Star Trek: Prodigy
"Let Sleeping Borg Lie"
Air date: 11/3/2022
Written by Diandra Pendleton-Thompson
Directed by Olga Ulanova & Sung Shin
Review by Jamahl Epsicokhan
After seeing a holodeck simulation of Gwyn's restored memories, the young crew attempts to disable the sinister Trojan-horse-from-the-future weapon that the Diviner has integrated into the Protostar's system. They are unable to break its defenses, however. Coincidentally, the ship stumbles across a dormant Borg cube. Hologram Janeway warns the kids of the extreme danger of the Borg, but the kids think they may be able to use the Borg's knowledge to figure out how to disable the weapon, so they board the Borg vessel and start poking around.
Attempting to tie these two storylines together is forced at best, and wrong-headed at worst. This is Prodigy's entry point into the Borg collective — which in theory makes sense since this is the Delta Quadrant — but this adventure plays out as one of the most ho-hum and tensionless encounters with the Borg to date, and even more so as executed on its rather naive, Nickelodeon-friendly level.
While the animation of the Borg interiors is inspired, particularly once Zero enters the hive mind and experiences their collective, the idea of us entering the hive mind for possible information is reckless stupidity, full stop. The rest is Borg 101, with the drones waking up, doing their zombie routine, adapting to the phasers, pushing and shoving, and so on. There's a reasonable character core around Zero's guilt over having harmed Gwyn by revealing himself, but it's uneasily serviced with Zero's assimilation into the collective, and his connection of friendship all too easily allowing him to escape using pure will.
Meanwhile, Admiral Janeway's ship, the Dauntless, has the unconscious Diviner in sickbay (under the care of Dr. Noum, who is rude and sarcastic even by Starfleet doc standards, and voiced by Jason Alexander), where they attempt to revive him to find answers. Meanwhile, the Dauntless follows the breadcrumb trail left by the Protostar to the destroyed Federation space station.
As this series' introduction to the Borg, this is a tepid disappointment, with very little meat on the bones beyond "Hey, it's the Borg!" — and a lot of questionable decisions by the crew in the face of one of the franchise's supposedly greatest threats. The end result is no real sense of danger despite a situation that should have this crew hopelessly outmatched — even more so on account of their many bad decisions. And I'm already tiring of the Trojan horse arc, which still strikes me as a contrived plot device.
Previous episode: Asylum
Next episode: All the World's a Stage
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20 comments on this post
Thu, Nov 3, 2022, 8:09am (UTC -5)
There's essentially two sections here - crisis of the week and arcwork. The entire first act is more or less serving the needs of the arc as a whole, with us first checking in with the kids, then with the real Janeway. Then of course we come back to real Janeway again at the end of the episode for a final scene. All of the arcwork is...fine. The real issue here is the characters are learning things that we as viewers already know, which means there's zero drama. They can gussy it up a bit with character dynamics, letting us see the responses each one has to the revelations, but it's nothing which is surprising to us at all.
That leaves less than 15 minutes for the actual plot of the week, which is basically the kids stumble over the Borg. That's pretty much it. They somehow find a cube floating in random space (what are the chances of that?), explore it looking for a way to defuse the MacGuffin, and then realize the Borg are going to be no help at all. There's no overall forward movement here - they're right back to where they were at the start of the episode, save for knowing there's no way to actually deactivate the device.
I will give the episode some credit though. First, unlike last week, they remember that having a character arc is important, and Zero gets a bit of focus here. They start the episode feeling isolated and guilt ridden regarding the damage they did, go through the trials of being temporarily assimilated, and realize the "Magic of Friendship" is powerful enough to turn back. It's all extremely cursory because of the short runtime, but it's there. Also, I think they did a good job finding a way to make the Borg creepy yet still child-appropriate - and I'm happy in animation we finally get to see non-humanoid Borg.
Still, this may be one of the most forgettable episodes of Prodigy yet. It's basically just there to introduce the crew to the Borg. I guess it would hit different for children, but as adults versed in Trek, there's very little (other than Zero's arc) worth holding onto here.
Two stars.
Thu, Nov 3, 2022, 12:46pm (UTC -5)
I appreciate the vinculum showing up, we haven't seen that bit of Borg tech since the Voyager episode Infinite Regress. And speaking of obscure reference: ya think it's a coincidence two of the lead characters are called Dal and Rok? As in the big cloudy fake monster O'Brien had to cast out in DS9's The Storyteller?
Probably :-) But the village is strong anyway!
Thu, Nov 3, 2022, 6:46pm (UTC -5)
Thu, Nov 3, 2022, 6:53pm (UTC -5)
Jammer, I appreciate you reviewing prodigy, but if you have children are you watching it with them? Maybe including their reactions (if that's ok) might add to the reviews some.
Thu, Nov 3, 2022, 7:44pm (UTC -5)
Ideally, this is what I would like to do. Indeed, I referenced their reactions in some of the earlier episodes (which, not coincidentally, were not posted as the shows aired). In the past I've also mentioned some of my wife's reactions with the other Trek shows, when she was watching them with me. This episode might've landed differently if I could see the kids' reactions, I will admit.
Unfortunately, the reality is that with everyone's schedules and activities, it has become very difficult for me to wait until we all have time to sit down and watch the shows together while also trying to keep pace with posting reviews in a timely manner. So lately I've just been watching the episodes before work on Thursday morning. (It's also why you now often see reviews posted on the same day as airing, which used to almost never happen.)
My kids have still not seen these latest episodes. Eventually they will, but I don't know when that will be, and if I wait, the reviews might not happen until weeks or months down the road, if at all, and everyone will be wondering why I'm behind. So it's the trade-off I've decided to make in this year of non-stop Star Trek.
Thu, Nov 3, 2022, 8:08pm (UTC -5)
Part of what I like about this episode is the Borg are also treated as far less personal in their evil and no less malevolent for it. The Borg aren't doing this because they get pleasure from evil like the Borg Queen or sadistically tormenting Seven or
Doctor Jurati. No, they're an assembly line and the rest of the galaxy is parts. It's like my best friend, Michael, has the same opinion on Davros for the Daleks.
The Daleks are infinitely better and more terrifying without Davros because the Daleks are terrifying due to their lack of individuality and indifference. This episode nicely conveyed the Borg are dangerous because we're ants to them.
Oh and a reminder that our heroes straight up killed two Borg in this episode.
Also, apparently are indirectly responsible for the Junior Lieutenant's death.
Thu, Nov 3, 2022, 8:35pm (UTC -5)
With that said, the episode reverted to some of the worst elements of Voyager and once again made the Borg, and, more specifically, assimilation, into something that could easily be overcome. There's merit to the moral that undergirded the rejection of assimilation, but the solution was too simple. The visuals, then, made the Borg compelling and menacing, but the story once again mollified them. A shame.
I'm also a bit mixed on the group's decision to turn to the Borg for solutions on the weapon they find: yes, the plan is both risky and ill-advised, but these, again, are not well-trained officers but kids/adolescents who are likely to make mistakes.
The series has already shown the crew maturing, learning from past mistakes, so having them choose another dangerous mission is more questionable than a few episodes ago. Still, I know, even for myself, sometimes you make the same mistake multiple times before learning a proper/better course of action.
All in all, a decent outing, highlighted, for me, by the mood and visuals.
Thu, Nov 3, 2022, 8:43pm (UTC -5)
The weapon onboard the Protostar - living construct - has some potential for good sci-fi. Did phasering it have something to do with taking the Protostar near a Borg cube? I guess I don't get how they come across a Borg cube without any forewarning etc.
More interesting is Admiral Janeway retracing Chakotay's steps, finding Gwyn's father, finding the destroyed CR721 station -- but this was just mechanics, albeit interesting plot points. I guess there's a bit of a mystery to solve here.
1.5 stars for "Let Sleeping Borg Lie" -- a watchable 1/2 hour but this one really felt like it's made for the younger generation. Jankom was getting annoying -- the idiot just phasers the living weapon aboard the Protostar... Too bad Zero didn't assimilate him first and then decide to reject the hive mind - would've made him more palatable as a character.
Thu, Nov 3, 2022, 9:21pm (UTC -5)
Thu, Nov 3, 2022, 9:47pm (UTC -5)
Also, the Borg called Madusans Species 802 (If I remember correctly), which strikes me as being pretty old. Maybe the Madusans have learned to resist assimilation that other species have not. They are pretty powerful.
Fri, Nov 4, 2022, 4:55am (UTC -5)
Fri, Nov 4, 2022, 5:01pm (UTC -5)
Did anyone else see the Janeway admiral's log uploaded on Instagram after the last episode? She says that Chakotay was on a mission to rectify mistakes Voyager had made in the Delta Quadrant. I wonder whether the Borg were a key part of that mission somehow, such as helping civilizations that had suffered after Voyager's alliance with the Borg against species 8472. The alien who created the original "Dauntless" did so as an act of vengeance against Janeway for how that alliance caused the assimilation of his people, so PRO may be setting us up for a follow-up to that. If that's the case, it makes sense why they wanted to introduce the Borg, aside from the fact that it's the Delta Quadrant so presumably they'd show up at one point. They may end up being a big part of the reason Chakotay came back to the DQ to begin with.
As for Zero, the fact that a) they are non-corporeal and b) the Borg can't use their nanoprobes make it plausible that Zero could resist assimilation. They were only in contact for minute, maybe hours at most, and had no nanoprobes. It was just the allure of the hive mind, so I do see how it makes sense that Zero could break out of that by being reminded of what they had outside the hive mind.
Fri, Nov 4, 2022, 11:54pm (UTC -5)
*for-better-or-worse
Sat, Nov 5, 2022, 6:43am (UTC -5)
I am far from a big fan of “Prodigy”, but I cannot leave your claim unchallenged that it is far from what StarTrek is or should be.
Yes, PRO is in the Delta quadrant and therefore lacks any Federation backdrop, but there was once an entire 7-season show based on that very premise. It is also really action-heavy and feels sometimes more StarWars than StarTrek, but that’s again not soo different from VOY. It also focuses more on plot and characters than on SciFi concepts or moral dilemmata, … seems again quite in VOY territory. On the other side, it avoids the obnoxious elements so profusely found in DIS and PIC, and it is far better written than any of those, with better plot structure and likeable (!!) characters. Also, it’s not a prequel but shifts the StarTrek timeline forwards.
So I wonder where your assessment comes from.
Sat, Nov 5, 2022, 9:00am (UTC -5)
I'd also add that for a 1/2-hr animated show, it's miles ahead of "Lower Decks" in terms of watchability, enjoyability and not being obnoxious.
Sat, Nov 5, 2022, 12:12pm (UTC -5)
Star Trek: Lower Decks is certainly up there with the best of Trek for those who don't mind humor and is only getting better with every season.
Sat, Nov 5, 2022, 9:21pm (UTC -5)
As for Prodigy, it's almost impossible to compare it with Lower Decks because they're so different. I'm certainly enjoying the ongoing story so far and am eager to know what happens next, which is not true of Lower Decks most of the time (nor is it meant to be), where the story ends up plays a big part in how good it ultimately is.
Tue, Nov 8, 2022, 12:08pm (UTC -5)
I think this is the cardinal sin of this episode. Holo-Janeway should have told her cadets that the "weapon" is from the future and the Borg would have no knowledge of it.
The Zero-Borg dynamic was the only thing that kept me in this episode.
Pretty shotty introduction to the borg.
Maybe I'm being to harsh here as this is designed for kids...
2 stars.
Tue, Nov 8, 2022, 9:34pm (UTC -5)
No, you're not.
Mon, May 22, 2023, 3:36pm (UTC -5)
From an adult point of view though, the Borg being disarmed by the Power of Friendship was disappointing and they were defeated far too quickly. I enjoyed the aesthetics and I was glad we had a Zero episode, but agree this was one of the weakest so far.
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