Star Trek: Prodigy Episodes 11-20
review by Bobby Blakey
There is no denying that Star Trek is a franchise giant spawning from TV, movies, comics, books and more. In the 70s they dived into an animated series with the original crew that ran for two seasons complete with the original cast voicing their characters. In 2020 we headed back into the world of animation with a different kind of series Star Trek: Lower Decks that brought some laughs to the franchise. In 2021 another new animated series hit Paramount + with Star Trek Prodigy, but does it bring something new and fresh to the series or will it get lost in the final frontier?
Star Trek: Prodigy follows a motley crew of young aliens who must figure out how to work together while navigating a greater galaxy, in search of a better future. These six young outcasts know nothing about the ship they have commandeered, a first in the history of the Star Trek franchise, but over the course of their adventures together, they will each be introduced to Starfleet and the ideals it represents.
In the second half of the season, the hopeful crew makes their way toward Starfleet, their dreams are threatened when they discover the U.S.S. Protostar harbors a weapon designed to tear the United Federation of Planets apart. To make matters worse, the U.S.S. Dauntless is on a manhunt for the Protostar as the real Vice Admiral Janeway is eager to uncover what happened to her missing former First Officer Chakotay. With these two ships on a collision course and destruction on the horizon, the fate of the Alpha Quadrant hangs in the balance.
While Lower Decks was bringing the humor, it was very clearly a Star Trek
series focusing on Starfleet with all the looks and feels of the universe. That was my biggest concern oringally heading into this series since it looked nothing like what we had seen before and not directly a Starfleet crew. Once I dived into the show it felt much like the Clone Wars series did for Star Wars bringing a unique look to the final frontier and a new batch of characters to get invested in.
This second half of the season continues the complete with nods back to Voyager. While we already had the hologram Janeway they bring in the now Vice Admiral Janeway and dive into some lore for that crew including appearances and an arc regarding now Captain Chakotay. I know it isn’t a popular thing, but I was a big Voyager fan before getting into the rest of the franchise so bringing in Mulgrew and Chakotay just made this show work for me and further expands it into the rest of the franchise.
All of the characters are fun, but it did take me a bit to really get invested in them. I applaud the creators of the show for making such a diverse group to run with that helps to keep it interesting. Not every episode in the season worked for me, but overall I dug it. There are some elements that drag and the time it takes to really let these characters develop sometimes makes the show limp along, but I am glad I stuck it out. It finds its stride in this second half and offers up some much better episodes than the first half of the season.
This is far from best series in the franchise, but hoping as it has time to develop and find itself that it will push the boundaries to the greatness it can be. Sadly its been pulled from Paramount+ but have heard they are still shopping it around for a new home and hope they find it because it is got more adventures to take.
In addition to the ten episodes in the second half of the season this release offers up bonus content including 3 new in-depth featurettes with more than 45 minutes of content revealing how Star Trek heritage shapes Prodigy’s characters, story and settings.
Grab your copy of Star Trek Prodigy: Season 1 Episodes 11-20 when it hits Blu-ray and DVD on September 26th from Nickelodeon and Paramount Home Entertainment.
