Star Trek: Prodigy

I watched this on a whim, not really a big Star Trek fan but i enjoyed the recent comedy cartoon lower decks and when i saw this i thought why not initially i wasn't that interested i put it on as background content and my first impression was a Star Trek rip off of clone wars that probably would fall short But as the episode progressed(there being only 2 out at the moment) and i got used to the animation style differences, i realized that the animation itself held its own, not better or worse or a complete copy of tcl.

And i quickly found myself kind of invested in the characters. I think people are being too protective of something they love and aren't open to having such an original series having to take inspiration from other successful sci fi routes. I believe i will enjoy it.

Sure it starts out somewhat childish and sort of a reminder of Star Wars but it definitely improves over time. It's worth a watch. I don't want to spoil things but there are a lot of reoccurring Star Trek themes and situations. The whole atmosphere of the show feels much more as expected from fans which is refreshing in itself after all the agenda pushing of the other products.

The overall story-line is an ethical dilemma itself. As I see this could easily go on as a live-action version. Also, the ST audience deserves a real continuation of the story of the Federation after the events with Voyager.

It's not that I expected Prodigy to be bad, I just had no real expectations. It was specifically marketed as a way to get a younger audience interested in Star Trek and I can see how it would. But it's honestly better written than some of its recent live-action peers. It strikes a nice balance between the chock-full of callbacks nature of Lower Decks and covering new ground that still seems recognizably situated in the same universe.

While I get that it doesn't have a true Star Trek storyline, I like the fresh take. I have a feeling the crew will continue to grow and who knows who or what they will encounter from the Star Trek universe. The animation and voice acting are top notch and it has an element of action that I feel sometimes Star Trek lacks. I am on board to see where this takes us.

I wasn't immediately convinced with Prodigy smashed onto our screens in late 2021 and feeling like a tonal mash between Clone Wars and Trollhunters. It was felt a bit bombastic and heavy-handed, but honestly it really began to grow on me and by the time of the wildly canonical "Kobayashi Maru" episode I was fully on board. With some beautiful backgrounds, dynamic set pieces, respectful references and a strong focus on character Prodigy ends up as one of the strongest entries in the recent Trek canon and easily my favourite set in the post-Voyager era. Hopefully it will do what it was built to do and give whole new generations of Trekkies a strong grounding on which to boldly go.