Star Trek Flashback: Where No Man Has Gone Before

The original pilot episode of Star Trek was famously rejected by the network. But in an incredibly rare turn of events, a second pilot was commissioned. The second time around, the series was picked up, and the rest is history. That second pilot that got the job done was "Where No Man Has Gone Before."

When the Enterprise attempts to penetrate the barrier at the edge of the galaxy, the ship is critically damaged. Even more concerning, helm officer Gary Mitchell starts to exhibit strong mental abilities... and an even stronger ego as he begins to regard himself as something different -- and better -- than human. Can he be stopped before it's too late?

Like "The Cage" before it, "Where No Man Has Gone Before" doesn't arrive as fully-formed Star Trek as fans would ultimately come to know it. There's still no Dr. McCoy. Kirk's friend describes him as a "stack of book with legs" who turned away every attempt to set him up on a date. The iconic red shirts still don't exist, with a subtle shade of tan in its place instead. (And even the "gold" is actually a shade of green, as you can see in some moments either when shadows block the blazing studio lights, or a matching color undershirt peeks out beneath the sweater.) The writers haven't decided how human Spock is. (His comment that "one of my ancestors married a human female" would be a truly weird way to talk about your father.)

And yet, this feels a lot closer to classic Star Trek than "The Cage." The familiar theme of godlike powers is here -- filmed before "Charlie X," but oddly aired just one week after. Mitchell's descent into "evil" feel better paced and earned than that similar episode, plus his personal history with Captain Kirk makes it matter more. McCoy may not be here, but the Kirk/Spock/McCoy dynamic is; Spock argues with cold logic that Mitchell must be killed, Doctor Dehner argues for compassion, and Kirk must triangulate his decision between these opposing views. And once he does, he winds up delivering a classic "Kirk speech" at the climax of this episode (ironically, to Dehner).

Of course, some elements of the episode are dated -- some as a product of the time (recordings on "tapes"; lots of unscientific talk about "ESP"), others because the writers could not possibly have known they were making this for the ages (the reference to a love sonnet written on an alien planet in 1996). I do wish the episode had thought to raise the question of whether distrust of a mind reader is a self-fulfilling prophecy -- if they know you're turning against them, won't they inevitably beat you to it? But then, that's a very "cerebral" notion when the network specifically advised them to do a less cerebral story. That's why Kirk chases after Mitchell in the end, kind of for no reason, when he could just let Mitchell go and warp Enterprise out of there. We have to have a climatic physical showdown to please the executives. This episode "understood the assignment," as we'd say today.

Other observations:

• It feels odd to me that so much of this story would hang on two characters fated to die in the end. But the solid performances of guest actors Gary Lockwood and Sally Kellerman go a long way toward making this episode work -- so both deserve a big "thanks for giving us Star Trek" in my book.

• There are stories about how much the silver contact lenses (denoting psychic powers) hurt the actors to wear. And really, they just look like they hurt like hell when you see them here. 

• The tombstone Mitchell creates for Kirk gives his name as "James R. Kirk" (not "T.") -- a contradiction that many fan theories have tried to reconcile in a spectrum of wild ways. (Among the ones I've heard: this one episode somehow takes place in an alternate universe; "R" is short for some nickname that's an in-joke between Kirk and Mitchell.) 

• We get Kirk's first fight-ripped shirt! 

• This is the only time Spock wears command gold. When you see how it looks on camera with his Vulcan makeup color, it's immediately obvious that one or the other has to change.

There's a lot I question about the original air order of Star Trek from 1966. But assuming you'd hung with the show back in the day (there were only two other things you could choose to watch), I think you'd be finding that each episode was an improvement on the one before. I give "Where No Man Has Gone Before" a B-.