WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Star Trek: Prodigy Season 1, Episode 3, “Dreamcatcher,” streaming now on Paramount+.
While the ragtag crew of the USS Protostar managed to escape the clutches of the villainous Diviner and blast off to explore the Delta Quadrant after commandeering the discarded Starfleet vessel, there are still plenty of dangers to be had to the amateur explorers. And as the Protostar diverts its joyride to investigate a strange planet in its path, this seemingly routine expedition quickly transforms into a nightmare that could derail the crew’s adventures so soon into their escape from the harsh world of Tars Lamora.
In the weeks since nearly flying straight into a dying star, the hologram of Kathryn Janeway has steadily been training the crew on how better to pilot the Protostar, with Dal determined to get as far away from Tars Lamora as possible. However, Janeway assembles the crew on the bridge and insists to investigate a nearby M-class planet as she still believes the crew to be Starfleet cadets rather than refugees making off with a Federation vessel. Fearful that they are still being pursued by the Diviner, Dal initially refuses, but, after Janeway threatens to report this to Starfleet Command, Dal reluctantly agrees.
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Now armed with phasers and tricorders, the crew leaves the safety of the Protostar to explore their immediate surroundings while Janeway and Murf remain on board. Unbeknownst to the crew, a strange, extraterrestrial substance positions itself around the Protostar while they’re away, taking on the form of thorny tendrils. As this infiltration unfolds, Gwyn manages to escape the Protostar’s brig again, realizing that her father trained her her entire life for the explicit purpose of one day operating the starship herself someday. Gwyn reprograms Janeway to follow her orders while transmitting the Protostar’s location to Drednok.
On the planet’s surface, each of the characters encounter their latent, deeply held wishes as they separate from one another to explore: Rok is swarmed by friendly, adorable animals. Jankom Pog finds an empty home full of warm food waiting for him. Zero finds the Protostar’s engine mysteriously waiting for them on the planet’s surface. Dal sees two figures he believes to be his long-lost parents before the planet’s entity takes on the form of Janeway and commands Dal and his friends to stay on the planet as it transforms into a thorny creature named Scylla. Realizing that he and his friends are in mortal danger, Dal runs from the scene as Scylla begins traveling through the ground.
While Gwyn attempts to leave the planet and the crew behind on the Protostar, the tendrils that have quickly grown around the ship ensnare it and manage to keep it grounded. With each of the crew, except Dal, mesmerized by the planet’s hallucinations, they are quickly being overgrown by the thorns as Dal scrambles to rescue each of them. Snapping back to their senses, Zero realizes that the planet uses these spore-fueled hallucinations to lure prey and lull them into a false sense of security before consuming them as two friends race around the planet in the Protostar’s land cruiser.
As Dal and Zero rescue Rok and Jankom, Gwyn cuts away at the thorns that are restraining the Protostar where she encounters a spore-generated hallucination herself, with the thorns assuming the form of her father. However, Gwyn quickly sees through this deception when the Diviner treats her too warmly, rather than as the cold, cruel way her father usually carries himself as, with Gwyn fleeing back to the ship and beginning to take off. However, the thorns’ grasp proves to be too strong to evade, with the Protostar and shuttlecraft that Gwyn and Murf used to escape crashing to the planet’s surface. And while Gwyn and Murf are both safe from the crash, Dal is shocked that he and his friends are stranded on the planet as Scylla continues to grow around them ending the episode on a cliffhanger.
To see Kathryn Janeway’s return, Star Trek: Prodigy streams on Paramount+, with new episodes released on Thursdays.
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