Warning: SPOILERS for Star Trek: Prodigy Season 1, Episode 14 – “Crossroads”In Star Trek: Prodigy episode 14, Admiral Kathryn Janeway’s (Kate Mulgrew) USS Dauntless raced the USS Protostar, which was formerly under the command of Captain Chakotay (Robert Beltran). Janeway finally caught up with the alien teenagers who commandeered the Protostar on a frozen planet. But the Admiral doesn’t realize that Dal R’El (Brett Gray), Gwyndala (Ella Purnell), and their friends – including Thadiun Okona (Billy Campbell) – are running from her because they can’t expose Janeway’s USS Dauntless to the Starfleet-destroying weapon the Diviner (John Noble) hid on the Protostar.
The Protostar fled the Dauntless at Warp 9.97 but Janeway’s quantum slipstream-powered starship was able to keep pace. Unfortunately, the question of which starship is truly faster wasn’t answered by Star Trek: Prodigy. After Murf (Dee Bradley Baker) accidentally fired upon the Dauntless, Janeway ordered her own photon torpedo to cripple the Protostar’s third nacelle. This disabled the Protostar’s ability to jump to Proto-Warp, which might have left the Dauntless its dust had it happened. Still, Hologram Janeway (Kate Mulgrew) cast doubt that the Protostar could escape Admiral Janeway’s quantum slipstream Dauntless-class starship, so maybe the Protostar isn’t faster even with the Proto-Drive? It’s a question Star Trek: Prodigy left open to hopefully answer in the future.
How Fast Is The Protostar’s Proto Warp Vs. Janeway’s Quantum Slipstream Drive?
Quantum slipstream drive technology was brought back to Starfleet from the Delta Quadrant by Captain Janeway and the USS Voygaer. Quantum slipstream technology was developed by Species 116, but it’s similar to the transwarp technology used by the Borg. The quantum slipstream drive routes power through the main deflector, which opens up a quantum field. The phase variance in the quantum field had to be constantly adjusted, or it would collapse, but the quantum slipstream drive allows a starship to far exceed maximum warp. Using a version of quantum slipstream, the USS Voyager was able to shave 10 years off its journey home to Earth.
Theoretically, the Protostar could be faster than the Dauntless. The Protostar’s Proto-Drive is powered by a baby star, hence the name USS Protostar. Contained in a gravity shell and equalized by a warp drive, the incredible power of the Proto-Core requires a third nacelle to jump the starship into Proto-Warp. Using the Proto-Drive, the Protostar can travel over four thousand light years in a few minutes. But each advanced warp drive has drawbacks. The Dauntless only has a limited form of quantum slipstream drive, while the Proto-Drive drains the Protostar’s energy systems and requires an exotic matter dilithium matrix to function.
The Protostar Can Possibly Do One Thing Janeway’s Dauntless Can’t Do
Whether the Proto-Drive was intended to or not, it seemingly caused the USS Protostar to time travel. The Protostar was derelict on Tars Lamora for 17 years before it was launched in 2383, which means the starship somehow lost its crew and traveled back in time to 2366. Time travel is an apparent Proto-Drive side effect that the quantum slipstream drive of Admiral Janeway’s USS Dauntless may not be able to duplicate. Of course, any starship can achieve time travel via the slingshot effect, but this requires a being of high intelligence (such as a Vulcan) to perform the necessary calculations to use a star’s gravity to slingshot a starship through the time barrier. The Protostar’s time travel may also provide the answer Janeway seeks as to what happened to Chakotay in Star Trek: Prodigy.
Star Trek: Prodigy Season 1 streams Thursdays on Paramount+.
