6 – Where No One Has Gone Before

Grade: D

Summary

The Enterprise meets up with another Federation starship, the Fearless. They are picking up two Federation scientists who are supposed to run tests to help maximize the efficiency of the warp drive. Riker, Data and Troi all have good reasons to mistrust the two visitors. But good thing the Enterprise has its resident supergenius on board to save the day.

Commentary

This episode is the first appearance of the Traveler – an interesting character who will appear in a few more episodes. But this one in particular is not terribly remarkable. One of the characters is terribly annoying, but other than that, there’s not much of a reason to see it.

In fact, right around the 30-minute mark, it becomes very talky and tedious. The script and the episode are boring. The only notable parts of this episode are when Wesley Crusher becomes an acting Ensign, and toward the end of the episode when there’s yet another male crewman wearing a miniskirt. I’m not sure what Roddenberry was thinking there, but it sure looks silly.

Of Note

There was an episode of the Original Series, called Where No Man Has Gone Before. But the two episodes have nothing in common.

Within the first part of the episode, the Enterprise has traveled 2.7 million light years, and LaForge says at maximum warp, it would take them 300 years to get home. I’m not sure how that’s possible, because in Voyager, they travel 70,000 light years away, but it would take them 70 years go get home. Somehow, the scales are way off in these two episodes. Based on Voyager’s math, LaForge should have said 3,000 years.