Prodigy joins a legacy of digitally animated kids shows that didn't treat their audience like idiots and consequently are simplified yet deep and entertaining.

When describing Prodigy to people for the first time I refer to it as the Batman The Animated Series for Star Trek. It’s kid/family friendly but takes the universe and lore seriously enough that it’s welcoming for long time veteran Trek fans. I was pleasantly surprised that Prodigy would be the best new Trek series for me! I love Strange New Worlds and think it’s a stellar first season but I have to give the edge to Prodigy, it’s that good!

Prodigy surprised the hell out of me. I expected nothing from this show and got everything I needed. The art is stunning, it has heart and guts, it’s funny in the right places, and I really care about everyone on the show. My only complaint: WHERE THE HELL IS THE CAITAN GIRL AND WHY ISNT SHE ON THE CREW

My young son hates Star Trek because I’m “obsessed with it,” “talk about it all the time,” and “have a communication badge tattooed on my chest.” But he loved Prodigy! It was a great introduction and wonderful ride!

Actually, I'm just realizing that one of the things that made Prodigy work so well for me personally is that I never knew season 1 was a 20-episode arc. I assumed the first ten episodes was the first season, and that "we want to reach the Federation" was a flat premise - i.e. Voyager. "Well, we didn't make it back home this week. Let's try again next week and see if that adventure gets us there." They'd make progress in reaching their goal in bits and pieces over the years of the series. That's what the structure of most episodic television has conditioned me to expect! Then when real Janeway appeared, I thought, "Interesting, they're making this established character into an antagonist. Nice swerve." I figured she'd come around, lose sight of them, a few self-contained adventures, more real Janeway, more bits and pieces, gradually paced developments - basically, the storytelling X-Files brought forward. Instead, they held onto the premise and gave us a self-contained 20-half-hour complete beginning-to-end, fully thought through adventure series. It was a great journey for me, not knowing their intentions ahead of time.

Star Trek Lower Decks may not be as deep as Prodigy (or even TAS), but it has a definite charm to it. The humor is witty, the characters are appealing and it has a shockingly high respect for the source material of Roddenberry's playground. It's like Kevin Smith's Dogma: it pokes fun at Trek's many foibles, while maintaining a sense of respect for the mythos (which has been sorely missing for nearly a decade and a half). Ironically it's the only nuTrek that feels like Trek (at least to me). But, if people prefer the other Prodigy or TAS over it, I will not ask God to strike them down.😉 (Live and let live)

Prodigy feels like it took all the right lessons from modern animated Star Wars while better developing the universe and advancing Janeway’s story with more than an outfit change

I also agree. Prodigy was the perfect introduction to Star Trek for my boyfriend, who hasn't watched any ST and wasn't that much interested in TNG. He loves it and i think now he will be more inclined now to watch other Shows 😇

The time episode was messed up. The rock kid was in the slowest time and the whole episode I was thinking okay it was minutes for them and days for Rok-tahk. Then at the end you find out she learned like 2 or 3 fields of science in that time frame and when asked how long she was there Janeway just says "Too long." I have no idea how long that is but it made me straight up sad for how lonely Rok-tahk must have been before they all get to hug at the end.

Prodigy is something I struggled with the pacing of for the first few episodes, but the visuals in that show are just outstanding and the character arcs are near universally relatable.

I wonder if the reason Prodigy avoids a lot of the flaws streaming shows has is because it's not necessarily a streaming show. It's a Nickelodeon show that's being sent out in chunks on streaming. Maybe there's something about the way that kind is produced that helps?

It's rather strange that after Discovery and Picard managed to botch their serialized storytelling so badly, it's the straight up kids show that gives them the template for season long plots going forward. This is a great series, and if they keep this level of storytelling up, I think it could be a strong contender for best Star Trek series of all time. It really is that good.

As someone who grew up with TNG, and as an adult has come to realize just how much of my personality has derived from classic Trek philosophies and ideologies, I have been downright grateful for this show, as it has already instilled a love of Star Trek in my 5 and 7 year old daughters (and it's a show I'm eager to watch with them every week).

I'm genuinely chuffed to bits that so many people love the show, though. (That's British speak for "happy")

Sacrifice, friendship, sense of duty, sense of community, character growth, high stakes drama...yeah. Prodigy is way, way better than I had hoped. Well done all around.

I absolutely loved prodigy. Prodigy's music felt like a love letter to Trek, with all its returning themes, I will confess, when enterprising young men popped up a couple of times I was quite happy. Also, I love the main theme, one of my favourite Trek scores

Prodigy is that perfect kind of kids show. A show that parents will not only be happy to watch with their children, but actively want to watch with them.

I personally loved the cameos in "Kobayashi". Especially since the credited the deceased actors at the end.

An all-alien crew was ballsy.

I was pleasantly surprised at this show. I was expecting the bare minimum with it being some basic Trek lore/thematic introduction for kids and then they would do the Spaces Cases thing with some simple episodic content and exploration with some nostalgia for Voyager fans. What we got was much more with some really great plot and character reveals That mystery box payoff with Dal in particular is a fantastic.

As much fun as it is to watch Steve tear something apart, it’s even better to see a show live up to his standards. Thanks, Steve, and good work, Prodigy!

Definitely my favourite of the new wave of Treks. Focusing on action adventure rather than trying to be dark and gritty. Also, unafraid to appeal to the younger audience rather than trying to be all serious and adult. The great thing as well about the animated format, much like with the original animated series, restrictions of character design and special effects are no longer a problem. They get to be really creative with the visuals.

Shows like Lower Decks prove that you can never have anything new, while shows like Discovery and Picard prove that you can never keep anything old. Prodigy strikes the perfect balance, because its writers' love for Star Trek is sincere and not just some kind of perverted sentimentality (like with that other animated Trek show). It loves the format, the ideals, the universe, the wonder of exploration-and not just things from the past. There is genuine love for the genre, science, and space in that show. So even if it looked nothing like Star Trek, it'd still be Star Trek to the core.

Honestly, listening to you describe rocks experience being alone for as long as she had to be made me tear up as if I was watching it first hand. Really one of the most heart wrenching scenes in the show

Yes! Prodigy is a slam dunk. One thing I'd emphasize a bit more than you did, Steve is the power of the character arcs. All the characters feel organic and their growth is both marked and enormous. It's really a testament to the dedication of the writing staff that these young characters take leaps and bounds as people - being thrust into situations that require them to evolve quickly - yet it never feels forced or that we're having their inner journey explained to us without seeing it happening in real time on screen. I'd love to see the maps they drew to know where each individual was at each point of the journey because the command of it episode by episode is stunning. I'd also give props to the handling of hologram Janeway versus real Janeway, something that would be so easy to muck up and make confusing. While remaining patterend on the same base character traits, there's never a question that they're two different characters, each with their own part to play and their own individual goals and motivations. Just superlative work all around. I'd love to see the same group of writers just dropped into different genres of television to see how they handle them. I'd follow these guys anywhere. Looks like the series was entrusted to Dan and Kevin Hageman, a couple of brothers who worked on The Croods and the entire Lego series, so they specialize in non-condescending young-audience material. Talented fellas.

I happen to be in the midst of watching “Voyager” (much of it for the first time, since I gave up on it after Seven was added back in the day…big mistake) right now, so “Prodigy” made for a fantastic accompaniment to that series. I was already invested in characters like Janeway and Chakotay, so having them appear on “Prodigy” in their series’ future was absolutely perfect. Plus, the lore on this show goes DEEP without feeling cheap. Who could have imagined that we’d get Tellerite and Medusan protagonists on a “Trek” series?

I have been impressed with how packed these episodes have been in 30 minutes without them feeling stuffed.

One minor thing I really liked was the holo console from "all the world's a stage" because it's a concept I thought they should have used in the first season of Picard on the lasarena.

They still have yet to do an episode where, for whatever reason, are involved in the events of The Trouble With Tribbles

it has been great so far. Rok is my favourite, she's so sweet and gentle. i hope next season includes Bashir and Garak. partly because i really want a polished canon version of sid city social's "little achievements", and partly because i want to see Bashir take Dal under his wing and continue the fight for neurodiversity rights in the federation.

I couldn't agree more, Steve. This show took me aback with it's seemingly masterful abilities to weave mature story beats (the fact that Gwyn figured out the planet was tricking her because she knew her father wouldn't choose her over the ship, for example, was heart-wrenching) with comedic ones (on the flipside, Jankom pitch-perfectly just naming it the Murder Planet in the same episode) is all the more impressive considering the target audience is never forgotten! Maybe it is easier to forgive missteps in a children's show but, it's still just such a delight and I hope the "adult" trek shows of the new generation take the lessons from this one!

My daughter is getting prodigy for her birthday in February then we are going to take a trip to Bloomington to visit the Janeway statue. So glad they made a show to help get kids interested in the show

This show, along with Strange New Worlds restored my faith in Star Trek's future. I nearly didn't watch it since it was billed as a kid's show, and I'm so very glad I gave it a shot.

I watched this out of curiousity to start with. I never thought this kids show would bringe to tears in its finale. Go fast, hologram Janeway...

It did grow on me. I did enjoy watching them, all things considered; the last three or four episodes in particular.

Interesting to see Jellico come back up. Your video about him is what first brought me to your channel years ago.

I absolutely agree with your views on Prodigy, was very pleasantly surprised and hope they keep the depth and enthusiasm for the show throughout season 2.

One of my favorite things about Prodigy is the use of different species. While every Star Trek show has had some diversity and the animated ones have managed a bit more, Prodigy's only human-looking main character is Janeway, and only Dal and Gwyn even look like they could be rubber forehead aliens. Then there's casually a Tellarite and an Andorian with Janeway, and it really feels like a Star Trek universe as it was 'meant' to be, without the severe budgetary constraints that make live action shows go to planets of 'humans in vaguely racist outfits.' TAS touched on the idea with Arex, and DIS' Saru looks amazing, but Prodigy's just able to go all-out here in ways that other shows can't and don't.

I think neither Prodigy nor Lower Decks have any right to be as good as they are. Which after years of underwhelming Trek is a blessed miracle.

You nailed it - the writing is supreme on this show. Every episode I wanted more and asked “How come the kids show is rockin it sooooo much better than the others?” I wonder if the half hour episode length guided the writers to keep it at such a high level of execution? Just a thought….glad you liked it. I was nervous to hear what you had to say.

I get the comparison to animated Star Wars. Overall tone of Clone Wars, ragtag crew of misfits from Rebels/Bad Batch, visuals that lean more towards Resistance. Of course the on-screen body count is non-existent compared to most of those shows, but you can't tell me there were no casualties in the season finale. Honestly caught me off guard. 😨

Like a lot of really good kids shows Prodigy doesn't shy away from the dark and scary. It's children escaping slavery and child abuse.

We got rope-a-doped with this show in the best way possible: I also expected this would be cute kiddo Trek but expected it not to ultimately be for me. What a wonderful and thoughtful distillation of what we love about the franchise it's turned out to be!

I love the idea of Prodigy and the broader overarching storyline more than I do any individual episodes. it looks amazing, and the way they've integrated it into the broader Trek universe works really well. But it is primarily a show for kids, and it's angled for that market. This is not a complaint though, it's very good at what it's doing and I'm not the target audience. I'm more impressed that there's enough to enjoy here that I keep watching. It's definitely up there in the pantheon of kids' shows that have enough broad appeal that they're watchable by many audiences.

One thing I liked was that Prodigy used the lore like they were living in the Trek Universe, not for fan service for the viewer. The references made sense for someone living in their situation, not an extended joke that wouldn't really make sense to the people in the show; as much as I enjoy LD, there's no way that all those references that Beckett et al make would be KNOWN by everyone.

All the stuff you said about Prodigy sticking the landing? "Courage, selflessness, sacrifice, triumph, sadness, the recognition the change is inevitable but not always comfortable, and the promise that adventure is always out there." - you know you're actually describing LOWER DECKS, right? ;)

I'm going to disagree since I think Lower Decks is the best current Trek show. But I'd go with another big compliment, Prodigy is right there in second place, and it's not close. For whatever reason the animated shows know what they're doing much more than the live action ones. They know how to tell engaging episodic stories, how to do longer character arcs and storylines, and most importantly to me, they know how to do this while standing on their own. Even with as good as Strange New Worlds is, it's held back imo by being on an old ship (the third show set on that ship) with a tonne of old returning characters, and is too interested with that fact about itself when making storylines. I praise Prodigy for giving us a new ship with new characters, a new era and a new environment, and getting us to care deeply about what's going on with them anyways.

I love this series. I know it's for kids, but it's real Trek.

Lower Decks and Prodigy have different tones to them, but both fit into the Star Trek mythos. I am really enjoying both. For a drama with great characters and engaging storyline, Prodigy is becoming my favorite. Lower Decks is wonderful for comedy with some great episodes. Prodigy does not have a lot of filler dialogue like some of the live action shows which slow down the plot (Discovery and Picard), as Prodigy's shorter episodes have solid stories that move the plot at a good pace. Strange New Worlds is also getting it right probably because it's stories build to climaxes in single episodes and they visit lots of new worlds.

I also like how its basically an inversion of most of the other series, where its the federation/humans making their way through the greater universe, this is a ground of non-federation aliens making their way through the universe in many ways as affected by the Federation.

I love this series so much! One of the best New Trek series! Who would have thought such a loving homage to Voyager would turn out to be (potentially) even better than Voyager?

Amazing! I agree 100%. I was not expecting Prodigy to be this good!

Its good to see old and new trek meet

I fell in love with the show at the very begining. As a whole package it was brilliantly done. I can't wait to watch more of it

I wasn't all that into 'Prodigy' for the first few episodes - but, I have to say that as the season went on, I was hooked. I ended up really enjoying it by the end.

I'm looking forward to having a chance to watch this. The artwork looks lovely and Steve's description makes the series sounds like an ideal show for me. Steve is a BIG boy. 👍

You're spot on about the storytelling. I'll.add the art is first rate, completely unexpected in a kids' show. Textures, lighting, details in close up as well as vast beauty of expansive space. Details carry over into sound effects, s well. And the score is top notch. I'm not thrilled that everyone's hair looks like plastic wigs and I often find their physiology angular, way too slender and facially unable to express subtle emotion. But, over all, the show is beautiful to both watch and listen to. It's respectful of children and the art reflects that.

I love Prodigy and one of the reasons is it reminds me a bit of The Orville, they both deserve more seasons

This sounds like a Firefly-esque crew in Star Trek's universe and I am here for it. I can't wait until I can watch Discovery. I'm actually tabling this video because I don't want any more spoilers. I'm convinced.

Totally agree with every word of this video essay, not something that I can often say. I went into Prodigy open, not knowing what to expect, and quickly came to love it. Even the individual episodes that I like least still contributed something to the overarching story and character development. To me, the Kobayashi Maru episode felt more like a tasteful tribute to older Treks (that kids watching Prodigy probably won't be familiar with) than any other streaming show's easter eggs aimed solely at the hardcore mega-geek fans.

I haven't seen Prodigy yet, and frankly it's because I assumed as a children's show it wouldn't be for me. But looking back, I got into Star Trek when I was about 10 watching TNG in its first run, and I have found memories of watching TOS and TAS when I was even younger (even though I didn't understand what was going on, aside from the one episode of TAS where Kirk and Spock turn into fish people). Don't underestimate the kids... that's the hard lesson.

I was so hoping you were going to make a video about how amazing Prodigy is!

Its so bloody good, it feels more trek than the latest picard series

Thanks for verbalizing how I feel about the show.

Very cool! Looking forward to watching this series once I finish Lower Decks! Thanks for another quality review!

An amazing recap! I loved how you passionately narrated the entire first season, highlighting aspects of the show that I either missed or forgot. Your recap has reignited my excitement to watch season 2, which comes out in just 2 days. I can't wait! You've really piqued my interest and I'm thrilled.

For me, Prodigy is proof-of-concept for an animated continuation of Enterprise dealing with the Earth/Romulan War arc that we were denied with Enterprise's untimely cancelation. Oh, and Steve I'm so sorry that your introduction to Star Wars animation was Resistance. Clone Wars(seasons 3 and up) and Rebels are far superior and have become a direct influence on the current live action shows

And the music! I love Michael Giacchino in general, but this piece, along with the voyager-esque intro were awesome to me. Just thought I'd give that a shout out.

Steve, if the only Star Wars animated show you've experienced is Resistance, you've chosen the wrong show. It's widely agreed in the Star Wars community that it has very little to offer older audiences. If you ever feel the desire to try a star wars show again, I recommend Rebels for you. It also follows a small crew with well defined characters, good character growth, etc. It's very similar to prodigy in many regards

Prodigy has a banger intro theme too.

After the season's finale I finally realised how this is an ingenious story about refugees seeking a better life of hope and living up to their potential and the old Federation overcoming their prejudice towards Dal and tolerating the bending of some rules during their journey and allowing them in. Dal representing the foreigner who is inherently like us, in this case being literally engineered from all our DNA. This is a season about refugees, integration and humanity. What's more Star Trek than that?

Planet of Trekkies was very droll. I had no idea Okona was a legacy character. I was slightly surprised that he became so suddenly (and briefly) prominent in the show.

I can imagine the shouting matches you have with Jessie Gender over Lower Decks...

Prodigy is appallingly good. It really uses the medium to extend what Star Trek can be.

Prodigy is not only better written, but understands the source material of what came before using it as a foundation to build a new structure on. Even with the heavy hat villain stories the beautiful characters rise above it 🖖😊

I binged prodigy over the weekend and I think it's the best star trek show released in the past 23 years.

I'm gonna have to come back to this after watching Prodigy. I just wanted to say, I'm enjoying how these black sheep shows (Prodigy, Andor) are absolutely schooling their sibling productions. On Andor's part at least, it seems to have benefited from the studios relinquishing control and not forcing fan service on the stories. I hope to hear similar about Prodigy.

Proof that there’s something for everyone, and that’s great. Me, I couldn’t even get through the first episode. So I will wait for Strange New Worlds and Lower Decks to return.

It's an artistic Masterpiece visually pretty good stories too

This was a very strong season. I feel like it's so strong I'd probably have to update my rankings of the new shows: DSC: Still delivering the message of radical empathy and with its strongest season yet, influenced by some of my favorite hard sci-fi. PRO: Deftly combines the well-paced growth of the characters with an introduction to Star Trek concepts and a compelling storyline, it's much more than a Starfleet recruitment film. PIC: An ambitious season two exceeded its grasp and wasn't quite as good as season one, with oddly placed cliffhangers and themes not quite exploited to their fullest depths, but as with most Trek seasons of this current era, it still managed to stick the landing, and provide some decent closure for Rios, Jurati, and Kore, even if they, Soji, and Elnor will be missed. SNW: Relatively safe, but well-executed show, it's done an excellent job of filling in the gaps of Trek history, while still providing some commentary relevant to our times, it still manages to anger exactly the right people for the right reasons. LDS: Season three was muddled enough to be about half-good, with five of the episodes forgetting that the show is about underdogs engaging in solidarity class-consciousness, but it also stuck the landing in the finale, and hopefully with T'Lyn, the show will improve in season four.

Yes!!! This show is sooooo good!!! Only problem if it is a problem, the episodes are too short to my liking.

Oh my god! Here I was thinking that me (a 38 year old), couldn't get away with saying I love this show :). Thanks for having my back on this.

Steve at 0:09: "I've seen everything, you know. I've seen it all."

So happy to see Prodigy getting so much love. I feel like it is bound to be the most over-looked new Trek show which is just a crying shame. As it currently stands, I think I would give Prodigy the slight edge over SNW for the simple fact that this 1st season really can be taken as a complete story whereas SNW feels like it's only getting started. That, and I'm still not over Hemmer! Either way, if SNW and Prodigy are the direction of future Trek, I am beyond excited.

Time Amok seems "Heavily Inspired" by the Farscape episode "Through the Looking Glass"

Absolutely agree about how excellent Prodigy is. The heart this show has won me over. I doubt the second season can match how perfect the first season was, but - like pizza - even bad Prodigy is better than no Prodigy.

Something that deserves to be mentioned is how believable the threat is. Too often, especially in new Trek and the movies, doomsday weapons and disasters just feel so overpowered and ridiculus it becomes kind of silly and unreasonable to think the federation getting brought to their knees every other year by a new way to make a black hole, exotic and dangerous particle with lrttle to no scienitific basis that never gets brought up again, or some aliens looking for some whales. The prodigy booby trap is believable and easy to understand, using future tech and science with info gathered from the Protostar to hack past federation tech to turn their own weapons against themselves. It's alse not so ridiculus that it doesn't feel like our heroes have no hope of actually beating it and helps furthur the character's developement by presentiog them with a believable obstacle that dirrectly opposes their dream and is a themeatic parallel to their worst doubts, that despite dressing like starfleet they're just pretending and can never truly join just like the protostar. Would love to see a ranking sometime of star trek doomsday weapons to see how the protostar holds up to other great doomsday weapons like the genesis device

I wonder if the inclusion of various characters from previous shows for the Kobayashi episode was an attempt to introduce these characters to the younger viewers. To create a sense of a broader universe that may provide a point of entry to shows except just Voyager. "Oh hey, I recognize Dr. Crusher from that episode. I liked her. I want to watch more TNG." I have to admit I haven't watched Prodigy, so I don't know whether or not I agree with your take on how they were incorporated. But I do think a show for kids may have different motives for introducing "legacy" characters than a show like Picard which was literally built around a legacy character. Just a thought.

Well said Steve! Prodigy surprised me too--while I expected a few extra layers of exposition to introduce a new generation of viewers to the Federation/Starfleet, they got most of it out of the way early and concentrated on the characters and story. The thing I found most interesting is Jankom - the first relatable Tellarite who is also a regular character. Until now, Tellarites were shown as ill-tempered and not very interesting, making me wonder what they contributed to the formation of the Federation. Andorians were also like that until Enterprise, thanks to the legend that is Jeffrey Combs. Before that, it was mostly about Humans and Vulcans when it came to the founders.

One neat thing about the enterprisians... they try to live up to the ideals of starfleet, but they have not forgotten their past. It is heavily implied that they have a record of their culture prior to contact and they teach about it as well as the "new" culture. Kid's show and runtime prevented a more in depth exploration of that, unfortunately.

Can't agree with you more, Steve. 🥰 I truly fell in love with this series. 💖 For me, the Diviner's arc is the best swing I've enjoyed in a long time. It really caught me off guard, and it did it totally convincingly. 👍👍

15:43 - 15:59 Basically described my whole journey of watching Star Wars.

I'm so glad to see you give this wonderful animated series high praise; it really *is* _that_ good. Star Trek: Prodigy quickly became one of my favorite Star Trek shows; and I've seen just about everything Star Trek.

Steve is my professor of Star Trek. Never too enamored to point out it's flaws but heroically pointing out where it has excelled.

I agree I love it!!!

While it seemed similar to Star Wars to me on the first episode it slowly dawned on me how much the show mirrored Avatar The Last Airbender. I'm not complaining. Also, this show hooked my daughter who had been ambivalent about Trek, and now is super invested in the characters and learning about the larger ST universe. Amazing what a good slug can do.

15:54 _Oof._ Yeah if my intro to Star Wars animation was Resistance I'd feel the same way. If you ever feel like giving it a shot again, the CGI Clone Wars and newer Bad Batch are both excellent - Clone Wars is visually showing its age, though.

Agreed! Watched it with my 12 year old son. It’s the first trek show he’s had any interest in and he loves it. But, and this is key, it wasn’t a shock to me that it turned out good because my son (and I by extension) have watched the Hagemen’s previous outstanding shows… Troll Hunters and… forget the name of the other one. Troll Hunters was billed as a Guillermo Del Toro show which it certainly is and it shows but that maybe made it a bit unclear that the Hageman’s were a large part of its success. Anyway… Prodigy! I hope more people recognize it’s greatness so it doesn’t fly under the radar and get canceled.

It is really good. The most well written series of the entire franchise, AND IT'S A NICKELODEON SHOW!!!

I like Prodigy. The character growth is what kept me coming back. I'm just shocked that you didnt see Clone Wars or Rebels, which are arguable better than some live action movies. But somehow saw Resistance, the least like of most Star Wars projects?