Wasn't "The Traveler" A Silly Addition to Star Trek: the Next Generation?

Cafe Society
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While not overly obsessed with it, I think it is safe to say that I am an avid “Trekkie”. It was actually my parents who got me started on it. They used to watch the original series when they were in an apartment they lived in before they moved into their house–and had me.

I think some would disagree with me, but I think Star Trek: the Next Generation (which was on syndicated from 1987 to 1994) was in fact the best series of the entire genre.

To me–as to others–the Star Trek series is about looking into the future, with all the hope and uncertainty it provides. Actually, I think it is a proven fact that Star Trek–much like Jules Verne–has the most accurate view of the future.

Anyways, more directly to my point of this thread, I expect a certain degree of accuracy in the series–allowing for a little “poetic license” where needed. And many of the characters were accurate portrayals of what the future may hold for sentient races like our own.

The “Q” were the most advanced. Almost like God–no disrespect intended–they transcended space and time itself. The Borg were, of course, very advanced technologically. The only thing is the technology part of the equation took over–they had lost almost all of their humanity. And then there was The Traveler.

He was from Tau Ceti C–or something like that. He visited the Enterprise from time to time. And his message was simple. He himself was proof of the fact that space, time and thought weren’t necessarily the separate entities we thought of them as being. And by using thought, he took many wonderous journeys. Dr. Crusher’s son Wesley eventually joined him.

Now, I realize I am not in the Pit, so I will put this as delicately as I can. The Traveler was a stupid idea! He in no way added anything to the show. He certainly did not represent to me at least any likely chain of events that the future actually held. Dumb, dumb idea, he was. And to think that one of the main characters–Wesley Crusher–went off with him on some magical, imaginary journey–even more stupid! I was surprised his character even lasted that long.

What was he even doing in the show to begin with? I still wonder.

:smiley:

BTW, for those who are interested, ST:TNG now has its own website.

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Well, I’d say that taking Wesley off the show was a pretty important contribution to the series. The Traveler’s pseudo-spiritualist message about the nature of reality was just a forerunner of Chakotay’s allout mysticism. It wasn’t really that bad a story idea originally. Perhaps it was kind of silly to make a recurring character out of him, but the Traveler was far from the worst of that lot. He was far more interesting than Ensign Ro, who was only used as a setup for the Bajoran storyline during the TNG/DS9 overlap years in seasons 6 and 7.

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Well, I agree with the OP for the most part. I thought the Traveller’s ideas were so artifically “advanced” they were stupid on a very elementary level.
Every child facing monsters under his/her bed knows that space and time and thought are the same thing! To a child’s mind it is! It’s not that difficult concept to grasp.
I think the Traveller first showed up early on in the series when TNG was still flavored from the original. Kind of like the early Tasha kidnapping/fight in a cage episode.

Hey, I liked Ensign Ro! I thought her character had a lot of depth. She was a little bit of angst, rebellion, and cynicism in an otherwise highly sanitized, computerized form of “utopia”. I never really connected her much to DS9, since I still haven’t seen more than a handful of episodes. Was that why they got rid of her character after a while?

[hijack]
Can I throw in my complaint about Guinan?
Bad character- When Q wanders into Ten-Forward they both get their claws up like they’re going to throw down in a nasty god vs. god battle and Q (Mr. Omnipotent Being Himself) BACKS OFF but yet, her people could not withstand the Borg attack on her home planet, and were scattered across the galaxy…Right. uh-huh. yeah.
Bad acting- She says everything in that annoying monotone while holding herself in that stiff Chinese philosopher pose. Always so calm, and composed, with nothing more to bring to the character than to recite her lines, and smile.
My honest suspicion is that because Goldberg asked for her role on TNG, instead of winning it, they didn’t ever bother to develop her character beyond using it to move the plot along, or demonstrate various points that needed to be demonstrated.
Westley, I don’t mind, especially since I’ve seen WIL WHEATON DOT NET, but Guinan always gets on my nerves.
[/end hijack]

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I think it only fair I interject here and note that Star Trek maintained an open script policy. Meaning if a fan wrote a script for an episode or a series of episodes they were more than willing to take them in and read the script. If it passed mustard it was used.

I don’t know if the traveler was from such a script, or one of Roddenberry’s boys - but I agree his recurring presence was not up to the Star Trek standard.

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Slightly off topic, but I seem to remember hearing that the Ensign Ro character was originally supposed to BE on DS9, but the actress wasn’t interested in the new series. Her role was replaced by the Major Kira character, which is why you might detect some similarities.

I always liked Ro. She was one of the few TNG characters to have “issues”. Plus, she was kind of hot.

My main problem with The Traveller is that he didn’t take Wesley on that journey sooner.

Anyone else ever notice Guinan’s hat looked like the Enterprise (saucer section, specifically)?

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The Traveler was rather insipid, but not terribly annoying since he didn’t appear too often.

TNG was the best of the Star Trek series, but it was far from perfect. I always loathed Q. When I saw him, I’d say “Oh great, another Q episode.” The final episode was a huge disappointment to me. And what’s with that Tasha Yar chick? I liked her before she died, but why did she have to keep coming back to life? That was pretty annoying.

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I liked Q. There were so many episodes about dealing with “less advanced” (barbarian, uncivilized) cultures – non-Federation cultures also generally had violent, aggressive and/or technologically backward characteristics (read: Klingons, Romulans, Ferrengi, Cardassians, Bajorans, pretty much everyone else). Q came along to the Federation, who were supposed to be so enlightened and advanced, and took them down a few notches. All of a sudden, the Federation was the backward culture.

Plus, I really enjoyed Q’s relationship to Picard. Picard was so antagonistic toward him – moreso than any other character – and Q was intrigued by him, even though he would mock about how insignificant he was. One of my favorite episodes is “Tapestry”, where Picard’s life is rewound to a point in his past he really regrets, and he finds out what would have happened if he had chosen differently. Q brought out a lot of characterization in Picard because it was one of the very few relationships where Picard was the inferior.

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The Traveller was typical of poor writing: introducing a character with no clearly defined limits for no other reason than to move a show along with no regard for plausible action. Q was the same way, and worse because every Q episode contradicted something from an earlier Q episode, plus there was no reason for his continued fascination with Picard or (blech) Janeway.

Regarding the Traveller’s last appearance, how does knowing that time=space=thought allow Wesley to “step beyond time” or whatever the hell he did to make everybody freeze? The mix of goofy New Age and Indian mysticism makes for lousy drama.

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Hey fairblue thanks for the Wil Wheaton link. Anyone who would link aspiring actors to xenu.net as a warning about the clamheads has my highest respect. I’m glad he has a sense of humour about everything. Perhaps the origingal poster should email Wil and ask him what he thought about the Traveller? Wil seems pretty open to email questions.

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Ok, I watch star trek when there’s nothing else on, and I’m a big fan of modern science fiction.

But that second sentence… Bwaha hahahaha ha hahahahahaha!