The musical opening credit sequence for the latest "Star Trek" animated spin-off show, "Star Trek: Prodigy" has been revealed and it's gorgeous. Not only that, but we get a much better look at the lovely lines of the latest Trek starship to grace our screens: the USS Protostar.
The new show from streaming service Paramount+ and Nickelodeon will follow five kids who are incarcerated on an obscure planet in an uncharted part of the galaxy. They escape from their imprisonment and race across the planet to find a defunct starship buried in the sand of the planet's surface. They enter the ship, but are unable to make it work. With prison guards hot on their heels, they suddenly stumble upon an Emergency Training Hologram in the form of Captain Kathryn Janeway.
Now, a new video shows off the opening sequence for "Star Trek: Prodigy," just in time for the 55th anniversary of Star Trek today (Sept. 8). Even Kate Mulgrew, who will voice the Janeway hologram, tweeted her delight with the new opening sequence, with the theme by award-winning composer Michael Giacchino.
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She’s a beauty! What do you think of my new ride? 🚀 Kudos to the animation team for a gorgeous opening credits sequence and to @m_giacchino for scoring @startrek: Prodigy! @StarTrekOnPPlus 🎶 https://t.co/QksTrdDgfkAugust 31, 2021
If you look closely, you can see that the opening sequence actually incorporates elements of the characters from the show: the purple eyes of Dal (Brett Gray), the robotic encounter suit housing Medusan Zero (Angus Imrie), bubble-like globules of gelatinous Murf (Dee Bradley Baker), the powered glove of Tellarite Jankom Pog (Jason Mantzoukas), the left, upper half of teenage Vau N'Akat Gwyn's face (Ella Purnell) — plus the glowing red eye of Dreadnok (Jimmi Simpson), henchman of The Diviner (John Noble), two new announcements to the cast — and finally, the holographic version of Captain Kathryn Janeway.
We know that the USS Protostar carries the registration NX 76884, so it looks like this was an experimental ship of some kind.
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A protostar is a very young star that is still gathering mass from its parent molecular cloud and they have been mentioned in "Star Trek" before. The Enterprise NX-01 surveyed a protostar just before the incident at the Vulcan monastery at P'Jem in the "Enterprise" episode "The Andorian Incident" (S01, E07) and the Argolis Cluster was a protostar cluster mentioned in the "Deep Space Nine" episode "Behind the Lines" (S06, E04).
Interestingly, we learn in the "Voyager" episode "The Omega Directive" (S04, E21) that theoretically, a type-6 protostar could be used to generate a wormhole… So we suspect that this ship was an experimental vessel designed to somehow travel to the Delta Quadrant in superfast time by way of a wormhole.
This theory is further supported by the fact that the opening sequence shows a third — we presume — warp nacelle, emerging from the rear hull section and engaging before the vessel streaks off into the distance.
Related: Watch the first trailer for 'Star Trek: Prodigy'
In other related news, at the recent "Star Trek" Las Vegas convention, actor Robert Beltran, who starred along Mulgrew in "Voyager" as Commander Chakotay, said he was recording voice work for "Prodigy," but this has neither been officially confirmed nor denied, so we'll have to wait and see if he was just joking around or not, which he has been known to do at conventions.
Finally, Deadline reports that Annie Wersching will appear in a reoccurring role in season 2 of "Star Trek: Picard" as the Borg Queen. Alice Krige played the Borg Queen in "Star Trek: First Contact" and the Voyager series finale "Endgame" (S07, E24). Susanna Thompson also played the role in three episodes of "Voyager". Interestingly, IMDb has Wersching's TV debut listed as Kantare female named Liana in the "Star Trek: Enterprise" episode "Oasis" (S01, E20).
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