Warning: SPOILERS for Star Trek: Prodigy Season 1, Episode 17 - "Ghost In The Machine"


Although Star Trek: Picard introduced the 25th-century era, Star Trek: Prodigy has now moved even further into this exciting new frontier. The second half of Star Trek: Prodigy season 1 is set in 2384, but the series' backstory involves the mystery of what happened to Captain Chakotay (Robert Beltran) and the USS Protostar after they launched into the Delta Quadrant in 2383. Star Trek: Prodigy season 1, episode 16, "Preludes," revealed the answer: the Protostar entered a temporal anomaly and arrived at Solum 50 years in the future.

The fate of Captain Chakotay factors heavily into the events of Star Trek: Prodigy season 1, and it affects the greater Star Trek franchise as well. The Protostar reached Solum decades after Starfleet made First Contact with the Vau'Nakat's homeworld. Civil war erupted over whether Solum should join the United Federation of Planets, and the Vau'Nakat's society was decimated after decades of conflict. The Vau'Nakat blamed Starfleet for their troubles, and the arrival of the Protostar enabled their revenge. The Vau'Nakat took Chakotay prisoner and installed the Living Construct, a weapon that can destroy Starfleet, on the Protostar. But Chakotay managed to send the Protostar back through time, although he remains stranded on Solum in the 2430s.


Star Trek: Prodigy Set Up The 25th Century After Picard


Captain Chakotay's ordeal means Star Trek: Prodigy has now gone beyond the 25th-century setting of Star Trek: Picard. With the exception of Star Trek: Discovery's 32nd-century setting, Star Trek: Picard had been the farthest point the franchise began to continuously explore, with Picard season 2's 'present-day' set in 2401. Chakotay is stuck at least 3 decades beyond this point on a hostile alien world with no known means of escape, although the temporal anomaly that brought him to Solum presumably still exists.

As of Star Trek: Prodigy season 1, episode 17, "Ghosts in the Machine," Vice Admiral Kathryn Janeway (Kate Mulgrew) doesn't know where (or when) Chakotay is. Her mission aboard the USS Dauntless was to find Chakotay, and she presumed he was still the Captain of the Protostar. Janeway had just unlocked some answers that the teenagers who currently crew the Protostar are "the Unwanted," child slaves who escaped Tars Lamora and the grip of the Diviner (John Noble). Unfortunately, the Diviner and his conspirator, Ensign Asencia (Jameela Jamil), knocked out Janeway and took her prisoner.

The 25th Century Is Star Trek's Next Logical Frontier


Paramount+'s Star Trek series take place in multiple eras: Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is in the mid-23rd century, Star Trek: Lower Decks and Star Trek: Prodigy both take place in the 2380s, Star Trek: Picard happens at the dawn of the 25th century, and Star Trek: Discovery is hundreds of years in the future during the late 32nd century. However, in order to rescue Captain Chakotay and his crew, Admiral Janeway (if and when she finally finds out what happens to him) will need to time-travel into the 25th century, and this is an exciting prospect for Star Trek.

The 25th century still continues the familiar but evolved iconography introduced by Star Trek: The Next Generation. Most Star Trek fans consider the TNG era to be Star Trek's 'present-day,' with Strange New Worlds as a prequel and Discovery as an outlier in the distant future. Star Trek: Prodigy planting a flag in the 25th century means the animated series can now create new canon to progress the TNG era decades after Star Trek: Picard ends. It promises an exciting glimpse of what Starfleet and the Federation will look like in the 25th century. But first, Admiral Janeway has to find out the truth about Captain Chakotay, who's waiting to be rescued in Star Trek: Prodigy's future.