WARNING: SPOILERS for Star Trek: Prodigy Season 2
Summary
Star Trek: Prodigyseason 2 revisitsa controversial aspect of Starfleet Academy featured inStar Trek: The Next Generation, continuing what many believe was a mistake found in bothTNGandStar Trek: Deep Space Nine. InStar Trek: Prodigyseason 2’s opener, “Into The Breach, Part I,” written by Kevin & Dan Hageman and directed by Ben Hibon, the lovably troublesome youngcharacters ofStar Trek: Prodigyfind themselves face-to-face with one ofStar Trek’s most famous—or perhaps infamous—group of Starfleet cadets.
Star Trek: Prodigyseason 2 raises the show’s stakes to epic new levels, and a big reason for that is that new characters carry the weight of oldStar Trekstories. The second season ofStar Trek: Prodigyintroduces a new Vulcan hero, Maj’el (Michaela Dietz), who turns out to be more than just a new face and a cool rendition of the classic Vulcan haircut.Maj’el is part of Nova Squadron, meaning Starfleet Academy hasn’t learned from its mistake 16 years afterStar Trek: The Next Generation.
Star Trek: Deep Space Nineintroduced Red Squad, a different crop of elite Starfleet Academy cadets who were given their own starship, with tragic results.
Star Trek: Prodigy Season 3 - Everything We Know
Netflix has the option to order Star Trek: Prodigy season 3. Here’s what we know about the young Starfleet crew of the USS Protostar’s return.
Star Trek: Prodigy Reveals Starfleet Academy Still Has TNG’s Nova Squadron
The elite group of cadets wasn’t disbanded after the events of TNG: “The First Duty”
Star Trek: The Next Generation’s season 5 episode “The First Duty” depicted Wesley Crusher (Wil Wheaton) as a cadet at Starfleet Academy. Wes is shown to be a member of an elite squadron of cadets called the Nova Squadron. This team is responsible for the recent death of one of their own afterNova Squadron’s forbidden maneuverbackfires. Still, theirstatus above other cadets gives them special privileges and allowances. The squadron’s leader, Nick Locarno (Robert Duncan McNeill), tries to convince Wesley to lie but eventually takes the fall for their teammate’s death.
Robert Duncan McNeill would later play Lieutenant Tom Paris inStar Trek: Voyager.
At the beginning of the 20-episode run ofStar Trek: Prodigyseason 2, Dal R’El (Brett Gray) and the young crew of the USS Protostar follow the orders ofVice Admiral Kathryn Janeway(Kate Mulgrew) to join the crew of the newly-built Lamarr Class USS Voyager-A. Dal, Zero (Angus Imrie), Rok-Tahk (Rylee Alazraqui), Murf (Dee Bradley Baker), and Jankom Pog (Jason Mantzoukas) immediately encounter Maj’el and Nova Squadron, who are cold and dismissive to Admiral Janeway’s warrant officers. So,Starfleet Academy still sets some cadets above the others as ‘elite’ despite the proven mistakes that can come of that,as seen inStar Trek: The Next Generation.
Should Star Trek’s New Starfleet Academy Show Have A Nova Squadron?
Will Star Trek’s new show have its own 32nd century answer to TNG’s Nova Squadron, or does such elitism go against Starfleet Academy’s core values?
Why Starfleet Academy Elite Squadrons Are A Mistake
Why does Starfleet even have elite groups of cadets in the first place?
Starfleet is an exploratory organization meant to advance the United Federation of Planets' knowledge about the galaxy and harbor peace, sowhy does its school actively pit students against each other? Nova Squadron fromStar Trek: The Next GenerationandProdigyandStar Trek: Deep Space Nine’s Red Squad both seem to clash with the principles of Starfleet by placing “elite” cadets above other students. WithStar Trek: Prodigyfocusing so heavily on the cohesiveness of the Federation and the need for more teamwork,the inclusion of such a divisive group of cadets might be a big mistake.
There might be hope for Starfleet’s elite squadrons to prove themselves as nobler than their predecessors.
However, just like Wesley Crusher and the original Nova Squadron came to terms with their own mistakes, Maj’el and her squad work closely with Dal and the rest ofStar Trek:Prodigy’s main group of misfits-turned-heroes in season 2. This teamwork meansthere might be hope for Starfleet’s elite squadrons to prove themselves as nobler than their predecessors. Because it’s known to excel at finding positive outlooks regarding dire situations and exploring the good in even the worst of characters, if anyone can redeemStar Trek: The Next Generation’s mistake, it’sStar Trek: Prodigy.
Star Trek: The Next Generation
Cast
Star Trek: The Next Generation follows Captain Jean-Luc Picard and his crew aboard the USS Enterprise NCC-1701D as they embark on interstellar explorations, seeking out new worlds and civilizations.
Star Trek: Prodigy
Star Trek: Prodigy is the first TV series in the Star Trek franchise marketed toward children, and one of the few animated series in the franchise. The story follows a group of young aliens who find a stolen Starfleet ship and use it to escape from the Tars Lamora prison colony where they are all held captive. Working together with the help of a holographic Captain Kathryn Janeway (Kate Mulgrew), the new crew of the USS Protostar must find their way back to the Alpha Quadrant to warn the Federation of the deadly threat that is pursuing them.
