Summary

• Star Trek: Prodigy’s season 2 was a great way to end the series, tying up loose ends and showing character growth.
• The finale’s time-travel plot closed the loop and brought back classic TNG elements, pleasing fans of all ages.
• Connections to Picard and Voyager added depth, tying in key events and setting up potential future stories.

While it would be great to see more Star Trek: Prodigy, the ending of season 2 serves as a great send-off for the young crew members of the USS Protostar. Following Dal R’El (Brett Gray) and his ragtag group of friends, Prodigy was the first Star Trek geared specifically toward children. Despite this, the show has something for Trek fans of all ages, with numerous connections to past Star Trek shows. Star Trek: Prodigy was great from the beginning, but its second season, in particular, felt like classic Star Trek in the best way.

Although Paramount+ unexpectedly canceled Star Trek: Prodigy and removed it from their platform, Netflix picked up the show as the streaming home for seasons 1 and 2. Star Trek: Prodigy season 2 follows Admiral Kathryn Janeway (Kate Mulgrew) and the former Protostar crew as they embark on a dangerous mission to rescue Captain Chakotay (Robert Beltran). Hopefully, more people will discover Prodigy on Netflix, and the streamer will decide to tell more stories with Dal and his friends. Even if this doesn’t happen, though, I think Star Trek:Prodigy season 2 was a great way to end the series.

Star Trek: Prodigy’s Season 2 Finale Circled Back To The Show’s Beginning In A Cool Way

Prodigy season 2’s finale circles back to the show’s premiere, illustrating how far the characters have come.

Star Trek: Prodigy season 2 not only continued to incorporate characters and elements from Star Trek: Voyager, but also added aspects from Star Trek: The Next Generation. TNG is my favorite Star Trek show, and I love that Prodigy brought back Wesley Crusher (Wil Wheaton) and put his Traveler powers on full display. With a Traveler in the mix, Star Trek: Prodigy was able to play around with even more time-travel shenanigans, as Wes fought to save his favorite universe — the one where his mom, Dr. Beverly Crusher (Gates McFadden) lives, of course.

I have always enjoyed stories involving time travel, particularly when everything comes together to make a loop by the end of the story. As Star Trek: Prodigy season 2 came to a close, Admiral Janeway and the Prodigy kids sent the USS Protostar back in time to Tars Lamora where Dal first discovered it back in Star Trek: Prodigy‘s series premiere. This closed the loop, and nicely tied up any loose ends, but also showed how far Dal and his friends have come.

For me,
Star Trek’s
greatest strength has always been its characters. And as I spent more time with Dal, Gwyndala (Ella Purnell), Rok-Tahk (Rylee Alazraqui), Jankom (Jason Mantzoukas), Zero (Angus Imrie), Morph (Dee Bradley Baker), and Ma’jel (Michaela Dietz), I fell in love with them just as I have with every other
Star Trek
crew.

Star Trek: Prodigy Season 2 Also Led Into Star Trek: Picard

Prodigy offers more insight into the devastating attack on Mars.

Like many Trek fans, I love when one Star Trek show references another, especially when it fills in gaps in the Star Trek timeline. In the final scenes of Star Trek: Prodigy’s season 2 finale, the aspiring cadets watch the news break that rogue synths have attacked Mars. This tragedy became part of Star Trek lore in Star Trek: Picard season 1, leading to a ban on artificial intelligence and a Starfleet whose main goal was no longer exploration. I particularly enjoyed seeing how Starfleet Command and Admiral Janeway reacted to the Mars attack.

In the devastation following the attack on Mars, Starfleet planned to decommission the recently completed Protostar-class ship, USS Prodigy, but Janeway convinced them to let her use it as a training ship. Janeway, Chakotay, and the Doctor (Robert Picardo) then come together to send off Dal and his friends for a mission of exploration, with Hologram Janeway as their guide. While this nicely sets up another season or film for Star Trek: Prodigy, it also serves as a lovely open-ended conclusion. After all, nothing feels more quintessentially Star Trek than a group of wide-eyed young Starfleet officers boldly setting off on a mission to explore the stars.