After an 8-month hiatus, Star Trek: Prodigy has beamed again right down to Paramount+ with an exhilarating mid-season premiere that’s certain to thrill younger viewers and audiences which are younger at coronary heart. Episode 11, aptly titled “Asylum,” picks up a couple of weeks after the place the collection left audiences in February, with the crew of the U.S.S. Protostar selecting up the items after their near-death encounter with the Diviner (John Noble) on Tars Lamora and charting a course in the direction of possibly, simply possibly, becoming a member of Starfleet by legit means.
The episode opens on Dal (Brett Gray) and the remainder of his motley crew—Rok-Tahk (Rylee Alazraqui), Jankom Pog (Jason Mantazoukas), and Murf (Dee Bradley Baker)—making an attempt to rescue house whales from native hunters with out breaking the Prime Directive. Following the occasions on Tars Lamora, which noticed Gwyn (Elle Purnell) lose many of the recollections associated to her father, the Diviner, after being uncovered to her Medusan crewmember Zero (Angus Imrie), she’s largely down for the rely initially of the episode, whereas Zero continues working scans and reassuring her that she’ll finally get higher. While issues are nonetheless very established order between Dal and Gwyn, Dal makes a word of Gwyn’s scenario in his Captain’s Log, which is a pleasant little tease for followers who may wish to see the duo turn out to be extra than simply buddies and crew members. Theirs is a really enjoyable dynamic, particularly now that Gwyn has discovered to belief Dal and the remainder of the crew. Though, there’s each probability that one thing may occur sooner or later that turns her in opposition to them, particularly with the Diviner on the market scheming. But when has Star Trek harm us like that? (Too typically!)
The jaunt to rescue an area whale is a pleasant opening sequence for “Asylum,” however the episode’s actual plot kicks in when the crew, underneath Hologram Janeway’s (Kate Mulgrew) steerage, makes their approach to Federation Communication Relay Station, as a part of their new quest to affix Starfleet. Seeing because the station is positioned out in the course of the Delta Quadrant, they aren’t met by a refrain of greetings, however are as a substitute greeted by the lone officer stationed there. Lieutenant, Jr. Grade Barniss Frex (Eric Bauza) is shocked to have guests and much more shocked to come across a crew of youths on a misadventure aboard a stolen Starfleet vessel. Nevertheless, Frex welcomes them aboard the station with open arms and helps them arrange profiles within the system, by the use of full-body scans to log their species and different varied very important particulars.
The scans go about in addition to one can count on from the hodgepodge crew of the Protostar, with Jankom discovering that he is perhaps Tellarite royalty, and Dal studying that… Well, Dal doesn’t really be taught what he’s—folks have lengthy speculated about what species (or mixture of species) he is perhaps, however the scan comes up empty-handed, and worse the scan comes with a reasonably ominous message: “Report to Starfleet Command.” The thriller of Dal’s origins appears to be the subsequent main plot level that Star Trek: Prodigy will search to unravel, leaving audiences to take a position what all of this may imply for him. Is he a lacking individual? Connected to a personality we already know? Or is it only a pink herring for one thing bigger? “Asylum” doesn’t give us a lot time to query Dal’s origins, as a result of the Diviner’s sinister plan from the primary half of the season kicks into high-gear, ceaselessly altering the trajectory of the episode.
The second that Frex connects the relay station to the U.S.S. Protostar, it turns into a Trojan Horse—triggering the Vau N’akat weapon on the coronary heart of the ship to deprave the relay station and power it to begin self-destructing. Believing that the crew has betrayed him, Frex makes a fast escape within the sole escape pod aboard the station, leaving Dal and his crew to search out their very own manner off the station earlier than It’s too late. Elsewhere on the ship, Zero’s continued examination of Gwyn practically turns lethal when the ship’s self-destruct protocols trigger the medical chamber she is resting in to begin filling up with liquid. Luckily Dal manages to rescue her proper within the nick of time and the entire harrowing course of begins to jog her recollections of what occurred earlier than Tars Lamora. Their escape is left as much as the quick-thinking arithmetic of Rok-Tahk, which ends up in them basically space-walking their manner again aboard the Protostar, with a bit help from Janeway’s hologram and a tractor beam.
Elsewhere within the Delta Quadrant, the true Vice Admiral Janeway is revisiting previous recollections of Captain Chakotay (Robert Beltran) earlier than he set out aboard the Protostar, hoping to recall one thing about their previous encounters that may assist her to find him. Her continued investigation takes the crew of the Dauntless to Tars Lamora, the place they uncover the Diviner’s comatose kind. Unaware of the hazard he poses to Starfleet, they carry him aboard their ship in hopes that reviving him may give them very important clues to Chakotay’s whereabouts.
Overall, “Asylum” is a welcome return to the nook of the Star Trek universe that Dan and Kevin Hageman have created with their ever-talented artistic staff. Prodigy continues to dole out the right quantity of nostalgia that by no means overshadows its sensible new forged of characters that audiences have fallen in love with. Each member of the Protostar crew has a singular backstory, emotional state, and persona—serving to to form top-of-the-line unofficial Starfleet crew the franchise has ever seen. The core of the Protostar may maintain a lethal weapon, however the coronary heart of the crew is a way more highly effective factor.
Looking Ahead at Season 1
As with the primary half of Season 1, Star Trek: Prodigy continues to embrace its episodic nature, presenting the crew of the Protostar with new planets and challenges every week whereas delivering a good and cohesive storyline that runs between every episode. Even although the return of the Outrageous Okona has been identified for over a month now, his introduction to a brand-new viewers isn’t any much less entertaining, and much from the one shock ready on the horizon.
Star Trek: Prodigy could also be designed for kids, however that demographic permits the collection to strike straight on the coronary heart of what makes Star Trek a generational journey; one crammed with private perception, friendship, morals, and themes packaged into a colourful story set among the many stars. These themes are represented all through the primary 5 episodes of the second half of Season 1, with a number of characters wanting inwards to search out goal, uncover who they honestly are, and face the implications of actions a lot bigger than themselves.
Rating: A-
Star Trek: Prodigy’s mid-season return is streaming now on Paramount+.