Of course, Trekkies would likely prefer to hear from actors that they are as learned in “Star Trek” as most diehard fans. “Star Trek” is a vast and complicated universe and I think many Trekkies would be comforted to know that the actors they watch every week are just as sensitive to continuity as they are. Not so with Gray. When asked about how much “Star Trek” knowledge he entered “Prodigy” with, Gray was frank, saying:
“You’re not going like this answer. I tried to barely prepare it all. I was really nervous coming into it. I thought maybe I should watch every ‘Star Trek’ and I should go learn about everything; see who the people are and things like that. But as I was reading the scripts for the first season, I realized that I could discover this all as myself with Dal. I don’t know if that was the right way to do it but I feel like it’s freed me up so much.”
To be fair, ignorance would actually aid Gray in creating a character like Dal. If the character had never heard of Starfleet, then it would stand to reason that the actor shouldn’t have either. Dal and Gray could, then, go on parallel growth arcs, learning about “Star Trek” through snippets of knowledge, all while offering their own eye-rolling, irreverent viewpoint. Dal didn’t find Starfleet sacred, allowing Gray, as he said, to do more with his character. Indeed, when it came to a known element of “Star Trek” narration, Gray said that his ignorance impressed the producers.
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