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Spoilers Star Trek: Prodigy 1x05 - "Terror Firma"

Rate the episode...

  • 10 - Excellent!

    Votes: 12 15.2%
  • 9

    Votes: 20 25.3%
  • 8

    Votes: 29 36.7%
  • 7

    Votes: 12 15.2%
  • 6

    Votes: 2 2.5%
  • 5

    Votes: 3 3.8%
  • 4

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • 3

    Votes: 1 1.3%
  • 2

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • 1 - Terrible.

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    79
Yes Gwyn is a prisoner as well, but just as much of a prisoner? ‪
Fair point. The dynamics are different and she certainly has power over the others in a different way, at least back in the penal colony. I completely get them having issues with her: I was 100% with Rok when she went at Gwyn about how little she really tried to help anyone, and I feel like enough of that hit home to sell Gwyn's final break with her father in the wake of his very personal betrayal here. And I'm not forgetting that her relationship with Dal was transactional and weird and more in the nature of adversaries exploiting each other where they originated. It's understandable for their relationship to be complex in the wake of their escape and henceforth.
 
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Fair point. The dynamics are different and she certainly has power over the others in a different way, at least back in the penal colony. I completely get them having issues with her: I was 100% with Rok when she went at Gwyn about how little she really tried to help anyone, and I feel like enough of that hit home to sell Gwyn's final break with her father in the wake of his very personal betrayal here. And I'm not forgetting that her relationship with Dal was transactional and weird and more in the nature of adversaries each other where they originated. It's understandable for their relationship to be complex in the wake of their escape and henceforth.

Very well put! ‪‪I agree completely, and great point about Rok Tahk’s taking Gwyn to task prepping her in a way for her father’s abandonment. I’m very pleased with how complex these characters feel after such a short time spent with them.

The Hagemans and the creators they’ve assembled for the writers room are doing a master class on economy of storytelling, revealing the characters’ essential qualities deftly by peppering in organic moments throughout the story that hint at important backstory or personality elements, allowing them to avoid exposition drops and keep the flow of storytelling going at a quick pace.
 
The Hagemans and the creators they’ve assembled for the writers room are doing a master class on economy of storytelling, revealing the characters’ essential qualities deftly by peppering in organic moments throughout the story that hint at important backstory or personality elements, allowing them to avoid exposition drops and keep the flow of storytelling going at a quick pace.
Agreed. A shout-out to the animators, too: the subtleties of emotion they capture in all the characters (especially Gwyn, Rok, and Zero, who has to emote without facial expressions) are really extraordinary and do a lot of heavy lifting.
 
Agreed. A shout-out to the animators, too: the subtleties of emotion they capture in all the characters (especially Gwyn, Rok, and Zero, who has to emote without facial expressions) are really extraordinary and do a lot of heavy lifting.

I haven't really noticed it with Zero but Rok and Gwyn have been really well written so far. I've been loving Gwyn most of all, and I look forward to what she can do as part of the crew now.
 
Agreed. A shout-out to the animators, too: the subtleties of emotion they capture in all the characters (especially Gwyn, Rok, and Zero, who has to emote without facial expressions) are really extraordinary and do a lot of heavy lifting.

Yes, the animation is wonderful! ‪‪This is the first ongoing series that Ben Hibon has run, ‪‪I believe, coming from video games previously, and he and his team are knocking it out of the park.
 
Very well put! ‪‪I agree completely, and great point about Rok Tahk’s taking Gwyn to task prepping her in a way for her father’s abandonment. I’m very pleased with how complex these characters feel after such a short time spent with them.

The Hagemans and the creators they’ve assembled for the writers room are doing a master class on economy of storytelling, revealing the characters’ essential qualities deftly by peppering in organic moments throughout the story that hint at important backstory or personality elements, allowing them to avoid exposition drops and keep the flow of storytelling going at a quick pace.
agreed. They have made me care more about these characters in five 20 minute episodes than discovery did in three years or Picard in one (apart from the titular character, of course). Somehow current animated Trek seems to be better at bringing characters to life, at least for me.
 
agreed. They have made me care more about these characters in five 20 minute episodes than discovery did in three years or Picard in one (apart from the titular character, of course). Somehow current animated Trek seems to be better at bringing characters to life, at least for me.

While I’m a big fan of Discovery and Picard both, and care a great deal about their characters, ‪‪I can still appreciate and share in the sentiment that Prodigy has been able to engender those feelings within a comparative dearth of time. It’s always impressive to me when stories are able to work at this quick of a pace without sacrificing quality or depth, and without seeming frantic or rushed.
 
Love it! Love it! Love it! :luvlove:

It had me on the edge of my seat all the way through! :eek:


Finally, UFP getting into REAL advancement (Disco writers... are you paying attention?).

They're still fixated on programmable matter.

So now we've got Dal rappelling out of the ship to save Gwyn...the absence of the transporter gets even more conspicuous.

She was covered in vines. Maybe they didn't want to pick up whatever it was that had a hold on her? (Janeway had just cleaned it off the ship.)

The crew has to learn to work as a team. It was as good a team-building exercise if there ever was one.

It reminded me of Special Forces training (they over-complicate things for that reason -- you have to be able to rely on your teammates).

One thing puzzles me -- why train a green crew on an experimental ship? :confused:

I'm glad holo-Janeway has some density (enough to touch the keys on a control panel). When Gwyn reset Janeway, she must've reset EVERYTHING.
 
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As annoying as Dal can be, I'd hardly call hostility towards some one who helped enslave you, your friends and many others random (or "random-assed").
That particular phrasing actually stems from the fact that

a) he and Gwyn had an initial relationship that was more complicated than simple contempt, which was a more interesting choice for me than Dal simply blaming his own mistakes on her ("you've stranded us all," really, Dal? who landed the fucking ship on Murder Planet, again?), and which evaporated for reasons I'm unclear on unless Dal is only friendly to people when it directly benefits him, and

b) Gwyn is present because he kidnapped her as insurance against the Diviner[*] who is chasing them, and the couple of occurrences of "let's just leave her to die" in this episode didn't make sense on this rationale.

Again, these are all choices that are consistent with his backstory in certain ways. People aren't always rational or their best possible selves and Gwyn was pretty much the kapo of a labor camp. I could see any amount of unpleasant feelings persisting. They're just not enjoyable choices for me on account of the dickishness; the Dal we met in the opener was a better dude.

I was glad to see some of that more textured relationship come back in during this ep, though, and Dal evolving past just being a dick and actually showing signs of caring about the others beyond their relevance to his own survival. Gwyn being an actual willing part of the crew now should obviate a lot of this.

[*] Not sure I'm accurately remembering the reason for kidnapping Gwyn, now that I think on it. I'll have to rewatch the opener at some point...
 
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[*] Not sure I'm accurately remembering the reason for kidnapping Gwyn, now that I think on it. I'll have to rewatch the opener at some point...

Gwyn followed them onto the ship. Keeping her as insurance came later when they got the ship underway (Perhaps SHE wanted off Tars Lamora as badly as they did? IMHC, Daddy Diviner dragged her there.)
 
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