If you’ve been skeptical ofStar Trek: Prodigybecause it’s an animated series, I’d ask you to watch at least one of these episodes with an open mind. Longtime adult fans might thinkStar Trek: Prodigyis a diluted version ofTrekbecause it’s made with children in mind, butProdigyrespects kids' intelligence andStar Trekcanon.Star Trek: Prodigynever talks down to its audience, trusting them to understand its high-concept stories without hand-holding.Star Trek: Prodigy’s young main charactersthink and act like actual kids do, and they’re treated accordingly.
Star Trek: Prodigyis a smart introduction to the wholeStar Trekfranchisefor fans of all ages. The first few episodes set upProdigy’s premise of Delta Quadrant kids escaping lives of despairwhen Dal R’El (Brett Gray) discovers a Starfleet ship, the USS Protostar.Star Trek:Prodigyseason 1 follows the Protostar’s journey to the Alpha Quadrant, which isn’t as smooth as they would hope. This chronological list ofStar Trek: Prodigyepisodes might make your experience withStar Trek’s excellent animated series a little smoother.
8Star Trek: Prodigy Season 1, Episode 6 - “Kobayashi”
Prodigy Brings Back Returning Trek Stars—But Not How You Think
Aside fromHologram Janeway (Kate Mulgrew)and her crash course on the United Federation of Planets, Starfleet, and the Protostar’s technology inStar Trek:Prodigyseason 1, episode 3, “Starstruck”,Prodigydoes its own worldbuilding without many connections to the greaterStar Trekuniverse in its first few episodes. Some may consider that a strength, but for those who want stronger ties to the franchise,Star Trek: Prodigyseason 1, episode 6, “Kobayashi”, delivers that in spades.
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The title references theKobayashi Maru test, which self-styled captain Dal undergoes on the USS Protostar’s holodeck. UnlikeStar Trek: Lower Decks' characters who are well-versed in Starfleet’s recent history,Dal has no idea that his hand-picked holographic crew is made up of legends—or that he’s supposed to lose.Star Trek: Prodigylends authenticity to its cameos through archived audio (and the return of oneTrekstar), making “Kobayashi” a treat for longtime fans.
7Star Trek: Prodigy Season 1, Episode 8 - “Time Amok”
“Time Amok” Is The Best Of Prodigy Season 1’s Standalone Episodes
If there’s one episode that can change a skeptical Trekkie’s mind aboutStar Trek: Prodigy, I believe that episode isStar Trek: Prodigyseason 1, episode 8, “Time Amok”. The standalone episode uses a temporal anomaly to divide the USS Protostar crew, stranding each one in a zone where time moves differently.“Time Amok” reminds me of similarStar Trek: The Next GenerationorStar Trek: Voyagerepisodes,where a sci-fi problem is solved through creativity, teamwork, and a process of trial and error.
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The solution doesn’t come as easily as it might to otherStar Trekcrews, and for good reason: the USS Protostar crew are just kids, no matter how competent they think they are.Star Trek: Prodigyacknowledges that these kids have a lot to learn.Success comes with solid character development for everyone, especially Rok-Tahk (Rylee Alazraqui), who pays a necessary but heartbreaking price. “Time Amok” asks its audience to put aside prejudice and have compassion for others, while rigorous science saves the day. It doesn’t get much moreStar Trekthan that.
6Star Trek: Prodigy Season 1, Episode 13 - “All The World’s A Stage”
“Live logs and proper!”
Star Trek: Prodigyseason 1, episode 13, “All The World’s A Stage”, serves as a meta-commentary on our relationship toStar Trekas fans, while also being a heartfelt homage to thebest ofStar Trek: The Original Series. While your mileage might vary on how willing you are to accept the Enderprizians (yes, really) as a society,the fact that they’ve built their culture around the heroic tales told by a lostTOS-era crew member says a lot about us asTrekfandom—and in a good way.
The Enderprizians are reminiscent of the Thermians fromGalaxy Quest, who also based their culture on aStar Trek-like 1980s sci-fi TV show that they very sincerely believed were “historical documents”.
The Enderprizians aren’t actually in Starfleet, and they’re not even part of the Federation, but they live as though they are. It doesn’t matter whether some of their facts are wrong, or their uniforms aren’t quite authentic.What matters is the fact that the aliens takeStar Trek’s lessons about morality, curiosity, and empathy to heart, which inspires Dal, Gwyn (Ella Purnell), and the rest of the Protostar crew at a crucial point in their journey.
5Star Trek: Prodigy Season 1, Episode 18 - “Mindwalk”
Like DS9, Prodigy Gets Funny Before It Gets Serious
LikeStar Trek: Deep Space Nine’s funniest episodes happening during the Dominion War,Star Trek: Prodigyseason 1, episode 18, “Mindwalk”, is the humorous calm before the curtain drops onProdigy’s first season. Dal’s attempt to reach out to Admiral Janeway telepathically misfires, instead landing Dal’s mind in Janeway’s body, and vice versa.Brett Gray and Kate Mulgrew play each other’s roles excellently, leading to hilarious results. But there is still an enemy to be defeated.
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After “Mindwalk”,Prodigy’s overarching time-travel mystery culminates inStar Trek: Prodigy’s two-part season 1 finale, the aptly-titled “Supernova”. It’s also definitely worth a watch, butthe finale works best after watchingStar Trek: Prodigy’s entire first season, so you’re able to see just how much the USS Protostar’s young crew members change in a short time.
4Star Trek: Prodigy Season 2, Episode 4 - “Temporal Mechanics 101”
Star Trek: Prodigy’s Second Season Keeps Up The Momentum
Star Trek: Prodigyseason 2is less episodic than season 1, so we’re starting mid-adventure, withStar Trek: Prodigyseason 2, episode 4, “Temporal Mechanics 101”. While on a mission to rescue Gwyn from a temporal paradox in which she was never born,Admiral Janeway and the USS Voyager-A crew are the ostensible adults in the room, making sure that the kids' theories are sound.
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And they are:“Temporal Mechanics 101” draws on previousStar Trektime travel episodes,fromStar Trek IV: The Voyage HometoStar Trek: The Next Generationseason 7, episode 11, “Parallels”. ActualStar Trekscience advisor Dr. Erin MacDonaldplays a 24th-century version of herself to deliver the titular lesson, which fills kids and new audiences in on how time travel works inStar Trek.That information is going to be important for the rest ofStar Trek:Prodigy’s second season.
3Star Trek: Prodigy Season 2, Episode 5 - “Observer’s Paradox”
Downtime Shows Off The Prodigy Characters' Personalities
Star Trek: Prodigyseason 2, episode 5, “Observer’s Paradox”, is a breather between action-heavy episodes that succeeds on the strength of all ofStar Trek: Prodigy’s characters being true to themselves.TheProdigykids don’t just get to walk away from causing havoc in the previous episode just because their harebrained scheme happened to work; there are still consequences for their actions. Each character has a different reaction to being punished, and a different potential solution to the seemingly time-sensitive mystery hanging over their heads.
Ronny Cox reprises his role asStar Trek: The Next Generation’s Admiral Edward Jellico, who now stands in the way of Admiral Janeway completing the rescue mission that Dal and the other kids started.
“Observer’s Paradox” shares some of the best qualities of “Time Amok”, becausethe former Protostar crew work together to figure out a solution to the problem at hand, and they all respect Rok-Tahk’s position as the team’s preeminent scientist. The fact that they can only arrive at an answer when they work together—including cetacean crew memberGillian the Whale(Bonnie Gordon)—using each person’s individual strengths, speaks toStar Trek: Prodigy’s commitment to showingStar Trekideals of cooperation and respect in action.
2Star Trek: Prodigy Season 2, Episodes 9 & 10 - “The Devourer of All Things, Parts 1 & 2”
The Stakes Have Never Been Higher For Prodigy’s Young Crew
The true stakes for the second season ofStar Trek: Prodigyare finally revealed in its mid-season finale. Most impressively,Prodigy’s complicated concepts are delivered to its young target audience in a way that isn’t dumbed down or diluted.Star Trek: Prodigyseems to recognize how many of us were watching and grasping the technobabble inStar Trek: The Next Generationwhen we were young, and takes the same approach to explaining exactly howProdigyfits intoStar Trek’s timelineand cosmology.
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There is a surprise appearance from a legacyStar Trekcharacter who turns out to be a perfect thematic fit forStar Trek: Prodigy.The reveal in “The Devourer of All Things” continues to do the same thing I loved about thelegacy characters inStar Trek: Prodigyseason 1.Instead of being a fan-service appeal to audience nostalgia, legacy characters always serve the stories ofProdigy’s original characters.These are reasonable continuations for establishedStar Trekcharacters, which would naturally evolve to include new missions and new crews.
1Star Trek: Prodigy Season 2, Episodes 11 & 12 - “The Last Flight of the Protostar, Parts 1 & 2”
The Protostar Crew Demonstrate What They’ve Learned
It’s hard to talk about the two-part mid-season opener ofStar Trek: Prodigyseason 2, “The Last Flight of the Protostar”, without giving too much away, but I will say this: these two episodes ofStar Trek: Prodigymade me like Captain Chakotay(Robert Beltran), a feat that all seven seasons ofStar Trek: Voyagerdid not do. We see Chakotay through the eyes ofProdigy’s characters, and Dal specifically. Andwe see how the Protostar crew apply the lessons they learned inStar Trek: Prodigyseason 1 to instill hope at a time when all seems hopeless.
The fate ofStar Trek: Prodigystill hangs in the balance, since the show is currently neither canceled nor renewed for season 3. Numbers talk, though, and more viewers who are willing to giveProdigya chance by watching, recommending, and re-watching can translate into eventually gettingStar Trek: Prodigy season 3.
After “The Last Flight of the Protostar”, the second half ofStar Trek: Prodigyseason 2 is an unstoppable ride, both literally and figuratively. The stakes get higher, the problems get harder, and these untested young people are thrown into a big mess that only they can solve, for reasons that are actually explained in the show. If any of these episodes have convinced you to giveStar Trek: Prodigya chance, going back to watch it from the beginning will lay out all the pieces of the show’s time travel mystery and the whole story of the Protostar crew.
