[Traditional_Ale]

Quark is easily my favorite character in the entire Star Trek franchise. He's so good that Colm Meaney just turned Quark into Thomas Durant for Hell On Wheels. Its uncanny, actually, and you could easily deepfake Quark's head and face onto Durant's body and aside from him being an alien there'd be zero change to the character, their intentions/motivations, hell even the speaking style.

I just binged the second season of Prodigy, and aside from Lower Decks (which I kind of have in its own bubble being a slapstick comedy) it is exactly the Trek sauce we've all been waiting for since Fat Riker killed Trip. 11/10.

SNW jumped the shark with that stupid effing musical.

DIS was a trainwreck start to finish. If they could of made it to season five Burnham by season two then I think it could of been saved.

PIC was an unmitigated disaster that saw my childhood space Dad who I admired so much turned into a bumbling and pathetic fool. A drunk that cosplays as a space pirate and pities himself. They ruined the rest of them as well, except for Crusher who they managed to actually turn into a legit badass and a total GILF.

Prodigy season one was great. Way, way better than I was expecting and although intended as a kid's show it is really not. Once in a while the writers will use a silly plot device to move a lot of story forward (just like most kids shows) but for the most part it is still just straight up Trek. The show feels like we did as kids watching and wishing to be there, and that is what makes it so good.

This second season of Prodigy is as Trek as it gets. Picardo and Beltran are both full time and absolutely shine. Actually, I'm shocked how good Beltran is. He had a couple scenes with one of the kids where I forgot I was even watching animation, and if they recorded that dialogue separately instead of in the booth together then both the director and the two actors deserve awards. Just outstanding.

The slightly undercooked animation is made up for by having a real orchestra and full score. Obviously that is where the budget went. I bet someone here on CP could likely recreate the Prodigy animation style in Unreal Engine. But its a small gripe, as I've always thought one of the ways to tell a stronger episode from a weaker one is if you took away the visuals could the episode stand on the audio alone. Prodigy certainly can.