Star Trek: Prodigy will see the crew earn their ship in season 2

Star Trek: Prodigy will see the crew try to earn their new ship.

Star Trek: Prodigy built its entire first season around the USS Protostar and it’s built-in Emergency Command  Hologram, dubbed “Holo-Janeway”. The hologram of Kathryn Janeway and the ship did a lot to help create the show’s dynamic. A bunch of kids on an experimental ship, dreaming of being part of Starfleet.

It was a pretty cool hook, but that hook is no longer possible. The ship and by proxy, the ship’s ECH (aka Holo-Janeway), were destroyed at the end of season one, and the crew of the ship was rewarded with providential Starfleet academy spots.

So everything that we knew about season one is now done and over with. That means season two will need a different hook, and according to series co-producer Kevin Hageman, we may know what that new seasonal hook is going to be.

Season two will see the Star Trek: Prodigy stars try to earn their new ship

Season one ended with the real Admiral Janeway showing Del the new ship she’ll be at the helm of, thus suggesting that Prodigy kids will have to earn their spot on that ship, and according to Hageman, that’s basically what you can expect. Hageman spoke to Trek Geeks as part of Trek Talks and revealed that the second season is going to be a natural evolution;

"Season 1, if you boil it down, it’s about a bunch of kids who steal a ship and the adventures that unfold. In season 2, we just felt like what’s the next step of evolution of youth, of education, of growing up? And they’re going to earn a ship in season 2.…In season 2, you’re going to see there are a lot of unanswered questions by the end of season 1. Asencia is still out there somewhere floating around. She is still alive. There is the promise of a new ship. There’s Gwyn flying off to Solum to try to do what her father could never do. Season 2 is going to be really exciting because it’s going to feel like a new chapter. We’re diving into new territory, but it still feels like a continuation of season one. And so I think by the end of season two, it’s all going to just feel like this gargantuan epic piece."

Season two needed to shake things up, that’s not up for debate. Changing over from the ship and the Holo-Janeway to a bigger and better ship and the real Janeway makes sense too. The Holo-Janeway was only on the show to give Kate Mulgrew time to interact with the younger cast. After all, her Admiral Janeway character was a de-facto antagonist for the crew of the Protostar. So you needed to have a “nice’ Janeway for the young fans to see.

Hence the Janeway hologram. Now that Janeway is on the side of the young (former) Protostar crew, you don’t need the Holo-Janeway anymore.

Shaking up the show a bit and changing how the second season feels is the right thing to do.