Star Trek: Prodigy ventures Where No Man Has Gone Before

 

The last 5 years seems to be a second Golden Age for Star Trek. The first Golden Age dawned in 1987 with Star Trek: The Next Generation followed by 3 television series for over 600 episodes until 2004, plus 6 theatrical movies. After a long hiatus off-air, the rights owner of Star Trek, CBS Studios, embarked on a revival of the venerable sci-fi franchise with launch of Star Trek: Discovery in 2017 for streaming television. This was soon followed by Star Trek: Picard and Star Trek: Lower Decks in 2020, each offering a different flavour of Trek to longtime fans as well as new viewers.

Most recently, STAR TREK: PRODIGY is the latest to join the roster as the 10th Star Trek television series – aiming to recruit the next generation of Trekkies. It's set to premiere in Southeast Asia on Nickelodeon this 25 April 2022 at 7pm Malaysian time. The highly-anticipated animated series comprises 10 episodes for its 1st season, with the series running its full course from 25 Apr to 6 May, on weekdays. Subsequently, episode reruns will continue to air in the same timeslot.

Developed by Emmy® Award winners Kevin and Dan Hageman (Trollhunters,  Ninjago), Star Trek: Prodigy is the first Star Trek series aimed at younger audiences, and follows a motley crew of young aliens who must figure out how to work together while navigating a greater galaxy, in search of a better future. These six young outcasts know nothing about the starship U.S.S. Protostar they have commandeered, but over the course of their adventures together, they will each be introduced to Starfleet and the ideals it represents.

Kate Mulgrew (Star Trek: Voyager) reprises her role as Kathryn Janeway, but as a hologram for this series. Who better to guide the young crew and the next generation of dreamers than one of the most renowned Starfleet Captains of the Federation? Hologram Janeway will serve as the built-in Emergency Training Hologram on the U.S.S. Protostar. Astute Trekkies might notice that Hologram Janeway is often seen with a coffee cup in her hands, sharing Captain Janeway’s well-documented love of coffee!

Kathryn Janeway returns as an Emergency Training Hologram voiced by Star Trek: Voyager captain herself, Kate Mulgrew

Kate Mulgrew stated, “I have invested every scintilla of my being in Captain Janeway, and I can’t wait to endow her with nuance that I never did before, in Star Trek: Prodigy. How thrilling to be able to introduce to these young minds an idea that has elevated the world for decades. To be at the helm again is going to be deeply gratifying in a new way for me.”

She won’t be the only Star Trek alumni to join the adventure - Robert Beltran from Star Trek: Voyager will also reprise his role as Chakotay, now promoted to Captain. Watch out for more familiar voices and other Easter eggs popping up throughout the series – from the infamous Mr. Spock to Dr Beverly Crusher.

Voice cast (left to right): Dal voiced by Brett Gray, Gwyn by Ella Purnell, Jankom Pog by Jason Mantzoukas.

Other members of the Star Trek: Prodigy voice cast include:

• Brett Gray as Dal
• Ella Purnell as Gwyn
• Rylee Alazraqui as Rok-Tahk
• Angus Imrie as Zero, a non-humanoid Medusan calling back to the alien species introduced during Star Trek: The Original Series in 1968
• Jason Mantzoukas as Jankom Pog, a Tellarite
• Dee Bradley Baker as Murf
• John Noble as The Diviner
• Jimmi Simpson as Drednok

Voice cast (left to right): Rok-Takh voiced by Rylee Alazraqui, Murf by Dee Bradley Baker (Clone Wars, Bad Batch), Zero by Angus Imrie.

Get to know these characters and how they come together as Bridge Crew of the USS Protostar in the first 2 episodes of the series, “Lost & Found”.  Watch this video introducing the non-human characters of Star Trek: Prodigy (beware SPOILERS):

Most Trekkies eagerly anticipate reveal of the titular starship of every new Star Trek series. The U.S.S. Protostar does not disappoint! Its sleek wedge-shaped twin-nacelle Starfleet design is complemented with inner futuristic aesthetics significantly advance of that seen on Captain Janeway's U.S.S. Voyager. The ship registry of NX-76884 indicates an experimental class of starship, possibly launched in the near future after Voyager's return from the Delta Quadrant. Zooming to the bridge located on the upper saucer section with transparent canopy, akin to today's jet fighter cockpit, suggests scale of the Protostar similar or slightly smaller than that of Voyager's 343 metre length. The Protostar should be outfitted with all standard Starfleet equipment, but what experimental technology it carries will be revealed in due course of the series.

The U.S.S. Protostar, starship registry NX-76884.

Trekkie Tech geeks would be familiar with much of the Federation technology showcased on the  Protostar, like phasers, universal translators, food replicators, etc. plus some surprises. For new fans to Star Trek, these sci-fi devices could be inspirations for future tech in generations to come, like how the communicators seen in The Original Series during the 1960s became real tech as mobile phones in the 1990s. Sneak a peek at some of Star Trek's technology in this video (beware SPOILERS):

The main theme for Star Trek: Prodigy is composed by Academy Award winner Michael Giacchino, who also scored the 2009 Star Trek film and echoes familiarity. Nami Melumad provides the series music.

Star Trek: Prodigy is from CBS’ Eye Animation Productions, CBS Studios’ new animation arm; Nickelodeon Animation Studio, led by President of Animation Ramsey Naito; Secret Hideout; and Roddenberry Entertainment. Alex Kurtzman, Heather Kadin, Aaron Baiers, Katie Krentz, Rod Roddenberry and Trevor Roth serve as executive producers alongside co-showrunners Kevin and Dan Hageman. Ben Hibon directs, co-executive produces and serves as the creative lead of the all-new animated series. Claudia Spinelli is Nickelodeon’s Head of Animation Development with Kelley Gardner serving as Executive in Charge of production on Star Trek: Prodigy for Nickelodeon. Alec Botnick is Head of Animation for CBS Studios and Stephanie Groves is the Executive Vice President of Streaming and Cable Series and overseeing the series for CBS Studios.

NON-SPOILER REVIEW

By Outpost Commander Richard Chua

As a long time Trekkie since the 1980s, I've consumed virtually all Star Trek television and films, which makes comparisons inevitable. Whilst the scifi franchise has previously been presented in animated form as Star Trek: The Animated Series (1973-74) and Star Trek: Lower Decks (2020 -), this latest incarnation of Star Trek: Prodigy is quite unlike what has come before. 3D animation has  become the norm for today's television and Star Trek has evolved to adopt this format with Prodigy catering to the younger audience that is not served by the other current series (Discovery, Picard, Lower Decks). It therefore takes on formulaic storytelling by presenting its cast of lead characters in their teenage years that would connect better with kids. And by setting the plot in a far flung corner of the galaxy, the new audience is not burdened by needing to know Star Trek from preceding series, starting on a “clean slate” and gradually introducing elements from established canon as the series progresses. 

Yet for the adult audience, say parents of kids viewing Star Trek: Prodigy as a family, it's actually these linkages to canon that engage us as Trekkies. Like finding out happened to crew members of the USS Voyager between the series conclusion and the commencement of Prodigy's timeline, since Janeway is part of the programme (pun intended! 😅). Plus why is the Protostar on Tars Lamora and what happened to its original, presumably Starfleet crew? Will we meet other established characters like Janeway in holographic form? It would certainly make sense for an EMH (Emergency Medical Hologram) to be part of sickbay. As a bonus, spotting those Easter Eggs are sweet treats for longtime fans, in a way rewarding us for our geeky devotion to Star Trek.

It's also worth noting there is no “living” human amongst the main characters of Prodigy. That certainly supports that the U.S.S. Protostar is heading Where No Man Has Gone Before... let's sit back and explore what's out there together with Dal & company.

Note: This review is based on the first 2 episodes of Star Trek: Prodigy “Lost & Found”. Review options belong solely to author. 

Tune-in to Nickelodeon on Monday 25 April 2022 at 7pm for the premiere of Star Trek: Prodigy, with new episodes every weekday. Nickelodeon is available in Malaysia on Astro Channel 616 and Unifi Channel 554. Astro VOD has scheduled Star Trek Prodigy to be available from 30 April to 5 June 2022.

Thanks to Nickelodeon Asia, Outpost Productions has U.S.S. Protostar Crew Packs to giveaway to our readers and fans. Contest starts NOW on our Facebook Page Outpost Productions. Simply Comment on our Post to Tell us why YOU should be part of the U.S.S. Protostar Crew.

Each U.S.S. Protostar Crew Pack is worth USD150 / over RM650 and comprises a LED lamp of the  new starship, real outer space ice cream for astronauts, crew notebook and t-shirts for adults and kids. So submit your entries now to prove your worthiness to be part of the Protostar and be trained by Hologram Janeway as Starfleet's finest. We are opening submissions until 9 May and will be enlisting only 3 qualified applicants (winners). 

Click here to participate in our Facebook Contest

Please feel welcome to shout-out your passion for Star Trek by sharing this blog and our social media posts to your family and friends.

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Star Trek is owned by ViacomCBS. Content here used with permission for fan engagement.

Star Trek Discovery launches a new vision for the franchise that is familiar yet different

Star Trek has been a huge impact to the scifi geek community worldwide. The franchise has spawned 5 television series, 13 movies and 1 animated series. Star Trek started out as a television series in 1966 for 3 seasons before being revived as a movie in 1979, thanks in no small part to the blockbuster success of Star Wars. More movies then followed together with multiple TV spin-offs: The Next Generation (TNG), Deep Space Nine (DS9), Voyager, Enterprise. The last series Enterprise ended in 2005, leaving fans devoid of Star Trek on TV for over a decade... until NOW. Star Trek fans, or Trekkies, of all generations can join on adventures where no one has gone before with the release of Star Trek Discovery early this week!

Star Trek: Discovery is co-created by Bryan Fuller (Star Trek DS9 & Voyager) and Alex Kurtzman (Star Trek 2009 reboot & Into Darkness, Transformers) for CBS, a US media corporation currently custodian of the Star Trek franchise. The series lead goes to Sonequa Martin-Green (The Walking Dead) as Starfleet Commander Michael Burnham. The support cast includes Doug Jones (Hellboy) as Lt. Saru, Michelle Yeoh (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) as Captain Phillipa Georgiou, James Frain (The Lone Ranger) as Vulcan Ambassador Sarek, Shazad Latif (Spooks) as Lt. Ash Tyler, Anthony Rapp (A Beautiful Mind) as Lt. Paul Stamets, Jason Issacs (Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets) as Captain Gabriel Lorca, Mary Wiseman (Baskets) as Cadet Sylvia Tilly and Chris Obi (American Gods) as Klingon leader T'Kuvma. Since the departure of Bryan Fuller in November last year, Executive Producers Gretchen J. Berg and Aaron Harberts currently serve as showrunners for the series, i.e. the ones with overall creative authority and management authority, or figuratively the joint-Captains of Star Trek Discovery.

Behind-the-scenes featurette.

This new series is yet another prequel ("can we not finally move forward in the timeline?" - editor's rant) that takes place 10 years before Kirk and Spock begin their missions in The Original Series. It is is not affected by the reboot films (Star Trek, Into Darkness, Beyond) which have since been classified as the Kelvin timeline. Therefore taking place in the Prime timeline, the adventures of Discovery occur in the time-span between Enterprise concluding in the year 2161 and The Original Series commencing in 2266; let's not get into stardate namenclature, it's just confusing!

Sonequa Martin-Green as Commander Michael Burnham (centre), Tan Sri Michelle Yeoh as Captain Philippa Georgiou (right) and Doug Jones as Lt. Saru on the bridge of the USS Shenzhou.

The main protagonist Michael Burnham is a human black woman raised on Vulcan as a ward of Ambassador Sarek; yes Spock's father. Michael (show creator Bryan Fuller likes assigning female characters male names) has since joined Starfleet at the urging of her adoptive father and progressed to the position of First Officer of U.S.S. Shenzhou, serving under Captain Phillipa Georgiou for the last 7 years. So begins the pilot episode of the series "The Vulcan Hello".

The opening title sequence of Star Trek Discovery is departure from the typical starship flybys of preceding series (Enterprise excepted).

Introducing the Starfleet crew circa 2256:

Senoque Martin Green as Commander Michael Burnham, First Officer of the U.S.S. Shenzhou.

As a result of her Vulcan upbringing, she maintains an air of cool logic with emotions held in check yet not totally suppressing them unlike true Vulcans. Burnham is a Xenoanthropologist and inherently a first contact specialist.

Malaysia's Tan Sri Michelle Yeoh as Captain Phillipa Georgiou of the U.S.S. Shenzhou.

She is a veteran of war and Michael Burnham's Starfleet mentor.

TV trivia: Most US TV productions task their cast to speak English in American accents. As a departure from this norm, Michelle Yeoh as Captain Georgiou retained her polished Chinese-Malaysian accent as a statement on global diversity in the hopeful future. Read more into this from an article on SyFy. Whilst here in Malaysia we are much accustomed to this as her normal accent, Americans may be just tempted to flick on the English subs to catch every word!

"Easter Egg" found! Captain Georgiou keeps a piece of asian culture in here ready room / office. Can you spot it? Read more about this at TheHypedGeek.com. 

Doug Jones as Lt. Saru, Science Officer on the Shenzhou.

Saru is a Kelpian, an alien species that has the ability to sense threats including rather pessimistic premonitions of death.

Jason Isaacs as Captain Gabriel Lorca of the U.S.S. Discovery.

A brilliant tactician with a decisive charisma but he hides some secrets.

Anthony Rapp as Lt. Paul Stamets on the Discovery.

An Astromycologist by training means Stamets specializes in space fungus ("seriously how useful is that going to be?" - editor's rant)

Shazad Latiff as Lt. Ash Tyler, Security Officer of the U.S.S. Discovery.

Mary Wiseman as Cadet Sylvia Tilly.

A final year cadet of the Starfleet Academy working in Engineering of the Discovery.

Listen directly from the Starfleet crew themselves as they introduce the mission of Star Trek Discovery.

James Frain is Ambassador Sarek of Vulcan.

Father to the soon to be infamous half-Vulcan Mr. Spock, and adoptive father to Michael Burnham.

In every incarnation of Star Trek, the lead starship (or space station in case of DS9) is every bit a character by itself. The starship brings our Starfleet heroes to adventures where no one has gone before and often times is an adventure itself.

U.S.S. Discovery NCC-1031.

The lead starship of the namesake series is captained by Gabriel Lorca. Nothing much is known about this starship yet of its capabilities ("although it could be used as a giant space pizza cutter!" - editor's rant). Fan speculation suggests it is one of Starfleet's newer starships and conceivably fast with its lengthy warp nacelles. This speculative video by Hybrid Network might provide more insights:

U.S.S. Shenzhou NCC-1227, Walker-class starship.

The other major Starfleet vessel to feature in this series is the U.S.S. Shenzhou, commanded by Phillipa Georgiou. It is designated a Walker-class starship and apparently an older model, although how then its registration number of NCC-1227 exceeds that of the Discovery's NCC-1031 may indeed suggest otherwise. Unusually the bridge for this class of starship is located at the bottom of the saucer section.

The Shenzhou in atmospheric flight.

It's no spoiler that Klingons feature heavily in this series and looks to provide the over-arching plot. At the start of the serious, relations between The Federation and The Klingon Empire is icy, unlike most of the TNG era where both are staunch allies. There are 24 Great Houses in the empire and whereby a formidable leader T'kuvma steps forth attempting to unite them all against the Federation.

Chris Obi is Klingon T'Kuvma.

Outcast albino Klingon V'oq serves T'Kuvma as his devote right hand.

What, those are Klingons? We have seen the smooth forehead Klingons from TOS evolve to their bumpy forehead versions in TNG, explained as side-effects of genetic engineering gone wrong in the Enterprise series. Then Klingons in the JJ Abrams Kelvin timeline sported another variant. Now here is yet another variant of Klingon in Star Trek Discovery looking even more alien. And not just in physical look but also dress (ouch, spikey!) and cultural look (organic ships?). No clues yet as to whether this will be explained over the course of the series in a logical explanation acceptable to fans. Read more about the new Klingon look in this article by USA today.

REMAIN KLINGON: A cool Klingon trailer version for Star Trek Discovery as seen from their perspective!

There are many more Klingon characters and look towards which ones to be the major antagonists as the series progresses. Oh, in Klingon scenes, our Klingons now fully speak Klingon! Worry not there are subtitles provided... in fact each episode contains Klingon subtitles for our English-speaking characters!

Star Trek Discovery is now available to us here in Malaysia via Netflix. New episodes will be released on Mondays at approximately 3pm Malaysian time. There are 15 episodes for this season with the first 8 scheduled until 6 November 2017. After a mid-season break, the remaining episodes commence on January 2018.

The first two episodes of the series has been released this Monday 25 September 2017. Here are initial reactions for episode 1 "The Vulcan Hello" & episode 2 "Battle at the Binary Stars" during a mini-viewing party for Malaysian Trekkies by Outpost (no spoilers):

This two episodes can be seen as a pilot to the new series, introducing some key characters and the tone for the season. For a more in depth look into Star Trek Discovery, watch our video review hosted by Vulcan cultural officer Mr. Smock with local Trekkies Thomas Kuan and Chow F.C. aka Mr. Engineer:

Here are snippets of what to look forward to in the coming episodes including the U.S.S. Discovery in action (beware MAJOR SPOILERS if not yet watched first 2 episodes):

Now for some goodies to our valued readers!

OUTPOST GIVEAWAY

Thanks for Netflix, we have more GOODIES to GIVEAWAY! Up for grabs we have 3 complimentary 3-month subscriptions for Netflix so you Trekkies can watch Star Trek Discover legit. Also 1 lucky winner with receive a Netflix tote bag, notebook, lanyard, and pen.

To stand a chance to win this Outpost Giveaway, just follow these few simple steps:

• Like our Facebook Page Outpost Productions.
• Like / Wow / Love this Facebook post.
• Share the Facebook post to your timeline (set privacy to public) with reasons why your friends should watch Star Trek Discovery, .e.g. I want to watch Star Trek Discovery to see Michelle Yeoh as a Starfleet Captain.
• Include in your shared post hashtags #StarTrekDiscovery #Netflix #OutpostGiveaway.
• Join local Trekkies on Facebook Group Starbase MY - Star Trek Fans Malaysia
• Fill in your details in the form below which include permalink to your shared post.

This contest will be closing on Monday 2 October 2017, 11.59pm. winers will be notified. So make sure to follow us and stay tuned!



Other Terms & Conditions:
a. Participants must be resident in Malaysia.
b. Giveaways comprise 1 tote bag with Netflix gift card (main prize), and 2 Netflix gift cards (consolation) for total 3 winners.
c. Winner of tote bag must be able to arrange self-collection of prize within 2 weeks of notification. Collection point will be in Klang Valley.
d. Only 1 entry per person.
e. Submission to Join the Facebook Group Starbase MY - Star Trek Fans Malaysia must be received before closing deadline.
f. Selection of winners are final
g. We reserve the right to amend these terms and conditions without prior notice.

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