“Preludes” blew me away, and I wasn’t expecting it to. It started out as what I thought was going to be just a regular bottle episode, and I’m not a fan of bottle episodes. Then it got to the very end, and it turned on a dime.
I’m still catching up on some Star Trek: Prodigy episodes I’d missed, and this next one is episode 16. I don’t know how deep this dive’s going to be, but it’s going to be a dive.
What Happens in “Preludes”
As the crew of the Protostar repair the proto-drive, each of them recounts how they got to Tars Lamora. Rok-Tahk reveals she once was a fighter, often playing the monster in a carnival-like show, and was sold after she altered the script of the show and defeated the hero. Zero recounts how they were lured away from their Medusan exploration crew, only to be captured by Kazon hunters. Jankom goes last and describes how he was awakened early from cryogenic sleep on a Tellarite ship and repaired critical damage to the vessel, finally leaving in an escape pod so that there was enough oxygen for the remaining crew.
On the Dauntless, Janeway discovers that the Protostar’s crew are children, as Asencia, also known as the Vindicator, and Drednok help the Diviner regain his memories of traveling to the past to locate the Protostar. Janeway becomes suspicious of their guest and heads down to Asencia’s quarters, where she’s knocked unconscious by the Diviner.
Wow. Okay.
A Bottle Episode, Animated
A bottle episode, for those of you playing at home, is when you have a very small set, normally where it’s just the crew sitting in one area, and then they recount stories. Normally in a bottle episode the stories involve footage from previous episodes, given new context through the narration and the story that’s being told by the individual. A good example: they’re talking about something, and Jankom might be like, yeah, so then there I was, I decided to leave. But then in the footage of a previous episode you’d see that he was asked to leave, or kicked out.
Now, in animation that’s very different. In animation, clearly, we don’t have the same restraints of sets. What you do have is the fact that you don’t have to draw new things. You don’t have to draw new ships, new backgrounds, all those things, or in this case generate or create those models. And I think in that respect they did very much do this, because when they’re telling their stories they’re pretty much in engineering, dealing with the proto-drive. You don’t see the CGI characters, the 3D characters, going from place to place.
It’s one of those things where I feel like the more they improve how they tell stories, the more a lot of the same practices continue on.
But as you go through each of these individual tellings, you’re getting more character development. We’re learning more about the characters. We’re now seeing the characters beyond where they were when we first saw them in the very first episode of the season. There’s a lot of value to that, and I’m excited for it. This was actually a very fun episode.
Janeway Does the Math
Especially when you get to the very end.
The one thing I do love is they’re showing Janeway being an actual reasoning person. She’s sitting here going, these are children. But they were slaves, and they escaped, and they’re prisoners. Who did this? Who’s the Diviner? What’s going on? She’s asking all the right questions.
And then to eventually see her storm off into the room, turn around, Asencia’s like, what? And then the Diviner. I love the fact that even the Diviner does the classic Star Trek neck chop that we’ve seen in a million and one Star Trek things. I love that.
I’ll tell you what, man, it’s a really, really good ending to leave us on.
The Verdict
Star Trek: Prodigy Episode 16, “Preludes,” is an 8.5 out of 10 on the Know-It-All Index.
I’ll tell you what, this is one of the first episodes that’s really kind of gotten me. I was unimpressed going in, because I’m not a fan of bottle episodes, and then there’s how quickly it turned on a dime. I think it’s an excellent episode. I think we’re moving in a really good direction.
And they have me still curious as to how we’re going to resolve this. What’s the resolution? And will that spell the end of this series once you reach that resolution?
I’d love to hear your thoughts and insights on this one. Tell me what you thought of “Preludes.” The conversation lives in the comments on the video above.
