TNG S1E5 "Where No One Has Gone Before" Review by AnswerMan

Horrible:Meh:Adequate:Good:Fantastic

Argyle with beard and Riker without.

A propulsion expert is beamed on board to perform some experiments that could improve the ships systems. The crew has some concerns though, as all of the data that they've reviewed so far just looks like gibberish to them. The expert, Kosinski, brings with him his strange and quiet assistant, and Riker brings Troi and Chief Engineer Lieutenant Commander Argyle to meet them in the transporter room. I have no idea who Argyle is, but he has a beard and Riker doesn't and this fact bothers me. Anyway, Kosinski goes about pissing everyone off immediately by being the most pretentious and arrogant prick to ever exist.



Off to engineering they go, to set up the experiment. Wesley is there poking around, and seems to be the only one that is paying attention to the assistant. When the experiment is performed, the assistant's body cuts in and out of phase like bad reception on an old television. We are then given some of the most beautiful imagery in all of Star Trek while the ship is hurled into deep deep deep space. When it's over, the crew finds themselves 2,700,000 light years from where they started. They have left the galaxy, and jumped over a couple others as well. Now to put this into perspective, when Voyager was banished to the Delta Quadrant, they were still within the same galaxy, and only 70,000 light years away. Geordi calculates that it would take over 300 years to get back at maximum warp (this obviously predates the Voyager formula of 1000 light years = 1 year of travel).

Beautiful. 

Kosinski shows up on the bridge all proud of himself, seemingly oblivious to the fact they are now stranded. The crew has a bit of a chat, and they decide that although Kosinski is clearly an idiot, and an asshole, they have no choice but to see if he can get them back.

Meanwhile the assistant and Wes are having a discussion, and Wes says that it appeared that the calculations the assistant were running showed that space and time and thought were all the same. He denies this in a manner that can only mean that it's true.

So the experiment is run again, with a heading to return the way they came. After the same crazy sequence as before they find themselves now A BILLION LIGHT YEARS away from home. Ok, now I feel like we're just throwing crazy numbers out there. This time we're shown some hokey imagery of the Enterprise trapped in what looks like salt molecules, or perhaps a space iceberg. Oh, and the neat thing about being a billion light years from home, apparently, is that you can conjure things with your mind. Worf is the first to try this out, and we get to see him fawn all over his childhood pet, a horrible pig thing with spikes. Some project their deepest fears, like a random crewman who is being burned alive, while others chat with deceased relatives or play music with Mozart.

Trapped in a snowflake?

Now that everyone knows that Kosinski is a fraud, and his experiments just nonsense (as there is no propulsion system capable of those distances), they focus on the assistant, who by the way is dying. Wesley intrudes, and has an interesting exchange with Riker and the captain. They have been continually calling him "the boy" in a rather condescending tone. He finally stands up for himself and says, "My name is Wesley!" Good job, Wes, but you lose whatever points you gained for being assertive by wearing that enormous and horribly distracting sweater the whole show. Crusher revives the assistant for a chat, which he then doses off from the exhaustion of, so she revives him again, and then all of a sudden he's ok I guess and jumps out of bed. He tells Picard that he is a traveler, and is responsible for all of Kosinski's work, and that the only reason he's there is to observe Wesley. Wesley is apparently a genius of time, space, and the ship's propulsion systems. He asks Picard not to tell him this, but to encourage him along the way.

Seriously, what is with this sweater?

So they go back to engineering, and prepare for the trip home. Picard makes an announcement that everyone needs to focus their thoughts on the safe trip home, or on caring thoughts regarding The Traveler. They fumble around on their consoles, though I have no idea why, as it's been established that it wasn't the engines that are propelling them, but rather the mind of The Traveler. And bam! They're right back where they started, and The Traveler is now gone altogether.

The show ends with an exchange where Wesley is called to the bridge and officially given the rank of acting ensign. It's cute, and well done. Wesley opts to hang out on the bridge rather than go tell his mother what has happened.

For a beardless Riker, and use of boatswain whistles throughout (I thought those were only heard on TOS?), and seeing Worf's pet piggy, and making me want to punch Kosinski, and for truly going where no one has gone before, I declare this a Fantastic and important episode of Trek.

Published Mar 17, 2017