Review: ‘Prodigy’ Season 2 Blu-ray Brings Time Travel Fun And The Heart Of Star Trek Home

Star Trek: Prodigy – Season 2

Published by Paramount Home Entertainment
Format: DVD and Blu-ray
Date: November 12, 2024

As I said in my season 1 Blu-ray reviews (Vol. 1 & Vol. 2), Prodigy’s writers and producers very quickly demonstrated that they understood Star Trek—what we all love about it, and exactly how to show both the audience and our main characters the fundamentals of what it means to be part of the Federation and Starfleet. It’s a beautifully realized animated series with a ton of heart and well-written characters who continue to grow to become better-rounded, more actualized versions of themselves.

The second season opens with our crew, minus Gwyn, trying their best to integrate into live as Starfleet cadets in training. Dal in particular is having a hard time as he was once free to do as he saw fit as acting captain of the USS Protostar. Gwyn has gone to Solum to try and make a better first contact with the Vau N’Akat of 2284 to avoid a civil war. Soon the Earth-bound provisional cadets get a visit from the Doctor (formerly of the USS Voyager) and off to the brand new Voyager-A they go. Season 2 is bigger in its aims, and the stakes this time aren’t just about the Federation, rather it’s the entire “Prime” timeline and universe as we know it.

The gang’s all here, along with new friend Ma’jel.

Prodigy’s writers did something rather bold, and made what could be called “a unified theory of Star Trek time travel and multiverses,” and it mostly works too. The kids will get a guide in all this timey-wimey stuff from once awkward teen prodigy — now a seasoned Traveler — Wesley Crusher. As teased in season 1, we finally also get to meet up with Captain Chakotay and Voyager fans will be pleased to find Prodigy has given us a deeper, well written, exploration of the character. As their adventure wraps up, the synth attack on Mars occurs, and our young crew is given a new mission. Prodigy was always going to run into the events of 2285, as seen in flashbacks in Picard season 1, so I love that they acknowledge it and yet find a new way to give us a hopeful quest for the Prodigies – now onboard the only production Protostar class ship to be built – aptly named the USS Prodigy.

The USS Prodigy is ready for launch

The Blu-ray set

The 20-episode second season and special features are available on three Blu-ray discs. As we’ve come to expect for a Paramount/CBS home video release, each disc has the names of the episodes it contains printed on them, as well as a full listing for the set on the inside back of the case. The season is also available on DVD as well.

The Blu-ray set

Video quality

Prodigy is a rather unique-looking show; the obvious comparison people want to make is to Star Wars: The Clone Wars, but it’s not quite like that series, and it’s certainly not like a Pixar movie. The design sensibility is unique and generally stunning. As a modern high-definition-era cartoon, everything looks sharp, the lines are crisp, and the colors of alien vistas along with the varied shades and colors of the main characters look punchy as one would expect. Now on disc, it certainly looks as good as, if not better than, what you saw on streaming.

Even the war machine factories on Solum look gorgeous

Audio quality

The episodes have losslessly compressed DTS-HD MA 5.1 channel soundtracks. Prodigy sounds great—it’s got quite the cinematic soundscape for something that’s “just” a kids’ show and composer Nami Melumad’s episodic scores are a highlight of each episode.

The Voyager-A stuck in a crack between dimensions

Special features

With Prodigy not getting the usual Star Trek treatment (at first a Nickelodeon TV show, then a streaming show on Paramount+, and then licensed off to Netflix), it seems not much was allocated for bonus features. As with season 1, there are disappointingly no audio commentaries. In total, there are two documentary bonus features in the set.

The pair of features are all found on the second disc:

• Producing Prodigy: The Legacy (6 minutes)
  • Aaron Waltke and the Hageman brothers discuss creating an introduction to legacy Trek for new audiences of Prodigy, all the pieces of legacy Trek after the end of Voyager, and how Prodigy fits into the greater canon.
• The Odyssey of Prodigy (18 minutes)
  • As is customary with the new Trek shows on home video, this feature documents the making of the second season. Writers, producers, directors, composer Nami Melumad, are interviewed. Wil Wheaton speaks on his character Wesley Crusher coming back to Star Trek and how that return affected him.

Final thoughts

Even with the few special features, I strongly recommend that fans buy this now. Our usual recommendation for these disc sets is for anyone who wants an offline copy of the show. For Prodigy, this is especially important because Prodigy’s future is uncertain. For folks in Canada, the only official way to see Prodigy is to purchase the season as a digital download or on disc. While digital copies have somewhat more permanence than streaming services, they’re not immutable. Getting something on physical media is the only sure way to own a beloved TV show or movie, plus the series tends to look and sound better on Blu-ray than streaming.

The Doctor, Captain Chakotay, and Admiral Janeway

Available now in the USA and Canada on Blu-ray and DVD

The second season of Prodigy was released today, Tuesday, November 12. You an purchase it now at Amazon: $19.99 on DVD and $24.99 on Blu-ray.

Special feature video clip

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