Star Trek Continues DS9’s Longest Running Joke

WARNING: Contains SPOILERS for Star Trek: Prodigy season 2!

Summary Star Trek: Prodigy introduces a new Lurian character, Grom, continuing Deep Space Nine's long-running Morn joke.

Grom remains silent, like Morn, making it less likely for Lurians to speak in future Star Trek shows.

Grom's presence in Prodigy sets up the future for Lurian officers in the 32nd-century Starfleet.

Star Trek: Prodigy introduces a new Lurian character, who continues one of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine's longest-running jokes. Prodigy season 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 throughout DS9's seven seasons.

Morn was named after George Wendt's beloved Cheers character, Norm, and was the most loyal customer that Quark (Armin Shimerman) ever had in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. There was also a long-running joke about Morn in DS9, which claimed the Lurian could never keep his mouth shut, despite him being silent in every single on-screen appearance. Recently, modern Star Trek shows have introduced their own Lurian characters, who have similarly appeared as strong, silent types. Now, Star Trek: Prodigy season 2's Morn successor brilliantly continues DS9's long-running joke.

Related 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: Prodigy season 2, episode 15, "Ascension, Part I" continues Star Trek: Deep Space Nine's Morn joke in a brilliant way. At the start of the episode, Prodigy's Nova Squadron are 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 in DS9, Prodigy's viewers haven't seen Grom utter a single word in the previous 14 episodes.

Now that Prodigy has continued DS9's long-running Morn joke, it makes it less likely that Star Trek audiences will ever hear a Lurian speak, and that's good.

Grom is first seen in Star Trek: Prodigy season 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 her Star Trek: Deep Space Nine predecessor. Now that Prodigy has continued DS9's long-running Morn joke, it makes it less likely that Star Trek audiences 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 of Star 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

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Star Trek: Discovery season 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 in Star Trek: Prodigy sets up this future for Morn's species. Although Grom is still a cadet, their valuable assistance during the battle against Ascencia (Jameela Jamil) to preserve the prime Star Trek timeline will surely look impressive on their service record.

Star Trek: Prodigy never 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 of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine's Nog, setting up 800 years of collaboration between Starfleet and Luria.