As Gwyn tries to access encrypted files that may explain more about the origin of the Protostar and its mission, Dal discovers a holodeck scenario of Starfleet's infamous Kobayashi Maru test and is determined to beat it to display his prowess as captain.
This felt like a key episode for Prodigy in a few ways. First, it simultaneously shed some light on and deepened the mysteries surrounding the ship. The snippets we got about the Protostar's history open up possibilities on anything from time travel to top secret science. But personal stakes were woven in with the new mysteries, both for the characters (as Gwyn learned that her very existence is because of this ship) and for the audience (as we learned that Kathryn Janeway isn't the only Voyager character associated with the Protostar).
Second, this episode benefited from the longer season (20 episodes) that Prodigy will have. In a tighter season, the writers might feel more of an obligation to involve every character in every episode -- which is essentially the model the series took in the first quarter of the episodes we got a few months ago. But knowing there will be more time later, this episode was able to push most of the characters to the side to focus on Gwyn for one story line and Dal for the other.
But, understandably, all anyone will be talking about with this episode are the many cameos of beloved Star Trek characters inside Dal's Kobayashi Maru scenario. Gates McFadden was there to lend new dialogue to Beverly Crusher (spiking my wish to see her show up on Star Trek: Picard), while archival audio was used to include Uhura (the retired Nichelle Nichols), and Spock, Odo, and Scotty (the late Leonard Nimoy, Rene Auberjonois, and James Doohan).
The nostalgia evoked in all this was wonderfully intentioned. The idea of the Kobayashi Maru is one of the most indelible creations in all of Star Trek (and Discovery also referenced it this season). Revisiting it with so many beloved characters was just a love letter to long time fans.
That said, there were a couple of things that got in the way of this being maximum good feelings mainlined straight into my soul. One was that Lower Decks just recently got top notch comedic mileage out of a character repeatedly running a holodeck scenario in pursuit of a "perfect score." The other was that the archival dialogue, though cleverly selected, simply didn't sound right. The span of decades between different voices, and the limitations of how much it could be cleaned up, made much of it sound "canned." It led me to feel like these were NPCs programmed only with limited responses. (Though... I suppose literally they were?) My husband even more astutely likened it to the improv game in which all but one of the performers is restricted to speaking lines taken from the phone text messages of an audience member.
Mind you, none of that made this episode feel bad to me. It just held me back from the full immersion I wish I could have had. It didn't stop me from appreciating the clever way this episode taught its "moral," or keep me from enjoying the references to the Ktarian game and a bunch of holodeck programs depicted on other series over the years.
So overall, I'd give "Kobayashi" a B. I only wish the execution could have been as great as the concept.
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