Season 2
All twenty episodes of Season 2 were released on Netflix on the same day: July 1st, 2024. In this season, we get to close the loop – literally – on what happened to Chakotay and how all of this time travel confusion happened in the first place. We'll see the important return of a character from TNG to help fight a new enemy, the Loom, and we'll also get a quick foray into the Mirror Universe!
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2x01 |
Original Air Date 1 Jul 2024 |
Series Episode 20 |
Franchise Episode 900 |
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Into the Breach, Part I |
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The gang embark on a mission on the USS Voyager-A to analyze the newly-opened wormhole, but it seems that the crew is hiding something from them.
Arc 4: The Anomaly (1 of 5)
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The gang joins the crew of the USS Voyager NCC-74656-A. It's the successor to the USS Voyager NCC-74656, which is the titular ship that Kathryn Janeway commanded in Star Trek: Voyager. |
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Also on board the Voyager are members Nova Squadron, a group of elite cadets. 16 years prior, Wesley Crusher was famously part of Nova Squadron during his time at the Academy when a botched flight maneuver took the life of one of his classmates in TNG 5x19: The First Duty. |
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Thoughts: As season premieres go, this first half is a lot of prologue and little else.
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Watch Recommendation: Believe it or not, you could actually skip this first half and only watch the second episode... and you will not have missed anything important. You'll get caught up soon enough in the second half, so I'm only marking this one as “Recommended.” |
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2x02 |
Original Air Date 1 Jul 2024 |
Series Episode 21 |
Franchise Episode 901 |
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Into the Breach, Part II |
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Gwyn arrives at Solum, but her message has been preempted by Asencia, so Gwyn goes to meet her father, instead. Janeway explains her plan to take a cloaked ship into the wormhole to save Chakotay, but Dal messes everything up.
Arc 4: The Anomaly (2 of 5)
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Thoughts: Most of this episode is pretty good, actually. But the last part, the part that sets off the adventure, the part where the gang accidentally launches a classified ship... that part is infuriating. From stupidly blabbing about the secret they were just told to keep, to the overzealous Nova Squadron cadets, to the stupid lack of security around the classified ship, to the BIG ORANGE BUTTON that just makes the ship go...
...you know, it's almost like Janeway brought the kids on board because she wanted them to steal the ship. If that were to come to light later, that might actually make the end of this episode more tolerable, but that's not what happens.
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Watch Recommendation: This episode sets off the adventure for Season 2, making it a “Must Watch” and the seventh episode on the “Bare Minimum” list. |
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2x03 |
Original Air Date 1 Jul 2024 |
Series Episode 22 |
Franchise Episode 902 |
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Who Saves the Saviors |
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Gwyn invokes the Va'Lu'Rah ritual to do battle with Asencia and prove that she is of Solum. In the future, the gang help Chakotay escape, but instead of sending the Protostar back unmanned, Chakotay and his first officer escape on it, altering the timeline again.
Arc 4: The Anomaly (3 of 5)
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Maj'el speaks of other causal time loops in Starfleet history. She first mentions the Bell Riots, where Sisko goes back in time and plays a crucial part in that historical event, as told in DS9 3x11 & 3x12: Past Tense. Maj'el also mentions the Cochrane warp test, where the crew of the Enterprise-E goes back in time and plays a crucial role in the launch of the Phoenix, as told in the film Star Trek: First Contact. |
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Watch Recommendation: This episode includes important plot developments across several different timeframes. If you don't want to get lost in the story, I'd suggest watching it! It's a “Must Watch” and it's on the “Bare Minimum” list. |
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2x04 |
Original Air Date 1 Jul 2024 |
Series Episode 23 |
Franchise Episode 903 |
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Temporal Mechanics 101 |
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Because of the time paradox, Gwyn is now caught between quantum realities where she both exists and does not exist. Dal, Zero, and Jankom build a time machine… somehow… to go back in time to save her. A mysterious benefactor helps the gang on their way.
Arc 4: The Anomaly (4 of 5)
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Maj'el says that she read about an incident where Lt. Worf jumped quantum timelines by generating an inverse warp field. This is a reference to the episode TNG 7x11: Parallels. |
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Nitpickery: So, a couple of teenagers just build a time machine, eh? Sure, they try to explain it by saying they could only do it by using the nearby anomaly's energy – somehow – and that it was similar to what Worf did that time he was jumping quantum realities... even though the concepts of time travel and jumping quantum realities are sort of two different things but... okay, sure. We'll just say that their “mysterious benefactor” did the heavy lifting. |
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Watch Recommendation: Well, we have to find out what's going on with Gwyn and also how the gang make it back to their own time. I'm marking this one as “Recommended.” |
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2x05 |
Original Air Date 1 Jul 2024 |
Series Episode 24 |
Franchise Episode 904 |
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Observer's Paradox |
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The gang determine that their benefactor is Chakotay, and they decipher a strange message that was given to Murf. Under orders, Janeway closes the wormhole with Chakotay still lost inside.
Arc 4: The Anomaly (5 of 5)
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The CHAH-moo-zee spiral is a symbol readily recognized by Chakotay, and it is featured prominently in the not-so-great episode VOY 2x09: Tattoo. Chakotay is a descendant of the Native American tribe that moved to the planet Trebus, where this symbol was used. |
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Nitpickery: Sooooo, the gang can't decipher what Murf is saying because his language is so strange. But his message is a string of six letters? Worse yet, the rest of the message is just numbers? There are animals who can communicate numbers to humans! Just stamp your foot the appropriate number of times, Murf! |
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Watch Recommendation: Closing up the anomaly and setting things up for the gang's next adventure, this episode is “Recommended.” |
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2x06 |
Original Air Date 1 Jul 2024 |
Series Episode 25 |
Franchise Episode 905 |
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Imposter Syndrome |
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The gang hatch a plan to steal – er, borrow – the Infinity to save Chakotay. To cover their tracks, they create hologram duplicates of themselves, but the holograms turn out to be a little too perfect. |
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Thoughts: Eh, I'm not a huge fan of teasers that are made to seem more dramatic simply because the audience lacks the necessary information to understand what is actually happening. Oh, well, I guess if you read this review or saw the picture on the right here, the teaser is sort of ruined for you, anyway. Sorry! |
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Watch Recommendation: This is sort of just a self-contained humorous story that eventually gets Dal and gang on to the Infinity. No recommendation, here. |
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2x07 |
Original Air Date 1 Jul 2024 |
Series Episode 26 |
Franchise Episode 906 |
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The Fast and the Curious |
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Having successfully stolen – er, borrowed – the Infinity, the gang are captured by a Kazon who makes them race some ships for his amusement. But it turns out the Kazon is being controlled by a malevolent supercomputer.
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Thoughts: Well, here it is: this is my least favorite episode of the series. It's not bad – none of the episodes are bad – but this one is just a random filler episode that does nothing to further the overall plot. Dal is annoyingly reckless, Zero and Murf get caught because they forgot to put their combadges on vibrate or whatever, and in the end, the supercomputer's motives aren't fleshed out at all, making it a very generic “evil computer” that doesn't serve any greater purpose to the story other than to be the villain. It feels like a waste of an episode. You can tell when they do an episode like this which doesn't fit in, because they'll usually end it with one quick final scene that reminds you that there's a bigger story going on and that makes you say, “Whaaaat?” so that you'll come back for the next episode. Maybe just watch the last 2 minutes of this one. |
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Watch Recommendation: This episode and the next one are both sort of filler-episodes until the gang reach their destination. You can easily skip this one without missing anything important. No recommendation. |
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2x08 |
Original Air Date 1 Jul 2024 |
Series Episode 27 |
Franchise Episode 907 |
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Is There in Beauty No Truth? |
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Zero gets a new body from a colony of other embodied non-corporeal lifeforms. Janeway discovers that the gang on Voyager are just holograms.
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Level-Up: Zero gets a new, new body |
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This story is focused primarily on Zero, and the title of the episode is a variation of TOS 3x05: Is There in Truth No Beauty? which is the first episode to feature Zero's race, the Medusans. |
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Zero lists some of the non-corporeal beings inhabiting the colony, including the Paxans, a xenophobic race that briefly inhabited Deanna Troi in TNG 4x14: Clues, and the Calamarain, a race which sought revenge on Q in TNG 3x13: Deja Q. |
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Parrises squares is a sport that was first mentioned in TNG 1x15: 11001001 and has come up in several other Trek episodes, but this is the first time the sport has actually been depicted on screen. |
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Watch Recommendation: This is another side-quest before the gang finally reach their destination, but this episode is quite a bit better than the previous one. Still, I'm not giving it a recommendation. |
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2x09 |
Original Air Date 1 Jul 2024 |
Series Episode 28 |
Franchise Episode 908 |
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The Devourer of All Things, Part 1 |
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The gang arrive at the coordinates where they expect to find the Protostar, but instead they find out that their mysterious benefactor is actually Wesley Crusher. He explains how the timeline is unraveling because of the current paradox, and that the things that tried to capture Gwyn in an earlier episode are entities called the Loom, and they devour broken timelines.
Arc 5: The Loom (1 of 2)
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Eric Menyuk reprises his role as The Traveler, in voice only, arguing with Wesley as the gang first enters the time ziggurat. |
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Admiral Janeway mentions “three rules” about captaining a starship: keep your shirt tucked in, go down with the ship, and never abandon a member of your crew. These are the same three rules that she tells Naomi Wildman about being a captain in VOY 5x15/16: Dark Frontier. |
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Watch Recommendation: There is a lot to see here that is quite important to the overall story. This episode and the next one are on the “Must Watch” and “Bare Minimum” lists. |
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My rating: |
★★★★★ ♥ Personal Favorite 🥈 2nd place episode of the series |
Confused about what happened when? Try the Prodigy Series Timeline (contains spoilers!) |
Watch Recommendation
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Must Watch Bare Minimum
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FINAL SCORE
7.9
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Ex Astris Scientia rating: |
4 |
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Normalized IMDb rating: |
7.8 |
Understanding Ratings and Recommendations |
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2x10 |
Original Air Date 1 Jul 2024 |
Series Episode 29 |
Franchise Episode 909 |
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The Devourer of All Things, Part 2 |
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The Loom catch up to the gang, but Janeway swoops in to help fight them off.
Arc 5: The Loom (2 of 2)
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Ensign Middleton's uniform tunic is noticeably “redder” than the more burgundy color of the Admiral and Commander's tunics. This may be referencing the perceived disproportionate number of deaths of “ redshirts” in The Original Series, since Middleton himself is erased from history moments into his away mission. Middleton is also heard making the Wilhelm scream upon his demise. |
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Take twenty milligrams of vengeance, you other-worldly tyrant! — The Doctor |
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Watch Recommendation: There is a lot to see here that is quite important to the overall story. This episode and the previous one are on the “Must Watch” and “Bare Minimum” lists. |
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2x11 |
Original Air Date 1 Jul 2024 |
Series Episode 30 |
Franchise Episode 910 |
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Last Flight of the Protostar, Part I |
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The gang are glad to see Chakotay, but he's been stranded for 10 years and has become a broken, bitter man after having lost his crew.
Arc 6: Chakotay's Rescue (1 of 2)
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Watch Recommendation: This two-episode arc involving the rescue of Chakotay and the Protostar is pretty good, I'm making it “Recommended.” |
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2x12 |
Original Air Date 1 Jul 2024 |
Series Episode 31 |
Franchise Episode 911 |
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Last Flight of the Protostar, Part II |
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Chakotay and the gang sail the Protostar across a gas cloud and brave a storm to get the deuterium they need to launch the ship. Dal heroically saves Chakotay when he goes overboard.
Arc 6: Chakotay's Rescue (2 of 2)
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Watch Recommendation: This two-episode arc involving the rescue of Chakotay and the Protostar is pretty good, I'm making it “Recommended.” |
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2x13 |
Original Air Date 1 Jul 2024 |
Series Episode 32 |
Franchise Episode 912 |
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A Tribble Called Quest |
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The gang stop on a planet to refuel, but they find it to be inhabited by giant tribbles.
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Thoughts: Have phasers been effective against anything this entire series? First we had the Drednoks, impervious to phaser fire, then it was the Loom, impervious to phaser fire, and now these tribbles??
Also, despite the title, there is no tribble in this episode called Quest. It seems that the title is a reference to a band named “A Tribe Called Quest” but... why? |
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Watch Recommendation: It's a filler episode with little impact on the story. No recommendation here. |
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2x14 |
Original Air Date 1 Jul 2024 |
Series Episode 33 |
Franchise Episode 913 |
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Cracked Mirror |
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The gang make it back to Voyager, but their use of the proto-drive has caused realities to fracture. They must navigate multiple universes – including the dreaded Mirror Universe – to get to the bridge and set things right.
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Condition Blue: Proto-warp |
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Alternate Realities Episode |
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Chakotay says he's been through something like this before. Indeed, this story bears a striking resemblance to his adventure in VOY 7x11: Shattered. |
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Even the whales are evil?! — Jankom Pog |
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Nitpickery: Okay, smearing grease on your face to mimic a goatee is a stupid thing that only sort of works in a cartoon. Imagine if this were a live action series and how idiotic it would have looked to see a real person smear actual grease on their face. Obviously nobody is falling for that. |
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Watch Recommendation: This episode has some important points and helps to further the story. I'm marking this as “Recommended.” |
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2x15 |
Original Air Date 1 Jul 2024 |
Series Episode 34 |
Franchise Episode 914 |
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Ascension, Part I |
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With things having calmed down, Jellico once again orders Voyager back home… but Asencia has been using time dilation technology to build herself a fleet of attack vessels, and she chooses just then to attack Voyager.
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Janeway and Chakotay reminisce about a future version of Janeway coming back to get the crew of Voyager home. These are the events of the Voyager series finale, VOY 7x25: Endgame. |
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Watch Recommendation: Asencia launches her attack against the Federation, which is quite an important plot point. This episode is a “Must Watch.” |
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2x16 |
Original Air Date 1 Jul 2024 |
Series Episode 35 |
Franchise Episode 915 |
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Ascension, Part II |
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An exciting battle ensues!
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Thoughts: This episode is basically just the mid-level boss fight. You know, beat the big bad space ship in order to move on to the final boss. |
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Nitpickery: Eight episodes ago, Zero got a new body that they knew would deteriorate over time. Indeed, Zero suffers an injury that won't heal. Then, Zero volunteers to disarm the Incursor because they can withstand the quickened time within its field, since Medusans don't age the same way as corporeal species. Fine, Zero will survive the ordeal – but their body certainly won't. Considering how quickly Commander Tysess aged with only a brief exposure to the Incursor, Zero's already-frail body should have fallen apart long before it did. |
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Watch Recommendation: Believe it or not, I am rating the second half of this two-parter as merely “Optional” because it is mostly just a long battle, so you actually wouldn't miss much as far as the story goes if you skip it. |
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2x17 |
Original Air Date 1 Jul 2024 |
Series Episode 36 |
Franchise Episode 916 |
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Brink |
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The gang are sent on their own to Solum to gather data on Asencia's weapons and save Gwyn's father, but despite gaining an unlikely ally, things don't go exactly to plan.
Arc 7: The Battle for Solum (1 of 4)
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Nitpickery: I can't quite forgive how comically useless that cloaking device is. I get that it exists specifically to be a comedic element in the story, but come on. Cramming everyone under one little dome, still bumping into things? I thought the cadets were chosen for the mission because they wouldn't “raise alarms.” If that's the case, why would they need a cloaking device just to walk down the street? Also, isn't the Federation forbidden from creating cloaking technology by the Treaty of Algeron? I guess they already violated that treaty earlier this season, anyway... |
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Watch Recommendation: This rescue mission is pretty important to the story, so I'm marking this one as “Recommended.” |
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2x18 |
Original Air Date 1 Jul 2024 |
Series Episode 37 |
Franchise Episode 917 |
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Touch of Grey |
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Janeway, Chakotay, the Doctor, and Wesley head to Solum to rescue the gang.
Arc 7: The Battle for Solum (2 of 4)
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Nitpickery: Oh look, the phasers are useless yet again. Good thing Janeway's combadge doubles as a BOMB? Where the heck did that come from?! |
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Watch Recommendation: This episode tees up the final two-parter, making this a “Must Watch.” |
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2x19 |
Original Air Date 1 Jul 2024 |
Series Episode 38 |
Franchise Episode 918 |
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Ouroboros, Part I |
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Asencia launches an all-out attack on the Federation while the gang try to figure out how to mend the timeline.
Arc 7: The Battle for Solum (3 of 4)
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The ouroboros is an ancient symbol of a snake or dragon swallowing its own tail, sometimes representing infinity, the endless cycle of life, or death and rebirth. It is a fitting title for this series finale which brings the events of this show back full-circle to the beginning. |
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Watch Recommendation: This series finale is unarguably a “Must Watch” and on the “Bare Minimum” list. |
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2x20 |
Original Air Date 1 Jul 2024 |
Series Episode 39 |
Franchise Episode 919 |
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Ouroboros, Part II |
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The gang must do one last battle with the Loom before they can restore the timeline.
Arc 7: The Battle for Solum (4 of 4)
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After the timeline is restored, Asencia's technology is seen being packed in crates marked “Classified” and labeled with the logo for the Daystrom Institute. |
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Dr. Crusher's plaque naming her an honorary citizen of Cor Coroli V [sic] is a minor reference to TNG 3x18: Allegiance, where her successful eradication of a plague on that planet is only mentioned in dialogue. The plaque can also be seen in PIC 3x01: The Next Generation. There is a real-life star named “Cor Caroli,” suggesting that this plaque has a spelling error. |
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Spoiler for Star Trek: Picard » Beverly Crusher introduces Wesley Crusher to his infant half-brother. This is Jack Crusher, son of Beverly and Picard, who will become an important character in Season 3 of Star Trek: Picard once he grows up. |
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Watch Recommendation: This series finale is unarguably a “Must Watch” and on the “Bare Minimum” list. |
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My rating: |
★★★★★ 🥇 1st place episode of the series |
Confused about what happened when? Try the Prodigy Series Timeline (contains spoilers!) |
Watch Recommendation
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Must Watch Bare Minimum
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FINAL SCORE
9.0
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Ex Astris Scientia rating: |
7 |
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Normalized IMDb rating: |
9.0 |
Understanding Ratings and Recommendations |
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"Franchise Episode" tells you the order in which episodes from ANY/ALL Star Trek television shows aired or streamed for the first time. This number excludes movies, TOS's "The Cage", and the "Very Short Treks" web shorts.
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1st, 2nd, and 3rd place awards reflect the best, but also the most representative episodes of the series. So, even excellent one-off or “special” episodes often aren't considered.
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