Star Trek’s Evil Janeway May Be Starfleet’s New Enemy

Warning: SPOILERS for Star Trek: Prodigy Episode 9 – “A Moral Star, Part 1”

The evil version of Hologram Janeway (Kate Mulgrew) introduced in Star Trek: Prodigyepisode 9 could turn out to be an even bigger threat to Starfleet. Janeway has been guiding the young alien teenagers who commandeered the USS Protostar and teaching Dal R’El (Brett Gray), Gwyn (Ella Purnell), and their friends the values of the United Federation of Planets. Meanwhile, the avatar of Star Trek: Voyager‘s Captain Janeway has been confused about her own deleted files and loss of memory, but the takeover of the Protostar by the Diviner (John Noble) and Drednok (Jimmi Simpsons) finally offers some potential answers in the form of the evil Hologram Janeway.

In Star Trek: Prodigy‘s 2383 era, Admiral Kathryn Janeway is considered to be one of Starfleet’s greatest heroes, by virtue of her guiding the USS Voyager home after seven years in the Delta Quadrant and the number of first contacts and exploration her starship achieved. Although the real Kathryn Janeway is incorruptible, Star Trek has shown a few evil versions of Janeway before. In the Star Trek: Voyager season 4 episode “Living Witness,” a Kyrian in the 31st century created an evil holographic version of Captain Janeway and the Voyager crew. More recently, in Star Trek: Prodigy episode 4, the living planet the Protostar landed on manifested an evil version of Janeway to frighten Dal. There is presumably a Mirror Universe version of Janeway that hasn’t been seen in Star Trek canon, although Kate Mulgrew is voicing both Captain Janeway and the Mirror Universe’s evil Marshal Janeway in the Star Trek: Online game.

In Star Trek: Prodigy episode 9, “A Moral Star, Part 1,” Dal, Gwyn, Rok-Tahk (Rylee Alazraqui), Zero (Angus Imrie), Jankom Pog (Jason Mantzoukas), and Murf (Dee Bradley Baker) agreed to return to Tars Lamora to rescue the rest of the Unwanted, who are the other young aliens enslaved by the Diviner. The bargain they struck with the villain was to give the Diviner the USS Protostar and its Proto Drive in exchange for liberating the Unwanted. Of course, the Diviner immediately betrayed the young heroes since he got the two things he sought most: the Protostar and his progeny, Gwyn. When Hologram Janeway protested, the Diviner told Drednok to override her program and the robot transformed her into Corrupted Janeway, who serves the Diviner.

The question is: Has Corrupted Janeway appeared on the Protostar before? In the previous Star Trek: Prodigy episode, “Time Amok,” Drednok used the Protostar’s vehicle replicator to create a version of himself called Dred 2. When Dred 2 invaded the bridge, Hologram Janeway recognized him as Drednok accused the machine of wiping her memory. Dred 2 responded, “Close, but not quite” before he disabled the Janeway Hologram. But did Drednok previously enter the Protostar when Captain Chakotay (Robert Beltran) was in command? Further, did Drednok turn Hologram Janeway into Corrupted Janeway before, and was the evil hologram the cause of what happened to the Protostar’s original crew? It’s possible Chakotay was ambushed by the corrupted hologram of Janeway, one of his dearest friends.

Whether or not she attacked Captain Chakotay and led to his crew abandoning the Protostar, Corrupted Janeway is a formidable threat to Starfleet. As an Emergency Training Hologram, Corrupted Janeway is aware of all Starfleet regulations and protocols. She is also integrated with the USS Protostar’s systems, giving the Diviner complete control. It’s still not clear why the Protostar is the Diviner’s “salvation,” and what the Vau N’Akat plans to use the fastest ship in Starfleet for in the grand scheme of Star Trek: Prodigy. But if he intends to attack the Federation, the Diviner has a dangerous Number One in Corrupted Janeway who can threaten Starfleet the way only an evil version of Captain Janeway can.

Star Trek: Prodigy streams Thursdays on Paramount+.

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