Star Trek: Prodigy (Season 2)
In which the fun show rudely dumped by Paramount + and rescued by Netflix ceates a very enjoyable second season. And manages to do a fixit or two for Star Trek: Picard.
I had liked the first season a lot when I watched it last year, and I think I like the second one even better, though they're hard to compare - s1 being an origin and getting-the-team-together story, which you can do only once. But also because if s1 had a bit of a Farscape vibe, s2 went for a bit of a Doctor Who vibe instead - while both were entirely ST shows, I hasten to add. I was curious which excuse the show would find to ensure our young heroes would again end up on a Starship (this being the premise) without basically pressing a reset button to how s1 ended, and the solution was entirely in-universe. Our reccurring characters were all their endearing themselves, and our new young character, Maj' El (spelling?), was a (female) Vulcan proving that so many decades in the running, ST shows can do Vulcans without needing to fear they'll be compared with Spock instead of being accepted intheir own right. And her tentatively building relationship with Zero was lovely. As for the new characters who were really old characters: see, this show aimed at kids managed to pull something off which ST: Picard abandoned doing in its third season. It managed to include characters from older ST shows without shoving the new ones aside and taking the overall story from them. (I mean, this was already true with Janeway last season, obviously, (all lincarnations of her), so I knew they could do it, but still. (BTW, speaking of Janeway: was v.v.v. amused that they found - for one episode - yet another version for Kate Mulgrew to voice this season in addition to Admiral Janeway and Holo!Janeway, I mean, i.e. Mirrorverse Janeway.) As someone who wasn't a fan of Chakotay on Voyager, I was pleasantly surprised that Star Trek: Prodigy managed to make me care. The Doctor (Voyager edition) early on was, I felt, used solely for comic relief, which of course was one of his main functions on VOY, too, but there he'd also been the outsider character looking at humanity/the crew which every ST show needs at last one of, and had gotten loads of character development, so I was glad that in the later half of the season he got some serious moments as well. But really, the absolute highlight was Wesley Crusher. Now he did have a short appearance at the end of s2 of Picard (showing up to recruit Kore as the Traveler had recruited him), but the second season of ST: Prodigy took that cameo and build an actual story around it. Given Wesley was the (much bashed at the time) orginal Prodigy, it makes perfect sense for him to show up in any form on this show, but they got creative and instead of giving him just a cameo made him actually important to the plot. And gave Wil Wheaton some acting to do. Now adult!Wesley after some years as a Traveler being essentially the Doctor (DW edition) or at least very Time Lordy in manner and demeanour wasn't something I expected, but you know, it totally worked. And I note that the show did on the one hand manage to plausibly show he's intelligent (and a little bit ruthless) by letting him trick Ascensia and let the grand plan not work in quite the way he expected so that our heroes still did what they did out of their own volition and heroism, and they did what both TNG and ST: Picard notoriously avoided doing, include some actual scenes featuring him and Beverly that were about them being son and mother. And I do hope someone now will write Traveler!Wes in fanfiction.
(I mean, I'm still not reconciled to the existence of Jack (II.), and still think Jack is a stupid plot device, but I respect Prodigy for making lemonade out of the lemon ST: PIC had handled them with the Beverly situation.)
Something else: I was all set to grumble that it's unfair the Diviner gets another chance by Gwyn meeting his younger self while Ascensia is solely portrayed as evil, and then the show also let Ascensia's younger self show up and thus showed that both the Diviner and Ascensia started out as good people before they made their choices leading them down the road of supervillaindom. Also, note that both younger versions came to the conclusion about the right thing to do not because Gwyn gave them spoilers but because they used their brain, compassion and attachment. BTW, this isn't redemption - because the younger selves haven't done anything wrong (yet) and to me a redemption storyline, a good one, of course, is only possible if the person redeeming themselves a) has done something to redeem themselves for out of their own volition and b) does so without the story demanding instant forgiveness from the people they've wronged - , but it is something appealingly ST- humane (in lack of a better term, I'm aware they are not humans), i.e. the idea that people don't just have the potential to be their worst selves but also to be better. And I thought the show played it right in terms of Gwyn's characterisation, too, i.e. show she behaved around this younger version of her father - it meant something to her that he was supportive of her, but she was still careful (and given the past, how could she not be).
Lastly: when I realised the season was consciously set in the immediate backstory time of ST: Picard (s1), i.e. the evacuation of the Romulans which was to come to an abrupt end once the Synth disaster happened, I thought, well, that's not a bad way to explain why Janeway hadn't been involved and what she was doing instead, and the fact Starfleet resources were stretched thin because of the Romulan evacuation and thus could not aid Janeway and our heroes on their mission was a good in-story way to ensure our heroes had to defeat the time paradox universe eating menace on their lonesome. But then in the last episode the show went and suprised me by actually letting Janeway be back in time to hear the depressing news and be indignant - and then go with our heroes to adventure some more. If this the end of the show, it's in the fine tradition of the original TNG ending, i.e. while providing a satisfying wrap up to the seasons before also letting room for more stories to come and leaving all main characters in emotional good places. In conclusion, I'm really grateful we got this second season.
I had liked the first season a lot when I watched it last year, and I think I like the second one even better, though they're hard to compare - s1 being an origin and getting-the-team-together story, which you can do only once. But also because if s1 had a bit of a Farscape vibe, s2 went for a bit of a Doctor Who vibe instead - while both were entirely ST shows, I hasten to add. I was curious which excuse the show would find to ensure our young heroes would again end up on a Starship (this being the premise) without basically pressing a reset button to how s1 ended, and the solution was entirely in-universe. Our reccurring characters were all their endearing themselves, and our new young character, Maj' El (spelling?), was a (female) Vulcan proving that so many decades in the running, ST shows can do Vulcans without needing to fear they'll be compared with Spock instead of being accepted intheir own right. And her tentatively building relationship with Zero was lovely. As for the new characters who were really old characters: see, this show aimed at kids managed to pull something off which ST: Picard abandoned doing in its third season. It managed to include characters from older ST shows without shoving the new ones aside and taking the overall story from them. (I mean, this was already true with Janeway last season, obviously, (all lincarnations of her), so I knew they could do it, but still. (BTW, speaking of Janeway: was v.v.v. amused that they found - for one episode - yet another version for Kate Mulgrew to voice this season in addition to Admiral Janeway and Holo!Janeway, I mean, i.e. Mirrorverse Janeway.) As someone who wasn't a fan of Chakotay on Voyager, I was pleasantly surprised that Star Trek: Prodigy managed to make me care. The Doctor (Voyager edition) early on was, I felt, used solely for comic relief, which of course was one of his main functions on VOY, too, but there he'd also been the outsider character looking at humanity/the crew which every ST show needs at last one of, and had gotten loads of character development, so I was glad that in the later half of the season he got some serious moments as well. But really, the absolute highlight was Wesley Crusher. Now he did have a short appearance at the end of s2 of Picard (showing up to recruit Kore as the Traveler had recruited him), but the second season of ST: Prodigy took that cameo and build an actual story around it. Given Wesley was the (much bashed at the time) orginal Prodigy, it makes perfect sense for him to show up in any form on this show, but they got creative and instead of giving him just a cameo made him actually important to the plot. And gave Wil Wheaton some acting to do. Now adult!Wesley after some years as a Traveler being essentially the Doctor (DW edition) or at least very Time Lordy in manner and demeanour wasn't something I expected, but you know, it totally worked. And I note that the show did on the one hand manage to plausibly show he's intelligent (and a little bit ruthless) by letting him trick Ascensia and let the grand plan not work in quite the way he expected so that our heroes still did what they did out of their own volition and heroism, and they did what both TNG and ST: Picard notoriously avoided doing, include some actual scenes featuring him and Beverly that were about them being son and mother. And I do hope someone now will write Traveler!Wes in fanfiction.
(I mean, I'm still not reconciled to the existence of Jack (II.), and still think Jack is a stupid plot device, but I respect Prodigy for making lemonade out of the lemon ST: PIC had handled them with the Beverly situation.)
Something else: I was all set to grumble that it's unfair the Diviner gets another chance by Gwyn meeting his younger self while Ascensia is solely portrayed as evil, and then the show also let Ascensia's younger self show up and thus showed that both the Diviner and Ascensia started out as good people before they made their choices leading them down the road of supervillaindom. Also, note that both younger versions came to the conclusion about the right thing to do not because Gwyn gave them spoilers but because they used their brain, compassion and attachment. BTW, this isn't redemption - because the younger selves haven't done anything wrong (yet) and to me a redemption storyline, a good one, of course, is only possible if the person redeeming themselves a) has done something to redeem themselves for out of their own volition and b) does so without the story demanding instant forgiveness from the people they've wronged - , but it is something appealingly ST- humane (in lack of a better term, I'm aware they are not humans), i.e. the idea that people don't just have the potential to be their worst selves but also to be better. And I thought the show played it right in terms of Gwyn's characterisation, too, i.e. show she behaved around this younger version of her father - it meant something to her that he was supportive of her, but she was still careful (and given the past, how could she not be).
Lastly: when I realised the season was consciously set in the immediate backstory time of ST: Picard (s1), i.e. the evacuation of the Romulans which was to come to an abrupt end once the Synth disaster happened, I thought, well, that's not a bad way to explain why Janeway hadn't been involved and what she was doing instead, and the fact Starfleet resources were stretched thin because of the Romulan evacuation and thus could not aid Janeway and our heroes on their mission was a good in-story way to ensure our heroes had to defeat the time paradox universe eating menace on their lonesome. But then in the last episode the show went and suprised me by actually letting Janeway be back in time to hear the depressing news and be indignant - and then go with our heroes to adventure some more. If this the end of the show, it's in the fine tradition of the original TNG ending, i.e. while providing a satisfying wrap up to the seasons before also letting room for more stories to come and leaving all main characters in emotional good places. In conclusion, I'm really grateful we got this second season.