One of the biggest unanswered mysteries in the current Star Trek universe is what’s happened to Star Trek: Voyager‘s second-in-command, Chakotay (Robert Beltran) after the series, which Star Trek: Prodigy can answer. Last seen captaining the experimental USS Protostar in the animated spin-off Prodigy, Chakotay and his crew were boarded by the villainous Dredknok, who sought to capture the ship for a nefarious purpose. Having escaped, Chakotay and his crew abandoned the Protostar underneath a labor camp in the Delta Quadrant. Their current whereabouts are unknown and, in the wake of Prodigy‘s mid-season finale, they’re more mysterious than ever.
By the end of Star Trek: Prodigy episode “A Moral Star, Part 2,” those who may have information on the fate of Chakotay – the Diviner, Dredknok, the formerly evil Hologram Janeway, and Gwyn are in no position to provide answers. Dredknok has been destroyed by the vengeful and oppressed miners of Tars Lamora, while the Diviner and Gwyn have lost their minds and memories as a result of laying eyes on the true form of Medusan flight commander, Zero. Hologram Janeway meanwhile, has been battling with her own memory issues throughout the series, having discovered that Dredknok had corrupted her memories and had prevented information about the crew and their mission from being discovered via the ship’s computers. “A Moral Star, Part 2” also reveals that, in a mirroring of the start of Janeway’s Star Trek story, the Admiral (Kate Mulgrew) is on another mission to rescue a trusted friend. It’s a mission that will take her back to the Delta Quadrant, putting her on a collision course with the young crew of the Protostar. If she’s hoping to find Chakotay aboard the Protostar, however, she’ll be sorely disappointed.
It’s easier to narrow down where Captain Chakotay and his crew are not in Star Trek: Prodigy. They clearly outran the Diviner and Dredknok prior to landing inside Tars Lamora, as there were no Starfleet officers working alongside Dal, Zero, Jankom, and Rok-Tahk in the mines. Similarly, when the crew of the Protostar returned to the camp to lead an uprising and liberate the Diviner’s prisoners, there weren’t any Starfleet officers coming forward to retake the Protostar or pilot the Rev-12. Chakotay and Janeway have clearly lost contact and Starfleet command hasn’t been notified of the Protostar crew’s current location and coordinates. If they had, Janeway and the crew of the USS Dauntless wouldn’t have had to scour the universe for proto-warp signatures.
It’s also unlikely that Chakotay is dead, given that the Diviner and Dredknok had lost track of the Protostar. He clearly forced the villainous Vau N’Akat and his AI sidekick from the ship, before burying it beneath Tars Lamora. Given the revelation that the Protostar contains a weapon capable of corrupting every Starfleet vessel on contact, it’s likely that the Diviner would need Chakotay alive to maintain the pretense for long enough for the weapon to be successful. Chakotay and his crew have clearly realized the gravity of this situation and abandoned the Protostar so that it can’t be used for this purpose.
If this turns out to be what’s happened to Chakotay after Voyager, it honors the difficult decisions he had to make throughout Star Trek: Voyager. It would also affirm that Star Trek: Prodigy is as true to the original Star Trek ethos as any of the more “adult” focused series. By stranding himself and his crew so far from home, Chakotay has sacrificed the needs of the few for the needs of the many. There’s nothing more Star Trek than that.
Star Trek: Prodigy season 1 continues in late 2022 on Paramount+.
