Episode Title: Where No Man Has Gone Before
Air Date: 9/22/1966
Written by Samuel A.
Peeples
Directed by James
Goldstone
Cast: William
Shatner as Captain James T. KIrk
Leonard Nimoy as Lieutenant Commander Spock Paul Fix as Dr. Mark Piper James Doohan as Lieutenant Commander Montgomery Scott AKA
“Scotty” George Takei as Lieutenant Hikaru Sulu Gary Lockwood as Lieutenant Commander Gary
Mitchell Sally Kellerman as Dr.
Elizabeth Dehner Paul Carr as
Lieutenant Lee Kelso Lloyd Haynes as
Lieutenant Alden Andrea Dromm as
Yeoman Second Class Smith Bill Blackburn as Lieutenant Hadley Eddie Paskey as Lieutenant Leslie
Ships: USS
Enterprise NCC-1701
Planets: Delta Vega
 |
| Kirk getting to know his First Officer |
Done
with their game they head to the turbo lift.
Where they run into the star of this episode Gary Mitchell, who asks how
their game went and easily picks up on Spock’s sour grapes about Kirk’s
illogical game play. Which to be frank
anyone would pick up if they were in the room.
When they reach the transporter room Scotty brings the black box of the Valiant on to the ship. Fortunately the Enterprise’s computer systems are so awesome they can work with two
hundred year old computers without any interface problems what so ever.
On the
bridge Kirk calls a meeting of the senior staff so he can stress with them the
importance of their mission before announcing it to the whole crew. On a side note, this also makes it plan to
the viewer that with exception of Lt. Sulu and Lt. Cmdr. Mitchell, Kirk is
visible younger than most his senior staff.
The Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Mark Piper, introduces Dr. Elizabeth
Dehner who specialty is to study starship crews in stressful situations, which
means if you’re on a crew and Dr. Dehner shows up it is not a good thing. Mitchell tries to talk with Dehner but she
shuts him down leading Mitchell to under his breath remark “walking freezer
unit.”
Spock
downloads the Valiant’s records they
discover that the Valiant at the
galaxy’s edge encountered a force field.
This damaged the ship’s systems and a number of the crew were knocked
unconscious. Most of the passed our crew
died but those that did not changed, Spock thought it was strange that the crew
became obsessed about researching ESP.
The records end with the Captain of the Valiant given the order for the ship to self-destruct.
 |
| Enterprise crew heading into danger and loving it! |
In the
real world ESP is fake and those who claim to have it are all complete frauds
but it world of Star Trek’s 23rd century ESP is real and even
documented. Which leads me to wonder who
won the million in James Randi’s famous challenge? Kirk asked Dehner about ESP and she says she
scores quite high, Kirk points out he wasn’t asking about her personally just
what she knew about the subject in general, showing Dehner’s ESP skills to be
somewhat lacking when put to the test.
She thinks ESP is harmless but Spock is not so sure pointing to cases
where bad things could happen.
Nevertheless Captain Kirk makes the decision to go ahead as there are
going to be more ships out this way and it’s their job to explore the dangers.
As the Enterprise enters the barrier we learn
that 200 more years of advance technology still can’t beat the barrier as the
ship is rocked back in fourth. They take
server damage and the warp drive is shot beyond their ability to repair in
space. Several crew members, all with
high esper scores, collapse. Most die
but two, Gary Mitchell and Elizabeth Dehner survive, Dehner is fine but
Mitchell’s eyes have been changed to sliver.
 |
| Mitchell is starting to like his new abilities. |
His
eyes are not the only thing that has changed in sickbay Mitchell starts to
experience strange sensations. He can
now read with at lighting speed photographic memory, he can tell who has come
to visit him without looking , then he can see all over the ship, he can
control his body functions, and he can move objects at will. Kirk comes to see Mitchell and they talk and
Kirk is pleased to see that Gary is still Gary.
However as time goes on Mitchell does seem to change. At one point he talks down to Lt. Kelso, the
helmsman who works by his side on the bridge, for failing to do his job right. That wasn’t too bad because Mitchell was
correct, but later many ship’s systems start to go haywire whenever Mitchell
smiles and laughs from sickbay.
 |
| Mitchell is now becoming a growing concern! |
In the
briefing room Lt. Sulu, one of the science officers, compares Mitchell’s
growing power to the penny that doubles every day making a person a millionaire
in month. Kirk doesn’t want to give up
on his friend and can’t bring himself to kill him. Spock offers him another solution, the planet
Delta Vega is in range of their impulse engines. It is a fully automated mine for dilithium
crystals[1]
they were already headed there to salvage the crystals and equipment to repair
the Enterprise once completed they
can just leave Mitchell there. Kirk
doesn’t like this option either but comes realize he has no choice.
In
sickbay they manage to tranquilize Mitchell to get him unconscious long enough
to get him to the transporter room and somehow gets him to stand on a
transporter pad unconscious. They beam to the surface where Mitchell is contained
in a brig with a force field preventing him from escaping. Mitchell attempts to break the force field
only to be driven back. For a moment his
eyes turn back to normal before the power overtakes him again. As a precaution Kirk has Lt. Kelso rig a
self-destruct for the station as a last minute attempt if Mitchell were to
escape. Mitchell uses his telekinesis to
strangle Kelso so he can’t use it. Mitchell
was now powerful enough to bring down the force field. Tormenting Kirk with the statement “command
and compassion is a fool’s mixture” and with a new electro blast power he
knocks everyone out, except Dr. Dehner who now joins him with her eyes as silver
as his.
 |
| Two for the price of one! |
When
Kirk is awakened by Dr. Piper, he might have chosen to cut his losses. The Enterprise
was repaired and ready to go.
Mitchell had now apparently accepted exile and Dr. Dehner who had
already expressed a desire to stay was with him. However that is not what makes Captain Kirk
Captain Kirk. He now realized how wrong
he had been. Exile wasn’t going to stop
Mitchell it was just going to help him build more power. Not knowing the Dehner was equally affected,
he feels he can still save her. Ordering
Piper back to the ship with orders for Mr. Spock to leave if they don’t hear
from him in twelve hours and request Starfleet subject the planet to a lethal dose
of radiation. In the previous episode Number
One used a laser cannon against entities who were masters of illusion, Kirk
grabs a phaser rifle and heads after an entity who can alter matter with thought for real.
Altering
matter is just what Mitchell is doing, with Dr. Dehner at his side; he makes
planets and water appear from dessert. As they eat and drink from Gary’s new
environment the two sense Captain Kirk coming.
Dehner goes out to confront Kirk, who is horrified at her new condition. Nevertheless Kirk tries to reach her
explaining the Mitchell’s mind has become warped reminding her how he mocked
compassion, something that even a god needs.
Mitchell,
sensing that Kirk is actually getting to Dehner appears before them to confront his captain. Kirk proves helpless before Mitchell’s
power. Mitchell torments the man who
was once his best friend even going so far to make a grave for him that gets
his middle initial wrong. While this is
happening Kirk continues to appeal to Dehner asking if she likes what she
sees. She doesn’t and turns on Mitchell
and the two blast each other with their power.
Dehner passes out but Mitchell is drained.
With
his opponent’s power down Kirk lashes into Mitchell with his fierce fighting
skills. Attacking with grace and speed
that must have made Muhammad Ali green with envy as he watched this as it came
on air; Kirk starts a beat down on Mitchell.
Mitchell recovers and with fighting skills of equal grace fights Kirk to
a standstill long enough for his power to restore. Kirk is knocked back to where his phaser rifle
is. This is no big deal to Mitchell for
he has involved beyond phaser fire. Kirk
however bets he hasn’t evolved beyond giant rocks falling on him and blasts the
rock formation behind him. Kirk is right
and a giant rock falls down and crushes the would-be-god. Kirk goes to check on Dehner but she dies of
her injuries.
On the
bridge of the Enterprise Kirk notes
that Dehner and Mitchell died in the performance of their duty, pointing out
that Mitchell didn’t ask for what happened to him. Spock in solidarity with Kirk says he felt
for him to which gives Kirk hope for Mr. Spock.
Additional
thoughts: Where The Cage failed is
Where No Man Has Gone Before succeeded.
The second pilot was the one that made studio heads want to climb on
board. Both had compelling stories but
was the second pilot that brought the exciting action of Captain Kirk phaser
blasting a mountain down on top of Gary Mitchell.
It was also an unfortunate small
win for bigotry; the studio was satisfied that there was no “annoying” female
First Officer to take command of men while the Captain was off fighting for his
life. Fortunately, it was professional
woman Dr. Dehner, who resists the temptation of power, turns of Mitchell opening
a window for Captain Kirk to seize victory.
 |
| "If you're going to kill me can you at least spell my name right?" |
This episode is one of the primary
reasons I prefer production order to air dates for the original series. As most know the original series aired out of
order. Most Star Trek episodes are
self-contained reducing the importance of what order the episodes are seen
in. However it doesn’t always work and
Where No Man Has Gone Before is one of those examples. The main reason is the relationship between
Captain Kirk and Lt. Cmdr. Mitchell.
In the episode it is explained that
Kirk first met Mitchell when he was a lieutenant and instructor at Starfleet
Academy and Mitchell was his top student.
Mitchell would follow Kirk for the rest of his career finally ending up
with Kirk as Captain of the Enterprise with Mitchell as a lieutenant commander,
chief navigator, and I also suspect Second Officer after Spock. Traditionally in Star Trek the Enterprise
chain of command goes Kirk, Spock, and then Scotty. But with Mitchell having an equal rank as
Spock and Scotty and serving on the bridge, it would more sense for Mitchell to
be after Spock. Also given the relationship between Mitchell and Kirk, the Captain might have wanted for Mitchell to be the next in line. Scotty replace Mitchell in that spot after the later's death.
The friendship between Kirk and Mitchell helped the two men cancel each
other’s weaknesses. Kirk taught
Mitchell to be a great Starfleet officer and to fly up the ranks of the service. Mitchell helped turn Kirk from a “stack of
books with legs” to a social charmer and ladies’ man. Traits that are traditionally associated
with Captain Kirk. This works because
the audience is never to have seen Kirk before, or if they have they go in knowing, as I did, that this episode was his first appearance. Knowing this was first time William Shatner
ever performed the role makes it easier to accept the information that is fed
to you about Kirk and Mitchell’s relationship.
If you see this as the third episode it creates the question of: if
Mitchell was so important where was he the first two episodes? It is generally considered cheap to create a
character in already established show make it seem important just to kill him
off. And I don’t think Gary Mitchell was
cheap.
FINAL GRADE 4 of 5
