Star Trek: Prodigy cleverly flipped the central meaning of Star Trek: Voyager’s series finale. As the sequel to Voyager over 20 years after the other series ended, Prodigy has taken a lot of inspiration from Voyager in its first two seasons. This has mainly included the return of many members of Voyager’s cast of characters, like Admiral Janeway (Kate Mulgrew) and Captain Chakotay (Robert Beltran). However, Prodigy has also paid tribute to Voyager in smaller ways, with little meaningful references sprinkled throughout seasons 1 and 2.
Season 2 of Prodigy, which aired on Netflix on July 1st, 2024, upped the show’s number of Voyager connections exponentially. Prodigy season 2 focused on Admiral Janeway and the young former crew of the USS Protostar as they embarked on a mission to rescue a marooned Captain Chakotay and restore the timeline after accidentally creating a paradox. Much of the first half of the season featured Prodigy’s cast of characters on their journey to locate Chakotay and their former ship, and it was during these episodes that one character cleverly flipped one of Voyager’s most iconic lines.
1 Gwyn Line In Star Trek: Prodigy Season 2 Flips Voyager’s Finale Meaning
Gwyn parodied Harry Kim in Prodigy season 2
During Prodigy season 2, episode 9, “The Devourer of All Things, Part 1,” Gwyndala (Ella Purnell) had one line that was a subtle play off of something Harry Kim (Garrett Wang) said in Voyager’s series finale. While approaching the supposed end of their journey, a hidden planet that they received the coordinates for via a mysterious message. Gwyn stated in her personal log, “It’s not about the journey. It’s the destination.” This sentiment came at the end of Gwyn’s reflection on the toll it had taken on her and her friends to achieve their ultimate goal of finding Captain Chakotay.
Gwyn’s line is apt for the crew’s situation, but it also cleverly flips Harry Kim’s “Maybe it’s not the destination that matters. Maybe it’s the journey,” from “Endgame.” Prodigy parodying Harry’s line acts as a tongue-in-cheek Voyager reference for viewers in the know, one of many in both seasons 1 and 2. However, it also reveals a lot about the differences in storytelling that both Prodigy and Voyager employed, despite being in the same franchise and using many of the same characters.
Why “The Journey” Matters More In Star Trek: Voyager Than Prodigy
The journey and the destination mean different things to the different shows
Voyager and Prodigy’s distinct reflections on “the journey” are the result of each show using different storytelling mechanisms. On Voyager, the journey really did matter more than the destination, since Voyager’s entire premise was based around the idea of a stranded crew trying to find their way home. The USS Voyager’s journey through the Delta Quadrant was the backbone of the series and allowed Voyager to tell its most interesting stories. Likewise, much of the character development that was so central to the show could never have happened without the journey the crew ended up going on.
Prodigy ‘s more serialized storytelling nature means that each season’s ultimate goal is more important than the sum of its parts.
Prodigy is a very different show than Voyager, despite all their connections. Prodigy’s more serialized storytelling nature means that each season’s ultimate goal is more important than the sum of its parts. In season 2, this is especially true given the universe-altering stakes that the crew’s accidental time paradox sets up. Although Star Trek: Prodigy season 2 still had several “side quest” style episodes that contributed to the overall plot of the season, the season’s destination was more important than the characters’ journey to reach it.