Star Trek - Where No Man Has Gone Before

September of 2016 was a fantastic time to be a Star Trek fan, I felt. BBC was giving us the series anew (they still are but no one really was at the time) and this wonderful show (which has its great, good, mediocre, and lousy episodes alike) was celebrating 50 years. 50 years! I remember being a teenager when Star Trek celebrated 25 and Gene Roddenberry had died, with a feeling of what had left us and what lied ahead in the future. Star Trek: The Next Generation was a success (I remember watching Darmok and feeling this mix of melancholy and assurance that the future was indeed bright for Star Trek, while still dwelling on the past with great respect and sadness) and Deep Space Nine was getting there. But as a kid I recall just missing out on seeing The Undiscovered Country in theaters. I wanted so badly to see it. I grew up with this audio recording of The Search for Spock. I had a cassette and an accompanying book of the movie, getting to experience The Search for Spock before audio books were all the rage. After the cassette and book (given to me for my birthday by my aunt…I wonder what happened to them), I had the chance to peruse my uncle’s VHS collection of Star Trek (he ordered them through the mail as part of a video club). It was before I kind of overextended my borrowing privileges, as my uncle lent me a LOT over the late 80s/early 90s. He was more than kind to me. So I borrowed them all, every Star Trek episode, the VHS collection completely in my possession at one point or another. The nostalgia trips do me some good so I take them, especially for the blog from time to time. Perhaps the very first Star Trek episode I ever watched was Where No Man Has Gone Before. Even at an early age I knew that 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) was a big deal, so I can only imagine how easy it was for Star Trek to exploit Lockwood’s involvement in it. I remember reading the back of the VHS box, and sure enough there was 2001 mentioned next to Lockwood’s name. So the episode was a big deal even before I watched it for the first time. It was the first episode I borrowed essentially because of Lockwood’s casting. And Sally Kellerman being in it also was a reason of interest because of her work in an Outer Limits episode (The Bellero Shield (1964)). I used to watch Outer Limits when TNT showed marathons of it. Someday I’ll be able to offer a minor piece on TNT’s influence on my love for sci-fi when I put some write-ups together for the ’77 television series, Logan’s Run. Anyway, last September I did a lot of user reviews for Star Trek which I’ll just cull from my IMDb profile as synopses for here. Not out of laziness as much as I gave a lot of time and energy last year to Star Trek and feel those user reviews are ideal for the blog going forward…

 Classic episode of Star Trek, with a unique history, and stands out like a sore thumb considering its placement within its initial broadcast (after the first two episodes, Man Trap & Charlie X, but made a year before, working as a type of new pilot due to the rejected, expensive "The Cage"), featuring two recognizable faces, Gary Lockwood ("2001: A Space Odyssey") and Sally Kellerman (M*A*S*H) as helmsman and psychiatrist respectively. Fascinating due to its unrefined Bridge on board the Enterprise, the uniforms in how their style and color (representing each officer and their job) clash with the first episodes shown before it and after, McCoy and Uhura missing with Paul Fix as the doctor on board (Fix a fixture in westerns), Sulu not a helmsman, and Paul Carr as a helmsman killed by the episode's villain which is certainly a rarity to see (typically a redshirt extra would suffice). Lockwood as a spirited buddy of Kirk's, having went to "the Academy" with him, the two chatty about matters of the past…until a magnetic field the Enterprise passes through subjects Lockwood to a heightened power due to his ESP, with Kellerman, not as pronounced, later inheriting godlike abilities herself. The "tin foil" colored eyes Lockwood and eventually Kellerman receive as the magnetic field's power grants them unparalleled abilities certainly are eerie. Spock with his eyebrows and different pointed ears, and aggressive vocal tenor certainly differs from what viewers had seen before this episode and afterward, very close in spirit to "The Cage". Lockwood is quite a star here, gaining arrogance and conceited to an alarming degree thanks to the abilities he has opposed to the inferior humans occupying his space. Kirk having to make an agonizing choice regarding a friend he's known since his youth, as the Enterprise approaches a planet to leave him, while using it as a stop to fix damaged systems that occurred thanks to the field that caused this whole mess. Incorporated into the plot is a ship called Valiant that was lost, learned when Spock surveyed a device from the ship with a record of activities that happened before its destruction. You get Lockwood and Kirk engaging in fierce fisticuffs, rock boulders collapsing all around them, Kellerman and Lockwood combating each other with body weakening rays, and Lockwood willing through mere thought Kirk's grave and gravestone to appear. I think as an early draft of the show before Roddenbery and company would flesh it out and give it finer definitition, "Where No Man Has Gone Before" should always remain a treat due to its imperfect but rousing (and still quite smart and thought-provoking) presentation.

To kind of re-iterate, there is just something that stands out about this episode. Whether or not it was the decision to show Where No Man Has Gone Before out of order (it looks like a follow-up to The Cage instead of an episode that would follow Charlie X...), or Deforest Kelley, missing with Paul Fix in his place; this episode sticks out as not just sore, but a bright red, pulsating thumb. I can imagine how jarring and confusing that must have been. Paul Carr, as Kelso, just looks so out of place that his death shouldn't be a surprise. In fact, Carr might as well have worn a red uniform. But, to me, he felt like he belonged in the cast. I could see his death having quite an effect if you had seen him in previous episodes like Man Trap. But because you didn't (though he seems to really stick out while Takei's Sulu and Doohan's Scotty were less significantly featured), even as Kelso really gets plenty of focus in the story, his demise isn't quite a surprise.

Because of Nimoy's different approach with Spock and his slightly different features than what we have come to identify to the character, seeing this peculiar variation on Kirk's #2 also stands out. Especially noticeable is Spock's absolute willingness to just kill Lockwood's Lt Commander Gary Mitchell due to how threatened he feels the Enterprise is. Oh, he has his reasons and Kirk considers them viable. Spock's voice is still a bit aggressive and his expressions a bit less subdued so Where No Man Has Gone Before gives the character a uniqueness that wasn't present previously.

And I guess ultimately the residue of The Cage continues to remain with the construction of the Bridge and the uniforms. It isn't too loud but the remnants of the first pilot still remain. I guess for the reasons listed, this episode just sticks out to me and I dig its peculiarities. Deforest Kelley's absence is the drawback as Fix looks a bit too much like the Old West Town Doc, I guess, and didn't quite fit the Sick Bay Medical Doctor Roddenberry had in mind. I dig Fix in western series I see him, but I agree that Kelley was simply the better choice.