With “Journey’s End,” we enter what I think of as the final stretch of TNG; from here on, almost every remaining episode (with, I think, one exception) feels like a piece of the wrap-up of the show in one way or another. I can hardly believe I’ve arrived at this point in writing these reviews! That said, I have not generally remembered this particular episode very fondly, and this re-watch has not changed my thoughts on it much. There are some interesting premise, story, and character ideas here, but they aren’t handled very well, and the various parts of the episode really don’t cohere in a satisfying way.
Since the Federation and Starfleet have always been, for better or worse, “evolved” stand-ins for the United States, putting our characters in the position of potentially reenacting America’s historical wrongs is an uncomfortable, provocative, and potentially fruitful narrative direction for an episode to take. So, at first glance, I can understand why the writers chose to make this story explicitly about descendants of Native Americans, rather than opting for some less on-the-nose sci-fi metaphor. We’ve seen stories about the Enterprise having to relocate colonists who don’t want to be relocated before; what’s different about this episode are the “disturbing historical parallels” that Picard alludes to–i.e., that the colonists are a Native American group who have found themselves a new home on a distant planet, and that our characters are mostly white descendants of western Europeans/Americans who represent a hegemonic power seeking to dictate the fate of the former. Still, for a number of reasons, it doesn’t really work. On one hand, the very idea of this Native American colony suggests that even in the 24th century, they remain a people apart from what we might call “mainstream Earth culture”; our evolution beyond prejudice and into a united people that embraces its own internal diversity seems not to include them. (If it did, the historical parallels would not strike anyone in-story as particularly significant; white/Native unequal power dynamics would simply be ancient history to them.) But on the other hand, the situation into which Picard is thrust in this story isn’t actually analogous to white settlers or the US government forcibly relocating Native Americans, since the Federation isn’t there to seize the Indians’ land for itself; that role is played by a foreign power over whom the Federation has no control. True, the Federation has still signed a treaty that dispossesses the Indians without their consent, but the narrative conveys that it had little choice about this. To some extent, then, we have a case of the episode trying to have it both ways; the parallels are disturbing, but don’t worry—our heroes aren’t actually complicit. To make the conflict more immediate and personal, though, the writers do have the leader of the Dorvan V colony invoke a “shame of the ancestors” concept, suggesting that Picard is here to right (or, implicitly, to repeat) wrongs done by a direct forebear of his. But as presented, this is just silly and unfair. Now, if instead the episode had attempted to grapple with the notion of white privilege, suggesting that Picard (and Admiral Necheyev, and those to whom she answers) are in the dominant position that they are in, and the Dorvan colonists in the powerless position that they are in, because of the historical legacies of colonialism and racism, that would have had real “bite” to it (as opposed to the “awkward historical coincidence” approach that it actually runs with)…but of course, that would entail explicitly acknowledging what I referenced earlier: the idea that the cultural evolution supposedly represented by the Federation is actually deeply incomplete. The writers, one feels, want their story to speak to contemporary issues, but aren’t willing (with good reason) to commit to the idea that those issues persist in the fictional twenty-fourth century, which prevents the whole scenario from really making much sense. (That said, though, I do appreciate the relatively non-confrontational dialog between Picard and the colonists, who are not at all the sort of one-note harangue-deliverers that one can all too easily imagine the writers making them. The conversation between Picard and Anthwara, the Dorvan colony leader, during the reception aboard the Enterprise, for instance, makes for a nice scene.)
Then, of course, there is the Wesley story, which is the aspect of “Journey’s End” (besides the title, I suppose) that makes it, as I noted above, the first of several wrap-up episodes for TNG as a series: the final appearance of, and ultimately a send-off for, a former main character who has been a significant part of the show. Again, I can understand a lot of what the writers were going for with this story; still, most of it doesn’t work for me at all. I do like the fact that the writers thought to hark back to the premise established for Wesley in season one’s “Where No One Has Gone Before” and actually pay it off in some way, and I can appreciate why they decided to say that Starfleet was not, ultimately, Wesley’s path. I’m not necessarily sold on that point, but it does make some sense. Wesley is, for sure, a character who has always seemed to be motivated to a great extent by the desire to live up to expectations and make mentor figures proud of him. On the other hand, though, he has also always seemed genuinely enthusiastic about Starfleet—and also, we’ve really never seen him pursue (or even mention) any other interests. That latter point ties directly into one of my main problems with his actual story in this episode, too (regardless, I mean to say, of what one might think of the overall premise of his not being destined for Starfleet): he decides to up and quit the academy without having the slightest notion of what he might want to do next/instead, and then immediately gloms onto the first thing that subsequently presents itself (venturing off with the Traveler). He thus merely adopts (and very abruptly!) a new mentor figure and externally defined life path in place of his old ones. It hardly comes across to me as “finding his own path”! The fact that the Traveler is someone whom we’ve seen before, and has always been presented as having a special understanding of Wesley, helps to distract one a bit from the fact that Wesley suddenly pulling up stakes and going off with him doesn’t really “work” as the coming-into-his-own move that the writers want it to be, but I still don’t really buy it at all. Also, I loathe how the episode introduces the whole idea of his dissatisfaction with the status quo in his life by basically making him behave like an asshole. I could see having him be a bit depressed and withdrawn; that would make sense. But the scene with Geordi in engineering is awful. There is no reason for him to shit all over Geordi’s work like he does, and especially not when all poor Geordi is trying to do is show off something that he’s proud of and connect with Wes over it. (Plus, the interaction strikes me as having logic issues. If Wes’s critique of Geordi’s engineering improvements is meant to have substantive merit, it reflects poorly on Geordi in a way that I doubt the show intends; but if not, then…Wes is just making shit up to tear Geordi down for no reason?) More generally, though, what I would want to see in a story like this one would be Wesley actually talking to people (his mother, the captain, Geordi, the ship’s counselor…) about his misgivings about a future in Starfleet. (Remember how he sought advice about girls from several of the other regulars, in turn, way back in season two’s “The Dauphin”?) In general, I prefer for characters that I’m supposed to like, who live in societies that I’m supposed to understand as tolerant and enlightened, to show at least as much maturity and good sense in dealing with their personal crises as I feel like I myself would be able to muster if I were experiencing something similar, but my issue here actually goes beyond that. Wesley grew up being nurtured and encouraged by the officers of the Enterprise, who functioned as his surrogate family (except for Dr. Crusher, who is his actual family). These are people who have seen him at his worst and forgiven his every transgression since the age of 14. He even weathered the fallout from “The First Duty” without losing their love and respect. Hell, way back in “Coming of Age” in season one, when he failed his first academy entrance exam, Captain Picard told him “you have to measure your successes and your failures within, not by anything that I or anyone else might think.” I get that he still feels the weight of expectations, despite all of this; that’s fine. But I just don’t buy (or like) how he behaves under that weight. Plus, having Wesley talk to the other characters about where he was at might have led somewhere productive, story-wise, in which he perhaps worked his way (via actual, relatable events, rather than the lame shortcut of a “vision quest”) to some kind of epiphany about what he does want to do with his life, instead of just about what he doesn’t want to do.
I also have the expected misgivings about both the Native American mysticism and the notion of Wesley going off to “other planes of existence” (whatever that might actually mean) with the Traveler. Others more qualified than I to speak the matter I have noted that the depiction of the Indians invokes racial stereotypes, and the way that the episode allows Wesley to dip his toes into Indian spiritualism while absolving him from any responsibility toward the actual colonists (not to mention the Traveler masquerading as an Indian and using Indian spirituality as a vehicle for imparting his own unrelated insights) reeks of the worst kind of cultural appropriation. (For a moment, the episode starts to go in a direction where Wesley sides with the Dorvan colonists against his Enterprise colleagues, but when the Traveler reveals himself, he basically tells Wesley to butt out, and Wes complies. The whole intersection of the two storylines ends up coming off really weird as a result.) But also, the mixed feelings that I’ve always had about the Traveler’s quasi-sci-fi-bordering-on-mysticism bloom into full-blown objections with this episode. For one thing, flat-out conflating next-level sci-fi concepts about manipulating space and time with Native American spirituality abandons all pretense of the former actually being science fiction, and violates the secular ethos of Trek. (I acknowledge that this won’t matter to everyone, but it does matter to me.) For another, if the show wanted to pay off the notion of Welsey being a rare super-genius with regard to time and space, it could have done so without turning him into a superbeing who is not even physically constrained by the ordinary nature of time and space. (He’s supposed to be special “like Mozart,” but I’m pretty sure that Mozart’s music is explicable within the ordinary laws of the universe as we understand them.) Granted, Trek has always sort of had a fetish for the concept of individuals “evolving” into some kind of “higher” beings…but personally, I’ve never much cared for this type of nonsense.
The episode’s main plot cheats itself to an abrupt resolution-out-of-nowhere that’s even worse than what happens with Wesley’s storyline. Throughout the episode, it’s made clear that the colonists have to leave, because of the Federation-Cardassian treaty; no other option is so much as mentioned. That the colonists are unwilling to leave has Picard fretting up a storm, but it changes nothing; they have to, and Picard is (however reluctantly) prepared to relocate them against their will if that’s the only way they’ll go. This impasse seems, if anything, even more intractable once the Cardassians show up and violence threatens to break out. But then, all of a sudden in the final act, a solution is announced, with no lead-up whatsoever: the Cardassians will allow the colonists to remain (!), if they renounce their Federation citizenship. Okay, fine; I like the solution itself well enough. But…whose idea was it? How did we arrive at it? Why had no one explored this idea before? There’s no story here; nobody has to be clever, or do anything difficult; no one persuades anyone of anything. There’s just a problem, and then suddenly a solution. That solution, of course, sets up a whole premise about former Federation colonists living in the Cardassian portion of the demilitarized zone, which will be explored in various future episodes (mostly on DS9, but also in TNG’s own penultimate episode), leading to some really good stories. But the manner of its introduction, in this episode, is a complete narrative cheat.
I’ll end by noting a couple of small touches that I do like, despite my negative feelings about the episode as a whole. One of these concerns Admiral Nechayev. I didn’t remember which episode it occurred in, but I’ve always remembered (and liked) the bit with Picard making a concerted effort to defuse the confrontational dynamic that had been developing between him and this admiral. Nechayev was always just such a welcome change from the twin cliches of admirals who either are congenial “old friends” of the captain, or who have gone rogue, and this idea of Picard trying to go the extra mile to change his working relationship with this difficult superior elevated the idea of her character even more. It’s played just right, too; his efforts do bear fruit, but of course, she’s still the same tough-as-nails admiral that she was before. Second, I do rather enjoy the episode’s opening scene, with Dr. Crusher showing the visiting Wes to his own quarters, and Geordi and Data stopping by to greet him. In particular, I love Data following up on Geordi’s line about a “runaway cadet” and extending the joke. I don’t know what the writer intended, but personally, I 100% believe that the two of them rehearsed this on their way to Wes’s quarters, as opposed to Data just spontaneously rolling with it in the moment; still, it’s a rare moment of intentional humor from the android. His felt need to clarify, afterwards, that he was not serious, is also perfectly in character, of course.