Previously on Star Trek: Prodigy: In the two-part season premiere, a rag-tag band of children who have been enslaved by an evil dude called The Diviner escape from their prison/mining colony by stealing a Federation starship called the USS Protostar. Oh, they also abduct The Diviner’s daughter, Gwyn. How are a bunch of alien kids, some of whom have never known a life outside the mines, going to operate a Federation starship? Well, with the help of one Hologram Janeway.
Captain Daphne, our kid guest reviewer, joined me again to watch this episode – scroll down for her audio review!
Recap
At the start of episode two, Dal tells Hologram Janeway that he’s in command of the group, in spite of Gwyn’s objections. Hologram Janeway thinks they’re Starfleet cadets and tells them more about what Starfleet and the United Federation of Planets are. Rok-Tahk is inclined to want to be part of Starfleet but Dal doesn’t have a lot of trust in anyone, even Hologram Janeway. He says that people lie and they shouldn’t trust her.
Zero, in a hilarious moment, uses their telepathic abilities to call out how Dal is faking his confident leadership style: “You laugh, but your mind is reeling with pure terror.”
“Good one, Zero!” Dal replies.
Meanwhile back on the prison asteroid Tars Lamora, The Diviner is scheming to recover his ship and his “progeny” (aka Gwyn) – this might be the grossest way someone has referred to someone else on Star Trek since the whole Ferengi “Feeee-males” thing. The Diviner orders Drednok to work the prisoners harder so they can get the ship back, and we sadly see the little cat girl from the first episode is among them, no longer protected by Gwyn. We also learn that the mineral they’re mining helps cloak the asteroid, and also that part of it is a ship.
On the Protostar, the new “cadets” are getting to know the ship, including the replicators. Jankom Pog gets really excited when he realizes the food is free, even if what he orders looks super gross. Rok-Tahk orders the same food she got in the mines because it’s the only food she’s ever known.
Next, Dal checks out the Captain’s quarters and is extremely enthused about the giant bed (highly relatable).
Rok-Tahk, in spite of having a legitimately awful and traumatic upbringing, doesn’t lack a heart. She brings food down to Gwyn, who they’d moved down into the brig. She asks Gwyn why she didn’t help them and stop how badly they were being treated in the prison. Gwyn said she was raised to believe they were all criminals. Rok sadly but firmly says they weren’t criminals, before leaving to return to the bridge.
Turns out that flying a spaceship for the first time can be kind of dangerous and the Protostar is being pulled into the gravity of a dying star. Hologram Janeway offers guidance but he doesn’t want to take help. So when he orders all power to the impulse engines he misses Janeway attempting to warn him that will cut power to the holding cell force field in the brig.
Gwyn escapes from the brig and looks for a means to escape, but all the escape pods are gone. The ship asks her if she’d like to use the vehicle replicator to replicate a shuttlecraft, and she says yes. The vehicle replicator seems to basically work like a giant 3D printer and it’s clear this shuttle is going to take a little bit of time to finish. Rok figures out that Gwyn has escaped and tries to apprehend her. The two fight as the shuttle is being constructed around them and we see the less-gentle side to Rok; she’s clearly and fairly angry at Gwyn and at what she’s had to go through and maybe also part of her has always felt pressured to be more of the spiky, angry, hulking rock kid that people think she must be, instead of a big-hearted softie.
Rok-Tahk smashes the shuttle glass and in response, Gwyn turns off the artificial gravity, which causes a bit of chaos on the bridge. Murf uses his mouth to suck onto a chair to hold on. In the nick of time, Janeway shows up to explain how to get out of the dire situation they’re in. The gravity gets turned back on and Rok falls on top of Gwyn, ending the fight.
At the end, Janeway says that even though she told them how to get out of the problem, ultimately they were the ones that did the work. In that case, Dal’s cool to take credit.
Review
Captain Daphne and I both thought this episode was more fun than the first episode, although the cat kid being stuck back in the mine was pretty dark. It was also easier to follow. Captain Daphne wasn’t very impressed with Dal as a captain, since he wasn’t good at working with others, listening, planning, or sharing credit. Hopefully this will be part of his growth!
Take a listen here to our audio review, including Daphne’s thoughts on what she’d order from a food replicator: