TNG Review: Where No One Has Gone Before

 I spent most of today watching Where No One Has Gone Before and writing up a review of it for TV Squad. I really, really like this episode, and I think it's one of the better ones we did in the first season, especially after the trainwrecks that were The Last Outpost, Naked Now, and Code of Honor.

A few minutes later in engineering, Kosinski whizzes on the engine and Riker and Argyle follow as he gets ready to do his thing. Trekkies who may have begun to dislike Kosinski immediately start a fan club for him when he stops mid-stream to ask "why is this child here?" in reference to Wesley Crusher, who is working on a school project and decked out in a really sweet burnt sienna sweater, straight out of famed Klingon designer K'Talh Ba'akQoth's fall collection. (No joke: William Ware Theiss, the original costume designer, had me go to some dude's house to have my colors done. As a 14 year-old who was really into the sweet pastels and bright neon colors of the late 80s, I was horrified to discover I was an "autumn with a hint of winter, honey," who would get to wear oranges, browns, greens, and pukes until I finally got my official spacesuit, which honestly wasn't much better.)

After a few more moments of Kosinski being a a condescending dick, Riker cockblocks him, and makes him explain exactly how his cute little spaceship speeding up thing works. While he explains, his assistant naturally ignores all the open engineering consoles, and takes the one where Wesley is working. Jesus! Didn't Argyle just tell them it was a school project? What the hell, dude?

Wesley watches the assistant lay in some commands, but something bothers him, so the assistant lets Wesley tinker with the coordinates himself. Oh yeah, that's not going to cause any problems or piss off the audience at all. After Wesley is done, the assistant gives him a look that, in retrospect, is about an 8.6 on the Mark Foley scale of creepiness.

I tried to balance humor with behind the scenes stuff, and keep the whole thing under 2500 words. Well, I came in at 2700 words, but I'm still happy with it. I hope you like it, and tell me that I'm pretty and smart and funny.

Er. What? Ah, it must be Friday.

If you like it, it would be super awesome to Digg it, or vote it up at Netscape.

Comments

[ColleenS]

You are pretty and smart and funny!
I love this kind of entry.
TNG stuff and your wry observation of the experience.

[KaliAmanda]

The Traveler creeped me out. Then years later, when Buffy did their episode "Hush" (4.10) I thought they looked a lot alike and spooked me even more.

[VeronicaRobinson]

The gray suit was probably the ugliest thing I'd ever seen, but I was around fourteen when that came along so it didn't matter much. Nice review.

[VeronicaRobinson]

The gray suit was probably the ugliest thing I'd ever seen, but I was around fourteen when that came along so it didn't matter much. Nice review.

[peanutbutter]

I read your full review and literally laughed out loud. The mental picture of Picard whacking Kosinski with a newspaper sent me into hysterics. Unfortunately I am going to have to ding you for over-use of the word "totally". "Completely" works just as well. Also, the Foley comparisons are timely...and creepy. I guess I was too young and innocent to read into that sort of stuff back in the eighties. Now I don't think I'll ever watch the first season of Next Gen the same way. Also I hope they sell that uh...pumpkin?...colored sweater at auction someday. I will buy it and set it ablaze.

And yes, I did spend season two and most of season three asking myself: Does Wesley know his pants are unzipped in the back?

But the red and black outfit? Very nice.

Overall, great review. The summary was entertaining and funny. A refreshing take. (hey, we don't read these because we don't know what happened in the episode) Your behind-the-scenes notes and your end comments were insightful and interesting.

Job well done. You get a gold star.

okay...

And you are pretty and smart and funny

[AmiNTT]

Wil, you totally need to record these so people can listen to you while the episode plays.

[Ericka]

lmao, I love how you talk about Wesley. Poor kid.

[Ronnie G.]

Yeah... I pretty much had you pegged as an autumn with a hint of winter - like hoarfrost on a pumpkin.

The complete review on TV Squad is fun... consider it Dugg.

[sparky1234]

Another one hit out of the park, Wheatstoner. That Pauly is a bad influence, obviously. ;) I am in complete agreement that these would make great podcast/episode notes.

[starshine_diva]

LOL!!!

Yeah! Suck it, jerks! Wesley was right, bitches, and you wouldn't listen to him! Woo! Go Wesley! Go Wesley! It's your birthday! It's your birthday!

Ahem. Sorry.

Best part!!

To help everyone calm down, they turn on the Red Alert klaxons and lights.

You make me laugh :) out loud! For real!! Not just one of those "lol" that don't actually exist.

That last part... I bet you copy-edited it a million times to make sure you didn't confuse Patrick with Picard. :S

[Diane Duane]

Wil,

A hilarious read. (I already commented over at TVSquad, so won't repeat myself.) Thanks for the morning's big laugh at something I wish I could have laughed as hard about after Michael and I turned it in. ;)

Best - Diane

[GDISTORM]

Will:

Dugg it with no problem. As usual .. it was great work. Always love the behind the scenes references and the constant sarcasm. It often reflects my train of thought and besides ... it makes me laugh on the gloomiest of days ... so thanks!! Have a great weekend.

Will

[skytalon]

I am glad you wrote this one, cuz it was my favorite. episode. ever. This was way before I even knew abt Wesley hate. I thought it was real cool that he was special.

I was abt 15 years old when I first saw this episode. I was a latchkey kid, so I come home right after school and wait till 5pm to watch TNG everyday.

[sazbean]

Wil, Thanks for the review - I really enjoy reading these and they brighten my day.

Thanks Again.

[Craig Steffen]

The Review: funny, and very cool. I do remember being impressed by the acting of Kosinski; he ends up generating some sympathy at the end of the episode.

Check out the comment by Diane Duane at the original review!

These reviews are really cool. It's been interesting to hear about your personal reactions to working on TNG, but (cliche alert) reading your responses to the series itself is a whole new dimension. It's very neat, I hope to see more of it.

I do think that it would be very cool to have commentary podcasts (or whatever) to be able to listen to while watching the episodes. Maybe that would be too much work for most of them, but maybe for a few selected episodes here and there?

You've talked about the arc of Wesley's weeniness in the first couple of seasons. I don't think you've mentioned how that fits in with "Encounter at Farpoint". I seem to remember that the character Wesley was very special to Gene Roddenberry; I presume (although it's been ten years since I've seen it) that Wesley was treated well in EaF, but then ended up with writers that didn't know what to do with him as the series got going.

Which brings the thought--since we seem to be going through the series sort of chronologically, could you write a review of "Encounter at Farpoint"? It would be interesting to read that in contrast to what you've written about the first season.

Like it, like the behind the scenes stuff, and I think it's interesting (and in this case funny) when you talk directly about Wesley.

Have a good weekend,

Craig

[Myshtuff]

I actually just watched this episode on G4 the other day and I thought it was an awesome episode. Keep up the good work Wesley, I mean Wil.
:)
Also, does Patrick really have a british accent? I find it funny when he says Pr"EH"vacy instead of PrIvicy.
Just asking.:)

[AJ]

I always thought that the Traveler had a crush on Crusher. I saw the episode on Spike the other day where Wesley's experiment puts Beverly in a warp bubble. The Traveler came back to help and you could totally tell that he had been pining for Wesley -- just waiting for the opportunity to come back. Creepy. (But a pretty cool ep)

[Robotech_Master]

Hey, Wil, don't know if you noticed this, but your review prompted some reminiscing by Diane Duane on her involvement in an early version of the episode, which ended up being almost, but not quite, entirely unlike what actually got shot.

It's at Out of Ambit.

[GDISTORM]

Thanks for the link, Robotech_Master.

[sprite]

This literally made me laugh. A lot.... to the point of hearing from the kitchen from my fiance: "What are you laughing maniacally about in there?" Gold! I never connected to that whole "Hate Wesley" thing, of course it could be because I only knew one other person who watched TNG in my age group and she had huge fangirl-eyes for Riker.... which was weird.. cuz we were 12 o_O So really, not every single ST fan out there hated Wesley ^_~

[wolfger]

You're...uhm... smart and funny. Two out of three ain't bad, right? At least, that's what Meatloaf says.

[rowan-ash]

I recall watching the episode... aged about 4... only cause I remember that awful peach jumper you wore??? Correct? I mean I have watched them since... but that's pretty much my first memory of TNG... in fact one of my first memories lol!

[andy]

Wil,

Thanks. I just ruined a perfectly good keyboard and LCD monitor by spraying coffee through my nostrils at them.

;p

Best laugh I've had all week.

[Gandhi]

Off Topic:

Did you read this: http://www.ostp.gov/html/US%20National%20Space%20Policy.pdf

[Joe]

I think they should do a star trek movie leading up to a huge story on wesley and some amazing adventure he got himself into as he grew up. I think Star Trek has a lot of loose ends to tie up. They just kinda left Wesley hanging out there with no real closure. The last TNG episode wrapped up a lot of stuff, but I would still like to have seen more on a few things.