Star Trek: Prodigy

“Ascension, Part I”

Review pending

Air date: 7/1/2024
Written by Erin McNamara, Jennifer Muro, Diandra Pendleton-Thompson, Keith Sweet II, Aaron J. Waltke
Directed by Sung Shin

Review Text

Pending my review, the comments section is open.

Previous episode: Cracked Mirror
Next episode: Ascension, Part II

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3 comments on this post

    The first half of this episode is something of a "new status quo" set. Character arcs are touched upon, like Dal seeking the respect of Red Squad, and Zero needing a new body to replace his failing one. Jellico (the foil for this season, always telling Janeway what she can't do) says the mission is over, and Starfleet will take things over.

    Then, halfway through, Asencia reappears as an antagonist, with a huge new ship overpowered ship that endangers both the Voyager and the Protostar. The crew is forced to disperse into different plots, with Dal scrambling onto a fighter, Gwyn back aboard the Protostar with others, etc. And it ends with the twist that Asencia gained her new powers via having Wesley Crusher as a prisoner.

    Honestly, it's the perfect setup for a climactic two-parter, done in an incredibly short time. My only real issue here is it was obviously designed as a cliffhanger, and clicking through to the next episode (let's be clear, we all did that, after that ending) meant the suspense was no greater than during a commercial break. Makes me wish we got to see the alternate universe where it was released as the showrunners intended. Ah well.

    In one of Dal's few demonstrations of maturity and, more interestingly and importantly, finesse, he compliments one of the Red Squadron members after he just insulted Dal. That was solid. 👍

    I don't know if it's just me, but does it seem like the folks that animate Janeway spend more time actually animating her than they do Chakotay? She seems so much more expressive.

    I absolutely loved that the writers crafted up whatever technobabble they needed to make the solution to the problem a team effort by almost everyone. Quality writing! 👍

    Also, I could swear Asencia spoke with a slight british accent 😆

    Much like the rest of the season, there are so many inspired, good ideas in this episode. Oh, and it's exciting as hell.

    Compressed time bubbles being used to build a fleet with weapons from the future is such a neat idea. That this credible, massive threat (the tricky "how" part of any plot) comes from having kidnapped Wesley Crusher makes perfect plot sense.

    We see Dal come up with the idea to have the Protostar be the one that "takes the shot on the goal," so to speak, while he just blocks. Further proof that he has internalized Chakotay's speech that it's okay to not always be the captain and being support is just as valuable.

    Jellico constantly being the prick from Starfleet brass that only says "NO!" makes me wonder if someone from the Prodigy writing staff is a fan of Peter David's New Frontier novels. Ha!

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