In “The Devourer of All Things,” Star Trek: Prodigy delivers a magnificently fantastical two-parter that ups the stakes and elevates the show into the stratosphere. The natural continuation of the overarching time paradox dilemma is explored and expanded in unexpectedly delightful ways. Its blend of half high-concept sci-fi and half classic creature-feature is invigorating.
 
Our crew has finally arrived at the mysterious coordinates, and we have earned the Enterprise theme reference Gwyn (Ella Purnell) makes in her personal log as it has, indeed, been a long road. And at first it seems like it was all for naught, as they do not see a planet where it should be. We are treated to a delicious run of technobabble as they sort it out.
 
First, our resident science officer Rok-Tahk (Rylee Alazraqui) notices that the asteroids appear to be orbiting some kind of strange attractor — which made my fluid dynamics-loving heart happy. And then when Gwyn hypothesizes that the whole planet could be out of phase, like her, Rok comes up with the Star Trek solution, involving remodulating the shields using the transporter’s Heisenberg compensators. I could eat it with a spoon.
 

When the planet reveals itself, the Infinity touches down in an expansive structure that truly does seem to be of both the past and the future. It’s beautiful: meticulously engineered and dusty, sands of time flowing off the geometric edges. It’s later referred to as a ziggurat, which was honestly a new word to both my kids and to me. I love that! To my kids, the ziggurat had the feeling of a temple from The Legend of Zelda series and the sense of foreboding as our crew tentatively walked around added to the feeling that this was definitely going to turn out to be a boss-battle level.

They come across a giant statue of what appears to be a random alien to the crew and to my kids, but to us older fans is immediately recognizable as The Traveler. We hear echoes of a conversation about leaving this plane or staying to save it. When I watched initially, I has assumed it was pieced together from old dialogue, but I was tickled to see the name Eric Menyuk in the credits. A very surreal, cool cameo.

And the surreality rolls on, as our crew comes across a 20^th century Earth vault door (Doesn’t every ziggurat have one?). Jankom (Jason Mantzoukas) prepares to bust it open, but no need as the door begins to open on its own. My kids had absolutely no idea who was going to appear on the other side of that door. By this time, I had figured it out, and yet, still, when grown Wesley Crusher (Wil Wheaton) introduces himself I have to admit I felt a little goosebumpy!

My kids could tell that this was a BIG reveal, so we paused when they asked me who that was. My oldest was delighted when I told her he was around her age when he was on Star Trek: The Next Generation and he was allowed to FLY THE SHIP — instant cred right there! But my quick intro turned out to be unnecessary as Rok covers the highlights and Wesley fills in the rest.

The addition of Wesley Crusher is like a piece of the puzzle that I didn’t even realize was missing from the show, but ends up completing it. Of course we need Star Trek’s original prodigy to help mentor our next next generation. And what a great mentor he’s grown to be. He’s a guide and a guardian, the only timeless being who hasn’t given up on our reality. Dal (Brett Gray) and company might have been a little more weary, but my kids implicitly trusted him from the start. From his mission, to his cool look, to his hyper manner of speaking about complicated things, everything about him endeared him to my kids right away.

Wil Wheaton gives his best performance as Wesley Crusher to date. He plays it loose and confident in a way that makes perfect sense for a man who has taken the journey Wesley has taken in his life. He manages to evoke the growth of the character while maintaining the core of this person we’ve known, and he’s played, since he was a teenager. The way he made his voice crack on lines like “my mom lives here” felt like putting on your favorite old sweater.

He’s aided, of course, by the characteristically sharp and snappy dialogue of Jennifer Muro, who wrote Part I and other equally dynamic episodes this season. Here her talent for elevating characters helps Wesley come off as equal parts genius and unhinged in the best possible way.

When I was a young person watching The Next Generation, Ensign Wesley Crusher was my stand-in. I wanted to be him (or be his best friend and science with him, either one would work!). And now, for my kids, Traveler Wesley Crusher is like the cool uncle who’s going to let you stay up late and eat junk food and who you know you can trust with anything. I can not overstate just how deeply I felt the torch-passing of this beloved character from myself to my own next generation. Truly, a gift.

After we meet our resident time traveler, he gives the gang some insights into the nature of how time works within the Star Trek universe. Another great Prodigy explainer graphic comes to life as he talks about how we are in the Prime timeline and there are many branches with things like alternate timelines and different planes of existence. Name drops of the Mirror Universe, the Narada incursion (aka the Kelvin Timeline film series), Fluidic Space (from Voyager), the Mycelial Plane from Discovery (you’re not supposed to know about that one!), and the Temporal Wars add a really great Star Trek touch to the otherwise generic sci-fi concept of a multi-verse.

Prodigy once again does a fantastic job of breaking down complicated concepts in ways kids new to such things can understand. My crew had no trouble understanding the situation with such a great breakdown and visual aids. And honestly: I think the reoccurring sweater metaphor helped! After the fifth or sixth mention, my daughter asked “Why is he so obsessed with sweaters?” and I laughed so hard. We paused again and had a really great time looking up pictures of young Wesley and his unparalleled fashion from TNG. They liked that his look now incorporated one of the old designs. “It looks good now!” my daughter laughed.

As our Traveler tries to figure out the next move, time stops once again for everyone — except the extra-temporal Gwyn and Wesley. And this time, we get to meet the cosmic scavengers threatening our timeline. They are called the Loom, and they are terrifying. They don’t just end your life, they erase your entire existence. And they are here. The creature design on the Loom is top notch. Every detail — from the chill inducing chittering sounds and screeches they make, to the way they just SHOW UP because they are drawn to your presence — ups the sense of dread the surrounds them.

Visually, they are stunning: giant monsters covered in tentacles that wave like flames; color-changing dragons with tree frog arms and terrifying faces that look like they are covered with ancient masks. The tentacles themselves are thick and appendage-like, yet appear almost woven out of yarn, as if each one was forged out of a trophy from a piece of the fabric of existence they have destroyed. They are stunningly cool.

In keeping with their Temple-like surroundings my kids stuck with the Zelda theme and took to calling these guys “Time Blight Gannons” (in homage to the natural force bad guys in Breath of the Wild: Wind Blight, Thunder Blight, Fire Blight, and Water Blight Gannons), which is really a testament to how fantastic the Loom design is.

Gwyn and Wesley put temporal bands on the arms of the rest of the gang and they all make their escape: straight into Gary Seven’s apartment from “Assignment Earth”. Which really makes perfect sense now, but I never would have guessed in a million years. Amazing!

While our gang is safe for the moment, Admiral Janeway (Kate Mulgrew) and the Voyager-A are following the Infinty’s path from the last few episodes. Janeway receives another call from Admiral Jellico (Ronny Cox), who orders her back to Earth again. For the first part of her response, we are treated to Janeway’s three rules of captaining, first heard in the Voyager episode “Dark Frontier.” That really feels like it belongs in Prodigy. Next, some fun humor as Janeway perfectly executes a fake static and hang up maneuver— very satisfying! By the time they find the planet, the Loom have already arrived.

Tysess (Daveed Diggs) prepares an away team and brave Mej’el (Michaela Dietz) volunteers to go, as she is the only one on board with a psychic link to Zero (Angus Imrie) which might make them easier to find. Some really great creature-feature action as Tysess, Maj’el, and some red shirt named Middleton tip toe through the ziggurat and we get glimpses of the Loom scurrying around. And then we get a taste of the full terror we are up against as poor Middleton becomes the first victim of the Loom. He disintegrates out of existence. Chilling! Even more chilling when Tysess reports the loss to Janeway and she has no idea who Middleton is. He never existed at all.

Maj’el makes a bold move worthy of a Trek hero and disobeys orders so she can stay behind and find the crew. She stumbles across Wesley’s temporal chamber and tries to contact Zero.

Meanwhile, back at Gary Seven’s pad, Wesley enjoys a mango juice. He mentions an old Earth record: Miles Davis’ “Kind of Blue”, which is a very worthy addition to the small canon of real world pop culture referenced in Star Trek. They are trying to wait out the Loom. In a very trippy moment the old fashioned telephone rings and it’s Maj’el asking for help as the Loom closes in on her.

Wesley doesn’t think they should save her, as it could expose their position to the Loom, but luckily, Dal isn’t having it and opens a portal for her. A nice moment of game recognizing game as Dal commends Maj’el on her rash decision making. Another nice moment as Maj’el and Zero reunite when she literally falls into their arms.

But only a moment, as the Loom have found them. Through another portal they go, in the closet, another lovingly recreated detail straight out of “Assignment Earth.” But the temple — the trans-dimensional time ziggurat, to be more specific — is overrun. They try to make their way to the Infinity, but it too is overrun with Loom and eventual poofs out of existence as well.

There’s no where to go and no more moves to make as the crew are surrounded by Loom. Until Janeway goes full hero-mode and lures the Loom to Voyager, buying them, as Wesley puts it, “their only shot to fix the Universe”. It’s incredibly satisfying to witness Janeway spring into action like this again. Furrowing her brows the way she did in live action. Kate Mulgrew is perfection as we get a “Stay away from my crew” and “Fire!” in the authoritative and commanding way we were lucky enough to experience so often in Star Trek: Voyager.

This sequence is incredibly suspenseful, aided by Nami Melumad’s fantastic score. There are real world consequences as crewmen get blinked out of existence and the rest try to out run the Loom making their way through the ship. The EMH (Robert Picardo) is building phase discriminators, but he’s a doctor, not an assembly line, and he doesn’t have enough for the whole crew yet. It appears nothing can stop the Loom, not even a level ten forcefield.

Counselor Noem (Jason Alexander) bravely steps between the Loom and Maj’el’s Nova Squadron friends and they appear doomed, until Janeway goes full action-hero-mode and lures the Loom away from the Voyager and to her shuttle, which crashes onto the ziggurat after some hot-shot moves.

Janeway’s action-hero mode comes complete with her tank top from her fantastic Die Hard-style episode, “Macrocosm”. The thing that I love about that is that it is completely out of nowhere and unnecessary in such a delightful way. In “Macrocosm,” the ship was hotter than normal so she took her jacket off. Here, she does it just as a little gift to us, to signal her giving it all for her crew. I squealed with joy. My kids wondered what I was reacting to. “That’s what Janeway wears when she’s being a badass!” I told them. They didn’t care but it was a detail I certainly appreciated.

Our crew has made it back to Wesley’s chamber and this time we get references to Boreth time crystals and the Orb of Time, and that’s more than enough for me to believe in the tech of Wesley’s destiny calculator here. He gives them the warning not to look at the stream, or they will see their own future. Anyone surprised that Dal peeked? All three of my kids said that they would peek as well. I guess I’m too traumatized by Christopher Pike’s run in with a Boreth crystal to be so bold, as I voted “no spoilers.”

The machine doesn’t work until he adds Maj’el to the equation and, as we all have felt since we first met her, she takes her rightful place as an official member of our crew. The portal to the next part of the journey opens and — with Janeway’s blessing — all seven step through. And we get one hell of a parting shot as through the portal are the Protostar —and Chakotay (Robert Beltran).

The end of “The Devourer of All Things” marks the midway point of the season — what an epic ten episode arc in and of itself! So much Trek, in every aspect of that word, has been packed into such relatively short episodes. The setup for the second half is clear in both the stakes and the solution and I feel very lucky that with the whole season dropping at once, I only had to wait as long as it took Netflix to load the next episode to continue the journey.