Star Trek: Prodigy Almost Made Janeway Captain of the Enterprise, Until Kate Mulgrew Said No

By the clip Voyager returns location from the Delta Quadrant astatine the extremity of its seven-season run, Kathryn Janeway has seen much successful her circuit of work than astir Starfleet captains spot successful their lifetimes (even if she and her unit got to skip retired connected that whole, y’know, cataclysmic interstellar warfare thing). So it makes consciousness that she rapidly shoots up Starfleet’s ranks into Admiralty, and is offered a clump of plush positions—but it besides makes consciousness that she’d importune connected returning to her ain pugnacious small ship.

One of those plush positions astir became a happening successful Star Trek: Prodigy’s 2nd season, which yet begins streaming connected Netflix contiguous aft a long, unusual road to merchandise saw it ushered distant from Paramount. In the caller season, with Prodigy’s young alien heroes having made their mode to Starfleet and helped prevention the day—earning their spot among the adjacent procreation of Academy cadets—they are tasked with joining Admiral Janeway connected a unsafe rescue ngo to find her erstwhile archetypal serviceman and the missing skipper of the experimental vessel Protostar the kids spent play 1 racing astir in, Chakotay. To bash so, Janeway heads retired connected a recently refitted Voyager-A, but she astir commandeered a acold much prestigious vas successful the signifier of Starfleet’s flagship, the Enterprise.

Prodigy is acceptable astir 2384, which means astatine the clip the Enterprise successful cognition is either the Sovereign-class Enterprise-E—although a vessel with its registry is seen successful Prodigy’s play 1 finale having been heavy damaged, if not destroyed outright—or its travel up, the Odyssey-class Enterprise-F. They’re some beauteous awesome ships, arsenic acold arsenic the Enterprise goes, but... they’re nary starship Voyager. I may beryllium slightly biased, but hey, truthful is Kate Mulgrew herself, arsenic she should be: due to the fact that seemingly erstwhile told that Janeway could commandeer the Enterprise successful Prodigy, the histrion down her flatly refused.

“There was a infinitesimal wherever we were playing with the thought that [season 2's ship] could beryllium the Enterprise instead,” Prodigy co-creator Dan Hageman told IGN successful a caller interview. “We [asked] Kate, ‘What bash you deliberation if you’re the caller skipper of the Enterprise,’ and she was not thrilled. She’s like, ‘I’d alternatively it beryllium the Voyager.’”

Putting speech that Voyager is 1 of the all-time large Star Trek vessel designs, giving Janeway a refit of her home-away-from-home successful the Delta quadrant connected a ngo to relocate Chakotay of each radical conscionable makes sense, for the sentimentality of it all. Plus, in-universe, the Voyager herself astatine this constituent is an admired and beloved ship successful its ain rights, a champion of Starfleet’s exploratory ideals successful having survived the champion portion of a decennary successful a far-flung assemblage of the postulation with small successful the mode of Federation support. It’s lone fitting that Janeway get a accidental to astatine past spot what Starfleet could bash successful a souped-up refit of her astir beloved ship, alternatively than conscionable handing her the Enterprise similar it’s a prize for passing into Admiralty.

Sure, a vaunted Admiral is “worthy” of the flagship, but possibly we should beryllium asking: is the Enterprise worthy of Kathryn Janeway?

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