Another foray into early TNG's experimental nature, this episode takes a different approach in that it is only doing a wordplay on a TOS episode title but creating new content to explore. After shining examples of uneven ground with "The Naked Now", viewers tuning into the fifth week were probably a little apprehensive over what WNOHGB might try and do. Viewers would be rewarded with something quite a bit better, even if it's a tad cliche in spots. First, let's deal with the guest star of the week. Stanley Kamel puts in an impressive performance as Kosinski. From arrogance to worry, to everything else in between, he's taking what from the get-go is a very generic role -- the audience all knew from the start it's the mysterious traveler, from Tau Alpha C, known only as "The Doctor", who is doing the work to make the ship travel in near-impossible ways -- and it's his performance that certainly kept me watching... ("Uh-oh. I forgot to put out the fireplace logs last night.") The episode is definitely meant to give young Wesley a boost. Only this time there's a little bit of nuance accorded his character and, indeed, with the Traveler - who is not making goo-goo faces at him but is genuinely interested in his intellect and potential for a mere human with a creative, intelligent mind who has figured out that space and time and thought can be used for things other than novelty brownie recipes or dirty magazines. The Traveler's acting (Erik Menyuk) took incredibly cheesy dialogue and almost made it work, he's that good with taking melodrama to a point that one could suspend disbelief and roll with it. Especially if one is a teenager watching this at the time. The idea behind the dialogue is sound, but the dialogue itself - while passable - just feels unpolished in an attempt to feel grand and epic on a scale that's intended to awe. Okay, I say "unpolished", as noting the rest of his sentence after the word "in". The Traveler knows Wesley's soaking it all in and does a quick left turn. I've got to mention the music - it's late-80s but it never fails to engage thanks to Ron Jones' trendsetting style that helped solidify TNG as well as enhancing, if not merely buoying any number of stories that otherwise had issues. In short, Ron Jones made this show. The episode also introduces the third of many season one's ill-fated Chiefs of Engineering, Argyle. MacDougal didn't stick around and they just couldn't get Geordi in Engineering for every episode, now could they... So in comes Argyle. Which reminds me, I need to buy some socks. And lo and behold, TNG decided to make him... a cornball ripoff of Scotty mannerisms! Why?! Aye, like me they had no idea what to do with a Chief Engineer archetype either... he just stands around and says two lines with a Scottish accent but otherwise could be any old stick figure and it wouldn't make a difference. (Beyond Triangulum M33... I had no clue the original visuals were made on 35mm until seeing the blu-ray and it's sheer magnificence...) Actually, as the story progressed, despite some cheese, I was enthralled. The ship goes out of control and they end up hopscotching across two galaxies in a matter of minutes. "Triangulum M33" is an actual galaxy, situated three million light years away from Earth. The Enterprise requires 300 years at maximum warp to get home. Meanwhile the JMC vessel Red Dwarf is 3 million years away from Earth but was traveling slower than the speed of light for the bulk of it and one doesn't need algebra class to know the 1701-D will pass by and pick up a motley crew of bizarre hitchhikers, including a being that evolved from cats... and a new android friend for Data... and a hologram who thinks Picard is the bees knees... and that polymorph will be very happy too... So anyway, the crew give Picard a status report -- and are they using SCRUM, AGILE, or Waterfall project management methodology? Kosinski continues to steal the show, he's so much like Bart Simpson only older and not pudgy. He may have forgotten his slingshot on the nightstand, but he kept his commbadge next to it for the bulk of the episode... (Chief Argyle will return in "Datalore", without dress uniform lamely photoshopped on, but we do find out his first and middle names are "Ward" and "Montgomery".) Naturally, they want to get home despite Data's contraction-laden point of staying there to engage in research. Why? Because Kosinski did in fact leave the fireplace burning all night and that's not safe. But Picard states (arguably not wrongly so) they can get back home with ease and they can get another ship out to do proper research in ways their flagship's resources cannot. So the Traveler continues his chanting of "eenie meanie chili beanie" and the Enterprise now warps out, well beyond causality as they know it and that's when the Traveler's earlier foreshadowing of "space and time and thought" become proof positive that it's Kosinski's desire to have these massive speed improvements become real that that Traveler channeled and made real. And this is when the episode really begins to get good (and it already was). ("Q, enough of your jokes!" "Sorry Captain, but I'm not here right now. Would you be so good to carry this 12-pack over to Engineering?") . . . Inexplicably strange things start to occur. Worf sees his pet Targ, which Tasha promptly wants to adopt - but then it vanishes. Then Tasha's ginger cat appears and she hugs it, only to then find herself back on her home planet, being chased by a rape gang... ... before Geordi snaps her out of it. Good grief, this scene came out of nowhere and is creepy as all hell... but is an important plot point. And an example of what "The Naked Now" could have been if they chose the "horror" genre over "raunchy juvenile rat party" genre for that misfire of an episode. Dang. This episode was a fairly solid sci-fi piece already but that of all scenes was not expected. The episode may or may not have been interesting up to that point (for me it mostly was), but at this point forward it's running on all cylinders in perfect harmony. Other visions crew experience: Leaving the turbolift and almost falling into outer space (since this new universe was on Picard's mind at the time) violin playing crewmen being chased by something others do not see (again, horror! Missed opportunity! UGH!!) Ballerina dancing (terrific camerawork jump cut as she goes from gown to uniform BTW!) Picard sees his mother, who seems to understand enough of what is going on - which makes sense, she is a figment of his imagination. Unless she's Q stopping by without his trademark peacocking strut. She's also a lot better than The Nexus. He also appears to be close to weeping as Riker snaps him out of it upon stopping by. (Yup! Just like Picard, we're scared of certain crossovers too...) As the episode progresses, Picard puts together what the Traveler is discussing about space, time, and thought. This episode's timing with its plot points is really well-constructed. But I will say this: The only reason anyone knew anything was because Wesley was the only one spending time with the 3-fingered alien, all while everyone was gushing around Kosinski. Unfortunately, the sickbay scenes are sub-par as Wesley is reduced too much to be believed, to the point that Beverly even gives him the glance that clearly reads "Shut up Wesley!" When the episode has to wrap up and Picard tells everyone to think of the Traveler and his well-being, two issues were apparent: 1. The Traveler tells Kosinski that he's needed. We're not really told why because he's not told what to do in order to help, but the emotional impact of that moment was the real point and is wonderful to see. In part as it was extremely well-acted, which overcame the lack of (somewhat needed) expository dialogue. 2. Picard is the first to lose faith as he's the first to stand up and bleat how it's not working. Oops. The Traveler disappears, presumably back to his own astral plane - we're not told he's dead but given he is from another dimension or reality and how fatigue is what caused him to become ill, he was likely channeling energy to even be in "our" universe. Despite his explaining earlier that he's just hitching a ride through our galaxy, missing only a book and a towel, looking for the equivalent of Mozart that excels in quantum physics instead of music. And yet, when he vanishes, he doesn't take Wesley with him. And to top it all off, Geordi gets the 20th centuryism and uses the euphemism "sleigh ride". Not much of the episode needs any real polish, though Argyle is given absolutely nothing to do - except apologize for not being in the episode enough to slur the word "Aye" fifty more times by the end of the episode. Some Wesley-themed scenes are really good, others (usually those with the senior staff) don't fare so well. But the first half of the story is good and the second half is exceptionally great and key points to the episode's main concept are threaded extremely well despite any clunky moments. 9/10 - highly recommended.
I've loved this episode since the first time I saw it in 1987. They already had the "Where No Man..." plot percolating in what became "Hide and Q".
Thanks for the entertaining write up Cutie McWhiskers, especially all of the photoshopped screen grabs! I totally agree that Ron Jones' music makes this episode, especially that bit where Picard is speaking to his beloved maman. I happened to rewatch this episode the other day and the one thing that struck me was how many times the cast said "the boy" when referring to Wesley. It could almost be a drinking game it's said so often, my favourite being Picard's "have the boy sent to the Bridge, Number One" at the end of the episode.
Isn't this the one where Worf conjures up a vicious dog/pig beast from deep hell and Tasha says, "You mean its kitty cat?"