Star Trek: Prodigy’s second season contains an avalanche of references to previous Star Trek shows and movies to help center the show within the wider Star Trek canon, tease younger viewers about all the fun waiting for them in more than 900 other episodes of Star Trek, and reward the longtime fans and deepen their enjoyment of what they’re watching.
With 20 new episodes, we’ve revived our Canon Connections series to recap the references, callbacks, and other cool Star Trek ephemera — and today we’re taking on the next four Season 2 entries: the “Devourer of All Things” and “Last Flight of the Protostar” two-parters!
“The Devourer of All Things, Part I”
Cloaked Planet — The Travelers’ world is concealed between quantum realities that effectively cloaks the planet. Cloaked planets have appeared in Star Trek before, such as Aldea in “Where the Bough Breaks” and the planet Meridian in the Deep Space Nine, which shifts between realities.
The Travelers — As the crew of the Infinity arrives on the planet Wesley Crusher has sent them to find, they discover a base of operations for the Travelers, the race of beings who control space, time, and thought first encountered in The Next Generation episode “Where No One Has Gone Before.” There is a statue of a being who looks just like the Traveler introduced in that episode, played by Erik Menyuk. (Menyuk has a voice cameo of the echo of a conversation between Wesley and the Travelers about saving the Prime Universe.)
Vault Door — The mid-21st century Earth vault door is a callback to The Original Series episode “Assignment: Earth” and Star Trek: Picard Season 2. The latter of the two was where Star Trek first established a link between the Travelers and the Supervisors from TOS.
Wesley Crusher — Wesley Crusher returns – his second appearance in modern Star Trek (after Picard Season 2’s “Farewell”). Prodigy goes much deeper than the quick Picard cameo to establish who Wesley is now, but one thing he hasn’t abandoned is his love of sweaters.
The sweater Wesley wears in this episode (and the rest of the season) is an homage to his early season one sweater from The Next Generation. Rok-Tahk describes him as “member of Nova Squadron” (seen in “The First Duty”), “genius of the Enterprise D, made acting ensign at age 15.”
Janeway Hates Time Travel — Admiral Janeway’s distaste for time travel is a long running joke from Star Trek: Voyager – the past is the future, the future is the past, sooner or later it starts to just give me a headache – and that continues into Prodigy.
Janeway’s Three Rules — Admiral Janeway’s three rules for captaining a starship – keep your shirt tucked in, go down with the ship, and never abandon a member of your crew – were first shared with Naomi Wildman in the Voyager episode “Dark Frontier.”
The ‘Star Trek’ Multiverse — In explaining the concept of different universes and timelines (“quantum timelines, alternate realities, planes of existence”) to the Infinity crew, Crusher lists a number of realities that Star Trek fans are familiar with – the Prime Universe, the Mirror Universe (from The Original Series, Deep Space Nine, and Discovery), the Narada Incursion (from Star Trek 2009, Into Darkness, and Beyond), Fluidic Space (Voyager’s “Scorpion”), and the Mycelial Plane (from Discovery, though Wesley acknowledges the crew aren’t supposed to know about that).
Wesley acknowledges that his fondness for the Prime Universe, and commitment to saving it from annihilation, is driven in part by the fact that his mother – Doctor Beverly Crusher – calls the Prime Universe home.
Temporal Wars — The Temporal Wars (first seen in Star Trek: Enterprise and referenced several times on Star Trek: Discovery) get another namecheck here, with Wesley admitting that after the Temporal Wars, there are not many Travelers left to repair broken timelines.
Quantum Signatures — Wesley tells the Infinity crew that he needs to align their quantum signatures. The idea that an individual has a quantum signature that is specific to their unique timeline or universe is first established in The Next Generation episode “Parallels.”
Assignment: Earth — At the end of the episode, the Infinity crew and Welsey flee through the vault door to a room that mirrors Gary Seven’s office from “Assignment: Earth,” further confirming the direct connection between the Travelers and the Supervisors. Early in part 2, Crusher describes the supervisors as “field agents, who work in other time periods.”
“The Devourer of All Things, Part II”
Apollo 7 — The newspaper in the “Assignment: Earth” style office is dated for the Apollo 7 launch in 1968, which was the year that the episode was set.
Wall of Heroes — Commander Tysses swears he’ll keep Maj’el safe “on the blood of my ancestors at the Wall of Heroes.” The Wall of Heroes was established in the Enterprise episode “United” as an Andorian memorial on the homeworld where the blood of Andorian Imperial Guardsman who died offworld was returned.
Battle Bridge — The Voyager-A has a battle bridge, similar to the Enterprise-D.
Level 10 Force Field — The Doctor attempts to erect level 10 forcefields to repel the advance of the Loom. A level 10 forcefield has previously been established to be the strongest forcefield available to Starfleet.
Janeway’s Undershirt — Admiral Janeway’s decision to remove her uniform jacket to take on the Loom echoes a similar decision in the Voyager episode “Macrocosm.” Those arms!
Phase Variance — Janeway’s theory that matching the shuttle’s phasers to the phase variance of the Loom will make them susceptible to weapons fire proves effective. Episodes like “Time’s Arrow” have established that matching the variance of something that is out of phase allows you to more easily interact with that thing.
Tom Paris — Voyager’s helm officer gets a shout out from Admiral Janeway as having taught her a shuttlecraft maneuver that comes in particularly handy in fighting off the Loom.
Time Travel Tech — The time ziggurat employs different time travel technologies to function, including the Boreth time crystals (from Discovery Season 2) and the Orb of Time (from DS9’s “Trials and Tribbleations”).
Sum of Both of Us — Maj’el refers to the old Vulcan proverb “together we become greater than the sum of both of us.” That proverb was first heard spoken by the recreation of Surak in The Original Series episode “The Savage Curtain.”
Jibalian Omelette — Jankom worries that Wesley’s technology will scramble his genes like a Jibalian omelette, a Delta Quadrant favorite referenced by Neelix in “Prototype.” Like Wesley missing the seventh necessary crew member to save the cosmos (Maj’el), Neelix missed the seventh necessary ingredient to make the perfect Jibalian omelette (salt).
Multispectral Sweep — Janeway orders a multispectral sensor sweep. Multispectral sensors were first installed aboard Galaxy class starships (mentioned in The Next Generation’s “Encounter at Farpoint”).
“Last Flight of the Protostar, Part I”
Emergency Power Cells — Emergency power cells are commonly used technology aboard starships to supplement the power when it fails, perhaps seen most dramatically when the Voyager carries one into Engineering during the events of “Night.”
No Antimatter — Kids get a crash course in warp drive design in “Last Flight of the Protostar,” beginning with the need for a matter and antimatter reaction to provide the fuel to power a starship.
The Needs of the Many — Chakotay believes he must remain stranded with the Protostar to protect the Federation from the Living Construct, which in this timeline is still aboard the ship. To justify his actions, he modifies the famous Spock line “The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few” to “the needs of the many outweigh the comfort of the few” when the Infinity crew balks at the state of their once proud ship.
Cowboy Hat — There is a lot of classically Western iconography in this episode, including Chakotay’s cowboy hat. But that may also serve as an homage to his father Kolopak who wore a similar hat in the flashback sequences in “Tattoo.”
Dedication Plaque — We get our first look at the Protostar’s dedication plaque as it is returned to its rightful place on the wall (similar to how Voyager’s dedication plaque is returned to the wall in “Equinox, Part II” to hint that the ship and its crew are getting things back to normal after a difficult period).
“Last Flight of the Protostar, Part II”
Physical Therapy — The Doctor has a history of providing painful physical therapy to Admiral Janeway, first seen in the Voyager episode “Scientific Method.”
Beverly Crusher — Beverly is wearing the same jacket as during the opening episodes of Star Trek: Picard Season 3. Janeway says it’s been a while since the “Shinzon incident,” referring to Kate Mulgrew’s cameo where it was first revealed she was promoted to Admiral in Star Trek: Nemesis. And the Picard/Crusher dynamics are hinted at with Beverly telling Janeway that Picard’s priority is the Romulan evacuation — and not, as it turns out, the son he doesn’t know anything about.
Warp Drive Mechanics — This episode is chock full of warp drive mechanics, including the need for deuterium gas to ignite the reaction between matter and antimatter (Voyager was frequently low on deuterium), the use of bussard collectors, and the ram scoops to absorb particles from around the ship (as seen in Star Trek: Insurrection).
Chakotay’s Heritage — Chakotay discusses his origin story with Dal, discussing the loss of his father, his purpose in Starfleet, his heritage following the Federation-Cardassian Treaty that saw his home end up on the Cardassian side of the border, and his decision to join the Maquis.
We’ll be back with more Canon Connections soon, covering the next four episodes of Prodigy Season 2. Did we miss any of your favorite connections? Share them in the comments below!
Star Trek: Prodigy Season 2 is available to stream now on Netflix globally (excluding-Canada, Nordics, CEE, Netherlands, Spain, Portugal, Poland, Russia, Belarus, and Mainland China). The show can also be viewed on SkyShowtime in the Nordics, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and Central and Eastern Europe.
