Where No One Has Gone Before by: Diane Duane and Michael Reeves and directed by: Rob Bowman

 

“Where No One Has Gone Before” is written by: Diane Duane and Michael Reaves and is directed by: Rob Bowman.  It was produced under production code 106, was the 6^th episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, and was broadcast on October 26, 1987.

 

Let’s not beat around the bush, with a title like “Where No One Has Gone Before” there was a very big chance that Star Trek: The Next Generation was going to remake Star Trek’s second pilot, “Where No Man Has Gone Before”, like “The Naked Now” was a completely inferior remake of “The Naked Now” (and to a lesser extent “The Last Outpost” remade “Errand of Mercy”).  Thematically, there are some similarities, mainly in introducing the Enterprise to going to a very distant setting and encountering an alien that is vaguely godlike, but “Where No One Has Gone Before” is a very different style of plot written by a pair of writers very much in touch with modern writing trends.  This is an episode that uses its plot to really dig deep and explore how the characters interact with one another and form relationships.  Each cast member credited in the opening titles in this episode gets at least one real moment to shine with perhaps the exception of Marina Sirtis as Deanna Troi, she is sadly used as an exposition machine to make sure the audience understands the mysterious nature of the character of the Traveler, though she does get a few moments early in the episode playing off Riker.  Now, the plot is definitely in the same vain of an episode from the original series, though the opening act to get us there feels like the 1980s.  Starfleet sends a technician called Kosinski, played by Stanley Kamel, to the Enterprise to perform some improvements on their brand new warp drives, these improvements going wrong and catapulting the ship millions of light years away.  The rest of the episode is getting to the bottom of the why the ship was thrown to the edge of the known universe and how to get back, before reality at this point warps and forces the crew to live their thoughts.

 

It's clear from his very first scene that Kosinski is a fraud, Kamel is playing him as a delightfully over-the-top self-important antagonist throughout, and director Rob Bowman shoots many of his scenes in tighter shots to emphasize this.  Bowman’s direction overall is actually the first director to really attempt to be dynamic in terms of shooting, several tracking shots and wide shots are used to make the weird aspects of the second and third act of the episode really work.  The script also does an excellent job of establishing the episode by establishing Kosinski as a fraud and the Traveler as responsible for whatever improvements to warp that had been performed on other ships.  The episode does struggle with making Kosinski a necessary character after the halfway point when things shift to exploring the Traveler and getting the crew home which is a shame because he really could have been the episode’s antagonist which it lacks after a point.  The Traveler isn’t an antagonist, sure Eric Menyuk is giving a slightly sinister performance but he’s also portrayed as extremely empathetic.  The character strikes up this interesting relationship with Wesley Crusher, Wil Wheaton getting what is essentially another outcast to play off and an episode focused on what Wesley actually brings to the table for the series.  Wesley is the one who actually notices what the Traveler is doing and is continually ignored, something that Picard and Riker both have to learn to except.  The ending of the episode actually gives Wesley a rank, something that I’m sure fans at the time and today actively despise because Wesley’s reputation as a character is the annoying boy genius, but I actually think this is an interesting development for the character with storytelling potential.

 

The idea of the edge of the universe and the Traveler being from a plane of existence where science is magic is a classic use of Clarke’s law in action, and something standard for science fiction as a genre.  In terms of ideas, the reality bending is the unique aspect that “Where No One Has Gone Before” has to offer, though is slightly hit and miss, many of the misses coming when we see what the non-recurring crew members see.  There’s a random crew member menaced by fire which feels like a scene meant to just fill time and is the least interesting of these (there is a ballerina and a violinist that fill time but are at least interesting enough to watch as they fill time), but the main crew members actually get interesting visions.  Picard sees his mother offering him tea in the corridor and guidance, for the first time allowing Patrick Stewart to play into some under the surface insecurities of the character.  This scene is perhaps why this is the first episode where Picard as a character has really begun to click for me, he is still stern and uptight but having a scene like this allows Stewart to adjust his performance in these earlier scenes accordingly.  Worf and Tasha Yar each get visions of their own, Worf’s being an image of his pet, described in the dialogue as the Klingon equivalent of a cat.  Michael Dorn, like Patrick Stewart, is able to a lesser extent use this to show something deeper to Worf as a character, he had a pet that he clearly cared for in his own Klingon way.  It’s the first time we’re actually given some depth to this character in particular while Tasha is forced to revisit the colony where she grew up.  Unlike the callous mention of her past in “The Naked Now” during a comedic scene, Denise Crosby gets one brief moment to really show that Tasha as a character is traumatized by being in that situation and how the threat of violation and assault is under the surface.  It’s still not perfect, it’s very brief and isn’t focused on enough, but it’s certainly a start to improving her character.

 

Overall, “Where No One Has Gone Before” is genuinely a success of an episode.  It slightly loses its way with the fact that there really isn’t an actual antagonist to fight after the halfway point in a way that doesn’t really get strong resolution, even if that is from a great performance.  It's also the first episode to be directed properly and look like it was filmed with intention.  The episode works when it’s focused on creating character relationships and dynamics, laying a particularly strong foundation for Wesley Crusher as a character and giving the rest of the cast an opportunity to click into place for really the first time.  8/10.

The Last Outpost by: Herbert Wright from a story by: Richard Krzmeien and directed by: Richard Colla

 

“The Last Outpost” is written by: Herbert Wright, from a story by: Richard Krzmeien, and is directed by: Richard Colla.  It was produced under production code 107, was the 5^th episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, and was broadcast on October 19, 1987.

 

Star Trek introduced the Klingons late into its first season in the episode “Errand of Mercy”, establishing them as already having an intergalactic Cold War with the Federation through their empire and in an episode that saw them coming to blows, already aware of what the other side was capable of.  Star Trek: The Next Generation, in developing a future post-Klingon empire, wanted to recreate a long-running enemy to match the pop culture status of the Klingons and Gene Roddenberry came up with the Ferengi, mentioned in “Encounter at Farpoint” before appearing proper in “The Last Outpost”.  This episode was produced as the seventh episode, but shown fifth for whatever reason and it’s the closest Star Trek: The Next Generation has gotten to producing an episode that is actually good.  This is an episode of two halves: buildup to the reveal of the Ferengi’s actual appearance and the fact that the trouble the Enterprise finds itself in is also affecting them, and the payoff of it being the remnants of a third, godlike empire of aliens turning it into a remake of “Errand of Mercy” with much less charm.  The back half of the episode is really where things fall apart: the Ferengi almost immediately stop being a threat and reveal themselves to be sniveling capitalists and particularly boring ones at that.  When given any real pushback they begin to lie to the godlike alien apparition trying to make humanity look bad, Armin Shimerman playing the Ferengi leader on the planet as especially over-the-top.  This is an episode that also ends in a complete anti-climax, almost rushing to fill the runtime and sidelining the Ferengi as any sort of threat, though allowing Jonathan Frakes as Riker to show off his own philosophy.

 

There is the possibility that this is an episode is attempting to be more comedic when the Ferengi are involved: this has a running gag with Data being trapped in a Chinese finger trap that ends with a box being sent to the Ferengi as a way to annoy them.  A charitable reading is that screenwriter Herbert Wright wants to directly make the Ferengi look pathetic as a way to show the outdated nature of capitalism in the far future, which seems in line with Star Trek in general.  Wright does become another writer who decides to write Tasha Yar as being sexually harassed, this time by the Ferengi who for whatever reason have a culture where Ferengi women are naked and clothes on women make the men wish to assault Yar to strip her.  This is the third episode in a row where something uncomfortable like this happens to Yar.  There are some good things in the back half of the episode however, mainly the few scenes on the Enterprise as the power is going out, Picard, Troi, and Crusher ensuring everyone stays warm as death looms.  There is a particularly interesting scene between Picard and Crusher, Crusher reflecting on the danger and the fact that she’s keeping Wesley in their quarters and contemplated sedating him so he didn’t have to suffer.  It’s quite a dark scene, and is just left hanging in the air that both Gates McFadden and Patrick Stewart play incredibly well, Stewart for the first time in the series really feeling like he’s getting how to play Picard.

 

The first half of the episode is all buildup, but it’s quite good buildup.  The decision is made to start the episode with a chase between the Enterprise and a Ferengi ship, taking nearly a third of the episode before hearing from a Ferengi, and a further five minutes to actually show the Ferengi, the leader on the ship being played better by Mike Gomez going less over the top than those on the planet.  It takes cues from the original series episode “Balance of Terror”, the best episode of the original series, though it lacks any parallelism between the two captains and crews at play.  It is, however, the setup for a good episode even if the setup is derivative, the derivative nature allows the crew to actually begin to gel slightly, though this could be because this was the seventh episode produced.  It is not until getting to the planet that the Ferengi become incompetent villains, the initial discussions are largely played straight and that is for the best.  The design is also quite impressive, if a bit silly which adds to the question if the Ferengi were ever really meant to be taken seriously like the first half of the episode attempts to make them.  Some of this also may be down to director Richard Colla, once again a director who only did a single episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation and he doesn’t really set up a whole lot of interesting shots.  At best his direction is incredibly flat, and at worst it actually is quite poor at framing a lot of things in the episode, making this one slightly more difficult to actually watch, especially on the bridge viewscreen where the Ferengi leader really needed to be framed as intimidating.

 

Overall, it’s actually quite surprising that “The Last Outpost” is heralded as one of the worst episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation, because it’s actually the closest the series has come so far to being good.  The main cast is finally starting to click or at least understanding their roles with even the weaker material given to them and the first half of the episode is a fairly enjoyable watch.  The back half lets it down completely as things devolve into an incredibly inferior, almost poorly comedic remake of “Errand of Mercy”, simplified and rushed, but it is more an average hour of television instead of anything all that bad, and after the streak it feels like maybe something good could be on the horizon.  5/10.

Code of Honor by: Katharyn Powers and Michael Baron and directed by: Russ Mayberry

 

“Code of Honor” is written by: Katharyn Powers and Michael Baron and is directed by: Russ Mayberry.  It was produced under production code 104, was the 4^th episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, and was broadcast on October 12, 1987.

 

The two-part pilot and third episode for Star Trek: The Next Generation came directly from minds that worked on the original series with Gene Roddenberry and D.C. Fontana, two writers very much from the 1960s for better and for worse.  “Encounter at Farpoint” and “The Naked Now” are both episodes that feel as if there are from the original series to their detriment.  “Code of Honor” is the first episode to be from a writer not connected with the original series: Katharyn Powers and Michael Baron are the ones who write their only episode for Star Trek: The Next Generation, although Powers would write an episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.  Likewise, this was the only episode of Star Trek to be directed by Russ Mayberry.  It is also an incredibly racist and sexist piece of storytelling, and somehow nosedives the already rocky quality of Star Trek: The Next Generation.  The bigotry on display is something that is really indefensible, something that the cast and crew were clearly aware of when making it as director Russ Mayberry was fired during production and replaced with an uncredited Les Landau.  The entire aesthetic of creating an alien race of humanoids entirely played by black actors costumed in tribal gear, defined by a culture of honor and domination of the few female characters there are is just blatantly a caricature of cultures.  The dialogue given to the Ligonians, mainly in their leader Lutan, played by Jessie Lawrence Ferguson, is delivered in this clipped style, their culture is seen as primitive but they have a necessary resource for the Federation.  The conflict of the episode is getting that resource, a vaccine that the episode goes to great length to say is impossible to replicate so it must be traded, but Lutan becoming impressed with a mere female as Chief Security Officer kidnaps Tasha Yar.  She is held hostage as a potential mate for Lutan and forced to fight his previous wife to the death (through a weird and roundabout challenge that is part of Lutan’s plan), to get the vaccine and in the process transferring her lands to Lutan.  Read that back and tell me it’s not racist.

 

The sexism of the episode really affects both Yar and Yareena, Lutan’s current wife, both reduced throughout the episode to sex objects.  “Code of Honor” is clearly an episode that is focusing on Yar as a character, but doesn’t actually give her any real agency or character.  She becomes a plot device, made worse by Denise Crosby really struggling with a script full of weak dialogue.  For whatever reason Powers and Baron decide that Yar as a character actually has attraction to Lutan deep down, something that Counsellor Troi reveals through dialogue and a trick that both Marina Sirtis and Crosby are overacting.  It’s also incredibly annoying when before this point, in the previous episode both in terms of production and broadcast, Yar was established as having her own sexual trauma due to her upbringing.  Yes, that was established in a bad comedy scene, but as a character the entire premise of “Code of Honor” should have Yar facing her past trauma.  It is only made worse when the focus of the episode is not on Yar, but on Picard trying to get her back through diplomacy as well as getting the vaccine.  It’s trying to be an ensemble episode when it really should not be an ensemble piece, we are focusing on the men and how the Enterprise crew can’t treat this backwards culture with any real aggression for what is essentially crimes.  This is not some great commentary on hesitancy to act in dangerous situations and how that can lead to worse outcomes, instead everything in the episode turns out absolutely fine and there is no danger.  The only casualty in the episode is a no-named Ligonian extra and technically Yareena, who is magically brought back to life through science at the end.  The only other thing “Code of Honor” does is attempt character development for characters like Wesley and Beverly Crusher which is ancillary while Data is used for comic relief with Geordi and Worf outright doesn’t appear.

 

Overall, while I don’t know if the assessment of “Code of Honor” as the worst piece of Star Trek ever made is correct, but it certainly is the worst episode of Star Trek that I have seen, somehow worse than the worst of the original series in “The Omega Glory” and “The Savage Curtain”.  This is an episode that should have been stopped in its tracks before making it to air, even the script should have been stopped when every Ligonian except Lutan was specified to be black and then Lutan was also cast as black taking a script with heavy racist undertones and putting it into racist overtones under Russ Mayberry’s incredibly poor direction.  The sexism feels worse than anything Roddenberry wrote in the 1960s.  None of the regulars are having a good time or even giving a good performance making Star Trek: The Next Generation batting zero four episodes in in terms of good episodes.  1/10.