[8.3/10] I’ll admit, I was a little hesitant when I realized this was a body swap episode. Prodigy went pretty broad in its humor with the last high concept premise it did (Dal activating all his latent genes at once), so I was leery about where this would go. I needn’t have worried though. “Mindwalk” not only uses the premise for all its comedic potential, but derives a ton of great character moments and even good plot movement from the ol’ switcheroo in a way I didn’t necessarily expect.
For one thing I got a big kick out of Dal in Admiral Janeway’s body. I’m surely a broken record at this point, but my goodness, kudos to Kate Mugrew. She is quite convincing as Dal-qua-Janeway, capturing his sort of flustered, cheeky mannerisms in a way that you buy hook line and sinker. The animators more than do their part too, with the possessed Admiral Janewya moving about with an unease and franticness that befits Dal.
Heck, I even like it from a plot standpoint. For one thing, Lt. Ascencia, Dreadnok, and the Diviner are surprisingly tolerant of the Admiral’s peculiar behavior since they just gave her the old bonk on the noggin, which makes sense and gives her some cover. And yet, the rest of the crew takes a page out of (god help me) “Turnabout Intruder” from The Original Series, knowing their captain well enough to recognize that this isn’t her, no matter how she presents herself. (In fairness, the fact that Dal-as-Janeway spits out her coffee in disgust is a dead giveaway.)
The most interesting thing for Dal in Janeway's body, though, is her conversation with The Diviner. It’s the most human, the most sympathetic, the most comprehensible he’s ever been. Frankly, I don’t know how to feel about that. Candidly, I pretty much wrote The Diviner off in the first half of season 1, when he was basically willing to sacrifice Gwyn to achieve his goals. It showed where his priorities lay, in a way that made it seem like he viewed his daughter as a means to an end, not an end unto herself.
And yet, in his moment of Janeway, he’s strangely sympathetic as a character. He does a good deed for Janeway, recognizing that she showed him kindness in a way he didn’t expect, something he feels creates a moral debt for him to repay. He explains that from his perspective, Starfleet was the villain, to where he thought (and still thinks) he’s been doing what’s necessary to save his civilization from an invader that rent destruction in his home. In the shadow of that, his willingness to give up his progeny to save his entire people could be seen as a “needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few” type situation, even if it’s the type of thing that feels more uncomfortable when he’s sacrificing someone else’s life rather than your own.
And most importantly, he asks the person he thinks is Janeway to look after his daughter if something were to happen to him. Maybe it’s just the way Zero scrambled his brain. Maybe it’s seeing the altruism of Starfleet in a way he’s been able to internalize. Maybe it’s being separated from her in a fashion which had an emotional impact he didn’t anticipate. Whatever the reason, The Diviner seems to genuinely care about Gwyn in a way that wasn’t clear in the first half of this season. And Dal, for his part, can relate to being willing to do anything to protect her, something revealing in the show’s most obvious budding relationship.
I still don’t know how I feel about a Diviner redemption tour. Some of what he did seems unforgivable to me. But the heart of Star Trek is rooted in the idea that it’s never too late to make the right choices, and to provide for the possibility for us all to become better people with the right environment and the right support. If nothing else, I appreciate making him a more complicated antagonist, whose motivations are comprehensible, even if I’m not ready to condone or forgive him as a character.
Janeway in Dal’s body is even better. Brett Gray isn’t quite to Mulgrew’s level with his Janeway impression, but he’s still quite good! He carries her regal bearing and surefooted demeanor, which helps establish the Vice Admiral’s presence even when she’s in the body of a young Starfleet wannabe.
I appreciate how her presence solves one of the major problems of this half-season in a clever way. The Protostar crew has been struggling to think up a way to communicate the danger their vessel poses to Starfleet. The problem, of course, is that any technological outreach risks spreading the harms inflicted by the construct. So I like the idea of using Zero’s well-established psychic powers and Dal’s nascent psychic powers to bridge the gap. And the fact that it goes both wrong (putting both Dal and Janeway in dicey situations) and right (succeeds in communicating the key info), gives it a nice balance of problems solved and new challenges to face.
But my favorite part of this one is Admiral Janeway meeting Holo-Janeway. There’s a natural spark that comes from the genuine article meeting her holographic counterpart. But I also appreciate that it happens at Holo-Janeway’s lowest point, where she’s punishing herself for what went wrong and exiling herself from the kids she’s come to care for. The poetry of Admiral Janeway providing the counsel that leads her out of darkness is perfection.
The Admiral comes with a simple message -- turn that mess into something beautiful. In other words, there will always be mistakes and errors in judgment. The trick, then, is to survey the situation and make the most of it. That’s a strong lesson to share with the show’s younger viewers. And what’s more it transforms the solution to a technical problem (the Admiral fixing Holo-Janeway’s corrupt programming) into an object lesson that leads to an emotional breakthrough (Holo-Janeway forgiving herself for her bad programming and resolving to help again). There’s something wonderfully elegant about it.
At the same time, though, I appreciate the fact that Janeway’s arrival creates problems too, it doesn’t just solve them. She promises to be an advocate for our young heroes, help them get a fair shake before Starfleet Command. Yet, she has to deliver the bad news to the rest of the Protostar crew: Dal is an augment, which means he’s forbidden from joining Starfleet. At a time when the young man is already feeling like he doesn’t measure up to the standard set by the Federation’s best and brightest, it’s easy to see how that could be a devastating emotional setback. And in line with the exploration of the topic on Deep Space Nine, and the budding examination of it on Strange New Worlds, it’s another chance to look at how the Federation could be turning past transgressions into current prejudices by denying people like Dal the same opportunities as their non-augmented brethren.
I’ll confess, despite all the great, heady material in this one, I did find the need for Dal and Janeway to make physical contact to switch back a little silly. It does, however, create a practical limitation to a nigh-magical solution, which I always appreciate. And between the ensuing space walk that gives Murf something meaningful to do, and the think-on-her-feet phaser blast from Janeway to make the connection, they find clever spins on an outsized situation. Hell, I even love that Dal’s erratic behavior in Jnaeway’s body has landed her in the brig, hindering her ability to help in the grand finale.
Overall, this is a real high water mark in Prodigy’s first season, one that puts its high concept premise to the highest and best use, finds good laughs in an out there setup, and delivers emotional moments from unlikely pairings. Some of the sharpest writing and storytelling the series has offered so far.
This episode was fantastic, and only made better by the absolutely stellar voice acting of Kate Mulgrew. She's been great throughout the show, but this particular episode was a standout to show her abilities.
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParentSpoilers2022-12-23T06:56:08Z
[8.3/10] I’ll admit, I was a little hesitant when I realized this was a body swap episode. Prodigy went pretty broad in its humor with the last high concept premise it did (Dal activating all his latent genes at once), so I was leery about where this would go. I needn’t have worried though. “Mindwalk” not only uses the premise for all its comedic potential, but derives a ton of great character moments and even good plot movement from the ol’ switcheroo in a way I didn’t necessarily expect.
For one thing I got a big kick out of Dal in Admiral Janeway’s body. I’m surely a broken record at this point, but my goodness, kudos to Kate Mugrew. She is quite convincing as Dal-qua-Janeway, capturing his sort of flustered, cheeky mannerisms in a way that you buy hook line and sinker. The animators more than do their part too, with the possessed Admiral Janewya moving about with an unease and franticness that befits Dal.
Heck, I even like it from a plot standpoint. For one thing, Lt. Ascencia, Dreadnok, and the Diviner are surprisingly tolerant of the Admiral’s peculiar behavior since they just gave her the old bonk on the noggin, which makes sense and gives her some cover. And yet, the rest of the crew takes a page out of (god help me) “Turnabout Intruder” from The Original Series, knowing their captain well enough to recognize that this isn’t her, no matter how she presents herself. (In fairness, the fact that Dal-as-Janeway spits out her coffee in disgust is a dead giveaway.)
The most interesting thing for Dal in Janeway's body, though, is her conversation with The Diviner. It’s the most human, the most sympathetic, the most comprehensible he’s ever been. Frankly, I don’t know how to feel about that. Candidly, I pretty much wrote The Diviner off in the first half of season 1, when he was basically willing to sacrifice Gwyn to achieve his goals. It showed where his priorities lay, in a way that made it seem like he viewed his daughter as a means to an end, not an end unto herself.
And yet, in his moment of Janeway, he’s strangely sympathetic as a character. He does a good deed for Janeway, recognizing that she showed him kindness in a way he didn’t expect, something he feels creates a moral debt for him to repay. He explains that from his perspective, Starfleet was the villain, to where he thought (and still thinks) he’s been doing what’s necessary to save his civilization from an invader that rent destruction in his home. In the shadow of that, his willingness to give up his progeny to save his entire people could be seen as a “needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few” type situation, even if it’s the type of thing that feels more uncomfortable when he’s sacrificing someone else’s life rather than your own.
And most importantly, he asks the person he thinks is Janeway to look after his daughter if something were to happen to him. Maybe it’s just the way Zero scrambled his brain. Maybe it’s seeing the altruism of Starfleet in a way he’s been able to internalize. Maybe it’s being separated from her in a fashion which had an emotional impact he didn’t anticipate. Whatever the reason, The Diviner seems to genuinely care about Gwyn in a way that wasn’t clear in the first half of this season. And Dal, for his part, can relate to being willing to do anything to protect her, something revealing in the show’s most obvious budding relationship.
I still don’t know how I feel about a Diviner redemption tour. Some of what he did seems unforgivable to me. But the heart of Star Trek is rooted in the idea that it’s never too late to make the right choices, and to provide for the possibility for us all to become better people with the right environment and the right support. If nothing else, I appreciate making him a more complicated antagonist, whose motivations are comprehensible, even if I’m not ready to condone or forgive him as a character.
Janeway in Dal’s body is even better. Brett Gray isn’t quite to Mulgrew’s level with his Janeway impression, but he’s still quite good! He carries her regal bearing and surefooted demeanor, which helps establish the Vice Admiral’s presence even when she’s in the body of a young Starfleet wannabe.
I appreciate how her presence solves one of the major problems of this half-season in a clever way. The Protostar crew has been struggling to think up a way to communicate the danger their vessel poses to Starfleet. The problem, of course, is that any technological outreach risks spreading the harms inflicted by the construct. So I like the idea of using Zero’s well-established psychic powers and Dal’s nascent psychic powers to bridge the gap. And the fact that it goes both wrong (putting both Dal and Janeway in dicey situations) and right (succeeds in communicating the key info), gives it a nice balance of problems solved and new challenges to face.
But my favorite part of this one is Admiral Janeway meeting Holo-Janeway. There’s a natural spark that comes from the genuine article meeting her holographic counterpart. But I also appreciate that it happens at Holo-Janeway’s lowest point, where she’s punishing herself for what went wrong and exiling herself from the kids she’s come to care for. The poetry of Admiral Janeway providing the counsel that leads her out of darkness is perfection.
The Admiral comes with a simple message -- turn that mess into something beautiful. In other words, there will always be mistakes and errors in judgment. The trick, then, is to survey the situation and make the most of it. That’s a strong lesson to share with the show’s younger viewers. And what’s more it transforms the solution to a technical problem (the Admiral fixing Holo-Janeway’s corrupt programming) into an object lesson that leads to an emotional breakthrough (Holo-Janeway forgiving herself for her bad programming and resolving to help again). There’s something wonderfully elegant about it.
At the same time, though, I appreciate the fact that Janeway’s arrival creates problems too, it doesn’t just solve them. She promises to be an advocate for our young heroes, help them get a fair shake before Starfleet Command. Yet, she has to deliver the bad news to the rest of the Protostar crew: Dal is an augment, which means he’s forbidden from joining Starfleet. At a time when the young man is already feeling like he doesn’t measure up to the standard set by the Federation’s best and brightest, it’s easy to see how that could be a devastating emotional setback. And in line with the exploration of the topic on Deep Space Nine, and the budding examination of it on Strange New Worlds, it’s another chance to look at how the Federation could be turning past transgressions into current prejudices by denying people like Dal the same opportunities as their non-augmented brethren.
I’ll confess, despite all the great, heady material in this one, I did find the need for Dal and Janeway to make physical contact to switch back a little silly. It does, however, create a practical limitation to a nigh-magical solution, which I always appreciate. And between the ensuing space walk that gives Murf something meaningful to do, and the think-on-her-feet phaser blast from Janeway to make the connection, they find clever spins on an outsized situation. Hell, I even love that Dal’s erratic behavior in Jnaeway’s body has landed her in the brig, hindering her ability to help in the grand finale.
Overall, this is a real high water mark in Prodigy’s first season, one that puts its high concept premise to the highest and best use, finds good laughs in an out there setup, and delivers emotional moments from unlikely pairings. Some of the sharpest writing and storytelling the series has offered so far.