Summary
- Star Trek: Prodigy season 2 features a look at Admiral Janeway's new ready room with several Voyager callbacks.
- A spider decoration in Janeway's ready room may reference Janeway's time as Arachnia in the Captain Proton holodeck program on Voyager.
- Janeway's ready room contains other Voyager references, such as a USS Voyager model and a picture of her dog Molly.
Admiral Janeway's (Kate Mulgrew) ready room on the USS Voyager-A in Star Trek: Prodigy season 2 contains an obscure Star Trek: Voyager callback. After being canceled and removed from Paramount+ in 2023, Star Trek: Prodigy thankfully found a new streaming home on Netflix, and has kicked off its second season with a bang. Picking up where season 1 left off, season 2 follows the young former crew of the USS Protostar as they embark on a covert mission to save Captain Chakotay (Robert Beltran) from his imprisonment on Solum.
Prodigy's main cast of characters is joined by Admiral Kathryn Janeway and the crew of the newly minted USS Voyager-A, with Janeway's desire to rescue her close friend and former Number One acting as the driving force behind the season's plot. Prodigy season 2 is also chock-full of references and Easter eggs to Star Trek: Voyager thanks to the presence of Janeway and other characters like the Doctor (Robert Picardo). Some of these are easily noticeable, but others, like a particular decoration in Janeway's new ready room, were likely inserted for eagle-eyed former Voyager viewers.
Janeway's Spider Decoration In Prodigy Season 2 Could Be A Reference To Voyager’s Captain Proton Program
The spider might be a callback to Arachnia, Queen of the Spider People
In Prodigy season 2, episode 5, "Observer's Paradox," a look at Janeway's ready room reveals several of these smaller Voyager Easter eggs, including a possible reference to Captain Proton. In keeping with other Star Trek Captains from previous series, Janeway's ready room on the Voyager-A is decorated with a few personal touches, which are shown when she enters for a moment during episode 5. Among these decorations is a curious addition: a framed metal spider on the wall next to Janeway's Starfleet Academy diploma.
Prodigy season 2, episode 5 was written by Jennifer Muro and directed by Ruolin Li and Andrew L. Schmidt
The spider may seem like an odd choice, but could be a callback to one of Voyager's most memorable episodes. Janeway played Arachnia, Queen of the Spider People during a holodeck misadventure involving Tom Paris's (Robert Duncan McNeill) Captain Proton program in Voyager season 5, episode 12, “Bride of Chaotica!” Janeway’s stint as Arachnia is an unforgettable Voyager moment, and there's no better reason for spiders to be significant to her in Prodigy. Referencing "Bride of Chaotica!" shows just how closely Prodigy's creative team paid attention to important Voyager events from Janeway's past.
Other Voyager Easter Eggs In Janeway’s Prodigy Ready Room Explained
Janeway's Voyager-A ready room has a lot of Voyager references
Besides the spider, Janeway's ready room has several other Voyager callbacks that make it clear how important her most famous command still is to her. A model of the original USS Voyager, along with Janeway's combage and phaser from the ship, make up the most obvious references. Additionally, there is a picture of Janeway and an Irish Setter which acts as a reference to Molly, Janeway's dog who she left behind when Voyager became stranded in the Delta Quadrant. It is unclear whether the picture is actually of Molly or a new dog, but the callback is present all the same.
The other Voyager relics in Janeway's ready room serve as the final piece to tie the two shows together in episode 5.
The final and perhaps most significant Easter egg present in Janeway's ready room is Chakotay's palm stone with the CHAH-mooz-ee symbol etched on it. Prodigy subsequently shows Chakotay conveying the stone into Janeway's safekeeping before his initial mission on the Protostar. Chakotay's stone was first introduced in Voyager as part of his medicine bundle, and acts as an emotionally significant anchor between him and Janeway in Star Trek: Prodigy season 2. Its presence and the other Voyager relics in Janeway's ready room serve as the final piece to tie the two shows together in episode 5.
