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Star Trek: Prodigy

Star Trek: Prodigy is an American animated science fiction television series created by Kevin and Dan Hageman. It is the tenth Star Trek series and debuted in 2021 as part of executive producer Alex Kurtzman's expanded Star Trek Universe. Prodigy is the first Star Trek series to specifically target a younger audience,[1][2] and the franchise's first solely 3D animated series. It follows a group of young aliens in the 24th century who find the abandoned starship Protostar and learn about Starfleet.

Star Trek: Prodigy

Star Trek
by Gene Roddenberry

  • Kevin Hageman
  • Dan Hageman

Michael Giacchino

Nami Melumad

United States

English

1

20

MacGregor Middleton

23–24 minutes

Paramount+

October 28, 2021 (2021-10-28) –
December 29, 2022 (2022-12-29)

Netflix

Brett Gray, Ella Purnell, Jason Mantzoukas, Angus Imrie, Rylee Alazraqui, and Dee Bradley Baker voice the young crew of the Protostar, with Jimmi Simpson, John Noble, and Kate Mulgrew also providing voices for the series, the latter reprising her role as Kathryn Janeway from Star Trek: Voyager. Kurtzman first mentioned a youth-focused animated series in January 2019 and it was confirmed a month later. The Hageman brothers were set as creators and showrunners, and Nickelodeon ordered two seasons of Prodigy that April, to be released on the cable channel after streaming on Paramount+ first. Ben Hibon was announced as director and creative lead in August 2020. The series was produced by CBS Eye Animation Productions and Nickelodeon Animation Studio in association with Secret Hideout, Roddenberry Entertainment, and Brothers Hageman Productions.


Star Trek: Prodigy premiered on Paramount+ on October 28, 2021, and began airing on Nickelodeon on December 17. The first season of 20 episodes ended in December 2022. It received positive reviews from critics and won a Children's and Family Emmy Award. The series was canceled and removed from Paramount+ in June 2023 before the second season could be released on that service or on Nickelodeon. Netflix picked up the series that October and released the first season in December 2023. The second season was released in France on france.tv in March 2024, and is scheduled to be released on Netflix in July.

Premise[edit]

In 2383, five years after the USS Voyager returned to Earth at the end of Star Trek: Voyager, a motley crew of young aliens find an abandoned Starfleet ship, the USS Protostar, in the Tars Lamora prison colony. Taking control of the ship, they must learn to work together as they make their way from the Delta Quadrant to the Alpha Quadrant.[3][4] In the second season, they join Admiral Kathryn Janeway as warrant officers aboard the USS Voyager-A on a mission to find the original crew of the Protostar.[5][6]

as Dal R'El:
A 17-year-old "maverick" of unknown species who takes the role of captain on the USS Protostar.[9] Dal later learns that he is an augmented human with DNA from multiple alien species.

Brett Gray

as Gwyndala:
A 17-year-old Vau N'Akat nicknamed "Gwyn" who dreamed of exploring the stars while growing up on her father's prison asteroid.[9] A talented linguist, she has learned many alien languages.

Ella Purnell

as Jankom Pog:
An argumentative 16-year-old Tellarite.[9] Having been born before the Tellarites joined the Federation, he awoke on a long-range sleeper ship. He handles repair duties on the Protostar.

Jason Mantzoukas

as Zero:
A Medusan—a noncorporeal, genderless, energy-based lifeform—who wears a containment suit to stop others from going mad at the sight of them.[9]

Angus Imrie

Rylee Alazraqui as Rok-Tahk:
A shy, 8-year-old .[9] Despite being large and strong, she defies being typecast as the ship's security officer and instead develops an interest in science.

Brikar

as Murf:
An apparently indestructible Mellanoid slime worm with good timing and an appetite for ship parts.[9][10] The character was initially added as a joke, with Dal arriving to find a "semi-sentient blob" had joined the crew, but the writers soon fell in love with the idea of having a "dog-type character" in the series that children would enjoy.[11] In the second half of the first season, the writers gave Murf a character arc beyond "just eating things",[12] with the character evolving to have a more humanoid form.

Dee Bradley Baker

as Drednok:
The Diviner's deadly robotic enforcer.[13] Co-showrunner Kevin Hageman said the robot was "very still, and silent, and soft-spoken", which contrasted with the more driven personality of the Diviner.[11] Simpson described Drednok as a more verbose version of the character Maximilian from the film The Black Hole (1979).[4]

Jimmi Simpson

as the Diviner:
Gwyn's father and a ruthless tyrant who controls the asteroid Tars Lamora and searches for the Protostar.[13] The character, and Noble's performance, were inspired by Ricardo Montalbán's Star Trek villain Khan Noonien Singh.[4] The character initially just appears floating in a tank, which was inspired by the floating Guild Navigator creature from David Lynch's Dune (1984).[14]

John Noble

as Kathryn Janeway:
In the first season, Mulgrew primarily voices the Protostar's Emergency Training Holographic Advisor which is based on the likeness of Janeway, the former captain of the USS Voyager.[3][15] She also voices the real Janeway, now a Starfleet Vice Admiral who commands the USS Dauntless in the first season and the USS Voyager-A in the second.[16]

Kate Mulgrew

Marketing[edit]

The title and logo were revealed at the virtual Star Trek Universe panel during the July 2020 Comic-Con@Home convention,[24] while Mulgrew's casting was announced at another virtual Star Trek Universe panel for New York Comic Con in October 2020.[15] A first look at the main characters was released during the February 2021 ViacomCBS Investor Day,[48] and a first look at Hologram Janeway was revealed during the "First Contact Day" virtual event on April 5, 2021, celebrating the fictional holiday marking first contact between humans and aliens in the Star Trek universe.[3] At the Television Critics Association press tour in August 2021, the opening title sequence was revealed along with Giacchino's main theme.[52] After being the dominant producer of Star Trek collectible figures in the 1990s, Playmates Toys returned to the franchise in 2022 with new figures based on Prodigy.[58][59] To promote the series' Nickelodeon debut, the family-friendly, space-themed interactive experience at CAMP Experience in Brooklyn, New York, was redressed to be Prodigy-themed from July 22 to August 29, 2022.[60][61]

Reception[edit]

Critical response[edit]

The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported a 94% approval rating for the first season, with an average rating of 8.1/10 based on 18 reviews.[71] Metacritic gave it a weighted average score of 68 out of 100 based on reviews from 5 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[72]

Tie-in media[edit]

Publishing[edit]

Two tie-in novels were published on January 17, 2023: Star Trek: Prodigy – Supernova, written by longtime Star Trek author Robb Pearlman, is a "middle-grade" story based on the video game of the same name; and Cassandra Rose Clarke's Star Trek: Prodigy – A Dangerous Trade follows the series' young crew as they attempt to trade a Starfleet battery for new parts with a group of rogue traders who plan to steal the Protostar.[78] A third novel, Star Trek: Prodigy – Escape Route, was published on August 1, 2023. Also written by Clarke, Escape Route sees the crew of the Protostar take a detour to an uncharted moon that Murf wants to explore.[79]

Video game[edit]

Outright Games, a video game publisher that focuses on family-friendly properties, announced a new video game inspired by the series in April 2022.[80] Titled Star Trek Prodigy: Supernova, the game was developed by Tessera Studios for PC, Xbox, PlayStation, Nintendo Switch, Steam, and Stadia. It was the first Star Trek video game aimed at younger players. The story, written by Prodigy staff writer Lisa Boyd, follows Dal and Gwyn as they attempt to save their friends, the Protostar, and an alien planetary system from a supernova.[80][81] The game features the series' main cast reprising their roles, including Mulgrew, and was released on October 14, 2022.[81] Nintendo World Report said that "[w]hile combat can get a little repetitive, the puzzles are genuinely inventive."[82] Nintendo Life liked the game's puzzle design but called the combat "perfunctory".[83]

Official website

at IMDb

Star Trek: Prodigy

at Memory Alpha

Star Trek: Prodigy