Final Mission (S04E09)
Airdate: 19 November 1990
Written by: Kasey Arnold-Ince & Jeri Taylor
Directed by: Corey Allen
Running Time: 46 minutes
For many viewers, the most persistently irksome aspect of Star Trek: The Next Generation’s formative years was embodied by Ensign Wesley Crusher. Introduced ostensibly to provide a youthful point of entry for a teen audience, the character rapidly evolved into a Mary Sue-like author-insert for franchise creator Gene Roddenberry, a prodigy whose intuitive genius and moral certitude routinely overshadowed the seasoned adult officers meant to be the series’ true protagonists. This narrative imbalance became a source of increasing fan grievance, a persistent nit in the fabric of the show’s otherwise ambitious ensemble dynamic. Interestingly, this frustration was shared profoundly by the young actor portraying him, Wil Wheaton. From his unique insider’s vantage point, and later through his celebrated literary and blogging career, Wheaton would mature into one of the franchise’s most quoted and perceptive critics. By the show’s fourth season, his desire to depart had crystallised; producers, acquiescing, crafted the aptly titled Final Mission to facilitate a logical, if dramatically underwhelming, exit.
The plot machinery of Final Mission is straightforward. The USS Enterprise-D arrives at the Pentarus system, where Captain Picard is to mediate a mining dispute on Pentarus V. He travels via the Nenebek, a mining shuttle commanded by the gruff, obstinate miner Dirgo (Nick Tate), and is accompanied by Wesley, who has just received his long-awaited acceptance to Starfleet Academy. A shuttle malfunction forces a crash-landing on the desert moon Lambda Paz, where the trio immediately confronts lethal heat, relentless sun, and a critical absence of water. Trekking towards distant mountains in search of shelter, they discover a cave housing a miraculous water fountain—protected by an inexplicable force field. Dirgo’s reckless attempt to disable it with a phaser blast proves fatal, gravely injuring Picard in the process. It falls to Wesley, in a moment of desperate ingenuity, to successfully deactivate the field and secure the life-saving water.
Concurrently, the Enterprise is prevented from mounting a rescue by a diverting crisis near Gamelan V. Its chairman, Songi (Kim Hamilton), reports a mysterious, radiation-emitting object threatening the planet. The crew identifies it as a centuries-old garbage scow, and must undertake a perilous towing operation through an asteroid field to dispose of it in the Gamelan sun. Only after this tense, radiation-battling sequence concludes can a rescue mission be launched. Wesley is reunited with his mother, Dr. Crusher, and a recuperating Picard offers the subdued, paternal valediction: “You will be missed.”
Written by Kacey Arnold-Ince and Jeri Taylor, the episode’s dedicated purpose is transparent: to remove Wesley Crusher from the Enterprise in a manner that is logical, realistic, and consistent with established lore. It achieves this in the most obvious fashion conceivable—by finally having him enrol at the Academy, a destination unconvincingly deferred in the previous season’s Menage à Troi. Beyond this core function, however, “Final Mission” stands as a textbook example of a forgettable, mid-tier TNG installment. Its primary survival narrative—a routine mission gone awry, stranding characters in a hostile environment—is a generic staple, artificially complicated by the arbitrary, never-explained sci-fi contrivance of a force field guarding a conveniently placed water source. The B-plot aboard the Enterprise, involving the radioactive scow, feels equally manufactured; it exists solely as a convenient narrative obstacle to delay rescue, injecting a modicum of starship action but lacking any substantive connection to the main emotional throughline of Wesley’s departure.
These serviceable yet uninspired subplots are, to a degree, rescued by competent direction from Corey Allen (who notably helmed the series premiere, Encounter at Farpoint). The special effects for the garbage scow sequence are solid for early-1990s television, conveying a genuine sense of mass and peril. The early desert scenes, filmed on location near San Bernardino, California, are visually striking; the cinematography renders the landscape both realistically harsh and eerily otherworldly, effectively selling the desperate plight of the survivors.
Perhaps most tellingly, the episode inadvertently underscores the very rationale for Wheaton’s departure. In the cave, facing Picard’s mortal injury, Wesley delivers a lengthy, emotionally charged monologue. Wheaton’s performance here is earnest and committed. Yet, it is immediately and utterly eclipsed by Sir Patrick Stewart’s masterful work in the same scene. The contrast lays bare the vast disparity in experience and raw theatrical power between the established thespian and the young actor, highlighting the inherent difficulty of building compelling drama around a character who, by design, often outshone his betters.
Final Mission is eminently serviceable and watchable, but it is primarily remembered as a narrative stepping stone—the mechanism of Wesley Crusher’s departure. As farewell episodes go, it lacks the visceral shock and tragic weight of Tasha Yar’s abrupt demise in Skin of Evil. Its tone is one of quiet transition rather than dramatic finality. This proved fitting, however, for a character whose journey was merely paused, not concluded. Unlike Yar, Wesley Crusher would survive to appear as a recurring figure in later TNG episodes, and in subsequent franchise films and series, allowing the once-annoying prodigy to eventually evolve into a more nuanced and welcomed presence in the Star Trek canon—a development for which this functional, if ultimately forgettable, episode paved the way.
RATING: 5/10 (++)
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