Star Trek: Prodigy: Kobayashi
January 6, 2022 3:46 AM - Season 1, Episode 6 - Subscribe

When Dal discovers the ship's holodeck, Janeway must find a way to enable the V-chip before it's too late.

Memory Alpha doesn't believe in a no-win scenario:

• Gates McFadden reprises her Dr. Beverly Crusher role from Star Trek: The Next Generation, and Robert Beltran reprises his role as Chakotay from Star Trek: Voyager. [Ed.: …Apparently. Paramount+ refused to load for me this morning, so I haven't had a chance to watch this one yet!

Poster's Log:
In glancing through MA's wacky array of references in this episode, I'm a little surprised not to see Daniel Davis, Alexander Siddig, or James Darren in there.
posted by CheesesOfBrazil (14 comments total) 2 users marked this as a favorite
 
Fanservicey as all hell, but I'm here for some fanservice!
posted by SansPoint at 1:48 PM on January 6, 2022 [1 favorite]


Some of the voice clips they used were jarringly out of place, if they couldn't get sound-alikes, maybe some other characters could have helped.

I was much more interested by the other story about the secrets behind the Protostar.
posted by Marticus at 5:51 PM on January 6, 2022 [3 favorites]


Mustache and Jellyman! I've got all their records.

Yeah, some of the voice samples didn't quite line up; in particular, Nimoy, a heavy smoker, was hoarser in the movies than TOS. But it was still a heck of a thing. I mean, if Dal hadn't put his feet up in exactly the wrong place, he would have actually beaten the no-win scenario without cheating, right? And I'm also intrigued as to just why the secret code was in Vau N'Akat. (Maybe one of their people helped with the project?)
posted by Halloween Jack at 6:34 PM on January 6, 2022 [1 favorite]


So, for reference's sake, the flashback to 17 years previously was stardate 43929.9. Best of Both Worlds Part 1 was 43989.1, so we're not off in some hyperfuture or anything, "now" is only like 6 years after Voyager got back.

I think we already maybe knew that, or deduced it? But that nails it down, anyway.

Of course, that doesn't give a lot of time for Captain Chakotay (and presumably Admiral Janeway) to be running around with the Protostar, either.

And yeah, I think they probably should've maybe interspersed with original samples with new recordings by sound-alikes, some of Nimoy's lines were pretty jarring. I'm actually sort of surprised they were able to clean them up as much as they did, but it was still a bit iffy.
posted by Kyol at 7:28 PM on January 6, 2022 [2 favorites]


Agreed about the roughness of the Nimoy lines—really, many of the TOSer lines sounded like they were talking into a tin can. It wouldn't have been as obvious if they'd stuck with ONE era of Nimoy, and/or used more physical comedy and nonverbal interactions with these characters, like Dal's great high-five to Spock.

DS9 is my favorite Trek and Odo might be my favorite DS9 character, so of course I loved his appearance—especially his immediate resignation threat, which was an almost Lower Decks-ily accurate callback. But IIRC Odo…never once served on any starship? I mean, he could fly a runabout, so I guess putting him at the -D's helm isn't the most absurd possible thing. And if that's what it takes to honor Rene, then I'm all for it.

Sp great to see Dr. Crusher again too. Kind of a shame they didn't mix it up a bit more and put, say, Dominic Keating up in the Worf spot. (Not like he doesn't rate, either!: he was one of ENT's more consistently competent crewmembers IIRC. Maybe the computer filtered him out of contention because of his, um, dubious affiliation revealed in the last season that I probably shouldn't spoil.)

The little nose-thumbing at Janeway's holodeck predilections was quite welcome and, again, not a little LOW-esque.

Memory Alpha's references suggest the song Dal plays is AC/DC's "Thunderstruck," but I'm not fully convinced.

Of course, that doesn't give a lot of time for Captain Chakotay (and presumably Admiral Janeway) to be running around with the Protostar, either.

Well, you know how prototypes are. And it would be dramatically appropriate for Chakotay's very next ship to also go missing in the Delta Quadrant during its maiden voyage.
posted by CheesesOfBrazil at 6:51 AM on January 7, 2022 [3 favorites]


"We're going to find the Nacene homeworld and give them a piece of our mind!"
posted by Kyol at 7:06 AM on January 7, 2022


I actually loved the way they didn't put too much effort into homogenizing the audio clips for the holodeck bridge crew. For an in-universe handwave, let's just say that to make it perfect the computer would have to simulate the personalities at a level that would approach AI sentience, which is a big no-no.

And wasn't Dal 100% right in his first attempt at the K.M.? "Nope. Let's get out of here" IS a correct answer to an unwinnable scenario.
posted by mikelieman at 7:44 AM on January 7, 2022 [3 favorites]


mikelieman: In Beta canon, Sulu handled the Kobayashi Maru test by realizing it was likely a trap and left, though his senior crew threatened to mutiny, as well.
posted by SansPoint at 7:56 AM on January 7, 2022 [3 favorites]


Sulu handled the Kobayashi Maru test by realizing it was likely a trap and left

How could I have forgotten that? I even have a copy of Julia Ecklar's "Kobayashi Maru" paperback. As we've seen, my memory isn't all that hot, but IIRC Scotty actually beat the damn thing clean by exploiting a flaw in the computer model they used for the klingon ships' shields.
posted by mikelieman at 8:07 AM on January 7, 2022 [3 favorites]


Memory Alpha's references suggest the song Dal plays is AC/DC's "Thunderstruck," but I'm not fully convinced.

The close captioning said it was AC/DC's "Thunderstruck."
posted by Quonab at 11:25 AM on January 7, 2022 [1 favorite]


Also! Also also! The disk and cup game!

Yes, fan service, but I’m actually enjoying it a lot more than I expected, I was mostly figuring it would be something to fill the quieter parts of the broadcast schedule, but it’s been pretty good so far.
posted by Kyol at 12:00 PM on January 8, 2022 [3 favorites]


Kyol: When I saw that, I had to pause so I could laugh myself stupid for a couple minutes. I didn't want to miss anything!
posted by SansPoint at 2:48 PM on January 8, 2022


Disk and Cup II: Now with 95% Less Ktarian Brain-Virus
posted by CheesesOfBrazil at 4:02 AM on January 9, 2022 [1 favorite]


Oh sheesh, Ryan's Edits has tracked down all the sources of all the quotes.
posted by Kyol at 7:29 PM on January 11, 2022 [2 favorites]


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