Star Trek: Prodigy: Just how old is the Protostar?

Warning: This post contains spoilers for the 4th episode of Star Trek: Prodigy, “Dreamcatcher.” 

In the most recent episode of Star Trek: Prodigy, the makeshift crew aboard the Protostar had the opportunity to visit an M-class planet. Although Dal wasn’t at all thrilled with the idea, Captain Janeway’s hologram insisted, or else she would have to report them to the Federation. When Dal capitulated, I was prepared for several members of the crew to beam down to the planet for a quick pitstop. After all, it’s what all of the other starships had done when it was time to boldly go exploring. But that’s not what happened on “Dreamcatcher.”

Instead, the Protostar landed on the planet, something which Voyager had done a few times, but it was a much newer starship, very well-designed, and highly functional. And landing was a choice. But transporters weren’t even mentioned as an option when the crew of the Protostar was readying for a visit which makes me question the age of this starship.

Even the first Enterprise had transporter capabilities so why doesn’t Protostar?

Though it wasn’t used to transport humans, the transporter aboard the Enterprise helmed by Captain Jonathan Archer was fully functional. And Star Trek: Enterprise was set in the 22nd century, only about 150 years or so in the future. While Prodigy is set in the 24th century, it doesn’t look like the ship they’ve discovered to take them to freedom is as technologically capable as that time period.

But Gwyn was able to contact her father from the Protostar which seemed fairly high-tech. So perhaps the Protostar is a stripped down version of a starship, but if that’s the case why does The Diviner want it so badly? What can it do that a newer ship or a more advanced ship can’t? Or perhaps there’s something aboard the Protostar that The Diviner needs. On the other hand, it’s entirely possible the ship does have transporter capabilities, and the crew will realize it later. Of course, that begs the question: why didn’t Janeway tell them about the transporters if they existed.

Most likely, most or all of these questions will be answered as the series progresses, and I’m really looking forward to discovering why this ship is so special.