How Star Trek: Prodigy pulled off the cameo-filled Kobayashi episode

Star Trek: ProdigyStar Trek: The Next Generation is an animated series that aims to provide an entry point for children who don’t know much about the 55-year old mythology. This is the On ProdigyA crew consisting of five youths and one indestructible creature (of indeterminate age), have taken control of the U.S.S. Protostar is a Starfleet vessel of high technology that they discover buried on an asteroid mining site. This was where their former prisoner, the Starfleet ship. With the help of a mentor holographic in the form of Voyager’s Captain Kathryn Janeway (voice of Kate Mulgrew), Prodigy The Protostar crew is gradually introduced to Star Trek’s key science-fiction concepts and philosophical principles.

In today’s new episode, “Kobayashi,” the Protostar’s self-appointed captain Dal R’El (voice of Brett Gray) wanders onto the ship’s holodeck and, seeking a way to win his crew’s respect, loads up an advanced command training simulation called “Kobayashi Maru.” He needs a crew, but rather than invite his comrades to play, Dal tells the computer to populate his simulated vessel with “some the best you got.”

[Ed. note: This article contains spoilers for the “Kobayashi” episode of Star Trek: Prodigy.]

In a flash, the bridge is manned by an array of familiar faces from Star Trek series past — Spock, Uhura, Scotty, Odo, and Dr. Beverly Crusher — all of whom are total strangers to the viewpoint character. Dal is a selfish teenager brat who bungles through the Kobayashi Maru tests, confusing his Starfleet team members with his ineptitude.

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It is easy to assume the whole team was behind. ProdigyIn the hope of inspiring fan interest and articles such as this, he simply put together a few legacy characters. But, according to episode writer Aaron J. Waltke, the story of “Kobayashi” actually began with a specific character need and grew into an increasingly complicated endeavor that allowed Waltke, a lifelong Trekkie, to create his dream holodeck episode.

“Very early on we wanted to balance a few things with the characters’ story arcs, specifically how quickly we introduce them to the world of Star Trek as most fans know them,” Waltke tells Polygon. “[We needed to] get Dal to realize that as much as he fantasizes about being in the Captain’s seat and ready for leadership, that maybe he still has to learn a thing or two. It dovetailed quite nicely into the discussion of ‘Well, what is the greatest leadership test in all of Star Trek?’”

The 1982 film was the first to feature this concept. Star Trek II: The Wrath of KhanThe Kobayashi Maru simulation is where a commander candidate takes control of a ship and leads it into hostile territory to rescue civilian passengers. What the player doesn’t know is that the test is fixed — no matter what they try, their ship is always destroyed by overwhelming enemy forces. It is meant to show a prospective captain how to handle failure as well the reality of potentially losing their ship, crew and life while on duty. James T. Kirk was famously cheated on the Kobayashi Maru. He reprogrammed the test and became the first person to successfully complete the mission.

Waltke discovered that the Kobayashi Maru is a well-respected piece of Star Trek legend, but that it was never shown on TV. Khan’s Wrath remained its latest appearance in Star Trek’s internal chronology. Since ProdigyIt was established 98 Years Later. ProdigyTeam felt confident that Starfleet had updated the test to include holodeck technology. The writers were free to alter the simulation for their purposes. Starfleet’s legends became non-player characters.

“If you look at Khan’s Wrath, it’s not just random ensigns or whatever that are at Starfleet Academy,” says Waltke. “It’s literally Spock and Uhura and Sulu. They’re there, as this all-star crew. You have the best crew that you’ll ever have. Now, how are you going to face this, cadet?” Waltke argues that, when compared to Khan’s depiction of the EnterpriseSenior staff administered the test to Lieutenant Saavik in a live-action play with all death scenes. Prodigy’s holographic fantasy draft is relatively plausible.

Bringing the premise to screen presented a host of challenges, not the least of which was deciding which characters would make the lineup, one of the geekiest workplace arguments that anyone’s ever been paid to have. It was the Prodigy writers room attempted to create the perfect Star Trek bridge crew, an exercise in which diehard Trekkies (Waltke included) have participated for as long as there’s been more than one cast to choose from.

It was difficult to agree on a crew. However, technical constraints of the episode made it possible for them to choose fewer people. Waltke strongly believed the characters needed to be voiced by their own voices. He sought out dialogue lines from older episodes that could be used for new scenes and then spliced them together.

Having the right line in the script wasn’t enough, either — the performance and sound recording also had to be the right fit. Waltke spent a lot of time searching for sound bytes. After reading through about 90 episodes, he rewatched 40 episodes to find the right matches. Then, he brought those specific timescodes into the Star Trek Archives, which houses the audio tracks.

“I’m not gonna lie, it was probably one of the hardest writing experiences I’ve ever had. Although it was rewarding in some cases, I did not always find the perfect line. In those instances I would then go to the audio store and record the dialogue. [actor] was just too far away from the 1960s microphones that were recording, or they were rattling something.”

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The animated episode was produced over a long period of time. Its first draft was published in 2019. However, it was completed in the last month. This required multiple trips back to the archives to rework the scene. One draft of the script featured eight holographic crew members, but the process of streamlining the scene meant Worf, one of Waltke’s personal favorites, was written out of the episode.

Waltke and his company finally put together functional bits of dialogue for Spock, Uhura (Nichelle Nichols), Scotty (James Doohan). Original SeriesOdo (Rene Auberjonois), from Deep Space Nine. Gates McFadden realized that Dal would require one character to have direct contact with him. Next Generation’s Dr. Beverly Crusher, returned to perform her character for the first time since 2002. McFadden even improvised a few lines, one of which — “The phenomenon of your stubbornness belongs in a medical textbook.” — made it into the final episode.

The difference in sound quality between the new and old sound recordings is definitely noticeable, but between the playful tone of the episode and the in-universe artifice of holographic simulation, it’s easily dismissed. Frankly, it’s also more charming that way: A truly seamless integration of the archive audio might actually be unsettling, considering that Nimoy, Doohan, and Auberjonois are dead.

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Prodigy doesn’t typically clutter its episodes with references to previous series (that’s squarely the domain of its sister show, Lower Decks), but executive producers Kevin and Dan Hageman let Waltke go “hog wild” on “Kobayashi.” Janeway introduces Dal and shipmate Jankom Pog to the holodeck by flipping through a few familiar scenarios, from the Vulcan kal-if-fee battle rites to the real Janeway’s well-worn Brontë program.

Of course, it’s important that all of this fanservice for longtime Trekkies doesn’t overwhelm the story. After all, none of these in-jokes and cameos mean anything to the show’s younger viewers.

“We specifically pivoted it in a way that there’s an irony there, so newer audiences can still be on the adventure with Dal. He’s with this dream team and has no idea who any of them are, but senses that they’re good at what they do. He thinks ‘aha,’ finally I have a crew that I can work with,’ only to find that the problem is with himself. So there’s a story there that works whether or not you understand any of the Star Trek references at all. But the fun was, if we’re gonna go there, why not pack as much stuff for the super-fans as we can?

“Let’s just make this the Trekkiest Trek that ever Trekked.”

Watch new episodes Star Trek: ProdigyParamount Plus airs a premiere on Thursdays.