WARNING: SPOILERS for Star Trek: Prodigy Season 2

Star Trek: Prodigy season 2 revisits a controversial aspect of Starfleet Academy featured in Star Trek: The Next Generation, continuing what many believe was a mistake found in both TNG and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. In Star Trek: Prodigy season 2’s opener, “Into The Breach, Part I,” written by Kevin & Dan Hageman and directed by Ben Hibon, the lovably troublesome young characters of Star Trek: Prodigy find themselves face-to-face with one of Star Trek‘s most famous—or perhaps infamous—group of Starfleet cadets.

Star Trek: Prodigy season 2 raises the show’s stakes to epic new levels, and a big reason for that is that new characters carry the weight of old Star Trek stories. The second season of Star Trek: Prodigy introduces a new Vulcan hero, Maj’el (Michaela Dietz), who turns out to be more than just a new face and a cool rendition of the classic Vulcan haircut. Maj’el is part of Nova Squadron, meaning Starfleet Academy hasn’t learned from its mistake 16 years after Star Trek: The Next Generation.

Star Trek: Prodigy Reveals Starfleet Academy Still Has TNG’s Nova Squadron

The elite group of cadets wasn’t disbanded after the events of TNG: “The First Duty”

Star Trek: The Next Generation‘s season 5 episode “The First Duty” depicted Wesley Crusher (Wil Wheaton) as a cadet at Starfleet Academy. Wes is shown to be a member of an elite squadron of cadets called the Nova Squadron. This team is responsible for the recent death of one of their own after Nova Squadron’s forbidden maneuver backfires. Still, their status above other cadets gives them special privileges and allowances. The squadron’s leader, Nick Locarno (Robert Duncan McNeill), tries to convince Wesley to lie but eventually takes the fall for their teammate’s death.

At the beginning of the 20-episode run of Star Trek: Prodigy season 2, Dal R’El (Brett Gray) and the young crew of the USS Protostar follow the orders of Vice Admiral Kathryn Janeway (Kate Mulgrew) to join the crew of the newly-built Lamarr Class USS Voyager-A. Dal, Zero (Angus Imrie), Rok-Tahk (Rylee Alazraqui), Murf (Dee Bradley Baker), and Jankom Pog (Jason Mantzoukas) immediately encounter Maj’el and Nova Squadron, who are cold and dismissive to Admiral Janeway’s warrant officers. So, Starfleet Academy still sets some cadets above the others as ‘elite’ despite the proven mistakes that can come of that, as seen in Star Trek: The Next Generation.

Why Starfleet Academy Elite Squadrons Are A Mistake

Why does Starfleet even have elite groups of cadets in the first place?

Starfleet is an exploratory organization meant to advance the United Federation of Planets’ knowledge about the galaxy and harbor peace, so why does its school actively pit students against each other? Nova Squadron from Star Trek: The Next Generation and Prodigy and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine‘s Red Squad both seem to clash with the principles of Starfleet by placing “elite” cadets above other students. With Star Trek: Prodigy focusing so heavily on the cohesiveness of the Federation and the need for more teamwork, the inclusion of such a divisive group of cadets might be a big mistake.

However, just like Wesley Crusher and the original Nova Squadron came to terms with their own mistakes, Maj’el and her squad work closely with Dal and the rest of Star Trek: Prodigy‘s main group of misfits-turned-heroes in season 2. This teamwork means there might be hope for Starfleet’s elite squadrons to prove themselves as nobler than their predecessors. Because it’s known to excel at finding positive outlooks regarding dire situations and exploring the good in even the worst of characters, if anyone can redeem Star Trek: The Next Generation’s mistake, it’s Star Trek: Prodigy.