Out of all the new-era Star Trek shows, Star Trek Prodigy is the one that strays furthest from the basic template. It’s the first targeted specifically toward children, and the first that, at least at first, doesn’t involve Starfleet.
It’s Star Trek for a generation that has been raised on the Disney Star Wars animated shows. And so it is likely the first Star Trek or Star Wars show to really ask — and answer — the question, who would win? Star Trek or Star Wars?
The series opens as Star Wars shows often do, with a grab bag of aliens thrown together on a prison planet, mining for ore. The prison camp is ruled over by the Diviner, a Darth Vader-like evil dude who is largely confined to a life support system. His evil orders are carried out by an evil droid, the General Grievous-like Drednok, and the Diviner’s daughter, Gwyn, who feels her father is looking for something more important to him than the power crystals. They live aboard a massive starship, the Rev-12, which provides gravity and life support to the mining colony.
None of the prisoner-slaves understand each other’s language, and so they are unable to make any plans lasting longer than how to survive that day.
When an alien teen named Dal discovers a Federation starship in a deep mine, he uses the universal translator he finds there — as well as the Captain Janeway training hologram — to gather together his friends (the Brikar Rok, the Medusan Zero, the Tellurite Jankom, and the Melluroid Slime Worm Murf), kidnap boss’ daughter Gwynn, and take off into the black with Gwynn as hostage, trying to learn how to operate the ship as a crew and on a quest to contact the Federation, all the time being pursued by the Diviner, Drednok, and the Rev-12.
As the first season progressed, the episodes focused less on the Star Wars aspects, and more on the Star Trek aspects, as some disastrous early missions taught them the value of Starfleet protocols. We also learn more about what happened with the ship — the Protostar, named after its innovative drive system — its original crew, and why Gwynn’s father needs the ship so much. The last episode before the midseason hiatus revealed that the Protostar, and its original crew, were responsible for the destruction of Gwynn’s homeworld. In the last moments, Zero lets his true form be seen by the Diviner, which drives him in catatonia. Gwynn sees only a reflection of his light, which destroys her memory of the truths of what her father has told her.
This is where Supernova comes in. The kids, now taught quite a lot about the Federation and Starfleet by hologram Janeway, are on their way to the Federation to turn themselves in and return the Protostar. Along the way, they are helping out where they can. Ships sensors detect a Dyson sphere in the vicinity; the star it surrounds is about to go Supernova. As they come nearer to investigate, they detect life on one of the planets. They are then attacked and are forced to crash onto one of the planets. Dal beams Rok, Zero, Murf and Jankom to what he hopes is safety and he and Gwynn try to save the Protostar, beaming out at the last moment.
Now Dal and Gwynn are stranded on a strange planet, without their friends or the Protostar, with the system going supernova in just a few hours.
And what’s worse — it looks like Drednok has followed them there. Or was it here already?
The game itself is largely a co-op puzzle game with a fairly linear storyline. You find the Protostar and get it flying again, rescue your crewmates, stop Drednok, and make first contact with the alien race that lived on the three planets before Drednok arrived. Because it was here for awhile before the aliens repaired it and brought it back to life.
The timeline is weird.
Though the game works well with two players and two controllers, it works fine with just one person swapping between Dal and Gwynn as necessary. Puzzle levels alternate with combat levels, where you battle against robotic enemies sent by Drednok to slow you down. Dal prefers to use phasers, phaser rifles and phaser cannons, where Gwynn likes to use her thought-controlled filagree to form swords, gauntlets, and spears. In combat, the enemies focus on the character being controlled by the player, so swapping between characters is a good way to keep both of them from being ovewhelmed.
Rescuing crew members allows them to be used to open special doors and perform their own signature attack, though they will leave immediately after they do their thing. Mining crystals unlocks weapon upgrades. Finding hidden plants unlocks health and endurance upgrades. Finding hidden relics puts items from every Star Trek series in the captain’s quarters. Levels can be replayed in order to hit time, mining, or K.O. checkpoints. Hitting those opens up certain cheats for future playthroughs.
The game is short. Some of the puzzles might be frustrating for a young child, but there’s never a time limit. There are, I think, just three boss fights, and even the final boss fight wasn’t much of a challenge. It would be an amazing game for a parent to play with their child.
I had fun with it, even though I could only get my not-a-child-anymore son to play with me about an hour before he got bored and wandered off.
I bought the game to get caught up to the Protostar crew before the show came back from its hiatus last week. I stayed because I got caught up in the mysteries — How did Drednok come here in a Rev-13 from before the time we last saw him in the Rev-12? Is it a different Drednok? Just how long has he been in this system — and why come here?
I have my theories. But when I tried to explain them to my partner, he just laughed and said it was crazy. Time travel! Clones! Everything! Maybe a whole different universe somehow! (Though we do know that the Protostar is in the same universe as Starfleet — because we know NON-hologram Janeway is hot on their trail, and she is pissed).
If you love Star Trek Prodigy, you’re gonna like this game. If you want a Star Trek-themed co-op game to play with your kid, this’ll do. If you’re looking for a Starfleet bridge simulator, or tactical battles, or deep diplomacy or any connection to the wider Star Trek-verse, you won’t find it here. If you want hints as to the puzzles of the show, this will give you some clues.
I enjoyed the game. I bought it for full price. Unless you really want to play the game ASAP before the show spoils everything you’d learn here, I’d wait for a sale. It’s only maybe a dozen hours long, unless you’re going back through levels again and again looking for secrets or trying to get achievements, of which there are many.
