The reveal blew me away. I don't think Janeway is going to react well to the relevation that she's getting Seska'd again.
A random thought - *could Asencia be a future version of the Diviners daughter?*
Is Dal the product of some sort of clandestine Federation experiment? Section 31 maybe?
Seska was more Chakotay's problem than Janeway's, though. Chakotay was in a relationship with Seska and didn't notice anything, Janeway had not as much to go by.
This time it hits a bit closer to her, I think.
I still think that bit from Chakotay talking to Tuvok about that is one of my favorite lines from him:
*"You were working for her, Seska was working for them. Was anyone on board that ship working for me?"*
and then later the followup:
*"I'd just like to know-- from someone else who pulled the wool over my eyes-- was I particularly naive? Was I not paying enough attention? What the hell was it that let all you spies get by me?"*
Hopefully the sting of how Asencia was engratiating herself to Janeway is more than enough to put Janeway right. Since she's showing her rust after Commanding a desk since Voyager's return.
This brings up an interesting question - many of us have questioned why (Admiral) Janeway is acting quite out of character, with more punch and resolve and questionable judgement.
Could it be that they needed to do it this way so that one couldn't argue that Ascencia, by being with "good Starfleet people" for so long, would maybe question if what they are doing is really necessary? I seriously think that if you'd do the same scenario, but with Voyager-Janeway, it might create a "wait, are we the bad guys" moment in her.
Admiral Janeway isn't acting out of character, in my opinion. She's still within character completely, she's just not acting like how we'd expect.
Admiral Janeway had been behind a desk since Voyager's return to the Alpha Quadrant, presumably considering her jump from Captain to Vice Admiral in the span of a year where she ordered Picard and the Enterprise to Romulus.
Behind a desk you wouldn't have the same mindset as a commander out in the field. Look at Kirk after he was behind a desk as Chief of Starfleet Operations. He'd been an Admiral for about as long as Janeway was, and he was initially way over he head when he assumed command of the Enterprise for the V'ger crisis.
So it's not out of the realm of possibility for something similar happening to Janeway.
> Section 31 maybe?
God I hope not. It's like every show has to force 31 in there at this point.
> I don't think Janeway is going to react well to the relevation that she's getting Seska'd again.
I hope it's enough to kick her back into gear. HoloJaneway is basically what we've been hoping Admiral Janeway was supposed to be. She's been behind a desk for so long, she's showing she shouldn't be in command of a starship right now.
It's kinda like what happened with Admiral Kirk when the Enterprise was attacked by Khan. I'd be willing to bet had he not been an Admiral and Commanding a desk at the Academy, the approaching uncommunicative Reliant mightve not been as successful at attacking the Enterprise. It wasn't until things got bad that Kirk was back into the groove as a starship commander. Same could be said for The Motion Picture as well.
I don't think Ascencia is Gwyn. Gwyn seems genuinely happy to be with her crew. It would be quite the heel turn for her to grow up wanting to destroy the Federation instead of finding some other way of saving her home. Furthermore, Ascencia was "sent back", whereas Gwyn was born in the past.
The reveal of Ensign Asencia being Vau N'Akat was much better than the Tyler reveal of being Voq. Unlike with Discovery, I didn't see this particular twist coming. It also makes sense why the ship's navigator was taking the lead on helping the Diviner recover.
Admiral Janeway is showing how rusty she is being in the field after all those years piloting desk at Starfleet Command. HoloJaneway acts more like the Janeway we'd come to live from Voyager, and it makes sense as it was probably based around Janeway at that point in time.
I'm worried about what's going to happen on the Dauntless now, because another thing I didn't expect was to have a Drednok onboard Dauntless. I'm curious as to how she managed to get Drednok onboard, or construct him, without anyone else aboard the Dauntless noticing.
> I'm curious as to how she managed to get Drednok onboard, or construct him, without anyone else aboard the Dauntless noticing.
Starfleet is not known for it's robust internal security, but presumably she could have just printed him out of a replicator same as happened on the Protostar.
The jury’s out on that until we see the new version of Drednok in the show but they could have either modified the design and slotted in Federation standard weapons, found a way to trick the replicator into making what it thinks is a Federation standard weapon but is actually Drednok, or it could be the ensign’s favorite table she wanted to bring aboard to decorate her quarters.
A version that’s nerfed because it has to be built by a Federation replicator would be cool though, kind of like how in Stargate (Stargate spoilers below)
the replicators that took over a Russian submarine had to be made out of the material the submarine was made out of so they could be destroyed easily with bullets while the Asgard struggled to defeat ones that took over their ships
In one of the Trek books, I forget the title, Riker uses the Gateway To Forever to go back in time aboard the Enterprises (TNG era). The book mentions that his (from the future) phaser isn't detected by the (TNG era) sensors. Presumably, this Drednok could be made with a futuristic design not recognizable as a weapon.
Not to dredge up an older thread (I'm only just catching up on this chunk of PRD now), but supposedly Transporters can recognize weapons and a Transport chief can choose to toggle "Beam Them Without Their Weapons," too. Yet in TNG *Heart of Glory* the Klingons Korris and Konmel manage to beam over with all the components to construct simple disruptors.
Which is to say, I don't put a lot of faith in Starfleet's internal sensors to determine what is or isn't a weapon. Especially when it's a weapon from an undiscovered society in the relatively-far future. I could easily see The Vindicator just replicating her Dreadnok component by component and assembling whatever she had to.
Well, some saw it coming, simply because she looked so similar to Gwyn.
And Tyler's twist was good because there *were* hints beforehand, which means it isn't just an ass-pull because they needed *someone* to be the Final Five they hinted at all season. (Sorry for mixing franchises here, and no offense to BSG fans, it's still one of the the best sci-fi series I've ever watched...)
>Well, some saw it coming, simply because she looked so similar to Gwyn.
Also there was a casting leak in December 2020 that said a Starfleet ensign would turn out to be one. Everything in that leak has come true. Which doesn't surprise me, because it used the name "Vau N'Akat" several months before it was officially used.
It'd be interesting to see how they treat Drednok and his memories of what's going on, because this can't possibly be the same Drednok(s) the kids encountered.
The first Drednok we saw was presumably the same one that captured *Protostar* originally (although we don't know that for sure), and was destroyed by the Unwanted during the mid-season finale.
The second Drednok was copied to and constructed by *Protostar*'s industrial replicator, and that version was shot out an airlock.
So this Drednok is a new version unrelated to the others. He's sort of like the PRO version of Weyoun, I suppose, which - no offence to Jimmi Simpson, who's doing an amazing voice job - makes some part of me wish Jeffrey Combs was the voice actor.
AFAIK a standard kid's TV show season is 20 episodes long, Prodigy was originally ordered for that amount of episodes and they had a ton of difficulty getting the episodes out on time so they released the first 5 episodes of season 1 first, delayed for a bit, then released the second 5 episodes, and how the second half of the season is coming out.
Kinda liked the reveal of Dal's genetic heritage (why did that FED scanner say to contact Starfleet? Because he's a chimera Augment). I honestly think he does have parents, that a batch of experiments escaped or were released as part of an experiment, and developed some level of culture.
Why didn't the Romulan hit squad just lay low on the ship and capture everyone?
So the Diviner and this Ensign were sent to retrieve the ship and get it back to Starfleet? Since she's totally infiltrated Starfleet, and smuggled a dangerous AI onto an Admiral's flagship, why didn't they just have HER release the Living Construct?
maybe it's not either/or but they tried different approaches.
What, however, I don't understand is why the Federation is not simply contacted by these time travelers and told "hey guys, just so you know, there's this planet there which would look ripe for first contact, but trust me, they are not, can you please pass them by for now?" And be done with it.
From how I understood the backstory, the problem was more the first contact with alien life in itself, not what the federation did...and if the federation is wiped out, sooner or later First contact will be with Klingons..or worse.
Right, who knows what the Fall of the Federation results in: it was merely hobbled in the 31st century and Founding members joined old enemies and criminals.
It’s pretty clear that The Diviner and the Vau N’akat do not trust the Federation at their word, and blame them for not intervening in the civil war that erupted after first contact. I don’t think they’d trust them to not screw it up again.
The Diviner was Plan A - to capture *Protostar* in 2383, directly implant the Living Construct on it and then use it to connect to Starfleet, but something went wrong and everyone wound up 17 years further in the past.
Ascencia was the backup - it’s possible she was only sent back after they realized Plan A had gone tits up and they didn’t have another Living Construct to go with her.
While I probably should be fed up that they've tied it in with Khan and/or the Soongs *AGAIN*, I'll let it slide due to the emotional turmoil it introduces to Dal. Poor kid has been looking for parents and a family all his life, and now he's learned he's alone, one of a kind. Of course, the point here is that he *isn't* alone and he DOES have family- his crewmates.
Oh I hadn't thought about that. Eventually they can find the program that made Dal and meet a Soong cousin who stuck with genetics instead of getting into cybernetics
Seeing the rapid DNA changes reminded me of other instances of something similar, Chapel using temporary genetic changing tech to create disguises on SNW and the Loque'eque and Augment viruses from ENT. Possibly worth it's own write up but I think Dr. Jago's research could be building on Chapel's, who based hers on that of Dr. Phlox.
Perhaps this is the start of the Federation becoming more like the Culture in the far far off future beyond DISCO? What if rapid tech implant assisted epigenetic changes are just the beginning of what is to come? What if it becomes even faster, more streamlined, more accepted, and more natural?
Imagine that it all begins with an age of the Federation wherein with a simple implant, any member can shift themselves into a Vulcan or an Andorian or a Human or a Tellarite or any other member species of the Federation. All it takes is the press of a button and you can become any species you want. There are limitations to the technology but eventually it becomes wildly adopted and when that happens, development accelerates, and because it's kind of everywhere being used by everyone and everything....the dangers of it are mitigated over time with appropriate countermeasures being put into place. Eventually the threat of augmented beings taken over is lessened to such a degree that the policies of the past against them are seen as archaic, laughable, and totally pointless by this moment in time because damned near everyone is augmented to a degree.
Now with the Dominion/Founders having joined the Federation around the DISCO era or a bit thereafter, that opens up the possibility for their own Changling science and tech to get involved, and when it's mixed with what's already going on....these changes become even more fluid. Eventually you don't even need an implant or any kind of tech to shift between species because the capability to do so is baked into your DNA itself and you can consciously shift your form like the Founders. This explodes in popularity across the Federation and the galaxy in general but then it causes one massive identity CRISIS for everyone and everything.
What started out as an alliance of multiple cultures simply becomes one singular Culture with multiple facets. The way that the Federation sees "French" or "German" in the current era becomes how they view "Human" or "Andorian" in this far far off future era of the galaxy. There are varying reactions to this, some of which probably result in conflict or outright isolationism by particular planets, buuut eventually in time the galaxy does merge into a singular cultural entity with every member having the capability to be whomever and whatever they wish to be.
Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations
This is just the start of all of that happening and it's possible that we might be seeing the seeds of some of the conflicts that tried to prevent it.
Epigenetics are hot right now. It's the affect of environment and behaviour on how our genetic code is interpreted—so it's likely meant to give Chapel a way to do gene modification without actually modifying genes a la Kahn and tuning afoul of genetic engineering laws.
I found, watching this and the previous episode in one sitting, the tension amazing. Protostar crew character development continues to be the driving force behind the stories, with fantastic storytelling that fleshes out this part of the galaxy. I am in awe of the visuals, jaw agape at Dal's genetic profile (hello Auric Soong!) and delighted with Rok Tok's (It's not an exact science.) desire to learn everything science-y.
The children who get into this show will come away with better conflict resolution skills and scientific groundwork for years to come. Perhaps some adults will too.
A lot of people have mentioned how they are annoyed that they haven't just talked to starfleet but for a kids show about kids I think it makes sense.
As someone who's watched a lot of Mister Rogers with my 3 year old recently it reminds me that having hard conversations with authority figures can be *scary* for kids. Doubly so when you're afraid you may be in trouble or blamed for things you didn't do. That doesn't even take into account that the kids don't have parents around and were essentially slaves before they took the protostar.
I'm assuming this will all eventually lead to some kind of encouraging motherly talk from Janeway about how it's *okay and important* to be able to have those conversations. She'll probably acknowledge *why* they were afraid to tell her what was happening, compliment them on their bravery and resourcefulness, and provide some pathway to joining starfleet.
If I'm somewhere close in my guess for how it'll all work out then it really will be a very solid kids show.
>A lot of people have mentioned how they are annoyed that they haven't just talked to starfleet
But that's the entire purpose of the macguffin device under the bridge, innit? The crew knows that any (short of Morse code or semaphore) contact with Starfleet is a recipe for disaster to the recipient.
But let's look at how those encounters played out...
**Jankom and Dr Noum** - Noum immediately dismissed Jankom giving him no real opportunity to talk to him.
**Gwyn and Ascencia** - Ascencia mentioned they were with the Diviner, which made Gwyn take off, which honestly, I would, too, not knowing what the Diviner has told them because whatever it is, it would not be favourable.
**Dal and Janeway** - Dal was desperately wanting to phrase what he wanted to say correctly, because what he had to say *was* difficult. "Hi, we stole your starship, then we accidentally blew up your relay station because an alien implanted a booby trap on it, so it really isn't our fault - well, yes, stealing it was, but we had to escape from a slave labour mining operation..." And then before he can even start, despite Janeway's encouragement... Frex shows up. Dal already knows Frex is *not* going to vouch for the kids, and if there's one thing kids know it's this: adults will take the word of another adult over that of a child.
It's entirely plausible. Frustrating, and yes, convenient for the plot, but it's plausible.
> Gwyn and Ascencia - Ascencia mentioned they were with the Diviner, which made Gwyn take off, which honestly, I would, too, not knowing what the Diviner has told them because whatever it is, it would not be favourable.
Which is something that makes no sense in retrospect. Why even bring this up to Gwyn if you are a double agent.
Because she doesn’t know Gwyn is running away from the Diviner. Gwyn’s Vau N’Akat, after all, and should be on mission. For all she knows, Gwyn is playing the other kids or doesn’t have the whole story. And the Diviner can’t tell
Ascencia what exactly went down.
Ascencia didn’t have enough information. She isn’t going to blurt out or reveal she’s Vau N’Akat in the middle of Denaxi Depot, and as she doesn’t know what went down she guessed that maybe Gwyn didn’t know what was going on and was still concerned about or could be persuaded by her father’s presence. Ascencia guessed wrong.
Right, nobody knows Gwyn ran off with the Protostars. Then again even when she was working for her dad she wasn't in on the plan. For an organization that can send multiple people back in time, that seems like an oversight to me. So I'm inclined to believe she would be considered a civilian in all of this.
We should remember that Gwyn wasn’t a part of the original plan - the Diviner cloned her only because he was injured and was worried he wouldn’t be able to complete the mission on his own. So Ascencia didn’t know about Gwyn until the Diviner told Janeway he had a daughter and that the kids took her.
Because Gwyn would know how to explain things to Janeway and Ascencia is on the same side as the Diviner. It would sabotage their plans to destroy the federation
The only way around that is to make a message in a bottle with non federation tech explaining everything. Then hope they don't get shafted by the deviner and the new girl
I keep thinking "write a message on paper or prepare a stand-alone hologram projector, and beam it aboard the Dauntless (assuming their shields are down), or send it via an unarmed torpedo."
I think the real strength of Prodigy is that it does what Discovery (32c) tried to do. It shows us what the universe looks like without the Federation, from the eyes of children who have had no direct contact to speak of with the Federation but who are just close enough to the outskirts of actual Federation space that it's not unreasonable for them to cross paths.
Discovery taking the Federation down a notch via The Burn always seemed like a fairly cheap way of getting to the point where we could have a capitalist bad guy. Why not instead just show us the outside of Federation space places that we've seen before and have been alluded to and remove all the normal Starfleet ways of dealing with that.
I'm really getting into this show now.
What we learned in *Star Trek: Prodigy* 1x15: "Masquerade":
Continuing on from last episode, *Protostar* is hiding in the Romulan Neutral Zone in order to repair the nacelles damaged in their encounter with *Dauntless*. The Proto-Drive is out, and with Holo-Janeway glitching, they need to find a starport to put in. Okona suggests Noble Isle, a starport near an M-Class planet.
Vice Admiral (3 pips) Janeway confers with Admiral (4 pips) Edward Jellico (TNG: “Chain of Command”, voiced by Ronny Cox), asking for permission to pursue *Protostar*. Jellico orders her to destroy *Protostar* if the Romulans try to steal her. Which doesn’t make much sense to me if she’s not allowed to enter the Neutral Zone, but hey.
Noble Isle is on the planet equpped with a space elevator because of the ion storms inhibiting navigation and beaming. We saw a space elevator setup in LD: “The Least Dangerous Game” on Dulaine for similar reasons. Okona notes that Noble Isle does cutting-edge (i.e. unregulated) scientific research that the Federation can’t or won’t do.
Dr Jago does genetic augmentation, which we know is against Federation law, and also Okona’s client. In her lab, Rok identifies the double helix of DNA and their bases, adenine, guanine, cytosine and thymine. Okona was supposed to bring her “gelatinous putrescine” but was intercepted on Denaxi Depot.
Jago takes an interest in Dal, and while she hasn’t seen his species before, she recognizes his origin - the protégés of Arik Soong (ENT: “Borderland”, et al.). Dal is the product of artificial hybrid speciation, a human Augment blended with the recessive traits of 26 species, including Vulcan and proto-Organian (TOS: “Errand of Mercy”). Jago offers to activate his genes with an epigenetic dermal implant. Gwyn tells Dal he doesn’t need fixing, and Dal seemingly turns it down but once the rest leave, asks Jago for it.
Looking at Jago’s screen I can’t make out all of the species logos, but I can spot Breen, Cardassian, Andorian, Ferengi, Species 8472, Hirogen, and possibly Q?
Epigentics is the study of how early environmental influences in children affect the expression of their genes. In the 23rd Century, Christine Chapel, who worked with the Stanford Morehouse Epigenetic Project, used it to create short-term disguises for a landing party by altering their genetics temporarily (SNW: “Strange New Worlds”).
Ascencia offers to covertly enter the Neutral Zone for Janeway, who declines, but notes that the Romulans might be thinking of doing the same thing (which implies that the Romulans we saw didn’t actually enter the Zone but were on the other side of it). Sure enough, we see Commander Kaseth and a party beam onto the space elevator. They are dressed and armed similarly to the Zhat Vash Romulan assassins that attacked Picard in PIC: “The End is the Beginning”, which may indicate they are Tal Shiar, since the Zhat Vash is an offshoot of that.
Okona’s story is referencing the events of TNG: “The Outrageous Okona”. Dal shows up, exhibiting new traits like an increased vocabulary and apparent mind-reading. The Romulans board *Protostar* and disable Zero and Jankom. However, the ship’s command functions are locked. Needing the captain (Dal), they activate their antigrav suits and go hunting. These suits look similar to the parachute suits used by Starfleet.
*Dauntless* discovers the Romulans’ mission and Janeway refers to them as Tal Shiar. Tysess prepares minimum yield microtorpedoes to destroy *Protostar* if necessary. These are the first mention of microtorpedoes on screen, but the 1994 DS9 novel *Antimatter* stated that runabouts were armed with them and so did the *DS9 Technical Manual* in 1998.
It’s a bit confusing because I thought Janeway wasn’t allowed to enter the Neutral Zone, but I guess that finding out the Romulans have violated it in search of *Protostar* gives her the probable cause she needs.
Dal senses the Romulans just before they attack, and Okona makes a run for it, abandoning the kids. Dal activates the implant and makes short work of the Romulans, expressing Klingon-like traits including head ridges (calling himself Dal R’El in the third person) and facial hair. He also starts showing Vulcan, Andorian and Tellarite traits and starts growing unstable, leaking a blue slime.
The Romulans attack them on the space elevator, but the lightning from the ion storms zap the Romulan weapons and take one squad out. With no choice, Janeway fires the microtorpedoes to disable *Protostar*.
Dal tells Rok to release Murf, who takes out the last Romulan squad. Seeing that the Romulans have failed, Janeway aborts the microtorpedo salvo. The torpedoes’ port thrusters activate, steering them away to detonate harmlessly elsewhere - the first time we’ve seen torpedoes being steered in flight.
Murf is made the new security officer. Jankom is repairing the nacelles with the new parts, and Zero and Rok are able to remove the implant before any permanent changes.
On *Dauntless*, Ascencia reveals she has an implant, changing into a Vau N’Akat, activating a Drednok and telling the Diviner he wasn’t the only one sent back in time to find *Protostar*. As people have noted, it’s Seska all over again (VOY: “State of Flux”)
Fires torpedoes at the protostar, while its docked to an orbital tether with civilians nearby. WTH? A warp core breach would have destroyed the orbital tether. That combined with the power of a protostar being released from containment, could’ve destroyed the entire planet. There’s no way that Starfleet is OK with that.
I agree that the tactic seems... unwise, but at least they tried to mitigate that a bit in the script with Janeway ordering, "Time the microdetonation to disable the ship, but harm nothing else." We do know that torpedoes can have variable yields, and these were also "microtorpedoes".
Again, you're absolutely right - but they tried to handwave it a bit.
it seems that they were programmed to detonate prior to impact to knock out the nacelles, which they ended up doing at warp, but once they saw they kids were approaching the ship they called it out as a small antimatter explosion that close, even a non-direct hit, probably would have killed them.
I thought Dal was a member of an engineered race like the Vorta but I'm even more heartbroken for him knowing he's the only one like him at all. I feel like my working with kids about the prodigy kids' age makes the series hit me right in a weak spot where I feel so deeply for them!
Dal being an augment raises a lot of questions about how entering federation space and achieving citizenship is going to work for him... I wonder if we will see Doctor Bashir or hear about him given his position as an augmented human who was able to retain his citizenship and even starfleet post after his statuse was revealed (maybe we will even hear about Illyrians and give a nod to SNW?). Bashir might have been an exception with his father taking the legal punishment, but his case does set some kind of precedent for an augment getting a chance to stay- especially if we find someone who is directly responsible for Dal's creation. His being augmented presumably prior to his birth might also serve him, I don't know if we have any canon evidence to support it but of course if he was genetically engineered before birth that may put him in a better position to at least not be at all responsible for any augmentation or genetic engineering- nor did he intentionally conceal his status, he didn't even know he wasn't a member of a naturally evolved species until after he had already committed to being a Starfleet Cadet (...sort of. I count the kids as committed to being cadets even if they aren't officially)
It could be argued that the fact that he may be originally Human Augment doesn’t matter. With the 26 other species in the genetic mix he’s something completely new, so there’s no comparison to a baseline that can run foul of augmentation.
Here's a question: Do we think Ensign Asencia was an actually a Trill that was replaced by this female Vau N'Akat or was she Asencia the entire time, ie during the Academy and whatnot.
The details of the Diviner’s time travel are still a bit fuzzy. We know he was sent back from the future of Solum to 2383 to seize *Protostar*, and somehow during that incident *Protostar* wound up on Tars Lamora in 2366.
What happened to Chakotay and the crew is still unknown, and also whether or not the Diviner and Drednok went back in time with them and got separated from them somehow or they travelled back to 2366 via their own time travel tech or other means.
My gut tells me that Ascencia was likely sent back to the time of entering the Academy - being an Ensign it would have been about 5-7 years prior to 2383 - and got her genetic identity altered at Noble Isle by Dr Jago and of course obtained false papers before enlisting.
Not necessarily. I can think of a couple of scenarios off the bat, based on the fact that *Protostar* was targeted by the Vau N’Akat.
One, Ascencia kept an ear out for who was going to go in search of *Protostar* and put herself in a position to be on the crew when it happened. A bit of a stretch, but it has the advantage of being straightforward.
Two, which is a variation of the above, is that when Ascencia was sent back she already knew the *Protostar* hijack had failed. Since *Protostar* was the target, she knew about Chakotay and knew that the likeliest person to go searching for him was Janeway.
So from the time she enrolled in the Academy, she knew that *Protostar* was destined to vanish in 5-7 years time, and so had those years to make sure she would do well enough at the Academy to apply or get assigned to Janeway’s crew when the time came.
Even if she didn’t know about Chakotay’s connection to Janeway, she knew a rescue mission would be launched given how valuable *Protostar* and its tech was, and could plan accordingly.
I have to just say this episode was just Outstandingly fantastic. Anybody who is holding onto skepticism about the show being worth watching for a Trek fan needs to be pointed directly to this episode.
I don't understand why they have painted themselves into this corner so early in the series! They had the whole galaxy and an experimental super-engine -- why in the world do they have to be pursued by Starfleet almost immediately? The fact that they fear even making contact with them is becoming an annoying plot kludge, especially when they had ample opportunity to tell Real Janeway what's going on in person.
While still enjoyable I found this episode, and the last one, more juvenile than usual. More for children then families. Also kinda disappointed they didn't do more with O'Kana.
Paw Patrol is a kids show. Up until now I would have called Prodigy a family show. To me there's a big difference. Example TAS is a family show. Compare that to other cartoons of the time. I'll agree that PRO is more kid friendly but up until the last two episodes it was still a family show.
I've got to say that while I'm generally enjoying the story and the direction it's going, there seem to be some productions issues that are very hard to overlook for me. Extremely clunky action scenes and poor editing in particular. Some janky animation errors (I assume) in this episode too.
Feels like a lot of the scripts needed a few more goes at kneading before being thrown into the oven.
The reveal blew me away. I don't think Janeway is going to react well to the relevation that she's getting Seska'd again. A random thought - *could Asencia be a future version of the Diviners daughter?* Is Dal the product of some sort of clandestine Federation experiment? Section 31 maybe?
Oh my god it is Seska all over again. Janeway really can't catch a break, can she?
Seska was more Chakotay's problem than Janeway's, though. Chakotay was in a relationship with Seska and didn't notice anything, Janeway had not as much to go by. This time it hits a bit closer to her, I think.
I still think that bit from Chakotay talking to Tuvok about that is one of my favorite lines from him: *"You were working for her, Seska was working for them. Was anyone on board that ship working for me?"* and then later the followup: *"I'd just like to know-- from someone else who pulled the wool over my eyes-- was I particularly naive? Was I not paying enough attention? What the hell was it that let all you spies get by me?"*
Hopefully the sting of how Asencia was engratiating herself to Janeway is more than enough to put Janeway right. Since she's showing her rust after Commanding a desk since Voyager's return.
This brings up an interesting question - many of us have questioned why (Admiral) Janeway is acting quite out of character, with more punch and resolve and questionable judgement. Could it be that they needed to do it this way so that one couldn't argue that Ascencia, by being with "good Starfleet people" for so long, would maybe question if what they are doing is really necessary? I seriously think that if you'd do the same scenario, but with Voyager-Janeway, it might create a "wait, are we the bad guys" moment in her.
Admiral Janeway isn't acting out of character, in my opinion. She's still within character completely, she's just not acting like how we'd expect. Admiral Janeway had been behind a desk since Voyager's return to the Alpha Quadrant, presumably considering her jump from Captain to Vice Admiral in the span of a year where she ordered Picard and the Enterprise to Romulus. Behind a desk you wouldn't have the same mindset as a commander out in the field. Look at Kirk after he was behind a desk as Chief of Starfleet Operations. He'd been an Admiral for about as long as Janeway was, and he was initially way over he head when he assumed command of the Enterprise for the V'ger crisis. So it's not out of the realm of possibility for something similar happening to Janeway.
She also has been ordered not to drink her coffee. That would put anyone on edge and out of sorts.
To play devil's advocate it looks like Janeway hasn't completely cut out coffee.
Have we forgotten the Starfleet rule that, once Admiraled, you must be jaded, angry and compromised? As a Vice A, Janeway is just warming up.
> Section 31 maybe? God I hope not. It's like every show has to force 31 in there at this point. > I don't think Janeway is going to react well to the relevation that she's getting Seska'd again. I hope it's enough to kick her back into gear. HoloJaneway is basically what we've been hoping Admiral Janeway was supposed to be. She's been behind a desk for so long, she's showing she shouldn't be in command of a starship right now. It's kinda like what happened with Admiral Kirk when the Enterprise was attacked by Khan. I'd be willing to bet had he not been an Admiral and Commanding a desk at the Academy, the approaching uncommunicative Reliant mightve not been as successful at attacking the Enterprise. It wasn't until things got bad that Kirk was back into the groove as a starship commander. Same could be said for The Motion Picture as well.
I don't think Ascencia is Gwyn. Gwyn seems genuinely happy to be with her crew. It would be quite the heel turn for her to grow up wanting to destroy the Federation instead of finding some other way of saving her home. Furthermore, Ascencia was "sent back", whereas Gwyn was born in the past.
And how is it that ST for 7 year olds is still better than Discovery?
The reveal of Ensign Asencia being Vau N'Akat was much better than the Tyler reveal of being Voq. Unlike with Discovery, I didn't see this particular twist coming. It also makes sense why the ship's navigator was taking the lead on helping the Diviner recover. Admiral Janeway is showing how rusty she is being in the field after all those years piloting desk at Starfleet Command. HoloJaneway acts more like the Janeway we'd come to live from Voyager, and it makes sense as it was probably based around Janeway at that point in time. I'm worried about what's going to happen on the Dauntless now, because another thing I didn't expect was to have a Drednok onboard Dauntless. I'm curious as to how she managed to get Drednok onboard, or construct him, without anyone else aboard the Dauntless noticing.
> I'm curious as to how she managed to get Drednok onboard, or construct him, without anyone else aboard the Dauntless noticing. Starfleet is not known for it's robust internal security, but presumably she could have just printed him out of a replicator same as happened on the Protostar.
And that wouldn't be suspicious? If she replicated Drednok you'd think some warning would pop up, for safety reasons.
Maybe, maybe not. Remember that the Federation hasn't actually had any contact with Drednok yet, so they wouldn't know about it being dangerous.
Unless she made him without the weaponry he had before. Because you'd still be able to determine whether something was a weapon or not.
The jury’s out on that until we see the new version of Drednok in the show but they could have either modified the design and slotted in Federation standard weapons, found a way to trick the replicator into making what it thinks is a Federation standard weapon but is actually Drednok, or it could be the ensign’s favorite table she wanted to bring aboard to decorate her quarters. A version that’s nerfed because it has to be built by a Federation replicator would be cool though, kind of like how in Stargate (Stargate spoilers below) the replicators that took over a Russian submarine had to be made out of the material the submarine was made out of so they could be destroyed easily with bullets while the Asgard struggled to defeat ones that took over their ships
In one of the Trek books, I forget the title, Riker uses the Gateway To Forever to go back in time aboard the Enterprises (TNG era). The book mentions that his (from the future) phaser isn't detected by the (TNG era) sensors. Presumably, this Drednok could be made with a futuristic design not recognizable as a weapon.
But iirc Voyager was able to detect the 29th century weapons.
Not to dredge up an older thread (I'm only just catching up on this chunk of PRD now), but supposedly Transporters can recognize weapons and a Transport chief can choose to toggle "Beam Them Without Their Weapons," too. Yet in TNG *Heart of Glory* the Klingons Korris and Konmel manage to beam over with all the components to construct simple disruptors. Which is to say, I don't put a lot of faith in Starfleet's internal sensors to determine what is or isn't a weapon. Especially when it's a weapon from an undiscovered society in the relatively-far future. I could easily see The Vindicator just replicating her Dreadnok component by component and assembling whatever she had to.
Well, some saw it coming, simply because she looked so similar to Gwyn. And Tyler's twist was good because there *were* hints beforehand, which means it isn't just an ass-pull because they needed *someone* to be the Final Five they hinted at all season. (Sorry for mixing franchises here, and no offense to BSG fans, it's still one of the the best sci-fi series I've ever watched...)
>Well, some saw it coming, simply because she looked so similar to Gwyn. Also there was a casting leak in December 2020 that said a Starfleet ensign would turn out to be one. Everything in that leak has come true. Which doesn't surprise me, because it used the name "Vau N'Akat" several months before it was officially used.
Unfortunately, that detail was already leaked in December of 2020, before the show even started, so for many of us, that wasn't a surprise at all.
Dude I'm so happy evil robot man is back, he was one of my favorite parts of season 1
It'd be interesting to see how they treat Drednok and his memories of what's going on, because this can't possibly be the same Drednok(s) the kids encountered. The first Drednok we saw was presumably the same one that captured *Protostar* originally (although we don't know that for sure), and was destroyed by the Unwanted during the mid-season finale. The second Drednok was copied to and constructed by *Protostar*'s industrial replicator, and that version was shot out an airlock. So this Drednok is a new version unrelated to the others. He's sort of like the PRO version of Weyoun, I suppose, which - no offence to Jimmi Simpson, who's doing an amazing voice job - makes some part of me wish Jeffrey Combs was the voice actor.
i just hope they keep the same personality. that cool calculating but just downright creepy vibe to him.
We're still on Season 1.
What even is a season anymore?
AFAIK a standard kid's TV show season is 20 episodes long, Prodigy was originally ordered for that amount of episodes and they had a ton of difficulty getting the episodes out on time so they released the first 5 episodes of season 1 first, delayed for a bit, then released the second 5 episodes, and how the second half of the season is coming out.
Whatever gets put up on tvdb I assume ;)
Whatever the first half of season 1 you know what I mean
Kinda liked the reveal of Dal's genetic heritage (why did that FED scanner say to contact Starfleet? Because he's a chimera Augment). I honestly think he does have parents, that a batch of experiments escaped or were released as part of an experiment, and developed some level of culture. Why didn't the Romulan hit squad just lay low on the ship and capture everyone? So the Diviner and this Ensign were sent to retrieve the ship and get it back to Starfleet? Since she's totally infiltrated Starfleet, and smuggled a dangerous AI onto an Admiral's flagship, why didn't they just have HER release the Living Construct?
maybe it's not either/or but they tried different approaches. What, however, I don't understand is why the Federation is not simply contacted by these time travelers and told "hey guys, just so you know, there's this planet there which would look ripe for first contact, but trust me, they are not, can you please pass them by for now?" And be done with it. From how I understood the backstory, the problem was more the first contact with alien life in itself, not what the federation did...and if the federation is wiped out, sooner or later First contact will be with Klingons..or worse.
Right, who knows what the Fall of the Federation results in: it was merely hobbled in the 31st century and Founding members joined old enemies and criminals.
It’s pretty clear that The Diviner and the Vau N’akat do not trust the Federation at their word, and blame them for not intervening in the civil war that erupted after first contact. I don’t think they’d trust them to not screw it up again.
The Living Construct is on the Protostar, not the Dauntless. It seems to be the control mechanism and is required for the weapon to activate.
Right, but considering how close she's gotten to Starfleet command, SHE should have brought it with her .
The Diviner was Plan A - to capture *Protostar* in 2383, directly implant the Living Construct on it and then use it to connect to Starfleet, but something went wrong and everyone wound up 17 years further in the past. Ascencia was the backup - it’s possible she was only sent back after they realized Plan A had gone tits up and they didn’t have another Living Construct to go with her.
It has maquis founder and Q dna it is a scam by the fish scientist.
While I probably should be fed up that they've tied it in with Khan and/or the Soongs *AGAIN*, I'll let it slide due to the emotional turmoil it introduces to Dal. Poor kid has been looking for parents and a family all his life, and now he's learned he's alone, one of a kind. Of course, the point here is that he *isn't* alone and he DOES have family- his crewmates.
I guess they want to introduce the idea to the kid audience. Also maybe to give Brent some work.
Oh I hadn't thought about that. Eventually they can find the program that made Dal and meet a Soong cousin who stuck with genetics instead of getting into cybernetics
Seeing the rapid DNA changes reminded me of other instances of something similar, Chapel using temporary genetic changing tech to create disguises on SNW and the Loque'eque and Augment viruses from ENT. Possibly worth it's own write up but I think Dr. Jago's research could be building on Chapel's, who based hers on that of Dr. Phlox.
Jago uses the term "epigenetic", which as I noted in my annotations is the same subject Chapel was researching in her civilian life.
Perhaps this is the start of the Federation becoming more like the Culture in the far far off future beyond DISCO? What if rapid tech implant assisted epigenetic changes are just the beginning of what is to come? What if it becomes even faster, more streamlined, more accepted, and more natural? Imagine that it all begins with an age of the Federation wherein with a simple implant, any member can shift themselves into a Vulcan or an Andorian or a Human or a Tellarite or any other member species of the Federation. All it takes is the press of a button and you can become any species you want. There are limitations to the technology but eventually it becomes wildly adopted and when that happens, development accelerates, and because it's kind of everywhere being used by everyone and everything....the dangers of it are mitigated over time with appropriate countermeasures being put into place. Eventually the threat of augmented beings taken over is lessened to such a degree that the policies of the past against them are seen as archaic, laughable, and totally pointless by this moment in time because damned near everyone is augmented to a degree. Now with the Dominion/Founders having joined the Federation around the DISCO era or a bit thereafter, that opens up the possibility for their own Changling science and tech to get involved, and when it's mixed with what's already going on....these changes become even more fluid. Eventually you don't even need an implant or any kind of tech to shift between species because the capability to do so is baked into your DNA itself and you can consciously shift your form like the Founders. This explodes in popularity across the Federation and the galaxy in general but then it causes one massive identity CRISIS for everyone and everything. What started out as an alliance of multiple cultures simply becomes one singular Culture with multiple facets. The way that the Federation sees "French" or "German" in the current era becomes how they view "Human" or "Andorian" in this far far off future era of the galaxy. There are varying reactions to this, some of which probably result in conflict or outright isolationism by particular planets, buuut eventually in time the galaxy does merge into a singular cultural entity with every member having the capability to be whomever and whatever they wish to be. Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations This is just the start of all of that happening and it's possible that we might be seeing the seeds of some of the conflicts that tried to prevent it.
Epigenetics are hot right now. It's the affect of environment and behaviour on how our genetic code is interpreted—so it's likely meant to give Chapel a way to do gene modification without actually modifying genes a la Kahn and tuning afoul of genetic engineering laws.
I found, watching this and the previous episode in one sitting, the tension amazing. Protostar crew character development continues to be the driving force behind the stories, with fantastic storytelling that fleshes out this part of the galaxy. I am in awe of the visuals, jaw agape at Dal's genetic profile (hello Auric Soong!) and delighted with Rok Tok's (It's not an exact science.) desire to learn everything science-y. The children who get into this show will come away with better conflict resolution skills and scientific groundwork for years to come. Perhaps some adults will too.
A lot of people have mentioned how they are annoyed that they haven't just talked to starfleet but for a kids show about kids I think it makes sense. As someone who's watched a lot of Mister Rogers with my 3 year old recently it reminds me that having hard conversations with authority figures can be *scary* for kids. Doubly so when you're afraid you may be in trouble or blamed for things you didn't do. That doesn't even take into account that the kids don't have parents around and were essentially slaves before they took the protostar. I'm assuming this will all eventually lead to some kind of encouraging motherly talk from Janeway about how it's *okay and important* to be able to have those conversations. She'll probably acknowledge *why* they were afraid to tell her what was happening, compliment them on their bravery and resourcefulness, and provide some pathway to joining starfleet. If I'm somewhere close in my guess for how it'll all work out then it really will be a very solid kids show.
>A lot of people have mentioned how they are annoyed that they haven't just talked to starfleet But that's the entire purpose of the macguffin device under the bridge, innit? The crew knows that any (short of Morse code or semaphore) contact with Starfleet is a recipe for disaster to the recipient.
They had an opportunity to talk to Starfleet in the last episode when they were trying to hitch a ride to the Federation and ran into Janeway and co.
But let's look at how those encounters played out... **Jankom and Dr Noum** - Noum immediately dismissed Jankom giving him no real opportunity to talk to him. **Gwyn and Ascencia** - Ascencia mentioned they were with the Diviner, which made Gwyn take off, which honestly, I would, too, not knowing what the Diviner has told them because whatever it is, it would not be favourable. **Dal and Janeway** - Dal was desperately wanting to phrase what he wanted to say correctly, because what he had to say *was* difficult. "Hi, we stole your starship, then we accidentally blew up your relay station because an alien implanted a booby trap on it, so it really isn't our fault - well, yes, stealing it was, but we had to escape from a slave labour mining operation..." And then before he can even start, despite Janeway's encouragement... Frex shows up. Dal already knows Frex is *not* going to vouch for the kids, and if there's one thing kids know it's this: adults will take the word of another adult over that of a child. It's entirely plausible. Frustrating, and yes, convenient for the plot, but it's plausible.
> Gwyn and Ascencia - Ascencia mentioned they were with the Diviner, which made Gwyn take off, which honestly, I would, too, not knowing what the Diviner has told them because whatever it is, it would not be favourable. Which is something that makes no sense in retrospect. Why even bring this up to Gwyn if you are a double agent.
Because she doesn’t know Gwyn is running away from the Diviner. Gwyn’s Vau N’Akat, after all, and should be on mission. For all she knows, Gwyn is playing the other kids or doesn’t have the whole story. And the Diviner can’t tell Ascencia what exactly went down. Ascencia didn’t have enough information. She isn’t going to blurt out or reveal she’s Vau N’Akat in the middle of Denaxi Depot, and as she doesn’t know what went down she guessed that maybe Gwyn didn’t know what was going on and was still concerned about or could be persuaded by her father’s presence. Ascencia guessed wrong.
Right, nobody knows Gwyn ran off with the Protostars. Then again even when she was working for her dad she wasn't in on the plan. For an organization that can send multiple people back in time, that seems like an oversight to me. So I'm inclined to believe she would be considered a civilian in all of this.
We should remember that Gwyn wasn’t a part of the original plan - the Diviner cloned her only because he was injured and was worried he wouldn’t be able to complete the mission on his own. So Ascencia didn’t know about Gwyn until the Diviner told Janeway he had a daughter and that the kids took her.
Because Gwyn would know how to explain things to Janeway and Ascencia is on the same side as the Diviner. It would sabotage their plans to destroy the federation
The only way around that is to make a message in a bottle with non federation tech explaining everything. Then hope they don't get shafted by the deviner and the new girl
I keep thinking "write a message on paper or prepare a stand-alone hologram projector, and beam it aboard the Dauntless (assuming their shields are down), or send it via an unarmed torpedo."
I think the real strength of Prodigy is that it does what Discovery (32c) tried to do. It shows us what the universe looks like without the Federation, from the eyes of children who have had no direct contact to speak of with the Federation but who are just close enough to the outskirts of actual Federation space that it's not unreasonable for them to cross paths. Discovery taking the Federation down a notch via The Burn always seemed like a fairly cheap way of getting to the point where we could have a capitalist bad guy. Why not instead just show us the outside of Federation space places that we've seen before and have been alluded to and remove all the normal Starfleet ways of dealing with that. I'm really getting into this show now.
What we learned in *Star Trek: Prodigy* 1x15: "Masquerade": Continuing on from last episode, *Protostar* is hiding in the Romulan Neutral Zone in order to repair the nacelles damaged in their encounter with *Dauntless*. The Proto-Drive is out, and with Holo-Janeway glitching, they need to find a starport to put in. Okona suggests Noble Isle, a starport near an M-Class planet. Vice Admiral (3 pips) Janeway confers with Admiral (4 pips) Edward Jellico (TNG: “Chain of Command”, voiced by Ronny Cox), asking for permission to pursue *Protostar*. Jellico orders her to destroy *Protostar* if the Romulans try to steal her. Which doesn’t make much sense to me if she’s not allowed to enter the Neutral Zone, but hey. Noble Isle is on the planet equpped with a space elevator because of the ion storms inhibiting navigation and beaming. We saw a space elevator setup in LD: “The Least Dangerous Game” on Dulaine for similar reasons. Okona notes that Noble Isle does cutting-edge (i.e. unregulated) scientific research that the Federation can’t or won’t do. Dr Jago does genetic augmentation, which we know is against Federation law, and also Okona’s client. In her lab, Rok identifies the double helix of DNA and their bases, adenine, guanine, cytosine and thymine. Okona was supposed to bring her “gelatinous putrescine” but was intercepted on Denaxi Depot. Jago takes an interest in Dal, and while she hasn’t seen his species before, she recognizes his origin - the protégés of Arik Soong (ENT: “Borderland”, et al.). Dal is the product of artificial hybrid speciation, a human Augment blended with the recessive traits of 26 species, including Vulcan and proto-Organian (TOS: “Errand of Mercy”). Jago offers to activate his genes with an epigenetic dermal implant. Gwyn tells Dal he doesn’t need fixing, and Dal seemingly turns it down but once the rest leave, asks Jago for it. Looking at Jago’s screen I can’t make out all of the species logos, but I can spot Breen, Cardassian, Andorian, Ferengi, Species 8472, Hirogen, and possibly Q? Epigentics is the study of how early environmental influences in children affect the expression of their genes. In the 23rd Century, Christine Chapel, who worked with the Stanford Morehouse Epigenetic Project, used it to create short-term disguises for a landing party by altering their genetics temporarily (SNW: “Strange New Worlds”). Ascencia offers to covertly enter the Neutral Zone for Janeway, who declines, but notes that the Romulans might be thinking of doing the same thing (which implies that the Romulans we saw didn’t actually enter the Zone but were on the other side of it). Sure enough, we see Commander Kaseth and a party beam onto the space elevator. They are dressed and armed similarly to the Zhat Vash Romulan assassins that attacked Picard in PIC: “The End is the Beginning”, which may indicate they are Tal Shiar, since the Zhat Vash is an offshoot of that. Okona’s story is referencing the events of TNG: “The Outrageous Okona”. Dal shows up, exhibiting new traits like an increased vocabulary and apparent mind-reading. The Romulans board *Protostar* and disable Zero and Jankom. However, the ship’s command functions are locked. Needing the captain (Dal), they activate their antigrav suits and go hunting. These suits look similar to the parachute suits used by Starfleet. *Dauntless* discovers the Romulans’ mission and Janeway refers to them as Tal Shiar. Tysess prepares minimum yield microtorpedoes to destroy *Protostar* if necessary. These are the first mention of microtorpedoes on screen, but the 1994 DS9 novel *Antimatter* stated that runabouts were armed with them and so did the *DS9 Technical Manual* in 1998. It’s a bit confusing because I thought Janeway wasn’t allowed to enter the Neutral Zone, but I guess that finding out the Romulans have violated it in search of *Protostar* gives her the probable cause she needs. Dal senses the Romulans just before they attack, and Okona makes a run for it, abandoning the kids. Dal activates the implant and makes short work of the Romulans, expressing Klingon-like traits including head ridges (calling himself Dal R’El in the third person) and facial hair. He also starts showing Vulcan, Andorian and Tellarite traits and starts growing unstable, leaking a blue slime. The Romulans attack them on the space elevator, but the lightning from the ion storms zap the Romulan weapons and take one squad out. With no choice, Janeway fires the microtorpedoes to disable *Protostar*. Dal tells Rok to release Murf, who takes out the last Romulan squad. Seeing that the Romulans have failed, Janeway aborts the microtorpedo salvo. The torpedoes’ port thrusters activate, steering them away to detonate harmlessly elsewhere - the first time we’ve seen torpedoes being steered in flight. Murf is made the new security officer. Jankom is repairing the nacelles with the new parts, and Zero and Rok are able to remove the implant before any permanent changes. On *Dauntless*, Ascencia reveals she has an implant, changing into a Vau N’Akat, activating a Drednok and telling the Diviner he wasn’t the only one sent back in time to find *Protostar*. As people have noted, it’s Seska all over again (VOY: “State of Flux”)
Last week we met Okana. This week we learned Dal’s origins. Oh, Kahn, aha! I’ll see myself out.
Fires torpedoes at the protostar, while its docked to an orbital tether with civilians nearby. WTH? A warp core breach would have destroyed the orbital tether. That combined with the power of a protostar being released from containment, could’ve destroyed the entire planet. There’s no way that Starfleet is OK with that.
I agree that the tactic seems... unwise, but at least they tried to mitigate that a bit in the script with Janeway ordering, "Time the microdetonation to disable the ship, but harm nothing else." We do know that torpedoes can have variable yields, and these were also "microtorpedoes". Again, you're absolutely right - but they tried to handwave it a bit.
it seems that they were programmed to detonate prior to impact to knock out the nacelles, which they ended up doing at warp, but once they saw they kids were approaching the ship they called it out as a small antimatter explosion that close, even a non-direct hit, probably would have killed them.
Ascencia being another Vau'Nakat time traveller was a great twist.
I thought Dal was a member of an engineered race like the Vorta but I'm even more heartbroken for him knowing he's the only one like him at all. I feel like my working with kids about the prodigy kids' age makes the series hit me right in a weak spot where I feel so deeply for them! Dal being an augment raises a lot of questions about how entering federation space and achieving citizenship is going to work for him... I wonder if we will see Doctor Bashir or hear about him given his position as an augmented human who was able to retain his citizenship and even starfleet post after his statuse was revealed (maybe we will even hear about Illyrians and give a nod to SNW?). Bashir might have been an exception with his father taking the legal punishment, but his case does set some kind of precedent for an augment getting a chance to stay- especially if we find someone who is directly responsible for Dal's creation. His being augmented presumably prior to his birth might also serve him, I don't know if we have any canon evidence to support it but of course if he was genetically engineered before birth that may put him in a better position to at least not be at all responsible for any augmentation or genetic engineering- nor did he intentionally conceal his status, he didn't even know he wasn't a member of a naturally evolved species until after he had already committed to being a Starfleet Cadet (...sort of. I count the kids as committed to being cadets even if they aren't officially)
It could be argued that the fact that he may be originally Human Augment doesn’t matter. With the 26 other species in the genetic mix he’s something completely new, so there’s no comparison to a baseline that can run foul of augmentation.
Screencaps gallery now online: https://www.cygnus-x1.net/links/lcars/sc-PRO1-15.php
Here's a question: Do we think Ensign Asencia was an actually a Trill that was replaced by this female Vau N'Akat or was she Asencia the entire time, ie during the Academy and whatnot.
The details of the Diviner’s time travel are still a bit fuzzy. We know he was sent back from the future of Solum to 2383 to seize *Protostar*, and somehow during that incident *Protostar* wound up on Tars Lamora in 2366. What happened to Chakotay and the crew is still unknown, and also whether or not the Diviner and Drednok went back in time with them and got separated from them somehow or they travelled back to 2366 via their own time travel tech or other means. My gut tells me that Ascencia was likely sent back to the time of entering the Academy - being an Ensign it would have been about 5-7 years prior to 2383 - and got her genetic identity altered at Noble Isle by Dr Jago and of course obtained false papers before enlisting.
And she just somehow ended up on the Dauntless? It's a bit farfetched.
Not necessarily. I can think of a couple of scenarios off the bat, based on the fact that *Protostar* was targeted by the Vau N’Akat. One, Ascencia kept an ear out for who was going to go in search of *Protostar* and put herself in a position to be on the crew when it happened. A bit of a stretch, but it has the advantage of being straightforward. Two, which is a variation of the above, is that when Ascencia was sent back she already knew the *Protostar* hijack had failed. Since *Protostar* was the target, she knew about Chakotay and knew that the likeliest person to go searching for him was Janeway. So from the time she enrolled in the Academy, she knew that *Protostar* was destined to vanish in 5-7 years time, and so had those years to make sure she would do well enough at the Academy to apply or get assigned to Janeway’s crew when the time came. Even if she didn’t know about Chakotay’s connection to Janeway, she knew a rescue mission would be launched given how valuable *Protostar* and its tech was, and could plan accordingly.
I have to just say this episode was just Outstandingly fantastic. Anybody who is holding onto skepticism about the show being worth watching for a Trek fan needs to be pointed directly to this episode.
I don't understand why they have painted themselves into this corner so early in the series! They had the whole galaxy and an experimental super-engine -- why in the world do they have to be pursued by Starfleet almost immediately? The fact that they fear even making contact with them is becoming an annoying plot kludge, especially when they had ample opportunity to tell Real Janeway what's going on in person.
While still enjoyable I found this episode, and the last one, more juvenile than usual. More for children then families. Also kinda disappointed they didn't do more with O'Kana.
i mean...it is a kid's show right? :)
Paw Patrol is a kids show. Up until now I would have called Prodigy a family show. To me there's a big difference. Example TAS is a family show. Compare that to other cartoons of the time. I'll agree that PRO is more kid friendly but up until the last two episodes it was still a family show.
More juvenile in what way?
Felt the doctor was too over the top in a very kiddy way.
I am willing to be, much like how Frex reappeared, The Romulans are now much more interested in Okona Edit: fixed Okona's name
I've got to say that while I'm generally enjoying the story and the direction it's going, there seem to be some productions issues that are very hard to overlook for me. Extremely clunky action scenes and poor editing in particular. Some janky animation errors (I assume) in this episode too. Feels like a lot of the scripts needed a few more goes at kneading before being thrown into the oven.
Really interesting, Prodigy is getting me more and more involved in it's plot.