It’s a very, very special Thursday morning, because it’s the Thursday morning that sees the season finale of Star Trek: Prodigy.

There was no show last week, partially because of Christmas, but also because I wanted to do Parts 1 and 2 of “Supernova” together. As much as I’m a Star Trek fan, and they’ve given us cliffhangers historically, I hate them. So instead of keeping us on a cliffhanger, I wanted to make sure we got a chance to talk about the episodes entirely.

Spoilers from here on. If you haven’t seen them, they’re on Paramount Plus, so by all means go watch and come back.

Every Ship in the Fleet Turns Red

Part 1 begins with Vice Admiral Janeway arguing with her guard, telling her that essentially bad things are about to happen. The guard tries her best to kind of ignore her. Then aboard the Protostar they’re all like, oh well, Janeway’s going to help us, and Dal’s like, yeah, about that. Turns out he may not have done a good job while he was in Janeway’s body, which obviously we all know.

That’s when you see that Asencia has convinced Admiral Jellico it would be prudent to hurry up and board the Protostar, and he’s like, yeah, absolutely, get a crew over there as soon as possible. The character of Jellico is one of those characters that’s near and dear to my personal heart. I love that character.

So the Dauntless opens fire on the Protostar, and Asencia makes it over. She causes the whole thing to happen. And her General Grievous four-armed robot guy is brutal. He takes down everybody. Once they board, everyone’s like, we’ve got to take him, and it’s rough. Dude just decimates the heck out of them.

She makes it down to communications, they turn off the Janeway hologram, and she manages to do exactly what she intended to do, which is open all hailing frequencies to all of Starfleet. That marks the beginning of the end. And because I love cartoon mentality, animation mentality, every ship, which normally has its white lights, suddenly turns red. The whole fleet is red, and sure enough they start firing everywhere.

The ship starts losing its shields very quickly, so Rok-Tahk comes up with the idea: look, if we can’t use the proto-drive to get out of here, then let’s take all that power and put it into our shields. And they start doing their best to maneuver, because they’ve got to figure out something.

The Guard From “Counterpoint”

Janeway’s still in the jail cell, still talking to her guard, and finally the guard reveals that they have history. She’s going to let her out, and she explains that she’s one of the telepathic Brenari. Remember the Brenari? That was Star Trek: Voyager, “Counterpoint.” It’s definitely “Counterpoint.” If you remember that episode, she’s apparently one of the children from it, one of the refugees they took in. That was great.

There’s a moment where Dal and the others are talking about joining Starfleet, and it’s a sad moment. It’s a really sad moment, because you can tell Rok’s going to say something and Gwyn stops her. Gwyn’s clearly of the mind that, hey, he’s our captain right now. He’s got to be sharp, he’s got to be on point, on his game if you will. And that’s super important.

Then Asencia leaves. She escapes, so we may eventually see her again in the future, who knows. At this point the Diviner has turned on her. He’s dying, he gives some last words, and ultimately he dies, and his essence or energy goes in. You see Gwyn’s markings, they look like tattoos, light up. And you sort of know she’s going to have to grieve his loss soon, but it’s not going to happen right now, because right now they’ve got to focus on what’s happening.

The Universal Translator Goes Quiet

All of a sudden, as they’re all talking, their languages stop. You literally hear Rok go from talking like a little kid to suddenly talking like a creature, and you suddenly hear Gwyn’s real voice, and nobody can communicate.

This is probably one of the best actual in-world examples of the universal translator I have ever seen. I’m sure there’ve been others that were really similar, but this one really captured my imagination in the way it handled it.

What ends up happening is that Gwyn was taught to understand the languages of many of these species so that she could better pit them against each other. It’s part of what her father used to say. So they have the idea to reach out to non-Federation ships, because non-Federation ships won’t use the same Federation technology, which means it’s going to be a clean signal. You don’t have to worry about anybody taking out the ship.

And that’s exactly what happens. First ones to get on the horn: my Klingon brothers. I was a Klingon in my persona when I was part of Starfleet, the international fan club. She immediately starts talking to them and is basically like, hey, we need your help. Then she sends out a hailing frequency to everybody out there, and she has this wonderful speech about what Starfleet means, and how everybody needs a place to be able to belong.

Then, thinking they’re not going to make it, thinking nobody heard them, all of a sudden, bam. Fleets start showing up. All kinds of Klingon ships show up. A Vulcan ship shows up. A Gorn transport vessel. You see what looks like a Ferengi ship. Everybody starts showing up, and it’s a wonderful moment. It’s a wonderful Endgame, Rise of Skywalker moment, in terms of the cavalry has come.

But right on the heels of the cavalry, more Starfleet ships come. And that’s when Holo Janeway explains the entirety of what they’re dealing with. When a Starfleet vessel is in danger, it automatically sends out a distress signal and other ships start coming. This is going to be a complete decimation, an utter annihilation, if something doesn’t happen.

Destroy the Ship, in True Starfleet Fashion

Part 2 picks up right where Part 1 left off, and it doesn’t take very long for them to figure out a solution. The solution is pretty simple. If you destroy the Protostar, you destroy the device. You can’t undo the damage, but you can stop it. And in true Starfleet fashion they very quickly realize, we’re going to have to destroy the ship.

But when you have a warp core breach that big, with that type of technology, speaking as an engineer, it’ll utterly decimate most star systems. This would be that much bigger. So the crew comes up with the idea that if you take it into slip drive while it’s exploding, it’ll spread out the damage and make it less of a massive impact.

Dal is ready. He’s finally learned that as an augment he won’t have a place in Starfleet, and he decides he’s going to do everything he can to make sure the others do. So he’s willing to stay, because the autopilot and everything else was destroyed.

That’s when Holo Janeway comes to the conclusion: listen, I can do this. I’ll stay, you guys go. I have your command codes. And they’re like, we don’t want to lose you. Don’t worry, we can copy me onto an isolinear chip. Very simple.

Of course it’s never that simple. Holo Janeway realizes she has evolved, similar to how the Doctor on Voyager had evolved. She’s way too big to just be thrown on a floppy disk. You’re not going to sit there and go, oh, by the way, we’re just going to pop you in here, you massively intelligent sentient creature. She can’t do that. But she doesn’t want to tell them that.

So, again in true Starfleet fashion, she lies. She lies, gives Dal an isolinear chip, and says, I’ll see you guys soon. They get on the shuttle and they go, and it’s very unceremonious in how it happens. She takes a moment and tells them how honored she was to have served with them. And when it’s all said and done, there’s a new nebula-looking thing in the stars, in the heavens if you will. They did what they intended to do.

The Message She Left Them

Then you see them all on the escape shuttle. Real quick, they’d had the vehicle replicator do exactly that: it replicated a giant shuttle for them to take. When they get on the shuttle they go to turn her on, like, Janeway’s going to want to see this. And it’s a message.

Holo Janeway left them a message explaining the situation, telling them it was still her honor, and very much letting them all know they’re going to find their place. And of course she’s very anticipatory, because Rok’s like, we don’t know how to navigate, come on. And she’s like, I’m sure you’re wondering how you’re going to get where you’re going. If what I’ve witnessed is any indication of your capabilities, I have no doubt you’re going to land.

It’s an emotional moment, man. This Nickelodeon series just punched me in the gut. It was particularly good. I enjoyed it.

Twenty-Six Federation Worlds in One Kid

We’re back in San Francisco with Janeway. The shuttle arrives on Earth, and next thing you know they’re in front of a tribunal, and it’s impersonating a Starfleet officer, stolen Federation technology, all these things. Janeway’s defending them hardcore, just as you’d expect her to.

She even makes the argument for the augment. His augments were not to enhance him. He’s not super strong, he’s not super intelligent. There are 26 member Federation worlds that are part of his DNA, and she says, if there’s a better living embodiment of Starfleet and the Federation and what our ideals are, I don’t know what it is.

They’re waiting outside, and she comes out and says five of them have been granted entry into the Academy. Everyone assumes Dal’s the one who’s not going. She says, no, you made it. Gwyn is the one who’s decided she’s not going to be joining, because first contact with her species hasn’t happened yet.

The other thing that’s happened is that Hologram Janeway took the time to mirror how the Protostar was last set up, to go and do what it was supposed to do on its original mission with Chakotay and all them. It created a stable touch point between our point in time and the future where he went. They’re going to mount a rescue for Chakotay and them. I know we’re getting a season two, which hopefully will give us more of that.

Then you start to see them all in their new uniforms. They come in as special warrant officers, since making them cadets in the Academy wouldn’t be fair. They’re essentially enlisted people, petty officers. It’s great. It’s Miles O’Brien before he became an ensign. It’s a lot of these lower-decker type people before they eventually become full-blown ensigns or get promoted to something. And she’s used to giving field commissions, man. That’s literally what they did when they adopted the Maquis into the Voyager crew.

Then they’re shown their new ship, because she has her pick of the ships, and it’s a new Protostar-class vessel. They’re like, oh, is that going to be our ship? And she’s like, no, I’ve got something bigger planned for us. And I was like, oh my gosh. It’s exciting.

The Verdict

Star Trek: Prodigy’s “Supernova” gets two numbers on the Know-It-All Index: a 9 out of 10 for Part 1 and a 10 out of 10 for Part 2.

Part 1 was firing on all thrusters, to use a phrase, and I see it as a straight-up nine. It still didn’t knock my socks off, and I have to make tens worthy and hard to get in order for them to mean anything. So for me that episode gets a nine. Straight-up, hardcore nine.

Part 2, the finale for season one, you’re getting my ten, man. You’re getting my ten. You did good.

I didn’t know where this was going to go. I don’t know if I’m xenophobic, but I was a person who’s like, ah, I don’t know, man. I’ll tell you what, it was intense. It felt way off the mark, but I was with it, and then it came all the way back and felt very much like home. I love the story they’ve told. It is very Starfleet. It is very much us.

So yeah, I’m excited for what the future holds for Star Trek: Prodigy. I’m thrilled to be living and existing at this point in time. You can’t get better than this.

Let me know what you thought of the episodes, because I’d absolutely love to keep this dialogue going. Happy New Year, everyone. The conversation lives in the comments on the video above.