Warning: SPOILERS for Star Trek: Prodigy Season 2
Summary
Star Trek: Prodigy’s new humpback whale, Gillian, is a legacy character descended from Leonard Nimoy’sStar Trek IV: The Voyage Home.Gillian is the USS Voyager-A’s navigation whale who resides in the Lamarr Class starship’s Cetacean Ops.Gillian is named for Dr. Gillian Taylor(Catherine Hicks), a whale biologist from 1986 who traveled to the 23rd century with Admiral James T. Kirk (William Shatner) and the crew of the USS Enterprise to care for the two humpback whales Kirk brought back to the future, George and Gracie.
Responding to an X post by Bonnie Gordon (@BonnieBellG), who voiced Gillian the humpback whale via the USS Voyager-A’s universal translator and ship’s computer,Star Trek: Prodigyco-executive producer Aaron J. Waltke confirmed that Gillian is, in fact, descended from George and Gracie, thewhales fromStar Trek IV: The Voyage Home.Read their X posts below:
When Star Trek: Prodigy Takes Place In Star Trek’s Timeline
Star Trek: Prodigy has numerous connections to Star Trek: Voyager, but when do the adventures of the USS Protostar occur in Star Trek’s timeline?
Star Trek: Prodigy & Lower Decks Finally Showed Cetacean Ops
A longstanding TNG in-joke is now a real thing
Cetacean Ops has been an actual Starfleet divisionaboard starships since it was first referenced inStar Trek: The Next Generation’s technical manual.Cetacean Ops was occasionally referenced inStar Trek: The Next Generationbut was never shown, due to the prohibitive expense and logistics of showing dolphins and whales in live-action. However, this isn’t an issue withStar Trek: Lower DecksandStar Trek: Prodigy, which have depicted Cetacean Ops and their whale residents in all of their glory.
Today, it’s hard to imagine Star Trek ships without helpful whales aboard.
OnStar Trek: Lower Decks’USS Cerritos, Cetacean Ops is occupied by Kimolu and Matt, a pair of (horny) Beluga whales who routinely invite crew members to swim with them. Gillian the humpback whale inStar Trek: Prodigyis the latest whale to make up Cetacean Ops aboard the USS Voyager-A.Cetacean Ops' whales perform a vital role as navigators of starships,which originated from the work of Dr. Gillian Taylor and the humpback whales George and Gracie fromStar Trek IV: The Voyage Home. Today, it’s hard to imagineStar Trekships without helpful whales aboard.
