The Devourer of All Things, Part I (episode)

Finally arriving at the coordinates, the Infinity crew discovers a hidden planet – and the long-awaited identity of their mysterious messenger.
== Summary ==
=== Act One ===
The flies through warp towards the coordinates that the crew had mysteriously received while the crew are all lost in their own tasks or thoughts as the end of their journey nears, particularly Gwyn. Dal R'El impatiently checks in with Rok-Tahk who promises to tell Dal when they arrive. Dal is excited that they're going to see the again, but Jankom Pog points out that it might not even be there. Zero states that it has to be because if they don't restore the past by sending the ship back to Tars Lamora, then they might lose Gwyn forever.
Rok announces that they've arrived, and the Infinity drops out of warp into an asteroid field in the spiral nebula. Despite there being nothing there, Rok confirms that this is where all of Captain Chakotay's clues had wanted them to go to. Rok notices that the readings indicate that the asteroids are orbiting some kind of a strange attractor which indicates that there is something out there which Murf agrees with. Gwyn suggests that the whole planet is out of phase and stuck between quantum realities just like her. Rok excitedly suggests using the transporter's Heisenberg compensators to remodulate the shields and collapse the superimposed wave function, pulling the planet out of its hiding spot. The remodulation works, causing the asteroids to disappear and the planet to appear before the astonished crew.
Dal orders the Infinity brought in for a landing before the planet disappears again. The ship approaches a large ziggurat where Jankom detects the single life sign on the planet, presumably Chakotay. The Infinity lands in a courtyard in the middle of the ziggurat where Rok and Dal note that it looks like the structure was built in both the past and the future. Jankom is annoyed that Chakotay has apparently been living the high life when the crew thought that he needed their help, but Gwyn points out that there's only one way to find out if this is the right place or not.
The crew makes their way through the ziggurat with both Rok and Zero getting a creepy feeling and Dal notes that it seems like nobody's home. Jankom yells out asking if the Starfleet guy is home which loudly echoes around the structure. Dal starts to question if chasing down mysterious coordinates from a man lost in time was a good idea. Zero notices a large statue of The Traveler who the crew can hear arguing with someone about abandoning their reality, believing that this plane is doomed and that it's not their place to interfere. Gwyn senses that there's much more to this than they realize and Murf draws his friends in the direction that the life sign is in.
The crew finds what appears to be a large vault door from mid-20th century Earth. Before Jankom can try to cut through it with his multi-mitt, the door opens, and Dal asks the man who walks out if he's Captain Chakotay. "Not exactly. I'm Wesley Crusher, and I've been waiting for you," greets Wesley.
Following the Infinitys warp trail, the approaches the abandoned Borg transwarp conduit that the Infinity had previously passed through. The Doctor and Counselor Noum enter Vice Admiral Kathryn Janeway's ready room with the results of their investigation into the attack on . The two have managed to isolate the ship's security feed before the holo-duplicate went offline and found footage of Maj'el in the coordior outside while a strange chittering noise can be heard which Janeway realizes is the sound that Hologram Gwyn was afraid of. The three surmise that some kind of an entity manipulated time in order to enter Voyager undetected and attack Gwyn, but was fooled by the hologram the same way that the crew was, targeting the one member of the crew who is displaced by time. Janeway states that if this predator is after one of their own, then they'll have to find the Infinity and her crew before the entity does.
Janeway receives a call from Admiral Edward Jellico who demands to know why Voyager is leaving Federation space rather than following her orders to return to Earth. Janeway explains that some of her crew have gone missing, she doesn't know why, and she has reason to believe that a strange entity is in pursuit of them. While Jellico believes that Janeway believes that, her recent performance means that Janeway is under strict orders. Janeway can file a formal request with Starfleet Command if she wants, but they can't have her zipping off like this when there are bigger matters at stake here. Janeway furiously tells Jellico the three rules that she has for captaining a starship that she had once told Naomi Wildman about: keep your shirt tucked in, go down with the ship and never abandon a member of your crew. Janeway then humorously claims that she's losing Jellico because they're going through a transwarp tunnel and hangs up on him, quipping to The Doctor and Noum that "technically, we are." Voyager flies through the still active transwarp aperture and enters the Borg transwarp conduit that the Infinity had passed through.
=== Act Two ===
In the ziggurat, Wesley is pleased to see that all six of the kids have made it before realizing that this is the first time that they've met, telling them that time is a funny thing and appearing to be somewhat mentally unhinged. To the surprise of the rest of the crew, Wesley can understand Murf telling the Mellanoid slime worm that he hasn't forgotten about their little talks and stating that Murf uses vulgar language. Dal demands to know where Chakotay and the Protostar are and Wesley admits that they're not here, but the crew is halfway there which is exactly where they need to be. The kids are confused by Wesley who introduces himself once again and states that he's their guardian angel or the interdimensional equivalent of one anyways.
Rok excitedly remembers that Wesley was a member of Nova Squadron, the genius of the , and he made acting ensign at age 15. Wesley confirms that, and states that he's a time traveler who has run out of time. Seeing the temporal stabilizer that The Doctor has made for Gwyn, Wesley has to restrain himself from improving upon it as he wants. Gwyn demands to know why Wesley is helping them, sending them all of the secret clues, and where Chakotay is. Wesley admits that he's forgotten the most important part with everything that's going on in his mind and he's having a hard time with linear time. Wesley remembers to tell them out loud to follow him into the vault and the crew is dubious as to whether or not to follow him due to how unhinged Wesley seems to be but decide to give him a chance.
Wesley explains that when he was a young man on the Enterprise, he met the Traveler who was a part of a secret faction of explorers who watch over the cosmos and Wesley was invited to join them. Wesley and the Travelers helped where they could, manipulating reality with the powers of space, time and thought, the latter of which is the most overlooked variable, and a very useful tool that is beyond what most beings understand. It turns out that a lot of folks need their help, and they don't even know it, causing Rok to compare the Travelers to the interdimensional version of Starfleet, although Wesley says that they're only kind of like that and they do their own thing. Working on his machine in the vault throughout the conversation, Wesley gives Rok a crystal to point at the machine for 30 seconds in a counter-clockwise motion. Once Wesley learned how to move across time and dimensions, the Travelers taught him when Wesley could and couldn't intervene because time is a fragile thing. The Travelers have a hands-off approach to maintaining the cosmic balance between the universes, but right now Wesley doesn't. Wesley gives Dal another crystal to hold for him with orders not to look at it no matter what he does.
Dal and Jankom question Wesley about his mention of other universes, having just wrapped their heads around time travel. Taking the crystals from Dal and Rok, Wesley plugs them into the machine, causing it to power up. A display shows the various timelines and universes with Wesley stating that he's been to all of the quantum timelines and alternate realities such as the mirror universe, the Narada Incursion, fluidic space, and the mycelial plane. Wesley suddenly remembers that the crew isn't supposed to know about the mycelial plane and tells them to forget about that and claims that it doesn't exist.
However, all of it together forms one grand tapestry of existence that is exquisite, but fragile, and always one tug away from completely unraveling. Sometimes, a loose thread or a temporal paradox pokes a hole in it, causing the cosmic tapestry to fray. An example is the Protostar never making it back to Tars Lamora, thus meaning that Gwyn can't exist and yet she does. Wesley confirms this, stating that they are living in an impossible time. Due to the temporal paradox created by the Protostar not going back in time to Tars Lamora, the prime universe is trying to exist in two states at once and that's causing it to unravel. It's manifesting at first in small ways like what's happening to Gwyn, but it won't stop there. If the holes in the universe remain open, they will let in cosmic scavengers that feed on dying timelines, like vultures but way worse. The crew, Wesley, and the lives of everyone they touched will be on the scavengers' menu.
After the Temporal Wars, there's just not enough Travelers left to fix dying timelines. The Travelers found the paradox created by the missing Protostar to be too impossible to fix and abandoned the prime universe to its doom. However, this universe is Wesley's home and his mother lives here, so Wesley isn't willing to just abandon it to die. Gwyn wonders if her getting eaten will save everyone else, but Wesley states that this is bigger than all of them now. They can fix the time loop and save the universe by sending the Protostar back to where it belongs which the crew already knows. "But what you didn't know... it can't go back just yet. So, after scouring infinite timelines, I finally glimpsed one eventuality where the prime universe gets through this without endless suffering. Now, I don't know how to make it happen yet, but what I do know is that the six of you must stay together," states Wesley.
Wesley begins positioning the kids on glowing squares, muttering to himself about how he thinks that he can find where they're supposed to go and how he needs to align their quantum signatures. Concerned about Wesley's somewhat unhinged behavior, Dal asks if they can talk to a supervisor -- meaning Wesley's boss -- creating confusion when Wesley thinks that Dal somehow knows about the s before realizing that he doesn't and they don't have time for that anyways. A rumbling noise suddenly begins, frightening Wesley who states that they shouldn't be here yet. Everything but Wesley and Gwyn freeze in time and Wesley is confused as they're supposed to be hidden from whatever is causing this. Wesley tells Gwyn that it's the cosmic scavengers that he was telling her about, the ones that feed on broken realities. The strange chittering sound is heard again -- revealing that the scavengers are the ones who had targeted Hologram Gwyn -- which Gwyn recognizes as well. Realizing that they've been found, Wesley grabs Gwyn and runs deeper into the ziggurat.
=== Act Three ===
Running through the ziggurat, Wesley tells Gwyn that he thought that he had more time, but you never do when you need it. Gwyn isn't willing to leave her friends behind with the time monsters. Wesley explains that the creatures are called the Loom and they've frozen reality to feed. Luckily, like Gwyn, Wesley is wearing a temporal stabilizer which is protecting him from the effects of the Loom's time manipulation. Wesley has more stashed away, but they have to get to them as the temporal stabilizers are the only way to free the others from the Loom's time manipulation. Gwyn questions how they were found, and Wesley explains that they're time aberrations which for the Loom is like a subspace navigational beacon transmitting across all frequencies: they can smell Wesley and Gwyn from a mile away because they're walking paradoxes. Gwyn realizes that Wesley didn't contact the Protostar crew directly because it would've lured the Loom which Wesley confirms, stating that he had tried to reach out in undetectable ways through Murf and Chakotay's symbol.
Stopping in seemingly the middle of nowhere, Wesley opens a secret storage space which has a model of the Enterprise-D hanging from the ceiling, and a number of books and gadgets. Wesley retrieves more temporal stabilizers and uses his powers to create a repeating image of a scared Gwyn to briefly distract an approaching Loom. The two apparently get cornered by the Loom, but Wesley has Gwyn join him in pushing a moveable wall behind them, leading to a secret passage back to the main room. Wesley is then able to seal the passageway in front of the Loom, impressing Gwyn. The two place temporal stabilizers on the others, freeing them from the time freeze, and explain that the Loom had attacked. A Loom drops through the ceiling and Dal, Gwyn and Rok open fire on it with their phasers to no effect. As more Loom join the attack, Wesley has everyone put their hands on the vault door and push. The group is transported to a safe room where Wesley offers the others some Earth grapes from a mini-fridge, leaving them dumbfounded.
Voyager drops out of warp in the nebula and Commander Tysess remodulates the long range scanners, causing the planet to become visible. Janeway is impressed by how the planet was hidden in a pocket of subspace and she orders an away team to be prepared to beam down and investigate.
== Log entries ==
* "Gwyn's personal log, stardate 61886.6. We're about to arrive at the coordinates we hope will reunite us with the Protostar, but it's been a long road. Captain Chakotay lost in time through a wormhole... deciphering Murf's secret correspondence with a mysterious observer all leading us to this nebula hinted at in my otherworldly vision, a journey that's left none of us unchanged. It's strange, being displaced from time. One tiny device between me and oblivion. I've been unsure about a lot of things lately, but to see my friends back on the Protostar again, to finally make things right? It's not about the journey. It's the destination."
* "Admiral's log, supplemental. The hunt for our missing recruits continues, and the Infinitys warp trail has led us to an abandoned Borg transwarp conduit. We can only hope our young Protostar crew are safe on the other side."
== Memorable quotes ==
"I can't believe we're gonna see the Protostar again!"
"If it's even there."
"It has to be. If we don't restore the past by returning it to Tars Lamora, we may lose Gwyn forever."
:- Dal, Jankom, and Zero, preparing for the end of their journey
"I can't tell. Was this built in the past or the future?"
"Kinda looks like both."
"Hey, Jankom thought Chakotay needed our help. But apparently, he's been living the high life. You sure we got the right place?"
"Only one way to find out."
:- Rok, Dal, Jankom, and Gwyn, as the crew arrives at a mysterious ziggurat
"Um... hey, Starfleet guy, are you here?"
:- Jankom, making a loudly echoing call
"They're coming, but we can't just abandon... There are other realities, others who need us. This plane is doomed. It is not our place to interfere. We must go."
"No. I won't leave. I'll find a way."
:- The Traveler, arguing with someone about abandoning the prime universe
"Captain Chakotay?"
"Not exactly. I'm Wesley Crusher, and I've been waiting for you."
:- Dal and Wesley, as the crew finally finds who was behind the message
"We've continued to study the missing time surrounding the attack on Gwyn's holographic duplicate, and were able to isolate the ship's security feed before she went offline."
"And we found this doozy."
"That's the sound she was afraid of."
"We believe some sort of entity manipulated time to enter Voyager undetected, specifically targeting Gwyn."
"But it was fooled, just as you all were. I always knew it was a hologram."
"An entity that can manipulate time hunting a crewmember displaced by time. Ugh, as if I needed another reason to dislike time travel. If this predator is after one of our own, we'll need to hunt them down first before it's too late."
:- The Doctor, Noum, and Janeway, discussing the attack on Hologram Gwyn
"Vice Admiral Janeway, last I checked, your orders were to return to Earth. So why are you leaving Federation space?"
"Admiral, some of my crew have gone missing, and I don't know why. I have reason to believe there's a strange entity in pursuit."
"I believe that you believe that, Kathryn, but after your recent performance, you're under strict orders. You can come back and file a formal request with Starfleet Command if you want, but we can't keep having you zip off like this when there are larger matters at stake here!"
"Edward, I only have three rules when captaining a starship: keep your shirt tucked in, go down with the ship, and never abandon a member of your crew."
:- Jellico and Janeway, arguing about her actions
"Edward? Edward? I'm losing you. We're going through a transwarp tunnel! (to The Doctor and Noum) What? Technically, we are."
:- Janeway, hanging up on Jellico
"Uh, I don't wanna be rude, but where's Chakotay and where's our ship?"
"They're not here. But... but... you are halfway there, which is exactly where you need to be."
:- Dal, questioning Wesley about the lack of the expected Starfleet captain and ship
"Who is this guy?"
"I'm Wesley Crusher! I thought I told you that. I – look, think of me as your guardian angel. Or if you don't have angels where you come from, think of me as the interdimensional equivalent of a guardian angel. That makes sense in my head."
"Wait. The Wesley Crusher? Member of Nova Squadron? Genius of the Enterprise-D? Made acting ensign at age 15?"
"Well, I mean, not in that order, but yeah. Listen... long story short, I am a time traveler who's run out of time."
:- Jankom,Rok, and Wesley, discussing Wesley's identity
"Okay, but why are you helping us? And why all the secret clues? Where's Chakotay?"
"Mm, right, sorry. I forgot the most important part. There's so much going on up here. Man, linear time! This is such a trip! Hey, uh, I should've said this out loud. Uh, you should all be following me."
"Should we?"
"Oh, boy, this guy is one nebula short of a galaxy."
"We've come this far. Perhaps we should hear him out."
:- Gwyn, Wesley, Dal, Jankom, and Zero, as Wesley tries to get the unsettled crew to come with him
"When I was a young man on the Enterprise, I met an advanced being called the Traveler. He was part of a secret faction of explorers who watch over the cosmos. Very cool. They invited me to become one of them, helping where we could by manipulating reality itself with the powers of space, time, and the most overlooked variable, thought."
"I heard knowledge is power, but I didn't think it was literal."
"Oh, thought is everything. Thought is a very powerful tool, beyond what most beings understand. Like, a lot of folks, turns out they need our help, and they don't even know it."
"So, you're like the interdimensional version of Starfleet."
"Um, kind of. Uh, but we, like, do more of our own thing. Um, hey, could you point this at that for, like, I wanna say 30 seconds in a counter-clockwise motion for me?"
"I don't know what this is, but totally."
"You're doing great. Okay, once I learned how to move across time and dimensions, the Travelers taught me when I could intervene and when I couldn't, since time is a fragile thing. And that is the hardest part of it for me. The Travelers have this hands-off approach to maintaining the cosmic balance between the different universes, but right now in this moment, I do not."
:-- Wesley, explaining his story, surprising Gwyn and enlisting Rok's help with his machine
"Whoa, whoa. Back up. I just wrapped my head around time travel."
"And now you're saying there's different universes?"
"Oh, sure! Tons! Quantum timelines, alternate realities, planes of existence – take your pick, I've been to all of them. There's the prime universe we're in right now, there's the mirror universe, the Narada Incursion, fluidic space, the mycelial plane. Ooh, you're not supposed to know about that. Okay, f– forget I said anything about that. It doesn't exist."
:- Dal and Jankom, struggling to wrap their heads around the other universes mentioned by Wesley
"But all of it together, it forms a grand tapestry. It is exquisite, but fragile, and it is always one tug away from completely unraveling. It's sort of like your favorite sweater. So sometimes, a loose thread or a paradox pokes a hole in it, which causes the cosmic tapestry to fray."
"A paradox?"
"An impossible situation."
"Like if the Protostar never arrived on Tars Lamora, so therefore --"
"I can't exist, but yet, I do."
"Exactly! Right now, we're living in an impossible time. Thanks to that wormhole shielding snafu, this universe is trying to exist in two states at once, and that's causing it to unravel. First in small ways, like Gwyn, but it doesn't stop there. These holes in the universe, they can't stay open forever, or they also let cosmic scavengers in. They feed on dying timelines, like moths drawn to an old sweater."
"Did you just say "feed"?"
"I did. Like vultures, but way worse. You, me, and everyone whose lives you touched will be on the menu. After the Temporal Wars, there just aren't many of us left to repair timelines. Sadly, the Travelers found the paradox created by the missing Protostar too impossible to fix, but this universe is my home. My mom lives here, and I am not gonna let it die."
:- Wesley, explaining the danger to Dal, Rok, Zero, Gwyn, and Jankom
"If these cosmic scavengers devour me, will everyone else be saved?"
"It's bigger than just you, Gwyn. It's bigger than all of us now. But there is a way to fix the sweater by closing the time loop and sending the Protostar back to the past where it belongs."
"Sorry, but didn't we already know that?"
"Yes, you did! But what you didn't know... it can't go back just yet. So, after scouring infinite timelines, I finally glimpsed one eventuality where the prime universe gets through this without endless suffering. Now, I don't know how to make it happen yet, but what I do know is that the six of you must stay together."
"Great. So, I don't get eaten."
"Or we all get eaten together."
"I like the future where there's no eating at all."
"Oh, don't worry. I've got a plan. I– I have most of a plan. That's why I brought you here. Actually, uh, you're supposed to be over here. I think I can figure out what you're supposed to do next and where you're supposed to go. I just need to align your quantum signatures."
:- Gwyn, Wesley, Jankom, and Rok, discussing Wesley's plan to fix the timeline
"Okay, okay. Time out, time guy."
"Uh, you were supposed to stay in your spot. And you can totally call me Wes."
"Look, Wes, I appreciate you trying to help us and all, but is there, like, a supervisor we could talk to or something?"
"How do you know about the s?"
"Uh --"
"You know what? Forget it. You don't know about the Supervisors. And we don't have time for that anyway."
:- Dal, attempting to get help from Wesley's bosses, leading to some confusion
"What did you do to them?"
"It's not me. Oh, it doesn't make any sense! We're supposed to be hidden from them!"
"From who? Wesley, what are you talking about?"
"Remember those cosmic scavengers I told you about? The ones that feed on broken realities?"
"I know that sound."
:- Gwyn and Wesley are the only ones unaffected by a new threat
"I thought I had more time. You never do when you need it."
"I can't leave my friends behind with those time monsters!"
"They're called the Loom, and they've frozen reality so they can feed. Luckily, you're not the only one with a temporal stabilizer. I have more stashed away, but we've gotta get to them. They're the only way to free your friends from the Loom's time manipulation."
"How did they find us?"
"Well, unfortunately, we're time aberrations, which for the Loom is like a subspace navigational beacon transmitting across all frequencies. They can smell us from a mile away."
"Great. We're walking paradoxes."
"Yeah, but we should really be running paradoxes."
"That's why you didn't contact us directly. It would've lured these things."
"I tried reaching out in undetectable ways like through Murf or Chakotay's symbol. I mean, clearly, it's all a moot point now."
:- Wesley and Gwyn, discussing the threat of the Loom
"Talk about mind over matter."
:- Gwyn, impressed by Wesley's Traveler powers
"What the -- what just happened?"
"The Loom happened."
"What are the Loom?"
"Interdimensional scavenger beings that can manipulate time in order to eat dying timelines like this one."
"They're bad, Rok. Real, real bad."
:- Dal, Wesley, Rok, and Gwyn, catching up after the crew is freed
"Ingenious. Hidden within a pocket of subspace. Prep an away team to beam down and investigate. Who knows what's waiting for us down there?"
:- Janeway, as Voyager finds the hidden planet
== Background information ==
=== Title ===
* The title is derived from an English translation of a quote from 's Metamorphoses: "Tempus edax rerum" – "Time, devourer of all things". 
=== Story and script ===
=== Preproduction ===
=== Production ===
=== Postproduction ===
=== Cast and characters ===
* Although he doesn't physically appear, Eric Menyuk reprises his role as the Traveler from in a voice cameo, arguing with Wesley as the Protostar crew enters the time ziggurat.
=== Sets and props ===
=== Costumes ===
=== Soundtrack ===
=== Special effects ===
=== Continuity ===
* Wesley Crusher appears as one of the Travelers, describing them as a "secret faction of explorers who watch over the cosmos", as revealed by their connection to the s in .
** This is also referenced when Wesley misunderstands Dal's use of the word as a general term and asks how he knows about the supervisors.
* Wesley is shown wearing a sweater similar to the one he wore when first meeting The Traveler in .
* Wesley mentions the mirror universe, alternate reality, fluidic space and the mycelial plane as other universes that he's visited and states that they aren't supposed to know about the mycelial plane, a reference to how the and its spore drive were classified in 's .
* Wesley's safe house is a replica of Gary Seven's office from 
* Admiral Janeway mentions "three rules" about captaining a starship: keep your shirt tucked in, go down with the ship, and never abandon a member of your crew. These are the same three rules that she tells Naomi Wildman about being a captain in .
=== Apocrypha ===
=== Reception ===
=== Awards ===
=== Releases ===
* Like the rest of the second season, it was first released on France.tv (a French public television's streaming service) as well as on AppleTV+ France on 22 March 2024, well in advance of the Netflix release in the United States.
== Links and references ==
=== Cast ===
* Rylee Alazraqui as Rok-Tahk
* Dee Bradley Baker as
** Murf
** Bridge Ensign
* Brett Gray as Dal
* Angus Imrie as Zero
* Ella Purnell as Gwyn
* Jason Mantzoukas as Jankom Pog
;And
* Kate Mulgrew as Admiral Janeway
* Wil Wheaton as Wesley Crusher
* Robert Picardo as The Doctor
* Daveed Diggs as Commander Tysess
* Jason Alexander as Counselor Noum
* Ronny Cox as Admiral Jellico
* Eric Menyuk as The Traveler
=== References ===
20th century; acting ensign; away team; Borg; CHAH-mooz-ee; Crusher, Beverly; Earth; ; Federation space; fluidic space; grape; Heisenberg compensator; holographic duplicate; ; Loom; long range scanner; multi-mitt; mycelial plane; mirror universe; Narada Incursion; navigation beacon; nebula; Nova Squadron; paradox; prime universe; ; quantum reality; quantum signature; spiral nebula; subspace; ; sweater; targ; Tars Lamora; temporal stabilizer; Temporal Wars; time travel; transporter; transwarp aperture; transwarp conduit; The Traveler; The Traveler's species; type 1 phaser; tribble; tricorder; ; vault; vulgar language; vulture
==== LCARS references ====
flowchart; wireframe mode
==== Timeline graphic ====
==== Meta references ====
Narada
==== Unreferenced materials ====
=== External links ===
* 
* 
* 
Devourer of All Things, Part I, The
de:Wettlauf gegen die Zeit, Teil I
es:The Devourer of All Things, Part I
fr:The Fast and the Curious (épisode)
pl:The Devourer of All Things, Part I