TREK REVIEW: Prodigy 2-1 & 2-2 - "Into the Breach"

Star Trek: Prodigy is back and, while I haven't been able to devote much time to reviews lately, I'm now going to get back onto it and work my way through the second season. Seeing as the entire run was made available on Netflix all at once, it made sense to leave it a while and tackle it in a big chunk. 

The first season of Prodigy was one of the best of modern Trek, and while it was unfairly written off by some fans at the beginning due to being a kids' show, it proved to be perhaps the most true to classic Trek of all the shows that have launched since 2017. Season two was in the bag when Paramount decided to bin the entire thing, cancelling it before release in an obvious Warner Bros-style tax write-off. This was a kick in the teeth to everyone who worked on it, and just the first shot in the foot of Paramount's ever-crashing relationship with its audience. But no matter, because Netflix jumped in an picked it up. Seriously Paramount, when Netflix looks like the one with sound judgment, you've messed up.

So, to kick us off, it's "Into the Breach," our opening two-parter. Spoilers from here on out.

Season one ended with the Federation saved (again) and the runaway kids preparing for Starfleet Academy, except for Gwyn, who went off on a special mission to her home planet Solum to try to save it from the upcoming civil war. We catch up with the main gang in San Francisco, where we learn that they're not actually cadets, but in a sort of prep school programme, getting ready for induction. (Presumably their too young for the Academy itself, plus none of them have had a formal education before.) 

Vice Admiral Janeway takes them aboard the new USS Voyager as her own special training project, although she assigns the Doctor to be their mentor. It's wonderful to hear Robert Picardo back - interestingly after he turned down an appearance on Star Trek:Picard - and he's every bit the clucking hen we remember. Kate Mulgrew is very good as Janeway, and while she doesn't have my favourite voice in the world, she is an old hand at voice work and really brings Janeway to life (somewhat better than some of the other officer actors). 

The kids are as entertaining and likeable as ever, with the core cast giving great performances, as we might expect. It's fun to see their progression over the last few months: Dal is, predictably, frustrated and impatient; Rok-Tahk is absolutely loving the learning; Jankom is trying to learn to be polite (not very culturally aware of the Academy - let the Tellarite be a Tellarite); and Zero, interestingly, is longing for a physical form. Oh, and Murf is Murf, not really making much sense to be honest. He still seems somewhere between pet, mascot and full-fledged team member, as if the writers aren't quite sure what to do with him.

We might wonder why Janeway decides it's a good idea to take a bunch of pre-cadets on a top secret mission, one that they (and apparently most of the crew) aren't supposed to know about. Surely she realised this was asking or trouble? Of course, they have a personal link to the mission, as it's tied up in their own story aboard the Protostar, but since they aren't allowed to know about it, why does that matter? It's satisfying that this season leads on from the previous one so closely (unlike, say, Picard, which basically ignored previous events each season). Voyager is out in the depths of space to find Chakotay, thanks to the swirling wormhole that was left at the end of the last run. I like that time is running on both sides, meaning that timing is everything if they're going to pull this off without disrupting history. Whatever could go wrong?

There's also Nova Squadron to worry about. While they share their name with the daring flight team from TNG's "The First Duty," they're more like those arseholes in Red Squad on DS9 (those cocky idiots who ended up on the Valiant). At least there's only three of them. Ma'jel is obviously a major new character from the amount of focus she gets; thankfully, Michaela Dietz gives a brilliant turn as a young Vulcan, in spite of being forty in real life (she also voices Grom, the Lurian Squad member). Ma'jel doesn't seem that logical, storming in with her Squad buddies and causing trouble instead of trying to find out what our gang is up to. So frankly it's her fault the Infinity is launched prematurely.

Meanwhile, Gwyn goes to Solum and has a terrible time. Ascencia (a fun turn, as always, by Jameela Jamil, who is great at playing villains) has got their first, and has already turned the Vau'Nakat against her. It seems pretty likely that the schism that tears Solum society apart after first contact has its roots here, as we see factions alredy starting to form based on whether or not to trust aliens. It looks like Gwyn and Ascencia's travelling back has caused the whole problem in the first place, although how this squares with the future on the othe side of the wormhole apparently being an alternative future, I don't know. John Noble gives a truly excellent performance as the younger version of the Diviner - named Ilthuran, we discover - who is recognisable but a very different man to his possible future self.

There's an awful lot going on in these episodes, but they make for a gripping and impressive start to the season.

Placement: It's been a few months since the end of season one, and the Romulan evacuation is underway, meaning it's either 2384 or '85. Memory Alpha goes with 2384, and who am I to argue? This would place the future period in which Chakotay is stranded in 2436.

Starships and stations: 

• The new USS Voyager NCC-74656-A is a Lamarr-class ship. According to behind the scenes info, the class is named after the legendary Hedy Lamarr. 
• The original Voyager is said to be a floating museum. We saw it being taken there in the latest season on Lower Decks, set a couple of years earlier, and saw it displayed in the Fleet Museum in the final season of Picard, set about seventeen years later.  
• I love that, while Voyager-A looks all fancy and swish, the Infinity is just a functional. boxy wagon.

Links and observations:

• Ma'jel is named, of course, for Majel Barrett, the first lady of Star Trek.
• Rok-Tahk gives a presentation on the ill-fated tribble experiment from the Short Trek "The Trouble with Edward."
• However, the scientific name she gives, Polygeminus grex, is the classic one from tie-in material, not the one used in that episode.
• The Doctor is still writing holonovels in his spare time.
• The Infinity has a cloaking device, which is still illegal thanks to the treaty with the Romulans, as well as temporal shielding.

Cliché count: "I'm a doctor, not a butler!" Our first McCoyism of the season.