So was it short for mankind or human? I don’t know which one sounds better, “ where no human has gone before” or “where no mankind has gone before”. What do you think?
Star Trek TOS Re-Watch
- Thread starter Commander Troi
- Start date
Both of your suggested substitutions sound terrible because that's not how the language works.So was it short for mankind or human? I don’t know which one sounds better, “ where no human has gone before” or “where no mankind has gone before”. What do you think?
"Man" in this context is used as a generic noun embodying the concept of an abstract person. In those circumstances and in this context, the generic masculine term "man" also included women as well within its commonly understood meaning.
If you substitute "person" for "man," then the phrase makes sense in the way that English is constructed that your suggested substitutions do not. But, if you want to avoid gendered language altogether, substituting "one" for "man" or "person" works just as well.
That makes sense.
“Where no one has gone before” could also have another meaning, it could be referring to Commander Riker ‘Number One’. Number One can be abbreviated to ‘No 1’ or ‘No One’. So *technically* we could read it as “Where Number One has gone before”. In theory, it called also be referring to Una.
Only joking. Hehe.
That's the kind of joke my son would've come up with when he was much younger.That makes sense.
“Where no one has gone before” could also have another meaning, it could be referring to Commander Riker ‘Number One’. Number One can be abbreviated to ‘No 1’ or ‘No One’. So *technically* we could read it as “Where Number One has gone before”. In theory, it called also be referring to Una.
Only joking. Hehe.
We didn't make it up. Man as a word for mankind or humans or "people living on Earth" has a lifespan going back longer than us...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man_(word)
"Where no man has gone before" would mean "where no human has gone before." There was no implied sexism. It was standard to use the word "man" as a generalization for "people." "Manhours" and "manpower" for example. Nothing more than that.
Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.
I think at the time WNMHGB was made, the Powers That Be hadn't yet decided that it was Spock's mother who was his human ancestor. At that time, they were going to have it be some more distant ancestor. Only later did they decide it was his mother. As much as we fans like to think they had the entire Star Trek lore worked out from day one, we need to keep in mind that they made a lot of stuff up as they went along especially, I think, in Season One.Episode 01x6* - Where No Man Has Gone Before
*Still technically the (second) pilot episode, so I am watching this episode and other episodes in this series in production order. I’ll save ‘The Cage’ for ‘The Menagerie’.
First of all I think that we can forgive the perceivably sexist ‘Where no man…’ segment of this episode title, as also famously spoken in the Star Trek series opening credits. This percepted inequality in gender language usage was all put to political correction by the time of ‘The Next Generation’ during the 1980’s with this pop culture opening credits catch phrase becoming ‘Where no one has gone before…’. We even get an actual ‘Next Generation’ episode which corrects this 1960’s episode title for the 1980’s audience, though the storyline is *totally* different. But what if this specific episode title was *not* actually 1960’s gender biased in the way that we have always imagined? Perhaps this series is all about a ‘man’ overcoming his ‘god mode’ masculinity surrounded by powerful women and friends who are ready to guide him in such a way and even attempt to defeat him should he ‘man up’ too much with their lightning bolts and psychology, they are ready if he over steps the omnipotency mark of his potentially toxic masculinity? In which case they would truly be taking this man on a journey that no man had ever been on before and the infamous Star Trek moniker has been relevantly reborn and has a new ‘woke’ perspective and meaning?
Spock and Kirk are playing the iconic three dimensional chess game of Star Trek lore, Spock seems to take the game quite seriously though Kirk is quite blasé. An interesting takeaway form this scene is that Spock is not willing to admit that his father married a human female which resulted in his half human heritage. Spock tells Kirk that his heritage is the result of one of his ancestors marrying a human. Spock must have *really* fallen out with his dad to refer to him as his ‘ancestor’ from what we know of the character leading up this episode through Strange New Worlds. Or was Spock telling the literal truth in this weeks episode? Perhaps Sarek himself has secret human ancestory and he married Amanda to hide this link? Maybe this is why Sarek took a human wife? It would have hidden an age old secret in the family bloodline which was due to be exposed as a result of his first born son being fated to marry T’Pring. When DNA compatibility tests would have been conducted as part of the matching of these two children from ‘elite’ Vulcan families, the obvious human heritage that Spock had could be dismissed as that of Amanda’s alien genome. No one would think about trying to trace the human genetic link further back down Sarek’s ‘pure’ Vulcan ancestral family line? Perhaps T’Pol and Commander Tucker’s child has some secret connection or ‘link’ to the Sarek family? But this is pure speculation on my part due to Star Trek’s penchant for small universe syndrome.
Anyway, the Enterprise is investigating a distress signal from beyond the galactic barrier. For those of you who do not know, the galactic barrier is an impenetrable ring around our galaxy which is obviously designed to stop us getting out. Apparently this barrier is only in effect along our galaxies x and -x axis at 0 degrees, y and -y 0-360 degrees. Maybe someone from the Starfleet corps of engineers can design a starship capable of flying in a three dimensional plane, much in the same way as Kirk and Spock were playing chess at the start of this episode. Such a starship could either travel over or under the galactic barrier one day, thus negating any negative effects of traversing this galactic ‘ring’.
We are introduced to several familiar characters other than Kirk and Spock in this episode, though they are slightly not quite as we expect them to be. Scotty seems to either be transporter chief or a ships engineer, it is not stated which on screen. On first impressions it seems that he has a similar role as to that of Chief O’Brien in the early days of The Next Generation. Most notable is the fact that the uniform colour scheme that we know and love has not been fully envisioned yet by the wardrobe department. I look forward to seeing Sulu and Scotty in their traditional departmental colours of red.
Transporter chief Scotty beams the probe/beacon from the Valiant onboard, which in turn begins to flash and pulsate which leads to Kirk ordering “Full alert!”
The opening credits to this series are quite impressive, in particular the orchestral score by Alexander Courage is quite catchy. Most of note is that we only have three main credited main characters - Kirk, Spock and Scotty. Maybe the production team do not know who the other series regulars will end up being yet? They have plenty to choose from though who all seem like good options. The characters of Commander Gary Mitchel and Doctor Elizabeth Dehner, who is the ships counsellor/psychiatrist, have a lot of potential too - but let’s see who makes it through this first episode before speculating about possible future crew dynamics and combinations. These two in particular would make a good ‘ship’ should the series writers choose to follow this romantic avenue.
But back to the episodes big question; what ever happened to the Valiant? Where is the Valiant now? What happened to it’s crew?
We are presented with early day Star Trek technobabel via Spock’s explanation of what happened to the Valiant “the ship got swept past this point, out of the galaxy, thrown clear and turned back in to the galaxy by an unknown force” or something on those convoluted lines. I wonder what this unknown force was that caused the Valiant to breach the galactic barrier? Could it be like when Q clicked his fingers and sent the Enterprise D in to the Delta Quadrant in a similar fashion?
We now learn something which is quite game changing for the Star Trek universe. There are a group of humans called ‘Espers’ who have extra sensory perception and telekinetic powers. They can even set things on fire apparently. Starfleet has an entire devision based on the research of ESP and these Espers. I am assuming that some of these Espers would also be from other alien species who also share these powers, such as the Aenar, Vulcan’s and Betazoids to name but an obvious few of these Esper like species. I wonder why Starfleet decided to stop it’s research in to ESP in the future? Perhaps there were some failed experiments which lead to this field of science being consigned to the Top Secret records of Section 31? Maybe Section 31 still recruit human Espers? Could human Espers be the result of Eugenics and augmentation or are they a rare natural occurrence in our species? We do not see any other Augments in Star Trek with ESP powers so perhaps they are something totally separate? Maybe Espers were not trusted or feared by other humans so hunted down and ‘neutralised’ at some point in the mid to late 23rd century? Regardless, I hope that we get to learn more about Espers as the series progresses, or at the very least in a contemporary spin off show. Is it possible that Espers are recruited like ‘X-Men’ to become part of a specialised group of galactic law enforcement such as ‘The Travellers’? Maybe Wesley Crusher is an Esper which explains his gifted intelligence and the interest that the Traveller shows in him?
Back to the story at hand though, action on the bridge hots up as the Enterprise goes to ‘battle stations’ and decides to enter the galactic barrier. Fire alert! Spock, played by Leonard Nimoy, does a good job of showing the urgency of the situation by becoming all ‘shouty’ as he delivers updates from his science station. I expected Spock would have been a lot calmer when delivering these lines, but it works.
The galactic barrier itself looks quite beautiful as the Enterprise enters it’s energy like field of glowing pink and purple light. This is the first time that I have watched these episodes with the new and improved special effects. The effects do not look out of place, fitting in perfectly with the 1960’s aesthetics of the show. I’m glad that they did not decide to go full on CGI overkill when re creating these effects.
The journey in the galactic barrier does not go well… consoles explode and several crew members are injured and killed. Was it reckless of Captain Kirk to enter the barrier? One of the seemingly injured crew members is non other than Gary Mitchel himself, though he is afflicted with an unexpected side effect… glow eye.
The damage to Enterprise is severe, warp drive is down and planets which were once took days to travel to are now years away. This is a great way of demonstrating to the audience the peril that our crew are facing - they not only face death and injury but also separation from friends and family due to the vast distances of space.
We find out that Gary Mitchel has a high degree of ESP which has in some way made him susceptible to the effects of the galactic barrier. The crew, Spock in particular, seem to show a lot of bias against people who demonstrate ESP abilities, in particular because they are known to spontaneously cause fires. Kirk has a different perspective of Gary Mitchell as they are life long friends, they went to Starfleet Academy together and have shared many experiences in life, love and duty. Doctor Elizabeth Dehner also seems to have a soft spot for Gary Mitchell. You would think that these two characters in particular would speak up in mr Mitchell’s defence as he is being targeted by anti Esper bias. Gary’s description of Kirk as being a ‘stack of books with legs does not seem like an accurate description of Kirk from what we know? But perhaps back in his Academy days Kirk was indeed quite the model student.
We learn that the Enterprise has over 100 women onboard. Can anybody tell me what the crew total was in this episode, minus those killed upon entering the galactic barrier? We can then learn if the Enterprise recruited officers using an equality policy and if there is any form of gender bias aboard the Enterprise in relation to representation of it’s female workforce.
Mitchell is becoming to become all the more powerful by the minute… at what level will his omnipotence end? He develops the ability to read books super fast just like Data can in The Next Generation. Most chillingly, he learns to break the fourth wall and stare through the TV screen at Captain James T Kirk. *shivers*
I can’t help but start to think that this Gary Mitchell fellow is becoming a bit of a tragic character. Obviously he is developing extra strong ESP powers, but as his character turns more and more to the dark side I wonder if this is partially as a result of the way that the people around him, his friends and colleagues, are treating him. They think nothing but the worse of Gary Mitchell , the crew start to treat him with suspicion, contempt and scorn because of his differences. If someone is treated in such a way then surely with time it will lead to them becoming confrontational and standing up for themselves? What would have happened instead if they had tried to nurture Garry as he developed his ESP abilities and encourage him on to a lighter path? Is this an evolutionary form of humanity that is being fought against by Starfleet in general? Would the crew have preferred if Gary would have devolved/evolved in to a salamander instead and had lizard babies with Doctor Dehner? Perhaps the devolutions of ‘Genesis’ are more desirable? I am starting to see some subtle similarities between this episode and Voyager’s ‘Threshold’, but on a very ‘loose’ level. Regardless, Sulu and Spock both agree that Mitchell will keep on evolving in to ‘god mode’ and reach the point where he loses interest in the ship and crew, with everyone becoming nothing but ‘ants’ to him.
Spock quite shockingly tells Kirk to kill Mitchell before it is too late, though it is agreed that instead of this corporal punishment he should be marooned on an abandoned planet and left to his own devices, in much a similar way as to how Khan Noonian Singh will be marooned on Ceti Alpha VI later in the series. Luckily, there is a planet nearby full of resources that the Enterprise engineering team can use to get the ships engines back up and running, restoring the warp drives back in to operation. Captain Kirk sets a course for Delta Vega.
Garry Mitchel uses his witchcraft to make himself a drink of water… he evilly chuckles to himself as he does so. Perhaps on Delta Vega this ‘god’ can create a world for himself? He can become a new ‘Adam’, but he would just need an ‘Eve’ if he can not create one himself with his limitless powers. This is where Doctor Dehner could be useful.
After another verbal confrontation between Kirk, Spock and Gary in sickbay, Gary believes that Kirk is about to lunge at him so fires lightning bolts from his hands stunning both his perceived attacker and his assailant Spock. However, our duo manage to overpower Mitchell, knock him out and drug him, enabling them to man handle him off of the ship via the transporter. Again, is all of this treatment that he is receiving turning Garry to become this dark persona, or was he predisposed to this by nature and the fate of his ESP super evolution? All of his friends are turning on him… this would be enough to scare anybody. Spock really seems to have it in for Gary Mitchell too, he is almost like a ring leader in the case against him. Spock provided verbal evidence that Mitchell was messing around with switches on the bridge and laughing as he did so, as dangerous as this could be I don’t think that it necessarily was a sign of anything demonic.
What Gary *really* lacked in this episode was a good legal representation, someone who could stop his words being used against him and taken out of context by those targeting him. Garry definitely had been cornered like a trapped animal, and we all know what some trapped animals can do - they lash out.
Back on the planet of Delta Vega, the Enterprise crew plunder the abandoned supplies which have been left on the planet. The planet’s abandoned industrial complex is quite impressive to behold, I wonder why the planet’s inhabitants abandoned? It’s all a bit of a mystery like the Mary Celeste. Maybe one day someone will investigate! Kirk however, is really starting to worry about Mitchell and has come up with a plan - he wants to nuke the surface of Delta Vega, flooding it with Deutron radiation.
Living up to their Adam and Eve embodiment and allegorical symbolism, Mitchell summons a Kaffarian apple tree… he and Elizabeth Dehner eat this forbidden fruit just like in days of old.
Now Mitchell truly becomes ‘evil’?
Kirk and Mitchell face off in an epic battle of whits and physical might, god vs human. Mitchel taunts Kirk by creating a deep grave and accompanying tomb stone for our hero Captain James R Kirk. Is this the first sign that we may be in Star Trek’s first example of a multiverse episode? Surely Mitchell knows that it is James T Kirk?
Mitchel continues to cruelly taunt and manipulate Kirk, forcing our good Captain to kneel and pray to him. doctor Dehner sees sense though and realises that Gary Mitchell is taking things too far, she has psychoanalysed a twisted god and comes to the conclusion that she must help Kirk defeat him. An epic lightning bolt fight ensues, like talons of pure electric energy licking and whipping across the planets surface as Mitchell and Dehner face off with their god mode ESP abilities. Will these gods destroy each other as in stories of old earth mythology? Mitchell temporarily loses his ESP powers, drained by Elizabeth’s attack. Kirk picks up a big rock and prepares to bash Mitchell in the head with it. Kirk’s shirt is also well and truly ripped exposing his manly, muscular chest. Gary however manages to fight Kirk off and picks up *an even bigger* rock. Fortunately, Mitchell falls in to Kirk’s grave and the big rock falls on top of him like a tombstone. Sadly, Elizabeth Dehner our heroine also passes away.
Back on the Enterprise, they forget about the Valiant… for now. All records of Gary Mitchell and Elizabeth Dehner shall be edited so that they have clean service records. These events shall never be spoken of again…
I rate Star Trek episode 01x06 ‘Where no Man has Gone Before’ 7/10.
Next week, The Corbomite Manoeuvre. I hope that McCoy, Uhura and Chekov show up soon.
I am comfortable that Gary indeed was turning evil all by himself and that the suspicions of the crew aren't what pushed him to evil.
According to TMOST, the crew complement of the Enterprise is 430, with about one-third being female.
Hell, they were making most of it up as they went along.
Episode 01x6* - Where No Man Has Gone Before
*Still technically the (second) pilot episode, so I am watching this episode and other episodes in this series in production order. I’ll save ‘The Cage’ for ‘The Menagerie’.
First of all I think that we can forgive the perceivably sexist ‘Where no man…’ segment of this episode title, as also famously spoken in the Star Trek series opening credits. This percepted inequality in gender language usage was all put to political correction by the time of ‘The Next Generation’ during the 1980’s with this pop culture opening credits catch phrase becoming ‘Where no one has gone before…’. We even get an actual ‘Next Generation’ episode which corrects this 1960’s episode title for the 1980’s audience, though the storyline is *totally* different. But what if this specific episode title was *not* actually 1960’s gender biased in the way that we have always imagined? Perhaps this series is all about a ‘man’ overcoming his ‘god mode’ masculinity surrounded by powerful women and friends who are ready to guide him in such a way and even attempt to defeat him should he ‘man up’ too much with their lightning bolts and psychology, they are ready if he over steps the omnipotency mark of his potentially toxic masculinity? In which case they would truly be taking this man on a journey that no man had ever been on before and the infamous Star Trek moniker has been relevantly reborn and has a new ‘woke’ perspective and meaning?
Spock and Kirk are playing the iconic three dimensional chess game of Star Trek lore, Spock seems to take the game quite seriously though Kirk is quite blasé. An interesting takeaway form this scene is that Spock is not willing to admit that his father married a human female which resulted in his half human heritage. Spock tells Kirk that his heritage is the result of one of his ancestors marrying a human. Spock must have *really* fallen out with his dad to refer to him as his ‘ancestor’ from what we know of the character leading up this episode through Strange New Worlds. Or was Spock telling the literal truth in this weeks episode? Perhaps Sarek himself has secret human ancestory and he married Amanda to hide this link? Maybe this is why Sarek took a human wife? It would have hidden an age old secret in the family bloodline which was due to be exposed as a result of his first born son being fated to marry T’Pring. When DNA compatibility tests would have been conducted as part of the matching of these two children from ‘elite’ Vulcan families, the obvious human heritage that Spock had could be dismissed as that of Amanda’s alien genome. No one would think about trying to trace the human genetic link further back down Sarek’s ‘pure’ Vulcan ancestral family line? Perhaps T’Pol and Commander Tucker’s child has some secret connection or ‘link’ to the Sarek family? But this is pure speculation on my part due to Star Trek’s penchant for small universe syndrome.
Anyway, the Enterprise is investigating a distress signal from beyond the galactic barrier. For those of you who do not know, the galactic barrier is an impenetrable ring around our galaxy which is obviously designed to stop us getting out. Apparently this barrier is only in effect along our galaxies x and -x axis at 0 degrees, y and -y 0-360 degrees. Maybe someone from the Starfleet corps of engineers can design a starship capable of flying in a three dimensional plane, much in the same way as Kirk and Spock were playing chess at the start of this episode. Such a starship could either travel over or under the galactic barrier one day, thus negating any negative effects of traversing this galactic ‘ring’.
We are introduced to several familiar characters other than Kirk and Spock in this episode, though they are slightly not quite as we expect them to be. Scotty seems to either be transporter chief or a ships engineer, it is not stated which on screen. On first impressions it seems that he has a similar role as to that of Chief O’Brien in the early days of The Next Generation. Most notable is the fact that the uniform colour scheme that we know and love has not been fully envisioned yet by the wardrobe department. I look forward to seeing Sulu and Scotty in their traditional departmental colours of red.
Transporter chief Scotty beams the probe/beacon from the Valiant onboard, which in turn begins to flash and pulsate which leads to Kirk ordering “Full alert!”
The opening credits to this series are quite impressive, in particular the orchestral score by Alexander Courage is quite catchy. Most of note is that we only have three main credited main characters - Kirk, Spock and Scotty. Maybe the production team do not know who the other series regulars will end up being yet? They have plenty to choose from though who all seem like good options. The characters of Commander Gary Mitchel and Doctor Elizabeth Dehner, who is the ships counsellor/psychiatrist, have a lot of potential too - but let’s see who makes it through this first episode before speculating about possible future crew dynamics and combinations. These two in particular would make a good ‘ship’ should the series writers choose to follow this romantic avenue.
But back to the episodes big question; what ever happened to the Valiant? Where is the Valiant now? What happened to it’s crew?
We are presented with early day Star Trek technobabel via Spock’s explanation of what happened to the Valiant “the ship got swept past this point, out of the galaxy, thrown clear and turned back in to the galaxy by an unknown force” or something on those convoluted lines. I wonder what this unknown force was that caused the Valiant to breach the galactic barrier? Could it be like when Q clicked his fingers and sent the Enterprise D in to the Delta Quadrant in a similar fashion?
We now learn something which is quite game changing for the Star Trek universe. There are a group of humans called ‘Espers’ who have extra sensory perception and telekinetic powers. They can even set things on fire apparently. Starfleet has an entire devision based on the research of ESP and these Espers. I am assuming that some of these Espers would also be from other alien species who also share these powers, such as the Aenar, Vulcan’s and Betazoids to name but an obvious few of these Esper like species. I wonder why Starfleet decided to stop it’s research in to ESP in the future? Perhaps there were some failed experiments which lead to this field of science being consigned to the Top Secret records of Section 31? Maybe Section 31 still recruit human Espers? Could human Espers be the result of Eugenics and augmentation or are they a rare natural occurrence in our species? We do not see any other Augments in Star Trek with ESP powers so perhaps they are something totally separate? Maybe Espers were not trusted or feared by other humans so hunted down and ‘neutralised’ at some point in the mid to late 23rd century? Regardless, I hope that we get to learn more about Espers as the series progresses, or at the very least in a contemporary spin off show. Is it possible that Espers are recruited like ‘X-Men’ to become part of a specialised group of galactic law enforcement such as ‘The Travellers’? Maybe Wesley Crusher is an Esper which explains his gifted intelligence and the interest that the Traveller shows in him?
Back to the story at hand though, action on the bridge hots up as the Enterprise goes to ‘battle stations’ and decides to enter the galactic barrier. Fire alert! Spock, played by Leonard Nimoy, does a good job of showing the urgency of the situation by becoming all ‘shouty’ as he delivers updates from his science station. I expected Spock would have been a lot calmer when delivering these lines, but it works.
The galactic barrier itself looks quite beautiful as the Enterprise enters it’s energy like field of glowing pink and purple light. This is the first time that I have watched these episodes with the new and improved special effects. The effects do not look out of place, fitting in perfectly with the 1960’s aesthetics of the show. I’m glad that they did not decide to go full on CGI overkill when re creating these effects.
The journey in the galactic barrier does not go well… consoles explode and several crew members are injured and killed. Was it reckless of Captain Kirk to enter the barrier? One of the seemingly injured crew members is non other than Gary Mitchel himself, though he is afflicted with an unexpected side effect… glow eye.
The damage to Enterprise is severe, warp drive is down and planets which were once took days to travel to are now years away. This is a great way of demonstrating to the audience the peril that our crew are facing - they not only face death and injury but also separation from friends and family due to the vast distances of space.
We find out that Gary Mitchel has a high degree of ESP which has in some way made him susceptible to the effects of the galactic barrier. The crew, Spock in particular, seem to show a lot of bias against people who demonstrate ESP abilities, in particular because they are known to spontaneously cause fires. Kirk has a different perspective of Gary Mitchell as they are life long friends, they went to Starfleet Academy together and have shared many experiences in life, love and duty. Doctor Elizabeth Dehner also seems to have a soft spot for Gary Mitchell. You would think that these two characters in particular would speak up in mr Mitchell’s defence as he is being targeted by anti Esper bias. Gary’s description of Kirk as being a ‘stack of books with legs does not seem like an accurate description of Kirk from what we know? But perhaps back in his Academy days Kirk was indeed quite the model student.
We learn that the Enterprise has over 100 women onboard. Can anybody tell me what the crew total was in this episode, minus those killed upon entering the galactic barrier? We can then learn if the Enterprise recruited officers using an equality policy and if there is any form of gender bias aboard the Enterprise in relation to representation of it’s female workforce.
Mitchell is becoming to become all the more powerful by the minute… at what level will his omnipotence end? He develops the ability to read books super fast just like Data can in The Next Generation. Most chillingly, he learns to break the fourth wall and stare through the TV screen at Captain James T Kirk. *shivers*
I can’t help but start to think that this Gary Mitchell fellow is becoming a bit of a tragic character. Obviously he is developing extra strong ESP powers, but as his character turns more and more to the dark side I wonder if this is partially as a result of the way that the people around him, his friends and colleagues, are treating him. They think nothing but the worse of Gary Mitchell , the crew start to treat him with suspicion, contempt and scorn because of his differences. If someone is treated in such a way then surely with time it will lead to them becoming confrontational and standing up for themselves? What would have happened instead if they had tried to nurture Garry as he developed his ESP abilities and encourage him on to a lighter path? Is this an evolutionary form of humanity that is being fought against by Starfleet in general? Would the crew have preferred if Gary would have devolved/evolved in to a salamander instead and had lizard babies with Doctor Dehner? Perhaps the devolutions of ‘Genesis’ are more desirable? I am starting to see some subtle similarities between this episode and Voyager’s ‘Threshold’, but on a very ‘loose’ level. Regardless, Sulu and Spock both agree that Mitchell will keep on evolving in to ‘god mode’ and reach the point where he loses interest in the ship and crew, with everyone becoming nothing but ‘ants’ to him.
Spock quite shockingly tells Kirk to kill Mitchell before it is too late, though it is agreed that instead of this corporal punishment he should be marooned on an abandoned planet and left to his own devices, in much a similar way as to how Khan Noonian Singh will be marooned on Ceti Alpha VI later in the series. Luckily, there is a planet nearby full of resources that the Enterprise engineering team can use to get the ships engines back up and running, restoring the warp drives back in to operation. Captain Kirk sets a course for Delta Vega.
Garry Mitchel uses his witchcraft to make himself a drink of water… he evilly chuckles to himself as he does so. Perhaps on Delta Vega this ‘god’ can create a world for himself? He can become a new ‘Adam’, but he would just need an ‘Eve’ if he can not create one himself with his limitless powers. This is where Doctor Dehner could be useful.
After another verbal confrontation between Kirk, Spock and Gary in sickbay, Gary believes that Kirk is about to lunge at him so fires lightning bolts from his hands stunning both his perceived attacker and his assailant Spock. However, our duo manage to overpower Mitchell, knock him out and drug him, enabling them to man handle him off of the ship via the transporter. Again, is all of this treatment that he is receiving turning Garry to become this dark persona, or was he predisposed to this by nature and the fate of his ESP super evolution? All of his friends are turning on him… this would be enough to scare anybody. Spock really seems to have it in for Gary Mitchell too, he is almost like a ring leader in the case against him. Spock provided verbal evidence that Mitchell was messing around with switches on the bridge and laughing as he did so, as dangerous as this could be I don’t think that it necessarily was a sign of anything demonic.
What Gary *really* lacked in this episode was a good legal representation, someone who could stop his words being used against him and taken out of context by those targeting him. Garry definitely had been cornered like a trapped animal, and we all know what some trapped animals can do - they lash out.
Back on the planet of Delta Vega, the Enterprise crew plunder the abandoned supplies which have been left on the planet. The planet’s abandoned industrial complex is quite impressive to behold, I wonder why the planet’s inhabitants abandoned? It’s all a bit of a mystery like the Mary Celeste. Maybe one day someone will investigate! Kirk however, is really starting to worry about Mitchell and has come up with a plan - he wants to nuke the surface of Delta Vega, flooding it with Deutron radiation.
Living up to their Adam and Eve embodiment and allegorical symbolism, Mitchell summons a Kaffarian apple tree… he and Elizabeth Dehner eat this forbidden fruit just like in days of old.
Now Mitchell truly becomes ‘evil’?
Kirk and Mitchell face off in an epic battle of whits and physical might, god vs human. Mitchel taunts Kirk by creating a deep grave and accompanying tomb stone for our hero Captain James R Kirk. Is this the first sign that we may be in Star Trek’s first example of a multiverse episode? Surely Mitchell knows that it is James T Kirk?
Mitchel continues to cruelly taunt and manipulate Kirk, forcing our good Captain to kneel and pray to him. doctor Dehner sees sense though and realises that Gary Mitchell is taking things too far, she has psychoanalysed a twisted god and comes to the conclusion that she must help Kirk defeat him. An epic lightning bolt fight ensues, like talons of pure electric energy licking and whipping across the planets surface as Mitchell and Dehner face off with their god mode ESP abilities. Will these gods destroy each other as in stories of old earth mythology? Mitchell temporarily loses his ESP powers, drained by Elizabeth’s attack. Kirk picks up a big rock and prepares to bash Mitchell in the head with it. Kirk’s shirt is also well and truly ripped exposing his manly, muscular chest. Gary however manages to fight Kirk off and picks up *an even bigger* rock. Fortunately, Mitchell falls in to Kirk’s grave and the big rock falls on top of him like a tombstone. Sadly, Elizabeth Dehner our heroine also passes away.
Back on the Enterprise, they forget about the Valiant… for now. All records of Gary Mitchell and Elizabeth Dehner shall be edited so that they have clean service records. These events shall never be spoken of again…
I rate Star Trek episode 01x06 ‘Where no Man has Gone Before’ 7/10.
Next week, The Corbomite Manoeuvre. I hope that McCoy, Uhura and Chekov show up soon.
In later episodes you will see Spock come out with theories seemingly out of mid-air in which he is proven to be correct so if Spock suddenly envisages that Mitchell will become a megalomaniac that will take over the Universe because he can read fast and has wacky silver eyes then know Spock will be correct and you should run for your lives.
Scotty? Is Scotty a main character in this? Credited as such?
Here's some etymology for y'all:
bridegroom (n.)
"man newly married or about to be," Old English brydguma "suitor," from bryd "bride" (see bride) + guma "man," from Proto-Germanic *gumon- (source also of Old Norse gumi, Old High German gomo), literally "earthling, earthly being," as opposed to the gods, from suffixed form of PIE root *dhghem- "earth." Ending altered 16c. by folk etymology after groom (n.) "groom, boy, lad" (q.v.).
Source
"man newly married or about to be," Old English brydguma "suitor," from bryd "bride" (see bride) + guma "man," from Proto-Germanic *gumon- (source also of Old Norse gumi, Old High German gomo), literally "earthling, earthly being," as opposed to the gods, from suffixed form of PIE root *dhghem- "earth." Ending altered 16c. by folk etymology after groom (n.) "groom, boy, lad" (q.v.).
Source
In short, man meant gender neutral human, hence groomsman, roughly "groom" (male) + mon/man (human). Semantic narrowing eventually made "man" refer to males in addition to "human". But it's why we still have words like manslaughter meaning kill a person, not kill a male person.
Have a listen to this if you want a more detailed discussion:
LEXICON VALLEY — Men, Women, and Children (link)
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It's literally the second hour of Star Trek ever produced. Practically everything is game changing at this point.
I'm a little confused at your tenses. Sometimes I'm reading as if you're watching it from the context of 1966 and sometimes you comment like a person of today. Or perhaps I'm spending too much time around @Neopeius
At any rate, this is perfectly in line with the Kirk of the original series. He was a bookworm, a super serious student who lightened up over time. "Shore Leave" backs that up. Only later incarnations and a weird "space cowboy" rep that wasn't deserved - not to mention the Bad Robot films - would lead people to think otherwise. Kirk was, a lot of the time, a by the book officer. He adapted that book in a crunch when he couldn't reach Starfleet Command or there was only time to make a snap decision to save lives. Nearly every time he went against the Prime Directive he debated and sometimes agonized over it.
He's very tragic, that's the point. He's a regular guy, fun and charming. A ladies man and a rogue and he's completely corrupted by absolute power. He comes to feel that humans are gnats beneath him.
Yeah, I don't think Samuel T. Cogley is what this episode or Mitchell needed. Kirk and Spock knew what happened on the Valiant to a degree and getting Gary off the ship as soon as possible was the only way to prevent the Enterprise from suffering the same mysterious fate.
Not abandoned: automated. Big difference. Ore ships stop by every 20 years ish and the machines do the rest.
Mitchel taunts Kirk by creating a deep grave and accompanying tomb stone for our hero Captain James R Kirk. Is this the first sign that we may be in Star Trek’s first example of a multiverse episode? Surely Mitchell knows that it is James T Kirk?
Really?
Do I have to say "production change between pilot and series?" Next week, The Corbomite Maneuver. I hope that McCoy, Uhura and Chekov show up soon.
Yeah, this is why your POV is confusing me...
I'm a little confused at your tenses. Sometimes I'm reading as if you're watching it from the context of 1966 and sometimes you comment like a person of today. Or perhaps I'm spending too much time around @Neopeius
Yeah, this is why your POV is confusing me...
I am conducting a temporal investigation…
An interesting view of the episode! Thank you for sharing.
No problem.
J*s*s Chr*st I just watched the Corbomite Manoeuvre. I’m not sure what to think of it as it is *definitely* not how I remember it on my first viewing back in the 90’s. How on earth did they even get away with this?! It is good that they did though.
Need to sleep on this now, review tomorrow!
I’m going to have to change my rating scale for this series I think… in my child’s mind this would be out of ‘ten’… but on my revisit it might need to be out of ‘twenty’. This means that I still love the episodes but I am seeing them differently so my love is 1-10 and anything extra is 10-20. So if I like the episode anyway it would be rated below ten, but if I loved it and wanted to add stuff on that I dislike it will be above ten. I hope that makes sense.
Need to sleep on this now, review tomorrow!
I’m going to have to change my rating scale for this series I think… in my child’s mind this would be out of ‘ten’… but on my revisit it might need to be out of ‘twenty’. This means that I still love the episodes but I am seeing them differently so my love is 1-10 and anything extra is 10-20. So if I like the episode anyway it would be rated below ten, but if I loved it and wanted to add stuff on that I dislike it will be above ten. I hope that makes sense.
Get away with what? What are you talking about?
Unfortunately, in an effort to appease the over-sensitive, the TNG preamble fritters away the actual meaning of the original.
"Where no man has gone before" means where no human being has gone before.
"Where no one has gone before" means where no individual of any type has gone before.
That means going where no one at all is. Planets with no one on them.
You can't seek out new life, and new civilizations without going where other individuals already are.
The whole point of Trek was following along as humans go places they've never been.
Yes. So much yes. "Where No One" sidesteps the untutored misunderstanding of Man, and NASA could say it for Mars, but it's a terrible match for Star Trek.
Episode 01x10* - The Corbomite Manoeuvre.
*Did you know that this is actually episode two of Star Trek? Not including The Cage. I have no idea why they messed the episode order up on Paramount+, but it *definitely* comes after Where no Man has gone Before.
“Stand by to Photograph!”
This week we find out that the Enterprise has a forward mounted camera, probably with a flash. This camera is used to create star maps as our newly fledged group of pioneers chart the stars along their five year journey. This camera probably also provides the live web cam stream to the bridge view screen. I am not sure if the view screen is actually a transparent aluminum window or an LCD display, I had always assumed the latter. Regardless, it is a good job that our star charting team were paying attention to this screen as they spot an unidentified object as it begins to approach them - a luminous cube, not unlike a segment of a rubix cube… blasting towards the ship. Perhaps it is a piece of a larger puzzle? A game of cat and mouse commences as the Enterprise faces off against this cube.
“It’s blocking the way!!!!!” Shouts Mr Bailey, a newly minted officer who we are introduced to this week as being part of the bridge crew. Spock look’s at Bailey sternly yet calmly and replies “It is quite unnecessary to raise your voice Mr Bailey”. Last week, I had concerns about Mr Spock and his excessively emote shouting during “Where no Man has Gone Before”, it is good to see that TPTB have addressed this issue by making Spock himself calmer and creating an ‘in joke’ to this criticism in this weeks episode, making Spock critique another character for the same flaw he had last week.
Our group of intrepid star mapping cartographers realise that things are starting to get heated. An alert is issued ship wide, this all needs… escalating - Captain Kirk is called to the bridge.
Stardate 1512.2, not knowing the secret code that the production staff were using in order to select stardates I will relate this back to an Earth year 1512 - absolutely nothing to do with the episode as far as I can see but we have a random peak back in to earth history for those who like a random history lesson.
Kirk is being put through his paces as part of his annual physical, bare chested with his legs pumping as he works out on the bio bed against a machine which is recording his statistics and vitals.
“That’s the boy!!! Keep it up!!!” Yell’s a man with a south American accent, “It’ll do you gooooood!”. We are introduced to the legendary Doctor Leonard McCoy.
“You are killing me!!!!!!” Kirk replies, sweating and groaning… exhausted.
This scene is actually a flash back. The incident with the cube has not occurred yet. This is very clever direction from Joseph Sargent, he should do a time travel episode one day and use this flashing forward and backwards in time technique in a temporal anomaly related context.
We flash forward back to the bridge of the Enterprise. “When we move, it move’s too” Spock observes about the cube. Maybe this is a throwback to last weeks episode where Kirk and Spock played three dimensional Chess… this week the game is upped - space chess between two space ships instead! Who will ‘checkmate’ who?
Flashing back yet again, Kirk is still being put through his paces by McCoy. But timelines begin to converge… a red alert light begins to flash in sickbay, audio muted. McCoy sees this alert but he does not inform his captain, he actually does not want him to see it. Kirk continues with his medical until the red alert light catches his eye, he suddenly bolts up to action. When Kirk asks why McCoy did not inform him of this ship wide emergency, he simply replies…
“What am I?! A doctor or a moon shuttle conductor?!
I love this iteration of McCoy! He very much projects the dry humor and ‘rough around the edges’ lovability that we have grown to love in recent years through Karl Urban’s interpretation of the character. Kudos to DeForest Kelly for portraying his character is a way that is true to canon and fan expectations. I hope that we get to see more of McCoy as the season progresses.
Kirk begins his epic Lord of the Rings/Rambo like journey to the bridge, walking bare chested though the Enterprise corridors dripping sweat and expressing pheromones along the way. First of all before his mission commences, he will need to go to his quarters and put his uniform on.
Kirk makes it to his bridge, he stands proud and flexes his chest and arm muscles as he beholds the imagery on the view screen before him. “That’s a solid cube!” He observes.
We are reintroduced to Scotty who is now in true engineering (and security) red! Uhura, as observed earlier in the episode is however still in ‘The Cage’ style gold. Bailey offers his suggestions on how to proceed, Kirk firmly reminds the young man that they are not a democracy.
This rainbow cube which is teasing our ship has totally perplexed the Enterprise crew, they really do not know what to do! They decide to hold a very long staff meeting, it is almost like an ‘all nighter’… the senior staff all sit around the briefing room table falling to sleep, it’s like the aftermath of a party as we see it depicted here on screen. Anyway, a decision is made… Kirk has decided that they will attempt to pull away from the cube. They plan their escape.
Tings start to get serious again, so serious in fact that Spock forgets the advice that he gave to Bailey earlier in the episode and begins to shout! Bailey responds to Spock’s shouts in a calm and controlled
voice. I am beginning to think that Spock needs his adrenal glands removing…
The cube get’s closer and closer, things start to get intense. Kirk gives the order to fire! The cube is destroyed. I can’t help but think that perhaps Kirk was being overly aggressive, though to be fair the cube was emitting dangerous levels of radiation and was posing a potential danger to the ship and crew.
Spock and Kirk have a heart to heart, Spock does not understand why Kirk asks him questions when he has already decided the answer in his own mind. Perhaps Kirk just wants confirmation and reassurance from someone that he respects? They exchange several intimate glances and at points both of their lips twitch almost like they are making subtle suggestive gestures at each other, or maybe I’m imagining it.
Regardless, Kirk still needs to complete his medical and he knows it. Kirk is only at 94% efficiency and he wants to go that 6% more. Terminator mode! We can tell that this iteration of Kirk, also played by Paul Wesley in Strange New World’s will not settle for anything other than doing his very best.
After enduring the long and hard work out in sickbay, Kirk and McCoy have a bear to heart over a few shots of whisky, though it could be Saurian brandy. Recurring guest star Yeoman Janice Rand introduces herself, bringing Kirk a vegan meal. Kirk looks at the dish and clearly states his disapproval - he obviously wants a steak, then his eyes trace up the yeoman. “Why do I have a female Yeoman?” He asks in despair. Is it because he wanted a male looking after him? Or is it because he knows he can’t resist a female? I can not decide, only Kirk truly knows! I honestly don’t think it matters which gender a Yeoman or any rank should be for that matter as long as they do a good job. Kirk already has one female in his life already - his ship, maybe he has no room for another?
Kirk and McCoy pause, giving each other some very intense stairs, their lips seem to randomly ‘pucker’ as they do so. I shall be paying particular attention during this series run for other unusual facial expressions or behaviour between characters. Acting is not just about reading scripts back or performing action scenes, it’s also about the subtle ways in which the actors or actress express how their character is feeling using various techniques to express themselves physically, facial expressions being one such way. Subtle facial ques seem to have been mastered by these two actors, though I’m not quite sure what they were thinking in this scene or if the lip movements were intentional or not. I think Kirk might have just been chewing his salad to be fair which is better than chewing the scenery I guess.
Back to our adventure though… A large object is on it’s way! It must be …the ‘mothership’.
A massive starship arrives on the scene, it has a very unique and intricate design looking almost ‘molecular’ or ‘atom’ like in structure. This starship is a ginormous sphere made up of much smaller dome like units which have hexagonal like texturing - perhaps they are transparent windows too? I wonder what is inside this massive starship? I’m thinking mini ecosystems like jungles and deserts, biomes created from all of the planets that this ship encounters along it’s travels… but I could be wrong.
Blalock appears on the screen, the creature design is *very* alien looking and we can tell that this episode in particular must have had high production values. Balok is the commander of this colossal sphere-ship, he is representing ‘The First Federation’. Perhaps that it was the First Federation is, quite literally a collection of biomes from different worlds, like an ‘ark’ of some kind? I doubt it though. Balok goes on to state that the First Federation feel threatened by Kirk and the Enterprise as a result of them destroying their cube-probe earlier in this episode. This probe was actually a buoy, we do understand why the Enterprise decided to destroy it though - it was emitting dangerous radiation which would have been hazardous to the crew. I can’t remember whether it was scanned for life signs before this action was taken though.
This stand off continues, but Kirk decides to launch a ‘recorder marker’ - Balok and the Fessarius confuse this for a weapon. Balok now escalates his threats, the Enterprise has ten minutes to say goodbye to each other and their loved ones, to prepare for their deaths in which ever way is traditional for their cultures. Unfortunately, Balok was on the ship wide communications when this was said, so the crew begin to panic and worry - luckily Kirk gives an inspirational speech, his first of *many* during this series run.
Eight minutes left now…
Bailey, who we were introduced to earlier has a particularly bad emotional reaction to the situation unfolding on the ship, so much so that he has a breakdown. Perhaps he was just *not* ready to be a part of the bridge crew, being exposed to such stress and danger with a front row seat?
7 minutes to go…
We are introduced to an interesting character dynamic in the next scene over a game of chess as our crew contemplate their upcoming deaths. It is early days I know but McCoy and Kirk seem to *not* actually like each other at this point in their lives, or maybe it was just the stress of the situation that they were in. McCoy so quite defensive of Bailey saying that Kirk must have pushed him too far, putting him in to position that he was not ready for. McCoy insists that he will note this in Bailey’s medical records.
3 minutes…
The game of chess now changes to ‘poker’. Kirk opens up hailing frequencies with Balok and the Fessarius and states that if the Enterprise is fired upon, a weapon called ‘Corbomite’ will be used. This will result in the Fessarius being attacked in return with an attack of equal measure and intensity, assuring mutual destruction. This ruse becomes Kirk’s wild card… it is just a shame that this ‘Corbomite Manoeuvre was not used centuries ago on earth, it could have stopped World War III. Kirk begins to play the villain, “however it was well played” , Spock observes. Spock also notes that Balok reminds him of his father, Sarek, this is Spock’s ancestor who married an Earth women.
Kirk and McCoy begin to build friendship bridges, making amends for their earlier altercation, now is a better time than never under these circumstances. McCoy isn’t quite sure how Kirk managed not to punch him earlier on in the episode though…
1 MINUTE!!!!!!!!
We are now all sat on the edges of our seats, how will Balok react to Kirk’s threat of retaliation? In one final act of respect for his friend Bailey, Kirk allows him to return to his post on the bridge for what could be his last duty. The crew await their doom….
5….
4……..
3…………
2……………..
1………………….
Nothing happens.
It certainly is a very interesting game, this ‘Poker’. The Corbomite Manoeuvre had worked? Balok returns to the screen. At this point, in flight service commences as refreshments are brought to the bridge by Yeoman Rand, coffee and light snacks are served.
Balock however has not fallen for the ruse as expected, he sends a shuttle craft from the sphere to tow the Enteprrise and it’s crew to a prison planet from where they will be marooned and force to live for the rest of eternity. Kirk is not sure what to do now, should he decide to fight? We now have a musical score not unlike the one from ‘Jaw’s’, obviously the composer of Jaw’s must have been taking inspiration from this episode.
At this point in the episode the ship faces is greatest danger so far… our crew are flung side to side and the intense vibrations cause the ship to shake uncontrollably. I would like to encourage people who have bothered to read this far in to my review to watch this episode at 41 minutes and 29 seconds in to the episode. I can not put this scene in to words myself but as Spock says “she will blow soon!!!!”. You would have to watch that clip for context. I won’t spoil how they get out of this situation.
At this point I also spot Uhura’s lovely luminous lime green earrings.
Anyway, Kirk and his away team are beamed over to the Fessarius. We are shown Baloks true form - he is a mere child like alien and he had only been having a laugh with Kirk and his crew. He was not *really* going to destroy the Enterprise and it’s crew... it was a ‘test’. This child alien offers Kirk and his team a glass of Tranye which I assume is an alcoholic drink. We are told the Balok and this child personification are like ‘Jeckyl and Hyde’ from earth literature. The child just can not stop laughing, he really enjoyed this game.
Our Enterprise team and ‘Balok’ of the First Federation agree to make friends and will start their new relationship via a cultural exchange. Bailey fulfills his destiny by volunteering to become a representative of the Federation, an ambassador of sorts.
Overall, it ended up being quite the successful first contact mission.
I grade Star Trek ‘The Corbomite Manouvre’ - 9/10.
Next week…’Mudd’s Women’.
*Did you know that this is actually episode two of Star Trek? Not including The Cage. I have no idea why they messed the episode order up on Paramount+, but it *definitely* comes after Where no Man has gone Before.
“Stand by to Photograph!”
This week we find out that the Enterprise has a forward mounted camera, probably with a flash. This camera is used to create star maps as our newly fledged group of pioneers chart the stars along their five year journey. This camera probably also provides the live web cam stream to the bridge view screen. I am not sure if the view screen is actually a transparent aluminum window or an LCD display, I had always assumed the latter. Regardless, it is a good job that our star charting team were paying attention to this screen as they spot an unidentified object as it begins to approach them - a luminous cube, not unlike a segment of a rubix cube… blasting towards the ship. Perhaps it is a piece of a larger puzzle? A game of cat and mouse commences as the Enterprise faces off against this cube.
“It’s blocking the way!!!!!” Shouts Mr Bailey, a newly minted officer who we are introduced to this week as being part of the bridge crew. Spock look’s at Bailey sternly yet calmly and replies “It is quite unnecessary to raise your voice Mr Bailey”. Last week, I had concerns about Mr Spock and his excessively emote shouting during “Where no Man has Gone Before”, it is good to see that TPTB have addressed this issue by making Spock himself calmer and creating an ‘in joke’ to this criticism in this weeks episode, making Spock critique another character for the same flaw he had last week.
Our group of intrepid star mapping cartographers realise that things are starting to get heated. An alert is issued ship wide, this all needs… escalating - Captain Kirk is called to the bridge.
Stardate 1512.2, not knowing the secret code that the production staff were using in order to select stardates I will relate this back to an Earth year 1512 - absolutely nothing to do with the episode as far as I can see but we have a random peak back in to earth history for those who like a random history lesson.
Kirk is being put through his paces as part of his annual physical, bare chested with his legs pumping as he works out on the bio bed against a machine which is recording his statistics and vitals.
“That’s the boy!!! Keep it up!!!” Yell’s a man with a south American accent, “It’ll do you gooooood!”. We are introduced to the legendary Doctor Leonard McCoy.
“You are killing me!!!!!!” Kirk replies, sweating and groaning… exhausted.
This scene is actually a flash back. The incident with the cube has not occurred yet. This is very clever direction from Joseph Sargent, he should do a time travel episode one day and use this flashing forward and backwards in time technique in a temporal anomaly related context.
We flash forward back to the bridge of the Enterprise. “When we move, it move’s too” Spock observes about the cube. Maybe this is a throwback to last weeks episode where Kirk and Spock played three dimensional Chess… this week the game is upped - space chess between two space ships instead! Who will ‘checkmate’ who?
Flashing back yet again, Kirk is still being put through his paces by McCoy. But timelines begin to converge… a red alert light begins to flash in sickbay, audio muted. McCoy sees this alert but he does not inform his captain, he actually does not want him to see it. Kirk continues with his medical until the red alert light catches his eye, he suddenly bolts up to action. When Kirk asks why McCoy did not inform him of this ship wide emergency, he simply replies…
“What am I?! A doctor or a moon shuttle conductor?!
I love this iteration of McCoy! He very much projects the dry humor and ‘rough around the edges’ lovability that we have grown to love in recent years through Karl Urban’s interpretation of the character. Kudos to DeForest Kelly for portraying his character is a way that is true to canon and fan expectations. I hope that we get to see more of McCoy as the season progresses.
Kirk begins his epic Lord of the Rings/Rambo like journey to the bridge, walking bare chested though the Enterprise corridors dripping sweat and expressing pheromones along the way. First of all before his mission commences, he will need to go to his quarters and put his uniform on.
Kirk makes it to his bridge, he stands proud and flexes his chest and arm muscles as he beholds the imagery on the view screen before him. “That’s a solid cube!” He observes.
We are reintroduced to Scotty who is now in true engineering (and security) red! Uhura, as observed earlier in the episode is however still in ‘The Cage’ style gold. Bailey offers his suggestions on how to proceed, Kirk firmly reminds the young man that they are not a democracy.
This rainbow cube which is teasing our ship has totally perplexed the Enterprise crew, they really do not know what to do! They decide to hold a very long staff meeting, it is almost like an ‘all nighter’… the senior staff all sit around the briefing room table falling to sleep, it’s like the aftermath of a party as we see it depicted here on screen. Anyway, a decision is made… Kirk has decided that they will attempt to pull away from the cube. They plan their escape.
Tings start to get serious again, so serious in fact that Spock forgets the advice that he gave to Bailey earlier in the episode and begins to shout! Bailey responds to Spock’s shouts in a calm and controlled
voice. I am beginning to think that Spock needs his adrenal glands removing…
The cube get’s closer and closer, things start to get intense. Kirk gives the order to fire! The cube is destroyed. I can’t help but think that perhaps Kirk was being overly aggressive, though to be fair the cube was emitting dangerous levels of radiation and was posing a potential danger to the ship and crew.
Spock and Kirk have a heart to heart, Spock does not understand why Kirk asks him questions when he has already decided the answer in his own mind. Perhaps Kirk just wants confirmation and reassurance from someone that he respects? They exchange several intimate glances and at points both of their lips twitch almost like they are making subtle suggestive gestures at each other, or maybe I’m imagining it.
Regardless, Kirk still needs to complete his medical and he knows it. Kirk is only at 94% efficiency and he wants to go that 6% more. Terminator mode! We can tell that this iteration of Kirk, also played by Paul Wesley in Strange New World’s will not settle for anything other than doing his very best.
After enduring the long and hard work out in sickbay, Kirk and McCoy have a bear to heart over a few shots of whisky, though it could be Saurian brandy. Recurring guest star Yeoman Janice Rand introduces herself, bringing Kirk a vegan meal. Kirk looks at the dish and clearly states his disapproval - he obviously wants a steak, then his eyes trace up the yeoman. “Why do I have a female Yeoman?” He asks in despair. Is it because he wanted a male looking after him? Or is it because he knows he can’t resist a female? I can not decide, only Kirk truly knows! I honestly don’t think it matters which gender a Yeoman or any rank should be for that matter as long as they do a good job. Kirk already has one female in his life already - his ship, maybe he has no room for another?
Kirk and McCoy pause, giving each other some very intense stairs, their lips seem to randomly ‘pucker’ as they do so. I shall be paying particular attention during this series run for other unusual facial expressions or behaviour between characters. Acting is not just about reading scripts back or performing action scenes, it’s also about the subtle ways in which the actors or actress express how their character is feeling using various techniques to express themselves physically, facial expressions being one such way. Subtle facial ques seem to have been mastered by these two actors, though I’m not quite sure what they were thinking in this scene or if the lip movements were intentional or not. I think Kirk might have just been chewing his salad to be fair which is better than chewing the scenery I guess.
Back to our adventure though… A large object is on it’s way! It must be …the ‘mothership’.
A massive starship arrives on the scene, it has a very unique and intricate design looking almost ‘molecular’ or ‘atom’ like in structure. This starship is a ginormous sphere made up of much smaller dome like units which have hexagonal like texturing - perhaps they are transparent windows too? I wonder what is inside this massive starship? I’m thinking mini ecosystems like jungles and deserts, biomes created from all of the planets that this ship encounters along it’s travels… but I could be wrong.
Blalock appears on the screen, the creature design is *very* alien looking and we can tell that this episode in particular must have had high production values. Balok is the commander of this colossal sphere-ship, he is representing ‘The First Federation’. Perhaps that it was the First Federation is, quite literally a collection of biomes from different worlds, like an ‘ark’ of some kind? I doubt it though. Balok goes on to state that the First Federation feel threatened by Kirk and the Enterprise as a result of them destroying their cube-probe earlier in this episode. This probe was actually a buoy, we do understand why the Enterprise decided to destroy it though - it was emitting dangerous radiation which would have been hazardous to the crew. I can’t remember whether it was scanned for life signs before this action was taken though.
This stand off continues, but Kirk decides to launch a ‘recorder marker’ - Balok and the Fessarius confuse this for a weapon. Balok now escalates his threats, the Enterprise has ten minutes to say goodbye to each other and their loved ones, to prepare for their deaths in which ever way is traditional for their cultures. Unfortunately, Balok was on the ship wide communications when this was said, so the crew begin to panic and worry - luckily Kirk gives an inspirational speech, his first of *many* during this series run.
Eight minutes left now…
Bailey, who we were introduced to earlier has a particularly bad emotional reaction to the situation unfolding on the ship, so much so that he has a breakdown. Perhaps he was just *not* ready to be a part of the bridge crew, being exposed to such stress and danger with a front row seat?
7 minutes to go…
We are introduced to an interesting character dynamic in the next scene over a game of chess as our crew contemplate their upcoming deaths. It is early days I know but McCoy and Kirk seem to *not* actually like each other at this point in their lives, or maybe it was just the stress of the situation that they were in. McCoy so quite defensive of Bailey saying that Kirk must have pushed him too far, putting him in to position that he was not ready for. McCoy insists that he will note this in Bailey’s medical records.
3 minutes…
The game of chess now changes to ‘poker’. Kirk opens up hailing frequencies with Balok and the Fessarius and states that if the Enterprise is fired upon, a weapon called ‘Corbomite’ will be used. This will result in the Fessarius being attacked in return with an attack of equal measure and intensity, assuring mutual destruction. This ruse becomes Kirk’s wild card… it is just a shame that this ‘Corbomite Manoeuvre was not used centuries ago on earth, it could have stopped World War III. Kirk begins to play the villain, “however it was well played” , Spock observes. Spock also notes that Balok reminds him of his father, Sarek, this is Spock’s ancestor who married an Earth women.
Kirk and McCoy begin to build friendship bridges, making amends for their earlier altercation, now is a better time than never under these circumstances. McCoy isn’t quite sure how Kirk managed not to punch him earlier on in the episode though…
1 MINUTE!!!!!!!!
We are now all sat on the edges of our seats, how will Balok react to Kirk’s threat of retaliation? In one final act of respect for his friend Bailey, Kirk allows him to return to his post on the bridge for what could be his last duty. The crew await their doom….
5….
4……..
3…………
2……………..
1………………….
Nothing happens.
It certainly is a very interesting game, this ‘Poker’. The Corbomite Manoeuvre had worked? Balok returns to the screen. At this point, in flight service commences as refreshments are brought to the bridge by Yeoman Rand, coffee and light snacks are served.
Balock however has not fallen for the ruse as expected, he sends a shuttle craft from the sphere to tow the Enteprrise and it’s crew to a prison planet from where they will be marooned and force to live for the rest of eternity. Kirk is not sure what to do now, should he decide to fight? We now have a musical score not unlike the one from ‘Jaw’s’, obviously the composer of Jaw’s must have been taking inspiration from this episode.
At this point in the episode the ship faces is greatest danger so far… our crew are flung side to side and the intense vibrations cause the ship to shake uncontrollably. I would like to encourage people who have bothered to read this far in to my review to watch this episode at 41 minutes and 29 seconds in to the episode. I can not put this scene in to words myself but as Spock says “she will blow soon!!!!”. You would have to watch that clip for context. I won’t spoil how they get out of this situation.
At this point I also spot Uhura’s lovely luminous lime green earrings.
Anyway, Kirk and his away team are beamed over to the Fessarius. We are shown Baloks true form - he is a mere child like alien and he had only been having a laugh with Kirk and his crew. He was not *really* going to destroy the Enterprise and it’s crew... it was a ‘test’. This child alien offers Kirk and his team a glass of Tranye which I assume is an alcoholic drink. We are told the Balok and this child personification are like ‘Jeckyl and Hyde’ from earth literature. The child just can not stop laughing, he really enjoyed this game.
Our Enterprise team and ‘Balok’ of the First Federation agree to make friends and will start their new relationship via a cultural exchange. Bailey fulfills his destiny by volunteering to become a representative of the Federation, an ambassador of sorts.
Overall, it ended up being quite the successful first contact mission.
I grade Star Trek ‘The Corbomite Manouvre’ - 9/10.
Next week…’Mudd’s Women’.
And that's correct. It was the first episode of the first production season after the pilots and aired 10th. So in either production or air date order, it should be after "Where No Man Has Gone Before." Where does it fall on Paramount+? I never watch the streaming, they don't run the original effects.Episode 01x10* - The Corbomite Maneuver.
*Did you know that this is actually episode two of Star Trek? Not including The Cage. I have no idea why they messed the episode order up on Paramount+, but it *definitely* comes after Where no Man has gone Before.
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