This is one of the better season 1 episodes. Wesley has a nice new orange sweater and what look like corduroy pants but not quite. Turns out Wesley is a warp field Mozart with an intuitive grasp of the interrelated nature of space, time, and thought. A hidden relationship between thought and the material world is a recurring theme in Star Trek that I rather like.
It's also hard not to compare and contrast the The Traveler with Q as they are both member's of species that live unconstrained by time. Portal and Nagilum also come to mind as it seems season 1 is all about humanity being tested and examined by beings with greater knowledge and power.
I think I am beginning to understand what's going on with Wesley. As a character, he is given more attention than the main cast we come to know and love by the end of the show. Why? Brace yourself for some grade A armchair psychology:
Wesley is Gene Roddenberry romanticizing a childhood he wished he himself had had. Roddenberry projected his idealized version of the future onto the world through Star Trek, and an idealized version of his childhood through Wesley. He gives Wesley the extra attention he wished he would have gotten as a boy, and we hate Wesley because we know he doesn't deserve the attention that he gets. He hasn't earned it. He's the kid who got the blue ribbon because he tried hard and the adults felt sorry for him, not because he was actually any good. We are repeatedly told he is wonderful and special, but we hate him because it never feels true.
Wesley might have worked as a character if he had been fleshed out over the course of the entire season. Seeing him earn the commission of acting ensign might have been satisfying if it took place in episode 26, perhaps after some act of valor. Instead, he's got it by episode 5 after looking over an alien's shoulder, and it just feels forced.
Verdict: Watchable and memorable, but irksome.
Fun Facts:
The Hubble can see well over ten billion light years, nine times further than Picard's estimate of the distance the Enterprise traveled in this episode.
The distance to M33 is accurately stated according to the internet.
If it takes 300 years to travel the 2.7 million light years we can approximate maximum warp to a little bit more than one light year per hour. 2,700,000 div 300 year gives 9000 light years per year. Div 365 gives 24.65 ligh years per day. Div 24 gives 1.027 light years per hour. WooWee!
Subspace radio speed can be calculated in a similar manner. 2,700,000 div 52 years (10 months and 9 weeks, really Data!?) is 5.92 light years per hour.
