Star Trek: Prodigy – Season 1, Volume 1
Like many fans, I wasn’t quite sure what Prodigy would turn out to be. I very much wanted it to be something that could help get a new generation of fans interested in Star Trek. The opener with a variety of alien kids forced into labor on a remote asteroid may not be what you expect, but it sets the stage for who these kids are and the hurdles they’re facing. Once the ragtag group finds the USS Protostar with Hologram Janeway onboard, it becomes clear this show understands Trek—what we all love about it, and exactly how to show (both the audience and) our main characters the fundamentals of what it means to be part of the Federation and Starfleet. It’s a delightful show with a ton of heart, and well-written characters who slowly grow to become better-rounded, more actualized versions of themselves now that they’re free from slave labor on Tars Lamora, guided by the gentle wisdom of Holo Janeway. “Kobayashi” and “Time Amok” are standouts in this first batch of 10 episodes.
Dal in the 24th-century Kobayashi Maru simulator with “Jellyman,” “Earpiece,” and “Pointy Ears.”
The Blu-ray set
The first 10 episodes of the season and special features are available on two Blu-ray discs. As we’ve come to expect for a Paramount/CBS home video release, each disc has the names of the episodes it contains printed on them, as well as a full listing for the set on the inside back of the case. For those who want it, the season is also available on plain old DVD as well. A little bonus inside are four character cards with more details about the show, the Federation, Starfleet, etc. on the back.
Blu-ray set with bonus character cards
Video quality
Prodigy is a rather unique-looking show; the obvious comparison people want to make is to Star Wars: The Clone Wars, but it’s not quite like that series, and it’s certainly not like a Pixar movie. The design sensibility is unique and generally stunning. As a modern high definition-era cartoon everything looks sharp, lines are crisp, and the colors of alien vistas along with of the varied shades and colors of the main characters look punchy as one would expect. Now on disc, it certainly looks as good as, if not better than, what you can see streaming.
The Diviner and Gwyn look at the ruins of Solum
Audio quality
The episodes have losslessly compressed DTS-HD MA 5.1 channel soundtracks. Prodigy sounds great—it’s got quite the cinematic soundscape for something that’s “just” a kids’ show, and composer Nami Melumad’s episodic scores are a highlight of each episode.
Rok-Tahk loves just about anything cute and furry.
Special features
The features included aren’t the deepest dive: Most are rather typical “press kit” things that we’ve read in interviews from the creators around the release of the show. There are also no audio commentaries. Star Trek fans love the music of the shows, so the total lack of anything about developing the Prodigy theme by film and TV (and Star Trek movies) veteran composer Michael Giacchino or the excellent episodic scores from Nami Melumad is a shame.
Documentary features
Disc 1
The Kobayashi Maru (4:04)
Breezy piece with Kevin and Dan Hageman talking about the legendary Kobayashi Maru Starfleet test. This was a bit of missed opportunity to show even more about the making of the episod, how much effort went into finding the clips, and how they recorded new audio with Gates McFadden.
Disc 2
Trek Tradition (11:06)
The origins of Star Trek: Prodigy and how Kevin and Dan Hageman were asked by Alex Kurtzman to create an onramp to Trek for new fans.
The Prime Directive (3:15)
Prodigy prop designer Jack Rossi shares how he created the first onscreen full-text version of Starfleet’s Prime Directive for “First Con-tact.”
The Protostar Pack (28:33)
This feature consists of subsections you choose from the menus. One for each of the seven main Prodigy characters (Dal, Gwyn, Jankom Pog, Rok-Tahk, Zero, Murf, and Hologram Janeway), along with some interviews with a few of the cast members who voice them, plus comments from the showrunners on the assembled cast. Audio clips of the auditions for the voice actors are also included, which is kind of neat to hear.
The Protostar (13:37)
The USS Protostar
Bridge
Transporter Room
Cargo Bay / Hangar
Crew Quarters
Engineering / Warp Core
Holodeck
Nacelles
Another feature with subsections you choose from the menus. Director Ben Hibon and several other members of the art, prop, and animation teams discuss their design process for the inside and outside of the ship.
Gadgets & Gear (17:22)
Trek Gadgets & Gear
The Runaway
Gwyn’s Heirloom
Tricorders & Phasers
Hologram
Vehicle Replicator
Food Replicator
Cloaking Device
This final feature also has subsections to choose from. Prodigy prop designer Jack Rossi and concept artist Gus Mendonça run through various props and devices found around the USS Protostar, plus Gwynn’s special heirloom.
Final thoughts
As usual, we recommend getting Trek shows on disc for completists or anyone who wants an offline copy of the show; this includes those who cannot or do not want to stream the show and folks who have concerns about the fleeting rights to streaming media.
This disc release is handled by Nickelodeon, not CBS, so unlike other TV show releases, there hasn’t been any announcement of when other regions might get the show on disc. The discs themselves are all region coded so they can be viewed on Blu-ray players in any region, so if international fans wanted to import this Blu-ray disc set from North America it should work without issue.
Holo Janeway explains the time anomaly in”Time Amok”
Available now in the USA on Blu-ray and DVD
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Trekmovie team, I’m sorry, but 2 sentences on picture quality in a physical release review are not enough. The 1st sentence devoted to how the show looks and another saying the pq is “not worse than on streaming” is again – not sufficient. Please do better.
Should they describe every pixel for you? I think they did a good job.
Feel free to read reviews of movies releases on physical media available elsewhere. You’ll learn how much detail one can describe without resorting to “describing every pixel”. Otherwise I would just not put a separate section titles “video quality” in my review and just limit it to 2 sentences, none of which tell us anything really.
Exactly!
I think he just wanted a bit more info on the quality than that throwaway line. Seems reasonable to me given it’s a freaking BR review, and the video quality is usually covered in more detail than it is here.
No sense answering with an extreme counter-example.
Not cool.
If they’d only put “looks good; no issues,” then that would be plenty sufficient for me.
If they did the same with “Special features” section – 2 sentences with no meaningful information – would you be satisfied with such a “review”?
Your question is based upon a flawed premise. It’s necessary to describe the contents of the bonus features in order to review them, especially when it’s being assumed that most potential purchasers may be swayed one way or the other by that value-added material.
It isn’t necessary with image quality. In most cases that’s a binary (good/bad) proposition, which needs no expounding upon.
Not sure what you’re looking for, but you opted to be demeaning, and with no good reason for it at all.
Hi premise is not flawed at all. In every BR and 4K review I read, I want info on the quality of the presentation. It’s perfectly reasonable to suggest that the reviewers provide more detail than just a throwaway line.
I will agree that the wording he used could have been nicer though, but I don’t think it’s over-the-top negative either.
What info do you want on the quality of the presentation? Please be specific.
Sure, bluray.com gives a 5 point rating scale for the audio and video quality — something simple like that would be nice, even if it’s a bit subjective. But especially when they make a comparison between two formats (like they did hear between the streaming and the BR), they do need provide a bit more detail, like in this example where they compare a 4K BR to a BR video:
The image is well improved from the Blu-ray. The overall clarity differences are fairly striking, with the 2160p resolution presenting a pleasing gain to sharpness overall and frame definition in general.
All that being said, I don’t really have any heartburn over Trekmovie’s review here. The thing that bothered me was a number of you kind of jumped all over Pah Wraith just because he wanted just a bit more info on the video quality in this review of a BR disc product — I totally get that he wanted more info and don’t see what the big deal is with him asking the reviewers to dive into this with a bit more detail next time…whoopdie freaking doo!
The big deal is the “do better.” That phrasing implies a lack of respect for the reviewer, and for the site; the “please” is presumably designed to soften it, but it’s still a bit much in my opinion.
A simple “how does the video look compared to streaming?” would have stated the desire for additional information in a polite manner. This commenter wanted to chastise first and get more info second.
“But especially when they make a comparison between two formats (like they did hear between the streaming and the BR), they do need provide a bit more detail” — Not if they don’t want to, no. Maybe you want more info, but this is a Trek site, not an av site focused on the minute details that most viewers will never notice. They can write the review as they see fit.
Sure — I agree that the poster used overly strong and impolite wording.
Here is the problem I have with your second point though. The review says:
Now on disc, it certainly looks as good as, if not better than, what you can see streaming.
The big problem is that this very general statement doesn’t tell me that I should definitely expect a better picture on the BR disc versus streaming. So then, if I did not specifically know that BR disc video quality is almost always significantly superior to streaming (which has all those compression and other detriments), why would I want to buy this product? The statement is a throwaway statement that I suspect is not even accurate.
So certainly, another sentence or two with a bit more info on the video quality would have made for a better, more accurate review that could help someone determine whether they should buy the product or just continue to have access to it on streaming. I mean, if I was not educated on the video quality of BR’s, I would read that and just stick with having access to it on P+.
So weird how all you asked for here was more detail in the review on the quality of the video and yet you are getting slammed for daring to ask that? WTF?
“Do better” is demeaning, and just presumes that anyone, anywhere wants a technical specification to make a buying decision, which is a flawed premise. For the average lay person, a simple, easily understood plain English features and benefits review is plenty sufficient. Simply asking for some detail, instead of trashing the review, and those who prepared it (who are likely volunteering their time) is Karen level arrogance. The only thing missing from the comment was an all caps demand to speak to the manager.
from blu-ray.com for anyone that would like to know about the video quality
Star Trek: Prodigy‘s 1080p Blu-ray presentation looks good outside of a few glaring issues, which appear to trace back to the source. These include some severe aliasing/jagged edges seen throughout the season and some banding that ranges from mild to moderate, again scattered throughout the season. Otherwise, the image is fairly strong, offering good, high yield clarity and definition to character models and environments. Viewers will be able to soak in character details, starship elements, and various landscape elements with highly impressive definition. Colors are bold and satisfying, with a diverse range of character colors and background elements all offering vivid depth and satisfying tonal nuance and accuracy. Outside of those aforementioned trouble some issues, this is a very satisfying release.
A couple of things.
Stop with the pile on about Pah Wraith’s critique, it’s been debated to death.
I would say animation is a bit harder to judge. It isn’t like live action where there’s a lot of extra depth in dark scenes or especially complex lighting, etc. that might be better handled with a higher bitrate.
As the Blu-ray.com review copied in this thread says. It looks good, there are a few minor issues, but they appear to be in the original source. As such I couldn’t really say if it looked significantly better than streaming, it certainly looks as good as streaming, if not better. The show looks great no matter the format.
About the critique that I wasn’t as descriptive as some would like, I’ll give you that, but at the same time for someone looking to collect this on disc, they’re already going to get this on disc for the reasons I always mention at the bottom of home video reviews. Unless there’s a glaring issue, folks who want to have a physical copy are likely going to get this release.
What the heck is even the point in splitting up the season like this?
I agree. I’m hoping for a later release on Bluray with both volumes. I’m going to wait.
Splitting the season up may have to do with a number of factors production-wise, but releasing it physically like this? Simple greed imo, sadly. If I were to consider a purchase here, which I might someday, it would have to be at least the whole season, and even then Used, from EBay.
Kind of reminds me of the old VHS days, when you’d receive two episodes of TOS at a time in the mail and thought it was the best thing in the world. I think the entire 3 seasons cost me about $600 when all was said and done. I’m all for collecting physical copies of favorites, but Paramount/CBS/Trek has been notoriously ridiculous for decades.
Oh someone figured out how capitalism works. It’s not just Paramount though. Every time I turn around the Star Wars films are being rereleased. Everyone does this kind of thing. It’s bad regardless of who it is.
I love how so many chastised me here for me stating my position here that the second set of eps should be called Season 2 because of the year+ break, and also because most season of streaming shows now are 10 eps. People told me, “nope, the studio said it’s Season 1 still, you are wrong.”
Well a call out now to all of you “sheep” who always believe what the studio tells you — now that the studio is breaking up up the disc sets JUST LIKE THEY WOULD DO FOR 2 SEPERATE SEASONS, I am calling BS on all of you who tried to shut me down on that. :-)
So like I said, what we just watched, that was freaking Season 2. If the studio charges us for two seasons, then it’s two freaking seasons. Told you all so! LOL
Have you been absent from watching television for the last two decades? This is a ridiculous thing studios do now, for contractual reasons. It’s annoying, and in some cases maybe even craven, but YOU don’t get to decide what the seasons are called. The people bankrolling them do. End of story.
be (like) sheep
If a group of people are (like) sheep, they all behave in the same way or all behave as they are told, and cannot or will not act independently.
– Cambridge Dictionary
So yeah, you are making this too complicated. If we as fans in general, mock and don’t accept crap like this in large numbers, then eventually the studios will take notice and make changes. But this won’t happen, because most fans are like sheep when it comes to the BS stuff Paramount has always given Trek fans over the years — like this moronic idea of claiming these last 10 eps were S1.
And the fact that you just accept this and say “end of story” totally rubber stamps this practice by Paramount. :-)
Shouldn’t you be busy buying thing from Alex Jones?
I am on the way other end of the spectrum from that scumbag.
This is not political anyway. This is about using your common sense as a consumer and not accepting truly nutty marketing ploys from P — we should all as fans just mock this everywhere — conventions, online, etc, to embarrass the studio into not doing this anymore.
Yeah, this is a pipedream, but nevertheless I am right. :-)
Unfortunately, we do live in a capitalist world. If Paramount needs to make a little extra profit on sales so they cankeep bringing us new Star Trek AND physical media releases, which are pretty important to me, then I’m fine with that. I don’t mind paying to support something I love.
Enough with the bickering about the release strategy. It is was it is. Closing this thread.
Sadly, mine — which I got from Amazon — didn’t come with the cards. I can live without them, I guess. I enjoyed the bonus features, but now that you mention it, I agree; there should have been something about the music.
Is it multi-region or Region A (if you have the bluray)
My review mentions the region coding:
I’m very excited to own this set, and very happy that CBS/Paramount has released it. Streaming is fine, but discs are forever. Looking forward to Season 1, Volume 2!
(Disney/LucasFilm: *please* release your Star Wars content on physical media – I’m begging you…)
Well, since it’s release here in Germany 3.rd January the Blu-Ray is Sold out until today. So.. well…. I need a lot of Patience
They want to push their Streaming Service
Nobody expect it
Keep the 34$ up (DVD)
I’m 40 and found Prodigy pretty enjoyable.
The DVD release unfortunately is not region free, according to the back cover it is region 1.