Star Trek Prodigy

 Time for some more Star Trek goodness, and this time it's in animated style.

 

 

Star Trek Prodigy is canon, and follows the adventures of a young group commandeering an old vessel, in search for a better future.

 

In the Delta Quadrant, on the prison colony of Tars Lamora, a young alien named Dal escapes together with a bunch of exotic aliens from The Diviner.  They do this when they find an abandoned Federation starship, the USS Protostar.  On board, they are greeted by the training hologram, looking like former USS Voyager captain Janeway.

 

She thinks the refugees are actually Starfleet cadets, and begins learning them to fly the Protostar and it's experimental drive, and the younglings dream of joining Starfleet after they learn more of the Federation.  Meantime, a girl named Gwyn, the daughter of the Diviner, is held captive in their brig.  Coming along an M-class planet they land the ship and set out to explore, but the planet is actually bound on devouring them, as Gwyn escapes and takes control of the ship.  They manage to escape the planet when The Diviner and his enforcer Drednok arrive, and as he would sacrifice Gwyn for his own goals, Dal saves her and she joins the crew as they find out about the "proto-warp feature", from which the vessel gained it's name.

 

The vessel made a 4000 light year jump into the Gamma quadrant thanks to this engine, and as Dal learns more about captaincy by running the Kobiyashi Maru scenario, they unlock a code in Janeway's databank, showing the original crew, led by captain Chakotay was boarded by an unknown enemy.  Meeting with the Ferengi that raised Dal, they are framed by her as they try to prevent breaching the Prime Directive.

 

 

When the vessel goes through a Tachyon storm, it is thrown into various timelines and Janeway must move between all of them to reverse the anomaly, causing them to learn how to work together.  A Drednok is discovered onboard, showing a message that all the prisoners of the colony will be freed should the Protostar be returned, and Dal agrees.  But they have created a rouse to prevent The Diviner getting his hands on the engine.  Gwyn learns her father was send back in time to save his people, as in the future the events following First Contact with the Federation leads to the destruction of their homeworld, and a computer virus has been planted inside the Protostar.

 

The real Janeway, now a vice-admiral, is tracking them though aboard the USS Dauntless, and when they reach a remote station in the Beta quadrant, the virus causes the statiosn weapons to turn on itself, destroying it.  Realising they can't go to Federation space,  even going as far as boarding a dormant Borg cube to try and destroy the device, as The Diviner, who lost his memories, is brought aboard the Dauntless.

 

 

As they try and find a way to reach the Federation by other means, they run into Janeway, and as they escape from the Dauntless Dal learns from a Dr Jago that he is fully genetically engineered and as such unique in his kind.  On the Dauntless, one of it's crew, ensign Asencia, reveals to the Diviner that she is also an agent, the Vindicator.  Together with Drednok they manage to bring his memories back.  Dal manages to warn the Dauntless of the virus, but they are met by a Federation armada.  The fleet fast starts attacking itself due to the virus, but other non-Starfleet vessels come to their aid.  Hologram Janeway decides to sacrifice herself to save the Federation and be hurdled into the future to hopefully find the crew where they may still be alive.  The Protostar crew joins Starfleet thanks to Vice-admiral Janeway, and asks them to join her on a mission to find Chakotay and the Protostar crew, as Gwyn goes to her homeworld to prevent it's destruction in the future.

 

While aimed at a younger audience through Nickolodeon, this is actually a pretty good series and worth the watch.  And it is better then Discovery for sure!