PRODIGY
Beginner’s Guide: The Top Five Episodes
A Gateway for Every Age
Prodigy premiered in October 2021 as Star Trek's first series made for younger viewers, and it ran for two seasons of twenty episodes each. It is computer-animated and follows a group of teenage aliens who escape from a prison mining colony and discover an abandoned Starfleet ship, the USS Protostar. None of them knows anything about Starfleet or the Federation, which makes them the perfect audience stand-ins, and they are guided by a hologram of Captain Kathryn Janeway, voiced by Kate Mulgrew, who teaches them what the uniform stands for. The series was dropped by Paramount+ in 2023 and picked up by Netflix, where the second season arrived in 2024.
This is the best gateway for kids and for adults who want a gentle introduction. The characters are funny and lovable, the stories carry real emotional weight and every episode explains the Starfleet ideals as the crew learns them. You can watch it with someone who has never seen Star Trek, and everyone will enjoy it.
Crew advisory: Murf is a gelatinous blob that eats metal. He is excellent. That is the whole advisory.
1. A Moral Star
The villainous Diviner gives the crew an ultimatum: return the Protostar to the prison colony where they were enslaved, or let the people they left behind suffer the consequences. The young heroes decide to give up their dream of going to Starfleet to save those who cannot save themselves. This two-part story is a no-win scenario that tests everything they have learned. It ranks first because it is where the characters become heroes, and because the episode proves that the series can be as morally serious as any Star Trek story.
2. Kobayashi
The Protostar crew is introduced to the holodeck, and Dal, the crew's headstrong would-be captain, takes the famous Kobayashi Maru test, Starfleet's no-win scenario for captains. The episode is a clever way to introduce the idea that character matters more than winning, and the simulation is packed with surprise cameos from legacy characters that fans will love. It earns its place because it turns a famous piece of Star Trek history into a lesson for a new generation.
3. Supernova
The Protostar is surrounded by a Federation armada, and a dangerous weapon on board threatens to turn Starfleet against itself. The crew has to prove that they are not enemies in a tense and exciting two-part finale. It makes the list because it delivers the season's big payoff and brings its themes of trust and teamwork to a satisfying conclusion.
4. Time Amok
The Protostar is fractured in time by an anomaly, and each member of the crew is trapped in a different moment of the same disaster. Hologram Janeway can move between the time phases, but it falls to Rok-Tahk, the youngest member of the crew, to save the ship before it is destroyed. It is a smart, inventive time-travel puzzle, and a good showcase for the crew's growing confidence. It earns its place because it shows how well the show can use classic Star Trek ideas.
5. Masquerade
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Trapped in the Romulan Neutral Zone with a damaged ship, the Protostar crew lands on a lawless world, where a rogue geneticist finally sheds light on Dal's mysterious origins. What Dal learns about himself shakes him, and the episode becomes a story about accepting who you are rather than who you were made to be. It also ends with one of the biggest twists of the season. It is on the list because it answers one of the show's longest-running questions and changes the course of the story, and because Murf gets his best action scene yet.
← Lower Decks Strange New Worlds →
More of the beginner’s guide: The Original Series • The Animated Series • The Next Generation • Deep Space Nine • Voyager • Enterprise • Discovery • Picard • Lower Decks • Strange New Worlds • Short Treks • Starfleet Academy.
Not sure what order to watch in? Try our chronological watch order or the Star Trek timeline. Want people to talk Trek with? Enlist and join the crew at one of our Star Trek events around Atlanta.
