Star Trek: Prodigy

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.

I was pleasantly surprised at the quality of the shows animation and story, especially with all the bad reviews that came out even before the show did.

As much as I enjoyed the Original Star Trek animated show as a kid do I think this generation will enjoy this show.

This review is for the first 10 episodes of season 1 only:

Pleasantly surprised at how good this turned out to be.

I thought the show was trying to appeal to both kids and adults through their choices of characters. The writing style and story-line worked well enough that I found that they succeeded in connecting me with the younger characters in a mostly nostalgic way.

I really liked that it was the older characters, however, that drove the core of each episode. It helped maintain the seriousness of the evolving story.

I'll admit that I have a preference for serious storytelling. The plot for this series definitely leans toward a more adult mindset within a coming of age framework.

The serious overtones, good Sci-fi elements and the way the story is organically growing made a huge difference for me. I'm very happy with the way this series started because Star Trek can be 'hit or miss'. This one hits the bullseye.

I also love the addition of Hologram (Captain) Janeway. Everyone has their favorite captain. Janeway happens to be my favorite post-TOS captain and Kate Mulgrew has delivered on the role once again.

This show is not perfect.

But it is really good.

Lower your expectations and just enjoy it for what it is. It's a nickelodeon show about the star trek universe with 6 completely new members and a brand new ship.

It doesn't follow the normal star trek set-up, it's obviously made with children in mind, so don't expect anything to deep, or too dark.

And in this lies the charm. It just feels like good old charming star trek. There is enough here for old fans, and enough here for new fans.

And I promise you, the characters will grow on you. What felt a little bit awkward and stiff in the beginning soon melts away and you'll come to love this crew just as much as previous crews.

I really hope we get more seasons of this. Because this is the best star trek since the 90s.

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.