“Brink”

This outing focuses on the setup for the (near) final conflict with Acensia. The gang plans out their "infiltration" of Solum (with, stupidly, only a single transport booster and a single personal cloak, because the plot needs to happen). After meeting with the new rebel leader - a younger Acensia (I'm happy that there's some complication of her character, even if it's an alter), Gwyn decides to split up the group, with half rescuing her father and the other half rescuing Wesley. This goes well until it doesn't, at which point the episode ends, with all of them being captured, albeit having rescued Wesley and the (former) Diviner and sending them back to Voyager.

Nothing here plays out badly by any means, but we're deep in the endgame now, which means nearly everything other than occasional flourishes (like Gwyn's complicated feelings about her home) is at the service of the plot. Fortunately, the plotting here is better than everything else I've seen in modern Trek, so the lack of strong character arcs is fine.

Another fantastic episode of great writing when it comes to designing an intricate and interesting plot.

Dal and Gwyn make some interesting character developments, particularly Dal, as he heeds some advice he receives in previous episodes.

I'm going to try to write my next comment and still keep it spoiler-free.

In this episode, Gwyn takes command of an away team and makes a critical decision. While her choice isn't wrong per se, it is perceived as “wrong” by someone else. The consequences of Gwyn’s decision place the fate of the mission squarely in the hands of the Prodigy crew and their colleagues. This level of sophisticated writing is impressive for a children’s show.

One critique I have is that the show could benefit from extending the analysis of Gwyn’s decision. This could be achieved through more deliberate exposition from her teammates or a senior officer during a debrief. Gwyn second-guesses herself, wondering, “Did I make the wrong decision?” I would hate for children to walk away feeling that Gwyn’s choices were inherently wrong, as they were not.

Not only could the show more firmly illustrate a lesson in sticking behind thoughtful, deliberate decision-making, but it could also explain a lesson in communication.

Chris W - I agree, there could have been a bit more pointing to Wesley's role in the crisis. It would have been easy, as he's been depicted all along as a bit flaky, and he's already mentioned that he's not at his best.

The reasoning for why only the kids could go on this mission was paper thin. But, still serviceable.

Wesley's dialogue about the words "almost" and "nearly" were "doing a lot of heavy lifting in that sentence(s)" cracked me up.

I also agree that it's cool the show is engaging with the character and concept of younger Ascencia. Again, it's kind of complicated for a kid's show, and yet there's a great lesson to be learned from it: even if the entire universe decides you're bad and going to be a villain and do horrible things, it's your choice. You can choose not to. You can always be the hero.

This episode does a clever, but in retrospect, also very necessary thing. Until now the plot has been puttering along as 'fated' based on Wesley's inter-dimensional set-piece gambits. When the characters finally fail to act according to his design, the show has restored a truer level of agency to the protagonists as well as within-universe uncertainty of a happy ending. (Aside: while Wesley points out he ensured all the kids survive, his convoluted scenarios are not so forgiving of numerous crew members who meet terrible fates in prior episodes. Apparently some very grim ethical arithmetic is taking place we aren't meant to think too hard about!)

Darth Ascencia Strikes Back! This was a fun, action packed two-parter. Definitely more Star Wars than Star Trek though.


"Apparently some very grim ethical arithmetic is taking place we aren't meant to think too hard about"

He was willing to sacrifice Maj'el to the Loom in The Devourer of All Things part 2, as well.