Star Trek Introduces Its Own Version Of Loki's Miss Minutes

Warning: This article contains SPOILERS for Star Trek: Prodigy Season 2

Summary Star Trek: Prodigy season 2 introduces a version of Miss Minutes from Marvel's Loki to explain time travel complexities.

Prodigy's Dr. Erin Macdonald, voiced by real-life astrophysicist Dr. Erin Macdonald, teaches time travel through videos.

Both Star Trek: Prodigy and Marvel's Loki have similar entities (Travelers and TVA) ensuring universe balance and time flow.

To help explain the complexities of time travel, Star Trek: Prodigy revealed its own version of Miss Minutes (Tara Strong) from Marvel's Loki. Prodigy season 2 picks up about a year after the finale of Star Trek: Prodigy season 1. The ragtag crew members of the USS Protostar finally made it to Starfleet, and are working to prove themselves worthy of attending Starfleet Academy. As they continue their studies and share their expertise, Admiral Kathryn Janeway (Kate Mulgrew) recruits Dal R'El (Brett Gray), Gwyndala (Ella Purnell), and their friends for a mission aboard the newly commissioned USS Voyager-A.

Dal soon begins to suspect that Admiral Janeway and her senior officers may be hiding something, and he discovers a cloaked ship called the Infinity. Janeway plans to mount a search for Captain Chakotay (Robert Beltran), flying into the wormhole created at the end of Star Trek: Prodigy season 1. Unfortunately, Dal and his friends complicate matters by inadvertently taking the Infinity into the wormhole too early. After they accidentally alter the timeline, Gwyn begins to phase in and out of time, her very existence now a paradox. Confronted with complicated time travel problems, Dal finally decides to study Temporal Mechanics 101 as he and his friends turn the Inifinity into a time machine.

Star Trek: Prodigy & Marvel's Loki Explain Time Travel With Dr. Erin & Miss Minutes

Both shows incorporate fun little videos explaining some of the complexities of time travel.

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In Star Trek: Prodigy season 2, episode 4, "Temporal Mechanics 101," Dal has to quickly catch up on the mechanics of time travel. As his friends had been repeatedly reminding him, Starfleet offers a helpful lesson on this subject that Dal has yet to watch. Dal finally sits down to watch the videos, as Dr. Erin Macdonald walks him through the many complexities and complications of time travel. With her upbeat attitude and obvious expertise on the subject, Dr. Macdonald feels somewhat reminiscent of Loki's Miss Minutes, and the time travel explanation videos feel similar as well.

Star Trek: Prodigy's Dr. Erin Macdonald is voiced by the real-life Dr. Erin Macdonald, an astrophysicist and aerospace engineer who has served as the science advisor for the Star Trek franchise since 2019.

In Loki's series premiere, Loki (Tom Hiddleston) arrives at the Time Variance Authority, or TVA, with no knowledge of the organization or its purpose. Loki had inadvertently created an alternate timeline, and it was the TVA's job to remove Loki from that timeline to preserve the Sacred Timeline. When the TVA brings Loki in, they show him a video in which a little orange clock called Miss Minutes explains the Scared Timeline and the TVA's duty to protect it. With its retro animation style and chipper voiceover, the TVA's introductory video could have inspired Prodigy's Temporal Mechanics 101 video.

Star Trek's Travelers & Supervisors Serve The Same Purpose As Loki's TVA

Both entities seek to preserve the timeline and ensure the universes remain in balance.

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Loki and Star Trek: Prodigy season 2 have other similarities as well. Throughout Prodigy season 2, a mysterious entity sends messages to the Protostar kids, urging them to stay together. This entity is eventually revealed to be none other than Wesley Crusher (Wil Wheaton), who joined a group known as the Travelers in Star Trek: The Next Generation season 7. As a Traveler, Wesley can manipulate time and space, and he helps to maintain balance between the various universes. Although many of the details differ, the TVA and the Travelers both work to ensure time flows properly and the universes remain in balance.

In Star Trek: Prodigy season 2 and Loki season 2, the balance of their universes is threatened, and the shows' protagonists work to restore order and save the day. While Loki involves more time loops and jumps throughout various time periods, Prodigy focuses on closing one loop to restore the proper timeline. Still, both shows incorporate paradoxes and confusing time-travel shenanigans. Thankfully, Star Trek: Prodigy's Dr. Erin Macdonald does not turn out to be evil like Loki's Miss Minutes, but both characters help make time travel a little clearer with fun explainer videos.