WHY WE LIKE IT: Wil Wheaton gets to redeem himself after Picard.
WHY WE DON'T: The MCU PTSD.
REVIEW: So the mysterious figure who gave Murph the coordinates to the Protostar's position - except it wasn't - was Wesley Crusher?! The bearded Traveler Wesley Crusher as seen on Picard's disastrous second season?! Wow. Was he also the guy influencing the Enterprise NX-01 and the Suliban during the Temporal Cold War? Would be quite a thing, right? Or at least, we now have some answer on the identity of the original mysterious figure - it's one of the Travelers, the same who run the Watchers and Supervisors as seen all the way back in Assignment: Earth. Indeed, when Wes needs a safe spot during this episode, he lands the kids in a swinging 60s pad that looks a lot like Gary Seven's! There's an Easter Egg for the olds in the crowd!
When I realized Wil Wheaton was back for more here, I unhappily recalled his previous, exposition-heavy appearance. And this episode is also very exposition-heavy, more so, in fact. But he gives a much better performance! This Wesley is nervous, he's hyper, he's all over the place, he's basically playing it like he's Doctor Who. And what he has to deliver is the sort of timey-wimey information THAT show is known for. There is some multiverse talk, with timelines on a screen that immediately gave me the bad feeling I now get when the MCU does it, but I had to remind myself this has been part of Trek lore for longer (the Temporal Cold War, the time travel stuff on Voyager) and calm myself down. On the whole, this Wesley is a lot of fun, and don't think I didn't notice that TNG sweater joke.
Meanwhile, Janeway is going up against Jellico to affirm her personal mission to find the kids and Chakotay, and her crew tracks crazy Lovecraftian monsters that eat time (which also evokes Doctor Who, in particular episodes like "Father's Day"). They're looking to snack on paradoxical Gwyn, but at this point, thr whole impossible universe. Voyager's about to walk right into THAT as they miss the kids by only minutes.
LESSON: Why CAN'T we smash all our favorite franchises together?
REWATCHABILITY - High: A gun guest appearance as the stakes for this season are increased a millionfold.
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