Spoilers Star Trek: Prodigy 1x19 - "Supernova, Part 1"

[Weyoun 251]

Oh wow!

Great visuals on the fleet scenes - especially showing the maneuvering thrusters and then topping it off with the Brinari refugee!

Absolute deep cut ref there and an unreal bit of continuity porn!

 

[GothicPudding]

The end of today's episode has one heck of a "Cliff Hanger".
I bet you they use "Time Travel" to fix it in the next episode.

Personally, I think that they find a way to convince the Living Construct to stand down.

While there hasn't been any sign of intelligence so far from the Living Construct, destroying something "Living" doesn't seem like it would be a satisfying solution to the problem. There has been an ongoing theme of communication in the Pilot and this episode. Perhaps the crew's experiences would help change the Living Construct's mind?

The large amount of space battles this episode also makes me thing that a large battle next episode is less likely. There also have been a few season finale conflicts in Star Trek resolved by a speech or two.

 

[Deks]

Continuity is something Prodigy does well (unlike some shows that step over it).
Kept saying one can have a good story without changing continuity after all.

This episode was pretty good.
I'm a bit under the weather at the moment, so I can't fully appreciate the episode due to the pain and discomfort, but I do replay episodes, and still found this one quite enjoyable to watch.

It was indeed a bit unexpected that Ascensia managed to set off a weapon. How they stop it will be revealed (sadly) next week. I say sadly because I don't think it would have hurt to air the last 2 episodes together like they did with the first 2 episodes.

Its a pretty big jam that SF is in.
Maybe this is one of the reasons we see less ship variety in ST: Picard Season 1.
SF may have decided to build a massive amount of same class of ships and spread them in relative proximity to core UFP worlds and sent them out exploring too (like I said before, having SF have 1500 ships of the same class is not impossible).

I also wouldn't be surprised if this is a bit of a 'turning point' for the Federation when it comes to increasing their fleet size, but we'll see.

The Dauntless isn't a goner as of yet. Maybe they will manage to engineer a solution with the Protostar crew (somehow).

Side note: the Protostar was evading phasers rather well... though to be fair, that shouldn't have really happened given how fast phasers are, their range, and the relative impulse speed of SF ships (especially with auto-targeting), but most ships would probably be jamming the sensors in some way to reduce starship capability of hitting its intended target.

As for how some ships could get there so fast... probably because they were at the time deployed near those regions, and it stands to reason SF manage to improve on maximum Warp speed of all (or most) of its ships.

Side note 2: the fact the brig ensign released VADM Janeway from prison is a bit troublesome. According to what we saw in SNW, that shouldn't have happened (even if VADM Janeway helped her get away from the Devore while still in the DQ)... however, the ensign COULD have relaid her message to the bridge while keeping her in the brig.
Also, why hand VADM Janeway a commbadge if she won't use it to... you know, contact the bridge and save herself the time of going up there?
I know it would possibly mess with the story, but regardless, VADM Janeway could have explained what happened with the neural swap and relaid the message to Tyssess to NOT open comms with the Protostar, and instruct all SF ships to do the same.

Dreadnok can act as an escape pod. Interesting (and it seems like Ascensia will remain a possible threat in Season 2, or it will leave things for her to appear again, possibly when Gwyn tries to prevent a civil war on Solum).

Why doesn't SF invent stuff like this? We know they have origamii style technology/materials that can be deployed from a very small device (we've seen it in ST: Disco when the crew brough a space whale aboard.
It should be possible to 'deploy' a protective shell around a person using transporters which can be part of a belt (that should also include personal shields, etc.).
Life support belts existed in the 23rd century, and we even heard Leyton talking about personal shields in DS9 (but strangely enough, much like the TW Transporter, we never see it in use - we have seen personal 'shields' of sorts when dealing with subspace anomalies that fit around a hand in ST: VOY, and even back in TNG when Geordi fitted them to stop the crew from becoming trapped in the ENT-D and Romulan Warbird time frames.

I'm thinking you can fit a lot of 'goodies' on a SF belt in the late 24th century.

Ah well...

One good thing about the Protostar large 'transparent dome' on the bridge is that it can self-repair. Finally. Even in real life, we already have materials that can do this. Its a shame we hadn't seen this in use before in TNG and VOY... or maybe they did have it, just the VFX was never shown.

 

[Weyoun 251]

Continuity is something Prodigy does well (unlike some shows that step over it).
Kept saying one can have a good story without changing continuity after all.

This episode was pretty good.
I'm a bit under the weather at the moment, so I can't fully appreciate the episode due to the pain and discomfort, but I do replay episodes, and still found this one quite enjoyable to watch.

It was indeed a bit unexpected that Ascensia managed to set off a weapon. How they stop it will be revealed (sadly) next week. I say sadly because I don't think it would have hurt to air the last 2 episodes together like they did with the first 2 episodes.

Its a pretty big jam that SF is in.
Maybe this is one of the reasons we see less ship variety in ST: Picard Season 1.
SF may have decided to build a massive amount of same class of ships and spread them in relative proximity to core UFP worlds and sent them out exploring too (like I said before, having SF have 1500 ships of the same class is not impossible).

I also wouldn't be surprised if this is a bit of a 'turning point' for the Federation when it comes to increasing their fleet size, but we'll see.

The Dauntless isn't a goner as of yet. Maybe they will manage to engineer a solution with the Protostar crew (somehow).

Side note: the Protostar was evading phasers rather well... though to be fair, that shouldn't have really happened given how fast phasers are, their range, and the relative impulse speed of SF ships (especially with auto-targeting), but most ships would probably be jamming the sensors in some way to reduce starship capability of hitting its intended target.

As for how some ships could get there so fast... probably because they were at the time deployed near those regions, and it stands to reason SF manage to improve on maximum Warp speed of all (or most) of its ships.

Side note 2: the fact the brig ensign released VADM Janeway from prison is a bit troublesome. According to what we saw in SNW, that shouldn't have happened (even if VADM Janeway helped her get away from the Devore while still in the DQ)... however, the ensign COULD have relaid her message to the bridge while keeping her in the brig.
Also, why hand VADM Janeway a commbadge if she won't use it to... you know, contact the bridge and save herself the time of going up there?
I know it would possibly mess with the story, but regardless, VADM Janeway could have explained what happened with the neural swap and relaid the message to Tyssess to NOT open comms with the Protostar, and instruct all SF ships to do the same.

Dreadnok can act as an escape pod. Interesting (and it seems like Ascensia will remain a possible threat in Season 2, or it will leave things for her to appear again, possibly when Gwyn tries to prevent a civil war on Solum).

Why doesn't SF invent stuff like this? We know they have origamii style technology/materials that can be deployed from a very small device (we've seen it in ST: Disco when the crew brough a space whale aboard.
It should be possible to 'deploy' a protective shell around a person using transporters which can be part of a belt (that should also include personal shields, etc.).
Life support belts existed in the 23rd century, and we even heard Leyton talking about personal shields in DS9 (but strangely enough, much like the TW Transporter, we never see it in use - we have seen personal 'shields' of sorts when dealing with subspace anomalies that fit around a hand in ST: VOY, and even back in TNG when Geordi fitted them to stop the crew from becoming trapped in the ENT-D and Romulan Warbird time frames.

I'm thinking you can fit a lot of 'goodies' on a SF belt in the late 24th century.

Ah well...

One good thing about the Protostar large 'transparent dome' on the bridge is that it can self-repair. Finally. Even in real life, we already have materials that can do this. Its a shame we hadn't seen this in use before in TNG and VOY... or maybe they did have it, just the VFX was never shown.

Regarding whether they should be able to dodge the phasers, I just wanted to add that I would assume the ship's computer will be analysing firing patterns and standard tactics so some of the "evasion" is predicted movements rather than reactive ones.

 

[The_Baroness]

According to Memory Alpha that IS the Enterprise in the blurry image posted above.

 

[Ar-Pharazon]

Continuity is something Prodigy does well (unlike some shows that step over it).
Kept saying one can have a good story without changing continuity after all.

This episode was pretty good.
I'm a bit under the weather at the moment, so I can't fully appreciate the episode due to the pain and discomfort, but I do replay episodes, and still found this one quite enjoyable to watch.

It was indeed a bit unexpected that Ascensia managed to set off a weapon. How they stop it will be revealed (sadly) next week. I say sadly because I don't think it would have hurt to air the last 2 episodes together like they did with the first 2 episodes.

Its a pretty big jam that SF is in.
Maybe this is one of the reasons we see less ship variety in ST: Picard Season 1.
SF may have decided to build a massive amount of same class of ships and spread them in relative proximity to core UFP worlds and sent them out exploring too (like I said before, having SF have 1500 ships of the same class is not impossible).

I also wouldn't be surprised if this is a bit of a 'turning point' for the Federation when it comes to increasing their fleet size, but we'll see.

The Dauntless isn't a goner as of yet. Maybe they will manage to engineer a solution with the Protostar crew (somehow).

Side note: the Protostar was evading phasers rather well... though to be fair, that shouldn't have really happened given how fast phasers are, their range, and the relative impulse speed of SF ships (especially with auto-targeting), but most ships would probably be jamming the sensors in some way to reduce starship capability of hitting its intended target.

As for how some ships could get there so fast... probably because they were at the time deployed near those regions, and it stands to reason SF manage to improve on maximum Warp speed of all (or most) of its ships.

Side note 2: the fact the brig ensign released VADM Janeway from prison is a bit troublesome. According to what we saw in SNW, that shouldn't have happened (even if VADM Janeway helped her get away from the Devore while still in the DQ)... however, the ensign COULD have relaid her message to the bridge while keeping her in the brig.
Also, why hand VADM Janeway a commbadge if she won't use it to... you know, contact the bridge and save herself the time of going up there?
I know it would possibly mess with the story, but regardless, VADM Janeway could have explained what happened with the neural swap and relaid the message to Tyssess to NOT open comms with the Protostar, and instruct all SF ships to do the same.

Dreadnok can act as an escape pod. Interesting (and it seems like Ascensia will remain a possible threat in Season 2, or it will leave things for her to appear again, possibly when Gwyn tries to prevent a civil war on Solum).

Why doesn't SF invent stuff like this? We know they have origamii style technology/materials that can be deployed from a very small device (we've seen it in ST: Disco when the crew brough a space whale aboard.
It should be possible to 'deploy' a protective shell around a person using transporters which can be part of a belt (that should also include personal shields, etc.).
Life support belts existed in the 23rd century, and we even heard Leyton talking about personal shields in DS9 (but strangely enough, much like the TW Transporter, we never see it in use - we have seen personal 'shields' of sorts when dealing with subspace anomalies that fit around a hand in ST: VOY, and even back in TNG when Geordi fitted them to stop the crew from becoming trapped in the ENT-D and Romulan Warbird time frames.

I'm thinking you can fit a lot of 'goodies' on a SF belt in the late 24th century.

Ah well...

One good thing about the Protostar large 'transparent dome' on the bridge is that it can self-repair. Finally. Even in real life, we already have materials that can do this. Its a shame we hadn't seen this in use before in TNG and VOY... or maybe they did have it, just the VFX was never shown.

I wonder if this is the real cliffhanger, or if next week ends with some serious loose ends. I never minded having to wait a week for satisfaction when it came to the in-season 2 parters.


There were at least 2 little Brenari girls in Counterpoint, so I'd like to believe our new Ensign is one of these. Very nice callback this one.

It's what, 20 years til Picard S2? We know some of those ships survive. The USS Sovereign among them.

 

[Ralph O Ward III]

I wonder if Dal's proto organian genes will come into play.

 

[Weyoun 251]

I wonder if this is the real cliffhanger, or if next week ends with some serious loose ends. I never minded having to wait a week for satisfaction when it came to the in-season 2 parters.


There were at least 2 little Brenari girls in Counterpoint, so I'd like to believe our new Ensign is one of these. Very nice callback this one.

It's what, 20 years til Picard S2? We know some of those ships survive. The USS Sovereign among them.

Imagine the scenes if they got the person back to voice their older self?

Would be a brilliant touch

 

[Deks]

I wonder if Dal's proto organian genes will come into play.

I don't see how. The construct is purely technological. I don't think Dal's geners could play a big part of it (similarly, I don't see how Zero dropping their containment suit and unleashing his real form onto Dreadnok would have worked - since Dreadnok is pure technology as well)... unless Dal has psychokinetic capabilities (which would include manipulation of matter) as well and with Zero's help manage to take the construct off the ship and push it into a star away from UFP space which would cause a supernova reaction?
We know that the UFP was already aware of the fact that the Romulan star will go off as a nova in a few years time, so, if a title of the episode remains Supernova part II and are being literal, it might end up with a different star going nova.

Or the superova might mean a proverbial fiery mess the construct causes with SF ships destroying themselves.

The only thing I can think of is that the Construct will either have to be reprogrammed (somehow) to stop the signal and revert SF ships back to original (I don't think anyone mentioned this as of yet.... or they may have but I forgot?).

I wouldn't be surprised if holo Janeway might be 'merged' somehow with the construct in an attempt to disarm it and keep it under control (at the very least).
This might also open a possibility for VADM Janeway to find her way onto the Protostar too in the next season in their search/retrieval of Chakotay and his crew

 

[Paul755]

The Big E and the Defiant…cool.

 

[Deks]

Imagine the scenes if they got the person back to voice their older self?

Would be a brilliant touch

For all we know, she may have been, but in fairness, I don't think they woul have to do that since sufficient time passed between when VOY rescued those refugees and the time this episode took place for her to mature and undergo vocal changes.

Its been 5 years since VOY returned home, and about 6 and a half years when VOY transported those refugees to safety.

So, depending on her age, she and other refugees would have had to find a way to the AQ pretty soon (around the same time VOY returned) to complete SF Academy , be posted on the Dauntless and acquire a rank of ensign (but she could have been posted to another ship while still as a cadet and got a field promotion).

There should be enough time for her to mature (although in fairness, those kids did seem fairly young)... and I suspect that much like the Kazon, the refugees found a TW conduit which brought them to the AQ... or subspace corridors?

 

[Deks]

I wonder if this is the real cliffhanger, or if next week ends with some serious loose ends. I never minded having to wait a week for satisfaction when it came to the in-season 2 parters.


There were at least 2 little Brenari girls in Counterpoint, so I'd like to believe our new Ensign is one of these. Very nice callback this one.

It's what, 20 years til Picard S2? We know some of those ships survive. The USS Sovereign among them.

Not necessarily. Even if those ships were destroyed in the here and now (there's still another episode left of this season), SF could have retrieved those wreckages and rebuilt them by decomposing those wrecks into base materials and used them to create new bulkheads/sections of the ship which was eventually reconstructed.

Also, do we know for sure if the ENT-E survived that batte? I don't think we know anything about what happened to it from ST: Picard S1 (or am I mistaken?).
Maybe this is the time the ENT-F will be constructed instead and then seen in ST: Picard Season 3 (or SF might pause with a new construction of a flagship and then make the F in the next 20 odd years - wouldn't be the first time this happened since the ENT-C was destroyed around 20 odd years before TNG.

Plus, there's the temporal anomaly still which the Protostar originally encountered.
Its possible it could mess with time even more (given how impredictable it is).

But, since we saw multiple ships being critically damaged (but not destroyed), its possible that the Dauntless, the Defiant and ENT-E and multiple others in fact survive this battle (even by a hair) and are repaired.

 

[Ralph O Ward III]

I don't see how. The construct is purely technological. I don't think Dal's geners could play a big part of it (similarly, I don't see how Zero dropping their containment suit and unleashing his real form onto Dreadnok would have worked - since Dreadnok is pure technology as well)... unless Dal has psychokinetic capabilities (which would include manipulation of matter) as well and with Zero's help manage to take the construct off the ship and push it into a star away from UFP space which would cause a supernova reaction?
We know that the UFP was already aware of the fact that the Romulan star will go off as a nova in a few years time, so, if a title of the episode remains Supernova part II and are being literal, it might end up with a different star going nova.

Or the superova might mean a proverbial fiery mess the construct causes with SF ships destroying themselves.

The only thing I can think of is that the Construct will either have to be reprogrammed (somehow) to stop the signal and revert SF ships back to original (I don't think anyone mentioned this as of yet.... or they may have but I forgot?).

I wouldn't be surprised if holo Janeway might be 'merged' somehow with the construct in an attempt to disarm it and keep it under control (at the very least).
This might also open a possibility for VADM Janeway to find her way onto the Protostar too in the next season in their search/retrieval of Chakotay and his crew

Remember that Organians were able to deactivate weapons and engines on both Federation and Klingon fleets with just their minds

 

[mattman8907]

The Big E and the Defiant…cool.

First time those two have been on screen together in 26 years.

 

[Deks]

Remember that Organians were able to deactivate weapons and engines on both Federation and Klingon fleets with just their minds

Hm... forgot about that... but, Zero is just 1 Organian. I'm not sure even with Dal acting as his 'hive mind' again would be enough to do that. There were how many mature organians who were shown to do this in TOS vs just 1 Organian here (possibly 2 if you count Dal - but he's not a 'real' Organian, so his abilities might be limited).

But, its possible I suppose.

 

[StewMc]

All the chat recently about "what happened to the Enterprise-E?" relating to PIC S3, and nobody considered that they might well destroy it in Prodigy!

Although its unlikely since it's literally a blink-and-you-miss-it easter egg, unless the E comes more into play in the next episode.

Hm... forgot about that... but, Zero is just 1 Organian. I'm not sure even with Dal acting as his 'hive mind' again would be enough to do that. There were how many mature organians who were shown to do this in TOS vs just 1 Organian here (possibly 2 if you count Dal - but he's not a 'real' Organian, so his abilities might be limited).

But, its possible I suppose.

Zero is a Medusan?

 

[Ar-Pharazon]

Not necessarily. Even if those ships were destroyed in the here and now (there's still another episode left of this season), SF could have retrieved those wreckages and rebuilt them by decomposing those wrecks into base materials and used them to create new bulkheads/sections of the ship which was eventually reconstructed.

Also, do we know for sure if the ENT-E survived that batte? I don't think we know anything about what happened to it from ST: Picard S1 (or am I mistaken?).
Maybe this is the time the ENT-F will be constructed instead and then seen in ST: Picard Season 3 (or SF might pause with a new construction of a flagship and then make the F in the next 20 odd years - wouldn't be the first time this happened since the ENT-C was destroyed around 20 odd years before TNG.

Plus, there's the temporal anomaly still which the Protostar originally encountered.
Its possible it could mess with time even more (given how impredictable it is).

But, since we saw multiple ships being critically damaged (but not destroyed), its possible that the Dauntless, the Defiant and ENT-E and multiple others in fact survive this battle (even by a hair) and are repaired.

We weren't even sure canon-wise that there was an E-F until the Picard trailer came out. I would hop the E-E gets a better death than being used as target practixe like this.

As far as rebuilding a ship from very small bits, how much original ship do you suppose needs to be left for it not to be renamed the USS Theseus?

SF doesn't always use the term "flagship" quite correctly (A flagship is a vessel used by the commanding officer of a group of naval ships, characteristically a flag officer entitled by custom to fly a distinguishing flag. Used more loosely, it is the lead ship in a fleet of vessels, typically the first, largest, fastest, most heavily armed, or best known.), but I wouldn't assume the Enterprise will always be that ship.

 

[Deks]

We weren't even sure conon-wise that there was an E-F until the Picard trailer came out. I would hop the E-E gets a better death than being used as target practive like this.

This is hardly 'target practice'. The construct is just as valid as a threat to a starship (correction, 'ships' and in this case, the whole of Starfleet) like any other major threat (if not potentially greater threat - probably among the top 10 - and more sinister since it basically works on the principle of hacking and infecting SF ships and stations to destroy themselves).

As far as rebuilding a ship from very small bits, how much original ship do you suppose needs to be left for it not to be renamed the USS Theseus?

That depends. SF can retrieve as much of the wreckage as possible and simply ADD more material to reconstruct it. In the end, you will spend less raw resources if you already have a certain % of the ship which will be reused (again, these damaged bits /hulks would be decomposed into base elements and reconstructed into new ones - again, its a win win as you expend less resources overall and get what is essentially a brand new ship from it).

As for naming the ship the same... that depends entirely on SF and if they decide to rename them or not.

One doesn't have to have a certain % of the ship left intact. Even if those bits are scattered all over the battle area, collecting them, decomposing them (using replicators and transporters) and then remaking them into brand new bits would still save you raw material and energy when making a new ship of the same class).

Given that a lot of the ships can be destroyed but the hulls largely intact, you can use them in the same way to remake those ships.

But this also depends on whether or not how meticulous SF is about cleaning up its own wreckages and recycling them like this (I would imagine that they would be given how destroyed ships can present a hazzard to traffic in that part of space etc.).

SF doesn't always use the term "flagship" quite correctly (A flagship is a vessel used by the commanding officer of a group of naval ships, characteristically a flag officer entitled by custom to fly a distinguishing flag. Used more loosely, it is the lead ship in a fleet of vessels, typically the first, largest, fastest, most heavily armed, or best known.), but I wouldn't assume the Enterprise will always be that ship.

I wouldn't be so sure the ENT will always be a flagship.
Its possible... but its also possible this title will be assigned to another ship until SF makes a new one.
Also, having a 'flagship' doesn't exactly serve any benefit if you ask me, except in title.
Other ships can distinguish themselves even more than the 'flagship', so any of those could easily inherit that title (at least in the interim - even if its a tradition that ships named ENT will usually always be the 'main' flagships).

 

[fireproof78]

All the chat recently about "what happened to the Enterprise-E?" relating to PIC S3, and nobody considered that they might well destroy it in Prodigy!

It's well played, even if probably unintended. I was quite surprised to see the ass kicking going on.

I wouldn't be so sure the ENT will always be a flagship.

I sure hope not. That would be rather impractical, especially since the Enterprise often faces major threats and destruction.

 

[Corran Horn]

Imagine the scenes if they got the person back to voice their older self?

Would be a brilliant touch

I actually think that was Ella Purnell slightly modifying her voice but I could be wrong.

I have to say, when it comes to representing the ideals of Star Trek, Starfleet, and the Federation, this show is probably the best Star Trek series. Probably by design.