Character design, set & tech design, and animation remain flawless and gorgeous.
This is one of the Prodigy episodes where I wonder who the heck this show is for?
This episode has the formulas of an educational show - more than any character development or plot, we're here to learn about transporter technology, and secondarily about cloaking technology & Ferengi greed/dishonesty.
Focusing a Star Trek story solely around core Star Trek tech is never a good idea - Star Trek has never spun out the implications of its technology because that would really limit the stories that could be told. The transporter, treated realistically, is a superweapon that means anyone not within a shielded location can be remotely murdered or instantly imprisoned, and that anything can be stolen or destroyed at any time. Relying on transporter mechanics for key plot movement is super unsatisfying, because the mechanics of transporters are just whatever's necessary to make the story work.
The mechanics aren't even consistent within this episode: Murf needs to be fed a com badge to be teleported, and attaching one to the crystal lets it be beamed home, but the pies don't need one, and Dal doesn't need one to be teleported to safety; Nandi can teleport the chimerium off of the Protostar only because their shields are down, but presumably Nandi had her shields up when she's flying away.
I usually don't care about this because I'm watching Star Trek for characters that become dear over time, for the ways that new life and new civilizations can raise interesting questions about our own, and for the ethical competence fantasy. This series is capable of hitting all of that, and sometimes delivers! But there's none of it in this episode.
Basically: fans don't need the transporter tutorial provided by this episode. Newcomers to Trek are going to be bored and confused by it.
Also, DS9 did so much work to develop the Ferengi beyond their antisemitic origins - it's a real bummer to be back to the starting line with a one-dimensional villain who sold a kid into slavery.
Review by callie_jenningsBlockedParentSpoilers2023-06-25T16:46:34Z
Character design, set & tech design, and animation remain flawless and gorgeous.
This is one of the Prodigy episodes where I wonder who the heck this show is for?
This episode has the formulas of an educational show - more than any character development or plot, we're here to learn about transporter technology, and secondarily about cloaking technology & Ferengi greed/dishonesty.
Focusing a Star Trek story solely around core Star Trek tech is never a good idea - Star Trek has never spun out the implications of its technology because that would really limit the stories that could be told. The transporter, treated realistically, is a superweapon that means anyone not within a shielded location can be remotely murdered or instantly imprisoned, and that anything can be stolen or destroyed at any time. Relying on transporter mechanics for key plot movement is super unsatisfying, because the mechanics of transporters are just whatever's necessary to make the story work.
The mechanics aren't even consistent within this episode: Murf needs to be fed a com badge to be teleported, and attaching one to the crystal lets it be beamed home, but the pies don't need one, and Dal doesn't need one to be teleported to safety; Nandi can teleport the chimerium off of the Protostar only because their shields are down, but presumably Nandi had her shields up when she's flying away.
I usually don't care about this because I'm watching Star Trek for characters that become dear over time, for the ways that new life and new civilizations can raise interesting questions about our own, and for the ethical competence fantasy. This series is capable of hitting all of that, and sometimes delivers! But there's none of it in this episode.
Basically: fans don't need the transporter tutorial provided by this episode. Newcomers to Trek are going to be bored and confused by it.
Also, DS9 did so much work to develop the Ferengi beyond their antisemitic origins - it's a real bummer to be back to the starting line with a one-dimensional villain who sold a kid into slavery.