Star Trek: The Next Generation season 7 featured Wesley Crusher (Wil Wheaton) becoming a Traveler, a role that comes with a unique set of powers that were further explained in Star Trek: Prodigy season 2. On Star Trek: TNG, Wesley served as acting Ensign on the USS Enterprise-D for the first four seasons of the show before joining Starfleet Academy and appearing less often in later seasons. After dropping out of the Academy in TNG season 7, Wesley finally found his destiny and joined the Travelers, a mysterious group whose existence had been previously teased.

While not much is known about the Travelers’ true nature, they were described by Wesley as a collective of individuals with special abilities who protected the flow of time. The Travelers and their assistants, the Supervisors, helped ensure the correct progression of time by watching the timeline and dispatching agents to enact changes when needed. Wesley joined the Travelers after a few encounters with an alien who simply called himself The Traveler (Eric Menyuk) during Star Trek: The Next Generation. The Traveler recognized Wesley’s potential upon their first meeting and helped nurture his budding powers during subsequent encounters.

What Are Wesley Crusher’s Powers As Star Trek’s Traveler?

Wesley first demonstrated Traveler abilities in TNG season 7.

Wesley Crusher’s Traveler powers include the ability to travel through time, stop time, move through different space-time dimensions, see and monitor the timeline and the fabric of reality, and make changes to space-time when needed. While Star Trek has yet to show Wesley using all of his powers, The Traveler demonstrated and described many of these abilities during his first appearance in Star Trek: The Next Generation season 1, episode 6, “Where No One Has Gone Before”. Given that Wesley has now fully become one of the Travelers, he has access to all of these abilities even if he hasn’t used them on-screen.

The Traveler’s abilities Wesley Crusher has demonstrated or described on-screen include stopping time and monitoring the timeline to watch for events where intervention is needed. Wesley briefly stopped time during a fight between Cardassian forces and United Federation of Planets colonists in TNG season 7, episode 20, “Journey’s End”, an event that showed him he could become a Traveler. Decades later, when he appeared to Kore Soong (Isa Briones) in Star Trek: Picard season 2, episode 10, “Farewell”, Wesley described how and why he and his “colleagues” monitored the flow of time to convince Kore to join the Travelers, an offer which she accepted.

Wesley Crusher’s Star Trek Appearances As A Traveler

Wesley popped up in Star Trek: Nemesis & Star Trek: Picard before making a more significant return in Star Trek: Prodigy.

After joining the Travelers in Star Trek: The Next Generation season 7, Wesley Crusher only made a couple of appearances in other parts of the franchise. Crusher briefly appeared in Star Trek: Nemesis, attending the wedding of Commander William Riker (Jonathan Frakes) and Counselor Deanna Troi (Marina Sirtis). Wesley wore a Starfleet dress uniform to the wedding, suggesting that at some point he had returned to Starfleet. Wesley’s next appearance was Star Trek: Picard’s season 2 finale when he recruited Kore Soong. Wil Wheaton’s cameo in Picard was kept secret until the episode’s release.

Despite Star Trek: Picard season 3 being heavily focused on the cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation and Wesley’s family in particular, Wesley didn’t appear in Picard season 3. This was due, in part, to Wesley already being a focal point of Star Trek: Prodigy season 2, which was in development before Picard‘s final two seasons. Traveler Wesley made a shocking return in Star Trek: Prodigy season 2, aiding the young crew of the USS Protostar with a far-reaching plot to save Star Trek‘s multiverse. Wesley not only got to use his vast Traveler powers to help save the universe, but he also made time to stop by to see his mother and his young brother, Jack.

Star Trek: Prodigy Reveals Scope Of Wesley Crusher’s Traveler Powers

Traveler Wesley uses the power of thought to manipulate time and space.

Star Trek: Prodigy season 2 finally displays the full scope of Wesley’s powers as a Traveler when he steps up to mentor Dal R’El (Brett Gray) and his friends from the USS Protostar. Wesley sends visions across time and space, reaching out to Gwyndala (Ella Purnell) to guide her and her friends to meet with him on a hidden planet. Wes reveals that he has visited multiple universes, including the Mirror Universe and the mycelial plane introduced on Star Trek: Discovery. Wesley refers to himself as “an omnitemporal traveler” who has seen every reality of Star Trek‘s multiverse since leaving the USS Enterprise-D.

Wesley Crusher speaks about the delicate balance of everything, saying that the temporal paradox inadvertently created by Dal and his crew could cause reality to unravel. Refusing to abandon his own universe to annihilation, Wesley scoured through all possible timelines, eventually finding one where the Prime Universe survived. When cosmic scavengers known as the Loom attack, Wesley manages to evade them long enough to send Dal, Gwyndala, and the rest to the location of the USS Protostar and Captain Chakotay (Robert Beltran). Wes then sends out a massive shockwave that saves Admiral Kathryn Janeway (Kate Mulgrew) and the USS Voyager-A from the Loom.

Wesley Crusher & Travelers’ Connection To Star Trek: TOS’ Supervisors Explained

Wesley’s Traveler hideout harkens back to TOS.

The Supervisors made their first appearance in Star Trek: The Original Series season 2, episode 26, “Assignment: Earth,” in the form of Gary Seven (Robert Lansing), a human who was recruited by aliens to protect Earth. Listed as a Class 1 Supervisor, Gary was sent to Earth in 1968 when his superiors lost contact with the previously sent agents. Star Trek: Picard season 2 revealed the Supervisors are overseen by the Travelers as part of their collective effort to protect time, space, and reality.

Wesley Crusher takes on a similar role in Star Trek: Prodigy season 2, revealing that he doesn’t always agree with the Traveler’s policy of non-interference. When Dal and his friends first encounter Wesley, they find him in a massive ziggurat structure with numerous secret passages and hidden rooms. While hiding from the Loom, Wes takes the kids to Gary Seven’s 1968 office, revealing that Travelers used to hide out in the space regularly. Wesley’s Traveler powers leave the door open for him to appear in any Star Trek series across the entire timeline, so who knows where Wesley Crusher will pop up next.