TL;DR – Honestly, wow, I was sitting on the edge of my chair for the whole episode.

Disclosure – I paid for the Netflix service that viewed this series.

Star Trek: Prodigy Review –

Have you ever been sitting watching a show and suddenly thought, “Hey, whatever happened to [insert important plot point here]”, only to get slapped in the face with that plot point a few moments later? Well, if you have ever had that happen to you, then you will know what I felt like as we jump into the episode today.  

So, to set the scene, after getting the USS Protostar back into orbit during the Last Flight of the Protostar and a number of struggles, we finally get back into contact with the USS Voyager-A. While Janeway (Kate Mulgrew) and Chakotay (Robert Beltran) get a moment to reconnect, things go from bad to worse. First, Starfleet wants them back to Earth so that they can deal with the Protostar themselves. But before that can happen, a danger from the past comes back with a vengeance. Now, from here, we will be looking at the episode as a whole, so there will be some [SPOILERS] ahead.

There is a lot that I can say about this episode, but I want to start with character growth. You can read a lot about the creation of the character of Chakotay, but to distil that down: it is a bit of a mess. I am doing a Voyager re-watch at the moment, and you can feel their struggle to write for the character. However, with some slight tweaks and retooling, the character comes alive. You can see him come alive here as a fully-rounded character. Also, I have to agree with Ellie Littlechild that Dal’s (Brett Gray) growth this season has come with leaps and bounds. He has had to work through that mantle of de facto captain being removed from him, and I think he has become a better person for it.

The next strength of these episodes was to split our core gang up across the three groups: Voyager, Protostar, and the fighters. This meant that no matter which part of the conflict you were cutting to, there were people there that you were concerned for. Oh, and they made you concerned. I respect when a show like this can make me wonder if the usual plot shielding is gone because it commits to its premise. That is a very narrow tightrope to walk. You can tell that every one of the writers pitched in to make these episodes work.

Then, of course, there is the villain, Asencia (Jameela Jamil), who has gone from trying to start a war in the background to just taking over and doing it herself. I don’t know how she captured Wesley Crusher (Wil Wheaton), but having that kind of time manipulation is a perilous combination. Jameela Jamil is clearly having a lot of fun with the character and nails that ‘big bad’ energy. The action was all interesting, using all sorts of different techniques to both toy and destroy Voyager. The torpedo that crashes into a ship and then releases a chroniton field that rapidly ages everything is the stuff of nightmares. That whole last second with Zero (Angus Imrie) was tough to watch.

While it was action-packed, there were also these moments that gave perfect character beats. I loved that Maj’el (Michaela Dietz) just casually dropped the ‘I will decline to answer for purposes of morale’ and then blasted away like it was nothing. We get Dal yelling, ‘That’s my crew!’ with pride in his voice, which can’t help but put a smile on your face. It was these moments that brought a moment of light into what was a generally quite dark episode. Even at the end, when they win, you are still concerned because you know that they might have won the battle. I don’t know if they can face a war.       

In the end, do we recommend Star Trek: Prodigy – Ascension, Part 1 & Part 2? Of course. We keep moving from strength to strength with each episode. Sure, there are a couple of awkward moments here and there, like Voyager-A, that are both empty and full of people at the same time. But none of them get in the way. More than anything, I can’t wait to see where these final episodes go.    

By Brian MacNamara: You can follow Brian on Twitter Here, when he’s not chatting about Movies and TV, he’ll be talking about International Relations, or the Solar System.

Have you seen Star Trek: Prodigy yet ?, let us know what you thought in the comments below, feel free to share this review on any of the social medias and you can follow us Here. Check out all our past reviews and articles Here, and have a happy day.    

Credits – All images were created by the cast, crew, and production companies of Star Trek: Prodigy
Directed by – Sung Shin & Sean Bishop
Written by – Erin McNamara, Jennifer Muro, Diandra Pendleton-Thompson, Keith Sweet II, Aaron J. Waltke & Alex Hanson
Created by – Kevin & Dan Hageman
Based On – Star Trek by Gene Roddenberry & Star Trek: Voyager by Rick Berman, Michael Piller & Jeri Taylor
Production/Distribution Companies – CBS Studios, Nickelodeon & Netflix
Starring – Brett Gray, Ella Purnell, Jason Mantzoukas, Angus Imrie, Rylee Alazraqui, Dee Bradley Baker, John Noble, Jameela Jamil, Jimmi Simpson, Wil Wheaton, Robert Picardo, Robert Beltran & Kate Mulgrew with Michaela Dietz,Jason Alexander, Daveed Diggs & Ronny Cox and Sunkrish Bala & Kari Wahlgren