Star Trek: Voyager's fake starship, the USS Dauntless, on iral Janeway's new ship. In the first of a series of weekly iral's logs on Instagram, iral Janeway (Kate Mulgrew) reveals that the project lead on the construction of the Dauntless was former Voyager chief of engineering B'elanna Torres (Roxann Dawson). It's another link that strengthens the links between the more child-friendly Star Trek show with Voyager.
iral Janeway is currently in search of the missing USS Protostar, which went missing in the Delta Quadrant, much like Voyager did a decade prior. The Protostar was captained by Captain Chakotay (Robert Beltran). What happened to Chakotay after he abandoned the Protostar is still unknown, but the log reveals his original mission was to rectify mistakes made by the Voyager crew during their time in the Delta Quadrant. Janeway's new ship's namesake, the original Dauntless, is another reminder of those mistakes.
The Original USS Dauntless In Voyager Explained
The USS Dauntless appeared in Star Trek: Voyager's season 4 finale, "Hope and Fear," as a potential way back home to the Alpha Quadrant. The crew were led to the Dauntless by Arturis (Ray Wise), who had apparently translated a garbled Federation communication that contained the ship's coordinates. Beaming aboard the ship, the away team discovered that Star Trek: Voyager's Dauntless possessed a quantum slipstream drive, which was capable of traveling 60,000 light years in three months.
Unfortunately, the new Federation starship was revealed to be a trap laid by Arturis, who blamed Janeway's temporary alliance with the Borg for the loss of his homeworld and family to the Collective. Playing on the crew's desire to get back home, he tempted them with exactly the ship they would need to escape the Delta Quadrant. His hope was that they would be blinded to his true intentions by the enticing prospect that the Dauntless offered. Arturis was foiled in his plan, and was presumably assimilated when the Dauntless returned to Borg space. B'elanna's decision to name Janeway's new ship the Dauntless is, therefore, a nod to one of her biggest mistakes in the Delta Quadrant - trusting the Borg Collective of Star Trek.
How Janeway's New Dauntless Is A Better Ship Than Voyager
B'elanna Torres hasn't just used this new ship to troll her former captain; she's also been inspired by the original Dauntless' impressive technology. Voyager had previously attempted to replicate the quantum slipstream technology, getting 300 light years closer to home before it gave out. On finally returning to Earth, B'elanna clearly started work on introducing quantum slipstream drives to the fleet. This makes the new Dauntless one of the most powerful ships in the fleet, echoing Voyager's own top-of-the-line status when it first launched 12 years previously, in 2371.
It's currently unclear if the Dauntless is a better or faster starship than the Protostar, with its two warp cores and Proto-drive. However, the two ships must be fairly evenly matched for the Dauntless to be deployed in the search for Chakotay. There's a neat bit of symmetry in the Dauntless setting off to track down a missing starship in the Delta Quadrant, it is after all how Janeway, Chakotay and Torres first met in Star Trek: Voyager. In naming Janeway's new ship the USS Dauntless in Star Trek: Prodigy, B'elanna Torres ensures it will not only best the USS Voyager, but it will also fulfill Arturis' false promise of simplified travel between the Alpha and Delta Quadrants, hopefully bringing Chakotay and the Protostar home.
Star Trek: Prodigy streams Thursdays on Paramount+.