Spock Was First Officer in the Second Pilot

This came up in another thread in the general discussion forum, and I thought I'd move it here.

Common fan theories say that Mitchell was the XO in "Where No Man Has Gone Before." And there's been much speculation just based on the pilot itself.

However, I recently read the first draft of the script by Samuel Peeples, which further cements what I've always asserted: Spock was the first officer, not Mitchell.

First, let's go by what's on screen.

It is clear that Spock is the first officer in "Where No Man Has Gone Before." He wears command gold, sharing the same emblem as Kirk on his uniform. He advises Kirk on the situation, giving him alternatives — strand Mitchell on Delta Vega or "kill him, while you still have time."

Now let's go to the source of the pilot — the script.

In the final draft of the script (dated July 8, 1965), Mitchell is listed as the "ship's senior helmsman" not first officer. Spock is listed as the "science officer."

However, in the first draft (dated May 27, 1965), the actual relationship between Spock and Mitchell is spelled out.

While Spock is still listed as science officer, Clark (not Gary) Mitchell is said to be:

Regardless of popular fandom theory, Mitchell at no time is referred to as Kirk's executive officer, whereas Spock is shown to act in that role throughout the episode.

Hence, Spock is the first officer in the second pilot.

 

While I tend to agree, not sure this point really stands. If Mitchell was first officer, Kirk would've still had to have gone to someone else to discuss the problem as Mitchell was the problem.

 

^ Exactly.

 

If one of those occasions you refer to is Spock's calling for damage control reports - remember that Mitchell was busy lying on the deck at the time.

Early drafts of scripts and character descriptions are fine for getting a handle on the thinking of the creative staff before filming, but what is onscreen tells the story. The evidence is inconclusive. Spock, Mitchell or maybe someone else could have been Number 1.

 

This subject came up before, and this is what I wrote at the time:

The evidence Ryan has turned up (which I'm kicking myself having not noticed it before -- terrific find!) makes it even more clear in my mind.

The other thing I'd point out is that some things changed between the second pilot and "The Corbomite Maneuver." The most notable thing in my mind (though I'm sure there are others) is that Sulu went from being the ship's physicist to being its helmsmen. This is something that at gets noted in behind-the-scenes material, which makes total sense, since prospective writers were shown "Where No Man Has Gone Before," and Roddenberry would want them to know any significant changes to the series after the pilot.

In contrast to that, I haven't seen anything suggesting that Spock being second in command was a change being newly introduced after the second pilot.

 

I think Spock wearing the same color and logo patch as Kirk is indicative of where he was at in the chain of command.

 

Thanks, Harvey! And I didn't see it until I recently re-read the first draft of the script. I blew past it and didn't think twice of it in previous readings.

The memos you've found and the description in the first draft script make it clear: Spock was the first officer.

 

I think Gary might have been 3rd in line for command, but not 2nd.


Harvey mentioning Corbomite Maneuver right after WNMHGB puts some of Dr. McCoy's statements about Bailey in perspective that I never thought of before.

Maybe Navigator was usually a senior bridge position before Kirk decided to try some junior officers out?

 

Gary's line about the department heads all being on the bridge sounds like something an executive officer might say, but, in all the years since I first watched the episode, I always thought that Gary was Spock's junior.

 

I've always thought Spock was the more senior officer. Also, why would the producers of Trek make a guest star the executive officer for one episode rather than your co-star and second-billed actor?

It never made sense to me why everyone thought Mitchell was the XO.

 

Interesting. The possibility of Mitchell's being the XO never even occurred to me.

 

For what it's worth I've always viewed Mitchell as the ship's chief navigator and 3rd in command, with Scotty 4th, and Kelso as senior helmsman 5th.

 

Ah, good point. And, we should add, especially in a pilot. It would be contrary to the idea of the pilot establishing the format of the show (as I understand it) to have the second-billed actor in a different position in the pilot than he winds up in the series proper.

For Spock to be in a different position, you'd have to assume (at least pretty much) that the idea was going to be that the role of XO in the series would be filled by an actor who hadn't been cast yet, but as we see, there isn't any evidence of that at all.

 

The only onscreen evidence that I've run across suggesting Spock was Second Officer instead of First Officer was a log entry made by Spock himself identifying himself as "Second Officer Spock" instead of "second-in-command." The episode was "The Enemy Within."

 

The notion of Mitchell as XO comes mostly from fandom and was propagated by Trek Lit (comics and novels), especially in "All Those Years Ago ..." (DC Comics, "Star Trek" Annual #1) and in the novel Enterprise: The First Adventure, where Kirk wants Mitchell as his first officer but Admiral Nogura makes Spock first officer instead.

In the recent book The Autobiography of James T. Kirk, "editor" David Goodman has Mitchell as first officer during the events of WNMHGB.

 

I guess that in-universe evidence rather strongly favors Spock in gold being the XO and Mitchell in brown being something else, whereas it's vice versa backstage. But it's the former that really defines Star Trek, at least from the viewpoint of the current millennium...

The other point of contest is whether Spock is (also/at all) the Science Officer at the time. Many scientists are mentioned: Sulu does physics, Dehner does psychology, Piper does medicine. No specialty is indicated for Spock. And the stuff he does is ambiguous: is records forensics "science" or "administration"?

There's the bit of dialogue where the officers argue about what to do with Mitchell.

This can go two ways. One is that Kirk chides Dehner for not appreciating the duty of Science Officer Spock to provide evidence incriminating Mitchell. The other is that Kirk chides Science Officer Dehner for not providing evidence incriminating Mitchell. Both of these unwelcome things are happening in the scene, so the choice must be based on other factors.

What did the writers intend? The scripts show Spock is "the science officer". Perhaps Dehner is one, too, but there you have it anyway.

What is the in-universe reality? Spock doesn't really provide evidence against Mitchell prior to Kirk's speech about duty - indeed, he specifically asks for such from others when Kirk is done chiding. All Spock does is being his trademark cold. But Dehner does fail to provide intel - she's late, she's concentrating on "Gary" rather than the potential monster, and when Kirk's chiding is said and done, giving intel on Mitchell's monster potential is the very thing she does.

FWIW, note also that we cannot tell whether Kirk says "my Science Officer's duty" or "my Science Officers' duty". Not in-universe, that is. Scripts (and their possible typos) are another matter.

Timo Saloniemi

 

How so? The pilot could simply establish that one of the main characters gains his position through the cataclysmic events of the first adventure.

After all, we aren't arguing that the pilot of Gilligan's Island should have shown the crew already shipwrecked before the teaser if that were going to be the status quo throughout the series.

Timo Saloniemi

 

Since Kirk explicitly refers to Spock as his science officer, I consider that settled. Transcript:

 

Cause he wasn't gonna be around for the series?

Anyway, you ask why would they? An equally valid question would be why wouldn't they? Just asking.

 

And indeed the issue is whether Kirk does that. He doesn't address anybody by name there, after all. And if he addresses anybody at all with that speech, it's Dehner.

"Go ahead, Mr. Spock" is just something he says after he's done preaching. He needs to turn around a bit to do that, too.

Lightyearage may vary. What is settled is what the script has to say on the matter. What happens in-universe is a different issue altogether. As usual.

Timo Saloniemi