The Protostar’s crew finally comes together in both emotional, and obvious ways as they attempt to escape the super-organism masquerading as a simple M Class planet.
Some Spoilers Ahead
1. Ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-changes…
Seeing these characters begin to mature through the events of this episode, and the previous four, has been both a treat and somewhat frustrating at times. Especially with Dal’s back and forth on being a hero or a real pain in the ass. With the crew being thrown into this situation, probably the most direct danger they have been in since leaving the prison. Picking up from the last episode, we get a further look at what makes our heroes tick, mostly through actual dialogue rather than through what the planet has decided to show them through the hallucinations. The majority of these events have sparked change, both great and small, in all of the characters. It looks like there could be some real consequences in the shadow of these events. For the most part the biggest change of all is Dal learning to be more of a hero, and stop selfishly looking inward at all times.
2. Action!
This is an action packed and fairly scary episode of a kid’s Star Trek series. Running! Explosions! Evil planet trying to devour everything! It’s an exciting chase and race against time from top to bottom. There is plenty of scares and dire moments. It’s a gorgeous episode throughout. As we have seen in the previous four episodes, this animation department knows how to craft some really gorgeous space scenes, ships, planets, and so on. This episode continues to give us stunning visuals and with nearly non-stop action sequences from beginning to finish, it all comes together perfectly in this mid-season finale. The final chase sequence of the Diviner’s ship tracking down the Protostar while at warp gives us one of the best moments in the season so far and plays with scale, emotion, and classic Trek action all at once. It’s a top notch scene.
3. Lost Daughter
The culmination of Gwyn’s relationship with her father, the evil Diviner, is really put under a microscope in this episode. Just in the few moments that they actually have together gives us everything we need to know about their connection and exactly what they think about each other. It also exposes and changes what we AND the characters expect from each other. Seeing the Diviner choose the Protostar over saving his daughter’s life is wholly expected, but seeing him actually take a moment to grapple with the decision is something unexpected. It’s very cool and emotionally enriching to see this mega villain have these beats; even though he makes the choice we assume he would. At the same time, having Gwyn see this choice made, it is the final fork in the road that allows her to cut herself off from him. She no longer needs to live for him. As she begins to accept her death, the crew of the Protostar, lead by Dal, rescue her, thus finally working together as a team and becoming Gwyn’s new family.
4. PROTOSTARRRRR
Finally! We get some incredible visuals of what the U.S.S. Protostar can actually do. It’s really just a taste of its power, but because it comes at the key moment of the final chase, it is just enough to get us really excited for what comes next. It’s a huge moment to close this half of the season out with. As it finally clicks with the crew that the name of the ship literally means it is carrying a protostar, or a “baby star” (A term that sends Rok-Tahk into squeals of joy over the idea of a baby star.), Zero and Jankom Pog figure out how to activate and we get our first clear look at the transformation of the nacelles, the power of the protostar engine, and just how powerful it’s warp jump is. It’s an incredibly fun sequence and it should make all viewers get hyped for future ship sequences and to see where it ends up going. I love this ship.
5. Zero
If there is one character that simply hasn’t gotten enough screen time or a real look at their character, it is Zero. Typically these columns are for discussing things that appear in the episode, but with five stories in, we have gotten next to nothing on one of the most fascinating characters in the series. Every single time they appear on screen I want to know more about them. We have the basics, we’ve had some comedic beats, mainly built out of this high intelligence dealing with silly companions and odd scenarios, but I want more Zero! Their moments in this episode are all expository and Zero deserves better.
