Star Trek Headcanon Reimagined, 5: Where No One Has Gone Before

One of the fun parts of curating your own continuity, is that you can twist episodes around and create entirely new storylines. So this season will introduce us to Q and The Borg, and the concept of The Traveler. But it will also explain Beverly Crusher's long absence from the show, as she disappears in "Remember Me", is replaced by Pulaski with zero explanation, and then returns, along with Tasha Yar after a tear in the fabric of reality occurs in "Yesterday's Enterprise". After that, Pulaski is never mentioned again.

We also get to meet The Gorn this season. We got a brief glimpse of them in the mirrorverse in Season 2 but now we get the original terrible episode of The Original Series, and then see them become a major threat in Strange New Worlds.

I love watching this altered season.

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Season 5:
Where No One Has Gone Before

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TOS - Star Trek (The Original Series), 1966-69         TNG - The Next Generation, 1987-94
ENT - Enterprise, 2001-05       SNW - Strange New Worlds, 2022-ongoing

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Episode 501: Where No One Has Gone Before (TNG)
(Wesley, Picard, Riker, Crusher, Laforge, Data, Traveler)

An annoying faux-engineer and his alien counterpart, The Traveler, are trying to improve The Enterprise's warp drive. They end up causing the ship to be hurtled far beyond charted space, where they are left at the end of the episode. This is a pro-Wesley episode.


Episode 502: Q Who (TNG)
(Picard, Q, Riker, Troi, Data, Laforge, Crusher)

I LOATHE Q. He's my least favorite recurring character in all of the Star Trek franchise. But there's no denying his existence, as he pops up in some crucial episodes. For my continuity's sake, the crew mever got back to charted territory in the last episode, so they're still trying to figure out where to go when they encounter the weird Q moron, who leads them straight into the cubey hands of the newest Star Trek enemy race: The Borg!


Episode 503: Remember Me (TNG)
(Crusher, Picard, Wesley, Traveler,  Laforge, Wesley, Data, Troi, Worf, O'Brien)

Returning from their Borg mission, Enterprise docks at a Starfleet base. One of Dr. Crusher's old professors visits the ship, but soon after his arrival, he disappears, and there is no record of him ever existing. Slowly, but surely, the whole Enterprise Crew also starts to disappear. This sounds like some Traveler shenanigans.


Episode 504: Peak Performance (TNG)
​(Picard, Riker, Data, Worf,  Wesley, Troi, Pulaski, Laforge, O'Brien)

It's time for war games between Picard and Riker, with the bridge crew being divided between them, as well as Data and a strategy expert (think of an entertainingly weasley chess master) battling over a game of Strategem (think of a Nintendo Wii version of speed chess, that they never explain the rules to...which is to the benefit of the episode). Naturally, something happens that turns the war games into an important life or death struggle. This episode features Pulaski instead of Crusher, as I like to imagine she is still missing from the events of the last episode.


Episode 505: The Emissary (TNG)
(Worf, Picard, Riker, Troi, Data, Laforge, Pulaski, Clancy)

Not my favorite episode but it introduces Worf's ex, a half-Klingon/half-human political ambassador whose existence is vital to later continuity.  Also, still no Beverly Crusher. 


Episode 506: A Matter Of Honor (TNG)
(Riker, Picard, Data, Worf, Wesley, Pulaski, Laforge)

Klingon culture is complicated, and the early episodes of TNG that focus on Worf and his relation with his heritage are Not Very Good. In this episode, we see the Klingons through the lens of Riker, who is assigned as First Officer on a Klingon ship. Some chaos ensues when someone similar to Wesley's friend from the first episode fails to alert either The Enterprise or the Klingon that there is something on the Klingon hull that could destroy the ship.


Episode 507: Elementary My Dear Data (TNG)
(Data, Laforge, Picard, Pulaski, Moriarity, Riker, Worf, Troi, Clancy)

Pulaski suggests that Data work on his problem solving skills on the holodeck, where he and Laforge discover the joys of playing Sherlock Holmes. Then, as they often do, things go awry.


 Episode 508: Contagion (TNG)
(Picard, Riker, Laforge, Worf, Data, Troi, Wesley, Pulaski, O'Brien)

A computer related  problem, a lost Starfleet vessel, Romulans, and Pulaski. It's not a great episode, but it has an interesting conceit. And ... no Crusher.


Episode 509: Time Squared (TNG)
(Picard, Pulaski, Riker, Data, Laforge, Troi, O'Brien)

For our continuity's sake, the technological problem from Contagion is the cause of another glitch, this one phases Picard slightly out of synch with the universe. The crew, including Doctor Pulaski, barely manage to fix the problem, and save Picard. But the slight rip in time leads to...


Episode 510: Yesterday's Enterprise (TNG)
(Picard, Data, Yar, Guinan, Riker, Worf, Laforge, Wesley, Crusher)

A rip in time causes a dimensional change that's a bit like The Mirror Universe we explored in Season Three. The crew isn't evil, but their timeline has changed, and Yar, who died last season, is back. When they encounter a previous Enterprise crew (the crew from between TOS and TNG), they know they have to send the ship back to its original time, where they all will die, in order to prevent the Starfleet/Klingon war that dominates this Mirrorverse.  Any scenes with Beverly Crusher before the time rip are edited out. So that there's some shock for the viewers (but not the crew, who don't know that their timeline has been altered) when both she and Tasha Yar are alive again and part of the crew. Unlike Yar, though, Dr. Crusher gets to stick around, and much like in the actual series, Pulaski is never mentioned, as though she never existed at all.


Episode 511: Evolution (TNG)
(Wesley, Picard, Riker, Data, Laforge, Crusher, Worf, Troi)

Dr. Bob Kelso from Scrubs was an insufferable prick in the Star Trek universe, as well. His science mission comes in conflict with one of Wesley's school experiments, which is in conflict with The Enterprise's computer. This is one of the best Wesley episodes in the series, and has him acting like his mom was merely away for a while on a mission, and not that she ceased to exist for a while.


Episode 512: Carbon Creek (ENT)
(T'Pol, Archer, Tucker)

Over dinner, T'Pol is asked to explain a trip she took to Pennsylvania before joining the crew of Enterprise, and we learn that First Contact between humans and Vulcans isn't the story we thought it was. 


Episode 513: Arena (TOS)
(Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Uhuru, Scott, Sulu, Lesley)

There's a reason we skipped over this episode when we were deep in The Original Series. It is TERRIBLE. The acting, the fighting, the alien costumes. Just one of the worst episodes of the series. But comically The Worst as opposed to The Most Boring. And while I don't remember the Metatrons returning, we do encounter The Gorn again in Strange New Worlds, so I figured we should check out their terrible origin.


Episode 514: Momento Mori (SNW)
(Pike, Singh, Spock, 1, Ortegas, M’Benga, Hemmer, Chapel, Uhura)

Oh hey, look, it's The Gorn again! This time, instead of a slow moving, fake looking alien, they're an unseen dangerous menace who wipe out entire colonies. Luckily, Singh has some experience with them and can help try and save The Enterprise from imminent doom.


Episode 515: Sarek (TNG)
(Picard, Sarek, Riker, Crusher, Data, Laforge, Worf, Troi)

The crew of The Enterprise hosts Spock's dad and his ... new wife? It turns out that Sarek has what's essentially Vulcan dementia, and it completely messes with the crew.


Episode 516: Simultude (ENT)
(Trip, Archer, T'Pol, Phlox, Reed, Sato, Mayweather)

While we're basking in our sadness, let's check back with the crew of the first Enterprise. During repairs, Trip is gravely injured, and Phlox suggests a controversial technique, wherein a clone of Trip, with a fifteen day life cycle is created purely to harvest parts of its brain to help Trip recover. It is Dark and Emotionally Draining to watch, but well-written, and fast paced.


Episodes 517 & 518: Best Of Both Worlds (TNG)
(Riker, Picard, Data, Worf, Laforge, Crusher, Wesley, Guinan, Troi)

The Borg are back in town! And they abduct one of The Enterprise crew and turn them into The Borg before heading to Earth to assimilate the human race.


Episode 519: Regeneration (ENT)
(Phlox, Archer, T'Pol.. Reed, Mayweather, Sato, Tucker)

What if, and hear me out on this, Picard's crew Weren't the first humans to interact with The Borg? What if Archer's Enterprise encountered them but just didn't know what they were? What if the cure for assimilation was discovered hundreds of year before Locutus?


Episode 520: Family (TNG)
(Picard, Worf, Troi, Riker, Crusher, Wesley)

After the cataclysmic events of "Best Of Both Worlds", the crew has some down time, and we get some insight on the off-mission lives of Picard, Worf, and the Crushers. This is unlike any other TNG episode, and it's a cool change of pace. And a precursor to something that will take place several seasons in the future.