Star Trek TOS: Episode 3 - WHERE NO MAN HAS GONE BEFORE

"After the Enterprise attempts to cross the Great Barrier at the edge of the galaxy, crew members Gary Mitchell and Elizabeth Dehner develop "godlike" psychic powers which threaten the safety of the crew."

This is one of my favorites. And I'm annoyed that I didn't watch this after The Cage because technically this is the Pilot episode, but it was aired on TV as the 2nd episode. Some things are a bit off, like the uniform shirt colors (only yellow and blue ... and yellowish orange or something), also there is an issue with the doctor. The deal is that McCoy is not there. Instead we have an elderly doctor named Piper and a female doctor named Dehner. Now, because I'm crazy and I had to rationalize this or else it would annoy the hell out of me, I figured that the ship probably has a few doctors. They could be on different decks etc, having one doctor for an entire starship seems crazy. For this episode I imagine that McCoy is working a different shift or something. Hmm, yes this makes me feel better.

Now the fact that they made this woman a doctor and not a nurse, is rather noteworthy. I'm sure in the 60's woman doctors were very rare.  And this woman is beautiful. TOS typically uses slutty looking 60's go-go girls, but Dr. Dehner is just very beautiful. With good reason because she is played by a very young Hot-Lips Houlihan.

After going through the great barrier, the Enterprise encounters the recording system for the Valient. After listening to it, they find out that the ship was self destructed. Suddenly the ship is hit by some kind of energy field, Helmsman Gary Mitchell and Dr. Dehner are knocked out. Mitchell awakens with weird looking eyes and telekinetic powers. I like Mitchell as a character, he's generally likable ... except when he's trying to take of the universe. He's played by Gary Lockwood, who is Dr. Poole from 2001: A Space Odyssey. Overall acting in this episode is an A+.

This episode shows humanities willingness to play God ... like Jim Caviezel. Gary Mitchell takes these new found powers and attempts to become God. Meanwhile Dr. Dehner aquires the same powers but it is hesitant on abusing them. This shows that not all humanity is bad, and we even see a glimpse of Gary's villinous side earlier in the episode. He tells Kirk of a rather mean practical joke that Gary himself played on Jim back at the academy. Clearly these two are old friends because they are on a first name basis, even on the bridge. But Gary is a helmsman and Kirk the captain, maybe Mitchell is jealous.


After fleeing to a planet, Kirk confronts Gary (with the help of Dehmer). Mitchell shows Kirk his own grave (complete with incorrect tombstone, I guess Gary's not as smart as he thinks). Kirk has a great line, telling Mitchell "absolute power will corrupt absolutely". Finally the Captain traps Gary in the grave by causing an avalanche ... but is he dead? Who knows. But, Dr. Dehner dies.

Kirk's shirt rips during the fight scene with Gary Mitchell, but in various scenes it is suddenly not ripped at all. Classic production mistake. Another thing about these shirts, they are way too short. Every time a guy lifts his arms I see their stomach and underwear. Seriously. So anyway, great stuff. William Shatner's acting is wonderful in this episode.I just don't get why they would air this episode 2nd, people just watched an episode in which McCoy was the main character ... and now he's gone???


ST TOS COUNTDOWN: 4 down 76 to go

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