Review Text
"Ouroboros, Part II" is all about closing loops and bringing things full circle. As such, it makes for a fitting finale in this season fueled by time paradoxes — as well as, it turns out, a poignant series finale for Star Trek: Prodigy. I'm glad they closed as many loops as they did, since this series was famously renewed, mostly completed, and then canceled by Paramount+ before finishing production and getting a new (and temporary) home on Netflix.
The last adversaries to overcome in this ever-escalating timeline apocalypse are the time-soul-eating Loom, who must be returned to whatever dimension in the multiverse from whence they came before they erase everything in ours. The Loom, when you think about them, are a tangible device that have been inserted into the narrative to create a literal and visceral threat from the idea that a time paradox can cancel you and your reality into oblivion.
The idea of oblivion because you never existed in the first place is something that's hard to cinematically convey, because by definition it's an abstract idea. (I suppose it was done effectively in Looper, which was also all about closing logical time loops.) It's honestly more interesting in the abstract. But the Loom have existed all season as monsters that operate on literal (which is to say, relatively dopey) action/adventure terms. I guess that's the price of doing business with a kids' show. (Or, to be honest, not just kids' shows but also ones ostensibly for adults, as the threat of an "advanced AI" in Picard was depicted with menacing mechanical tentacles.)
Anyway, the Loom must be lured back through the One Wormhole to Rule Them All by chasing Gwyn, the One Time Anomaly That Is Most Coveted of All, back through the wormhole on the Protostar, which is protected by Voyager, whose phasers have been modified to send the Loom back to their dimension. It's all very much an action concept rather than a puzzle-solving one, but it's depicted with such an imaginative CGI light show that I can hardly complain.
What's perhaps best about this is that it's quickly resolved in the first act (much like the crisis in the first season's finale), such that the last two-thirds of the episode can focus on an extended coda that winds down the season and the series. When the Protostar makes its journey back into the past, there's a nice montage of past episodes that remind us of all those events that happened (and will happen for the first time in the Protostar's future). And there's a solid character moment where hologram Janeway — who suffers from an existential crisis when she realizes her memory must be wiped in order to restore the ship to the state it was found on Tars Lamora — gets a surprise backup that allows her to exist in her current state and be transferred off the Protostar.
Then we get an epilogue that shows the cadets returning to Earth. Chakotay is named captain of Voyager, and Janeway decides to take early retirement and retreat to her home in the countryside. Wesley, who has some time off from being a Traveler, finally visits his mother, who introduces him to his baby brother Jack (closing a loop back to Picard's third season).
But in a surprise twist that creates a loop back to Picard's first season, the sudden synth attack at the Utopia Planitia Yards on Mars occurs as a background event that sends Starfleet into a state of emergency and shutters all exploration missions as well as the academy, just as the hopeful cadets were nearing the possibility of becoming full graduates. But then they're granted a special opportunity by Admiral Janeway, who's recalled to duty for the Starfleet emergency. They're given official ensign ranks and assigned under her command (and the guided supervision of hologram Janeway) to take on a unique mission of exploration under the newly completed successor to the Protostar — which is officially named the USS Prodigy. (We finally learn what the show's title refers to.)
While, yes, I find it highly unlikely that these ensigns would be given command of their own brand-new starship under these very messy circumstances, it works as a specifically designed flight of fancy that emotionally follows the events of this series. In a character arc that shows growth through the acceptance of his own limitations, Dal willingly steps aside to allow Gwyn to serve as the Prodigy's captain, where he can learn as first officer.
Zooming back to the macro view, this spiritually feels like Star Trek doing the closest thing to TNG-era (or Voyager-era, if you will) Trek as we've probably seen in the Kurtzman era. Of course, being serialized, it also comes with many of the same liabilities as the shows in the serialized era, with plotlines that go on entire seasons (yes, too long, leading to wheel-spinning bridge episodes), though I must say this 20-episode-long season moved along pretty well when compared to its contemporaries.
And as a show designed for kids, it makes some of the concessions you would expect of a kids' show, particularly in the dialogue, and with simplified monsters like the Loom. But, to be honest, not too many. The series often made little effort to tone down the Trekkian take on science or its time-travel plot, which was definitely not dumbed down. If anything, I appreciated the full clarity the writers brought to it by re-explaining, in linear detail, everything in this finale. (The one major logical element that does not get explained — unless you venture into the whole multiverse nonsense to wave it away — is how the first season's timeline can possibly remain intact if Ilthuran is now leading Solum to peace rather than becoming the evil Diviner who drove the entire first season's plot.)
The usual qualms aside, I can endorse this season as an improvement upon the first. And while it probably didn't need 20 episodes to tell this story, it was still a story worth watching and was expertly produced. If there's a regret I have, it's that I could never convince my kids to get into it (for some reason they resisted every attempt I made to get them to watch the second season with me) and I wasn't able to review this with the insight of what it looked like when viewed through their lens. But as an old Trekker, it was worth taking the journey nonetheless.
Previous episode: Ouroboros, Part I
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29 comments on this post
Brandon
Stuck the landing. After 7 episodes of wandering and then getting bogged down in epic excess, the finale takes some unexpected turns. It decides to tie itself into the roots of Picard (in more ways than one), and there's some well-portrayed pathos about Starfleet's new circle-the-wagons mentality following the synth attack, from the admiralty down to the kids.
If a little treacly, the back-to-where-we-started sentiment is handled fine (much better than Discovery), and holo-Janeway gets to come back for the ride. And yeah - you knew the kids were going to get commissions and their own ship. But I really liked who was given the command chair. When you look back over the season, has it not been that person who's shown the real leadership, making the hard calls and putting the mission first? Meanwhile, Dal's not ready. He's an idiot. But he knows it now, and he's still brave and resourceful. He'll make a good captain one day. But this season was about revealing that he hasn't been on Janeway's journey but Chakotay's, and it was handled with enough subtlety to make it a respectable plotline.
It's quite telling that there was a far bigger outcry to salvage this show than to salvage Discovery. Though a bit uneven, Prodigy S2 was zippy, smart, well-plotted, and well-aimed. It made me want to watch S1 and to root for a S3, to see the kids in a classic starship setting and perhaps start maturing the show's themes and voice as the kids grow up during an uncertain post-Mars environment. Might never happen, but the show has earned it.
Louis Brantmeyer
The whole season was decent and entertaining I think binging it actually made it less so however. One discovery I made is that if you overload yourself cognitively with the material in the season, it can be difficult to register the emotional tone of the later material.
Karl Zimmerman
My feelings with the Season 2 finale are actually pretty similar to the Season 1 finale. In both cases, there was a tension between what made a good episode of TV and what made a good ending to the season arc. So they decided to go with the latter, meaning it doesn't really work as an episode proper.
Thankfully, it works much better here than in season 1. Still, it's pretty similar structurally. After two minutes of opening credits, we have no more than three minutes where the Loom is portrayed as any threat whatsoever. After five minutes of the episode proper, they get past the Loom. Then they have a few minutes of sappy coda, which contain numerous clips from both Seasons 1 and 2 (appropriate, given the nature of the closed time loop), with the entire back half of the episode given to epilogue.
Given the timeline they chose to set Prodigy in, I understand why they felt the need to include a reference to the synth attack on Utopia Planitia. However, it makes for a pretty strange ending. We have some "all is well" closing shots with Wesley reunited with his mother/brother, Janeway enjoying retirement, and the kids back at Starfleet Prep. Then we have the attack, which upends everything. It's an excuse for why the kids are given a ship of their own, but it's not a teaser for anything storywise other than further adventures.
The touch of Dal concluding his arc by realizing that Gwyn, rather than he, is the one who should have the chair is great - for his character - as learning he's not the "main character" has been a central theme. However, I'm not sure I like this for Gwyn, as it seems arbitrary given she hasn't shown much desire for command.
While the closer was a bit of a letdown for me, it's still a decent end to what has been far and away the best-serialized arc in all of modern Star Trek. I realize they had much less to cover here than the other shows (total runtime discounting credits is less than 3.5 hours), but it's still shocking to me they stuck the landing in a way that Discovery and Picard were never quite able to.
Chris W
Season Finale pt.1 - 3 stars
Season Finale pt.2 - 4 stars
Season 2 overall - 3.5 stars
I've been a fan of the serial plot and found the filler/side quest episodes solidly serviceable. The plot been complex and intricate, the character development is strong, the writers treat the characters as an ensemble well (no Michael here!), there’s no shortage of action, and the music really helps to create the emotional beats the writers want.
(I’m trying to write without spoiling)
CRITIQUES OF THE 2-PART FINALE
=======================================================
Despite the season's strength, I found some plot resolutions disappointingly simple.
[A] Rok and her team convey scientific complexity with their problem and present a basic, obvious solution. It’s one I think most of us trekkies would expect.
[B] Gwyn's battle with Acensia and the aid she receives from her species feels convenient and sudden.
[C] The writers also find a use for Cetacean Ops to lend a pretty meaningful hand to a problem the writers cook up at the last minute, and it feels unbelievable.
Which leads me to my main question: Are such critiques valid for a Nickelodeon show with a Y7 rating? Much of what we have seen this season could have been spotted in a live-action adult show, including what I gather is a rather complicated time travel plot for a 7-yr old. Why couldn't the various solutions presented in this finale be as interesting as solutions in past episodes? Do I give it a pass? I haven't decided yet.
POSITIVES OF THE 2-PART FINALE AND OTHER VIEWS OF SEASON 2
=======================================================
PROS:
[1] I don't think I've ever seen a montage/clip show work as well as it did here. Boosting the montage is what the USS Prodigy is doing in the background, making the clip show even more meaningful. The accompanying music was fantastic, really hitting the emotional beats for me. Finally, the montage’s success and placement in the episode provides it with the flexibility to operate as both a series finale and a hopeful launch for season 3.
[2] Dal's decision to not immediately grab what he wants in the finale shows refreshing maturity and results in a surprising and well-deserved outcome for someone else.
[3] “That guy” (trying not to include spoilers) wasn't thrown in for fan service sake; he was a legit part of the main storyline. I thought it was great! And I loved how he was channeling a little "Q" craziness there with his portrayal.
[4] The tie-ins to the Mars attack and Picard’s Season 3 were solid, and I strongly appreciate the writers’ not-totally-successful efforts to bridge the unfortunate consistencies in uniforms. “not enough combadges to go around”
CONS:
[a] Dal and crew make errors leading to major consequences in the first half of the season, like Chakotay leaving with the Protostar and stealing a ship, yet face little punishment from Janeway. It's hard to accept, but if Kirk was rewarded for stealing a ship and cheating on an exam, I suppose it's okay that Dal & co. are praised despite their mistakes?
OTHER THOUGHTS:
[i] Given the title "Prodigy" and the focus on characters with special talents, what does Dal contribute to earn the prodigy moniker?
[ii] Chakotay totally dicked holo-Janeway. 😆 You think we’ll finally see him get together with one of them?
[iii] Jellico is a nice little bit of fan service, and he wasn’t a total toolbag.
[iv] I just noticed that combadges aren’t always placed in the exact same spot across characters. Nice touch. But someone's gonna get a dressing down for not adhering to uniform dress code!
[v] I'm surprised holo-Janeway was willing to "kill" (reset) herself as quickly as she did.
Scott
I'll basically say for Season 2 as a whole, this was great. I just can't believe how good this show was. I'd arguably say it's some of the best of all of modern trek.
The tie-ins to Trek lore and other shows was also fantastic, and it didn't feel "forced" or for "fanservice" but actually flowed naturally and had a point in being connected. I'd say this show in fact elevates "Picard" and all other modern Trek shows too.
Also it's basically a sequel/follow-up show to Voyager. Getting to see what happened to Janeway, Chakotay and the Doctor was great. If this is the last we ever see of them, it's a pretty good sendoff. (and 7 of 9 and Tuvok on the last season of Picard, wonder what Tom/B'elanna and Kim are up to as they're the only ones not to appear besides Tom having a cameo on Lower Decks).
Great show, the new cast was really likeable and for a "kids show" it was surprisingly deeper than most Trek shows. If it doesn't get another season and this is the end, it was a great sendoff.
Jeffrey's Tube
What an incredible finale. I gather chances for a season 3 are probably zero, and that's a shame. But it ends in a great place.
. . .
If I was a kid who had never seen Picard, I'd probably be "huh what the what now?!" with all the stuff near the end, but as an adult fan, I really, really appreciated the effort to tie continuity together as much as possible and give us fan service moments like Wesley going to see his mother and meet Jack.
. . .
Wow that wormhole technobabble scene went hard, huh? To any kid, even a smart one, it must have sounded like "blah blah blah blah." But that's okay. You get the idea. Heh.
. . .
Dal was definitely the most "kids-show" character in S1 and therefore the least interesting and most annoying of the main cast (even less interesting than Murph, as far as I'm concerned), but this season really addressed that and, in my opinion, fixed it. His arc this season of maturing was extremely well handled. Not to keep shitting on Discovery (okay . . . maybe just a little bit more), but no character arc on that show (were there any?) over five seasons was handled anywhere near as deftly. Prodigy EARNED this evolution of his character and it was accomplished in a way that felt very true to life.
. . .
Listen, it seems really clear to me that Chakotay and Janeway are bangin'. If they're not, that's dumb. Life's short and before it's even over you're old and gross. If you find someone you connect with like that, have some sex.
Karl Zimmerman
IIRC the Hagemans have said they purposefully made it a bit ambiguous whether or not Janeway and Chakotay were romantically involved. They wanted to give some fanservice for shippers, but not make it 100% canonical.
Scott
Just be glad the Chakotay and 7 of 9 ship from the end of Voyager was dropped. I don't know what the Voyager writers were thinking with that in literally what...the last 2 eps of Voyager.
Now we also know Chakotay hasn't seen 7 in 10 years (due to being on that planet) as well.
Kyle
This show made Picard relevant, but the synth attacks were all I needed to see, I dodn't need the convoluted storyline of Picard. This show is so superior to Picard and Disco in plotting, writing, chracter development and overall execution,it kind of akes me wish that those shows had gotten this treatment from the Prodigy writers, then PIC and DIS would have actually been good, not the incoherent sloppy messes that they were.
Speaking of the synth attack, in Measure of a Man didn't they say they couldn't turn sentient androids into slaves? Seems that;s what happened, part of making Nu Trek all grimdark.
Yanks
@Brandon
I in lock step with you. Very nice summary.
This show was awesome. At times you could really tell it was made for kids, but that's fine. It wasn't pandering.
So, so sad it was axed. Not sure why... this was really good and it can't come close to the cost of a live action show.
I kind of shook my head when Wesley showed up, but it was written pretty well.
I watched all the eps in 3 days and didn't get pissed once. Can I say that about Discovery?
Fingers crossed Kathern has some influence and Netflix pics this up for a season 3.
Very nicely done.
Break.
Live action comedy show? ... Please Alex, don't be fooled.... no one wants that. Even less than Star Fleet Acadamy. Come back around to Legacy.
Jeffrey's Tube
Based on the lack of comments, it seems almost no one has watched this. And that's a shame. It was wonderful.
Joseph B
... or it could be that people are waiting on Jammer's perspective before replying.
I have to say that I really enjoyed this batch of episodes. The writing, voice work, and CGI animation were all top notch. It really felt like a "Voyager" sequel.
A
One word: satisfying (very indeed)!
KiminAsia
I'm 61 and though the old destroy Starfleet trope is, well, very old, I admit I enjoyed this overall, though I'm not sure if kids would stick it through. Dal is the only character who gets decent development and the old Voyager charcters are pretty flat. Some of the wackier moments like re-introducing Wesley were the best, though my interest flagged a lot in the last 6 episodes or so -- there was just too much timey wimey overload. One technical thing: the voices of the main Voyager crew and Wesley just sounded off vs the younger cast, both in terms of sound quality and presentation (stiffness, less familiarity with voice acting?).
damned7
Jammer should hurry with these reviews, there's Lower Decks season 5 right around the corner
Colin
Agreed, as there is another time constraint. I am reading that Netflix will not renew Prodigy for a third season. The question becomes, how long will Netflix continue to show Prodigy on its streaming service?
I watched the second season. I liked it for the most part, but I am not in any hurry to watch it again.
I am not feeling excited about the future of the franchise. The Section 31 movie holds little interest for me, SNW has gone off the rails, imo, and it sounds like it will become even more strange for the third season, and the Academy series sounds like something from another era, where we had shows like 90210. As for the movie, it will be another alternate timeline thing, whose future is dependent on whether there will be enough people who want to watch it in a movie theater.
Jay
Just finished it. Thoroughly enjoyed both seasons way more than I had thought I might when this premiered. Probably I think the best of the Kurtzman era trek for me, maybe because it actually feels related to previous series.
Black Oatmeal
This is easily the best of the modern Trek shows.
I wish they had not gone with the serialized format so strongly, or at least made it less convoluted, but the ending here works very well for the story they told. I was annoyed that they included stuff from Picard, but was happy to see that the ending is a rebuttal of the grimdark bullshit of that show.
This is a hard series to critique. Sometimes it's written like a kid's show so I can't really criticize it too much because it isn't written for me. Other times it is heavily serialized with a plot that I would imagine would confuse the heck out of any kids watching it. I think they made a mistake by not committing fully to one approach. In earlier comments I said that it might be a good show for Trek fans to watch with their kids, and I think that holds true for some standalone episodes, but by the end of season 2, I think the show is probably only going to be of interest to long term Trek fans. I could be wrong about that though.
So was it a good show? Well, I think, as a kid's show, a lot of season 1 would be very good. Is it a good Trek show? That's a tougher question. I think it COULD be. I think some episodes are decent Trek episodes. I think it's more watchable than any Trek show or movie in the last 20 years. But is it good Trek in the way that good Trek is uniquely Trek? No, I don't think so. That's hard to do when your target audience is 10 and under, and I think that many of the more adult oriented episodes, despite a lot of their trappings, feel like they could have been written for other sci-fi shows.
Having said that, I would absolutely be interested in seeing where they took the show in a hypothetical season 3.
Here are some of the episodes that I liked best:
Last Flight of the Protostar 1 &2
Ouroboros Part 2
First Con-tact
Dream Catcher/Terror Firma
Preludes
Fair warning: If anyone is going to watch the series, they are probably best served by just watching them all from start to finish.
Black Oat
I'm not positive, but I think that the flower Janeway plants in her garden in Indiana is the same type that the Diviner picks for Gwyndala in A Moral Star part 2. It might also be the same plant that is visible in the hieroglyphs on the walls of the pit during the Va'Lu'Rah ritual in Into the Breach part 2.
Nothing about it in Memory Alpha, so who knows?
Colin Lindsly
The first season is no longer available on Netflix. The second season is available on Netflix to January 2026.
wolfstar
So to close the time loop, they had to send the Protostar back to Tars Lamora into the past for the kids to find it, to ensure season 1 of the show would happen and for Gwyn to exist.
But doesn't that mean Ilthuran has to turn evil and be sent back in time to look for it, and to enslave the kids there in the first place? Why would he now do that? He's shown here as a pleasant, noble young man who gets to meet his future daughter and who leads the resistance against future Asencia. Likewise, young Asencia is also shown as a good character. If the show is selling us the idea that "if we don't ensure the Protostar is sent back so it can be found, the timeline will collapse", then that surely also applies to the people who have to be there to discover it, which means Ilthuran has to turn evil, be sent back in time (ditto Asencia and the others) and enslave the kids.
It makes no sense. Especially with the series's strong emphasis on Gwyn's existence potentially being erased due to the changes in the timeline. How does simply sending the ship back, but not Ilthuran, ensure Gwyn is created?
The original timeline of first contact between Solum and the Federation is the plot hole at the heart of this series. We still never find out why the disastrous first contact took place and what form it took, and we don't get to see that this season either, as the events unfold very differently due to future Asencia wresting control and Wesley letting her take his technology.
Black Oat
I think what they were saying is that the timeline where Tars Lamora is destroyed by civil war no longer exists so the people who only exist because of its creation will slowly blink out Marty McFly style. No it doesn't make sense, but that's what they were going for, I think.
Time travel in Trek has always been inconsistent and often times contradictory since TOS. That's not an excuse, just an unfortunate fact.
I gave quite a bit of thought to mapping out all the time travel stuff in these episodes and I just don't see any way to make all the pieces fit. You can either accept their half-assed explanations or don't.
My half-assed explanation:
We are dealing with two timelines here. Instead of looking at it as "We must fix timeline B to save the Prime timeline" we need to look at it as "The Prime timeline can only be stable if timeline B temporarily exists."
Timeline B: The Chakotay of the Prime timeline gets sucked into a temporal anomaly and lands in (or creates) a new timeline, B. He lands in the future on the planet Solum. He doesn't escape from Solum, but he does send the Protostar back in time to the Prime timeline. The old versions of the Diviner and Ascencia from timeline B follow the Protostar into the past of the Prime timeline.
Prime timeline: the Diviner from timeline B settles on Tars Lamora, creates the mining colony and Gwynn. Dal and the gang escape. Eventually the Prodigy crew, minus Gwynn, travel into the future - but not the future of the Prime timeline. They travel to the future of Timeline B where they screw it up by inadvertently helping Chakotay escape on the Protostar. So Timeline B is doomed and the Prime line is likely too since there's no Protostar for Dal to find. But since they don't fade out of existence the ship must have been there, right?
How? Well, it's because the unpiloted Protostar that originated in the Prime timeline was the first thing to blink out of existence after Dal screwed up. The piloted Protostar of timeline B is actually the one that we have seen throughout the series. The Prodigy crew must recover it and send it back in time to the past of the Prime timeline so that their younger selves can discover it
Question: why is Gwynn the only character disappearing? Tough one. Part of the explanation is the way that changes in timeline work in Trek. Sometimes it's sudden, and at others, changes slowly spread throughout the timeline Marty McFly style. The older versions of the Diviner and Ascencia were from timeline B so they should be affected. Gwynn was created in the Prime timeline but since her progenitor was from B she should be toast too. I think the likely answer is that old Ascencia has control of Wesley and the old Diviner is dead. Which leaves Gwynn as the only one left to feel the effects of the death of timeline B.
Finally: consider that maybe causality loops are a necessary part of a timeline. There are events in the Prime timeline that can only happen due to interference from events from other timelines. So for the Prime timeline to carry on as it must there had to be a temporary timeline, B, to interact with it. The most important event was one we never saw: Chakotay and the Protostar of the Prime timeline being sucked into the temporal anomaly that deposited him on the future Solum of timeline B. Chakotay going through that first anomaly creates timeline B and Dal's accidentally helping him escape destroys it. By sending the Protostar of B back to the past in the Prime timeline they ensure that everything plays out as it should. Gwynn was blinking out of existence because B was slowly self destructing (or being consumed) but, as in Back to the Future, things were fixed in the nick of time. There is a causality loop, but that's just how time travel works in Trek. "Time has resumed its shape. All is as it was before."
Black Oatmeal
Periodic reminder that this is the best of the modern Trek shows. Not perfect, but definitely worth a watch. Give it chance.
Greg M
Jammer,
Thanks for finally reviewing Prodigy season 2. I think I liked it more than you did, but I'm so happy you gave Last Flight of the Protostar a great review. That episode took so much advantage of the fact that this series was animated it was just really gorgeous to look at. The story was great too.
Leif
Can they PLEASE RENEW THIS SHOW AGAIN PLEASE..I DO NOT SEE WHY NOT..THEY DIDIT BEFORE
Thanks for your reviews Jammer!
Marc
Wrapping up the main plot arc in the first act and focusing the rest of the finale on tidying up loose threads and building a sense of closure? And here I thought this was a Voyager spiritual successor. That's not how we end Voyager shows!
Fun series overall. Who could have guessed when these were announced that the two animated series would be the most Trek-ish of the current wave of series?
Thanks for the great reviews, Jammer!
Kyle
What a shame, that arguably the best, highest quality, best written Star Trek show post-Trek golden age (1990's) is no longer available to stream anywhere. Parampount dumped it probably becasue Kurtzman and Co. didn't want competiton, and for fans to compare their crappy writing to this show, then Netflix, rescued it, then dropped it. It would be nice to go back and rewatch some episodes, espcially now that SA is on. (again, probably afraid of a comparison between these kids and those on SA.). Supposedly Paramount and Netflix dropped the show becasue they had to strategically trim their library, if that was the case they should have dropped DISC and the Section 31 movie.
Black.Oatmeal
Just finished a re-watch and my appreciation of the show has grown. I'm not the target audience, and there are things I think could have done better, but I honestly think that, for me, this is a top 5 or maybe even top 4 Trek show.
Prodigy did serialized storytelling better than any Trek show other than DS9. It didn't have the growing pains season like TNG. It didn't have the weak endings of ENT or VOY. No terrible characters that annoy you every time they come on screen. It didn't have episodes that made you hate the main characters either, which, for me, is a big negative for some of the shows. And while it never produced an Inner Light or City on the Edge of Forever, it maintained a ratio of good to bad episodes that beats the hell out of almost every other Trek series; out if 40 episodes there's only one that I would say is "bad."
The writers had a decent grasp of continuity, the references to other shows were usually handled well, and they consistently included Trekian messages without beating the audience over the head.
Add all that together and you have a pretty good show.
TheRealTrent
It's the best nuTrek show because it was unsupervised by Alex Kurtzman and his henchmen. You can imagine it slotting right after TNG and VOY, as it has very few nuTrekisms.
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