WARNING: Contains SPOILERS for Star Trek: Prodigy, season 2, episode 14, “Cracked Mirror”.
Summary
Star Trek: Prodigyreveals thatTuvix (Tom Wright) could have become a Starfleet captain if he hadn’t been murdered byStar Trek: Voyager’s Captain Kathryn Janeway (Kate Mulgrew).Voyagerseason 2, episode 24, “Tuvix” remains one of the show’s most controversial episodes, due to Janeway’s decision to kill a brand-new life form to save the lives of her crew. Tuvix was, of course, a hybrid of twoStar Trek: Voyagercharacters, Lt. Tuvok (Tim Russ) and Neelix (Ethan Phillips), and some Mylean orchids.
For years,Star Trekfans have pondered whether there was another way to deal with the Tuvix situation aboard the USS Voyager. For example,Star Trek: Lower Decksrepeated Tuvixby taking the situation to extremes to suggest that maybe Janeway was right to murder the Vulcan-Talaxian-Mylean hybrid after all. Now,Star Trek: Prodigyseason 2, episode 14, “Cracked Mirror” subtly provides a counter-argument to this by presenting an alternate reality where Tuvix lived to assume command of the USS Voyager-A.
Tuvix Actor Says Controversial Star Trek: Voyager Character “Had to Go”
Captain Janeway’s controversial “Tuvix” decision on Star Trek: Voyager is addressed by the actor who played Tuvix himself, Tom Wright.
Star Trek: Prodigy Reveals Alternate Starfleet Captain Future For Tuvix
“I was just getting used to Captain Tuvix’s Vulcan-Talaxian fusion cuisine.”
InStar Trek: Prodigyseason 2, episode 14, “Cracked Mirror”, the USS Voyager-A is caught in an interdimensional rift that splits the ship between multiple timelines. To free Voyager, and get back to theprimeStar Trektimeline, Captain Chakotay (Robert Beltran) and the young crew of the USS Protostar split up. While Chakotay and his team get trapped in the Mirror Universe,Zero (Angus Imrie) and Rok-Tahk (Rylee Alazraqui) visit an alternate reality where the USS Voyager-A is commanded by Captain Tuvix. Clearly, in this timeline, Captain Janeway chose not to kill Tuvix, allowing him to rise up the Starfleet ranks.
Perhaps the primeStar Trektimeline could have been a much happier place with Tuvix in it, after all?
Interestingly,Captain Tuvix’s USS Voyager-A is also staffed by the Enderprizians fromStar Trek: Prodigyseason 1, episode 13, “All the World’s a Stage”. In contrast to the Mirror Universe and maybe even the prime timeline, the Captain Tuvix reality seems like a pretty happy place to live. Not only is it a timeline where Captain Janeway never murdered Tuvix, it’s a reality where the Starfleet superfan race, the Enderprizians get to live out their dreams of serving aboard a starship and exploring the universe. Perhaps the primeStar Trektimeline could have been a much happier place with Tuvix in it, after all?
The Enderprizians are a pre-warp species who were inspired by the teachings of Ensign David Garrovick, who crashed the Enterprise’s Galileo shuttle on Planet 0042692 in the late 2260s.
Tuvix & Voyager Made A Comeback In Star Trek: Lower Decks
The USS Cerritos had its own Tuvix situation inStar Trek: Lower Decksseason 4, episode 1, “Twovix”, when it was assigned to escort the USS Voyager back to Earth for an exhibition. While Janeway may have got rid of Tuvix, it’s revealed that Voyager still had Mylean orchids aboard, causing chaos for the Cerritos crew. When a stray petal attaches itself to Lt. Commander Andy Billups (Paul Scheer) as he enters the transporter with Dr. T’Ana (Gillian Vigman), T’illups is born. Fearing they’ll be murdered like Tuvix, T’illups begins hybridizing with the rest of the Cerritos crew, until they’re one giant mass.
Tuvix was less of an individual and more the sum of his parts, meaning that Janeway was right to let Tuvok and Neelix live…
The Cerritos’solution to Janeway’s Tuvix dilemmastill effectively kills the hybrid creature. However, Ensign D’Vana Tendi (Noël Wells) and T’Lyn (Gabrielle Ruiz) are able to identify personality traits that allow them to separate each member of the hybridized mass of flesh and reconstitute them. This implies that Tuvix was less of an individual and more the sum of his parts, meaning that Janeway was probably right to let Tuvok and Neelix live inStar Trek: Voyager, even if her brutally blunt method still rankles with fans.
All episodes ofStar Trek: Prodigyseason 2 are streaming now on Netflix.
Star Trek: Prodigy
Cast
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.
Star Trek: Voyager
The fifth entry in the Star Trek franchise, Star Trek: Voyager, is a sci-fi series that sees the crew of the USS Voyager on a long journey back to their home after finding themselves stranded at the far ends of the Milky Way Galaxy. Led by Captain Kathryn Janeway, the series follows the crew as they embark through truly uncharted areas of space, with new species, friends, foes, and mysteries to solve as they wrestle with the politics of a crew in a situation they’ve never faced before.
