Star Trek: Prodigy Surprises Fans With Returning Voyager Character

Star Trek: Prodigy's midseason finale held big surprises for Star Trek fans, especially those who love Star Trek: Voyager. SPOILERS follow for Star Trek: Prodigy's midseason finale "A Moral Star, Part 2." Fans knew that the kids-focused Star Trek series would bring back Kate Mulgrew to voice a holographic recreation of Voyager's Captain Kathryn Janeway. They may not have guessed that Mulgrew is also paying the true Janeway in the series. This moment marks Janeway's first appearance in the Star Trek canon since her cameo in Star Trek: Nemesis.

The final scene in "A Moral Star, Part 2" shows Janeway, now a vice-admiral, in command of the USS Dauntless. Voyager fans may remember the Dauntless as the fake ship designed to trap the Voyager crew for Borg assimilation during their trek home from the far reaches of the Delta Quadrant. Dauntless was a tempting trap for Voyager's staff because of its slipstream warp drive, which would shave years off of Voyager's journey home. It appears that Starfleet has constructed an actual Dauntless and put in Janeway's command. 

Janeway is currently using the ship to track the USS Protostar. Formerly under the command of Chakotay, Janeway's first officer aboard Voyager, Drednok boarded the Protostar, leading to it somehow becoming hidden on the Tars Lamora prison colony. Drednok and the Diviner searched for it, but Dal found it. He and several other Tars Lamora prisoners used the ship to escape. They've since been heading towards Federation space. However, they are unaware that the Diviner programmed a trojan horse program into the ship's systems that will spread throughout Starfleet's computers when the Protostar interfaces with another Starfleet vessel.

Another interesting note about Janeway's appearance is her uniform and Starfleet combadge. The combadge is the same seen in the alternate future of Star Trek: The Next Generation series finale, "All Good Things..." Janeway's admiral uniform is similar to the one worn by Admiral Riker in that future. However, the crew uniforms look potentially based on Star Trek: Lower Decks, which takes place a few years earlier than Prodigy in the Star Trek timeline. The young members of the Protostar earned their Starfleet uniforms in the previous episode. However, there's are unique to the Protostar. 

Star Trek: Prodigy will return with the remaining 10 episodes of its first season later in 2022. Star Trek: Prodigy's first 10 episodes are streaming now on Paramount+

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