Killed by a jealous boyfriend on Rigel VII. Kirk wasn't there to beam him up in the nick of time.
Where's Gary Mitchell?
- Thread starter Praetor
- Start date
I knew someone would be able to work it out.Gary does make a brief cameo in the film...
It's easy to make the "why not everybody else argument", but Mitchell showed up in the first Kirk episode and was sold as a good friend of Kirk's, all the way back to the Academy. Ever since the movie was announced and we started getting details, it's always felt wrong to me that Gary wasn't in it some way. With the writers pulling so much info from novels and behind the scenes stuff, it seems extra wrong that they glossed over Gary. I guess I can always hold out hope for the sequel.
Also see, the Ford Model "A" following the Model "T".
Believe me, there's plenty to nitpick about this movie, but the registry number issue really seems to be reaching.
Or as I call it, the only season of ENT I own on DVD.
That's one more season than I do.
Let's just assume that in the "new timeline" Mitchell's father experienced coitus interruptus and be done with it.
A good point actually, but then I would think it would make his appearance even more poignant by having him appear as an officer outranking Kirk or something like that.
Still just feels odd to give him the old heave-ho like that.
You may be right...
Memory-alpha.org informs us that 'Mitchell was an Academy friend of James T. Kirk, stemming back to the time then-lieutenant Kirk was serving as an instructor and Mitchell was a first-year cadet', so perhaps they haven't met yet. I know, that's grasping for straws... Well, perhaps we'll find out, perhaps we won't. It's hardly ours to decide.
You get this wrong. For me the registry number issue is way, way beyond nitpicking (DON'T MAKE ME START NITPICKING!). It's more or less a running gag, worked over and over again for, how would Austin Powers put it, 'shits and giggles'.
That's three seasons less than I do. Do I have to be ashamed now?
Would be cool if Mitchell was mentioned, hell he might be, we just dont know.
Its a safe bet that he wont be mentioned, but we can hope.
LOL.
Just noticed in that pic that the alien fella next to McCoy is actually on the bridge of the Enterprise in this image...
Its a safe bet that he wont be mentioned, but we can hope.
I knew someone would be able to work it out.Gary does make a brief cameo in the film...
LOL.
Just noticed in that pic that the alien fella next to McCoy is actually on the bridge of the Enterprise in this image...
Just noticed in that pic that the alien fella next to McCoy is actually on the bridge of the Enterprise in this image...
Just for marketing reasons, TPTB behind the Star Trek franchise should do some kind of contest along the lines of Star Wars' 'What's his/her story?' Honestly, when it comes to marketing, Star Trek is still stuck in the late 1980s/early 1990s... Where's a new edition of the encyclopedia? Where are the Incredible Cross-Sections? Where are the Complete Locations? With J.J. Abrams' nuTrek, Star Trek could really be en vogue again!
P.S.
FYI, I don't care much for TrekLit, but I have all Star Trek background info books ever published. That's where the professional historian breaks through, I guess...
Well, in this timeline, Kirk didn't attend the Academy, or command school for that matter, when he did in the "real" timeline.
Kirk met Mitchell when Kirk was a Lieutenant (naval lieutenants are the same as army captains, FYI) and had returned to the academy for his "advanced training" prior to his being permitted to serve in a command position. Mitchell would have been an underclassman, and Kirk would have been his teacher. Mitchell befriended Kirk, and even steered Carol Marcus towards Kirk (all in an effort to get the grim "stack of books with legs" to lighten up a bit).
In the alternate reality timeline, by the time Kirk shows up at the Academy, in the original timeline he would already have spent the better part of a decade on active duty service and would have already served in that teaching role.
In this alternate reality, Mitchell would outrank Kirk, and would probably be serving on some other starship, or perhaps some ground station... but would be utterly and completely unconnected to Kirk in any way. The two simple would never have met.
Of course, this means two things.
First... Mitchell will never be serving on the Enterprise under Kirk (in fact, I strongly suspect that in the new timeline, this movie occurs after WNMHGB would have occurred!) And the chances of Mitchell being hit by the "God-force" in the Galactic Barrier is almost none. So Mitchell will live well past then, and might live to a ripe old age.
Second... Kirk will never have become involved with Carol Marcus. Which means no David Marcus. Which means no Genesis Project... at least, not in any form remotely similar to what we saw in the flicks.
Actually, wouldn't it be interesting if, in this "alternate reality," Mitchell had hooked up with Carol... and started an actual STABLE family life?
I didn't know that memory-alpha.org's 'little blonde lab technician' was actually Carol Marcus!
That's a whole collection of pretty good ideas. Talk about the butterfly effect!
I don't know if Carol is that lab technician. David is born in 2061 and the Kirk/Carol things doesn't sound like a long term thing. Given Mitchell's rank of Lieutenant Commander, it seems like the events at the academy had to happen in the early or mid 50s.
There's no authoritative source to suggest that she is, no.
Gary Mitchell is in the same closet as Mr. Adventure back on Earth.
Just for marketing reasons, TPTB behind the Star Trek franchise should do some kind of contest along the lines of Star Wars' 'What's his/her story?' Honestly, when it comes to marketing, Star Trek is still stuck in the late 1980s/early 1990s... Where's a new edition of the encyclopedia? Where are the Incredible Cross-Sections? Where are the Complete Locations? With J.J. Abrams' nuTrek, Star Trek could really be en vogue again!
P.S.
FYI, I don't care much for TrekLit, but I have all Star Trek background info books ever published. That's where the professional historian breaks through, I guess...
Actually, in our very own TrekLit subforum, those in the know have said that the "non-fiction" Trek books (guides, encyclopedia's) don't sell well enough anymore to justify their printing. It's just too easy to find info online and such.
Though of course it's no substitute for sitting and just browsing through the chronology or something, picking up little bits of info here and there.
Well, I can't provide the quote directly, but I recall that the writer for ST-II wrote Carol based upon that line, so while it's true that it's not "provable," I nevertheless accept it as "author intent" and prefer this explanation as a result.
The issue of timing, ultimately, comes into play when you start thinking about how many years passed between ST-TMP and ST-TWOK. I'm in the camp that says that there were at least five years, and probably closer to ten, between those two films (in-continuity).
Yeah, we have the Okuda/Sternbach Encyclopedia's dates, but even they freely admit that their dates aren't authoritative... if it's not seen on-screen, it's not "canon."
So, At the time of ST-TMP, David would have been about ten years old. At the time of TOS's 5-year-mission beginning, David would have been about five. And at the time that Kirk was teaching at the academy, with the rank of Lieutenant, several years earlier? Is it really hard to accept that it would take five years or so for a Lieutenant to be promoted to Lieutenant Commander, then Commander, then Captain?
That's easy enough to say for 'those in the know', particularly when they have neither pluck nor a vision. Del Rey and DK could just as well have went down burning with their Star Wars books when they first published them over the last decade or so, but they didn't... and what's the difference between Star Wars and Star Trek in this regard - particularly now, with a fresh new start, a renaissance, as it were?
Yeah, but this info has to come from a reliable, officially-sanctioned source. All too often, the internet is full of B.S., cobbled together by some fanboish bungler...
I've always found this argument to be a pretty bogus one, personally, anyway. Yes, if you keep selling new "updates" to the same Encyclopedia (and charging through the nose for glossy paper and other things that don't really add any real "fan value" to the thing anyway!), or publish "The Ferengi Rules of Acquisition" and "Neelix's Cookbook" or whatever... and seem stumped by why the sales fall off... you've got bigger problems.
I remain entirely unconvinced that, if the fans were given something THAT THEY ACTUALLY WANTED, instead of "give 'em anything and put Star Trek on it and they'll buy it.... multiple times," the sales would be just fine.
I stopped buying stuff because there was nothing out there worth buying! If Shane Johnson's "revised Mr. Scott's Guide to the Enterprise," for example, had ever seen the light of day, I'd certainly have bought that, for instance. But I have no desire to buy "Kes's Love Sonets."
And the "you can find information on the 'net" argument falls flat... while someday, published books may REALLY be replaced by some "Kindle-like" device, as of today, physical books are far more flexible and readable... easier to use, etc... and I can read a book ANYWHERE... in bright sunlight at the beach, or using my booklight, in bed, without disturbing my girlfriend who wants to sleep. And every single page is clear, sharp, and easy to read. Even without internet or electricity! WOW... what an innovation!
Rii
Rear Admiral
And the "you can find information on the 'net" argument falls flat... while someday, published books may REALLY be replaced by some "Kindle-like" device, as of today, physical books are far more flexible and readable... easier to use, etc... and I can read a book ANYWHERE... in bright sunlight at the beach, or using my booklight, in bed, without disturbing my girlfriend who wants to sleep. And every single page is clear, sharp, and easy to read. Even without internet or electricity! WOW... what an innovation!
Reminds me of this recent Penny Arcade strip.
