Wanderlust

1.6 – “Where No One Has Gone Before”

1.6 – “Where No One Has Gone Before”

100 Word Review: Ordered by Starfleet to allow experimentation on their warp engines, the Enterprise crew finds itself catapulted across the galaxy following the ministrations of a blustery loudmouth and his assistant, the true savant named “The Traveler,” who tinkers with warp drives as a pretext for hitchhiking across the galaxy.

This episode has a sense of wonder, coherent story, and makes some sensible use of Wesley Crusher (love him or hate him), who ends up with a field commission as ensign, having impressed The Traveler and Picard with his genius. 

Other Thoughts: Finally, an episode that works. Very nice special effects, and nice use of extras appearing as the ballerina and the other hallucinating crew members. Stanley Kamel is excellent as Kosinski, and Patrick Stewart’s acting is note perfect in the scene where he gives the field promotion to Wesley. Did you notice Wesley has nowhere to sit at the end? They have him perching on a curved rail. No dignity for Wesley.

Religious overtones seem to be the key to making this episode work. The crew breaks through to a place of dreams, before the proper time, with the help of this shaman Jesus figure. They can only return through an exercise of faith. Picard asks the crew to assist The Traveler by believing in him. Just like Tinkerbell. Clap if you believe if fairies! Believe hard, little children! You can do it! Maybe this is a little manipulative, but as long as they wrap it up in metaphor, keep a sense of wonder, and reach for big ideas, I’ll happily follow along.

This line from Wil Wheaton’s review (in Memories of the Futrure, Vol. 1) made me laugh: “If you hated Wesley already, it was unlikely that this episode would change your mind, but if you were looking for a glimmer of evidence that he wouldn’t be a total weenie for the whole series, there was just enough here to get your hopes up before we dashed them to hell just a few episodes from now.”

A few meta things about the show at this point: watching it feels weird, because, unlike in TOS, I feel like I have no idea what the crew is doing in space, where they’re going, or why any of them are bothering most of the time. They aren’t on a defined, 5-year mission as before, and they don’t seem to have regular exploration or patrol duties. If the Federation has solved all of its problems at this point, and made peace with the Klingons, is the crew just serving out of boredom? Because the Earth is overpopulated? These people don’t seem to have homes, or lives, outside their jobs.

So far Worf has been a big waste of screen time. I assume they will figure out something to do with him at some point.

Still, a good episode. Grade: High pass.

http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Where_No_One_Has_Gone_Before_(episode)

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6 responses to “1.6 – “Where No One Has Gone Before””

  1. Randi Cohen Avatar
    Randi Cohen

    -Picard starts off yet again pawning important duties off on the first officer for no particular reason.  He then shifts into bold action (overriding navigator and doctor, which I am not sure that I like because I’m not convinced the new universe is really that bad once people get used to it).  He then makes a creative effort at getting the new universe to work for them, which I do like.  Nice to see him finally capable of acting like a Captain.

    -Nice that Kozinsky is calling Riker on his tendency to discuss people standing in front of him in the 3rd person, as observed in the last episode.

    -Why do people only ignore Wesley when he actually has something useful to say and pay too much attention the rest of the time?  I guess the writers are still figuring out how the cast will treat him, since it is different from the first few episodes.  I like this approach better, except we only get to see him kicked around for about half an episode before he is suddenly recognized to be a child prodigy.  Way too short a time of being uncrecognized for his “moment in the sun” to seem like he earned it.   

    -Jonathan Frakes is really hard for me to watch on-screen.  He just seems so smug all the time with little to warrant the smugness.  The combination smile and chest thrust that he does when he approves of something particularly irks me.

    -I like how you point out the lack of purpose and inner lives for all the characters thus far, Kev.  This is true and I hope it gets fixed later in the series.

    Overall, I am not a fan of the episode, although it does offer slightly more than the episodes prior.  Unfortunately, this is a very low bar to clear.

    Although it is true that Worf doesn’t particularly do very much, I find his character to be the most likeable on the show, probably because he never feels sorry for himself and has a clear code of conduct to which he always holds true.  I see him as actually the closest character on the new series to Spock – alien, outcast from both the crew and his own people, not one to wear his heart on his sleeve, quick to put himself on the line for others in the crew.  Unlike everyone else in the crew, he has some sense of military discipline and his place on the team, and (barring the occasional Klingon toughness-boasting which I just expect) his character is the only one on the show with any humility or willingness to follow orders.  I hope we get to see more of him.

    Reply
  2. sunny jim Avatar
    sunny jim

    I’m still in “Is first season over yet?” mode, I’m afraid.  I’m just too distracted by the expanse of Patrick Stewart’s neck/top of shoulder exposed by the uncomfortable/impractical/unattractively shaped/unlikely uniforms, Troi’s horrid wardrobe/hair/makeup, Wesley’s dreadful sweaters, and Riker’s un-ironic heroic poses.

    The one thing I do really like in this episode is the scientific and/or philosophical idea that thought, energy, and matter are all the same.  Don’t really know where to go with that statement, but there it is. 

    I liked Wesley when these aired originally, and thought it was nice that we get to see his genius a little bit more here.

    Reply
  3. Kevin Black Avatar
    Kevin Black

    It’s true–this episode may have been the inspiration for the whole Voyager series.

    Reply
  4. Randi Cohen Avatar
    Randi Cohen

    great point about where they would have actually stopped… I’d had the impression that the traveler was mistakenly taking them back where he was from or something but i may have made that up.

    Reply
  5. Kevin Black Avatar
    Kevin Black

    I just watched ahead a few more episodes… the show isn’t getting better very quickly

    Reply
  6. Randi Cohen Avatar
    Randi Cohen

    No, they are not!  So far out of the first 13 eps I’ve watched (I watched ahead), I like 2 of them (#9 and #11).  So, getting better, but I would not call it quickly….

    Reply

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