Star Trek The Next Generation: Every Season One Episode Ranked From Worst To Best

This is one of the crucial episodes in Wesley's development as a character, also serving to introduce what would eventually become his final arc. The Traveller is first introduced here, who would return in Remember Me and Journey's End. He helps Wesley tap into his potential, something that would return in both later episodes.

The visual effects in the episode are both stunning and were a cause of many headaches for director Rob Bowman. Only 27 at the time, this was his first episode working on Star Trek and he was unused to large effects scenes. However the episode most certainly pulls it off and the depiction of Galaxy M-33 is a highlight of the first year.

Some of the reality bending scenes also stand out. For the only time in the show, Picard's mother appears. His father would later appear in Tapestry, and of course his brother and nephew appear in Family.

The USS Fearless that appears alongside the Enterprise in the opening scene is a reuse of the footage of the USS Hood from Encounter at Farpoint, in turn also a reuse of footage shot of the USS Excelsior. There was no new footage of the model shot for the Next Generation, instead relying on cleverly repurposed effects to bring it into the 24th century.