Gwyndala

Warning! This page contains information regarding Star Trek: Prodigy, and thus may contain spoilers.

Gwyndala, more commonly called Gwyn, was a young female Vau N'Akat who lived during the late 24th century. She was the artificially created daughter of The Diviner and was sometimes referred to as his "progeny" or the "Progeny of Solum." (PRO: "Lost and Found", "Starstruck", "Kobayashi")

Gwyn lived on the Tars Lamora prison colony until 2383, when she was taken hostage by Dal R'El aboard the newly-discovered Federation starship USS Protostar. Eventually, she joined the crew as they fled the Diviner and searched for meaning and a new life in the Federation. (PRO: "Lost and Found")

Early life[]

In 2366, having grown weak over the years in his search for the Protostar, and with his species on the verge of extinction, The Diviner decided to create an offspring who would continue in his place, should he one day perish. Drednok was against the idea of creating an offspring, but reluctantly assisted The Diviner. (PRO: "Kobayashi")

Gwyn spent her childhood on Tars Lamora studying thousands of alien languages, which she called "windows into other cultures," and assisting The Diviner with negotiating slave deals and interrogating those that worked at the prison colony.

Despite her work, Gwyn displayed a penchant of caring for "The Unwanted", which at times led her to step out of bounds and speak on behalf of The Diviner, a power solely given to Drednok. She also showed sympathy for some prisoners by using softer interrogation methods than violence employed by Drednok and threatening a Kazon slave trader when he tried to sell a very young Caitian for half-price. She longed to leave Tars Lamora to see the stars.

USS Protostar[]

In 2383, The Diviner tasked Gwyn to interrogate Dal R'El for information about Zero. After R'El found the USS Protostar, Gwyn lost track of him, and eventually she was held hostage on the starship by Rok-Tahk, Jankom Pog and Zero after a fight. The Protostar then left Tars Lamora with Gwyn tied to the captain's chair. (PRO: "Lost and Found")

She was later transferred to the ship's brig. She briefly escaped when the ship was threatened by a binary star when power was transferred from non-essential systems. An attempt to flee the ship aboard an escape pod proved unsuccessful when all were jettisoned moments before she could board one. She then learned of the ship's vehicle replicator and attempted to use it to create a shuttlecraft but was stopped by Rok and was subsequently returned to the brig. (PRO: "Starstruck")

After being marooned with her de facto crew mates on Murder Planet, she briefly injured her leg and was forced to cooperate with them to survive. She was devastated when her father The Diviner chose to attempt leaving with the Protostar rather than rescuing her from the planet's dangerous Cilium-like vegetation. She ultimately fled the planet with the runaway crew, engaging the ship's Protostar drive to escape his pursuit in the Rev-12. (PRO: "Dream Catcher", "Terror Firma")

After fleeing The Diviner and joining the crew of the Protostar, Gwyn struggled to find a new role for herself on the ship as she recovered from her injuries and emotional trauma. With the encouragement of Zero, she realized her skills in language and interpretation were exceptionally useful, especially in cracking the unusual encryptions on the Protostar's logs written in the language of her homeworld, Solum, that were preventing Hologram Janeway from accessing some of her memories. These endeavors eventually revealed the identity of the ship's former captain, Chakotay. (PRO: "Kobayashi")

Gwyn proved instrumental in communicating with the Cymari, whose "language" was primarily told through manipulating matter via sound waves. (PRO: "First Con-tact") She also successfully altered Hologram Janeway's programming to prevent The Diviner from changing her code, and to give Janeway the ability to fight back against intruders.

In 2384, Gwyn confronted The Diviner on the Protostar's holodeck, where she learned that despite what she'd been told, her species the Vau N'Akat had not been driven to extinction yet, and that The Diviner was from approximately fifty years in the future. She was created to carry on The Diviner's mission to destroy the Federation before first contact with Solum could occur, which would drive them to civil war and the destruction of their civilization. Gwyn chose not to join her father's cause, insisting that "you can't trade on tragedy for another." Before she could warn her crew of this dark revelation, she was accidentally exposed to Zero's true Medusan form by glimpsing a reflection in Dal's combadge, damaging her mind and causing her to lose her immediate memories of the event. (PRO: "A Moral Star, Part 1", "A Moral Star, Part 2")

Guilt-ridden over what they'd almost done to Gwyn, Zero made it their mission to help her recover her lost memories. Though Gwyn did experience flashbacks, the details of the last conversation she had with her father remained elusive. Later, when the crew arrived at Federation outpostCR-721, Zero took Gwyn to the station's sickbay which they believed would have better equipment. After placing Gwyn into a biobed, Zero stepped out. At that precise moment, the Diviner's weapon was activated, and the station’s systems turned against itself, with multiple systems malfunctioning, including the doors to sickbay. Momentarily trapped in her biobed, which was filling with water, Gwyn caught some glimpses of memory, and was able to cut herself loose using her heirloom. When Zero was finally able to enter the room, Gwyn announced that she remembered everything –most importantly the devastating weapon Living construct hidden onboard the Protostar. (PRO: "Asylum")

Though the crew was able to locate the Living construct, located in a subdeck beneath the bridge, the powerful weapon could not be disabled or removed. (PRO: "Let Sleeping Borg Lie") Eventually, thanks to the Living construct, the Protostar crew no longer had control of the ship and was headed for the heart of Federation space, where it was met by an armada of Starfleet vessels. At the same time, the Diviner, the Vindicator Asencia, and Drednok, boarded the ship to ensure that the Living construct was activated. While Drednok immobilized the rest of the Protostar crew, the Vindicator and the Diviner went to the bridge where they found Gwyn. Concerned about his loyalty to his daughter, the Vindicator tricked the Diviner into checking on the living construct and locked him in the subdeck.

Armed with her own Vau N'Akat heirloom, the Vindicator engaged Gwyn in a vicious sword fight. Though Gwyn was able to land a blow that left a scar on the other woman's face, the Vindicator got the upper hand, while calling Gwyn a "mistake that shouldn't exist".

When the Diviner escaped, the Vindicator quickly used Gwyn as a hostage so she could control him. However, he used his mind to send Gwyn’s heirloom towards The Vindicator's face. Unfortunately, she countered this by catching it and throwing it straight into his abdomen, landing a fatal blow. As the Vindicator escaped with Drednok A to complete their mission, the Diviner died in his daughter's arms and evaporated around her.

With the Living construct activated, Starfleet vessels became contaminated and, not only began attacking one another, but Universal translators were disabled as well, fleetwide. Luckily, Gwyn's knowledge of languages paid off and she calmed a terrified Rok and Jankom.

Suddenly, Dal got the idea that, since the living construct only affected Starfleet vessels, they should ask others for help. With approval from Vice admiral Kathryn Janeway, Gwyn sent a distress call and successfully contacted a Klingon captain named Trij, who, after an impassioned plea from Gwyn, agreed to render aid. Unfortunately, thanks to automatic distress calls, more and more Starfleet vessels were arriving and becoming contaminated. (PRO: "Supernova, Part 1")

Finally, Dal decided that the only solution was to destroy the Protostar. When Pog stated that that would destroy everything in this solar system, Rok countered that it wouldn't if they set the ship to explode as it was going into proto-drive. Unfortunately, since the self-destruct was off-line, the core would need to be detonated manually. Dal volunteered to go down with the ship. but Holo Janeway declared that she should be the one to stay behind.

As Gwyn and the others escaped on a bare-bones shuttle that Rok built using the vehicle replicator, the Protostar destroyed itself in mid-jump, disabling the Living construct.

A month later, the Protostar crew made it to Starfleet Headquarters on Earth. where they found themselves in front of a Starfleet tribunal where they faced various criminal charges, such as stealing a Federation starship. Admiral Janeway argued on their behalf that the kids did everything in in an effort to warn Starfleet. thanks to the admiral's impassioned speech, all criminal charges were dropped and although they weren't allowed immediate entrance into Starfleet Academy as they hoped, five of them would be permitted to serve under the admiral as Warrant officers-in-training. When the group asked why only five, they learned of Gwyn's intention to travel to Solum to try to unite her people and avoid the disasterous civil war. As a result of her mision, Zero christened her The Unifier. (PRO: "Supernova, Part 2")

Personal interests[]

Gwyn was trained extensively by the Diviner in starship mechanics, astrophysics, linguistics, and information technology, which she eventually realized was to prepare her for operating the Protostar. She spoke many languages besides her native language, including Klingonese and Federation Standard, as well as those used by the Kazons, Caitians, and Dal R'El. At the prison colony, she had a facility that allowed her to study languages, which she believed to allow her to understand new cultures. She favored speaking in Standard; her father considered the language "primitive", but nonetheless consented to communication with it between the two of them. (PRO: "Lost and Found", "Starstruck", "Dream Catcher")

She also possessed a professed level of martial arts skills and was equipped with an heirloom composed of malleable matter that she could control with telekinesis. (PRO: "Lost and Found", "Terror Firma", "A Moral Star, Part 2")

Appendices[]

Appearances[]

Background information[]

Gwyn is voiced by Ella Purnell.

According to her official Nickelodeon description:

This 17-year-old Vau N'Akat always dreamed of exploring the stars. Gwyndala is an expert in languages and heir to an otherworldly weapon made of living matter. She was tricked into joining the U.S.S. Protostar crew, and reluctantly becomes their Communications Officer. Even though her father, the Diviner, is an evil tyrant, she still highly regards his opinion of her. Gwyn is smart, strategic, fearless, and always calculating her next move. [1]

According to StarTrek.com, she possessed a natural ability known as neuroflux. [2]

Concept art for the character was developed by art director Alessandro Taini.

External links[]

• Gwyndala at StarTrek.com
• Gwyndala at Memory Beta, the wiki for licensed Star Trek works