I think it was actually very creative, as it gave us glimpses into the characters psyches, and managed to surprise me with the reveal about Janeway. Initially, i was disappointed with the prospect of a holodeck gone haywire story (Ugh, of course the safeties got turned off), but the reveal of what was going on justified it completely.
I'm increasingly impressed with this show every week.
I have similar feelings. Around halfway through, I was thinking this was maybe the worst Prodigy episode yet (though still enjoyable), but by the end I thought it was actually very good, because of the resolution and the connection to the overarching plot. Moreover, things that seemed gratuitious before, like the violence in Jankom's program, suddenly made sense because (in this case), the construct wanted to make it clear that the safeties were off (to motivate them to continue playing the game, I suppose).
Allthough I suspected already before the episode that holo-Janeway was orchestrating things, I was still surprised at the why and how of that. It was a weird episode in many ways, but very creative and allthough we've had many holodeck stories, I don't think we have ever gotten something quite like this (especially because this episode's plot was driven directly by the overarching plot of the series, and vice-versa).
What I disliked were mostly two things:
1. That it ended (typical for most Prodigy episodes - I want more and I want it now...)
2. That we didn't get a glimpse of the situation on the Dauntless - damn cliffhanger
Besides that, I wasn't wild about Murf singing - very weird scene that. But the rest of the holodeck antics actually were fine. I especially liked the glimpse into Zero's mind, and Zero was again the hero this episode, figuring things out the way it happened.
One thing I don't get...
If Janeway was programmed to intervene if they decided not to go to Starfleet, why didn't she do so a few episodes back when the kids abandoned the Protostar and buried it under the snow and looked for another ship to the Federation.
HoloJaneway could very easily have taken control then and flown the ship, sans crew, straight to the Dauntless.
There have been several suggestions offered on this thread, and there may be another possibility. The Living Construct is not a dumb weapon, it adapts to circumstances and based on this episode, it can discriminate between targets (it's not a "destroy everything Starfleet in sight, all the time" thing). I think it's possible that the Construct has received orders from the agents of "The Order" on board the Dauntless, considering that those get just what they need at exactly the right moment: the Protostar within transport range, while the Protostar's crew would be nicely subdued. Presto, they can beam over, take control of the ship and destroy Starfleet and they don't even have to fight/hurt Gwyn to do so.
In that case, its actions make sense: keep the crew occupied (but not to the point that Gwyn is badly injured or worse) and go to the Dauntless but make no attempt to infect it yet (because the Vau n'akat agents are on board, and because those don't want to give their trump card away yet by targeting the Dauntless- they want to infect/destroy multiple Starfleet vessels at once).
It's also possible that the weapon did not get specific instructions from Asencia and/or Diviner, but it is sufficiently intelligent (and acting within a set of pre-defined conditions) to follow a similar gameplan (though in that case, it presumably would want to infect the Dauntless unless it can also detect the presence of Vau N'akat on board).
This is also the first time that members of the crew have explicitly stated they would no longer attempt to reach the Federation, which is worse (from the POV of the construct) than the situation at Denaxi Depot (especially if it could detect the presence of Asencia and the Diviner nearby).
That the holodeck simulation ended when the crew was in grave danger, indicates that the construct ultimately did not want to harm them, or probably rather that it did not want to harm the Vau n'akat among them (or had instructions to that end). Otherwise, all of them drowning should have been just fine for the construct.
Instructions are probably more likely, as the construct otherwise did not hesitate to attack Gwyn on CR-721.
One thing I don't quite understand about the earlier simulations in leaving the Neutral Zone is that they never seemed to consider simply using the Protodrive, even though they made a big deal of repairing it last week. Are they concerned that the Dauntless would right away be able to follow? Or does it need a long run at high warp before it can "fire"?
We will have to find out what the solution to this is in Strange New Worlds with Una as it could have set a Starfleet precedent. Starfleet also did not know about Bashir in advance, he did not even know himself at first.
The Hageman's and/or Aaron Waltke have stated in interviews that they consider this the last prejudice in the Federation, so acceptance of Dal will probably be a major arc in later parts of Prodigy. I don't think they will welcome him with open hands, though VA Janeway likely will.
To be fair, this one turned out not to be a holodeck malfunction but deliberate sabotage.
Yes, and even more so, it was nothing less but the Living Construct in action - on the very ship it's on. It shows that other proposed options, like flying the ship into a star, would probably not work either as the construct protects itself (and would probably seize control from the crew to do so). The construct infected holo-Janeway, who programmed the holodeck to do what it did. There's no evidence it malfunctioned at all. The glitches, as they appeared to the teens, may have been caused by the part of holo-Janeway that would attempt to resist the construct (to subtly warn them something is not right).
Other things that are striking:
At least Zero, Dal and Gwyn can read (and very likely Jankom and Rok as well), the old-fashioned way. And they know about morse code, too, and even attempt to implement it (though firing phasers to do so doesn't seem the best idea). Apparently there was a good school at Tars Lamora
