IR TV Review: STAR TREK - PRODIGY - EPISODE 4 (“Dream Catcher”) [Paramount+]
The initial two episodes of "Star Trek: Prodigy" tries to bring to bear that kids taking over a starship don't really get a sense of what they are doing, despite the fact if they are intuitive or not. While life or death situations permeated Episode 3 in "Starstruck", Episode 4: "Dream Catcher" is more psychological and builds the essence of what these characters will eventually be. Now granted certain parts of the story like would -be captain Dal are supposed to show an arc yet the characterization comes off a bit too strong in its ego while Gwyna (Ella Purnell) has to find her own lightning rod to equalize her approach. Now the personage of a holographic teacher in Captain Kathryn Janeway has interesting parallels but the question is how far can that go. The irony here of course is that the OG Janeway always struggled with the aspect of the Doctor's humanity as a hologram so it will be interesting if that is eventually touched on.
This episode follows the ship touching down on a planet because Starfleet directives govern how Janeway can help the crew control the ship. One of these rules requires them to investigate for exploratory purposes if an M class planet is detected. But like many TOS episodes before, things are not what they seem. The aspect of what each character deals with on the planet gives a deeper perspective of who they are and who they might become. Now granted because this show is made mostly for kids, it is much morre subtle than say some (or many elements) that "Lower Decks tackles but it is different approach. The key elements here are to instill some of the essence of Starfleet in terms of education, respect and lessons learned from obstacles overcome. And judging from the end of this episode where choices and mistakes are made, the tendencies are moving ( at times slight haphazardly) in the right direction. B
By Tim Wassberg
