‘WHERE NO ONE HAS GONE BEFORE’ (TNG)
Please feel free to comment on my review.
This ‘Star Trek’ episode is not to be confused with ‘With No Man Has Gone Before’ from ‘The Original Series’. In fact, I’m so surprised the first ‘TNG’ episode wasn’t called ‘Where No One Has Gone Before’.
I enjoyed this ‘TNG’ episode very much, although my Mum didn’t think much of it since there wasn’t any action. But I found it an intriguing tale on how the Enterprise goes beyond its warp speed limits.
In this episode, the Enterprise crew have Mr. Kosinski with his assistant, the Traveler; visit the ship to conduct some new warp drive tests. The tests themselves become more than they’d bargained for.
Stanley Kamel guest stars as Mr. Kosinski in this episode. He’s an instantly dislikeable character, as he thinks highly of himself and is so smug when conducting these warp drive tests on the Enterprise.
Eric Menyuk guest stars as the Traveler in this episode. The Traveler is an interesting alien character whom Wesley Crusher forms an attachment to. He becomes responsible for what occurs in this tale.
During the warp drive tests, the Traveler phases in and out with the Enterprise engines. The ship travels further beyond the speed of light and ending up billions of light years from where they were.
Kosinski attempts to take all the credit with this achievement, even though Picard and the others are unsettled. Picard decides to journey back to where they once were and he orders Kosinski to do so.
But on a second attempt, the Enterprise ends up further from when they last were, inside the edge of the universe that looks like a blue, grey void. There are also sparkling stars that come out from it.
Wesley Crusher is the only person who noticed the Traveler’s phasing in and out when he did. He attempts to tell Commander Riker of this, but Riker does not listen to him before he sees it himself.
I like it when Riker admits to Picard that Wesley tried to tell him about the Traveller but didn’t listen. During the episode, Picard begins to see Wesley’s potential in being valuable to the Enterprise crew.
Whilst at the edge of the galaxy, various Enterprise crewmembers see various lifelike visions. These include Worf seeing his pet Klingon pet as well as Tasha Yar seeing her pet cat, which was intriguing.
For Picard, he sees a vision of his dead mother, Herta Ware as Maman Picard, now alive. There’s a touching scene where Picard interacts with his mother again, before Riker interrupts and she’s gone.
This episode also features Biff Yeager as chief engineer Argyle. This is the first appearance of Argyle’s run in ‘Star Trek’ as he would become the longest-running chief engineer in the first season of ‘TNG’.
In the episode, the Traveler talks to Picard about Wesley. The Traveler tells Picard to encourage Wesley without telling him. Picard doesn’t get it until the Traveler compares to the works of Mozart.
Without giving too much away, this episode begins the arc featuring the Traveler in ‘TNG’ with Wesley Crusher. He would return in two more episodes, in helping Wesley’s journey as a character.
Eventually, with Wesley’s help, the Traveler manages to get everyone aboard the Enterprise back to their own time and place within Federation space. The Traveler also disappears back to his universe.
At the end of the episode, Wesley is ordered to the bridge and Picard finally promotes him to acting ensign aboard the Enterprise. This is where it begins for Wesley Crusher’s career into Starfleet itself.
‘Where No One Has Gone Before’ is an intriguing ‘TNG’ episode from its first season. I like how this episode sets up the Traveler’s arc in the series and how Wesley gradually becomes an acting ensign.
‘Where No One Has Gone Before’ (TNG) rating – 7/10
| The previous story
For ‘The Next Generation’ was |
The next story
For ‘The Next Generation’ is |
| Return to Star Trek | |
| Return to Sci-Fi |