Prodigy: Last Flight of the Protostar, Part I

Star Trek: Prodigy season 2 didn't just have a two-part episode as it arrived at the midpoint of the season, it immediately had another to begin the back half. First up, "Last Flight of the Protostar, Part I."

The cadets have found Chakotay, marooned with the Protostar on a mostly desolate world -- and he's been there for ten years, with only the holographic Janeway for company for most of that time. Chakotay is determined to keep the ship safely out of reach from forces that would harm the Federation... and the Protostar is unable to take off in any case. These are two problems the cadets must solve: first helping to restore Chakotay's spirits after his long isolation, and then helping to repair the Protostar so that they all might leave this planet.

This is a really nice episode for all the characters. After the previous installment centered so much on Voyager and to some extent sidelined the cadets, this episode puts them front and center, and with a mission that's decidedly out of their element. For the entire first season of Prodigy, these kids were the ones getting the pep talks (from holographic Janeway). Here, they must give the pep talks, motivating a truly broken Chakotay to jump back into the action.

It's an equally good story for Chakotay -- quite possibly one of the most effective for the character including all seven seasons of Star Trek: Voyager. "Chakotay episodes" have been few and far between, and always seemed to be either centered on the inauthentic culture crafted for him, or high-concept sci-fi stories that could just as easily have centered on any other character. This Prodigy episode is a story that centers on the profound sense of duty Chakotay has always had... though it is now firmly centered on Starfleet (instead of the Maquis, as it was so many years ago). Chakotay has experienced things that have stripped away pretty much everything but that duty, putting him in a deep hole to crawl out of. It's a credit to him, and the cadets who persuade him, that he does.

And while holo Janeway isn't a major player in this episode, it is certainly nice to spend time with her again. Kate Mulgrew has been on the show all along, of course, but there are subtle differences between this character and the Admiral, and it's this character that we came to love in season one of the show.

But of course, this is quite literally only half a story, with more to see in Part II. But I think this Part I was absolutely the high point of Prodigy season 2 so far. I give it a B+.