Spoilers Star Trek: Prodigy General Discussion Thread

[Catboots]

Some good news coming out of the Vegas convention this morning:

Oh hell yeah! I know it's a pipe dream, but I would love for that to happen! Prodigy is my favourite Trek series period, even though I'm an old fart.

One thing I would like them to follow up on if they got a third season is Dal - who made him, and why (and what did the writers have planned for him).

Just the other day I was spitballing ideas for a third season in my head. My idea was for the Prodigy crew to be sent to investigate the portal/wormhole that opened up at the end of Picard Season 2, the one the "good" Borg were guarding. I had an entire storyline worked out about it, but none of it involved Dal's origins, and I honestly couldn't come up with anything (about his origins, I had ideas for his character going forward). Maybe I'll write a fanfic here if a third season never does get made.

Also Maj'el is up there with Tuvok as one of my favourite Vulcan characters in Trek.

 

[Hellbird]

Mileages may vary, but if any show from the Kurtzman era deserves another season, its definitely this one.

I won't get my hopes up, but I hope they keep fighting.

 

[cooleddie74]

Yeah, this is the most underappreciated of all the post-2005 Trek projects. It's excellent in almost every respect.

 

[Firebird]

Yeah, this is the most underappreciated of all the post-2005 Trek projects. It's excellent in almost every respect.

What other show in the franchise managed to stick the landing of what turned out to be a forty-episode story arc? It deserves praise on the writing alone, amongst so many other factors.

 

[cooleddie74]

And the writers wrote good material for Robert Beltran that made him genuinely interesting and emotive.

Yes. I just typed those words. And the PRO production team deserves every accolade for pulling it off.

 

[BillJ]

Watching “Ghost in the Machine”.

I love Dal’s command authorization code: GB64N32X.

 

[tomalak301]

I was pleasantly surprised how much Prodigy was talked about at the convention. It was less than the other series but there is still an appetite for it. I expected the only way it was brought up was just through casual conversations. The Hagemens even joined a Janeway/Chakotay panel and it ended up being an unofficial Prodigy panel.

 

[Christopher]

The Hagemens even joined a Janeway/Chakotay panel and it ended up being an unofficial Prodigy panel.

That got me thinking. Is there another case where the lead character of a TV series has gone on to become a regular or semi-regular supporting character in a later series in the same universe? Not just an occasional guest star, but an integral yet non-leading member of the ensemble? And played by the same actor, rather than something like a child version of the character in a prequel (e.g. William Adama in Caprica).

I'm sure it must have happened before somewhere, but I'm blanking on examples. It usually happens the other way around -- a supporting character gets spun off to be a lead character in their own show. Or else the same character is a supporting player in two or more series, like Oscar Goldman or Worf. A lead character getting demoted to a supporting but ongoing role in another show is more rare.

Hmm, I guess Extreme Ghostbusters might count -- Maurice LaMarche returned as Egon Spengler as the mentor to a new team of younger lead Ghostbusters. Although he was more of an equal member of the core ensemble, I think, or at least more of a core regular than Janeway (the real one) was in Prodigy. By the same token, Bruce Wayne was still a co-lead character in Batman Beyond and Justice League, so I don't think those would count.

 

[tomalak301]

That got me thinking. Is there another case where the lead character of a TV series has gone on to become a regular or semi-regular supporting character in a later series in the same universe? Not just an occasional guest star, but an integral yet non-leading member of the ensemble? And played by the same actor, rather than something like a child version of the character in a prequel (e.g. William Adama in Caprica).

The first person I thought of to your question is Frasier Crane, or is that an opposite impact, where the supporting character becomes the lead?

 

[Christopher]

The first person I thought of to your question is Frasier Crane, or is that an opposite impact, where the supporting character becomes the lead?

Yeah, that's the usual pattern, a supporting character spun off to be a lead character -- Frasier, Lou Grant, Gomer Pyle, the Jeffersons, etc. What I'm looking for is the opposite, a lead character on one series becoming supporting on a sequel or spinoff. If, say, Ted Danson had appeared regularly on Frasier as Sam Malone but had only been a semi-regular supporting player, that would've been the sort of thing I'm looking for. But of course that's not what happened.

 

[Burning Hearts of Qo'noS]

There's a pair of Digimon series where the lead goggle boy becomes a supporting mentor type after his stint as leader and a new goggle boy is the main protagonist. Neither show was good. The entire cast of Digimon Adventure become supporting characters in Digimon Adventure 02 (aside from Takeru and Hikari who are MCs in both shows.

Not technically the same thing since its within the same series, but in Gundam Age, each cour has a new main character, the son of the previous cour's main character and spans three generations. You could argue Char and Amuro fit this as well in Gundam and Zeta Gundam. Kira and Athrun were KIND of like this in Gundam Seed/Seed Destiny before Kira takes over as the main character in the back half of Destiny. Terrible show, lol.

Tommy Oliver in Mighty Morphin Power Rangers as lead and Power Rangers Dino Thunder as mentor.

 

[Christopher]

There's a pair of Digimon series where the lead goggle boy becomes a supporting mentor type after his stint as leader and a new goggle boy is the main protagonist. Neither show was good. The entire cast of Digimon Adventure become supporting characters in Digimon Adventure 02 (aside from Takeru and Hikari who are MCs in both shows.

I'm not sure if this was true in the original, but the dub of Digimon Tamers established that Adventures was a work of fiction within its universe. (I would love to see the original Japanese version of Tamers, but Crunchyroll only has the more recent seasons.)

Tommy Oliver in Mighty Morphin Power Rangers as lead and Power Rangers Dino Thunder as mentor.

That's close, but in Dino Thunder, Tommy was still part of the core ensemble of regulars, and he eventually became Dino Thunder Black.

Oh, hey, there's Ultraman Leo. Ultraseven/Dan returned as Leo's commander and mentor, but he was injured and unable to fight as Ultraseven, so he was in a supporting role. Although he was still the second-billed lead. Still, it's the closest one yet.

 

[Burning Hearts of Qo'noS]

I'm not sure if this was true in the original, but the dub of Digimon Tamers established that Adventures was a work of fiction within its universe. (I would love to see the original Japanese version of Tamers, but Crunchyroll only has the more recent seasons.)




That's close, but in Dino Thunder, Tommy was still part of the core ensemble of regulars, and he eventually became Dino Thunder Black.

Oh, hey, there's Ultraman Leo. Ultraseven/Dan returned as Leo's commander and mentor, but he was injured and unable to fight as Ultraseven, so he was in a supporting role. Although he was still the second-billed lead. Still, it's the closest one yet.

The Digimon Adventure and Digimon Tamers relation isn't clear cut like that. Digimon Adventure exists as a fictional series within the Digimon Tamers universe, but the inclusion of Ryo as a character puts Tamers within a multiverse with Digimon Adventure as Ryo is part of the Adventure universe. Tamers universe Adventure is fictional, but there does exist an actual Adventure universe alongside it. There is also an ancient debate on whether Omegamon in the first Tamers movie is the Omegamon from Adventure, and the movie more or less has canon status as the new character from it appears in Tamers as well. Even so, in all instances you can argue that any of the same characters aren't the same characters (like in AU Dragon Ball Z movies). Ryo appears in flashbacks without lines in Adventure 02 when Ken first goes to the Digital World as a child and has an adventure, which is detailed in the Wonderswan game. It's presented that the events of the game (or a version of it) happened in the Adventure series timeline. At face value you can assume that Ryo in Tamers is the same Ryo despite not being explicitly stated as such, but it could easily just be another Ryo not from the Adventure universe, and that Adventure is strictly a work of fiction.

 

[Catboots]

That got me thinking. Is there another case where the lead character of a TV series has gone on to become a regular or semi-regular supporting character in a later series in the same universe? Not just an occasional guest star, but an integral yet non-leading member of the ensemble? And played by the same actor, rather than something like a child version of the character in a prequel (e.g. William Adama in Caprica).

Sam Carter moving from SG1 to Stargate Atlantis? Maybe Kevin Conroy's Batman from TAS to Batman Beyond?

 

[Christopher]

Sam Carter moving from SG1 to Stargate Atlantis?

Hmm, yeah, since she was one of the core regulars in SG-1, I suppose that kind of works. Though she arguably wasn't quite equal in prominence to Jack and Daniel, so it's more like the Doctor becoming a regular in Prodigy than Janeway doing it.

Maybe Kevin Conroy's Batman from TAS to Batman Beyond?

I already ruled that out, since Bruce was still the second lead in BB even if he wasn't Batman anymore.

 

[The Old Mixer]

Arguably, Mulgrew wasn't "demoted" for this role, as she gets the prominent "and" billing following the other regulars.

 

[Christopher]

Arguably, Mulgrew wasn't "demoted" for this role, as she gets the prominent "and" billing following the other regulars.

Fair point, although that was mainly as Hologram Janeway in season 1, so it doesn't strictly count as the same character. I was thinking more of Admiral Janeway's role in the back half of season 1 and in season 2. But maybe I'm misremembering how prominent her role was in season 2.

 

[The Old Mixer]

Fair point, although that was mainly as Hologram Janeway in season 1, so it doesn't strictly count as the same character. I was thinking more of Admiral Janeway's role in the back half of season 1 and in season 2. But maybe I'm misremembering how prominent her role was in season 2.

If we’re splitting hairs about which character, then she could be considered one of the regulars playing an alternate role…same as if she were playing an evil twin. But in Season 2 she was billed in the credits as playing Admiral Janeway.

 

[Christopher]

If we’re splitting hairs about which character, then she’s just one of the regulars playing an alternate role…same as if she played an evil twin. But in Season 2 she was billed in the credits as playing Admiral Janeway.

But I did specify the same actor playing the same character. There have been other cases of a lead actor in one series being brought in to play a different character in a related series, like John Wesley Shipp playing several different mentor figures on The Flash or the male and female leads of the original Ultraman playing the team's superior officer and scientific adviser in Ultraman Max (although those weren't in the same continuity except on the multiverse level). So that's not unusual, but a lead returning as the same character in a non-lead capacity in a different series is much more rare.

 

[The Old Mixer]

But I did specify the same actor playing the same character. There have been other cases of a lead actor in one series being brought in to play a different character in a related series, like John Wesley Shipp playing several different mentor figures on The Flash or the male and female leads of the original Ultraman playing the team's superior officer and scientific adviser in Ultraman Max (although those weren't in the same continuity except on the multiverse level). So that's not unusual, but a lead returning as the same character in a non-lead capacity in a different series is much more rare.

In Season 1, she was a series lead playing the original character as an additional role to her main character. In S2, the original character was her main role.