Spoilers Star Trek: Prodigy General Discussion Thread

[fireproof78]

I believe that you are very much underestimating the intelligence and curiosity of todays youth.

I 100% agree. I work with a lot of kids and the one things kids enjoy is develing in to history. They know Pokémon, the history and origin of Yu Gui Oh monsters, the backstory of any number of characters from various properties. Most kids I interact with use YouTube as a way of binging and catching up on information. They are far more adept at navigating large swaths of fictional information than they are ever given credit for.

 

[DaveyNY]

"Completely" is untrue. I expand on the continuity and introduce new ideas. Most of my works are set in between the series, in unexplored gaps in the continuity. I wouldn't find it interesting otherwise.

Whatever happened to "the post, not the poster?" We're here to evaluate the episodes, not judge one another.

Nice try, but you set up the premise by starting your post with "I just think...",
I just followed through.

And yet again, everything you describe above is based on PAST STAR TREK EPISODES.

You denial is getting flooded.

 

[137th Gebirg]

I 100% agree. I work with a lot of kids and the one things kids enjoy is develing in to history. They know Pokémon, the history and origin of Yu Gui Oh monsters, the backstory of any number of characters from various properties. Most kids I interact with use YouTube as a way of binging and catching up on information. They are far more adept at navigating large swaths of fictional information than they are ever given credit for.

Indeed. My 9-year-old daughter blows my mind almost every day with her encyclopedic and comprehensive knowledge of various genre shows (the ones that she cares about anyway).

 

[cooleddie74]

Continuity porn isn't necessarily a bad thing since we're on episode 6 of the series and by this point in Trek shows post-TOS we get tips of the hat to previous series and/or films. Hell, TNG was rehashing a TOS episode by episode #3 of their own series with hardly enough differences between the two to make the TNG sequel distinctive enough to stand on its own and be special in its own right. At least the Legacy characters were resurrected in the holodeck as part of an official training program and not time travel, which would really have made this episode a lot more troublesome from a storytelling point of view.

 

[Andyliini]

Skimming through reactions on this thread, it makes me a bit sad that we don't have Prodigy on our P+ for some reason. I'm sure it'll come soon and I just have to be patient, but it's all the more difficult with positive reception fron fans.

 

[BillJ]

No, I just think that franchise fiction today has gotten too self-referential, too dominated by fans-turned-creators wallowing in nostalgia for old stories, rather than just focusing on creating new stories that future generations will love for their own merits. Star Trek should be a franchise that looks forward and blazes new trails. It's become too much about leafing through old photo albums instead.

Between the nostalgia porn and juvenile way you handle female anatomy, I completely gave up on your books a few years ago.

 

[JoaquinSlowly]

Skimming through reactions on this thread, it makes me a bit sad that we don't have Prodigy on our P+ for some reason. I'm sure it'll come soon and I just have to be patient, but it's all the more difficult with positive reception fron fans.

It sucks you have to wait. ‪‪I hope you get access to it soon!

 

[Tuskin38]

It's not coming to the rest of the world until later this year.

 

[Maurice]

Whatever happened to "the post, not the poster?" We're here to evaluate the episodes, not judge one another.

IMO Hewing to the letter of the law and not the spirit of the law just makes one sneaky. Getting away with it by toeing the post not poster line is playing technicalities. e.g. “any rational person” as a way of calling someone irrational without employing “you”.

[…]I see no way that any remotely rational person would infer[…]

 

[The Old Mixer]

Alright, this is getting a bit out of hand.

First and foremost, detailed per-episode discussion belongs in the episode discussion threads. The one for "Kobayashi" is here:
Spoilers - Star Trek: Prodigy 1x06 - "Kobayashi" | The Trek BBS

Whatever happened to "the post, not the poster?" We're here to evaluate the episodes, not judge one another.

To be fair, you can't routinely remind people that you're a professional writer in discussions, and then expect nobody else to bring up your writing. While detailed discussion of your writing is more suited to the Trek Lit forum, the reference that you're referring to hardly rises to flaming.

That said, it would be helpful if some posters here could do a bit more to aim their posts at the content of the posts in question, as the line between criticizing the post and poster is definitely getting blurry in some cases.

 

[The Old Mixer]

Mod hat off: When I was a young comic reader, I couldn't get enough of new characters and concepts. Characters from multiple Earths, the Legion of Super-Heroes (whose first story I read was a reprint of the Adult Legion two-parter from the '60s, no less)...I soaked it all up like a sponge and just wanted to know more.

 

[cooleddie74]

As a child I absorbed new Star Trek and Star Wars characters like milk into a sponge and at times couldn't get enough. Were I watching this episode of Prodigy and saw a hologram of Doctor Beverly Crusher appear and had never once seen TNG I'd be wondering who this cool, pretty-looking Doctor was and where her character originated. I'd have found TNG at some point.

 

[Kamen Rider Blade]

"Completely" is untrue. I expand on the continuity and introduce new ideas. Most of my works are set in between the series, in unexplored gaps in the continuity. I wouldn't find it interesting otherwise.

Whatever happened to "the post, not the poster?" We're here to evaluate the episodes, not judge one another.

I like your EU novels =D

 

[JoaquinSlowly]

In a new interview at TrekMovie Prodigy producer/author of the newest episode, Aaron J. Waltke confirms that with setting of the show at 2383, and the Protostar’s past as depicted in the newest episode Kobayashi, that there are “wibbly-wobbly”/time travel-y aspects of the timeline.

Walkte also gave us the new information that the upcoming crew of a Federation ship made up of Jason Alexander as the Tellarite Dr. Noum, Daveed Diggs as the Andorian Commander Tysess, and Jameela Jamil as the Trill Ensign Ascencia, are *not* Chakotay’s old crew from the Protostar, as most of us had assumed following their casting announcement.

‪‪I really can’t wait for the next episode, and to delve further into the mystery around the Protostar.

 

[Tim Thomason]

No, I just think that franchise fiction today has gotten too self-referential, too dominated by fans-turned-creators wallowing in nostalgia for old stories, rather than just focusing on creating new stories that future generations will love for their own merits. Star Trek should be a franchise that looks forward and blazes new trails. It's become too much about leafing through old photo albums instead.

You're right about franchise fiction in general. We live in an age of Uber-Nostalgia, and a lot of that may be bought on by having instant access to all our childhood favorites in our front pocket and maybe the classic human wish for the "simpler" times of our youth or before the world was literally on fire.

But Prodigy and Lower Decks kind of have nostalgia built into their premise. Lower Decks is a self-referential comedy created by a figure for fans who like references to past Star Trek. As the show has progressed, those references have faded in favor of in-show references or more generalized comedy, or even dramatic moments, to the surprise of many (including myself).

Prodigy is meant to "introduce children to Star Trek", i.e. its technology, species, figures, and culture. As these concepts are being introduced, I can only assume that the references will be dwindling away, especially as they tunnel towards the real plot. I don't expect to see them visiting any large groups of famous hologram figures again.

On the episode thread, someone referred to this as a "clip show" (and was stupidly derided for it), but in many ways, they were correct. This was definitely a "bottle episode", in that not much happened except everyone hanging out on the ship. There were three plots (in 21 minutes). A: Dal on the holodeck, which only advanced his character arc, B: Zero and Gwyn (and later everyone else) messing around with the ship's computer and actually forwarding the show's plot, which will lead into next episode, C: Rok-Tahk worrying about Murf as he eats stuff. Very tight writing, but this episode might not be voted in the top ten of Prodigy when the series is over.

 

[Jinn]

I remember, when I was ten years old and just got into Trek via Voyager re-runs I always loved it when they referenced other Trek shows (that I at that point didn't know anything about at all). That time Riker showed up was awesome, and I hadn't even seen TNG at that point (and I'd never grow to like TNG either!), and any time people with different uniforms showed just drew me more into the Trek universe. I think ten-year-old me would have absolutely loved this episode. Current-day me wasn't really that much into the use of old audio clips, but it was a cute idea and I can guarantee that ten-year-old me would not have noticed. And since the show's target demographic is a lot closer to ten-year-old me than current-day me I can't really fault it for this episode at all.

 

[Locutus of Bored]

What was Odo even doing there? He wasn't in Starfleet!

And yet it was not unheard of to find Odo manning a bridge station on the Defiant, especially when there was a Changeling related story, such as in The Search and The Adversary. Likewise Garak manned a bridge station several times when the ship was doing something Cardassian related. Plus, the crews have had ex-Maquis, Klingon and other species exchange officers, T'Pol, and pre-Starfleet Wesley Crusher, so leaving an option to include non-Starfleet personnel on temporary assignment seems plausible.

Incidentally, why was there a big scary monster in the koon-ut-kal-if-fee arena? That's not how it works!

- It could be a different ceremonial ritual involving fighting a beast?
- It could be from a pre-Surak-era, pre-Romulan diaspora gladiatorial games?
- Maybe someone chose a great beast as their kal-if-fee champion? The rules seem pretty arbitrary as an offworlder like Kirk was chosen.
- Maybe it's a large sapient being who volunteered to fight? We just saw its eyes.
- Maybe it's just someone's pet sehlat or some other large Vulcan creature meant to intimidate? The Amok Time arena was Spock's ancestral lands, so if it's supposed to be the same place maybe it's another in a long line of family pet sehlats.

And why would anyone choose a hellhole like Ceti Alpha V as a place to go skydiving?

Why do people thread-the-needle on rock formations or between trees while traveling 250 mph through a canyon in a wingsuit? Why do people base jump off of buildings and bridges barely high enough to deploy a chute in time? Why do people still climb Everest despite the number of deaths? Why do people freedive down 700 feet without oxygen and risk brain damage? Why is there a 156 mile, six day ultramarathon through the Moroccan Sahara? In Trek why do they orbital skydive?

Skydiving into a raging sandstorm and surviving on the surface until you're picked up is the ultimate adrenaline rush and point of pride. Plus there's probably the novelty of it being where Khan and his people survived. It's like briefly living vicariously through the pinnacle of human physicality.

 

[cooleddie74]

Why do people vacation in Florida and go gator hunting and riding boats in humid, sticky swamps full of mosquitoes? Because that's cool to a lot of people, apparently.

The upper atmosphere of a planet with the turbulence of Ceti Alpha V might be peak adventure to some 24th century sports enthusiasts.

 

[NCC-73515]

On the episode thread, someone referred to this as a "clip show" (and was stupidly derided for it), but in many ways, they were correct. This was definitely a "bottle episode", in that not much happened except everyone hanging out on the ship.

you should also look up what a clip show is. show me one scene in this one that was a flashback showing a scene from an earlier episode.

 

[cooleddie74]

This was nothing like "Shades of Grey(TNG)." This was as far from "a clip show" as Earth is from the Gamma Quadrant.