Star Trek: Prodigy streams new episodes Thursday’s in the North America via Paramount+.
Synopsis
Marooned on a deadly planet, the crew must work together with their captive Gwyn to stay alive…except the planet isn’t the only thing in pursuit.
Review
We’ve reached the end of our first batch of episodes from Star Trek’s latest incarnation. Over the course of five-episodes Star Trek: Prodigy has proven itself a capable storyteller with intriguing and well defined characters. In its visuals the series has gone above and beyond to become something incomparable, particularly amongst the landscape of CGI animated children’s shows.
Picking up where “Dreamcatcher” left off, this second half of the story amps up the emotional impact. With the Protostar caught on the planet’s surface, the crew are fractured and blame Gwyn (Ella Purnell) for their predicament. With The Diviner (John Noble) hot on their trail the crew has little time to squabble and needs to come up with a plan to free Janeway (Kate Mulgrew) and the ship.
The planet itself continues to throw visions at the crew leading to some hilarious dialogue around naming this new-found danger. Rok-Tahk’s suggestion of “Larry” is the comic relief we’ve come to expect from Rylee Alazraqui’s character. Whilst Jankom’s (Jason Mantzoukas) suggestion of “Murder Planet” seems a lot more accurate to their surroundings. Ultimately the planet itself serves as a plot device. In part one is split the group apart and in this second part it serves in bringing them back together.
Though she may be trapped on the ship, Hologram Janeway gets a lot to do in this episode. Surprisingly for a hologram, she also gets some serious character development. After leaving her to clean house using some “photonic ship scrubbers,” the crew and Janeway have some serious questions about what is really going on with the Protostar.
One area where Prodigy has been lacking for me is in its villains. The pilot episode setup John Noble’s Diviner as a real threat to the Protostar crew. He has history with each of them and his connection to Gwyn only further serves to ramp up his threats. Given this group has stolen his prized ship he should be a veritable thorn in their side. But instead the series has, so far, chosen to focus on world building rather than dealing with the matter at hand. “Terror Firma” goes some way to rectifying that by at least putting The Diviner and the Protostar in the same location. Some clever trickery by “Murder Planet” is predictable but also made me smile, giving Diviner some comeuppance at least.
Rounding out the first batch of episodes before the winter break, “Terror Firma” really feels like the end of the beginning. Across nearly 2.5 hours of television we’ve taken all the right steps needed to introduce and bring the cast together, leaving them with an exciting journey ahead.
Verdict
An emotional conclusion to the two-part arc which rounds out the first batch of Star Trek: Prodigy episodes. “Terror Firma” leaves us with a huge jumping off point going in to the winter break.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
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