Josh Reviews Star Trek Prodigy: Season Two

The second season of the animated Star Trek: Prodigy came out last summer, but I never got around to posting a review.  That does not reflect on the quality of the show, because I actually liked this second season a lot!

I was dubious of Prodigy when it launched.  An animated Star Trek kids show on Nickelodeon did not seem like something that would interest me, or a good direction for the franchise would be taking.  But I gave it a try, and I was surprised by how much I enjoyed the first season.  Yes, it was aimed for kids, but it was made with enough quality that it was for sure interesting for adults as well.  I respected the makers of this show for creating a show designed to help new kids fall in love with Star Trek, and I was very impressed by how powerfully the show embraced Star Trek’s long history and continuity.  Readers of this site know that one of my main complaints with most modern Star Trek is that the people making it seem at best ignorant and at worst dismissive of Star Trek’s continuity.  But the makers of Prodigy displayed a deep love for and knowledge of Star Trek, and I found that very endearing.

So I was concerned when Paramount+ made the confounding decision to drop the show when season two was mid-production, and I was relieved when Netflix stepped in to rescue it.  (Sadly, while Netflix supported the completion and release of season two, it doesn’t look like they are willing to allow the series to continue with a third season.  That’s a shame!)

The second season picks up from the end of season one, with the kids having been accepted into Starfleet Academy.  Of course, they quickly set off on a new adventure, a complicated time-travel story that picks up on the story threads from season one about Gwynn’s homeworld.  I’m not sure I followed all the twists and turns of this season’s lengthy and complicated time-travel story, but it felt like all the pieces fit together well enough.  I could maybe have done with a little less complication, but I respect the ambition of this season-spanning storyline.

The show occasionally bugged me — as modern Trek often does — by trying to be too “of the moment”.  A character says the phrase “timey wimey stuff” early in the season, which made me absolutely livid.  I don’t want Star Trek characters quoting or referencing other sci-fi shows!!!  Star Trek should be leading the way with ambitious original storytelling.  Let other shows reference and emulate Star Trek!!!  Not the other way around.  That “timey wimey” line (which is a Doctor Who reference) embodies everything wrong with modern Star Trek under Alex Kurtzman.

I was bummed that Wesley Crusher was left out of the TNG reunion in Picard season three, so I was delighted that — to my surprise and pleasure — he had such a major role here in Prodigy season two!  I loved hearing Wil Wheaton reprise this role, and I loved seeing Wesley as a powerful Traveler (something set up at the end of TNG but never really canonically revisited until one scene at the end of Picard season two).  I was, of course, thrilled that the animated design of this Traveller Wesley included him still wearing a goofy sweater (like he often wore in the early seasons of TNG).

There was a lot of Voyager love in the first season of Prodigy.  I never much cared for Voyager (for a long time I thought it was the weakest Star Trek show — then came the drek of modern Star Trek, and suddenly Voyager started to look like Shakespeare).  But I loved how Prodigy embraced Star Trek continuity, and it was fun to see them exploring what happened to the Voyager characters after the end of that show.  (I like seeing modern Star Trek move forward, as opposed to making prequel after prequel with Discovery, Strange New Worlds, etc).  They really doubled down on that here in season two, as in addition to Janeway’s continuing to be a major character on the show, we also got to see a lot of Chakotay and the Doctor (with Robert Beltran and Robert Picardo reprising their roles), and also the U.S.S. Voyager-A!  That was all fun!

My only disappointment was that, once it was clear that Chakotay would be a major character this season (and not just a cameo), I’d hoped this show would finally give fans some resolution to the Janeway-Chaktoay relationship.  I felt that relationship was handled poorly on Voyager (one of my many complaints about that show); it was teased a lot, but the writers never had the guts to explore it.  I was excited at the idea we might finally get some forward momentum here… but nope.  We still just got a lot of soulful longing between the Chakotay and Janeway, but no actual romantic relationship.  Chakotay was stranded alone for years and he’s still not able to actually say what he feels?  That felt lame to me.

I loved that the show found ways to work in lots of fun Trek references.  I was thrilled to seeing Jellico (with Ronnie Cox reprising his character from TNG’s excellent “Chain of Command” two-parter) again, still a jerk as always!  (The modern Trek novels also used Jellico in this role, and I enjoyed it there too.). I liked seeing Nova Squadron (from TNG’s “The First Duty).  I liked visiting the Mirror Universe.

The show’s voice cast is excellent.  I particularly enjoy Ella Purnell (Fallout) as Gwyn and Jason Mantzoukas (Brooklyn Nine-Nine, The Good Place) as Jankom Pog.  I also love hearing Daveed Diggs (Hamilton) as the Andorian officer Tysess.

I liked this season’s introduction of the Loom.  They were cool looking villains, (albeit a hair too reminiscent of the squids from The Matrix), with scary powers to erase people from time.  (My complaint is that their powers were only strong until the plot demanded that our heroes somehow survive.  Time and again the show allowed the main characters to somehow escape the Loom creatures, when really they shouldn’t have been able to.)

Speaking of villains, I like that Prodigy has worked hard to give us a number of great villains (something modern Trek has often struggled with).  Ascenscia (voiced by The Good Place’s Jameela Jamil!!) is a fun evil tyrant for our heroes to have to defeat.  I like that, in classic “make friends from our enemies” Star Trek fashion, the season one big bad (the Diviner, Gwyn’s father) is now an ally in season two!  That was great.

I enjoyed this season’s exploration of Zero, a non-corporeal Medusan (an alien race introduced way back in the TOS episode “Is There in Truth No Beauty?”), who this season got a body and was able to experience physical sensations for the first time.  That was a great storyline.  (I loved that episode eight was called “Is There in Beauty No Truth?”, a playful twist on the title of that Original Series episode that introduced the Medusans.  This show’s attention to Trek continuity makes me very happy!!)

I liked the introduction of the Vulcan cadet Ma’jel.  She was a strong addition to the show’s ensemble.  It’s funny that both Lower Decks and Prodigy wound up ending a smart, capable Vulcan young woman to their core crew, to great success both times!  (And I liked her name; a sweet homage to Majel Barrett.)  Michaela Dietz does strong work as the voice of Ma’jel.

I loved the final moments of the season, which caught the Prodigy storyline up with Picard season one and the synth attack.  I like that the show does what it can to show some Starfleet characters still holding onto their ideals (as opposed to the universe that Picard showed us in which Starfleet apparently sank into fearfulness and xenophobia).  That made me happy, as a way to begin an attempt of retroactively correcting the storytelling mistakes of Picard season one.  (That being said, the idea of giving the most advanced starship in Starfleet to a crew of cadets is insane.  DS9′s “The Valiant” showed us the dangers of this!!)  But the show’s heart was in the right place.  I’d have loved a third season of Prodigy set in the Picard timeline, showing us these characters working to keep Starfleet’s hopeful idealism alive in a darkening galaxy.  That would have been cool.  I’m bummed that it’s not to be.

Also, I like that it’s Gwyn, not Dal, who gets to be Captain in the end.  Gwyn is clearly the most qualified.  I liked that this season kept her front and center (even while she was periodically in jeopardy because of the timeline changes that threatened her existence, Marty McFly style).  Dal has usually been the “captain” because he’s the lead of this show; I love that in the end the show acknowledged that, while Dal has good qualities, he’s in no way ready to actually be a captain.

I’m pleasantly surprised that Prodigy turned out to be a top-notch Star Trek show!  While I choose to ignore most modern Star Trek and consider it all non-canonical (except Lower Decks and Picard season three), Prodigy has earned it’s place as a Star Trek show of quality.  I wish there were more episodes coming.  But I’m grateful for these two seasons; 40 episodes is nothing to scoff at in today’s television landscape.  I look forward to watching this again from the beginning someday.