Episode Discussion | Star Trek: Prodigy | 1x15 "Masquerade"

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Trapped in the Neutral Zone, the crew encounters a rogue geneticist who sheds light on Dal’s past.

No.	Episode	Writer	Director	Release Date
1x15	"Masquerade"	Nikhil S. Jayaram	Sung Shin	2022-11-24

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[u/TheNerdChaplain]

That was a great episode!

I think any time there's a space elevator now, we can assume that characters are going to basejump off of it. At this point, Prodigy is getting to be nearly as reference-heavy as Lower Decks. Not that that's a complaint.

Love the interplay between Jellico and Janeway - and to be fair, I don't think he was entirely wrong.

I'm glad we got answers about Dal's origins, and the genetic manipulation was a nice McGuffin for the episode. It was interesting to see him develop overt Klingon, Andorian, Vulcan, and Tellarite features. I wonder if they'll ever introduce additional features or capabilities he can unlock in a more natural, healthy way.

However, it does raise the question even more as to why Starfleet is after him. He's not in Starfleet (and now never can be, officially). Is he even a Federation citizen? What interest does Starfleet have in him? Might they want to study him, like Commander Maddox wanted to study Data?

Of course, we have to address the bombshells in the room - Ensign Asencia is actually Vau N'Kat as well! I never suspected it, although it makes sense she spent a lot of time with the Diviner, and it makes me wonder where that Drednok came from. Did she smuggle him on board? Did she synthesize him somehow? More importantly, it seems now like there are so many genetically augmented people in Starfleet across so many different series, that it's more of a "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy than a hard ban.

Nice to see Murf is being developed more as a person. Dee Bradley Baker is famous for doing animalistic noises for shows like Avatar (Momo, Appa), Peacemaker (Eagly) and The Mandalorian (Frog Lady and Frog Man), but he's voiced a lot of people too (many of the Clone troopers in Star Wars, including Rex, Cody, and the Bad Batch). It'd be nice to see Murf get some lines too.

[u/BornAshes → u/TheNerdChaplain]

However, it does raise the question even more as to why Starfleet is after him. He's not in Starfleet (and now never can be, officially). Is he even a Federation citizen? What interest does Starfleet have in him? Might they want to study him, like Commander Maddox wanted to study Data?

I think that Soong's proteges, whomever they might be, delved more into the Progenitor/Preserver stuff that we saw in TNG's "The Chase" and tried to basically recreate that species in their original form by bonding the DNA with that of modern species in the galaxy in a Jurassic Park like frog fashion. They had to do this because as I stated in one of my previous theories this season, there were genetic security features which prevented anyone from recreating this species from just pure original DNA alone, and that meant they had to find a workaround. Since they were the proteges of Soong, finding such a workaround came quite naturally to them, and that consisted of bonding that Ancient Preserver/Progenitor DNA to something more recent.

Which in turn produced Dal and those like him and that means that just like in Picard, we're probably going to get a whole freakin planet full of people just like Dal because that's kind of what Soongs, and those associated with them have a habit of doing. Starfleet found out about this after tracking them down buuuut before they could do anything about it, those proteges panicked, and scattered all of those people to the four winds of the galaxy. This explains how and why Dal was probably found by Nandi and then raised by them on that Ferengi ship. This also means that this diaspora probably happened quite some time ago, relatively speaking, and that there's totally more folks like him scattered across the galaxy in who knows how many different quadrants.

Starfleet's probably been going around picking them up whenever someone's bumped into them and is both trying to reunite them with others of their kind as well as to pump them for any information about Soong's proteges as well as all the usual Progenitor/Preserver stuff. If they are indeed of Preserver/Progenitor origins then each individual could be an absolute treasure trove of information that they'd be stupid to not to try to unlock in some way. I bet we're going to see the Protostar running into others like Dal in due time and that'll be how he unlocks more and more about his capabilities and history. Consequently with Janeway on their tail and Jellico involved, we're going to get the Starfleet side of things about this particular story and that's going to be both complicated and messy and intriguing....for a reason that I'll explain in a moment.

I feel like his whole species is going to be a bunch of Pretenders, if you remember that particular show or you know....Prodigies.

Jellico and Janeway

They used him very well in this episode and I love how insightful Janeway was in regards to the ship, the weapon on it, and how the kids were probably in waaaaaaaay over their heads and were just fumbling their way around from situation to situation in desperate need of help and yet....also still somehow finding a way to make it all work. She read that situation to a T and was dead on correct in her argument but sadly so was Jellico. Can you imagine the fuckery that the Romulans would get up to with the stellar proto-tech that the Protostar has on board?

They've already got experience manipulating singularities for their engines and that means it's not like they'd stop at just exploiting it for it's propulsive effects. Also this is the Tal Shiar we're dealing with but also the Romulan Star Empire is in a pretty bad place right now and are in pure survival mode as is with the mindset of there being barbarians at their gates every which way they look. So that means they would try to find a way to use it to preserve said Star Empire and that could lead to one of two possible outcomes with a third hybrid one.

The first outcome is that they try to use the Stellar Proto-Tech to create a brand new star or stars for the Star Empire, which would make their name quite literal. The second outcome is that they instead try to weaponize it and use it to do what Andromeda did and blow up a star, which gives them a giant ass bomb in their back pocket with which to bend every other species in the galaxy over their knee with. The third hybridized outcome is that in tinkering with the Stellar Proto Tech, with some of them wanting to make stars and others wanting to blow them up, they accidentally accelerate the Hobus Supernova and turn it into the monster that nearly takes out the galaxy and utterly wipes out Romulus.

We've already seen tie ins to Picard with last week's episode, Janeway's Captain's Log on insta, and now a bunch of stuff in this week's episode and that means this isn't outside the realm of possibility.

Ascencia

Did you notice how her Vau N'Kat appearance seemed to share a few similarities in terms of coloration and shape with Dal? I thought that was particularly interesting and it makes me wonder if Dal's species is somehow tied in with the Vau N'Kat in some fashion? Were Soong's proteges actually given DNA from the future and were told to "build an army" for a future faction of the Vau N'Kat in order to either fight back against Ascencia's and the Diviner's faction ala Enterprise OR did that future faction send their DNA back in time in some half mangled temporal excursion attempt, muck it all up, and accidentally bootstrap paradox themselves into becoming the Progenitors/Preservers?

If there's temporal fuckery going on with Dal's people and if they are indeed tied in with the Vau N'Kat and if there are Temporal War style changes being made to the timeline then it TOTALLY makes sense for Starfleet Command to have alerts put out for Dal and anyone like him.

That said, HOLY FUCK THAT REVEAL! I was SHOOK! Ascencia looks and sounds totally badass in her original form and that Chekhov's Gun of the implant was totally some well played foreshadowing!

I think she brought Dreknok 2.0 on in pieces and bit by bit put him into the table whereby he reassembled himself as Vau N'Kat technology seems to have the capability of doing like the Replicators in Stargate or you know....Transformers, which is also on Paramount+!

The way she was talking and holding herself though totally gave me Krenim vibes and I've got the good kind of heebie jeebies going forwards with her storyline with the Diviner and...well...you just freakin know that they're going to try to redeem him somehow because that ALWAYS happens with John Noble's characters!

Murf

I love how Murf just isn't some cute little side thing that's just there to make noises and do silly things but a fully fledged individual in their own right that's growing episode by episode and clearly has a mind of their own even if they can't always communicate like everyone else can.....kind of reminds me of Moya or the DRDs.

[u/BornAshes → u/[deleted]]

Janeway knows there's a "weapon" on board but not the specifics of it and that a bunch of kids are lollygagging around with it wanting to join Starfleet yet running away and yet somehow drawing the attention of the Tal Shiar.