I’ll be sincere. I really like anthologies. I really like exposition. So by any measure, Star Trek: Prodigy Season 1 Episode 16 is a sheer delight for me, and I’ll additionally admit that is a bizarre factor to say a few assortment of woe-filled tales of kid slavery, kidnapping, and vengeance-fueled tragedy.
However, because of the genius within the planning and pacing of the season, we’re in a position to see the backstories of Rok-Tahk, Zero, and Jankom Pog as traumatic occasions that led to their happier, more healthy place aboard the Protostar.
And whereas life is not excellent for our intrepid child crew, the injustices they’ve survived are simpler to course of, figuring out they finally discover a household with one another.
The identical can’t be stated for Asencia, now identified to be The Vindicator, and The Diviner.
While it is thrilling to know for sure the place (and when) Chakotay is and the way The Protostar grew to become weaponized to destroy the Federation, figuring out the Vau N’Akat’s particular circumstances solely serves to deepen the sense of foreboding their thirst for retribution instills.
The Vindicator’s recount of the occasions that led to her presence on the Dauntless is dramatic and passionate.
The Diviner’s response to it’s equally as weighty. Gone is the bewildered and misplaced sufferer of unknown wrongs. Returned is the decided being of singular objective.
The Diviner: They known as it an accident, however we all know it was destiny.
The Vindicator: They had no thought how starved we have been for retribution.
It’s attention-grabbing to notice that The Vindicator remembers The Diviner being enamored of what the Federation supplied the Vau N’Akat at first contact with some disdain.
Similarly, earlier than having his reminiscence jogged, The Diviner shortly notes that Janeway and Starfleet have been form to him.
Meanwhile, The Vindicator, who has spent three years entrenched undercover with Starfleet because the mannequin Ensign Asencia, has no heat emotions for them in any respect.
Her shock at The Diviner knocking out Vice Admiral Janeway is presumably extra at his sudden reversal of sentiment than any concern for her commander.
We gave up our lives, our futures, our identities to guard Solum. Lone troopers with singular objective.
The Vindicator
In one other good little bit of plot structure, listening to how every of the Protostar’s crew members ended up on Tars Lamora attracts the viewers right into a parallel with Vice Admiral Janeway as she critiques the intel on every of the targets of The Diviner’s bounties.
While we have identified because the Protostar took flight that the crew have been victims making a break for freedom and a greater life, IRL Janeway has been centered on discovering Chakotay, which has framed anybody apart from him flying the Protostar as a possible villain.
Her starting her seek for The Diviner solely to stroll in on The Vindicator and her Drednok adopted instantly with being incapacitated by The Diviner himself is dramatic irony writ LARGE.
But the silver lining is that with an assault on the Vice Admiral, biding time is over.
We can’t go in. They received’t come out. Whatever hassle they’re in, they’ve locked us out.
Vice Admiral Janeway
Over within the Neutral Zone, the basic Canterbury Tales format will get a Trek makeover as Rok, Zero, and Jankom share their very totally different journeys to Tars Lamora.
The Protostar’s tales all share a typical trait: a deliberate absence of organic dad and mom.
When TV Fanatic spoke with co-creators, the Hageman Brothers, they shared that the writers’ room thought-about what bringing dad and mom into the story may imply and determined the Prodigy story ought to deal with the discovered household aboard the Protostar.
On Star Trek: Prodigy Season 1 Episode 15, it is revealed that Dal is the product of genetic engineering.
We already knew that Gwyn is a cloned progeny of The Diviner. Hearing him clarify to The Vindicator what sparked Gwyn’s teenage rebel is a fantastically accessible second for all dad and mom and one of many few LOL moments right here.
The Diviner: I spent twenty years looking out. I assumed I wasn’t going to dwell lengthy sufficient to see it.
The Vindicator: So you defied the order and made a progeny. You had to make sure the mission was accomplished. But inform me, why did she betray us?
The Diviner: She met a boy.
The specifics of Medusan procreation stay a thriller to outsiders, so Zero’s kidnapping is actually being stolen from their collective. Like a Borg drone being lower off from their hive thoughts.
We every have issues in our previous we wish to overlook. Some greater than others.
Zero
Zero’s captivity and exploitation by The Diviner and his Drednok are essentially the most horrific of the Tars Lamora atrocities. Gwyn acknowledges this and can not help however apologize for it, though she did not know.
While Zero had no selection in inflicting the injury they did to these Drednok interrogated, they carry the guilt of what their visage was used for.
In the identical means, Gwyn feels culpable for all the pieces The Diviner and Drednok did, believing she may have stopped them if she had identified, if she had sought out the reality.
Rok-Tahk’s story is predictably tender and, in flip, heart-warming and heart-rending.
I really like that it explains her desire for Nutri-Goop and her pacifism. It additionally demonstrates how she noticed the world in a optimistic gentle even when trapped in such a horrible state of affairs.
A Hero wants one thing to combat, and folks got here from throughout to look at the Hero combat me. I attempted to scare the Hero, however heroes aren’t scared simply. The crowd couldn’t wait to see the Hero win.
Rok-Tahk
There’s a quick second the place I actually believed that the comedic tackle the Hero vs. Monster battle would result in a brand new renaissance of leisure, à la Monsters Inc., however the inevitable Kazon cameo snuffs that hope.
Rok’s story is not actually performed but, although. I’d prefer to know who left her — a mere youngster — to be a sideshow performer within the first place. I’m certain Murf would really like a couple of minutes alone with them too.
Jankom Pog’s story is maybe essentially the most revealing of the three crew narratives.
We be taught first that he’s an orphan, because the Tellarites use orphans for deep area missions. What these deep area missions are is left tantalizingly open-ended.
Rok: I’d want to listen to extra of your tales. We by no means heard from you, Jankom.
Gwyn: You are essentially the most depressing of the lot. I guess you have got an attention-grabbing story.
We be taught he is been educated as an engineer however hasn’t accomplished that coaching.
But, most importantly, we be taught that Jankom Pog, regardless of his pure Tellarite antagonism to all the pieces, is an optimist.
At no level does the bot insinuate he is not as much as the duty to set off his contrariness. Instead, Jankom chants his mantra, “Jankom Pog can fix it!” till he does precisely that.
He proves himself an engineer and a hero. It’s illuminating and illustrative of how layered these characters are.
The writing of this episode is credited to your complete Star Trek: Prodigy writers’ room. Presumably, groups took on every story, purposefully crafting varied types, enhanced as at all times by Nami Melumad‘s gorgeously various rating.
It’s an actual achievement when a present can entertain like this with none ahead motion.
Whose story did you join with most deeply, Fanatics?
What’s The Diviner’s subsequent transfer? With the Protostar repaired, does he have an opportunity of catching them?
And riddle me this: Forgetting for the second the actual fact the Vindicator managed to cover her true genetic make-up from Starfleet and the Federation for 3 years, how precisely did she handle to sneak a Drednok unit on board in her baggage? Seriously, that one blows my thoughts.
Hit our feedback along with your greatest ideas and theories! Go quick!
Diana Keng is a employees author for TV Fanatic. Follow her on Twitter.
