The Protostar crew goes up against a hostile Federation armada. Aboard the Protostar, Admiral Janeway knows why they're trying to avoid contact, but she's locked in the brig and has to convince her crew to listen to her.
In terms of delivering exciting action and adventure, this episode fires on all cylinders. The stakes are high, and the jeopardy feels real. In proper storytelling fashion, the episode culminates in multiple "all is lost" moments, with the Protostar kids beaten by Drednok, and then later with the Federation ships all infected and turning to attack each other. This all would have made an excellent cliffhanger end to a season, if that's what we were doing here; certainly, it tees up an exciting finale episode.
But there are moments throughout the episode that really didn't work well for me. I simply could not get on board with the writers' effort to redeem the Diviner. We met him as a despicable villain who enslaved children. Then he leaves his daughter for dead early in the season, before menacing the Protostar all across the galaxy. I simply don't think there's a path to come back from that and make him sympathetic, complicated, or tragic. So his attempt to save Gwyn's life near the end of the episode not only didn't move me, it felt like an eyeroll.
Another awkward moment came earlier, when Dal kissed Gwyn. Yes, reading signals can be awkward, and yes, teenagers can be especially bad at it. This is a situation that could happen, and Dal does immediately know he's done something wrong. And yet... the writers have to know that while they're not writing an explicitly "educational" show here, they are modelling behavior to a young audience.
Consent has been part of the public discourse long enough that it should have been portrayed here. I think you could have gotten all the desired mileage out of this moment had Dal suddenly asked "may I kiss you?", and for Gwyn to react with a shocked and too-harsh "what? no!" And that's a shame, because in the very next moment, Dal is modelling perfect Star Trek behavior. He learns that he can't be let into Starfleet Academy because he is an Augment, but he immediately resolves to help his friends get in anyway.
There are other effective moments in the episode too. Jellico is back to play the heel again. I still don't know why Ronny Cox was down for such a minor role in Prodigy, but I'm glad he's here. We also got another nice bit of Voyager continuity for the fans, when she talks her way out of the brig by interacting with someone whose people she encountered previously in the Delta Quadrant.
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