Star Trek: Prodigy has seen its young group of aspiring Starfleet cadets embark on some fantastic adventures, but when does the show take place within the Star Trek timeline? Following Dal R’El (Brett Gray) and his ragtag group of friends aboard the experimental USS Protostar, Prodigy is the first Star Trek series created specifically for a younger audience. Still, the show has plenty for adult fans to love, as it builds on previous Star Trek series, particularly Star Trek: Voyager, and has many connections to the greater Star Trek universe.

After escaping the Tars Lamora prison colony, Dal and his friends steal the USS Protostar and embark on a series of adventures, aided by a hologram of Captain Kathryn Janeway (Kate Mulgrew). The kids eventually set out for Starfleet, hoping they can become true cadets, as the real Admiral Janeway pursues the Protostar. At the end of Star Trek: Prodigy season 1, Admiral Janeway recruits Dal and his friends as Warrant Officers, and they set off to find the original crew of the Protostar, including Captain Chakotay (Robert Beltran).

When Star Trek: Prodigy Season 1 Takes Place In Star Trek’s Timeline

With time travel involved, Prodigy’s timeline can be a bit confusing.

The main storyline of Star Trek: Prodigy begins in 2383, five years after the USS Voyager returned from the Delta Quadrant in Star Trek: Voyager’s series finale. Triumphantly back Alpha Quadrant, Janeway was quickly promoted to Vice Admiral and attended the launching ceremony of the USS Protostar. Under the command of Captain Chakotay, Janeway’s dear friend and former First Officer, the Protostar then set off for the Delta Quadrant to clean up any messes left by Voyager’s interference in the unexplored area of space.

Soon after arriving in the Delta Quadrant, Chakotay and his crew encountered a temporal anomaly that sent them about fifty years into the future to the year 2435. The Protostar landed on the planet Solum, whose people, the Vau N’Akat, sought to destroy the United Federation of Planets to prevent the collapse of their own society. Although the Vau N’Akat managed to plant a weapon on the Protostar, Chakotay sent the unmanned ship back in time before the weapon could be used. The Protostar ended up on Tars Lamora in the year 2366, where it sat until Dal and his young friends stumbled upon it in 2383.

Star Trek: Prodigy Season 2 Will Have Time Travel To An Alternate Future

The majority of the voice cast from Star Trek: Prodigy season 1 return in season 2, for a time travel adventure that will connect multiple Star Trek series. At the end of Star Trek: Prodigy season 1, Starfleet discovered that the destruction of the Protostar had created a new wormhole to the same coordinates where Chakotay and his crew had been lost. As Admiral Janeway, Dal, and the rest of their crew take the USS Voyager-A in search of Chakotay, they will have to travel through this wormhole into the alternate future.

When the Protostar arrived on Solum in 2435, the remnants of the Vau N’Akat people saw it as a way to save their civilization and get revenge on the Federation for the decades of civil war caused by First Contact. The events of Star Trek: Prodigy’s season 1 finale, however, altered the future, since the Federation now knows about these events. Plus, Gwyndala (Ella Purnell) travels to her home planet of Solum with the hope of reuniting her people and preventing the civil war, and it remains to be seen what effect her efforts will have.