Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Star Trek: Prodigy’ Season 2 On Netflix, Where The Ragtag Group Of Teen Starfleet Trainees Join Janeway On A Dangerous Mission

Star Trek: Prodigy has had a bit of a strange history. It debuted on Paramount+ two-and-a-half years ago, and got good reviews. But Paramount cancelled the show before streaming its second season. Who rides to the rescue? Only the big red N of Netflix, that’s who. They picked up not only the show’s first season but its already-produced second season.

STAR TREK: PRODIGY SEASON 2: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: A group of Starfleet warrant officers are in a training exercise. Then the tiny blobby warrant officer Murf (Dee Bradley Baker) gets a notification from Vice Admiral Kathryn Janeway (Kate Mulgrew).

The Gist: All of the old ragtag group of teens that saved the Federation while flying the Protostar get the same notification: Murf, Dal (Brett Gray), Zero (Angus Imrie), Jankom Pog (Jason Mantzoukas) and Rok-Tahk (Rylee Alazraqui). Gwyn (Ella Purnell) has gone back to Solum, the home planet she never knew, to see if she can change the First Contact that will lead to the civil war 52 years later, the one that abandoned Captain Chakotay (Robert Beltran) on the future version of the planet.

The quintet is met not by Janeway, but by The Doctor (Robert Picardo), one of Janeway’s closest confidants on the original Voyager. Janeway has invited them to join her on a new mission, this time on a new Voyager, working as interns in their area of interest. The mission is to observe the wormhole created when the Protostar was destroyed.

Dal is suspicious of the group’s interaction with Janeway when they get on board, as if the admiral was distracted by something. He’s also bored of the study he has to do for command training, so he’s intrigued when Zero tells him that the Doctor mentioned a third shuttle bay, even though the ship is only supposed to have two.

A quick trip down the Jefferies tubes, over Rok-Tahk’s objections, lands Dal, Zero, Murf and Jankom Pog in what looks like an empty shuttle bay. But they soon learn that it’s not empty; it contains a cloaked shuttle, which is against Starfleet regulations. Then Janeway, The Doctor, Commander Tysess (Daveed Diggs) and Counselor Noum (Jason Alexander) walk in; the four interns overhear what the cloaked ship, called the Infinity, is really for.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? As we said before Season 1, Star Trek: Prodigy gives off the same vibes as Star Wars: The Bad Batch, but now the group a more fully canonical part of the Trek universe, so we might as well link this up with the original Voyager series.

Our Take: What we appreciate about Star Trek: Prodigy, which Netflix saved from the scrap heap after Paramount+ cancelled it, is that showrunners Kevin Hageman and Dan Hageman put together a pretty complex adventure despite the fact that the show is intended for kids.

In the second episode, Janeway ends up telling Dal and the others exactly what the Infinity is for: She wants to go through the wormhole and rescue Chakotay from the future version of Solum. That’s some pretty heavy stuff, and a dangerous mission to boot. And the mission Gwyn is on is pretty complex, as well, as she seeks to meet the younger version of her father, The Diviner (John Noble). All the while Aseincia (Jameela Jamil) is out to sabotage her efforts.

The show’s writers don’t shy away from the dangers of either of these missions, and there are red-shirt-type deaths that happen, at least in the abstract. And they’re not trying to dumb anything down, knowing that the kids who watch the show are smart, and their Trekker parents are going to pick apart any inconsistencies or dumbed down moments.

Given that the season plays out over 20 episodes, there should be plenty of time for this mission to unfold without having to skip details, and there will be time for Gwyn to rejoin the rest of the old Protostar gang. This is one of the cases where more episodes are helpful, as it gives the writers room to keep exploring relationships between the teen interns, other groups on the ship, as well as Janeway’s relationship with Chakotay. Will it all be canonical? Probably not. But there will be more than enough linkage to the rest of the Trek universe to keep fans happy.

What Age Group Is This For?: Besides the red-shirt-style deaths, there’s some hand-to-hand fighting and “pew-pew” phaser fights, so despite the show’s TV-Y7 rating, we think this is more for kids 10 and up.

Parting Shot: After overhearing Janeway and her executive officers, Dal says, “And this just got interesting!”

Sleeper Star: It’s always fun hearing Robert Picardo playing the Doctor again, but…

Most Pilot-y Line: We don’t remember the Doctor speaking with some sort of haughty upper-class voice in the original Voyager. Who directed Picardo to use a haughtier voice this time around?

Our Call: STREAM IT. Star Trek: Prodigy gives Trekkers a real adventure with canonical implications to wrap their minds around while providing action and characters kids can relate to. It’s a combination that we rarely see in kids’ extensions to existing franchises.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.