Star Trek: Prodigy (New Series)

[applejack]

Startrek.com

BREAKING: Star Trek: Prodigy First Look
We've just gotten our first look at Star Trek on Paramount+. Here's what we learned.
BY STARTREK.COM STAFF / FEBRUARY 24, 2021 2:20 PM PST

ViacomCBS today announced that the Star Trek Universe will head to Paramount +. The news was revealed during ViacomCBS’ Investor Day event for its highly anticipated new streaming service. Included within the line-up is the upcoming all-new animated kids’ series Star Trek: Prodigy which will now premiere on Paramount+ in the U.S. in 2021. Developed and produced by Nickelodeon and CBS Studios, Prodigy is the first Star Trek series for the kids and family audience and will bow later this year on Nickelodeon.

A first-look image of the Star Trek: Prodigy bridge crew was also released today.  In Prodigy, six young outcasts know nothing about the ship they have commandeered – a first in the history of the Star Trek franchise, but over the course of their adventures together, they will each be introduced to Starfleet and the ideals it represents. Kate Mulgrew was previously announced as reprising the iconic role of Captain Kathryn Janeway to lead this brand new Prodigy bridge crew.

With the addition of Star Trek: Prodigy, the entire Star Trek Universe will now be available to stream on Paramount+. The Star Trek Universe on Paramount+ will also include current and upcoming seasons of the original series Star Trek: Discovery, Star Trek: Picard, the animated series Star Trek: Lower Decks and the upcoming Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. The Star Trek Universe on Paramount+ also includes all 726 episodes from the six classic Star Trek series and a selection of Star Trek films.

“In three years, we’ve expanded the Star Trek Universe to new heights, creating five original series – each with its own unique storytelling and distinct cinematic feel,” said Alex Kurtzman, Executive Producer Star Trek Universe. “We’re so excited to partner with Dan and Kevin Hageman and the team at Nickelodeon for Star Trek: Prodigy as we bring Trek to a new generation of younger fans with an animated series as rich in character and scope as our live action shows. I’m thrilled audiences of all ages now have instant access to the full Trek library, classic and new original series, on our new home at Paramount+.”

“When Star Trek: Discovery first premiered, we knew we had the beginning of something special,” said Julie McNamara, Executive Vice President and Head of Programming, Paramount+. “Over three years later, we are thrilled that Paramount+ will serve as the streaming home of the Star Trek Universe, with an unparalleled existing and expanding library of Trek content. The upcoming addition of Star Trek: Prodigy to Paramount+ means subscribers now have a Trek series for every member of the family – including kids. We are excited to bring this next chapter to a new generation of Trek fans alongside the creative masterminds behind Secret Hideout and Nickelodeon, as well as the talented Kevin and Dan Hageman.”

“Debuting Prodigy on Paramount+ alongside the complete Star Trek universe points to our strategy of growing Nickelodeon’s reach by expanding our top franchises and diving deeper into their worlds, and their characters and stories,” said Ramsey Naito, President, Nickelodeon Animation. “And on top of having great characters and absolutely gorgeous animation, Prodigy shows how the ViacomCBS brands can come together to make great, compelling content that appeals to both new audiences and long-time super fans. We’re incredibly proud of this series and we’re looking forward to building its audience across the Paramount+ and Nickelodeon platforms.”

Developed by Emmy® Award-winners Kevin and Dan Hageman (Trollhunters and Ninjago) the CG-animated series Star Trek: Prodigy is the first Star Trek series aimed at younger audiences and will follow a group of lawless teens who discover a derelict Starfleet ship and use it to search for adventure, meaning and salvation.

Star Trek: Prodigy is from CBS’ Eye Animation Productions, CBS Studios’ new animation arm; Nickelodeon Animation Studio, led by President of Animation, Ramsey Naito; Secret Hideout; and Roddenberry Entertainment. Alex Kurtzman, Heather Kadin, Katie Krentz, Rod Roddenberry and Trevor Roth will serve as executive producers alongside co-showrunners Kevin and Dan Hageman. Ben Hibon will direct, co-executive produce and serve as the creative lead of the all-new animated series. Aaron Baiers will also serve as co-executive producer.

Picture of the main characters from the article:



I'm rather liking the designs. Hopefully, this turns out well.

[Gandalf]

Will I watch it? Probably not.

Am I happy that it exists? Hells yes.

[Lord Revan]

What I like about these designs is that they're not allowing what was possible for 1980s to early 2000s TV make-up effects limit their designs and these seem to be taking advantage of the medium of animation. The bot and blob creature would probably been impossible during the TNG era and that crystal creature would have been hard to make as main character as well.

EDIT:I wonder if Janeway will be the actual person or a holographic/synth recreation.

[tezunegari]

The character design looks like something I would expect from Star Wars, especially the gray one with the tendrils in the middle.
Probably because Clone Wars, Rebels, and Resistance were the only recent Scifi-CGI-animations I have watched (well, there were some Transformers shows).

I'm intrigued though.
What will the set design look like, and the ships?

[Lord Revan]

The character design looks like something I would expect from Star Wars, especially the gray one with the tendrils in the middle.
Probably because Clone Wars, Rebels, and Resistance were the only recent Scifi-CGI-animations I have watched (well, there were some Transformers shows).

I'm intrigued though.
What will the set design look like, and the ships?

Well Star Trek creature design wasn't all that innovative for a long time (party, possibly mostly due to having to deal with TV budgets) tending to be of "human with few fairly simple non-human features, like a forehead ridge, weird ears or weird eyes" style.

the Star Wars CGI series don't have worry about that as much as there's no need to made up, the actor could be in their normal civilian wear playing a creature that is so inhuman you could never make a suit for use in live-action. Also apart from DSC, PIC and LD, Star Trek series were made when use of CGI in TV series was just starting (IIRC the reason we don't see Xindi insectoids or aquatics as often as other 3 races was that those 2 were CGI and thus super expensive to do back then).

[LadyTevar]

Is it sad that I'd want to see a Silicon Creature from "Devil in the Dark"?
I think Diane Duane used one of the hatchlings as a character (and crew-member) in her novels.

[Batman]

The Silicon Creature didn't seem to have any appendages and a crew member who is phaser resistant and can tunnel through rocks but apparently has no other qualities is of decidedly limited utility, especially when they can't communicate with the rest of the crew.

Agreed this looks extremely Star Wars.

[Solauren]

The Horta (Silicon Creature) was sentient, highly intelligent, and apparently learned English writing very easily ('No Kill'). They appear to have Cilia as well. (for movement).

Memory Beta has alot on them from the aforementioned novels, and they could be fitted with universal translators.
Also, Horta apparently joined Starfleet, and colonized other worlds beside human miners.

So yeah, a Horta could and would work. Hell, maybe the big crystal being IS a Horta.

[bilateralrope]

EDIT:I wonder if Janeway will be the actual person or a holographic/synth recreation.

I'm guessing hologram, or something else that's tied to the ship. Something that gives a good answer as to why she is sending these children on away missions while not going herself.

[TrekkieJeff2000]

EDIT:I wonder if Janeway will be the actual person or a holographic/synth recreation.

I'm guessing hologram, or something else that's tied to the ship. Something that gives a good answer as to why she is sending these children on away missions while not going herself.

I don’t know why but when I read this I imagined the old Space Cases show Nickelodeon used to have. Maybe they’re stuck somewhere and trying to make their way home, mimicking the Voyager concept?

[Crazedwraith]

I don't have any exactly against this per se. But damn they're are making a lot of new Star Trek series. Disco, Picard, Lower Decks, a Pike spin-off, a Georgiou spin-off and this. All at once.

And it's good they're using animation to do new more diverse species, but that image doesn't look very Trekish to me, just as a kneejerk reaction.

[bilateralrope]

We are talking about a group of non-Federation citizens who claim a derelict Starfleet vessel for themselves. I'd be more worried if they did look trekish.

[applejack]

News release on First Contact Day

Startrek.com

Star Trek: Prodigy Debuts Their Captain Janeway
Get your first look at Voyager's animated captain, and more news from First Contact Day inside.
BY STARTREK.COM STAFF / APRIL 5, 2021 2:28 PM PDT

Paramount+ today released a first look image of Captain Kathryn Janeway in its upcoming all-new animated kids’ series Star Trek: Prodigy. Kate Mulgrew (Star Trek: Voyager) reprises her role as Janeway, who will serve as the Star Trek: Prodigy starship’s built in emergency training hologram. The news was revealed by series executive producers Kevin and Dan Hageman during today’s virtual global First Contact Day panels. The Hagemans also revealed that the series takes place in the year 2383, after the events of Star Trek: Voyager, and in the Delta Quadrant. Developed and produced by Nickelodeon and CBS Studios, Star Trek: Prodigy will premiere on Paramount+ in the U.S. later this year.

The free First Contact Day virtual panels will be available to view on-demand on Paramount+’s YouTube Channel and on Paramount+ in the U.S., following their initial airing on StarTrek.com/FirstContact today from 12:00-2:45 PM, PT/3:00-5:45 PM, ET.

Developed by Emmy® Award-winners Kevin and Dan Hageman (Trollhunters and Ninjago) the CG-animated series Star Trek: Prodigy is the first Star Trek series aimed at younger audiences and will follow a motley crew of young aliens who must figure out how to work together while navigating a greater galaxy, in search for a better future. These six young outcasts know nothing about the ship they have commandeered – a first in the history of the Star Trek Franchise – but over the course of their adventures together, they will each be introduced to Starfleet and the ideals it represents.

Star Trek: Prodigy is from CBS’ Eye Animation Productions, CBS Studios’ new animation arm; Nickelodeon Animation Studio, led by President of Animation, Ramsey Naito; Secret Hideout; and Roddenberry Entertainment. Alex Kurtzman, Heather Kadin, Katie Krentz, Rod Roddenberry and Trevor Roth will serve as executive producers alongside co-showrunners Kevin and Dan Hageman. Ben Hibon will direct, co-executive produce and serve as the creative

lead of the all-new animated series. Aaron Baiers will also serve as co-executive producer. Production of Star Trek: Prodigy is overseen for Nickelodeon by Claudia Spinelli, Senior Vice President, Animation Development and Kelley Gardner, Vice President, Current Series Animation.

So the series takes place only a few years after Voyager gets home.

Photo of the Janeway hologram:

[TrekkieJeff2000]

It’ll be really interesting to see how they continue the Voyager story.

[Solauren]

That's actually a pretty good likeness of Janeway. I'm optimistic.

[Batman]

Why's she wearing an old-style uniform though? By the time VOY made it back to the AQ Starfleet had changed to the 'purple shoulders for everyone' look. Or did they change back to the colour coded ones later? Haven't played STO in eons and never got into Picard so I'm not sure what Starfleet's 'current' uniforms look like.

[TrekkieJeff2000]

Why's she wearing an old-style uniform though? By the time VOY made it back to the AQ Starfleet had changed to the 'purple shoulders for everyone' look. Or did they change back to the colour coded ones later? Haven't played STO in eons and never got into Picard so I'm not sure what Starfleet's 'current' uniforms look like.

Interesting point. Maybe this particular animation is just a test/concept and in the show itself they’ll match the up to date uniform.

[bilateralrope]

This series is going to be set in the delta quadrant. I'm thinking that any hologram could easily change uniform and wearing anything other than the uniforms Voyager used risks confusion with DQ species. Better to stick to the one they are most likely to know about.

What I'm curious about is the in-universe reason to create an "emergency training hologram". As for using Janeway as the template, creating such a hologram sounds like a long project that would keep her out of the captains chair.

[Lord Revan]

I could see the "ETH" being made in case a ship in a training mission lost most if not all of its senior crew they could use the "ETH" to gain enough training to limp to the nearest starbase for repairs and replacement for the senior crew members.

As for creating such a hologram using Janeway taking her of the captain's chair, I'd say that would only be the case if she needs to be around for the whole process rather then giving 3D scans of her body and maybe some input, while the rest is done via her records and simple AI routines besides technically this isn't Janeway but a hologram using her likeness so a 100% match to her personality isn't needed.

[Crazedwraith]

What I'm curious about is the in-universe reason to create an "emergency training hologram". As for using Janeway as the template, creating such a hologram sounds like a long project that would keep her out of the captains chair.

Depends on the episode, sometimes creating something like a replacement EMH or an LMH on DS9 is a massive undertaking. Other times you can tell the computer 'recreate such and so' like Leah Brahms or Crell Mosset and you get an instant expert in whatever you need.

[Solauren]

Depends on the episode, sometimes creating something like a replacement EMH or an LMH on DS9 is a massive undertaking. Other times you can tell the computer 'recreate such and so' like Leah Brahms or Crell Mosset and you get an instant expert in whatever you need.

With the Leah Brahms recreation at least, it left out certain things, like she was married, and looked to have filled in personality gabs with stuff from the holodecks own memories. Otherwise, why else would it have flirted with Geordi and gave him a back rub?

Crell Mosset seemed to be 'default Cardassian bad-guy' with medical knowledge tossed on.

[Lord Revan]

Even so it's unlikely that they had Janeway in for that long seeing as a hologram is an AI program with an avatar projected thru manipulation of light. there's not that much in the process that would need the person whose likeness is used to be involved in the project after their likeness is recorded.

And we do know it's possible to create holograms of people who aren't present during creation. IIRC the issue with the back-up EMH wasn't creating the likeness or personality per say but rather the program bugging out when they turned it on and essentially having to bug hunt with a highly complex program.

Again we don't know if the ETH is "essentially if captain/admiral Janeway was present on board the ship" or "AI who uses Janeway's likeness and voice but is their own personality though one based on Janeway".

[bilateralrope]

I could see the "ETH" being made in case a ship in a training mission lost most if not all of its senior crew they could use the "ETH" to gain enough training to limp to the nearest starbase for repairs and replacement for the senior crew members.

As for creating such a hologram using Janeway taking her of the captain's chair, I'd say that would only be the case if she needs to be around for the whole process rather then giving 3D scans of her body and maybe some input, while the rest is done via her records and simple AI routines besides technically this isn't Janeway but a hologram using her likeness so a 100% match to her personality isn't needed.

You're only thinking of the time taken to record the Janeway template. But if she's more involved in building the ETH, say because she's in charge of the project, it's going to take up a lot more of her time.

[Lord Revan]

I could see the "ETH" being made in case a ship in a training mission lost most if not all of its senior crew they could use the "ETH" to gain enough training to limp to the nearest starbase for repairs and replacement for the senior crew members.

As for creating such a hologram using Janeway taking her of the captain's chair, I'd say that would only be the case if she needs to be around for the whole process rather then giving 3D scans of her body and maybe some input, while the rest is done via her records and simple AI routines besides technically this isn't Janeway but a hologram using her likeness so a 100% match to her personality isn't needed.

You're only thinking of the time taken to record the Janeway template. But if she's more involved in building the ETH, say because she's in charge of the project, it's going to take up a lot more of her time.

Obviously though, knowing that by Nemesis Janeway was a 2 star (or 3 star I can't recall atm) admiral, it's likely that she didn't stay a captain for long after Voyager returned so it's possible she would been taken off the center chair anyway (or it's even possible she wanted to transfer to less stressful position after spending 7 years in the Delta Quadrant) and this was the first project she was involved after getting promoted. That said as far as I know there's been no info as to how involved Janeway was in the development of the ETH.

[bilateralrope]

Yeah, it's all speculation on my part. I started with "Why use Janeway as the template ?" and started coming up with answers that looked reasonable.

Oh and we can't forget about Voyager having to integrate Marquis into their crew. An experience that is likely valuable for the ETH project.