Writer's Notes On "Where No Smurf Has Gone Before"

• This story was written as a follow-up to "The Astro Smurf" and "Dreamy's Pen Pals", with Dreamy and Papa Smurf making references to these two particular stories in the first chapter, each from their own perspectives.  However, the recollections of what happened are different from what actually took place in the latter story, and the part where an alien called a Sweef appeared in the village from a flying saucer to return a message he received from Dreamy is ignored.  Gargamel's appearances in both these stories are also ignored as well.
• The S.S. Smurf II sailing ship made its first voyage, as referred to by Empath in his journal entry in the first chapter, in the cartoon episode "The Last Smurfberry".
• The Swoofs in Dreamy's Imaginarium fantasy setting combine elements from both the original comic book version of "The Astro Smurf" (bright orange skin, white face paint) and the cartoon episode version (different colored loincloths, Grandpa Swoof's gray hair).  It also includes the appearance of Swooflings, possibly the analog of the Smurflings, as well as a baby Swoof and a Swoofette.
• Interestingly, this story is the second in which a Peyo-created story setting, the Swoof Village from "The Astro Smurf", is recreated in the Imaginarium as a fantasy environment.  The first was the Smurf Village from "King Smurf" that appeared in "Virtual Smurfality".
• As in "Polaris' Fantasy", Empath gets the attention of the person inside their own Imaginarium fantasy environment by suddenly erasing characters within the fantasy.
• Flyro's spaceship visually was intended to look like a modern-day space shuttle.
• Probably the only Smurf story where the Smurfs are aware of such modern-day technology like a computer and a microchip, though here it comes from an alien society.
• Orbit Smurf is named for Madonna's "Ray Of Light" collaborator William Orbit.
• Dreamy makes a few references to the original Star Trek series' intro sequence prologue.  The title of this story itself is also based on the prologue, and also from the episodes "Where No Man Has Gone Before" from the original Star Trek series and "Where No One Has Gone Before" from Star Trek: The Next Generation.
• Empath sings a verse from the chorus of "To The Moon And Back" by Savage Garden.
• Handy has been to the moon before in the cartoon episode "The Man In The Moon", but this is purposely ignored.
• The Schliphargons are based loosely on Star Trek's Klingons, with the name of the race being a nod to the Swoof's original European name (the Schlips).  The names of each of the Schliphargons are based on those of the Smurfs, only altered to give them a more Schliphargonish sound to them.
• Empath's failure to keep a promise he made to Papa Smurf in regards of not taking a life during a life-and-death battle with a Psyche is part of an Empath short story called "The Innocence Of A Smurf", where the revelation of said event caused Empath to suffer a death experience.
• Vanity's "mirror" clone, mentioned as Empath's sparring partner Century, first appeared in "The Hundredth Smurf".
• Interestingly, while Dreamy as the Astro Smurf is commented by the Imaginarium version of Grandpa Swoof as "the brave little Astro Smurf who wanted so much to live like a Swoof", Polaris Psyche (who appears in this story) plays a similar role of an outsider being wanting to live like the people who has adopted him (in his case, the Smurfs).

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