We recommend you watch the mid-season premier of Star Trek: Prodigy while it’s free

Star Trek: Prodigy’s latest episode is now on YouTube and we recommend giving it a watch.

Star Trek: Prodigy may be an all-ages show, directed at kids and families more than anything, but the fact more people aren’t talking about how good it is is a crime. The folks at Prodigy and Paramount+ have decided that the show deserves more love and made it free on YouTube for those who have yet to give it a chance.

And they picked the best possible episode they could have.

The current episode of Prodigy, “Asylum” saw the crew of the Protostar finally arrive on the edge of Federation space, where they meet a Denobulian named Barniss Frex, who represents the last line of Federation communication this deep into space. Frex brings the kids onboard his space station as they seek not just asylum, but entry into Starfleet. Shenanigans begin when the Protostar seemingly turns the space station against itself, forcing everyone to flee.

It’s a great episode that fans should enjoy but watch it as soon as you can, the show won’t be free for long.

Paramount+ may be holding Star Trek’s growth back

The fact that Paramount+ regularly uploads shows to YouTube from their newest seasons really shows you just how small their new fanbase is. Keeping content behind a paywall constantly hinders how many new fans the show will attract. If we found anything out about Discovery’s first season being aired on CBS, it’s that the new fanbase isn’t strong.

Paramount+ has already given away its films to HBO, and maybe it’s time to re-think the model that Paramount+ has. Instead of airing content as first-run releases on Paramount+, they may be better off airing all of this stuff for free on CBS, and then uploading the episode to Paramount+ to watch later should people want to re-watch it.

The current model is suffocating just how big the franchise can get.