As I said, Prodigy felt like it got off to a slow start. I first caught some episodes on a flight back from Europe (it must have been 2022 but I can't remember exactly), and I was immediately struck by the thought that it was clearly aping some of the Star Wars animated shows that have been floating around in recent years - most notably Rebels, which also features a motley crew of young adventurers from different walks of life.
The problem is that beginnings are also tough to write well: for example, you have to show that Dal is impulsive and a bit mouthy, so the writers do it in ways that feel very standard for a kids' show. Those first two or three episodes I watched on the plane were okay, but not necessarily enough for me to put it on my "to-watch" list immediately when I got home. And of course, in the interim, Paramount cancelled it and Netflix picked it up, as well as ordering a second season.
It does pick up notably in the first season, as the characters get to be more nuanced and the writers develop the relationships between specific characters. The fact that each season (so far) is 20 episodes means that the writers have the room to do this, while also balancing the needs of each season's overarching narrative. This is one of the things I like about the show, and something it does better than Discovery.
It also helps that, in contrast to other Trek shows, there isn't specifically one star of Prodigy. That's perhaps more common in YA TV, where you can rotate more among the members of an ensemble cast, but it also works here because you get episodes focused on individual characters and each one gets to do something to advance the plot or save the day. And again, the fact that they can form relationships among one another, rather than just radiating out from the captain, gives you more reasons to care about the characters.
Another writing aspect that I enjoy about the show is that it's explicitly more of a follow-on to Voyager. It starts in the Delta Quadrant, and a holographic version of Kathryn Janeway, voiced by Kate Mulgrew, is a key cast member from the start. As the series goes on, we meet the real Janeway, as well as the Doctor and Chakotay, both voiced by the original actors from the show. There isn't much Voyager business in the first season, and they get out of the Delta Quadrant fairly quickly, but oddly, it's nice to see some recognition for the older show.
Sure, it's my least favorite of the 80s-90s Trek shows (I have to rewatch Enterprise to confirm their relative merits against each other), in part because it's a lot more conservative and safe than Deep Space 9, not to mention less exciting overall than The Next Generation. But now that I'm coming to the end of my first ever watch-through of Voyager, I've spent a lot of time with the characters, so it's nice to see them pick up again where they left off in 2001. Lower Decks had some references to Voyager, which were nice to see as well, as did Picard, but overall, Prodigy feels much more like a sequel to Voyager. And funnily enough, by presenting itself as that sequel, it makes the older show feel more important too.
Given that Prodigy is computer animated, it's worth talking about how well that aspect is done. Overall, I don't have too many complaints - the main cast look really nice and are animated well, in contrast to some other kids' shows I've seen here and there that look like someone created them on their laptop. The worst offender that I've seen is the Star Wars: Clone Wars movie, which looked like garbage, so I'm happy to report that Prodigy is (not to damn it with faint praise) much better than that.
That said, I think the main cast looks so good because they aren't standard humans. Janeway, whether hologram or real, looks okay, but Chakotay and the Doctor seem a little stiffer. Oddly, the one who seems to suffer worst from the uncanny valley effect is Wesley Crusher, played once again by Wil Wheaton. It may be that his character is the most frenetic of the standard humans, or maybe they just weren't able to get the facial hair right, but his design is a little off-putting. The performance is fine overall, so I don't blame Wheaton - it's just that animating humans remains a tough proposition.
With regard to the overall plot, I like how it goes from the crew trying to get to the Federation in the first season, but learning on the way that they carried a weapon that threatened to destroy Starfleet, to the search for Chakotay and a bunch of timey-wimey shenanigans in the second season. That allows us to recast the bad guy from Season 1, the Diviner as played by John Noble, into an ally in Season 2, as his younger version helps the crew. It's also in keeping with the Trek ethos of smart people pulling together to solve big problems.
Summing up, Prodigy is a fun show that more than earns its place in the Trek pantheon. It's just separate enough that someone could watch it without needing to know too much about what happened in Voyager or other shows, but has enough references to those shows (especially all the Picard shout-outs in the last episode) to keep fans happy. And I do think it's a good show for kids to dip their toe into the Trek universe, with concepts like IDIC (infinite diversity in infinite combinations) baked into the very fabric of the show from the first episode.
I hope they'll get to do another season, and if they do, I'll be curious to see what adventures the Prodigy crew gets into next.
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