A group of workers on the Tars Lamora prison colony discover an abandoned spacecraft, the key to their escape. However, the starship is what the prison colony overseer was looking for, sparking a major pursuit operation. Dal, Gwyn, Rok-Tahk, Jankom Pog, Zero and Murf learn that they are the new owners of the Federation starship USS Protostar, a vessel equipped with an experimental drive system. Advised by an emergency advisory hologram, taking the former of Starfleet Captain Kathryn Janeway, the reluctant crew have to find a way of getting the Protostar home and avoiding their relentless pursuers.
Star Trek: Prodigy is the third animated Star Trek show, but the first primarily aimed at younger viewers. A co-project between Paramount and Nickelodeon, the show assembles a crew of alien youngsters to tell a story that, especially in the early going, feels completely disconnected from existing Star Trek settings and worldbuilding. Indeed, this is the first Trek show not to feature a single human regular castmember (Janeway being a hologram).
The first season is 20 episodes long, which is something of a relief in this age of 8 and 10-episode seasons that all too often sacrifice character development and standalone side-stories for a central arc (often one not remotely worthy of that number of episodes). This allows the show to be a bit of a slow burn as it establishes who the characters are and the problems they are facing before it punches the "story arc" button. Once it does, that arc unfolds with impressive skill, mixing both the modern-day plot of the characters trying to take their Federation ship home from the Delta Quadrant with an elaborate backstory revolving around the villainous Diviner (a superb performance by Fringe and Lord of the Rings' John Noble).
The main cast are excellent, with Ella Purnell adding to a powerfully impressive recent resume of roles (Arcane, Yellowjackets and the upcoming Fallout) with her role as the conflicted Gwyn. Comic lunatic Jason Mantzoukas (Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Parks & Recreation, Paper Girls) also imbues both Jankom Pog with expected comedy and less-expected tragic pathos.
The show's real strength is taking the Star Trek ethos of peaceful cooperation and making it work without a lot of Star Trek's baggage. Whilst Picard and Lower Decks have mined a great deal of their stories and setup from earlier shows, Prodigy goes in the opposite direction of keeping the Trek universe at arm's length its early going. Pog is a Tellarite but has little knowledge of his homeworld or culture, whilst Zero is an incorporeal Medusan (who briefly show up in The Original Series), but both are deep cuts to a casual viewer. Janeway is obviously a more familiar reference point, but as a hologram limited by her programming rather than the "real" Janeway, she is not quite the character we remember. Most of the aliens, worlds, technology and ideas the crew encounter are new and fresh, which is a genuinely impressive feat for what is the tenth television series to bear the Star Trek name.
After midseason, the show is more comfortable embracing its place in the Star Trek universe and the show's integration with more familiar settings and ideas is well-handled. Particularly successful is how the show creates a situation where our heroes simply can't immediately join forces with the Federation and instead have to search for a sneaky way of getting the Protostar back to Starfleet without causing a major galactic incident in the process. The season final wraps up this initial story arc with tremendous success, resulting in what might one of Star Trek's single finest debut seasons.
The show is not without weaknesses, however. Much of the final arc revolves around the dangers of AI which, although timely, is a story idea done to death in previous shows and only recently the major focus of both a full season of Discovery and another full season of Picard. It could also be argued that central character Dal is a bit too standard a protagonist for an animated show, being snarky but resourceful, hot-headed but kind etc. He improves a lot in the latter part of the season which his quest to understand his origins becomes more pressing. The animation is also mostly good, but perhaps a little bit of a step below the CG Star Wars shows.
There is much to enjoy in the debut season of Star Trek: Prodigy (****), enough to appeal to both established Trek fans and young children looking for a fun show. A second and final season is in production. The show is still available on Paramount+ in many countries, but in some territories it has been removed pending a move to a new station. DVD and Blu-Ray sets of the first season are available (or will be soon).
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