Our heroes must send the Protostar through a wormhole back in time, to preserve history and ultimately kick off their own grand adventure. But in the aftermath, what will become of them all?
I've been a little down over the end of this season's story arc, but I really did appreciate the way this final episode specifically wrapped everything up. I was reminded of my thoughts on the series finale of Voyager, where I felt the story ended too quickly and left important character questions unanswered. Prodigy does the opposite, quickly resolving the big question of saving the day (which, come on, was never really in question), to allow room for an extended "coda."
Part of that is explicitly setting up a possible season 3, of course, by showing the cadets on a new ship. I feel like that was sort of the same ending as season 1 had -- but, at long last, the ship is actually called "Prodigy," closing the real "ouroboros" I felt at the core of the show.
I appreciated that the character of Maj'el, who has increasingly been a "part of the group" as the season unspooled, was more officially made a full-fledged member of that group in this final episode. Despite Star Trek: Prodigy having plenty of interesting characters, Maj'el filled a role that wasn't otherwise being covered, and I feel like this was the show fully acknowledging that.
One of my favorite aspects of the coda was the time the writers made to explicitly connect to the final season of Star Trek: Picard. Having featured Wesley Crusher in their season two finale, Picard had no way of organically working the character into the grand reunion that was season three. That felt like a source of unresolved tension to me, and here Prodigy finds a couple of minutes to relieve some of that tension. Giving us one more moment between Beverly and Wesley was wonderful, and giving us the moment of the two of them with Jack that Star Trek: Picard never did was icing on the cake.
I wouldn't dream of giving back those minutes pack with the Crushers... but I do feel like a bit more room should have been made somewhere for the Holo-Janeway story arc. Very, very late in the season two game, we're told that she will have to make a sacrifice, losing her memory to go back in time aboard the Protostar. In this episode, even later in the game, there's suddenly an oh-so-convenient quick fix that gets her out of making that sacrifice. While I appreciate that an escape was needed here (especially in light of the fact that her season 1 story also ended in a noble sacrifice), I wish that this problem and its solution hadn't felt like such an afterthought hastily squeezed into this episode.
I give this episode of Star Trek: Prodigy a B -- which is probably also how I feel about the season as a whole. The great episodes in the middle of the season were really quite great, but I feel like season 1 had an overall higher consistency that I appreciate.
Officially, no call has yet been made about a season three of Star Trek: Prodigy. You would think signs point to no, since the show was already basically cancelled by Paramount and saved by Netflix. If it had done renewal-worthy numbers on Netflix, they would surely have announced that renewal already. Still... I feel like Star Trek as a franchise really benefits from having at least one animated show in the mix. And since, apparently, that can't be Lower Decks (which still baffles me), I find myself hoping that Prodigy can beat the odds.
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