by Nick Ferro, Contributing Writer
Growing up in the early ‘90s, there was never a shortage of entertaining kid’s shows to watch. However, there was one franchise that didn’t focus on kids that I happened to love, even though it didn’t cater to my demographic. I happened to be the right age to grow with Star Trek as it hit its peak in the mid-’90s. Although I’m learning now, thanks to social media, that I wasn’t alone in being a kid who liked watching Star Trek, I was still something of an oddity. Star Trek the Next Generation (TNG) was one of my dad’s favorite shows to watch. We had VHS tapes with recorded episodes, and because there weren’t a million TV options back then, I would watch with him because something was better than nothing, at first. The show did try to have episodes and elements that you could enjoy as a kid, from the character of Wesley Crusher to several cheesy episodes that featured kids. Episodes I enjoyed were “Rascals,” “The Game,”or the “trilogy” of episodes featuring young kids (all with slicked back hair) and a main cast member to idolize. As a kid, TNG’s strength was its characters and its mystery episodes; I really grew to love them because they were unique, and the characters always worked together to solve these mysteries. When Deep Space 9 (DS9) came along, Star Trek attempted to be edgier, and since I was still only a pre-teen it didn’t appeal to me, so I lost interest outside of TNG reruns and the movies. It wasn’t until after college that I rediscovered the other Trek shows I had never bothered with, like the remainder of DS9, Voyager, and Enterprise. But I am in a unique position now with three small kids where I want them to like Star Trek too. But with so many TV options, it is difficult to convince them to watch with me. The obstacle of unlimited streaming choices, combined with the new series being aimed exclusively at adults with the increased sex, violence, and language, and the old Trek series being dated from a technical aspect, my kids just didn’t want to give it a try. That is until I showed them the first episode of Nickelodeon’s Star Trek Prodigy, Star Trek’s first show aimed specifically at kids.
Prodigy is a new animated show consisting of 10 30-minute episodes in its first season. It has the task of doing double duty as a show the kids can watch, while also being entertaining for their Trek-loving parents. If you have been looking for a good entry point for your kids to get into Star Trek, this is the show for you. Prodigy is a story of five “kid/teenagers” who are wrongfully imprisoned as worker/slaves on a mining planet, and discover a star ship. When the main character Dal (voiced by Brett Gray) and his mining partner Rok-Tahk (Rylee Alazraqui) discover this ship, they see it as their ticket out of the prison. They enlist the help of an engineer named Jankom Pog (Jason Mantzoukas) and an energy being called Zero (Angus Imrie) to get the ship repaired. The warden of this prison, the Diviner, voiced by the incomparable John Noble, along with his henchman assassin droid Drednok (Jimmi Simpson) and his daughter Gwyn (Ella Purnell, who had quite the year in 2021 between this, Netflix’s Arcane and Showtime’s Yellowjackets) set out to stop the escapees and capture the ship. They are unsuccessful in stopping the escape, but Gwyn manages to get onboard the ship in hopes of bringing it back to her father. This is where their adventure across the galaxy begins. But before they can truly get underway, we are introduced to the crew’s new advisor: a holographic training instructor modeled after Admiral Kathryn Janeway, with the role reprised by Kate Mulgrew. She informs the new crew that the ship they are on is called the USS Protostar and she will be their guide as they train as cadets for Starfleet. The season progresses as most shows do in their first season. The characters must learn to work together while avoiding capture, and eventually have a confrontation with the Diviner.
Prodigy has a good cast of characters both new and recognizable to Trek fans. Dal is our lead who takes on the mantle as captain of the Protostar. He is an alien of unknown origin who follows the trope of the loner who doesn’t know where he came from. The show spends the most time with him, as he has a lot to learn, not only about being a part of a team, but also leading one. Our second officer role is filled by the Diviner’s daughter Gwyn, who is of a species known as the Vau N’Akat, another new alien race for Star Trek, who we learn more about as the season progresses. She is shown early on to be kind, but stern, but also confused by her father’s evil machinations, which cause her to eventually join the crew as a full member.
Fans of the original series and Star Trek Enterprise will recognize Jankom Pog’s species as Tellerites, which have been a staple of Star Trek from the beginning, as well as a founding member of the Federation. Jankom plays the contrarian to the crew, but his main function is comic relief for the kids. Zero is a Medusan, which is essentially a non-corporeal ball of gas that communicates telepathically. This alien was also featured in an original series episode. Zero is the voice of reason and is the “Data” stand-in as the character who is incredibly smart, but also doesn’t quite understand what it means to be human. The last member of the crew is the Brikar, Rok-Tahk, who is also the youngest member. This is the first on-screen appearance of a Brikar, as they were only mentioned in a Star Trek book from 1998. Rok is very naïve, but also has a huge heart and is in fact the heart of the crew. She brings the team together through her friendship and their need to take care of her. This diverse crew shows that the writers really wanted to tackle a show filled with old and new in order to play with the ever-expanding universe that Star Trek has built over the last 50 years. Finally, the last main character of the crew is Murf (Dee Bradley Baker), who is, as the creators described, a sentient Silly Putty-like slug that is essentially their dog.
What I particularly enjoyed about Prodigy might also be a turn off to some, especially those Trek fans who are not watching it with their kids. The show takes a lot of Star Trek lore and canon and introduces them to what it assumes is a new and younger audience. There is an episode dedicated to the famous Kobayashi Maru test, first introduced in the 1982 film The Wrath of Kahn. This episode in particular was interesting, as it used old archival remixed recordings of Nichelle Nichols, Leonard Nimoy, James Doohan, and Rene Auberjonois as they “reprised” their characters to assist Dal in his holodeck simulation of the test. The episode does a great job of showing the test and explaining its purpose in a way that a younger or unfamiliar audience can understand. When I asked my nine-year-old daughter to explain to me the test she pretty much nailed the explanation, with only the more adult concepts of the test’s purpose going over her head. But as a longtime Star Trek fan, I can understand if an episode like this could seem reductive of the subject or seem like a misuse of fan service. I personally feel like they walked the tightrope quite well, only occasionally stumbling; but for the most part the show wasn’t too reliant on fan service.
If I had to single out one negative, it was the juvenile humor which, in a show like this, is inevitable as that’s what sells with the kids. I know my kids enjoyed it. I really liked how show wasn’t afraid to get deep or technical. In one episode they are faced with a problem where the warp core is about to explode and time fractures into six parts. Holo-Janeway is bounced to each time fracture where she encounters a different member of the crew who either has a lot of time or very little time to conduct the necessary repairs. It’s a very “Star Trek-y” problem that I really loved, but it also has an element in the show that to an adult would seem tragic. Rok Tahk is stuck in the fracture where time moves the slowest, and it is implied that she ends up being stuck there for possibly years. I felt that this was an incredibly depressing and difficult concept for a kids show to tackle. However, it handles it rather well, as when I asked my daughter about the episode, she both felt sad for Rok because she was alone, but implied that she saw Rok as inspirational based on how she reacted to the situation. Rok goes through the typical stages that a person in isolation might experience. She goes to bed every night crying or pretending her friends are there, but eventually picks herself up and decides to teach herself how to be self-sufficient. She ends up saving the day, and in only one episode goes from being a helpless character in constant need of protection to a functioning member of the crew with something to offer other than a charming personality.
In my Lower Decks review, I said that most Star Trek shows struggle to find their footing in their first couple seasons, and once again I have been provided with an example of the exception rather than the rule. I think Prodigy succeeds in its first season much better than other shows in the franchise, and I am glad to see that they have put a lot of thought and care into its presentation. I asked my kids if after watching Prodigy they would be interested in watching Voyager to see the real Janeway or TNG to watch what their mom and I grew up with? They said, “no.” So, I suppose it wasn’t completely successful, but when I asked them if they were excited to see season two of Prodigy, their excitement was palpable. Star Trek has definitely made themselves a new generation of fans in my house at least, and if they keep this up, I personally will be happy to join my kids each week to see the continuing adventures of the USS Protostar.
Grade: A-
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