Paramount+ has this scheme now where they're keeping one Star Trek series showing new episodes at all times to keep fans from doing what people like me have suggested and just sign up, stream all the episodes, and then quit. It's kind of like one of those people who spins a bunch of plates and runs around keeping them spinning.
To make this work, they needed more than just Discovery, Picard, and Lower Decks and Strange New Worlds wasn't ready yet. And most of those shows appealed more to older fans, even the animated Lower Decks. How do we lure in younger viewers?
That's where Star Trek: Prodigy comes in. Unlike the other shows it's branded with Nickelodeon for the kids. And all the main characters except a hologram of Kathryn Janeway are children or child-like. This group of immature aliens find a prototype Federation ship called the Protostar and manage to escape a mining slave camp. Then while they're trying to avoid the slave camp masters, they learn how to run the ship and do Starfleet stuff.
The obvious point of comparison is Star Wars: Rebels that aired on Disney XD and was similarly computer animated and aimed somewhat at younger viewers. And a lot of us, once we actually watched it, really liked Rebels and thought it was a worthy successor to The Clone Wars, which itself was computer animated and originally shown on Cartoon Network. But really neither of those shows knocked it out of the park right away; they needed a season or two to really come together. Prodigy really needs that time to gel, but I don't think it will get it.
Someone (probably my brother) shared Paramount's announcement about their Star Trek shows and it was noticeable that while all the other shows already had been renewed for another season beyond what was airing--even Strange New Worlds, I think--Prodigy had not. To this point they've only aired 10 episodes and the announcement basically said, "We'll air the rest at some point." Not a good sign.
And really this schedule is part of the problem for a show like this. They basically showed 4 episodes (the first "two" were aired together), then took off for like 6 weeks to let Discovery air new episodes, and then came back to air 5 more. If you want younger viewers, they don't typically have great attention spans. They're not just going to wait around six weeks or six months for new episodes; most of them will just move on to something else. The spinning plate schedule might be a good idea to keep older fans addicted to the service, but I don't think it's helping them in Prodigy's case.
The episodes themselves don't always help either. Rebels and Clone Wars had it a little easier because they involved a war. The Rebels are fighting the Empire and the Republic is fighting the Trade Federation. But for Prodigy it's hard making a Star Trek show really kid-friendly. I'm not sure how much kids really get or enjoy episodes about the crew trying to make first contact or explore a weird alien planet. The eighth episode involves everyone getting split up and time running differently for each of them. That's a hard concept for adults to grasp let alone kids. Even the opening theme song and credits with its sort of drab Voyager-esque style doesn't really seem like it would be appealing to younger viewers.
It doesn't always even work for me as an older fan. The episode "First Con-Tact" it was funny that Dal's adopted mom is a Ferengi, but it didn't make any sense from a continuity perspective. Dal was supposed to be from the Delta Quadrant, so how did she get there? The only Ferengi in the Delta Quadrant were two who got stuck there in an episode of TNG, both males. Add to that the Protostar had used its protostar drive to go from the Delta to Gamma Quadrants, so how could his Ferengi "mom" be there ahead of them? It's a plot hole the size of the Bajoran wormhole! (Tony Laplume thought so too.)
I also agree with Laplume that it's taking too long for Dal to go from the bragging con artist to a hero. Other characters we don't really know enough about yet. That's why this really needs more time so the writers can maybe get things together. Getting past the "Diviner" (who ran the mining slave camp) and coming up with a new goal of finding the Federation should probably help.
At the moment it doesn't seem like Paramount is going to give them the time for that to happen. It's too bad, but not all that unusual for Star Trek, is it?
BTW, it was nice at the end of the tenth episode it finally explained what the title "Prodigy" is supposed to mean because it was bugging me that "Prodigy" is singular, so to whom does it refer? From what Hologram Janeway says at the end, each of the characters is a prodigy at...something. I guess.
2 comments:
I haven't seen Prodigy, but I suppose this is what happens to a lot of shows that could've been good. I also find that in a series, they tend to drag out character flaws too long and it gets frustrating. I think this is because they want to keep the conflict going. Anyway, maybe I'll get a chance to watch it someday.
I fear you may be right and that it will be canceled. That sucks, because I really like Prodigy.
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