If you've been skeptical of Star Trek: Prodigy's young main characters think and act like actual kids do, and they're treated accordingly.

Star Trek: Prodigy is a smart introduction to the whole Star Trek franchise for fans of all ages. The first few episodes set up Prodigy's premise of Delta Quadrant kids escaping lives of despair when Dal R'El (Brett Gray) discovers a Starfleet ship, the USS Protostar. Star Trek: Prodigy season 1 follows the Protostar's journey to the Alpha Quadrant, which isn't as smooth as they would hope. This chronological list of Star Trek: Prodigy episodes might make your experience with Star Trek's excellent animated series a little smoother.

8 Star Trek: Prodigy Season 1, Episode 6 - "Kobayashi"

Prodigy Brings Back Returning Trek Stars—But Not How You Think

Aside from Hologram Janeway (Kate Mulgrew) and her crash course on the United Federation of Planets, Starfleet, and the Protostar's technology in Star Trek: Prodigy season 1, episode 3, "Starstruck", Prodigy does its own worldbuilding without many connections to the greater Star Trek universe in its first few episodes. Some may consider that a strength, but for those who want stronger ties to the franchise, Star Trek: Prodigy season 1, episode 6, "Kobayashi", delivers that in spades.

The title references the Kobayashi Maru test, which self-styled captain Dal undergoes on the USS Protostar's holodeck. Unlike Star Trek: Lower Decks' characters who are well-versed in Starfleet's recent history, Dal has no idea that his hand-picked holographic crew is made up of legends—or that he's supposed to lose. Star Trek: Prodigy lends authenticity to its cameos through archived audio (and the return of one Trek star), making "Kobayashi" a treat for longtime fans.

7 Star Trek: Prodigy Season 1, Episode 8 - "Time Amok"

"Time Amok" Is The Best Of Prodigy Season 1's Standalone Episodes

If there's one episode that can change a skeptical Trekkie's mind about Star Trek: Prodigy, I believe that episode is Star Trek: Prodigy season 1, episode 8, "Time Amok". The standalone episode uses a temporal anomaly to divide the USS Protostar crew, stranding each one in a zone where time moves differently. "Time Amok" reminds me of similar Star Trek: The Next Generation or Star Trek: Voyager episodes, where a sci-fi problem is solved through creativity, teamwork, and a process of trial and error.

The solution doesn't come as easily as it might to other Star Trek crews, and for good reason: the USS Protostar crew are just kids, no matter how competent they think they are. Star Trek: Prodigy acknowledges that these kids have a lot to learn. Success comes with solid character development for everyone, especially Rok-Tahk (Rylee Alazraqui), who pays a necessary but heartbreaking price. "Time Amok" asks its audience to put aside prejudice and have comion for others, while rigorous science saves the day. It doesn't get much more Star Trek than that.

6 Star Trek: Prodigy Season 1, Episode 13 - "All The World's A Stage"

"Live logs and proper!"

Star Trek: Prodigy season 1, episode 13, "All The World's A Stage", serves as a meta-commentary on our relationship to Star Trek as fans, while also being a heartfelt homage to the best of Star Trek: The Original Series. While your mileage might vary on how willing you are to accept the Enderprizians (yes, really) as a society, the fact that they've built their culture around the heroic tales told by a lost TOS-era crew member says a lot as Trek fandom—and in a good way.

The Enderprizians are reminiscent of the Thermians from Galaxy Quest, who also based their culture on a Star Trek-like 1980s sci-fi TV show that they very sincerely believed were "historical documents".

The Enderprizians aren't actually in Starfleet, and they're not even part of the Federation, but they live as though they are. It doesn't matter whether some of their facts are wrong, or their uniforms aren't quite authentic. What matters is the fact that the aliens take Star Trek's lessons about morality, curiosity, and empathy to heart, which inspires Dal, Gwyn (Ella Purnell), and the rest of the Protostar crew at a crucial point in their journey.

5 Star Trek: Prodigy Season 1, Episode 18 - "Mindwalk"

Like DS9, Prodigy Gets Funny Before It Gets Serious

Like Star Trek: Deep Space Nine's funniest episodes happening during the Dominion War, Star Trek: Prodigy season 1, episode 18, "Mindwalk", is the humorous calm before the curtain drops on Prodigy's first season. Dal's attempt to reach out to iral Janeway telepathically misfires, instead landing Dal's mind in Janeway's body, and vice versa. Brett Gray and Kate Mulgrew play each other's roles excellently, leading to hilarious results. But there is still an enemy to be defeated.

After "Mindwalk", Prodigy's overarching time-travel mystery culminates in Star Trek: Prodigy's two-part season 1 finale, the aptly-titled "Supernova". It's also definitely worth a watch, but the finale works best after watching Star Trek: Prodigy's entire first season, so you can see just how much the USS Protostar's young crew change in a short time.

4 Star Trek: Prodigy Season 2, Episode 4 - "Temporal Mechanics 101"

Star Trek: Prodigy's Second Season Keeps Up The Momentum

Star Trek: Prodigy season 2 is less episodic than season 1, so we're starting mid-adventure, with Star Trek: Prodigy season 2, episode 4, "Temporal Mechanics 101". While on a mission to rescue Gwyn from a temporal paradox in which she was never born, iral Janeway and the USS Voyager-A crew are the ostensible adults in the room, making sure that the kids' theories are sound.

And they are: "Temporal Mechanics 101" draws on previous Star Trek time travel episodes, from Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home to Star Trek: The Next Generation season 7, episode 11, "Parallels". Actual Star Trek science advisor Dr. Erin MacDonald plays a 24th-century version of herself to deliver the titular lesson, which fills kids and new audiences in on how time travel works in Star Trek. That information is going to be important for the rest of Star Trek: Prodigy's second season.

3 Star Trek: Prodigy Season 2, Episode 5 - "Observer's Paradox"

Downtime Shows Off The Prodigy Characters' Personalities

Star Trek: Prodigy season 2, episode 5, "Observer's Paradox", is a breather between action-heavy episodes that succeeds on the strength of all of Star Trek: Prodigy's characters being true to themselves. The Prodigy kids don't just get to walk away from causing havoc in the previous episode just because their harebrained scheme happened to work; there are still consequences for their actions. Each character has a different reaction to being punished, and a different potential solution to the seemingly time-sensitive mystery hanging over their heads.

Ronny Cox reprises his role as Star Trek: The Next Generation's iral Edward Jellico, who now stands in the way of iral Janeway completing the rescue mission that Dal and the other kids started.

"Observer's Paradox" shares some of the best qualities of "Time Amok", because the former Protostar crew work together to figure out a solution to the problem at hand, and they all respect Rok-Tahk's position as the team's preeminent scientist. The fact that they can only arrive at an answer when they work together—including cetacean crew member Gillian the Whale (Bonnie Gordon)—using each person's individual strengths, speaks to Star Trek: Prodigy's commitment to showing Star Trek ideals of cooperation and respect in action.

2 Star Trek: Prodigy Season 2, Episodes 9 & 10 - "The Devourer of All Things, Parts 1 & 2"

The Stakes Have Never Been Higher For Prodigy's Young Crew

The true stakes for the second season of Star Trek: Prodigy are finally revealed in its mid-season finale. Most impressively, Prodigy's complicated concepts are delivered to its young target audience in a way that isn't dumbed down or diluted. Star Trek: Prodigy seems to recognize how many of us were watching and grasping the technobabble in Star Trek: The Next Generation when we were young, and takes the same approach to explaining exactly how Prodigy fits into Star Trek's timeline and cosmology.

There is a surprise appearance from a legacy Star Trek character who turns out to be a perfect thematic fit for Star Trek: Prodigy. The reveal in "The Devourer of All Things" continues to do the same thing I loved about the legacy characters in Star Trek: Prodigy season 1. Instead of being a fan-service appeal to audience nostalgia, legacy characters always serve the stories of Prodigy's original characters. These are reasonable continuations for established Star Trek characters, which would naturally evolve to include new missions and new crews.

1 Star Trek: Prodigy Season 2, Episodes 11 & 12 - "The Last Flight of the Protostar, Parts 1 & 2"

The Protostar Crew Demonstrate What They've Learned

It's hard to talk about the two-part mid-season opener of Star Trek: Prodigy season 2, "The Last Flight of the Protostar", without giving too much away, but I will say this: these two episodes of Star Trek: Prodigy made me like Captain Chakotay (Robert Beltran), a feat that all seven seasons of Star Trek: Voyager did not do. We see Chakotay through the eyes of Prodigy's characters, and Dal specifically. And we see how the Protostar crew apply the lessons they learned in Star Trek: Prodigy season 1 to instill hope at a time when all seems hopeless.

The fate of Star Trek: Prodigy still hangs in the balance, since the show is currently neither canceled nor renewed for season 3. Numbers talk, though, and more viewers who are willing to give Prodigy a chance by watching, recommending, and re-watching can translate into eventually getting Star Trek: Prodigy​​​​​​​ season 3.

After "The Last Flight of the Protostar", the second half of Star Trek: Prodigy season 2 is an unstoppable ride, both literally and figuratively. The stakes get higher, the problems get harder, and these untested young people are thrown into a big mess that only they can solve, for reasons that are actually explained in the show. If any of these episodes have convinced you to give Star Trek: Prodigy a chance, going back to watch it from the beginning will lay out all the pieces of the show's time travel mystery and the whole story of the Protostar crew.