DISCLAIMER: This recap of Star Trek: Prodigy holds a whole quadrant full of spoilers. You’ve been warned. Use the Janeway Maneuver at your own peril.
Welcome Trekkies! The fifth episode of Star Trek: Prodigy, a series about five teens from a prison colony who must come together to form a Federation crew, dropped this morning. It’s the last episode before the midseason break and it’s a terror-ific!
Ready to dive in? Engage!
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The fourth episode picks up where the last episode left off, with Gwyn (Ella Purnell) and Dal R’El (Brett Gray) arguing over who stole the ship first. Gwyn has a compound fracture (a broken bone that is visible through the skin) from when she fled the U.S.S. Protostar as the Murder Planet tried to devour it.
As the crew argues about Gwyn’s place on the team, Rok-Tahk (Rylee Alazraqui) adds, “At least she saved Murf.” And it’s true; at least she saved Murf (Dee Bradley Baker).
To get the crew back on its feet, Hologram Janeway (Kate Mulgrew) appears on the view screen of the half-built ship that Gwyn used to flee the Protostar. The former captain tells them that the ship has landed safely (diagnostics only show minor damage) about ten kilometers away from the crew’s current position and that she is activating a beacon that will lead the crew to the ship.
Back on the Protostar, we see what Hologram Janeway is contending with: the ship is getting devoured by the Murder Planet. In her words, “This ship is about to be the planet’s main course.” She tells the team that she will hold off the vines as best she can but that they better get back “on the double.”
As Dal directs the crew to the Runaway, Jankom Pog (Jason Mantzoukas) points out that the land vehicle is the Murder Planet’s appetizer course. Rok-Tahk adds, “Ten kilometers just a got a whole lot further.”
Dal instructs the crew to get moving and not be slowed down by Gwyn (because she’s why they’re in this mess). However, Rok-Tahk and Murf cannot stand idly by and watch Gwyn suffer. As Gwyn struggles to stand on her own, Ron-Tahk, attempts to lend her a hand, which is something considering the atrocities that the Progeny overlooked because the Unwanted were “prisoners.”
Gwyn whimpers and moans as she tries to stand on her own, rejecting Rok-Tahk’s offered hand because she “can look after” herself. And indeed, she can look after herself. She uses the powers unique to her species to control her nifty armband weapon – that looks like Odo slime – by sending it down her leg to make a cast for her broken bone.
Next, we cut to a scene of the young crew walking towards the ship. And as uneasy music plays, written by Nami Melumad, Jankom chimes in with a callback to a previous episode, “It’s safe to breathe, Jankom Pog. You won’t need that suit, Jankom Pog. Haha haha. Who’s laughing and breathing now, nice and toasty on Murder Planet.”
But Rok-Tahk doesn’t care about Poggy’s complaining. She is more concerned with naming the living planet “Larry,” which Zero (Angus Imrie) notes is appropriate because it’s technically a sentient life-form, not a planet. But when they try to ask the planet its name, all Zero learns is that the Murder Planet just wants to eat them. Very Ego.
But Zero isn’t the only one who can hear the planet’s thoughts. Gwyn pauses to point out that the planet is whispering to them (think Lost)… Oh, and apparently, the mountains can move because the planet can terraform itself, sending the crew in circles.
Again cutting back to the bridge of the Protostar, Hologram Janeway is smiling after severing some of those “pesky vines” with the shuttle bay doors. However, the ship is still experiencing technical difficulties despite her success due to the vines wrapping into the plasma coils. But Hologram Janeway isn’t one for giving up, even if she has no crew and no weapons and can only access non-essential systems. She ponders aloud, “What would the real Janeway do?” This line makes it clear that much like Star Trek: Voyager‘s The Doctor (Robert Picardo), Hologram Janeway is a distinct entity that can develop separate from the person it’s based on. She takes the good and rejects the bad or vice versa (we saw a lot of wild hologram stuff in past Star Trek shows).
As Hologram Janeway cleans house with the photonix ship scrubbers (in full disinfection mode), we learn about the Gravimetric “Protostar” Containment for the first time. Interestingly, this power gobbling system is Hologram Janeway doesn’t have any record of it. The computer (Bonnie Gordon) denies her access because it’s a high-priority system requiring command-level authorization (and a former captain won’t do).
This whole scene is very Triple J.
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Back to the crew, Jankom almost gets eaten by the Murder Planet’s version of a snapdragon. Oh, and they’re still lost. The hills are alive on Larry. And yes, it’s scary. Rok-Tahk rightfully believes the planet is terror-forming.
Because the target demographic of Prodigy is new, young fans, Gwyn has a moment of expositional dialogue to explain what terraforming is: “It means the planet is changing. Usually to become more habitable. But in this case, it’s sending us in circles.”
As Gwyn explains the science, the Murder Planet’s whispering grows louder, indicating something big is coming. If the planet can make the crew’s dreams come true, it can also make their nightmares come true. And suddenly, a Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade-sized Watcher appears in the crew’s path.
In the chaos, someone screams to fire the phasers, but without proper weapons training, the crew is a sucky shot (to put it bluntly). Zero can’t even turn the weapon on at first, and when she does, she points it directly at Dal, nearly killing our future captain before he has a chance to improve himself. Luckily, however, Gwyn has some combat training, unlike the rest of the crew, which is made clear by Jankom telling the young Progeny that right now isn’t a great time for arts and crafts. Undeterred, Gwyn surveys the scene and comes up with a brilliant plan: to create a torch that can be launched at the planet’s murderous vines to devour the vines with flame.
Gwyn’s plan is too effective. As the vines go up in flames, there is nowhere for the crew to turn. They are forced to jump off the edge of a cliff to save their hides. But Dal can’t handle all the praise for The Diviner’s daughter, giving her an angry side eye as the rest of the Protostar’s crew – even Murf squeals – officially welcomes her to the team.
But stopping Dal on his anti-Gwyn tirade, acid rain, the planet’s method of digestion. Fun fact: as a GERD sufferer, I got a huge kick out of this…
The crew finds cover in the old Klingon ship. Using the skills he learned on a sleeper ship, Jankom cooks everyone some Klingon rations (which aren’t as good Tellarite rations but are better than mud, at least according to a Tellarite). In Star Trek, sleeper ships, which are spacecraft in which the crew can be placed in suspended animation for the entirety of the journey, have been used by Humans, Tellarites, and Klingons. Trekkies may remember the sleeper ship S.S. Botany Bay.
Now, abroad the Klingon ship, the Protostar crew discusses what they experienced when the Murder Planet tried to lure them to stay behind. Looking at herself in one of the ship’s mirrors, Rok-Tahk says, “When all of those cute little fuzzy creatures surrounded me, they weren’t afraid of how I looked. I wanted it to be real. But it wasn’t.” And although Dal doesn’t want to talk about what the planet showed him, Zero is there to read his mind, telling everyone that the purple alien just wanted to see his parents, upsetting their future captain.
As Dal walks away to mope, Gwyn follows him, and as the two talk, they figure out that they can follow the stars back to the Protostar because they are fixed points in the sky.
However, as the two young crew members figure out a way back to the ship, we jump to the stars where The Diviner (John Noble), and his trusty stooge, Drednok (Jimmi Simpson), are scanning the planet for the Protostar. Of course, immediately after the two baddies figure out that the ship is on the planet’s surface, they beam down.
Beaming down to the Progeny’s location, Drednok appears in the path of the young crew. At first, the “fugitives” don’t believe the giant robot is real, laughing that the Murder Planet has once again fooled them. But as Drednok fires his weapon at Jankom and then outs Gwyn’s mistake from the third episode, they realize that Drednok is real.
Clearly, feeling regretful over her previous actions, Gwyn clenches her fists and jumps in front of her new friends, telling Drednok that he doesn’t have to hurt them because the ship is close. However, instead of listening to her request, Drednok warns her to step aside and shoots at the cast on her leg, shattering it. Luckily, the planet is there to offer an assist, even if it’s only because it wants to eat the yummy piece of tech that just beamed down from the stars.
As the crew runs from the villainous robot, Dal gives them the worst advice ever, split up. But no one listens, which is ultimately good news for the future captain because Rok-Tahk comes up with a successful plan to hide from Drednok. However, at Dal’s pushing, the rest of the crew decides to leave Gwyn behind to fend for herself and head toward the Protostar. Being the best-trained member of the crew, however, Gwyn is able to fight off the vines after seeing a glimpse of her father in the distance.
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Cutting back to The Diviner, he stands atop a hill with his arms wide, staring at what he believes to be the Protostar. Interestingly, he appears to be doing just fine outside of the comfort of his stasis tube, and it makes me wonder what’s stopping him from leaving it when his daughter asks for help (ya know, other than just being a bad dad). Ultimately, as Gwyn crawls and fights to get to her father, he chooses to save the ship, which is an illusion, over saving his own Progeny.
But the show plays a clever trick here, making the viewer at first believe that The Diviner has found the real Protostar. From the viewer’s perspective, which is also Hologram Janeway’s perspective, we’re standing at the top of the ship’s docking bay, awaiting the crew’s arrival, when we see an unknown figure approaching, could it be The Diviner or the crew? At first, it’s impossible to tell, but then, as triumphant music plays, Dal and most of the crew arrive on the ship, and the viewer hears The Diviner’s voice in the background, screaming, “It’s not real! It’s not real!”
Next, in the very last minute of hope for Gwyn, we see the Protostar hovering above the planet’s surface. Lowering down from the ship is Dal, who must have been convinced to save the last crew member from the Murder Planet by Hologram Janeway. Very Triple J. Using her nifty metallic armband, Gwyn attaches herself to Dal’s hand, and Rok-Tahk pulls the two of them up from the planet’s surface.
After being abandoned by her own father, Gwyn is absolutely aghast that the crew has returned for her. Walking onboard the bridge, Dal instructs the crew to pilot the ship off the planet, at maximum warp to somewhere as far away as possible. As the ship begins to fly away from the planet, Hologram Janeway notes (as a bit of a jab at both Gwyn and Dal), “It’s good to have the entire crew abroad.”
However, that’s not the end of this action-packed episode. Somehow, The Diviner’s ship is gaining on the Protostar, and it has locked onto the ship with a traction beam. To escape, the young crew must engage the Protostar for the first time, something that fills Rok-Tahk with joy (she just can’t wait to hug all the baby stars), and Gwyn is forced to must make a decision, her father or her friends.
Gwyn decides to do the right thing, telling the computer to engage the Protostar. As Gwyn tells her father to sleep in the bed he made, we finally see the ship engage its proto-warp for the first time this season, making it impossible for The Diviner to track the ship.
As the credits roll on the midseason finale, I have to wonder where the kids went and what’s on the other side of that wrap. There have been several cast announcements for this series that we still haven’t seen yet, like Robert Beltran returning as Commander Chakotay.
New episodes of Star Trek: Prodigy will return in January 2022 on Paramount Plus. Check out our Star Trek: Prodigy recaps here!
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