Where No One Has Gone Before

TNG Season 1 Episode 6
Air Date: October 26th, 1987

Plot

The Enterprise is having it's engines tuned by a Starfleet engineer Mr. Kosinski and his assistant. During the test run, the assistant gets distracted while talking to Wesley and something goes wrong sending the Enterprise millions of light years in the matter of minutes. Mr. Kosinski thinks that it was his calculations that brought them that distance but Wesley knows it is the assistant. When trying to reproduce the error to return to the Milky Way, they go billions of light years. This time, Riker sees the assistant phase and realizes what is really happening.

The assistant who identifies himself as the traveler tells Picard that he is a tourist trading his skills in propulsion in exchange for a ride. He is weakened from the first two jumps but promises to return the Enterprise home. He succeeds but completely phases out of our existence. Before he left, he told Picard that Wesley is a special person, like Mozart and should be encouraged. Picard gives Wesley the role of acting Ensign.

Commentary

This is the first of two episodes involving the Traveler. If Wil Wheaton didn't leave the show I am sure we would have had a few more. After the second test, they show outer space a billion light years away as a blue light with balls of light moving around. Almost as if they were the size of an atom.

When the crew end up in this blue light area of space, the imaginations of the crew seems to come to life. In one scene Picard is exiting the turbolift but instead of a corridor he sees space. A Klingon Targ appears on the bridge, which looks similar to a warthog. Only like the original series which once used a dog in the place of an alien pet, this looked like a pig dressed in a costume.

Quotes

"What is our velocity?" - Picard
"It's off the scale, sir." - Data
"Reverse engines." - Picard
"Captain, no one has ever reversed engines at this velocity." - Data
"It's because no one has gone this fast. Reverse engines." - Picard

"And you have this ability, to travel?" - Riker
"Yes." - The Traveler
"And others of your kind have the same ability?" - Riker
"Oh, yes." - The Traveler
"Then why, in all of our history, is there no record of you or someone like you ever having visited us?" - Riker
"What wonderful arrogance! There is no record because we have not visited you before." - The Traveler
"Why not?" - Riker
"Well, because, up until now if you'll forgive this, you've been uninteresting." - The Traveler