Where No Man Has Gone Before

TOS Season 1 Episode 3
Air Date: September 22nd, 1966

This was the official pilot of the series. The original pilot (The Cage) was not aired until the 80's, and was rejected by NBC. They asked Roddenberry to go back and create a second pilot as they did see merit in the show but didn't see the show succeeding with the main character, Captain Christopher Pike. The role was recast and James R Kirk was the new captain of the Enterprise.

The episode starts with the Enterprise getting a distress signal of a ship from 200 years ago that had left our galaxy, something no Earth ship had done yet. The Enterprise heads to the galactic edge and follows the path of the ship where they meet an energy band. This energy band kills 9 crew members and incapacitates 2 others, Lt. Cmdr. Gary Mitchell and Dr Elizabeth Dehner. They were able to escape the energy band but the warp engines were severely damaged.

Lt. Cmdr. Mitchell ended up with silver eyes, and starting showing signs of ESP. Being able to read thoughts, move objects with his mind and even withstand phaser fire. As the old saying goes, "Absolute power corrupting absolutely" and so was true for Mitchell. Eventually Dr. Dehner started gaining these powers too and helped Kirk kill Mitchell before he became too powerful. She died in the conflict herself.

The episode had a high cheese factor but the story was interesting. There were a few things though that felt out of place. There were no red shirts in this episode. Everyone wore gold except for medical staff that wore blue. Though I did notice there were different styles of gold uniforms so there may have been more to it but it is the only episode except the Menagerie that used these uniforms. Also, in all of Star Trek there has never been any indication that the Federation were close to the galaxy edge in any direction. Also, I didn't make a typo with Kirk's name. In the episode, Mitchell creates a grave for Kirk and the tombstone read James R. Kirk.

One part that was interesting is Mitchell makes a comment that during his time at the Academy he had Kirk as a teacher and in order to distract Kirk enough to help him get a good grade, he secretly set him up with a girl. Kirk mentions that he almost married her. I don't know if this gets mentioned again before Star Trek Generations.