Review Text
"Brink" opens with a flashback that shows Asencia capturing Wesley Crusher to use in her plan to manipulate timelines to her advantage and build a fleet capable of controlling Solum and attacking the Federation. That I don't have much to say about the flashback, or many other things in this episode — other than that it was shown to us and provides information — is perhaps its own statement. We've reached that point in the season (again, I suppose) where Prodigy has become primarily about piece-moving and plot execution. It has probably usually been mostly that, but as the serialized 20-episode-long plot drags on, it becomes more obvious, and there's less to say about it.
Janeway arrives at Solum with the assignment to disable Asencia's time weapons and prevent a war with the Federation. The hook of the episode is that it pays homage to Mission: Impossible by having the away mission to Solum, if they choose to accept it, be off-book such that Janeway says she must "disavow" the team if they are captured. The mission is led by Gwyn (who is not Starfleet and thus not subject to the Prime Directive, although everyone else is, so I don't see the practical difference). They are to collect information but not engage Asencia or her forces. Yeah, right.
Ilthuran re-enters the plot as a contact who is working with the resistance against Asencia's forces and can help our heroes. To complicate matters, they also work with the younger version of Asencia — who actually belongs in this timeline — and is also part of the resistance. I feel like there's a missed opportunity here: Both the idea of a Solum resistance and a second version of Asencia who stands against her doppelganger are intriguing, but so little is done with either idea.
What we have is fine, but it's your standard action/adventure plotting. We get a jailbreak attempt involving a train. To the episode's credit, there's a character core: At the center of the action is Gwyn, who is in command and must make the tough choices. Dal defers to her instead of butting heads, which shows some maturity. It all comes down to a call where Gwyn must separate the team into two groups — one which rescues Wesley, and the other which rescues Ilthuran. But this goes against Wesley's previous edict that the entire group must always stay together. (But he said that, like, seven episodes ago, and they've split up plenty of times since then. How literally were they supposed to take that advice?)
Bear with me here. Or, more specifically, bear with Wesley, who Wes-splains: Asencia's entire plan was actually ... his. He got captured on purpose so Asencia would use his knowledge to build the time-altering tech, which Wes planned to use to send the Protostar back in time to fix the paradox. (I have questions, but I'll save them.) And now he freaks out because the kids have split up, which wasn't part of his plan. And now he can't calculate the future, because this one changed variable has thrown everything off, and the entire everything may now be in jeopardy! Wes may be a timeline guru, but he's totally freaking nuts. Also, Prodigy may sound unhinged, but it's surprisingly grounded about it — give or take a Wes.
Previous episode: Ascension, Part II
Next episode: Touch of Grey
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6 comments on this post
Karl Zimmerman
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.
Chris W
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.
The Queen
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.
Jeffrey's Tube
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.
Sebastien Andre Roblin
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!)
Black Oat
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.
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