily on this one. That is a huge different in what these modern shows are doing. If Spock showed up in season 2 of TNG and appeared in half the season like Spock did in season 2 of DIS, that would be a stronger argument.
With the exception of Worf joining DS9 for obviously rating reasons, most legacy appearances in the classic shows were seen as special events. In the modern era, these characters are basically dependent on if a show gets on the air or not.
They are obviously both fan service but one was used as a way to reward fans, but the shows remained their own. With the new shows they are used as a reliance to get fans invested in a show and mostly identified around legacy characters, PIC and SNW being the biggest culprits.
a Romulan evacuation mention is nice, but you’d think they would’ve given our long-suffering Doctor some kind of rank by now, even if provisional.
Great point! But now I wonder maybe he never went through Starfleet training or took any of the exams?
Remember to Starfleet The Doctor was just a piece of Voyager software, they never saw him as an official member of the crew. So that could be a huge reason why, he’s still not officially part of Starfleet but obviously is still a doctor in it.
But I don’t see why he wouldn’t have a provisional rank at least.
I wonder if he is legally acknowledged as a person. Granting him rights could open up all sorts of legal issues. Is it even ethical to use the holodeck?
I think this will definitely be addressed next season. Theses writers are really smart and seem to be taking many old threads like this one and making part of this show.
The Voyager-A’s deflector dish seems to be a nod to the Enterprise-F’s! Nice touch!
It’s Hedley!
That’s Hedley!
They basically turned this show into a Voyager spin off show. No wonder kids tuned out and it got cancelled. Loved the Timey Wimey Doctor Who reference.
This makes zero sense since new fans don’t know who any of the characters are and there were only two characters from Voyager lol. And Chakotay had a total of 5 minutes screen time out of 20 episodes. Sadly I think they just don’t care about Star Trek as brand enough. Again this happened with TAS too, so no one should be surprised.
I’m excited about season 2 though!
I don’t know of any kid who is into Star Trek. Or even anyone under the age of 30 who is, for that matter.
I have a teenage son and despite being exposed to Trek all his life, thanks to me being a fan, he just couldn’t care about it.
Younger generations, from my observations, just don’t seem to be into episodic television anymore – but they will spend hours watching short form video on social media apps.
Movies in general are still a thing but even then, they’d rather be out doing something else.
It makes more and more sense why they want Starfleet Academy to be the next Flagship show.
Trek Central released a cool video discussing the Voyager A:
https://youtu.be/porRGSSEZEI
And a bit of info from the Voyager B in Picard last season and the Voyager J in the 32nd century. They better show off Voyager in Discovery next season Kurtzman!!!
Anyway enjoy!
Nice Dr Who easter egg
I remember with 90s Trek, it was always an event or something special when a legacy character popped up or a character from another show cameo-ed or crossed over.
With the latest Trek shows there are constant call backs and references to previous shows, which kinda takes some of the magic away.
Just my opinion.