Star Trek: Prodigy streams new episodes Thursday’s in the North America via Paramount+.
Synopsis
Exiled on a mining colony outside Federation space, a group of lawless teens discover a derelict Starfleet ship. Dal must gather an unlikely crew for their newfound ship if they are going to escape Tars Lamora, but The Diviner and his daughter Gwyn have other plans.
Review
The universe of contemporary Star Trek continues to grow this week with the debut of Star Trek: Prodigy. The franchise’s latest animated series is aimed squarely at introducing a much younger audience to the world of Starfleet. If this extended episode is anything to go by then Prodigy has already proven itself a worthy successor
The series premiere shows that Trek is fully capable of the kind of versatility required to appeal to a whole new audience. Though the results are reminiscent of series from another franchise with Star in the title, the scenarios on display are important to the story of its characters.
With the more adult-skewing Trek series there’s simply an acceptance of who characters are. We meet a fully formed crew already serving aboard a starship and that’s the norm. For a younger audience there’s the added importance of communicating why it’s important to root for our heroes. In that respect the introductions of Dal (Brett Gray), Zero (Angus Imrie), Jankom (Jason Mantzoukas), Rok-Tahk (Rylee Alazraqui) and Gwyn (Ella Purnell) are perfect. Throw in Murf (Dee Bradley Baker) and the cuteness factor is off the charts.
Executive producers Kevin and Dan Hageman have performed a feat similar to Mike McMahan on Star Trek: Lower Decks. They have taken recognisable aspects of Trek and transformed them in to something which is entirely new. Like Lower Decks, Prodigy also seems to be peppered with Easter eggs for long-time fans.
For Prodigy, the Delta Quadrant setting allows the show to homage an area of space only previously explored in Star Trek: Voyager. This benefits the series by allowing them to use names and faces which, whilst familiar, aren’t exhausted from consistent overuse. The relatively uncharted area of space also allows the team plenty of room to invent new characters.
Dal acts as our defacto captain and so his backstory is the most explored in these episodes. Whilst his race remains a mystery, we spend enough time in his company to make him a compelling lead. Gray infuses his voice with plenty of emotion and gusto. He’s headstrong to a fault and we leave these two episodes feeling that he has a strong emotional arc ahead of him.
Mantzoukas as Jankom counterbalances Gray brilliantly. The two have great chemistry which provides some comic relief amongst what is otherwise a fairly heavy episode. The pairing of Rok-Tahk and Surf also works to give the series some comic relief.
Of course there is one other notable addition to the cast, Kate Mulgrew as the now holographic Janeway. Janeway doesn’t appear until the very of this two-parter but it’s still brilliant to see her back in action. The voice might sound a little older but the appearance is modelling on early Voyager Janeway and it certainly seems she will mentor this new young crew.
The animation feels on par with other shows of this nature. There’s plenty of fine detail and the alien landscapes of the Delta Quadrant are effortlessly rendered. Likewise our new ship, the U.S.S. Protostar, looks impressive from what we’ve seen of her so far. Surfaces and character skins do appear very smooth, almost figurine like, but again this is on par with other CGI animated kids series.
Verdict
A captivating series premiere which will undoubtedly appeal to old school Star Trek fans as well as the younger audience it’s aimed at.
⭐⭐⭐⭐
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