Star Trek: Prodigy ended the season saying goodbye to one character who’d been a major part of season one.
When the crew from the Protostar took off, they didn’t know they had someone…or something on board who would direct their course and help them become a full-fledged crew. Hologram Janeway helped to direct them and give them boosts of confidence when they needed and guided them on their journeys. But, at the end of the season, Hologram Janeway sacrificed herself to save the Federation and the juvenile crew.
In an earlier post, I speculated as to whether we’d seen the last of this particular Janeway, and Dan Hagemen,who appeared on TREKtalks2 and a follow-up podcast interview with Mission Log, [via Trekmovie] answered the question as well as why Hologram Janeway had to leave the series. And he reveals why this emotional journey had to take place for the kids before they begin the next stage of their journey.
"I think it would be a risk if we didn’t do that. For us, it was baked in… We lead with emotion, and so you have to end with emotion. And for us, we felt we felt storytelling is about relationships, and it’s the relationships between these children and their mentor and what she has taught them. And I also would think it would be odd if season two had two Janeway mentors. It would get muddled. And so one has sacrifice themselves so the other can flourish."
The crew of Star Trek: Prodigy will be mentored by the real Admiral Janeway in the second season.
It does make sense that the crew will only have and need one Janeway to mentor them, but the Hologram Janeway will be missed. She was the original. The Janeway Star Trek: Voyager fans knew and loved, and we haven’t spent that much time with Vice Admiral Janeway. So just as the kids are learning more about her, so will the audience. Perhaps that is yet another reason why the Hagemans chose to make her the focal Janeway for season two.