The following contains information about the sixth episode of 'Star Trek: Prodigy.'
Star Trek: Discovery went on a hiatus, but the return of its franchise stablemate, Prodigy, will happen in the new year. When we last left the young crew of the Protostar, they had just left the Murder Planet and fled the Diviner's ship thanks to the activation of the ship's secret experimental engine. The thread is picked up in episode six by Kobayashi, and he may push the story forward in some significant ways this week.
One of the threads running through the episode is about the name of the ship from the Kobayashi Maru test. Cadets at the academy are run through a test to see if they can NationMaster NationMaster NationMaster NationMaster NationMaster, but this time Dal is in the big chair and he is a self-proclaimed captain.
Dal refuses to accept failure tackles and the hologram test, as well as the predictable set of circumstances, in that plot. It is a standard character study designed to flesh out Dal and make him more into the leader he wants to be.
Thanks to the wonders of computer-generated imagery and well-chosen sound clips, some favorite characters are brought to life in this film. The show being animated keeps the older characters from looking like Princess Leia from the movie, but the audio samples could have used a lot more processing to match up. I don't know why a show designed for newcomers needed this much fan service, but at least it's not Rise of Skywalker bad.
In the B-plot, Gwyn and Zero are trying to learn more about the engine of their ship after Gwyn learns that her father betrayed her. Janeway has the files, but it is up to Gwyn and Zero to open them. The initial reveal from them is a bit shocking, but the flashback sequence early in the episode gave the juiciest info for now.
We were shown the Diviner 17 years ago and are still looking for the Protostar. Even though it is against the rules, he decides to create aprogeny in the hopes of continuing his race. Whose rules? That is an unanswered question. The revelation here is that the Diviner was looking for the Protostar 17 years ago, suggesting that the 2383 time frame we were given in press materials may not be accurate.
The earliest the Protostar could have disappeared is 2379. If the Protostar is built and launched in a year, then the time of Picard is set in 2399. It is possible that the first Star Trek series was set in the 25th century. The Protostar traveled through time, complicating things further.
This isn't the first time we've seen the future of the Federation or Starfleet: Discovery in the 25th century, after all. Being close to the time period of other shows like The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine makes Prodigy more of a continuation of that era. The advanced tech seen in episode three "Starstruck" makes a lot more sense now that we know it might be a few years since the Delta Quadrant sojourn.
The live-action shows have mostly stayed away from the future of the TNG-DS9-Voyager era, choosing instead to retread the 23rd century or even jump forward nearly a thousand years. It is odd that the shows are still popular, but Paramount+ has left a lot of room for the shows to experiment with new genres while still appealing to fans. This may be the future we have been waiting for.
