episode #06: Where No One Has Gone Before

In the plot, a supposed propulsion expert named Kosinski (Stanley Kamel) and his assistant (Eric Menyuk) come aboard the Enterprise-D. Kosinski has been given permission by Starfleet Command to apply his radical modification theories to the ship's warp engines, based on his success at improving the efficiency of other ships. Riker and chief engineer Argyle (Biff Yeager) are of the opinion that Kosinski's equations are nonsense and Kosinski's own explanations are gibberish - a parody of the usual techno-babble that informs most episodes (also, this was before La Forge became chief engineer). But, Kosinski is an arrogant, overbearing snob and assures everyone that there will be no problem.

Wesley, however, notices something unusual in the equations and in Kosinski's assistant.
During the initial test, though it seems that the ship is traveling at warp 1.5, it actually travels 2,700,000 light years in seconds, ending up in galaxy M33. The Enterprise crew are now 300 years away from Federation space, if moving at their usual top speed (I think it's more than 300, which means Data erred).

It becomes evident that it is actually Kosinski's assistant who is responsible for this great leap in propulsion technology. But, no one pays attention to this possibility, ignoring Wesley, so Picard allows Kosinski to try again and reverse the process. Instead of going back to their own galaxy, they end up even further away, over a billion light years away or perhaps even in some other dimension, where thought becomes reality. Crew members begin to see places and things from their past; Worf sees an old pet, Yar finds herself back on her home colony and Picard runs into his mama. Kosinski's assistant is now known as The Traveler, possibly an other-dimensional being who was trading his advanced knowledge for the opportunity to get around the galaxy. Unfortunately, he becomes ill; if he dies, the crew will never return home.




The strengths of this episode are obvious: it allows us a glimpse of the show's potential, to see things we will never see on other TV shows. Besides the sci-fi concepts, Kamel offers an excellent, entertaining guest performance as the too-annoying Kosinski; he could have been a two-dimensional idiot, but Kamel also suggests an insecurity and a submerged desire to improve the human condition through thought-provoking invention. Also, seeing him brush by Riker and Riker's reaction is priceless.

The execution of the episode was faulty. It's unclear as to why The Traveler made his error, unless he was distracted by Wesley. Wesley's dialog is poor and the whole suggestion that he is a scientific Mozart is overdone. The opportunity for the Enterprise to investigate a new galaxy is dismissed in the span of a minute - not a good sign for an exploratory vessel (this is only a 45-minute show, though there were a couple of good lines of dialog here). The scenes of the crew embroiled in their personal fantasies were done clumsily; we suddenly see a crew member playing in a concert and another dancing in a ballet; who are these people? When I first saw this, it almost threw me out of the episode - the transitions were not done well. BoG's Score: 7 out of 10

In a couple of my earlier posts, I opined how it took actor Stewart about a year to find his footing as Picard. I can present his performance in this episode as my surest evidence of this. During most of the episode, Stewart as Picard alternates between confusion and raising his voice, as if he keeps becoming alarmed or angry over & over; he's all over the place and doesn't present an assured captain here, as he would in later seasons. His better scenes actually involve him becoming a father figure to Wesley; he promotes Wesley to acting ensign in this episode.

TNG Trivia: according to Kosinski, humanity has charted only 11% of the galaxy by this point. The writers of this episode, Diane Duane & Michael Reaves, claim that most of their script was jettisoned by the final version; read here: DIANE DUANE on WHERE NO ONE HAS GONE BEFORE.