Summary
- Star Trek: Prodigy season 2 remade a popular Star Trek: Voyager episode, "Shattered," enhancing the storyline significantly.
- Prodigy made "Cracked Mirror" an explicit remake of "Shattered" by having Chakotay reference his experiences during the Voyager episode.
- Prodigy improved on Voyager's "Shattered" premise by delving into separate timelines and expanding connections to the wider Star Trek universe.
Star Trek: Prodigy remade a popular Star Trek: Voyager time travel episode in season 2. Prodigy season 2 picked up almost directly from where season 1 left off, showing the further adventures of the former USS Protostar crew as they were pulled into a mission that ended up involving a time paradox and the fate of the multiverse. Along the way, Prodigy continued to take heavy inspiration from Star Trek: Voyager, showcasing the return of many Voyager characters and references to the older Star Trek series throughout its 20-episode season.
One of the major points of connection between Prodigy and Voyager is the return of Captain Chakotay (Robert Beltran), a main member of Voyager's cast of characters and the USS Voyager's former First Officer. Prodigy season 2 focused on the mission to locate Chakotay and did a lot to enhance his character in comparison to Voyager. One surprising way that Prodigy demonstrated its this connection was season 2's remake of a Chakotay-centric Voyager episode, one that Prodigy improved the overall storyline of significantly.
Star Trek: Prodigy Season 2 Remade Voyager’s “Shattered”
"Cracked Mirror" has a lot of similarities with "Shattered"
Prodigy season 2, episode 14, "Cracked Mirror" is a clever remake of Voyager season 7, episode 11, "Shattered." Both episodes feature a version of the USS Voyager being split into different time periods or parallel universes by an outside force. "Shattered" explored different periods from Voyager's past and possible future, while "Cracked Mirror" actually split the ship into separate timelines, many of them much darker than the primary timeline. Given Prodigy season 2's focus on Star Trek's multiverse, this change made a lot of sense for the episode.
Prodigy season 2 explored the multiverse more explicitly than any previous Star Trek project, reintroducing Wesley Crusher to help explain the different timelines and the Travelers' roles in protecting them.
Another significant similarity between the two episodes was that both featured Chakotay as one of the few people who could cross between timelines. "Shattered" put Chakotay decidedly in the role of the main character, and while "Cracked Mirror" also focused on Prodigy's young cast, Chakotay still played a huge part in the episode. To cement the connection, Chakotay even referenced "Shattered" during the events of "Cracked Mirror," saying "I’ve been through something like this before,” when discussing what to do next after the group found themselves trapped in a parallel universe.
How Star Trek: Prodigy Season 2 Improved On Voyager’s “Shattered” Premise
Prodigy took the "Shattered" premise and went a step further
Rather than doing a straight remake, the changes Prodigy made to "Shattered's" premise actually helped improve Prodigy's version of the episode. Focusing only on different time periods made sense for Voyager, but Prodigy's delving into separate timelines helped expand "Cracked Mirror" into an action-packed episode without a dull moment. It also allowed Star Trek:Prodigy to explore some amazing callback and connections to the wider Star Trek timeline, such as the return of the Enderprizians from season 1, and the Mirror Universe, which Voyager never got to depict. All of these things helped cement "Cracked Mirror" as a better episode.
