This was an excellent season of Star Trek. If this is it, Prodigy has become a top tier Star Trek show for me. I am a little confused about the Protostar and the Paradox, but the way they left it with the USS Prodigy and connecting it to the Mars Attack was a pretty ballsy move. That ending when they found out about the Mars Attack brought me back to the Children of Mars Short Trek.
The Protostar, in early S2, went to the past (through the original wormhole that brought it to Solum, 50+ years later, in the first place) but with Chakotay on it. Chakotay then steered it to an entirely different location (and also a different time, 10 year or so in the past from the POV of S2 Janeway) instead of Tars Lamora (sometime during early TNG, as Gwyn was supposedly born around S3 of TNG). The Vau N'akat of "the Order", the Diviner among them, still followed with a 100 ships, with the Diviner eventually still ending up at Tars Lamora at the right time to create a slave/mining colony and his progeny, on condition that the Protostar actually went there so he has reason to follow its trail and look for it at that place.
They had to first get the Protostar there (after all the detours it took) which they finally did at the end of the season.
I'm guessing that the combadge left on the Protostar, was orginally lost by Adreek or Chakotay during the fight with the boarding Drednok's, or put there by accident or on purpose by the Vau N'akat themselves. Dal did make sure there was a combadge present to be found in the "re-run" of the timeline.
Likewise, in the original scenario (with the Protostar leaving on autopilot, without Chakotay) the computer probably picked Tars Lamora as a good hiding place due to the natural presence of chimerium. The Diviner must have been the only one to get close enough (timewise and spacewise) to pickup its warp signature or something like that.
I quite liked PRO season one, but I have absolutely loved season two. I've always been dissmissive of Chakotay as a character because most of the time in VOY he's basically self-propelled scenery that occasionally gets a line, but he was great here.
Yes, "The last flight of the Protostar" was an especially good two-parter, perhaps the best episode(s) of the season for me.
Before the season, when Beltran attracted negative publicity with his antics, there were calls in some quarters that the Hagemans/Paramount should remove Chakotay from the season. Boy, was that an impossibility to start with given the leadtimes involved in a production like this, but also a very bad advice considering how this storyline was worth it. Even the voice acting was actually good.
It also made the other characters better, both the young crew (a great episode for them) and Janeway.
For me, Prodigy season 2 blows Picard season 3 out of the water because it has a much more coherent season arc, uses fan service only as the plot requires it, and it managed to tie together the entirety of Prodigy's forty episodes and even other series without conveniently ignoring or retconning the decisions of other showrunners.
Agreed. Prodigy was really well planned out, and ended (for now, at least) in a satisfying way. Gwyn finally ending up as captain for example, was teased from early season 1 on (with her being in the captain's chair, for one reason or another, in most of the first 8 episodes).
The premise of Prodigy was also its big strength; it left room for the audience to discover the Federation etc together with the characters, while the build-in conflict between characters made sure that they didn't have to rely on hitherto-unmentioned brothers or sisters or sons or daughters with an hitherto-unhinted at issue or special interest to get an episode for a specific character. The desires and actions of the young crew all grew seemingly organically, without the hand of the writers forcing things being clearly visible.
As I said in the finale thread, it's probably my favourite series in the franchise. Just a wonderful love letter to the the past and the current slate of Trek shows.
Also perhaps the best crew in Trek that really captured the found family feeling so naturally.
The "Protogies" make for a really warm crew/family, indeed. Only Lower Decks comes close.
There were a few easter eggs in the form of lines from previous episodes and similar. The scene where (fake) Janeway dies was reminiscent of Dinobot in Code of Hero from Beast Wars. Quite a few scenes are really triggering flashbacks to things I've seen elsewhere either being homaged or ripped off. The Loom are something I've seen before I am sure but where I cannot put my finger on.
Overall a huge improvement on season 1 and a very fun watch with some interesting plot twists and developments.
The Rev-1 launching its drones/fighters reminded me of a Cylon baseship launching its raiders. And Wesley saying that the 7 main characters need to stay together reminded me of "Wheel of Time", with its ta'veren. Also the effect of the loom, erasing you from history, reminds me a bit of WOT's balefire.
Season 2 was very good overall. When I look at the 10-episode bunches though (as the Hagemans tended to think of 10 episodes as a (half)season with its own finale), I think the first 10 and the last 10 (31-40) are the best. Season 1B (11-20) was a bit weaker overall for me in spite of the emotional finale, and season 2A (21-30) was excellent but I feel its finale was a bit too much the Wesley Crusher show (with Janeway in assistance), with the young crew mostly just following Wesley around in a constant state of confusion.
A good finale still, but I consider the following "the last flight of the Protostar" to be the better two-parter. The other three finales also had more emotional punch and a better storyline for the Protogies themselves, IMO.
