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.