‘Star Trek: Prodigy’ creators Kevin and Dan Hageman talk the collision course in the back half of season 1

Star Trek: Prodigy marked a number of firsts for the beloved science fiction franchise. It is completely done in CGI animation, and is geared towards a younger audience. The story follows a rag tag crew of young misfit aliens who come upon an abandoned starship and take their first unofficial steps to follow the great explorers of Starfleet.

The series premiere was close to a year ago and we haven’t received any new episodes since last February. Star Trek: Prodigy is set to return October 27, and we were able to speak with creators and executive producers Kevin and Dan Hageman. They discussed what to expect in the back half of the season and revealed some interesting tidbits on Thadiun Okana, a heritage character that becomes a sort of guide to the crew of the Protostar.

AIPT: When we last left Star Trek: Prodigy, Zero is able to incapacitate the Diviner but Gwyn is also inadvertently affected as well. How does this event shape the dynamic of the crew moving forward? Particularly, is there any tension between the two most involved?

Dan Hageman: I can say the information that Gwyn learns at the end of episode ten is vital information that is needed for the crew. That’s something that in the back half ends up coming out that alters the course of them trying to get to Starfleet.

Kevin Hageman: I’ll also add, I think it’s okay to share that that moment with Gwyn is going to set Zero on a trajectory. Our show starts off with these kids who are the worst of the worst, right? And they don’t really know their places on the bridge and their roles. I think this moment of feeling like Zero hurt Gwyn is going to put Zero on this trajectory of medicine and helping heal others because Zero used to be a weapon and now they’re choosing to heal.

AIPT: Speaking about the other characters, a big mystery from the start of the show is the origins of Dal. He’s a species of unknown origin and he doesn’t have a big recollection of his childhood. The New York Comic Con trailer teases we’ll learn more about his backstory. Will this tie in to the greater narrative as a whole or is it something to bring more insight and context to Dal himself?

D. Hageman: I think your origin story obviously will bring context to your life, but it’s also, depending on what you find out your origin story is, whether it’s helpful or hurtful I think it’s up to the person today to see how that defines them. We definitely want to explore that relationship.

K Hageman: I think it’d be fair to say we did not want Dal’s secret origin to suddenly become a Star Wars film or something. You are the destined child of Captain Kirk. No, no, no. We wanted a more grounded, real discovery for him.

AIPT: You have described this second half as having a The Fugitive feel with Janeway chasing after the Protostar. Could you elaborate on that a bit more? In the film, Tommy Lee Jones has this crochety, “I don’t care” attitude. Do you think the Vice Admiral will soften her stance a little bit when she finds out they’re just kids?

D. Hageman: Speaking of The Fugitive, yes there’s a crotchety aspect of Tommy Lee Jones, but that wasn’t what we wanted to highlight. It’s more or less, you understand Richard Kimble’s position and you understand the Tommy Lee Jones character’s position. This is a collision course of two people.

K Hageman: You love them both.

D. Hageman: You root for both.

K Hageman: Whenever you cut to Tommy Lee Jones and his crack team, I love those guys. You know what I mean? You’re rooting for both sides. What’s going to happen?

D Hageman: There’s that moment when he [Kimble] says, “I didn’t do it,” and he [Jones] says, “I don’t care.” His job is just to apprehend the bad guy or apprehend the criminal. From Admiral Janeway’s position, she needs to find that ship [Protostar] to find out what happened to Chakotay and these kids just so happened to have commandeered it. That’s going to be a collision course. Then we also set up that there is a weapon on this ship that cannot be within the vicinity of a Starfleet ship so that’s another problem to be had. You understand why they’re running away. You understand why they’re being chased after.

AIPT: Much has been said about the return of Billy Campbell’s Thadiun Okana. You had mentioned that in the writer’s room, you always wanted to have him be a questionable guide to the young crew. What about the character made you want him to cross paths with our protagonists?

K Hageman: I think we tried to get Han Solo, but it was a different franchise so we went with Billy Campbell.

D Hageman: We loved him in the “Outrageous Okana” and we knew, or we had a fair assumption that no one else would use him <laughing>. It’s not like he’s going to show up in Picard so we’re like, “I think we can get this guy.”

AIPT: Just a sort of follow-up. You mentioned how no one else was going to use him. Star Trek: Prodigy exists in its own corner of the universe but you aren’t afraid to incorporate familiar faces onto the series whether it’s been through simulations or meeting the actual character. What’s that process with the higher-ups when you’re considering bringing back a previous heritage or legacy character?

K Hageman: We talk to the other showrunners first. We say, “Hey, we’re thinking of doing this.” And people will say, “Oh, we’re using that person too.” We’ll have conversations to make sure we’re not hurting each other.

D Hageman: If any of the other shows want to use Janeway, we don’t want Kate Mulgrew to feel like we own her character and no one else can touch her. No.

K Hageman: We want to see her in a live action aspect.

D Hageman: They would come to us because they know we’re using her character a lot on our show. Hey, they have an idea on how they can make it work on this other show or whatever and we would talk. With Okana, I think we had included Okana, and then Mike [McMahan] wanted him in Lower Decks. He was like, “Oh, I was hoping to use him as a DJ for this one little bit.” And we’re like, “Okay, we’re doing a little bit more than a DJ.”

K Hageman: Just put an eye patch on him and we’re good.

D Hageman: Yeah, so we said, here’s our design. He has an eye patch. He’s a little overweight. He’s kind of gone through some stuff. He’s like, “That’s great!” So, now you have eye patch Okana in Lower Decks.

AIPT: What are you most excited for viewers to see in this back half of the season?

K Hageman: I’m so excited for the finale. We’ve said this before. Kevin and I have worked on close to 200 episodes of television and this is one of our favorites. This is something where everything you’ve been watching so far has been building up to the moment. We feel the team, Ben Hibon and the team really delivered a dynamite episode; episode 20.

Star Trek: Prodigy returns Thursday, October 27, on Paramount+.