"The impossible has happened..."

[Wingsley]

Today marks the 46th anniversary of "Where No Man Has Gone Before" on NBC.

The tone of the story, from the conflicts between the characters to the sense of being "out there" on the frontier, was really powerful and much stronger than many subsequent stories.

Part of me prefers the "Cage" / "Where No Man..." style of TOS, even if it was still evolving at that point. The turtleneck uniforms were all unisex, which was a nicer, and much less "sex it up" touch. Sally Kellerman looked great in the turtleneck-and-trousers anyway. Kellerman's character was one of the most interesting female guest characters in TOS. Note she did not fall for Kirk and Mitchell; her character was all about articulating the tone and key moments in the plot's evolution, not just being a love-interest-of-the-week.

Does anybody here think it would've hurt to see the characters continue to wear the "Cage" style uniforms all through TOS? The Moonbase Alpha characters wore vaguely similar style unisex outfits all through the first year of SPACE: 1999, and at least Barbara Bain (and occasionally Catherine Schell) wore similar uniforms in the second year as well.

Most of the Enterprise's interior sets were shown in "Where No Man", in "Cage" form, of course. No hangar deck, engine room, jefferies tube, or captain's cabin. Sickbay looks about 99% the same as the rest of TOS. Interesting this is the only time we see a ship-board water spigot in the entire series, IIRC.

Did the sets and other props/FX look like a work in progress, or would they have worked well if TOS had retained them "as was"?

 

[Tiberius]

When I saw the thread title, I just had to make this...

 

[CorporalCaptain]

Did the sets and other props/FX look like a work in progress, or would they have worked well if TOS had retained them "as was"?

I thought it looked really solid. This is an excellent episode. They really put heart and soul into it, it looked to me.

As an aside, the prehistory of the Valiant, possibly going to the edge of the galaxy only on impulse engines, even if that is shaky or doesn't fit seamlessly into the ideas of sublight versus warp drive as they would be understood later as the show progressed—it doesn't matter.

The episode is, for the most part, riveting, which I intend to be a very high compliment. It's really one of the very best episodes of TOS. Easily top ten.

I didn't mind the trousers for the women , but then again I didn't mind the minidresses. Both were fine.

 

[Orac]

I liked the rounded corners on the viewscreen, that could have been retained.

 

[blssdwlf]

I liked the episode as well. About the interior sets - the bridge is different from what we see in later seasons. Specifically, the main viewer is offset to the left by "one station" and the railing is one station "shorter". Also the turbolift station is offset by "one station" as well and is more behind the captain's chair than the later bridge set.

 

[Wingsley]

When I saw the thread title, I just had to make this...

Oh, you're just awful!

 

[Wingsley]

One minor detail I liked about both "The Cage" and "Where No Man...": the transporter room looked as if it had to be operated by a two-man crew, not just one guy popping in and tripping it like it's a photocopier. That gave it a nice, naval touch.

 

[Timewalker]

I'm glad they went with different colors of uniforms. Too many similar shades are BORING - not to mention confusing for people who have problems with perceiving subtle color changes, or for people with wonky color TVs.

 

[Redfern]

Also, "Where No Man..." (and "The cage" for that matter) used backdrop paintings of a craggy mountain range (likely the same one for both pilots) that added to the illusion they were upon an alien world.

Yes, I realize the economics of using light gels illuminating a blank backdrop, that they couldn't afford a different painting for each studio bound planet they visited, but I still liked the one (maybe two?) they did use.

Sincerely,

Bill

 

[Ssosmcin]

yep, it was the same planet set for both pilots. Kirk fights Mitchell pretty much where Pike was kidnapped on Talos IV. It's an amazing set, very gloomy and realistic.

The episode itself is outstanding, both versions of the episode are equally great (the differences are merely cosmetic anyway). I'm convinced Shatner's performance really put this episode over the top and sold the series. He's amazing from start to finish. He's the star here and he inhabits Kirk from moment one.

I actually always liked Spock's makeup here. Very severe and extremely satanic (yes, I know that was a major issue).

A great pilot and a home run episode, to this day I feel this should have been the first episode aired. I feel the changes would have been less jarring if they didn't already air two episodes in the finished format. Plus, killing off Kirk's best friend makes more sense in episode 1 than in episode 3, where people could have wondered where this guy was for two episodes.

Interesting tidbit: Spock and Mitchell have worked together for years at this point. Since Spock was already on board when Kirk took over, that either means Mitchell was there too, or this episode isn't THAT early into the 5 year mission.

Or it just means nobody figured anyone would be talking about it 46 years later...

 

[Timo]

Just because Jim and Gary are friends doesn't mean they would have been serving together all the time. Spock might well have a longer joint service history with Mitchell than Kirk does, giving the crew chemistry an interesting extra flavor.

The episode does have its own wholly internal chronology/continuity problems. If Kirk has known Mitchell for fifteen years, but Mitchell first met a "Lieutenant" Kirk at the Academy, then both men are about the age of the actors portraying them - yet the onscreen graphics try to suggest Mitchell is but 23 years old.

I don't see the upside of pretending that Mitchell is 23 or Dehner 21, but apparently youth was directly related to sex appeal back then in a rather embarrassing way. At least Michael J. Fox sort of looked the part...

Timo Saloniemi

 

[BoredShipCapt'n]

Just because Jim and Gary are friends doesn't mean they would have been serving together all the time. Spock might well have a longer joint service history with Mitchell than Kirk does, giving the crew chemistry an interesting extra flavor.

The episode does have its own wholly internal chronology/continuity problems. If Kirk has known Mitchell for fifteen years, but Mitchell first met a "Lieutenant" Kirk at the Academy, then both men are about the age of the actors portraying them - yet the onscreen graphics try to suggest Mitchell is but 23 years old.

I don't see the upside of pretending that Mitchell is 23 or Dehner 21, but apparently youth was directly related to sex appeal back then in a rather embarrassing way. At least Michael J. Fox sort of looked the part...

Timo Saloniemi

Youth doesn't excuse everything, Dr. McCoy.


[end random quote]

 

[GSchnitzer]

I liked the rounded corners on the viewscreen, that could have been retained.

Well, for what it's worth, they rounded the corners a tiny bit on the main view screen of the U.S.S. Lexington in the re-mastered "The Ultimate Computer."

Compare it to the Enterprise's main view screen:

 

[SchwEnt]

One minor detail I liked about both "The Cage" and "Where No Man...": the transporter room looked as if it had to be operated by a two-man crew, not just one guy popping in and tripping it like it's a photocopier. That gave it a nice, naval touch.

What I liked in "The Cage", and what they didn't keep here afterwards, was the loud rumbling/power generation of the transporter. Gave a real sense of power about the transporter, which I guess it should have.

I also liked the two-man crew operating the transporter, as if it is a machine needing technicians and operators.

Otherwise, you're right, it was much like a photocopier. How many times did we see a landing party arrive in the transporter room and Spock or Scotty steps over and handles it? Right, like it was a photocopier or something.

If that's all it takes, someone can walk in from the corridor and can do it, why bother assigning a transporter chief or technician? Not full-time, at least.

 

[F. King Daniel]

When I saw the thread title, I just had to make this...

 

[Gary7]

Well, for what it's worth, they rounded the corners a tiny bit on the main view screen of the U.S.S. Lexington in the re-mastered "The Ultimate Computer."

Compare it to the Enterprise's main view screen:

Greg, thanks for posting this--really fascinating. I surmise they did this to make it a little more distinctive, so that the viewer would see a definite transition from one bridge to the other (the bridges and ships look identical, except for the high back of the captain's chair on the Lexington). I like it.

 

[Gary7]

Tiberius, your Chinese Kirk is hilarious! I hope you don't mind... I just had to give it a go in a slightly different view.

 

[Green Shirt]

^ It goes really well with Spock's semi-smirky expression.

 

[Tiberius]

Tiberius, your Chinese Kirk is hilarious! I hope you don't mind... I just had to give it a go in a slightly different view.

 

[Wingsley]

These's another cute little quirk about "Where No Man..." and "The Cage" that seems to set them off from (at least) most of TOS: the doors. If you watch the doors and pay attention to the "whoosh" sound, it is as if starship doors from this "older" era operate on a slower mechanism. Yet another little trait that, along with the uniforms, seems to make this seem like a pre-refit era prior to the rest of TOS.

The turbolift elevator car interior seems a little bit psychedelic next to the more tone-down TOS version, don't you think?

As SchwEnt pointed out, the transporter room noise in "The Cage" is quite unique. I had mixed feelings about it over the years. I coupled the heavier noise with the two-man transporter crew as a clear implication that Pike's Enterprise was indeed using significantly "older" technology requiring more manual control. Pike's line about "being responsible for two hundred and three lives" seemed to dovetail into this perception for me; for years, I assumed that older starship specs could only support smaller crews. (Maybe older starship machinery and on-board support services occupied greater internal bulk back in those days)

Does anyone know what changes there were in the transporter room set over the course of TOS, other than the sound FX and control consoles?