***Content Warning: Mention of rape.***
Star Trek: The Next Generation – Season 1, Episode 6
As I’ve said before, I really love when Star Trek goes totally bonkers with high concept ideas that probe the limits of imagination. “Where No One Has Gone Before,” though still saddled with Season 1 TNG goofiness (and some super dark stuff, check that content warning), it definitely swings for the fences in providing one of the most literally out there adventures any Trek crew has even been on.
“Where No One” is, objectively speaking, not a great episode. But it is still one of the best of the first season, and one I love both ironically and unironically. It’s weird as hell in both good ways and bad, and like another infamous episode that dealt with super speed, it’s definitely memorable. Star Trek‘s core premise is space ships traveling at impossibly high speeds, and this one puts the petal to the metal in sending the Enterprise hurtling uncontrollably to the reaches of the beyond.
One thing that’s genuinely interesting about Season 1 TNG is how much it apes the style and tone of The Original Series. Which makes a certain amount of sense, as the show would take a couple seasons to find its own unique character. Episodes like this and “The Naked Now” are explicit callbacks to TOS. But the cadence of the episodes, musical beats, uncomfortable camera angles, and more are super TOS-ey stylistic artifacts.
Case in point, the arrival of a supposed warp drive specialist, Kosinski (first name? last name? rank? question marks for all!). TOS episodes were replete with visiting randos who have mysterious secrets and are potentially (AKA “almost always”) dangerous lunatics. Riker, as if knowing that he’s in a Star Trek episode, is super suspicious of this guy right off the bat. Kosinski’s apparently made great improvements to a couple of other Federation ships’ engines, but Riker remains unconvinced. To his credit, he’s had the staff punch in Kosinski’s equations into the warp drive watchamathingies with absolutely no effect. Data postulates that the older engines of the Fearless and Ajax were simply brought up to modern code with Kosinski’s software patches.
Kosinski and his alien assistant (name unpronounceable by humans, ya know that yarn) transport aboard the Enterprise and he instantly makes an impression as an abrasive and self-important d-bag. Still, it’s an oddly tense meeting for a Starfleet technician; you’d think this guy was a Klingon chancellor or something. The episode helpfully telegraphs that this guy and his assistant are bad news that will be the downfall of us all. Troi gives one of her classic vague proclamations that seems hilariously self-aware: “With most lifeforms I can usually feel something. I may not be able to understand or interpret it but I feel something, if only a presence.” LOL, very much agreed, Deanna!
I love everything about her statement. With most lifeforms I can usually feel something. Yeah, I think most people can, Counselor. It’s called having eyes and ears. And isn’t understanding, interpreting, and communicating it supposed to be, y’know, your whole thing? You didn’t just get these powers yesterday, you’ve had decades of experience with more alien races than you can count.
But enough Troi-bashing! In engineering, Riker and Chief Engineer Argyle force warp specialist Corky Romano to actually explain the magical voodoo he intends to do to the Enterprise’s engines. Kosinski gives a voluminous and meaningless speech that doesn’t do anything to impress Riker or Argyle, but they decide to let him try his nonsense. To his credit, the actor gives a memorable performance as a total dilithium diva and is twitching with rage at how little respect he is being given here. He’s a pistol!
Meanwhile, Kosinski’s assistant sits with Wesley Crusher as he sets up the warp field equations. He seems to immediately spot that Wesley has an intrinsic understanding of squiggly lines on video screens. Hey, him and me both. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
The Enterprise proceeds to enter warp 1.5 and begin the tests. While doing his thing on the computer, the assistant gets distracted by… looking at Wesley? It’s… odd. As it’s my sworn snarky duty to avoid low-hanging comedy fruit [FART], I’m just gonna move on.
Kosinski is alarmed and tries to hide his anxiety as the Enterprise surges forward. His assistant starts phasing in and out of reality and Wesley is the only person to notice. On the bridge, La Forge reports that the ship is passing Warp 10. Uh, Warp 10 as in Warp 10 the Trek-established maximum speed possible, where you occupy all points in the universe simultaneously? That Warp 10? We’re going faster than that? *nods salamanderly*
Despite that gobbledygook, I absolutely love the visuals of the Enterprise going super-duper speed in this episode. They’re simple, but great. The ship goes into warp while already in warp and elongates like a rubber band. On the bridge’s viewscreen, Picard watches as dozens of galaxies hurtle by. Kosinski’s assistant now seems almost injured and totally out of control of the process.
Picard orders all stop, and the Enterprise comes to find itself in a particularly scenic area of space 2.7 million light years from where they were, in the M33 galaxy. La Forge estimates it would take over 300 years to reach their own galaxy again. But a subspace signal will only take about 50 years, so it isn’t that bad, ya crybabies.
Kosinski strides onto the bridge and is as smug as can be about “his” feat. Star Trek routinely features con men and cheating ne’er do wells galore (and sometimes as main characters), but this is one of the only Starfleet bullshit artists we’ve seen. He immediately starts salivating at his name being written into the history books (a deadpan Argyle suggests a new “Kosinski scale” for warp speeds). But Picard is only concerned with whether or not Kosinski can return them to their own galaxy, who is all too confident that he can do it, as well as anything! Except have a career after SNL, that is.
Meanwhile, Kosinski’s assistant seems in bad shape, and only Wesley notices or cares. The alien says he needs to rest, and has “been away too long.” He actually says that Kosinski isn’t quite the joke he seems to be, and perhaps knows – as Wesley seems to – that time, space, and thought aren’t the separate things they appear to be. The alien seems alarmed that Wesley realizes this, and unconvincingly dissuades him from thinking anymore about “such dangerous nonsense.”
It’s kind of a lot to unpack, but it’s interesting to consider that Kosinski may not be a total fraud. I mean, presumably he couldn’t be a warp specialist (or whatever the fuck he is) based on pure bullshittery and Big Warp Energy alone. So he does know stuff, and maybe could potentially ascend to a higher level of understanding if he wasn’t so intoxicated by the smell of his own deuterium. 💩
As the Enterprise prepares to warp back home, Kosinski cannot shut up about how great he is. Wesley is concerned about his assistant and tries to tell Riker about it, but Riker is comically uninterested in what he has to say.
The ship enters Warp 1.5 again, and the assistant does his phasing shtick which Riker actually notices this time. But something seems off, and the Enterprise comes to a stop again, never having exceeded Warp 1.5. Except… they find themselves in a bizarre part of space that resembles the inside of an iceberg. Mysterious conga lines of lights dance around the ship. It’s one of the craziest images and one of my favorite sights of the franchise. Oh, and it’s over a billion light years farther away from the Milky Way. 🤯
Picard leaves for engineering, and the craziness starts! Worf sees a vision of his pet targ he had as a boy, and that seems to inspire Yar to see her own pet cat from her youth. Picard steps out of the turbolift doors to see nothing but empty space whizzing around him. It’s another trippy, memorable image.
As Yar pets her orange tabby, she gets drawn into a memory from the hellish colony she grew up on. A demonic gang of laughing men with flashlights seem to find her in the filthy sewer she’s hiding in. La Forge startles her out of it, and she recounts the rape gangs that chased her in her youth.
OK, um… what?
It’s an insane detail to just drop into an episode of wacky, speedful mirth and then not ever expand upon it ever again. Tasha Yar was a character that was never properly given her due while she was a cast member, which is all the more crazy given her super intense and potentially interesting background. There are bits and pieces, and an entire later episode that visits her home. But even then, Yar’s story is barely filled in. What the hell kind of colony was this? Certainly not a Federation one? Was this the Mad Max planet in the Thunderdromia System?
As in Deep Space Nine’s “If Wishes Were Horses,” another story of imagination made real, there is some dark material flirted with here, but it seems so out of place in this kind of episode. Moreover, does any episode of Star Trek *need* rape gangs? What is this, a Punisher MAX comic?
Meanwhile, other crewmembers are having far less disturbing and more wholesome fantasies. Playing with classical music greats, being a ballerina, having tea with your dead mother…
What? Oh, hello Mrs. Picard.
Jean-Luc turns a corner to find his mother seated at a fancy little tea table. It’s another arresting image as she’s backlit and looks almost heavenly. She seems like such a sweet little lady and Jean-Luc is instantly transfixed by her warm presence. I didn’t much care for Stewart in Season 1, but he shines here in his vulnerability. Riker interrupts, and she vanishes. The captain seems shaken afterward, as if he had to lose her all over again. It’s a great little acting moment, and that long pause Stewart takes communicates so much.
But he shakes it off, sounds red alert, and arrives in engineering where he announces to the ship that they’re apparently in an area of space where thought becomes reality and warns everyone to keep a lid on their busy little minds. He demands answers from Kosinski, and Riker denounces that it was ever him making the ship go, but rather his assistant. Kosinski seemed to genuinely think that it was him, that he was somehow operating on the level of his assistant. Riker at least gives Wesley credit for seeing what was happening, and his mistake of not listening.
Unfortunately, the alien is in bad shape and Dr. Crusher can’t quite figure out why, but she guesses fatigue. She wakes him so he can answer Picard’s questions. He identifies himself as a “traveler” – not to any particular destination, but just for the sake of curiosity. What a weirdo! He’s been using his abilities to travel aboard Federation ships and allowing Kosinski to take kredit for it.
The Traveler explains that thought is the powerful force that has brought them to his place, and that he can focus thought like a lens. Kosinski dismisses it as magic, and the Traveler happily agrees that it is. But Picard can see the logic in what he says, given everything that is happening. The Traveler is apologetic for the situation and agrees to help them get back.
It’s all pretty wacky, and doesn’t exactly jibe with Star Trek‘s generally sober and scientific outlook. We’ve seen (and will see) thought become reality plenty of times, but there’s usually a concrete device that’s causing it. This episode is telling us that thought, reality, time, and space are all interchangeable. Then again, I guess there’s precedent for that given the Q Continuum (and other aliens like them). But the Traveler (and his kind) has a radically different physiology from humans, so that has to come into play. This guy was born on temporal third base and is telling us that anyone can accomplish what he has. Yeah, uh-uh, sure pal.
Alone with Picard, the Traveler tells him that Wesley possesses natural talent for the intricacies of time, energy, and propulsion. He compares him to Mozart, another child of astounding talent, and tells Picard to encourage him but keep it secret from everyone (including mom). That’s a little weird. Eric Menyuk gives the Traveler an interesting, alien mystique.
“It’s burning day, sir!”
As the crew prepares to (hopefully) warp back home, Picard addresses the entire ship once again. He tells them to focus all of their positive vibes on the Traveler, since thoughts totally matter here. In engineering, the Traveler asks Kosinski for help at the console, who seems genuinely grateful that he’s needed. Now let’s head-bob our way back to our own galaxy!
The Traveler gives it the ol’ college try, and with everyone’s combined ki he is able to create a spirit bomb big enough to get them home as he phases completely out of existence. Picard thanks the ship for helping out, which honestly must be some nice closure to the crew and all the civilians.
Picard calls Wesley to the bridge, and in keeping with the Traveler’s suggestion, decides to make him an acting ensign so he can learn the ways of the ship (with Riker as his teacher). Wesley is overjoyed to have earned a Nepotism Field Commission, and no doubt also earns the ire of all the real ensigns (and crewmen) aboard the ship who actually earned their ranks. Hey, I don’t know what to tell y’all – the alien said so! ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I don’t dislike Wesley the same way that so many others do, although he can be a bit much at times. His penchant for noticing and figuring out things that the adults can’t strains credibility a lot of the time. But on the other hand, he does represent the more flexible and open minds that children have before adult life grinds it out of them. In the least creepiest reading, the Traveler is someone who sees that openness to the infinite possibilities in Wesley and wants to see it nurtured. Wesley as the model Starfleet officer never moved the needle for me, but Wesley as the prodigy who can see beyond the veil of time and space was very fascinating and compelling. The series seemed to flip flop back and forth between these two a little too much.
“Thoughts becoming reality” is a well-worn Trek trope, but mostly because the episodes that employ it don’t really make good use of it. I prefer it if it gets focused in one general direction – like fears – rather than all over the place like here or in Voyager’s “Persistence of Vision.” And it should be used in service of characterization to deepen our understanding of these people. Aside from Yar and Picard, it’s not used here to explore any of the characters, so it feels like a missed opportunity. I feel like the device is a little out of place here and would have liked to see more crazy space stuff – anomalies, or even running into some other civilizations.
Despite its flaws, “Where No One Has Gone Before” is an intriguing early adventure for The Next Generation crew. Some of its story threads would play out for the rest of the series (and decades later into the Picard and Prodigy series). In Star Trek, space was an open frontier of wonders, but can quickly turn frightening if one goes too far and too fast.
Stray Observations:
- No single image of Picard in the entirety of Trek goes as duranium hard as this one.
- Kosinski states that only 11 percent of the Milky Way has been explored at this point in the 24th century.
- Chief Engineer Argyle was in a couple of episodes, and one of several CE’s throughout the first season before La Forge got promoted in Season 2. It’s odd that this was a vacant position among the main characters – TNG didn’t bother to have its own Scotty until the second season!
- This guy’s hilariously downbeat reaction when all his classical musician entourage disappears. He just shakes his head like “Aww nuts, not again…”
- I absolutely love the crotch eye’s shots Season 1 did. Step-cameraman, what are you doing down there???
- LOL, if looks could kill. The fucking face on Riker as Kosinski leaves the bridge – he haaaaates this tool.
- Presented without context:
