Star Trek: Prodigy is doing something no other show has done before

Star Trek: Prodigy is standing out among its contemporaries

When it comes to Star Trek, while each show is relatively the same in how it’s presented, most of the shows usually have their own hook. The Original Series was about adventure, The Next Generation really handled the political aspects. Deep Space Nine was the war show, while Voyager was the survival/horror show.

Enterprise was the origin story. Each show had its own vibe. That was lost with Discovery, as it’s still trying to figure out what it is. Picard is the reunion show, Lower Decks is the comedy, Strange New Worlds is the second adventure show, and Prodigy is, well Prodigy is its own thing entirely.

While each series has elements of one another, with The Next Generation having horror, Voyager having a war storyline, and Enterprise dealing with politics, none of them have captured what Prodigy is doing.

Jason Mantzoukas spoke to IGN and revealed what Prodigy is doing that no other Star Trek show has done before; telling a “coming of age” story.

"Star Trek doesn’t really have coming-of-age stories very much, and this is that on steroids.  This is an entire crew that is coming of age. And so I think there’s a lot of innocence and a lot of discovery inside of the storylines, especially [with] Jankom Pog learning what it is to be a Tellarite. And the Tellarite are initial members of Starfleet or the Federation, and he immediately perceives himself to be royalty.…This is a cast of characters who are really searching for meaning in themselves, and I think that’s a very teenager kind of space to be in. [Jankom] is very kind of gruff and has his attitude and all the laughing and the bravado, but I also think that’s masking [that] he doesn’t know who he is. Just like the rest of them, he doesn’t really know who he is, where he came from, how he came to be. So I think that’s a big part of it."

Star Trek: Prodigy’s concept will help it stand out for decades to come

It took nearly 60 years for Star Trek to really dive into just the pure concept of exploration again with Strange New Worlds. While other shows enjoyed aspects, the original series and Strange New Worlds fully embrace that concept.

It’s helped both series stand out and made them really unique in that regard.

The same could be said for Prodigy and its focus on the younger generation of Star Trek characters. The growth and development of who everyone is and what their fit is into this universe is an important story to tell, and the fact Star Trek hasn’t done it until now in full is rather surprising.

Sure, they did a little with Wesley Crusher but he was too inconsistently used for that to really qualify. Nog had a better chance of qualifying for that designation but most of his development came off-screen.

This is the first time we get to see each moment, beat by beat.