Finished Star Trek: Prodigy!
Jul. 4th, 2024 09:50 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lizbeeI really hate the binge model for things I care about -- the last quarter of the season blurred together, and I'm very glad I'll be rewatching more slowly for Antimatter Pod.
My spoiler-free review is that Prodigy has gone from "the best Trek since DS9" to "the best Trek", but in a way which doesn't negate anything that has come before it. It's standing on the shoulders of giants, and also Star Trek: Picard.
In no particular order...
My spoiler-free review is that Prodigy has gone from "the best Trek since DS9" to "the best Trek", but in a way which doesn't negate anything that has come before it. It's standing on the shoulders of giants, and also Star Trek: Picard.
In no particular order...
- Things I an no longer only say to signal that I'm being held hostage:
- "Chakotay was incredibly well-written."
- "I think Robert Picardo was underused and would have liked to see more of the EMH."
- "Robert Beltran gave a great performance."
- Apparently some J/C shippers are angry or feel cheated because they think the relationship wasn't made canon. Man, I wish all my relationships were that uncanonical. I've never seen two cartoon people look more in love, and I adore that the precise nature of their relationship is ambiguous. I mean, as ambiguous as "holding hands over breakfast" can be.
- The end of the season, with the tie-in to Star Trek: Picard, was DEVASTATING, but the series has been signalling the Federation's decline all along. SURE DOES SUCK TO BE PART OF A FALLING EMPIRE, DOESN'T IT. THAT'S NOT A STORY THAT WILL RESONATE WITH CONTEMPORARY CHILDREN AT ALL.
- I need a third season so that the USS Prodigy crew (!!!) can meet Seven of Nine and the Fenris Rangers, and also child!Elnor. (I think Dal would particularly benefit from meeting Seven; they are both Janeway proteges who struggle with conventional hierarchies)
- (Dal has come so far; I always felt like his need to be captain was as much self-protection/inability to trust as sincere ambition, and his willingness to step aside and serve as Gwyn's number one is really meaningful. Obviously the parallel is Janeway and Chakotay, but ALSO it's giving Michael and Rayner)
- Hot take: Emperor Georgiou >>>>>> Mirror Janeway. This isn't a fair fight, of course, since Mirror Janeway is only animated; what we need is to put Michelle Yeoh and Kate Mulgrew in a room. For science. I'll start the GoFundMe.
- I was saying this in the first season, so I'm not some sort of Sexualising The Diviner Bandwagon Hopper, BUT: Gwyndala's dad has got it going on
- I was like, "castaway!Chakotay is so attractive, I hope he never shaves or wears a long-sleeve shirt", and the very next episode, he shaved and wore a long-sleeve shirt. And was instantly less appealing. For shame.
- When Discovery ended and people all of a sudden decided it was problematic that Starfleet officers always retire to live in the countryside, I was cynical (because god forbid a Black couple live in the wildlife reserve one of them created to preserve his own culture). But Janeway retiring to a farm in Indiana gives me the heeby jeebies. Having said that, my reaction might simply be my general aversion to Jeri Taylor's Jeri Tayloring. And she's retired for all of five minutes, so what does it matter?
- (But in line with my general headcanon about How People Live On Earth In The 24th Century, I have to believe that giant house holds a multi-generational household including Janeway's mother, and her sister and sister's wife and their kids. I mean.)
- I strongly suspect there's going to be a clear generational divide on Wesley Crusher's importance to the story, with millennials loving it and gen Xers/boomers being unenthused. And that's fine. For me, it makes perfect sense: Wesley is THE child and THE prodigy in Star Trek, and Wil Wheaton's whole thing is supporting and protecting the young actors of the current generation. He's a bit of a deus ex machina, right up until he's not. He needs to call his mom.
- Wesley's presence is in line with Chakotay's first officer being named after Adric: Prodigy is extremely conscious of the role of kids in science fiction, and how they're received by fans, and they also don't care.
- I'm not not shipping Janeway/Jellico. In an "I don't like you, but I like the sex we have" way. Yes, he has the same first name as her father. No, I'm not proud.
- Star Trek: Picard wound up being about how the kids need to step aside and let the old people save the day. Star Trek: Prodigy is about how inter-generational co-operation and meaningful connection is what will save society. I know which one I prefer.
- (See also: Star Trek: Strange New Worlds' very odd treatment of children, where they're mostly canon fodder and plot devices, but never people in their own right.)
- Do we think Chakotay and Adreek explored each other's bodies?
- LIKEWISE I do have questions about the ten years Chakotay spent marooned with Hologram Janeway
- Zero's story is SUCH a good disability allegory (I think it's also a trans story, but I'm too cis to see it clearly and await further information), and the disability solidarity between Zero and Jankom warms my black little heart (and almost makes up for how underused Jankom is compared to everyone else)
- (It's not a competition, but Prodigy is still beating SNW at this)
- (Also, Prodigy's character with a Gay Side Shave is actually queer. Your move, SNW.)
- Jameela Jamil left no scenery unchewed, and I respect that.
- I said in my last post that only Kate Mulgrew has the superpower of controlling her voice to sound like she did 25 years ago, but actually, John Noble did the same thing. Outstanding stuff.
- I deeply respect how well the writers understood when to drop lore, and when to hold back. Like, there could have been a whole THING about how Asencia's drones could anticipate Nova Squadron's moves because Wesley was part of Nova Squadron. That's absolutely what was happening. But they knew not to complicate the story by getting into that. It's something new viewers can find out for themselves.
- Kind of need to know everything about the Captain Tuvix timeline.
- Tysses and Noum are absolutely married, and I am very happy for them.
- Hologram Janeway clearly has a lot of feelings for Chakotay, but ALSO there's that moment when she's telling the Doctor she's read all his novels, and I was like, GIRL, YOU CAN DO BETTER, but ALSO, I'm kind of into it? Not least for how weird that would be for everyone who knows Admiral Janeway? And truthfully I am in favour of anything that makes Hologram Janeway her own person, and more than a copy of the original.
- INCIDENTALLY time to bring back my Hologram Janeway/Zora OTP
- By the 32nd century, the Federation's artificial intelligence polycule constitutes a political entity in its own right, and you need a degree to decipher the group calendar
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Date: 2024-07-04 05:49 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-07-04 05:53 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-07-04 05:57 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-07-04 06:12 am (UTC)I mean, it is truly a Star Trek with an anti-gatekeeping agenda. The first couple of episodes don't even look like Star Trek -- it's going, "Hey kids, you know Star Wars, right? Well, we're going to start you off in that familiar space and introduce you to something new, piece by piece."
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Date: 2024-07-04 08:10 pm (UTC)Do we think Chakotay and Adreek explored each other's bodies?
LIKEWISE I do have questions about the ten years Chakotay spent marooned with Hologram Janeway
For better or worse, we are entirely of the same mind here.
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Date: 2024-07-04 10:25 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-07-04 10:42 pm (UTC)