WARNING: Contains SPOILERS for Star Trek: Prodigy season 2!
Summary
Star Trek: Prodigyintroduces a new Lurian character, who continues one ofStar Trek: Deep Space Nine’s longest-running jokes.Prodigyseason 2 sees Dal R’El (Brett Gray), and his fellow Starfleet hopefuls assigned to the USS Voyager-A for a top-secret mission. However, they’re not the only young officers aboard, as Voyager also has three Nova Squadron members, led by Ma’jel (Michaela Dietz), and including a young Lurian pilot called Grom.Star Trek’s Lurian species are best represented by the beloved barfly, Morn (Mark Allen Shepherd), who propped up Quark’s Bar throughoutDS9’s seven seasons.
Morn was named after George Wendt’s belovedCheerscharacter, Norm, and was the most loyal customer that Quark (Armin Shimerman) ever had inStar Trek: Deep Space Nine. There was also along-running joke about Morn inDS9, which claimedthe Lurian could never keep his mouth shut, despite him being silent in every single on-screen appearance. Recently, modernStar Trekshows have introduced their own Lurian characters, who have similarly appeared as strong, silent types. Now,Star Trek: Prodigyseason 2’s Morn successor brilliantly continuesDS9’slong-running joke.
Star Trek’s Dax Thought Morn Was Cute & 9 Other DS9 Reveals
Star Trek’s Morn may have kept to himself, but Dax’s favorite Lurian courier had a wild life that became a running joke on Deep Space Nine.
Star Trek: Prodigy’s Lurian Cadet Continues A Long-Running DS9 Joke
Star Trek: Prodigyseason 2, episode 15, “Ascension, Part I” continuesStar Trek: Deep Space Nine’s Morn joke in a brilliant way. At the start of the episode,Prodigy’s Nova Squadronare practicing flight maneuvers in the USS Voyager-A’s impressive new holodeck. As they prepare to pull off the incredibly difficult Boothby Supernova maneuver,Zeph (Sukrish Bala) chides his Lurian teammate to “cut the chitchat and concentrate”, to which Grom merely grunts in response. The joke works brilliantly because, as with Morn inDS9,Prodigy’s viewers haven’t seen Grom utter a single word in the previous 14 episodes.
Now thatProdigyhas continuedDS9’s long-running Morn joke, it makes it less likely thatStar Trekaudiences will ever hear a Lurian speak, and that’s good.
Grom is first seen inStar Trek: Prodigyseason 2, episode 1, “Into the Breach, Part I”, in which she dismissively stares down Dal and the Protostar crew. After that, Grom is a silent, but memorable background presence, just like herStar Trek: Deep Space Ninepredecessor. Now thatProdigyhas continuedDS9’s long-running Morn joke, it makes it less likely thatStar Trekaudiences will ever hear a Lurian speak, and that’s good.After over 30 years of jokes about Lurian chatterboxes like Morn and Grom, hearing them actually speak could never provide a satisfying punchline.
Morn speaks once, in the German language edit ofStar Trek: Deep Space Nine’s season 2 finale, “The Jem’Hadar”, where he’s heard to say “Dann nicht…” which roughly translates as “So much for that…”
Prodigy Sets Up Morn’s Species In Star Trek: Discovery
Star Trek: Discoveryseason 4, episode 1, “Kobayashi Maru” revealed that the Starfleet of the 32nd century had Lurian officers, one of whom served under Captain Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green).As the first Lurian cadet seen in timeline order, Grom inStar Trek: Prodigysets up this future forMorn’s species. Although Grom is still a cadet, their valuable assistance during the battle against Ascencia (Jameela Jamil) to preserve theprimeStar Trektimelinewill surely look impressive on their service record.
Star Trek: Discovery
Star Trek: Discovery is an entry in the legendary Sci-Fi franchise, set ten years before the original Star Trek series events. The show centers around Commander Michael Burnham, assigned to the USS Discovery, where the crew attempts to prevent a Klingon war while traveling through the vast reaches of space.
Star Trek: Prodigynever confirms if Grom is the first-ever Lurian to join Starfleet, but it’s a distinct possibility. As a regular at Quark’s Bar, Morn would have watched Nog (Aron Eisenberg) rise from overworked hospitality worker to Starfleet hero. It’s possible, therefore, that nobody on Luria was able to shut Morn up as he waxed lyrical about the heroic Lt. Nog’s actions during the Dominion War. Perhaps those stories inspired Lurians like Grom to follow in the footsteps ofStar Trek: Deep Space Nine’s Nog, setting up 800 years of collaboration between Starfleet and Luria.
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Cast
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, also known as DS9, is the fourth series in the long-running Sci-Fi franchise, Star Trek. DS9 was created by Rick Berman and Michael Piller, and stars Avery Brooks, René Auberjonois, Terry Farrell, and Cirroc Lofton. This particular series follows a group of individuals in a space station near a planet called Bajor.
Star Trek: Prodigy
Star Trek: Prodigy is the first TV series in the Star Trek franchise marketed toward children, and one of the few animated series in the franchise. The story follows a group of young aliens who find a stolen Starfleet ship and use it to escape from the Tars Lamora prison colony where they are all held captive. Working together with the help of a holographic Captain Kathryn Janeway (Kate Mulgrew), the new crew of the USS Protostar must find their way back to the Alpha Quadrant to warn the Federation of the deadly threat that is pursuing them.
