my look at the three newest episodes of Star Trek: Prodigy

After a very long delay, the back half of Star Trek: Prodigy‘s first season has commenced, and I take a look at the first three episodes, including the strong opener “Asylum” from a fortnight ago, last week’s weak sophomore outing “Let Sleeping Borg Lie,” and today’s delightful episode “All the World’s a Stage.” Check out my review on Tor.com!

An excerpt:

Dal is still growing into his leadership role, but what’s interesting is that the rest of the group is more than happy to follow his lead. And he is making some better decisions.

One of his not-better decisions is to check out a dormant Borg cube in last week’s episode, “Let Sleeping Borg Lie,” which would’ve been good advice for the writers to take. I get that they’re in the Delta Quadrant, so we’re gonna get some Voyager hits, but do we have to do another story where they encounter the Borg and unconvincingly get away? And are the Borg the best idea to feature in a kids’ show anyhow? Also, how have none of the people on the Protostar ever heard of the Borg? I mean, okay, they’ve been slaves for a long time, but I find it hard to believe that Gwyn, at least, didn’t know who the Borg are. I mean, the Diviner must know about them, and it seems to me he would’ve told Gwyn about them in case they showed up at Tars Lamora, if nothing else…

Anyhow, this second story follows the usual beats of a Borg story—specifically a Voyager Borg story, and this is not a compliment, as the Borg are utterly toothless and not at all scary.

Star Trek: Prodigy‘s mid-season finale

I took a look back at Star Trek: Prodigy‘s first ten episodes over on Tor dot com, and I stand by what I said after watching the first three: this is the best of the new Trek shows, and that’s with all due respect to Discovery, Short Treks, Picard, and Lower Decks — Prodigy is just that good.

An excerpt:

I love every episode of the show so far, but “Time Amok” is a personal favorite for several reasons. One is the aforementioned nifty new take on time travel. Another is a clever use of the fox-chicken-corn riddle (I especially like that they don’t provide the solution to same, forcing the kids watching it to figure it out for themselves). Dal’s part in the story is to cobble together the part necessary with existing material on board, as the industrial replicator isn’t available—it’s right out of Apollo 13 (in fact, Janeway cites that particular crisis in Earth’s early space-travel days when instructing Dal). Any callback to that magnificent moment in both history and cinema is a winner in my book.

And I just adore the climax. Rok has been told that she has to construct the same part that Dal built. Dal had to piece it together because the replicator was being used to re-create Drednok. But by the time the slow-time Rok gets the assignment, Drednok has been blown out an airlock—along with Dal’s part. Now, though, Rok has access to the replicator so she can make it, and she also learns computers so she can restore the Janeway hologram (Drednok had deactivated it) because nobody told her what to do with the part once she made it. (Oops.)

Star Trek: Prodigy‘s first couple of episodes

Pictured: Brett Gray as Dal of the Paramount+ series Star Trek: Prodigy . Photo Cr: Nickelodeon/Paramount+ ©2021, All Rights Reserved.

I take a look at the first couple of episodes of Star Trek: Prodigy, which is, IMO, the best of the new Trek shows–which isn’t dinging Dicovery, Picard, Short Treks, or Lower Decks, it’s just that Prodigy is really that good. A delightful new entry into the Trek mythos.

An excerpt:

My favorite character, though, by far is Rok-Tahk, voiced by Rylee Alazraqui. The unsubtly named Rok is a Brikar, and she pretty much looks like the Thing from the Fantastic Four. She’s also the basis of the funniest moment in the two-part premiere episode, “Lost and Found.” The Diviner has forbidden translators in his mine, so the prisoners can’t talk to each other. When he’s sent to find Fugitive Zero, Dal finds himself paired with this giant rock creature who mostly seems to talk in growls and snarls. It isn’t until they get on board the Protostar, with its universal translator, that we discover that the big scary monster has a high squeaky voice and is, in fact, just a little girl. Rok is, at once, very sweet, very naïve, and very easy to love. She also has a temper, as we discover in the second episode, “Starstruck,” when we find out just how much she resents Gwyn for doing nothing to help the prisoners. (Gwyn, for her part, thought they were all criminals. Rok assures her that is not the case. Tellingly, the Diviner and his hench-robot Drednok refer to the miners, not as prisoners, but as “the unwanted.”)

guide to my reviews of new Star Trek

Paramount+ (formerly CBS All Access) has been airing lots of new Star Trek shows since 2017: Discovery, Short Treks, Picard, Lower Decks, Prodigy, and Strange New Worlds, with more to come. My reviews of same have been appearing on Tor.com. Unlike my rewatches of TV shows and movies for the site, these aren’t archived on a single index page, so herewith, a guide to the reviews I’ve done to date (regularly updated).

Discovery Season 1:

“We come in peace” — “The Vulcan Hello” & “Battle at the Binary Stars”

“You helped start a war, don’t you want to help me end it?” — “Context is for Kings”

The Spores Must Flow — “The Butcher’s Knife Cares Not for the Lamb’s Cry”

“This is so fucking cool!” — “Choose Your Pain”

Good Retcons and Bad B-Plots — “Lethe”

Tough Mudder — “Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad”

If You Want Peace, Prepare for War — “Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum“

“Everybody comes home” — “Into the Forest I Go”

The Mirror Crack’d from Side to Side — “Despite Yourself”

“We are still Starfleet” — “The Wolf Inside”

You Can’t Go Back to the Way Things Were — “Vaulting Ambition”

“We will not accept a no-win scenario” — “What’s Past is Prologue”

Moving Forward — “The War Without, the War Within”

A Waterskiing Dog — “Will You Take My Hand?”

We Come in Pieces — First Season Overview

Hooray for Licensed Fiction! — More Star Trek Discovery Stories in Prose & Comics Form to Tide You Over until 2019

Short Treks Season 1:

“You’re just so clearly over-caffeinated!” — “Runaway”

“What’s a Betty Boop?” — “Calypso”

Looking Up, Looking Down — “The Brightest Star”

Here’s Mudd in Your Eye — “The Escape Artist”

Discovery Season 2:

“Where’s my damn red thing?” — “Brother”

Simple Pleasures Are the Best — “New Eden”

Meanwhile, Back in the Klingon Empire… — “Point of Light”

Space Oddity — “An Obol for Charon”

The Monster at the End of This Episode — “Saints of Imperfection”

“You brought that hope back with you” — “The Sound of Thunder”

Lost and Found — “Light and Shadows”

Old, New, Borrowed, and Red — “If Memory Serves”

Redshirts, Red Angels, and Red Herrings — “Project Daedalus”

Death, Here is Thy Sting — “The Red Angel”

“How long until the universe wins?” — “Perpetual Infinity”

While I Look Around for My Possibility — “Through the Valley of the Shadow”

“Today rocks!” — “Such Sweet Sorrow”

The Director of Your Opponent’s Fate — “Such Sweet Sorrow, Part 2”

Fight for the Future — Second Season Overview

Hooray for Licensed Fiction! Part Deux — Yet Still More Star Trek Discovery Stories To Tide You Over until Season 3

Short Treks Season 2:

Elevator Pitch — “Q & A”

Them’s Good Eatin’! — “The Trouble with Edward”

Kobayashi Sidhu — “Ask Not”

Back to the Drawing Board — “The Girl Who Made the Stars” and “Ephraim and Dot”

School Daze — “Children of Mars”

Picard Season 1:

Back to the Future — “Remembrance”

“For a relic, you’re in excellent shape!” — “Maps and Legends”

“Engage!” — “The End is the Beginning”

Jean-Luc as St. Jude — “Absolute Candor”

Freecloud’s Just Another Word for Nothing Left to Lose — “Stardust City Rag”

“Please, my friends, choose to live” — “The Impossible Box”

“Baby steps…” — “Nepenthe”

“Arroz con leche se quiere casar” — “Broken Pieces”

“I noticed a little turbulence” — “Et in Arcadia Ego, Part 1”

The Picard Maneuver — “Et in Arcadia Ego, Part 2”

Regrets, I’ve Had a Few — First Season Overview

Lower Decks Season 1:

About 60% of a Good Episode — “Second Contact”

What Do You Do with a Drunken Klingon? — “Envoys”

“Nobody can stop you from speaking freely!” — “Temporal Edict”

“Why is it taking so long?” — “Moist Vessel”

“That is messed up!” — “Cupid’s Errant Arrow”

Badgieeeeeeeeee! — “Terminal Provocations”

A Substitute Captain, a Dog, and a Transporter Accident Walk Into an Episode — “Much Ado About Boimler”

“Can someone give us some context in here please?” — “Veritas”

“Guys, therapy works!” — “Crisis Point”

Badass Pakleds? Badass Pakleds… — “No Small Parts”

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly — First Season Overview

Discovery Season 3:

“I am done being reflexively supportive” — “That Hope is You”

The Future Isn’t What it Used to Be — “Far from Home”

“I will trust you to grow through change” — “People of Earth”

“You’re a responsibility hoarder” — “Forget Me Not”

“Your relationship isn’t very professional” — “Die Trying”

“You had me at ‘unsanctioned mission'” — “Scavengers”

Spock’s Legacy — “Unification III”

Moving the Pieces Forward — “The Sanctuary”

“Execute me, Mother!” — “Terra Firma, Part 1”

“There are no spoils from peace” — “Terra Firma, Part 2”

To Be Free, Face Your Deepest Fear — “Su’Kal”

Yipee-Ki-Yay, Michael Burnham! — “There is a Tide…”

“Wanting is not the same as doing” — “That Hope is You, Part 2”

“Let’s fly!” — Third Season Overview

Lower Decks Season 2:

“There’s a giant head approaching the ship!” — “Strange Energies”

DeCandido, His Review Mixed — “Kayshon, His Eyes Open”

Behold the Mistress of the Winter Constellations! — “We’ll Always Have Tom Paris”

“A lot’s changed since slightly earlier today” — “Mugato, Gumato”

“Was I too much trouble?” — “An Embarrassment of Dooplers”

Red Shirts and Big Helmets — “The Spy Humongous”

Huzzah! — “Where Pleasant Fountains Lie”

You Will Be Assimilated by Poop of Borg — “I, Excretus”

ghus choQpu’ — “wej Duj”

It’s Captain Freeman Day! — “First First Contact”

The Good, the Bad, and the Awesome — Second Season Overview

Prodigy Season 1

Star Trek: Prodigy is the Best New Trek Series

Star Trek: Prodigy Arrives at Mid-Season with Hope and Fear

The Chase is On as Star Trek: Prodigy Returns

Discovery Season 4

Winning a No-Win Scenario — “Kobayashi Maru”

Sitting with Pain — “Anomaly”

Conducting the Larger Symphony — “Choose to Live”

Unification IV — “All is Possible”

Prison Break — “The Examples”

“Just can’t get my poor self together” — “Stormy Weather”

“We cannot let fear define us” — “…But to Connect”

The Triumphant Return of Glow Worm and Right Hook — “All In”

Expected Utility — “Rubicon”

“I’ll do my best not to kill us” — “The Galactic Barrier”

“Fly good!” — “Rosetta”

Going Boldly — “Species Ten-C”

First Contact Revisited — “Coming Home”

“Let’s get to it” — Fourth Season Overview

Picard Season 2

“Top shelf or hooch?” — “The Star Gazer”

“I’m not myself” — “Penance”

“Now is the only moment” — “Assimilation”

Sledgehammer Metaphors — “Watcher”

Assignment: Picard — “Fly Me to the Moon”

“How much worse could it possibly get?” — “Two of One”

“It’s not my job to be interesting” — “Monsters”

Emptiness and Fear — “Mercy”

The Semblance of a Point — “Hide and Seek”

“Must it always have galactic import?” — “Farewell”

Sophomore Slump — Second Season Overview

Strange New Worlds Season 1

“Welcome back and welcome aboard” — “Strange New Worlds”

“We’ve got a planet to save before breakfast” — “Children of the Comet”

Secrets and Lies — “Ghosts of Illyria”

Giant Gas Cloud of Death — “Memento Mori”

“Hijinks are the most logical course of action” — “Spock Amok”

Childhood’s End — “Lift Us Where Suffering Cannot Reach”

ARRRRRRRR! — “The Serene Squall“

Fairy Tale Fanfic — “The Elysian Kingdom”

The Wrong Kind of Retro — “All Those Who Wander”

The Terror of Balance — “A Quality of Mercy”

The Adventures of Captain Daddy and the Gang — First Season Overview

Lower Decks Season 3

Back to Basics — “Grounded”

Bold Boimler — “The Least Dangerous Game”

“The Cerritos kicks ass!” — “Mining the Mind’s Mines”

“You engineered a workaround to your own stress-meter?” — “Room for Growth”

I’m Not the Me I Used To Be — “Reflections”

“Just keep circling…” — “Hear All, Trust Nothing”

The Not-So-Triumphant Return of Peanut Hamper — “A Mathematically Perfect Redemption”

“The horsey’s going to bite you now” — “Crisis Point 2: Paradoxus”

All the News That Doesn’t Fit — “Trusted Sources”

“We kicked impossible’s ass!” — “The Stars at Night”

The Good, the Bad, and the Interesting — Third Season Overview