Episode Spotlight: TOS's Where No Man Has Gone Before

Episode Spotlight

TOS's Where No Man Has Gone Before

The second pilot.  The first episode to star William Shatner as Captain James T. Kirk (also James Doohan as Scotty and George Takei as Sulu).  I will be a bit biased here since this is one of my all time favorite episodes of all of Star Trek.  I have always loved this episode.  The story is great, the Enterprise discovered a recorder marker from an old Earth ship, the S.S. Valiant which disappeared over two hundred years earlier.  The episode opens with Captain Kirk's first log entry and the first scenes with Kirk and Spock together (also the introduction of 3-D chess).  You can already feel the history and friendship between Kirk and Spock.  After bringing the recorder aboard Spock listens to the recorded logs and we learn more about the fate of the Valiant: a magnetic space storm had pulled them in this direction, the ship was swept outside the Milky Way Galaxy, they then attempted to re-enter the galaxy.  In the process 6 crewmen were killed and another was thought to have died but had recovered.  The Valiant captain began frantically looking for information on ESP (extra-sensory perception).  The logs end with the captain apparently ordering self destruct.  Noting the implications of the logs Kirk decides to follow the Valliant's footsteps and attempt to probe outside the galaxy's edge.  The Enterprise encounters the Galactic Barrier, a red-purple negative energy field around the edge of the galaxy.  The Enterprise is heavily damaged by contact with the barrier and nine crewmen are killed by the barriers energies.  The barrier's strange energies also injure two other crewmembers: Lt. Cmdr Gary Mitchell and Psychiatrist Dr. Elizabeth Dehner.  Mitchell appears to be fine, but in addition to silver eyes is gaining psionic and telekinetic powers.  Along with those powers it seems, comes a god complex, as Mitchell gets more powerful he starts to see humans as small and insignificant, and his ego and thirst for power grow.

Let's talk about the big guest stars in this episode.  Gary Lockwood puts on an amazing performance as Gary Mitchell, the Enterprise's navigator and Kirk's close friend from the Academy.  Both in the earlier scenes as regular Mitchell Kirk's old friend and in most of the episode as god-like ESPer Mitchell, Lockwood almost steals the show with his portrayal of becoming a god-like, superior entity and the way he looks down on Kirk, Spock and the rest as "insects" to be "squashed".  Sally Kellerman also gives a strong performance as Dehner, at first defending Mitchell and what he's becoming, later developing her own ESP powers, at the end using her powers to fight back against the God-like Mitchell.  On the subject of acting, I can't not mention Shatner as Kirk, struggling with seeing his longtime friend changing and becoming we know not what, and having to decide to strand Mitchell on Delta Vega, and ultimately having no choice but to kill his friend.  

It goes without saying, I love this episode.  I've always loved the whole concept of the Galactic Barrier, the mysterious energy field at the edge of galaxy that can give ESPers psionic powers.  The uncertainty about what's happening to Mitchell, and Kirk listening to and taking Spock's counsel on what must be done for the good of everyone on the ship, is very core trek. Modern trek could learn from this.  Overall a very good, very strong, very well written episode (especially for a pilot).  A credit to writer Samuel A. Peeples.  I liked the inclusion of Kirk's line during the fight with Mitchell "absolute power corrupting absolutely", this absolutely sums up what is happening to Mitchell (and Dehner).

Trivia: the "silver eyes" effect for Mitchell and later Dehner was a practical effect, accomplished by laminating aluminum foil between two rigid contact lenses (for each eye).  This was reportedly extremely uncomfortable for both actors.  Small holes were pierced in the center of each lens for the actors to see through, however to be able to see through the holes the actors had to raise their heads and look down at an angle.  Gary Lockwood used this in his performance, his seemingly looking down on Kirk and the others as a sign of his growing superiority complex.  Toward the end of the episode Mitchell's hair and sideburns become greyer/whiter around the edges, as if the ESPer power is literally burning him out from within-nice touch!  This is the first episode to actually use the TOS title sequence and theme song, however Kirk's monologue is noticeably absent as it was not written and recorded until the series began production with "The Corbomite Maneuver".  The final words of the monologue "to boldly go where no man has gone before" came directly from the title of this episode.  This is the only time the phaser rifle is seen in The Original Series.

Favorite Quote: Kirk's first log entry (and first lines) "Captains log: Stardate 1312.4.  The impossible has happened.  From directly ahead we're picking up a recorded distress signal: the call letters of a vessel which has been missing for over two centuries.  Did another Earth ship once probe out of the galaxy as we intend to do?  What happened to it out there?  Is this some warning they've left behind?"

Note on the remastered version: I am not a fan of the Galactic Barrier in the remastered version of the episode.  The original effect was much spookier and looked much more like a physical barrier.  The remastered version looks much more cloud like, more "generic sci-fi nebula" and less "imposing, impregnable," barrier.