Star Trek -- Season 1 Episode 3 (Where No Man Has Gone Before)

The first season of Star Trek can be a little confusing.  There was a pilot episode that was made, but not used by the network.  It didn’t air until the 1980s, but was incorporated into a two--art episode.  A second pilot was made, but NBC decided to air two other episodes before it.  The episode that first aired was actually the sixth produced.  So, here we are, the third episode to air and it’s actually the second pilot episode.

Captain James T. Kirk (or James R. Kirk, if you prefer) is in command of the Enterprise.  They’ve found a flight recorder for a long-lost ship, the SS Valiant.  Parts are missing, but there are references to a magnetic storm and ESP.  Kirk attempts to take the ship across the galactic barrier to find out what happened, but much of the equipment is knocked out, as are Lt. Cmdr. Gary Mitchell and Dr. Elizabeth Dehner.

Dehner seems no worse for the wear, but Mitchell now has glowing silver eyes.   What’s alarming is that he’s beginning to develop powers like telekinesis and mind reading.  Spock points out that the most logical thing to do is to kill Mitchell while they still can.  Kirk decides to abandon Mitchell on a planet called Delta Vega.   Delta Vega has an automated mining facility for an ore they need, so they’ll have to stop there anyway.

Unfortunately, Dehner begins to change, too.  Kirk realizes that he has to kill Mitchell; it’s too dangerous to leave both of them on the planet where they might have children with superpowers.  (This leads to a fight scene where Mitchell creates a tombstone for one James R. Kirk, hence my earlier comment.)  Both Mitchell and Dehner die, removing any threat of god-like humans ruling the galaxy.

From what I understand, the order in which the episodes aired had to do with NBC preferring episodes with action.  Thus, episodes with good fight scenes got aired first.  The fact that we got two episodes with extremely powerful humans was probably secondary.  (For the sake of simplicity, I’ll be reviewing episodes based on the order in which they aired, as that seems to be the order both Netflix and IMDb have them in.)

The whole aspect of ESP seemed a little odd to me.  Both Dehner and Mitchell have high ratings, but that admittedly doesn’t count for much.  It doesn’t seem that humans have much ESP power compared to other races.  Vulcans would be revealed to be touch telepaths.  The Next Generation would introduce Betazoids and other telepathic species.  Despite all the hype, unaltered humans don’t seem to be capable of that much.

I’d ask why Spock wasn’t affected, but many of the details were still being worked out.  Spock says that one of his ancestors was human.  That ancestor was later revealed to be his mother.  He’s also shown having some emotion, which we’d later learn Vulcan society forbids.

I’ve also wondered where Star Trek got the idea for the galactic barrier.  It was also featured in at least one subsequent episode, so someone thought that there must be something at the Milky Way’s edge that would strongly affect ships.  I don’t know if there’s any actual science to support this or if it was just a nice plot device.  I’m kind of leaning towards the second one.  I’m not sure why such a thing should exist other than to add an element of danger.

I can forgive a lot of the details, as this was the second pilot.  Spock seems less emotional, although does show signs here.  He even admits to feeling for Mitchell.  I’m not sure why Kirk’s middle initial was changed, though.  It may have just been a mistake or maybe there’s some interesting story.

IMDb page

2001: A Space Odyssey -- Putting the Odd Back in Odyssey

Note:  This review was originally posted to my Epinions account.  A few modifications were made here.


I like to think of myself as a reasonably intelligent person. That’s why I’m still thinking about 2001: A Space Odyssey. I can’t quite figure it out. I mean, I was able to follow the story and everything, but it’s one of those movies that you don’t quite get on the first viewing.

It starts out simply enough. It’s the dawn of mankind. With no explanation, this big slab of something appears. The primates that will presumably evolve into modern humans discover it and are curious about it. They are just beginning to realize that not only can they manipulate the world about them, but they can use tools to aid themselves. It’s a significant point in the history of our planet.

All of a sudden, the year is 2000.  (The movie was released in 1968.)  Man is beginning to venture out into space. We have a presence on the moon and a space station between here and there. A man is on his way to the moon to check out this big, mysterious slab of something that was discovered on the moon. (It appears to be the same slab from the primate era.) Again, not much is said about it other than the fact that it had to have been placed there by some sort of extraterrestrial intelligence. Before anyone can analyze it, the sun passes over the slab there’s this strange buzzing noise

Now, it’s 18 months later and there’s a ship bound for Jupiter. There are five men and a computer. Three of the men are in stasis and will be revived once they reach Jupiter. The other two basically run the show with the help of the computer, the HAL 9000, who they simply call HAL. HAL has the programming to sound human and interact with people, but is basically a fancy computer that controls all aspects of the ship. It’s a definite recipe for disaster.

I won’t say too much beyond that mostly because I don’t fully understand the ending. I think I understand what’s going on, but it’s a very odd sequence of events. Basically, we get a spectacular light show and an odd sequence of events.

The use of color in the movie is great. I loved the backgrounds in the primate era. However, the movie isn’t much on dialogue. There are a great many sequences that are mostly silence or background noise. Those that aren’t into this kind of movie will find it boring, and the movie runs for 148 minutes. You’ll find sequences of 10 or 20 minutes with no dialogue whatsoever. However, we do get a very memorable line from this movie: “I’m sorry Dave. I’m afraid I can’t do that.” (If I had to compile a list of the ten best lines, that would be on it.)

There are also a lot of scenes in space that make use of artificial gravity to give us some excellent shots of people walking up walls and into oddly angled staircases. It gives the movie a chance to show off special effects, which were actually done pretty well.

As for the story, the first half is pretty good and easy to follow. The last half gets pretty confusing. There was also this intermission that could have been eliminated from the DVD release. At the very least, it could have ended with the chapter, thus making it easier to skip over. I don’t know if it was included for effect, but all I got was a few minutes of music.

The movie has a G rating due to a lack of anything really offensive and crude, but there are a few scenes of people presumably having been blown out of an airlock. Children also probably won’t understand the movie. Had I watched this when I was 10 years old, much of the movie would have been way beyond anything that I could hope to understand. I still don’t get it all.

It's hard to recommend this movie to people. I honestly can’t see recommending this movie to anyone outside of a film major.  The one thing that it has going for it is that it is a well-known movie and is going to influence cultural references.  I'm not saying that watching it would be a total loss, but I would recommend renting it before you buy it.

 2001: A Space Odyssey - Official Trailer [1968] - HD