Star Trek: Prodigy EP says today’s episode is homage to Red Shirts

Star Trek: Prodigy will take the crew back in time in the upcoming “All the World’s a Stage.”  This post contains spoilers for this episode. 

“All the World’s a Stage” is the 13th episode of the first season of Star Trek: Prodigy, and it’s going to take Star Trek fans on a uniquely familiar journey. The synopsis alone is proof of that.

"The crew answers a distress call to find a colony trapped in Starfleet’s past."

According to executive producer, Aaron Waltke, who I had the pleasure of talking to recently, the episode, which he wrote, is a love letter to Star Trek: The Original Series. Not only that it’s a homage to Red Shirts.

Being that Red Shirts have the dubious distinction of dying on away missions, I had to ask Waltke if the Prodigy crew was going to come face to face with death in this episode, but that didn’t seem to be the case. In fact, this episode is taking us back to see Ensign Garrovick’s story who actually didn’t just disappear.

"Probably the best way to describe it is what is the legacy of a red shirt. Of course, as you know, first of all, I need to acknowledge the profound irony that I’m talking about this episode with Red Shirts Always Die. The ensign in particular from The Original Series, Ensign Garrovick, that Dan mentioned was in TOS, and would be featured in this episode, you know, he had only one episode in the original series which was “Obsession.” And he just mysteriously disappeared after that. And was never seen again. And so, in my mind, that always sort of lingered, of well, what are the stories of these ensigns.. Clearly, they have their own stories to tell, and I think Garrovick stood out because I believe he was the only minor red shirt to survive an away mission. A landing party, i should say. Given that he suddenly disappeared after that, I always had this sort of question in my mind, of what adventures befell him between seasons one and two and three. I think you’ll find that he had his own Kirk-like adventure."

Aaron Waltke also wrote the Star Trek: Prodigy episode “Kobayashi,” which was another love letter to legacy characters.

Legacy characters will continue appearing in future episodes of Prodigy, as Waltke said “there is a long-standing tradition in Star Trek to ackowledge the greater galaxy and the characters therein, if not right have them show up.” But on this episode, he clarified that Ensign Garrovick’s the big one [legacy character].

The road ahead for the crew of the Protostar isn’t an easy one. There will be plenty of adventures and growing moments that will test their characters, but the recent Emmy nomination for this series has proven that the writers, the producers, the showrunner, all know what they’re doing. And with plenty of legacy characters to look forward to, this is a series both young and old can enjoy.