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, T
he Corbomite Manoeuvre. I hope that McCoy, Uhura and Chekov show up soon.
