STAR TREK: PRODIGY
SEASON 1, EPISODE 6
SEASON 1, EPISODE 6
Kobayashi
Series: Star Trek: Prodigy - (2021 - current)Season: 1
Episode #: 6
Original Airdate: 01/06/2022
Writer(s): Aaron J. Waltke
Director(s): Alan Wan
Guest Stars
John Noble as The Diviner
Jimmi Simpson as Drednok
Robert Beltran as Captain Chakotay
Rene Auberjonois as Odo
James Doohan as Commander Montgomery "Scotty" Scott
Nichelle Nichols as Lt. Uhura
Leonard Nimoy as Commander Spock
David Ruprecht as the Captain of the Kobayashi Maru
Bonnie Gordon as the Voice of the U.S.S. Protostart Computer
Gates McFadden as Dr. Beverly Crusher
Brook Chalmers as a Klingon
Stardate: Unknown
Synopsis
When the U.S.S. Protostar disengages its protowarp drive, Hologram Janeway reveals something stunning: The ship traveled 4,000 light years in that short amount of time and is now in the Gamma Quadrant. It’s not clear how that happened — even Hologram Janeway is stumped — and it seems that the new drive is inoperable, so the ship will have to travel by more conventional means. Meanwhile, the crew approaches Dal in his quarters with a unanimous request: They want to set course for the Federation. Dal refuses and points out Murf hasn’t had a vote — which begs the question of where Murf actually is. After a search across the ship, they find him in the ship’s holodeck.
As Hologram Janeway introduces Dal and Jankom Pog to the holodeck, they stumble upon the Kobayashi Maru, which is a Starfleet test that is, by its nature, unwinnable. It’s designed to teach future captains that there are no-win scenarios and that sometimes you must accept loss — but Dal doesn’t know that. Janeway goads him into trying it out (it’s clear she knows he needs some training if he is really going to be the ship’s captain) and Dal falls for it. He asks for the best crew in Starfleet and gets Spock, Odo, Dr. Beverly Crusher, and Uhura on his Galaxy-class starship bridge.
Gwyn is still recovering in the ship’s sickbay, though she’s completely fine physically at this point, as Zero points out. It’s her mental health that’s the problem — Gwyn is coming to terms with the fact that her father picked the ship over her. That’s not an easy thing to accept but Zero has the solution. They point out that maybe finding the answer to some of the ship’s mysteries will help Gwyn come to terms with The Diviner’s decision. In a flashback to 17 years ago, we learn that he’s not the first to look for the Protostar — his people (who are dying) had been searching for it for years. And it turns out The Diviner isn’t the one calling the final shots; an organization called “The Order” is in charge, and by creating Gwyn to carry on the search after his death, The Diviner defied them.
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[ Screencap Index ]
Back on the holodeck, Dal is not having much success with the Kobayashi Maru. At first, he decides it’s not worth the effort and tries to leave the ship to its fate and run, which results in a mutiny. He receives terribly low scores and decides to take the test seriously. It’s Dal’s stubbornness versus the Kobayashi Maru, and it’s not going well for Dal. He eventually kicks Jankom Pog, who hilariously has been chronicling and narrating Dal’s failures, off the holodeck and replaces him with hologram version of Scotty.
Gwyn decides she needs to know why the ship was on Tars Lamora and what its original purpose. She turns to Hologram Janeway, but the answer is classified. It lies in a section of data that wasn’t translated because it’s in the language of Gwyn’s people.
Eventually, after many tries, Dal actually manages to make headway in the simulation, and it looks like he might beat this no-win scenario. It’s clear that he’s learning something about strategy and defying the odds, which is necessary for any ship captain. But so is the lesson of failure. Even with his creative thinking, the Kobayashi Maru test prevails, and Dal loses — and must come to terms with what that means, with the help of hologram Spock. “The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few,” he tells the Protostar’s captain, which helps Dal realize that the needs of the crew must come before his own needs — and fears about seeking the Federation’s help.
As Dal returns to tell the crew he’s accepted their decision to return the U.S.S. Protostar to the Federation, he stumbles upon an amazing sight on the bridge — all kinds of data unlocked by Gwyn. Though it will take some time to sort through all the newly uncovered data, the crew did learn a fascinating tidbit: The Protostar was a prototype captained by Chakotay. It’s not clear what went wrong, just that there was some sort of terrible situation, and the ship was boarded. It’s also unclear why Hologram Janeway has no memory of this previous mission.
Trailer
