We’ve made a rough landing in Star Trek: Prodigy 2×03 “Who Saves the Saviors.” There are high stakes in place for Gwyn and the accidental crew of the Infinity. Can Gwyn pass the Va’Lu’Rah? Can Chakotay still set the Protostar on its course to Tars Lamora? There’s a lot at stake, so let’s dig into my review of Star Trek: Prodigy 2×03 “Who Saves the Saviors.”
For the Kids
Whether you’re a kid or an adult, it’s hard not to love a good heist story. While Star Trek: Prodigy 2×03 “Who Saves the Saviors” isn’t a true heist, it still has many of those objectives. We must get someone or something out of their current place—in this case, springing Chakotay and Adreek from jail. There’s a good distraction in our young crew drawing fire from the Vau N’Akat while Chakotay and Adreek make their way to the Protostar. The chase is quite fun to watch, especially with Zero hollering at the Vau N’Akat and all the other silly banter, like “Look how distracting I am!” from Dal.
However, with time travel, one must beware of the butterfly effect. Dal unintentionally loses his phase disruptor and it’s that one small change that alters history…or the future as it should have been. Or will be. Don’t @ me. Temporal Mechanics 101 was not on any of my college reading lists.
Additionally, Star Trek: Prodigy 2×03 “Who Saves the Saviors” gives us a truly excellent fight sequence between Gwyn and Ascencia. An interesting thing I noticed is that Gwyn uses defensive postures in the fight. She doesn’t actually want to hurt Ascencia—just best her enough to win the Va’Lu’Rah. But the consequences of losing the Va’Lu’Rah are much steeper than I thought. Apparently, Gwyn is stuck in this pit and Ascencia gets her heirloom weapon?! That’s rough. All this action makes for an entertaining episode for the kids in the audience, and really, the adults too.
For the Adults
Star Trek: Prodigy 2×03 “Who Saves the Saviors” gives us some fun deep-cut Star Trek references for the adults in the audience. First, I hope everyone giggled as much as I did when you realized that Maj’el has a bandana around her pointy ears a la Spock in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home. Glad to see this trend persists into this era of Trek. We also get some great name-drops when Maj’el talks about the Bell Riots and Cochrane Warp Test as examples of a causal time loop.
While these references are very fun, what really got me in Star Trek: Prodigy 2×03 “Who Saves the Saviors” is the reference to Star Trek: The Original Series 1×14 “Balance of Terror.” Dal says to Chakotay, “I’d like to think in another time, we could have been friends,” which is approximately what the Romulan Commander says to Kirk in that episode. It’s one of the most poignant lines in the Star Trek canon and is used to great effect here. While it doesn’t carry the exact same weight as the original context, we do see Dal meeting up with someone who changed his life completely. Dal is about to be able to return the favor, or at least he thinks he is. That gives it the sense of gravitas worthy of the paraphrase.
Final Thoughts
“Can you keep a secret?” NO. And I don’t want you to. Star Trek: Prodigy 2×03 “Who Saves the Saviors” is a great action-oriented episode that will please both the kids and the adults in the audience. As anticipated, we wouldn’t have much of a season if it was that easy to rescue Chakotay, right? Now he and Adreek are off in the Protostar, rather than sending the Protostar off to Tars Lamora. Gwyn is stuck in the bottom of the Va’Lu’Rah pit with seemingly no escape. Worse, now her very existence is in jeopardy! Temporal flux is the name of the game. We’ll see what the next episode brings.
What did you think of Star Trek: Prodigy 2×03 “Who Saves the Saviors?” Leave me a comment, and let’s talk Trek.
All episodes of Star Trek: Prodigy season 2 are streaming now on Netflix.
THIS SEASONS REVIEWS
- ‘Star Trek: Prodigy’ 2×01 Review: “Into the Breach, Part 1”
- ‘Star Trek: Prodigy’ 2×02 Review: “Into the Breach, Part 2”
- ‘Star Trek: Prodigy’ 2×03 Review: “Who Saves the Saviors”
- ‘Star Trek: Prodigy’ 2×04 Review: “Temporal Mechanics 101”
- ‘Star Trek: Prodigy’ 2×05 Review: “Observer’s Paradox”
- ‘Star Trek: Prodigy’ 2×06 Review: “Imposter Syndrome”
- ‘Star Trek: Prodigy’ 2×07 Review: “The Fast and the Curious”
- Star Trek: Prodigy’ 2×08 Review: “Is There in Beauty No Truth?”
