Out of all the shows on Nickeloedean’s lineup, it was always super obvious that Prodigy was the odd one out. I would argue the show has less humor than even the Avatar franchise and the last time we had a show like this try to talk about serious issues as well as educate would be the 1998 live-action show Space Cases. It isn’t a surprise that Nickelodeon decided to ditch this show as quickly as possible, even avoiding the death by Nicktoon Network and instead getting removed from its own streaming service (Paramount Plus) and going to Netflix instead.
From a streaming perspective, I have to admit it is a bizarre choice to ditch this on: I can imagine kids watching this show only to learn that to understand the expanded storytelling of this franchise they would have to convince their parents to get an entirely different streaming service. The series isn’t shy about referencing previous series: the Romulan evacuation which set off the plot for Star Trek (2009) is constantly mentioned and the season finale ends with a reference to a major plot point in Picard. On top of that, we also get to have the actual Captain Janeway take center stage as both an admiral and once again as Captain of the Starship Voyager. Plus in the season premiere, we get the return of fan favorite, The Doctor, the holographic doctor from Voyager brilliantly played by Robert Picardo. As a character who had a more comedic bend, he blends into the cast perfectly. Rounding out the Voyager cast, we also get to see a lot more of Robert Beltran as Chakotay; as a more serious character his integration was a little more rough, but as the season went on it became enjoyable seeing this man with a tougher demeanor take command when it is needed.
The season premiere does a great job establishing where all the characters are before getting recruited as cadets for Voyager. We see this reluctance from the crew, who have gotten very comfortable in their new roles with Roh-Tahk not even joining them at first out of fear of getting in trouble. Much like the other ongoing Star Trek cartoon, we get the introduction of a new character joining the crew who is also a female Vulcan, Maj’el. She mainly serves as a slightly antagonistic bully-turned friend and also a potential love interest for the genderless non-corporeal Zero. While her character is nowhere near as funny as T’Lyn, she doesn’t feel like a forced character introduction, she is eased in and she manages to have a moment with the entire crew of the ship. I also want to give credit to Michaela Dietz for playing a character that is the opposite of Amythiest.
The second half of the season is where the show hits its stride, where we get the introduction of Wesley Crusher who has fully embraced his role as The Traveler and acts as a sort of a guide to get the plot going.
I also have to admit, why is the adult Wesley we saw in Season 1 of TNG more uncanny valley than the CGI animated one?
The second half contains my favorite episode as the crew plus Chakotey are put into alternate dimensions, including the Mirror Dimension where even the whales are evil. We also get a great episode focusing on Zero as she gains a new body which allows her to have new senses. I was worried this would have the awful message of how Zero shouldn’t change anything about herself because there is nothing wrong with her as if it is an analogue of people with disabilities. However, instead, she ends up keeping the body for a large portion of the season, which is in the spirit of Star Trek and how we should embrace technology and what it can do to help us.
While Zero came out as the clear MVP this season when it comes to focus, we also have Dal R’El and Gwyndala getting some attention as well: Dal R’El continues his journey of learning to become a captain, while Gwyndala has the task of preventing her planet from falling into a Civil War, which allows for some great drama and action sequences. Rok-Tahk and Murf also get great moments as they settle into their roles of Science officer and security. Unfortunately, Jankem Pog continues the horrible cliche of being the overweight comic relief who has no depth or character development, which is pretty jarring when such well-written characters surround him.
The only other issue I have with the show is the villain: last season we learned a random officer on Janeway’s ship The Vindicator was a member of Gwyndala’s species bent on destroying the Federation. She managed to return to her home planet and all of her potential character depth was left in the previous season. Her plans to use time paradox monsters and hooking Wesley Crusher to a machine to control his power were pretty cool. It doesn’t change the fact her motivations were unclear to the point where her past self living on the planet even turned against her. Vindicator just turns into a power-mad evil alien and it doesn’t feel very compelling compared to last season’s The Deviner, who is incredibly well developed and has a terrific character journey.
Still, I enjoyed this new season a lot, I think it is probably the most consistent Star Trek series I’ve ever seen regarding quality. While the season finale ended on a high note with certain lingering plot threads, it feels bizarre how Dal hasn’t had a chance to meet his creator yet, who is a pretty notable character franchise. However, no longer being on the same streaming service as the other shows and movies, Paramount has very little reason to promote the show. On the plus side, this is Star Trek: there is a ton of expanded media that can flesh everything out, but I am still holding out hope we will get another season.
