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, and Prodigy, with more to come (like Strange New Worlds and Section 31). 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

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”