Episode 03: Where No Man Has Gone Before

Season 1
Written By: Samuel A Peeples
Directed by: James Goldstone
Air date: September 22, 1966
Stardate: 1312.4

*****************SPOILER ALERT*********************

Dialogue of the Episode:

Michell: "My friend James Kirk... remember those rodent things on Dimorus, the poison darts they threw, I took one meant for you."

Kirk: "And almost died, I remember."


Synopsis:

The Enterprise encounters an old ship's disaster recorder from the SS Valiant, which crossed the Galactic Barrier, and survived but was destroyed by the Captain, who was threated by a crew member who began to exhibit strange talents. Kirk decides to the probe of the outer reaches, The Enterprise encounters the Galactic barrier is damaged and two of its crew members are alive but were shocked with some sort of electricity: Gary Mitchell and Dr. Elizabeth Denher... Mitchell's eyes glow like orb and he begins to gain extraordinary powers like taking images out of people's minds, reading very fast, controlling his vital signs... The senior staff holds a meeting to discuss the growing concern for not only what Mitchell was mutating into and the Enterprise.

They set course for Delta Vega, and begin their orbit. Kelso's task is to regenerate the engines of the Enterprise, Kirk's task to beam down his best friend, a man he has known for 15 years and maroon him there. In sickbay, Gary begins to have more and more power... electricuting Kirk and Spock as they attempt to bring him to the Transporter Room, Dr. Denher has to sedate him to get him to the Transporter room. Once there he is again sedated, but before that he says "Soon I'll squash you all like insects!"

The teams begin beaming up the retrofitted parts to the Enterprise to re-energize the engines and Kirk orders Kelso to rig a detonation device just in case, Mitchell is placed into the detention area on Delta Vega, and begins to test the force field, and he loses his powers if only for a second. Later on, Kelso is strangled while talking to Scott as to the efficiency of the work they had done. Mitchell breaks out of the cell and attacks everyone, except for Dr. Dehner who has finally transformed into what Mitchell has turned into.



As Kirk awakens he takes the Phaser Rifle (the first and only time we see it in the series), and begins his hunt for Mitchell. As this is happening Elizabeth and Gary plan their life together, Gary seeing Kirk in his mind attempts to kill Kirk with a falling boulder but fails. When Kirk sees Denher he tries to appeal to her humanity to help him defeat his old friend, Jim fires at Gary as he appears Mitchell flings the rifle away. He then digs a grave while saying "I have been contemplating the death of an old friend, he deserves a decent burial at least." He begins to torture Kirk to make him obey him, Dehner begins to fling electricity at Mitchell weakening him enough for Kirk to start beating on Mitchell. As Kirk picks up a rock to kill him Gary is empowered again and throws Kirk, jumping into the grave Kirk brings Mitchell in and jumps out to fire the Phaser rifle at the rock face to Kill Mitchell. As Denher dies her dying words were "You can't imagine what it's like to be almost a... god."

When Kirk returns the Enterprise, he finishes their files with that they died in the line of duty, they didn't ask to have that happen to them.... The End


My Opinion:

It was a well written and well acted episode of Star Trek, personally NBC should have started with this episode instead of "The Man Trap" which was at the most a monster of the week episode. This episode dealt with a couple of themes: "Absolute power corrupts", Feelings verses Cold Logic. I personally would have liked to see a couple of episodes with the Kirk-Spock-Mitchell dynamic.

Continuity:




One of the big complaints of the episode is one of continuity, you see in the screen cap that the Tomb reads "James R. Kirk", as we all know the Captain's full name was first established in "Bem" an Animated Star Trek episode written by David Gerrold but, was formally acknowledged in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country as James Tiberius Kirk. The actual name at this point in the series was not fully explored, however in an upcoming Phase 2 episode there is an in joke to this .


Things to note:



Something that you should realize, the original transporter console was the Helm/Navigation station and also this is the only time in the Original Star Trek that you see Spock and Scott out of their usual colors Blue and Red respectively. Sulu was also in the episode, he was wearing sciences blue, he is the only crew member to wear color on the show: Gold (his main color), Blue (An Astro-scientist in "Where No Man Has Gone Before") and Red (as Mirror Sulu in "Mirror, Mirror")



Well it has been real people but there is more Trek to watch and write about... until the next blog entry... Keep reading and.... Live Long and Prosper