Jankom Pog

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

Jankom Pog was a young Tellarite male born during the mid-22nd century, who spent two centuries in cryostasis before being revived in the late 24th century.

History[]

Early life[]

He was born on Tellar Prime sometime before the Federation was formed in the year 2161. (PRO: "Preludes") He had a habit of referring to himself in the third person. (PRO: "Crossroads", et al) At some point, Jankom's right hand had been replaced with a multi-mitt: a cybernetic implant that possessed a number of capabilities, such as turning into a hammer and functioning as a grapnel launcher. (PRO: "Dream Catcher") Jankom would later imply that he built it himself after his right hand was damaged beyond repair. (PRO: "A Tribble Called Quest")

An orphan, Jankom was thus enlisted for deep space missions and was sent in the Delta Quadrant aboard a Tellar sleeper ship of miners. He was accidentally awoken sometime before 2383 when his cryo-stasis chamber malfunctioned. "Assisted" by the robot Boxy, Jankom had to repair multiple system failures that threatened the old ship before returning to stasis. Boxy frequently required Jankom to state his name before asking a question, which over time resulted in him developing a habit of referring to himself in the third person. When Jankom finally finished repairing the ship, Boxy informed him that there was not enough oxygen left for the thirty crew members to reach their destination. Jankom then sacrificed himself by leaving the ship aboard an escape pod and was picked-up shortly thereafter by Kazon slavers. (PRO: "Preludes")

On the Protostar[]

He worked as an engineer at the Tars Lamora prison colony until 2383, when Dal R'El asked him and several others to assist in their escape on the newly-discovered Federation starship USS Protostar. (PRO: "Lost and Found")

Jankom was initially unaware of the subsequent formation of the Federation and his species' role as a founding member. On learning this, he claimed it made him royalty. (PRO: "Asylum") He was later knocked down a peg by fellow Tellarite, Noum, after he referred to Jankom as an "under-sized pauper", adding that, in Tellarite culture, the name "Pog" was reserved for runts, specifically, those "short in size and vocabulary." (PRO: "Crossroads")

Jankom suffered a crisis of confidence when he was unable to disable the living construct which was had been installed on the Protostar with the intention of destroying Starfleet. As a result, he was less than enthusiastic when the Protostar crew answered a mysterious distress call emanating from a seemingly pre-warp planet. Having been told by the natives, who called themselves Enderprizians, of a curse coming from a monster called "The Gallows" that lived in the woods. Pog, along with Rok and Gwyn investigated, only to discover that the "Gallows" was actually a Starfleet shuttlecraft called the Galileo which had been leaking plasma for over a century. That plasma had been interacting with native dilithium, which created a toxic run-off which had been contaminating the land. Jankom, who'd been studying 23rd century technology, bravely entered the shuttle, stating that if he couldn't fix this problem, he couldn't call himself an engineer. Ultimately, Jankom was able to eliminate the toxic run-off by causing the Galileo to fall into a cavern. (PRO: "All the World's a Stage")

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. When Starfleet vessels began attacking one another, thanks to the living construct, Dal decided that the only solution was to destroy the Protostar. When Jankom 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 Hologra Janeway declared that she should be the one to stay behind.

As Jankom and the others escaped on a bare-bones, makeshift shuttle that Rok created using the vehicle replicator, the Protostar destroyed itself in mid-jump, disabling the living construct.

A month later, Jankom and the others 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. Vice Admiral Kathryn 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, the crew, with the exception of Gwyn who'd decided to go to Solum to try to unite her people, would be permitted to serve under the admiral as Warrant officers-in-training. (PRO: "Supernova, Part 2")

On the Voyager-A[]

Over the next six months, Jankom and his friends attended a Starfleet Academy prep school. In preparation to enter the Academy, Jankom adopted a more polite personality and abandoned performing percussive maintenance, (PRO: "Into the Breach, Part I") later causing a frustrated Dal to dub him Mr. Polite. (PRO: "Temporal Mechanics 101")

Along with the rest of the former Protostar crew, Jankom was invited aboard the USS Voyager-A by Janeway for a secret mission, quickly finding himself enraptured by the ship's engineering section. Like all but Dal, Jankom was too focused on his studies to take an interest in the command crew's suspicious behavior until Zero discovered the existence of a secret shuttlebay and the Infinity. Janeway eventually revealed to the crew that their true mission was to travel through the wormhole that had been opened by the Protostar's destruction, but Starfleet Command was threatening to shut it down and Janeway was planning to keep it going with or without authorization. The crew agreed to keep the secret, but got into a scuffle with Nova Squadron when they found out. During the fight, Maj'el knocked Jankom out with a Vulcan neck pinch, causing him to fall and accidentally activate the autopilot launch sequence for the mission through the wormhole. (PRO: "Into the Breach, Part I", "Into the Breach, Part II")

Crashing on Solum in 2436, the makeshift crew discovered that they had arrived hours before Captain Chakotay launched the Protostar into the past after Jankom spotted the ship still parked nearby. Captured by the Vau N'Akat, Dal, Jankom, Zero, and Maj'el were brought to where Chakotay and Adreek-Hu were imprisoned. Jankom's bird jokes kept insulting the Aurelian first officer, but he played a pivotal role in the escape, using Adreek's hidden tricorder as a remote control for Jankom's multi-mitt which, having been left outside, was able to disable the force field. However, due to Dal dropping his disruptor in the melee, Chakotay and Adreek were able to escape through the wormhole with the Protostar, causing to not get sent to Tars Lamora and creating a temporal paradox. (PRO: "Who Saves the Saviors")

While the others investigated a mysterious message directing them to save Gwyn, Jankom attempted to repair the Infinity, later working with Zero and Maj'el to transform the starship into a makeshift timeship. With the Infinity failing to launch, Jankom reverted back to his old habits in a moment of frustration and resorted to percussive maintenance which, to his amazement, worked. The Infinity traveled back in time to the present and rescued Gwyn who was phasing in and out of existence due to the paradox. The same mysterious entity who had sent the crew to save Gwyn then repaired the Infinity so that they could return to Voyager, something that Jankom had believed was impossible to accomplish after the damage that the ship had sustained and how they had salvaged it in order to turn the Infinity into a time machine. (PRO: "Temporal Mechanics 101")

After returning to Voyager, Jankom permanently did away with his new more polite personality. He later created holo-duplicates of the Protostar crew with Zero and Rok to fool Voyager's crew into believing that the Protostar crew were still onboard while in reality they were chasing after the source of the mysterious message that Gwyn had received using the stolen Infinity. Unable to tell himself apart from his duplicate, Jankom briefly experienced an existential crisis. (PRO: "Observer's Paradox", "Imposter Syndrome")

After finding the Protostar marooned on Ysida, Jankom attempted to help cheer up Chakotay by fixing his Runaway, but Chakotay dismissed his efforts as the vehicle had been broken for years. However, Jankom succeeded in his efforts which proved to be vital when the crew needed the Runaway to search for the missing Dal. After Jankom used percussive maintenance to get the engine running, Chakotay expressed a liking for Jankom's favorite repair tactic. (PRO: "Last Flight of the Protostar, Part I")

During the effort to launch the Protostar, Jankom and Zero coordinated the effort to use the ship's Bussard collectors to gather the deuterium that it needed from a maelstrom on the other side of the planet's vapor ocean. Once the ship took off into space, Jankom reported that they had the impulse engines and the warp drive working again. (PRO: "Last Flight of the Protostar, Part II")

While searching for bosonite in order to build a new proto-core for the ship, Zero broke their leg during an attack by giant tribbles and Jankom accompanied their friend back to the ship where it turned out that the injury couldn't be healed as Zero's new body was starting to break down. Jankom awkwardly attempted to comfort his friend, telling Zero that when he encountered something that he couldn't fix, Jankom built something even better, displaying his multi-mitt. (PRO: "A Tribble Called Quest")

After the Protostar rendezvoused with Voyager, The Doctor was unable to fix the damage to Zero's body, meaning that they would soon need a new containment suit. However, The Doctor suggested using Starfleet's recent advanced in artificial physiology to give Zero an upgrade that would allow them to continue feeling sensations even in the suit. Zero agreed to the idea, accepting that both the good and the bad that would come with continuing to be able to feel. The Doctor offered to contact the Daystrom Institute but, much to Jankom's surprise, Zero asked him to do it instead. Zero explained that Jankom's skills were unparalleled, and they were hoping that he "could give it the old Jankom touch." Touched by Zero's request, Jankom agreed. (PRO: "Ascension, Part I")

Both ships were subsequently attacked by Asencia's Rev-1 and Chakotay called upon the kids to crew their old ship once more, although Dal replaced the injured Grom on Nova Squadron rather than joining them and Zero remained behind to help Grom and The Doctor. During the battle, Zero contacted Jankom to reveal that they were about to sacrifice their body in order to save Voyager from the Incursor, forcing Jankom to begin construction of Zero's new body immediately using the Protostar's vehicle replicator. After the Rev-1 was destroyed by Nova Squadron, Jankom and Zero introduced the others to Zero's new body which used Zero's original design, now perfected and upgraded by Jankom. Most importantly, Zero's new containment suit had sensory inputs, allowing them to continue to feel as Zero had wanted. (PRO: "Ascension, Part I", "Ascension, Part II")

Memorable quotes[]

"Ugh, she's hideous. Why is her forehead so smooth? Ugh."
"You're no summer peach either, Tellarite."
"Ha ha ha ha! Jankom Pog likes her."

- Jankom Pog and Hologram Janeway (PRO: "Starstruck")

"You know, Jankom swore he'd never been eaten alive… again."

- Jankom (PRO: "Asylum")

"Jankom Pog is so excited to be meeting a fellow Tellarite! Consider me underwhelmed."
"I consider you under… something. Undersized pauper."
"Hey, you're Starfleet? Pog needs to tell you… WHA? Pauper? We Tellarites are practically royalty!"
"Royalty? HAHAHA! "Pog"'s a name we reserve for runts, short in size and vocabulary.

- Jankom and Dr. Noum (PRO: "Crossroads")

Appendices[]

Appearances[]

Background information[]

Jankom Pog is voiced by Jason Mantzoukas.

According to his official Nickelodeon description:

A stubborn, stout, 16-year-old Tellarite engineer, Jankom Pog loves to tinker, fix, create, and reconfigure (even when he's not supposed to). Like all Tellarites, he rarely backs down from an argument, and loves to play "devil's advocate." Some might find him cranky, but Jankom always gets the job done and has yet to find an engine he can’t fix with his trusty Multi-Mitt. Jankom loves food and referring to himself in the third person. [1]

External link[]

• Jankom Pog at Memory Beta, the wiki for licensed Star Trek works