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Where No Man fits in?

For one thing, that is no way to talk about a lady. For another, she's 75 years old. Can we please stay on topic?
 
I don't think Nichelle's coochie and the phrase "where no man has gone before" even work in the same sentence, since apparently, LOTS of men have gone there before.

More on topic, it seems to me that the five year missions were something of a new thing. Previously, ships would go out on specific missions, then check back for their next assignment.
 
For the record, 99% of my comments over the years about Nichelle have been classy. I was just playing along a few posts back...riding the tastless train wherever it was headed.:lol:
 
The problem with all the five year missions is that it makes the mission we witness less special. If there were two 5-year missions under Pike then what is so historic about Kirk's?

I think the opening of WNMHGB as originally aired doesn't contain the Shatner voiceover, so this coincidentally could support the theory that the story is before the 5YM proper.

I like the idea that the ship was at Earth for a quick refit sometime after that episode and then the 5YM started. What I don't like is the idea suggested in the Star Charts book that the Enterprise traveled to the edge of galactic plane to get to the barrier. This would have been way too long of a journey for them, to say nothing of the Valiant that went the same route just a year after first contact!

The barrier would also be encountered if the galaxy edge was approached from a vertical axis to the galactic plane (imagine going straight "up" or "down" from Earth's position). This would be a much more reasonable distance for both the Valiant and the Enterprise to travel. This would also apply to the two subsequent journeys through the barrier.

As to what takes place when, I don't think it matters. It works better if you think of it as a TV show being made based on fragmentary ship's logs from the 23rd century brought back to the 1960s. That would account for a lot of the little inconsistencies that crop up throughout TOS.
 
The problem with all the five year missions is that it makes the mission we witness less special. If there were two 5-year missions under Pike then what is so historic about Kirk's?

I take the view that Pike was just out there a long time, which just happened to shake out to around ten years. Kirk, and the other captain's so assigned, were the first ones given a specific five year time frame to accomplish their mission objectives.

I think the opening of WNMHGB as originally aired doesn't contain the Shatner voiceover, so this coincidentally could support the theory that the story is before the 5YM proper.

They've put it back for the remastered version, which is personally somewhat disappointing.

I'd just like to track down a DVD of the unaired version and give my bootleg VHS tape a rest... :devil:

I like the idea that the ship was at Earth for a quick refit sometime after that episode and then the 5YM started. What I don't like is the idea suggested in the Star Charts book that the Enterprise traveled to the edge of galactic plane to get to the barrier. This would have been way too long of a journey for them, to say nothing of the Valiant that went the same route just a year after first contact!

The barrier would also be encountered if the galaxy edge was approached from a vertical axis to the galactic plane (imagine going straight "up" or "down" from Earth's position). This would be a much more reasonable distance for both the Valiant and the Enterprise to travel. This would also apply to the two subsequent journeys through the barrier.

The old Star Trek maps took this approach.
 
One might also argue that Kirk's mission duration was not special: the fact that he spent those years farther out (on the average) than anybody before him is what the history books remember. For all we know, Pike never went beyond Rigel - the ENT Rigel, that is...

As for the timeline, I generally prefer to have my TOS in stardate order. In those terms, "WNMHGB" (SD 1312) would be followed very quickly by "Mudd's Women" (SD 1329), an adventure that seemingly still takes place out in the sticks. The continuity would be excellent, then:

-After the casualties from the pilot episode, the command structure is still in flux, with Uhura in yellow etc.
-Despite getting a hasty internal facelift, the ship is still short on dilithium crystals so that a fairly simple set of maneuvers burns out all the remaining spares.
-Kirk is the only law out there, out of contact with his superiors, and has to haggle and improvise rather than rely on support from his employer. This is in common with the pilot and different from the succeeding row of adventures where Kirk readily keeps his bosses informed.
-Rigel (this time the more distant Beta Orionis one) lies along the route, perhaps indicating that the ship is indeed coming from the edge of the galactic disk. It may be that the barrier thing lies in the direction of the edge, only not quite as distant as the farthest stars in that direction...

The next adventure after that would be "Corbomite" (SD 1512), which is clearly part of regular exploration duty already.

Timo Saloniemi
 
A bit off topic, but still relevant, is I'm glad they got rid of that phrase in TNG and replaced it with "its continuing mission," which I think made its debut at the end of TWOK, so as not to hamstring the movies or the series. Just as glad as how they changed it to "where no one has gone before." Nyah, nyah! -- RR
It's also good they changed it to "no one". Not just for the feminists out there but also because there are aliens on the Enterprise!
Actually, I didn't mind the "no man" version -- and I'm female. To me it just seems utterly stupid for Picard to say, "...where no one has gone before" -- and always run into somebody else (of whatever species) who got there first.

With Kirk's version, it can be interpreted to mean "where no human has gone before."
 
Well, remember that in 1987 when TNG was getting underway the whole gender-based political correctness thing was starting to get into full swing and many women and feminists found the terms "man" and "mankind" to be archaic, patriarchal and even prejudiced. I just learned to live with it since Roddenberry, Berman and other producers never showed any signs of changing it to the old TOS style of wording.
 
Yes, I understand that they fixed a lot of things that weren't broken in the first place. ;)
 
EXACTLY. :lol:

And being just 13 at the time there wasn't anything I could do but just accept the change to the voice over and try to like the new show.
 
Its largely a relic of the late 80s and early 90s when movie and TV producers went out of their way to be more P.C. just for the sake of it since it was a new trend.
 
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