With a technology like the holodeck, I’m shocked there aren’t more things that go wrong. Anybody who loves Star Trek understands and loves the classic I’m-trapped-in-the-holodeck episode. The Next Generation kind of made it their pet project, with one or two holodeck-centric episodes every season. There’s an entire Lower Decks video game based on the concept that Badgey has stuck them all inside the holodeck. That’s not a paid advertisement or a promotion. I play the game, and that’s literally the premise.
So it’s time to catch up on Star Trek: Prodigy, and season 1, episode 17, “Ghost in the Machine,” is Prodigy taking its turn.
The crew uses the holodeck to simulate ways to warn the Dauntless about the living construct, and they continually fail. They decide to take a break, enjoy some ice cream and get some rest. Then they notice some strange things about the ship, and they realize they’re still in the holodeck. From there they work their way through the simulations the crew programmed: Zero’s detective story, Jankom’s street fighting simulator, a jazz club programmed by Murf, and an amalgam of Dal’s pirate simulation and Rok-Tahk’s virtual pet game. Zero deduces that the simulation is designed to keep them searching for clues indefinitely, and tells them to stay put as the pirate ship sinks, which ends the program. Hologram Janeway trapped them in there, acting under a secret subroutine programmed by the living construct to keep the kids busy while the Protostar returned to Federation space. She apologizes, and the crew suddenly finds themselves face to face with the Dauntless and unable to control the Protostar.
Yeah. That was insane.
What Their Recreation Tells You
This is a really, really good look at how the characters have come together. Between the last episode or two and this one, you start to genuinely understand our group. Yes, we’ve seen plenty of episodes with them, and yes, we’ve had character development. But how much can you understand a character until you understand what their recreation looks like, and what they spend their time on?
It helps tremendously to see their problem-solving skills and their deduction skills. It also helps to see them show up with the things they’re dealing with. Dal has a pirate ship, and his whole thing is that once in a while he wants a crew who maybe respects him and listens to what he has to say. It’s all cute and clever, but when you look at it, it’s really interesting to see how they’re threading those particular needles.
I enjoyed this episode. I think it was pretty cut and dry. This was another one where I went, oh my gosh, it’s done, and I was blown away, because it felt super short with how things moved at a decent clip.
How Do You Warn Starfleet Without Calling Starfleet?
It’s such an interesting conundrum they’re facing. How do you communicate when the very act of communication connects the ship to Starfleet’s greater network, and does the exact damage the living construct is trying to do?
I start thinking about it myself. Would it literally be a handwritten note shot out of an airlock, in the hope that it goes in the right direction? What would you do if you were faced with that scenario? Because remember, Janeway and them are operating under a very specific set of instructions, as well as standard operating procedures.
We got to see a little bit of how Janeway is starting to deduce some things. But because of how this episode’s put together, we don’t get the answer to the actual cliffhanger we were left on. My hope is that next week’s episode gives us a little more of that. Then we have a two-parter coming up in the weeks after. I know we have three more episodes in the season, and I’m excited for them.
What Does Episode 100 Look Like?
There’s a lot more in the story to tell, but I keep asking how you continue it. I feel like you can’t have them running away for an entire other season. The first half of the season was very much about them figuring some things out. The second half is them realizing what they can and can’t do, and coming into their strengths, I believe. That’s all the first season. What happens in the second season, and the third? How do you move forward beyond this?
When I worked in television, one of the big questions we asked was: okay, here’s the first episode, what does episode 100 look like? Do you know the story long term? Does it have legs?
So there’s got to be more to this. We still haven’t heard conclusively whether Chakotay is dead or not. They’ve implied some things, and you got to see some of the history, but I want to understand more fully what happened. Remember, as far as everyone’s concerned, when they went through the time anomaly they ended up in the future. So Chakotay and his people are out there in the far-flung future, at this other place. The Diviner and the Vindicator came back in time using the same wormhole, in an effort to track down and catch the Protostar, so they could use it to infiltrate Starfleet with this technology.
The Janeway I Thought We Were Getting
It’s a futuristic technology. So is anyone surprised that it’s just shy of AI intelligent, to where it literally says, okay, the kids don’t want to go where I want them to go anymore, so now we have to force them?
When they focused in on Janeway toward the end there, I half expected she was going to glitch and transform into the one the Diviner had, the one that was all blue-faced, the evil holographic Janeway, I guess. That’s who I thought she was going to become, and she didn’t.
Here’s my issue with that. Artificially intelligent creatures, holograms, androids, whatever, who are just, oh my goodness, I’m a victim because I can’t control what I’m programmed to do. I always hate that, because it feels like lazy writing.
Either way, I’m very excited for the direction the show is moving in.
Our Longest Look at This Era
They’ve also given us probably our most consistent look at this era that isn’t Star Trek: Picard. Picard keeps showing us the future, with flashbacks to some things where we see different uniforms and whatnot. But Prodigy is giving us our longest protracted look at this particular time frame.
Remember, in this time frame there’s still a Romulan Neutral Zone. Romulus exists. It hasn’t blown up because of the sun or whatever else. I’m enjoying this time in Star Trek right now, in this particular era. That doesn’t mean I’m not down for some other stuff. I’m looking forward to Discovery and whatnot too.
The Verdict
Star Trek: Prodigy season 1, episode 17, “Ghost in the Machine,” is a 9 out of 10 on the Know-It-All Index.
I tell you what, I’ve noticed the scores have been creeping up. But I liked this episode. It was very decent. I enjoyed the heck out of it. So yeah, man. Nine.
Three more to go. Let’s see what happens.
How would you solve the problem? If calling Starfleet is the thing that does the damage, what do you do instead? Tell me that, tell me what you thought of the episode, and tell me what you think of the future of Star Trek. The conversation lives in the comments on the video above.
