Warning: SPOILERS for Star Trek: Prodigy’s Season 1 Finale – “Supernova, Part 2”One of the most exciting developments of Star Trek: Prodigy season 1’s finale is the show set up an alternate 25th-century timeline to explore in season 2. Star Trek: Picard introduced the 25th century of Star Trek’s Prime Timeline, although the first two seasons have only been set at the very beginning of this new era. The fate of Captain Chakotay (Robert Beltran) is now the flashpoint for Star Trek: Prodigy season 2 not only voyaging into a new century but a new timeline as well.
In Star Trek: Prodigy’s season 1 finale, Dal R’El (Brett Gray), Gwyn (Ella Purnell), and their friends chose to destroy the USS Protostar. It was the only way to stop the Living Construct from continuing its corruption of Starfleet so that every Federation starship destroys each other. Hologram Janeway (Kate Mulgrew) remained aboard the Protostar and sacrificed herself to ensure the Protostar would jump to Proto-Warp while destabilizing its warp core. The destruction of the Protostar and the Living Construct saved Starfleet. But, in a macro sense, these heroic acts changed the future of Solum because now, First Contact with the Vau’Nakat’s homeworld won’t happen the way the Diviner (John Noble) and Asencia (Jameela Jamil) remember. Their past is now part of an alternate future.
Star Trek: Prodigy’s Alternate Future Timeline Explained
A month after the Protostar was destroyed, Starfleet confirmed that Captain Chakotay is in an alternate timeline. After launching in 2383, the Protostar fell into a temporal anomaly and arrived at Solum 53 years in the future. The Vau’Nakat’s homeworld was already ravaged by decades of civil war after Solum made First Contact with Starfleet. The Vau’Nakat captured Chakotay and his crew, and they installed the Living Construct on the Protostar with the intention of sending it back in time to destroy Starfleet before it could make First Contact with Solum. But Chakotay escaped and sent the Protostar back in time himself. 100 Vau’Nakat, including the Diviner and Asencia, then traveled back in time to find the Protostar.
The destruction of the Protostar created a second interspatial rift, and its temporal coordinates point right back to Solum, similar to the original anomaly Chakotay and the Protostar first traveled through. Further, Starfleet received Chakotay’s distress signal through the rift, meaning he’s still alive on Solum in 2436. But since the heroism of the Protostar’s teenage crew prevented the original First Contact with Solum from happening, with Gwyn traveling to Solum to hopefully change how the Vau’Nakat will react when First Contact with Starfleet does eventually happen, Chakotay is now trapped in an alternate version of the 25th century.
Star Trek: Prodigy Is Going To The Alternate 25th Century In Season 2
The events of Star Trek: Prodigy season 1’s finale set up a thrilling story thread for season 2. Admiral Janeway’s original mission was to find Chakotay, and she is now leading Starfleet’s new mission to journey through the Protostar’s interspatial rift into the alternate future Solum where Chakotay is. Further, Janeway is bringing Dal, Zero (Angus Imrie), Rok-Tahk (Rylee Alazraqui), Jankom Pog (Jason Mantzoukas), and Murf (Dee Bradley Baker) with her as Starfleet Warrant Officers. Star Trek: Prodigy season 2 will bring Janeway and her young charges into a brand-new frontier Star Trek hasn’t explored before, and who knows what dangers and adventures will greet them in the alternate 25th century,
Star Trek: Prodigy Season 1 is streaming on Paramount+.
