Admiral Janeway makes a promise to Chakotay in final log

Admiral Janeway makes a bold new promise to Captain Chakotay in her final Vice Admiral’s log.

Admiral Janeway (Kate Mulgrew) has been providing Vice Admiral logs for Star Trek: Prodigy since the series returned for the second half of season one. With the finale of Prodigy airing, we got to listen to one final log from her, and though she expresses pride in the new recruits from the Protostar and is even hopeful about Dal’s future in Starfleet, she gives us one last reminder that is tinged with sadness.

When Admiral Janeway returned to Prodigy, it was because she was on a mission to find her missing friend, Captain Chakotay (Robert Beltran), who’d disappeared along with the Protostar. Throughout the course of the season, she never gave up on that mission, but things looked bleak. In the final episode, she learned that Chakotay could very much still be alive in the past. And though the rift that was created by the Protostar’s detonation has been classified by Starfleet under the Temporal Prime Directive, she says she hasn’t given up and goes on to add that “We wil find you, Chakotay…somehow.”

The vow Admiral Janeway makes could require violating the Temporal Prime Directive.

Starfleet’s Temporal Prime Directive forbids all personnel from directly interfering with history and historical events. Starfleet personnel are required to maintain the timeline and to do everything within their power to prevent history from being altered. They can’t reveal anything about the future to anyone outside of their timeline. This prevents time paradoxes and any alterations to the timeline.

With such rules in place, Janeway has a difficult task ahead of her. How can she possibly find Chakotay and bring him back to the present time without violating the Directive? But The Diviner and Ascencia, both Vau N’Akats, already changed the timeline by going back in history. So wouldn’t Janeway just be correcting what was never supposed to happen?  Of course, if that timeline changes, it would affect the crew of the Protostar. So however Janeway makes good on her promise, someone, somewhere is going to affected negatively. And that’s why we’re all looking forward to season two already!