Review Text
Pending my review, the comments section is open.
Previous episode: Supernova, Part 2
Next episode: Into the Breach, Part II
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Star Trek: Prodigy
Air date: 7/1/2024
Written by Kevin & Dan Hageman
Directed by Ben Hibon
Pending my review, the comments section is open.
Previous episode: Supernova, Part 2
Next episode: Into the Breach, Part II
Like this site? Support it by buying Jammer a coffee.
15 comments on this post
Karl Zimmerman
First episode down. It's...fine?
Like some of the two-parters last season, this showcases some of the issues with having a highly serialized show with a 20-ish minute runtime (once credits are taken out). It makes me wish they just did a mega-cut of all of Into the Breach. The first half of the episode is taken up by establishing the new status quo and then the fairly limp call to action.
While Robert Picardo's voice acting as the Doctor still sounds spot on, there's a lifelessness here which makes his introduction not work quite right. You can tell he's not used to voice acting, and the cadence feels wrong with him not working against another character.
Fortunately, the episode picks up in the final 10 minutes. The scene where Dal talks to Gwyndala is fire, as the kids might say. Ella Purnell is easily the biggest get that Prodigy snagged in terms of talent (as her more recent turns on Arcane and Fallout have shown), and the show instantly feels more mature when she's present. Then, the mystery involving the cloaked ship in the secret shuttlebay starts unfolding, and the episode begins to have some missing forward direction. Even then, it's not perfect (how did they not hear Jankom Pog screaming on the ceiling), but it's much better.
Frankly, I think the episode would have been paced better if it had begun with the kids on the new Voyager. Yeah, there are some issues with the difference between what the end of last season promised and this, but the establishment of a new status quo twice that then gets wrecked is just too much for the short runtime.
Still I'm intrigued, and will watch part 2 later this afternoon.
Joseph B
From Karl Zimmerman:
"(how did they not hear Jankom Pog screaming on the ceiling)"
Ha! I couldn't understand that either!! Must be some strong auditory sound proofing tech up there due to the secret nature of the place.
Agree that the ep was just ... Ok. (2 1/2 Stars). The highlight was the return of Picardo as "The Doctor".
Chris W
It's a good set-up starter episode. Totally serviceable. There was nothing about it that truly rubbed me the wrong way, and after Discovery, I'm content with that.
I'm not sure about the animation of The Doctor, either.
castlerook
My 7-year-old son and I binge-watched the first half of the season today. It's really good, folks. I liked season 1, but this is significantly better.
It is also a fair amount more intense than season 1 as well, so parents take note. My son did just fine with the first season, but episodes 9 and 10 of this one get quite scary indeed.
Jeffrey's Tube
Bob Picardo back as the Doctor? Check. Voyager-A? Check. The Doctor referencing the Romulan evacuation (I've been so worried these shows are going to ignore it)? Check. Cetacean Ops (lol)? Check. Nova Squadron? Check! Admiral Jellico? Check.
Janeway and co. clearly want the kids to steal the shuttle and go through the wormhole, but why?
Good start, manages to catch everyone up on the stakes without the exposition dragging.
Chris W
@Jammer - I hope you haven't forgotten about dear ol' Prodigy and its review! 😊
Jammer
Just a quick update on the Prodigy front. In short: I am currently nowhere on this season and these reviews.
My plan was to watch these with my kids and write reviews over a period of weeks or months. We watched the first episode, perhaps two months ago, and the gradual viewing I thought might happen did not happen. I just haven't been able to convince them to allocate their free time to this show. And with the craziness that was summer, it just didn't make sense to try to fit it in with everything else. Now with the craziness that is the school year, it probably doesn't make sense now either. I don't know when/if they will ever feel like watching this.
So, this is on my extended backlog at this point. I may decide to just watch the show on my own, but I also might wait until after Lower Decks finishes its run given that LD is coming back in less than a month. And I've got other things going on right now.
Also, when you consider these shows have only prompted 120 total comments over three months (I've read none of them, to be clear, as I hope to remain spoiler-free), it seems the demand for this show and/or reviews may not even be there.
So, I'll assess again later. Who knows -- with the days getting shorter, there may be more time to binge shows and less incentive to do other things as we get into fall and winter. But I don't know; we'll see. It's just not a priority right now. It has definitely fallen off the map for the time being.
As a side note, this is exactly what I feared about reviewing a show released as a full-season binge. Without a weekly deadline and time to do one episode per week, I immediately missed the boat on the whole season after the first week or two, and now it's essentially too late. The reviews will be retrospectives at best, and they are not likely to generate much if any activity.
Peter G.
@ Jammer,
Welcome to the "Blame the kids Club"! I don't judge, it is a club with many excellent privileges, and quite a distinguished membership. I have been a proud member for several years and have, with no irony or sarcasm intended, been able to foist the responsibility for certain situations onto my kids. And may I add, with more than sufficient cause!
Jammer
I honestly believe the binge model is as much to "blame" here. I could've probably convinced everyone to commit to watching one episode a week if there was a "threat" of "falling behind," and could've maybe turned it into a weekly viewing event. But with the binge, it's just one more bucket of content where we start out 20 in the hole, and no one wants to bother diving into it -- myself sort of included.
Then again, that's all probably BS, because I didn't have to convince anyone to watch the Jurassic World animated shows, and we binged each of those seasons in a week or less when they came out. Maybe they just don't want to do the Star Trek thing right now.
Chrome
I, for one, salute your data-driven decision, Jammer!
spoiler: (My kids don’t watch it either.)
castlerook
For your own sake, I do hope you catch up with the season soon. It’s outstanding, and basically does for Voyager what season 3 of Picard did for TNG.
Jeffrey's Tube
@ Jammer
Whether or not you get around to the reviews, don't miss this. It's wonderful.
Floris
I find myself checking this site every week or so to find out if a review has been published already. Matter of habit. Every time I'm disappointed though hehe. But very understandable given the time investment required.
Season 2 of Prodigy positively surprised me. Hope you'll still find the time to watch it some day!
And many thanks for all the other reviews over the years. It's greatly enhanced my ST experience.
Chris W
"Also, when you consider these shows have only prompted 120 total comments over three months (I've read none of them, to be clear, as I hope to remain spoiler-free), it seems the demand for this show and/or reviews may not even be there."
-> I also think your participation is the rally cry for us to "gather 'round the campfire." But I also think so much time has passed now that it probably won't have the same effect.
Jay
It's been a while since I watched Season 1, and just started season 2, but I really feel that this is one of the best Kurtzman trek shows. Having just finished Discovery season 5 which was frustrating as ever, I would have loved Prodigy to have gotten a full multi season run.
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