Warning: SPOILERS for Star Trek: Prodigy Episodes 1 & 2 - "Lost & Found, Part 1 & 2."
The series premiere of Star Trek: Prodigy proved that Star Trek's most important technology isn't starships like the USS Protostar. Star Trek's first animated series aimed at younger viewers is set on a bleak mining colony in the Delta Quadrant. When six teenage aliens — Dal (Brett Gray), Gwyn (Ella Purnell), Rok-Tahk (Rylee Alazraqui), Zero (Angus Imrie), Jankom Pog (Jason Mantzoukas), and Murf (Dee Bradley Baker) — find an abandoned Starfleet ship, the USS Protostar, they use it to escape the mining colony and its abusive master, the Diviner (John Noble). Luckily, the young heroes discover the Protostar has a training hologram of Captain Kathryn Janeway (Kate Mulgrew) to guide them on their new voyages.
Star Trek's technology is an essential part of the franchise and has been so influential that many of the gadgets have been turned into real-world items. Smartphones are essentially a combination of Starfleet's communicators and tricorders from Star Trek: The Original Series. Wall-sized HDTVs are real-world adaptations of the viewscreen on the bridge of the USS Enterprise. 3D printing is the beginnings of what could eventually become Star Trek's replicators and advances in holographic technology could someday lead to real-life holodecks. While the real world is still far away from starships that can travel through the galaxy with warp drives or transporters that can instantaneously beam people across the planet, Star Trek's future technology has long been an aspirational model for real-world inventions. In Star Trek, technology has saved the lives of Starfleet's heroes countless times.
However, Star Trek: Prodigy makes a compelling argument that the franchise's greatest technology is the universal translator because, without it, the myriad races in the galaxy couldn't communicate. In Star Trek: Prodigy's pilot, "Lost & Found," the fact that the Diviner banned universal translators on his mining world of Tars Lamora is the key to how he is able to enslave numerous alien races to toil for him. Except for Gwyn, the Diviner's daughter, and Drednok (Jimmi Simpson), his robotic enforcer, communication between species is banned on Tars Lamora. But all of that changed when Dal and Rok-Tahk found the USS Protostar and activated its systems. Although the Protostar allowed them to escape, it was a Starfleet badge's universal translator that allowed Dal, Zero, and the rest to speak to each other for the first time so they could work together to launch their found starship.
Star Trek: Prodigy's breakneck adventure is enabled by the USS Protostar, which is an incredibly fast starship that the Diviner is also desperate to possess. But the true theme of Star Trek: Prodigy's premiere was how vital communication is to working together toward a common goal. The Diviner is insidious for not allowing the various aliens he imprisoned to communicate but it ensured they could not join forces to rebel against him. Indeed, thanks to the universal translator allowing them to understand each other at long last, Dal, Zero, Rok-Tahk, and the others immediately found the common ground to work together and escape Tars Lamora aboard the Protostar.
The importance of the universal translator was even underscored by Gwyn before she came aboard the Protostar. Gwyn had her own grave doubts about her father, the Diviner, and she took pity on a young Caitian who was sold to Tars Lamora by a Kazon. Gwyn herself yearns to experience other races and other cultures, and she explained her belief that "every language is a window into a new culture" to the cat-alien she rescued. This is essentially Star Trek's classic philosophy of "Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations" reworded by Gwyn.
Star Trek: Prodigy reminded Trekkers new and old that it's the ability to communicate that allowed numerous alien species to work together to build the United Federation of Planets, just as it was the key for the Protostar's new crew to escape the Diviner. Star Trek: Prodigy is primarily an action-packed show designed to thrill younger audiences with breakneck adventure and endearing characters. However, Star Trek: Prodigy's laudable reaffirmation of the universal transporter's importance is also a crucial and very Star Trek-themed real-world lesson about how communication is the key to working together towards success.
Star Trek: Prodigy streams Thursdays on Paramount+.