Unable to repair Zero's containment suit, the cadets bring them to a planet inhabited by non-corporeal beings in the hopes of receiving help. And these inhabitants can help, in the most surprising way: they're able to give Zero a physical body to inhabit! But there's a hidden side to this amazing gift.
When you think about Prodigy through the lens of its young core audience, you see the writers systematically working through all the stock narratives of the franchise, presenting a child-accessible version of them for a first-time Star Trek viewer. This episode feels like it's delivering perhaps the most enduring Star Trek trope of all: the "alien society is hiding a dark secret" trope.
Part of making this classic story construction more accessible, I think, is not making the secret that dark, or even surprising. (Indeed, I feel like any adult -- Star Trek fan or not -- is going to see it coming from a mile off.) Still, the idea that Zero's new body will only endure if they remain on the planet is a meaningful "twist," largely because it sets them up to make a second big sacrifice in as many episodes. Zero is getting something they've always wanted, and giving that up to remain with the Protostar gang feels like an even greater sacrifice than "saving the day" was in the prior episode. It's great growth for the character either way -- and it seems that it'll be growth with lasting consequences. (Zero's body won't decay immediately upon leaving the planet, we're told to expect.)
Another nice twist on the formula is that the inhabitants of this planet truly mean well. They're not "evil," nor even following their own twisted morality that our Star Trek Heroes are here to comment on. Okay, the whole business with the race from the flying creatures (specifically, whether death there is permanent, or whether they could give Zero another body) is a bit fuzzy. But fundamentally, they're trying to make Zero happy, and have correctly read something that will do that. They've simply missed that Zero feels an even greater obligation to their friends.
Meanwhile, a mystery is afoot aboard Voyager. Maj'el has figured out that something is up with the cadets, leading to the discovery of the holograms they left behind. But it turns out this subplot isn't just about getting the adults on the show caught up with the young protagonists. We've got a mystery that involves missing time and some as-yet-unrevealed threat. Intriguing.
One final note. Though it doesn't figure large in the plot, I think this episode is the first time we actually see what a game of Parrises Squares looks like. They've been talking about that game on Star Trek for decades, so it's fun to finally get a peek.
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