“All the World's a Stage”

I found this a pretty good episode, and one of the best plots in the show so far. It addresses the PD, Cargo Culture and ser­ves an unexpected memberberry in the form of Ensign Garrovick.

The Planet of the Cosplayers is an idea that seems pretty ori­gi­nal with­in Trek. Fore­­most, “A Piece of the Ac­tion” comes to mind, but there it was played for laughs, not in­spi­ra­tion. Also, I felt re­mind­ed to “Into the Flesh”, which also had the idea of pe­op­le be­com­ing trans­form­ed and bet­ter­ed if the cos­play as Star­fleet of­fi­cers long enough. At first, I had ex­pect­ed a “Mad Max III” sce­na­rio, but I am glad it tur­ned out other­wise — having these pe­op­le realize that they are re­en­act­ing some­thing they are not real­ly a part of, makes the the­me of in­spi­ra­tion and self-im­pro­ve­ment stronger.

I continue to note that the current incarnation of Trek shows tries to un­der­mi­ne the PD, and that’s pro­bab­ly a dis­cus­sion wor­thy of being conducted. In this epis­ode, a Trek-ty­pi­cal pla­ne­ta­ry vil­lage ci­vi­li­za­tion ap­pears to truly bene­fit from a breach of the PD, very much to the con­tra­ry of the TNG ideo­lo­gy that was firm­ly sold on a par­ti­cu­lar­ly bru­tal inter­pre­ta­tion of the PD (“Home­wards”). I cer­tain­ly do not want to be­come Starfleet as medd­le­some and jin­go­istic as say the Star­gate SG-1 team, but there is, I think, a good ar­gu­ment to be made for teach­ing pe­op­le what op­ti­ons they have and not watch them dy­ing while they try to figure it out on their own. The pilot epis­­ode of SNW (“Strange New Worlds”) also handled the PD in a non-Rod­den­ber­ri­an way that I found quite agree­able, al­though some were more critical on it.

The overarching plot moves in snail pace; the Diviner seems to get his me­mo­ry back very slowly, Jane­way sus­pects the crew of the Pro­to­­star to be ene­mies, and some­­thing weird has hap­­pen­­ed to Bar­niss Frex (the De­no­bu­lan from CR-721). We don’t learn any­thing else, but there is a mild contradiction whet Dal claims (3:30) that even a hail to a Starf­leet ship could infect her com­pu­ters with the The Wea­pon™, although we have seen that CR-721 was infected only after an access to the mission logs was tried. Also, I am now not really sure whether The Wea­pon™ is a com­pu­ter virus or a piece of in­de­struct­ible hard­ware sitting be­low the brid­ge floor. It can’t be both at the same time, right?

And is Murf the Mellanoid slime worm going to turn into a but­ter­fly next epis­ode? Since Murf is the only cha­rac­ter in the show that I don’t like at all, I am look­ing for­ward to any­thing that can make this crea­ture more interesting.

Much better than the first two episodes this season (er, half-season) though there's still a critical issue with the episode that stops me from having full enjoyment.

I'll start with the negative first - the Federation cargo cult the kids discover makes absolutely no sense! In principle it's a great idea (particularly with how they get things confused over a century) but unless I'm misremembering things, Ensign Garrovick only lived a few months before passing away. Most of his equipment was stowed away in a ship with a toxic plasma leak other than his uniform and phaser. I can see how the natives were exposed to stories of the Federation, but how the heck did they come to know how 23rd Century Federation tech worked well enough to fly with the holo-controls???

That said, otherwise this was a highly enjoyable plot-focused episode which took the story in some unexpected directions. It was much more of an ensemble piece than a character-focused episode, but both Dal and Jankom Pog got some good development here, moving away from selfishness and insecurities and more towards Starfleet ideals. Once the natives got away from just doing TOS character impressions and became real people it was actually a pretty interesting take. While arguably this is a bit too early to do another nostalgia trip episode (Kobayashi wasn't that long ago) I think the effective third act more than made up for the initial pandering to fanservice.

Just might be 'Prodigy's best episode yet IMO. For certain this season's best.

It was funny watching the indigenous people imitate the obviously corrupt logs of the Galileo? I think I caught the voice actor for Jax (STLD) in there.

All kinds of Trek homages here... VOY: "The Muse", STIV, TOS: "The Galileo Seven". Probably the most enjoyable for me was when they pilot Prodigy down to the planet to save them to the music of 'Enterprising Young Men' from ST09.

The Diviner is doing his best to deceive Janeway. I'm still a little confused how Chacotay fits in here but I guess we'll learn more as we go.

Murf is in a cocoon that reminded me of the alien in ENT: "Vox Sola".

I'm always looking forward to next week in this series.

I love how this show gives us some heart while telling stories.

3.5 of 4 stars.

A decent little adventure here that rehashes a few Trek (don't want to say cliches) plot elements -- finding the miracle cure, last millisecond rescue with a beam-out, natives who are culturally polluted by a prior Star Fleet visit etc.

I like the broader elements developing with this Protostar crew unable to contact Star Fleet (which would be destroyed if they did) but still trying to live up to SF standards in other situations (one of which they come across here).

Unravelling the mystery of Gwyn's father (who is still insane) is also more interesting than the A-plot of this episode -- the escape pod from the destroyed station was found, Janeway on a manhunt and not knowing what we know...

I believe the show said it was Ensign Garrovick's shuttle (Garrovick from "Obsession") that came into contact with the natives -- must have been something he did after the TOS episode.

So what happened to Murf? Seems like he underwent some kind of transformation... Bit of a cliffhanger there.

Kept thinking of "A Piece of the Action" with these natives and their flawed impersonation of TOS Star Fleet -- they must be a very imitative race like the Iotians were.

2.5 stars for "All the World's a Stage" -- I think there's some recognition by the Protostar crew that less technologically advanced natives have their usefulness and the crew ends up appreciating them. Nice to see some genuinely well-meaning natives for a change. Decent enough story, though perhaps ends up being a bit of padding in terms of the overall season as the plot with Janeway and Gwyn's dad is only being advanced a tiny bit at a time in the last 3 episodes.

I enjoyed this episode a great deal. Like @Yanks, I too think it's among the series' best to date: there was an interesting alien race and backstory; a mission that thrust the Prodigy crew to embody the ideals of Starfleet; thrilling action; a bit of fun fan-service; and some intrigue, with Murf and the Diviner. That's a lot to cover in a single episode, and I think this one pulled it all off very well.

With that said, I might have liked this episode a bit more if it established a clearer tone with the Enderprizians, as I was uncertain, at first, if the story was aiming to have more comical parts, like Voyager's 'Live Fast and Prosper' or the Original Series' 'A Piece of the Action,' or trying to play the entire endeavour straight. I also expected, based on the dialogue of the characters, for the fate of the Galileo to be more disastrous, so I was a bit confused by the limited scale of the outcome.

Nevertheless, a enjoyable episode. The series continues to shows it's far more than just some 'silly kids' show.'

5 bags of popcorn and two little miniature phaser pistols

Three stars, very entertaining. I like how they test the characters’ desire to be Starfleet and take a break from heavier arcs for some episodic fun here.

Really surprising and fun to see a coda to the Ensign Garrovick story from “Obsession” that both fits the character from 50 years ago and requires no prior knowledge of TOS. Very clever. Also smart how they didn’t overdo the TOS cast comparisons by explicitly identifying the cosplayers with their Enterprise counterparts. It’s nice sometimes to see post-TNG Trek refrain from over explaining things.

Not a perfect episode. I’ve already forgotten the problem I had while watching it, partly because I’ve forgotten much of the episode already. But it was a pleasant and engaging new spin on a classic TOS style story, with the ironic twist that the TOS Enterprise itself was the source of the “Piece of the Action” style cultural interference.

I like the inherent homage to the fact the Enterprisians are Trek fans. Presumably Garrovick set up some logs for them to watch or listen to among his other possessions. The Galileo might have been accessible for some time before it became hazardous to visit.

Really fun episode. As Jammer noted, I couldn't help but think of the "muse" episode of Voyager. I admit I overlook some logic issues with the show because it is a cartoon. If it were live action I would likely have more complaints.

Still, all the characters have grown on me, I love the "real" Janeway stuff and I am genuinely interested in seeing what happens next.

3 stars as well