Star Trek: Prodigy canonized a key plot point from a Star Trek: Voyager novel
By Chad Porto
![Star Trek: Prodigy season 2. Image courtesy Paramount Star Trek: Prodigy season 2. Image courtesy Paramount](https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/c_crop,w_1920,h_1080,x_0,y_0/c_fill,w_720,ar_16:9,f_auto,q_auto,g_auto/images/ImageExchange/mmsport/370/01j33ym5xzq9xkkcxnnr.jpg)
Star Trek: Prodigy is picking up where other series in the Star Trek universe have left off. They're bringing non-canon elements of the franchise into canon territory. We've seen this before, most recently with Spock and how he was given a first name of sorts on the posters for Strange New Worlds. A name that first appeared in the non-official novel "Ishmael".
Now, Prodigy is following suit, but unlike Strange New Worlds, isn't changing something that most fans would never know about. No, they're instead using a non-canon book to finally answer one question; where the heck is Chakotay from?
We know that Chakotay is a member of the Maquis and was so because of the Cardassian occupation of Bajor and the surrounding territories. Yet, Chakotay was not Bajoran. His relatives seem to come from Earth, as he is depicted as being a First Nations member of the United States.
We found out more about Chakotay in a few episodes of Star Trek: Voyager, and while we knew some specific details, we never knew what planet he called home. In the Jeri Taylor novel, Star Trek: Voyager: Pathways, it's revealed that he's from a planet called Trebus.
The planet has made no real impact on the Star Trek story, and aside from the fact that Chakotay's ancestors migrated there generations prior, there is no real history to the planet. At least not yet.
What we do know is that the planet was near Bajor and inside of the Cardassians' area of occupation, and that Chakotay's friends and family suffered to some degree at the hands of the Cardassians. That's about it.
Hopefully, we find out more about the planet in future episodes of Star Trek: Prodigy. Further exploration may retroactively make Deep Space Nine even deeper than it already is, as we find out how the citizens of the planet had to deal with Cardassian rule.
manual