Treks and Tangents
A weekly Star Trek watch along podcast, cohosted by a Star Trek newbie who likes to trek off on tangents and a Star Trek expert whose job it is to get the tangents back on trek.
Treks and Tangents
Where No Man Has Gone Before (Star Trek TOS - S1E04)
[Hailing Frequencies Open]
What are the eyes a window to... if the person they belong to has no soul because they are a God?
[End Transmission]
Treks and Tangents - A Star Trek Watchalong Podcast
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[Music] Alien Freaknessy is open and welcome aboard tracks and tangents. I'm your co-host Brian. And I'm your co-host Jackie. I'm a Star Trek newbie who tracks off on tangent. And I'm your Star Trek expert who is here to get the tangents back on track. Each episode we watch and talk about a different Star Trek episode. And this week we watched... Star Trek, the original series season one, Episode three, where no man has gone before. And here we are again. Episode three, technically the fourth episode of our podcast, since the cage episode zero was the first episode of our podcast, which is infuriating as I'm trying to keep all of the numbers and publication titles in check. I keep making it a four. At the start of each episode we like to revisit our TurboLifties or ElevatorPitch from last week. That's where we gave Jackie the title of this week's episode. And Jackie gave her best guesses to what the plot of the episode would be with no other information. And Jackie's guess, I quote, "Well, the moon, hello, no, I'm kidding. Well, the title alone says they are going to head off into some place, or maybe it's going to be like an Amazonian woman conference, and the men have to go tippy-toe to save someone." Jackie, how close were you this week? Yeah, I don't think you, they went some place, I'll give you that. And there is a woman. There is a woman, but yeah, I think you missed the mark this week. Not everyone's perfect. No, and if you were perfect every week, it wouldn't be entertaining. But what did you think of this week's episode, Jackie? I really liked it actually considering last week's bomb of the episode. Yeah, what did you like about it? I liked the, again, I have this weird concept that I am enjoying playing old art and crafts as a bad phrase, but like the original imagination of set creators or art people, and I loved the music. I am, as a musician, this was my most favorite so far. Yeah, definitely, this is different from last week. They actually go somewhere. The entirety of the episode does not take place on the Enterprise. A lot of it does, but they have different sets. They have some very cool special effects. They do some great work with some costume work. I, I really enjoyed the episode as well. It's, it's a good episode. This is one of my better episodes for the season. Do they change, you know, how like in current television, it seems that there's always like a new director or a new person every week behind the scenes doing things, or in Star Trek, is it this like it's Dave from clothing department is making the same costumes, just adding or subtracting sleeves, colors, glitter. You would definitely ask the expert that definitely it's going to be different directors and different writers for each episode. It's not a consistent director. It's not the same writer each and every time. Definitely it's going to be some same people in some of the roles behind the scenes, costumeing, lighting, camera work, and editors and so forth. But directors, writers, they do change from episode to episode. Okay, that makes sense. So you liked the episode? Oh, yeah, last week's up, but this week I, I enjoyed it. Well, without further ado, Jackie, why don't you walk us through the episode? Of course, we got my captain starting out with the, his captain's log, and I still have yet to figure out how exactly he marks time, but it captain's log started 13 12.4. Yeah, I still, I will definitely go out on a limb here without full knowledge and without a complete understanding of how the star dates work in the original series. I will say that there's probably no rhyme or reason. Definitely the star date for this episode is not going to fit with any sort of logical pattern. And I noticed that they have the same format for other things and that will, that I'll talk about in the future. So I think at least the congruency is there, you know, everything's the same. Yeah, there's no consistency with the start aides at this point. So on his, so back to his log. He says the impossible has happened the SS valiant, which was lost some 200 years ago. They have no idea where it went. They finally found distress signals, but I mean, what how? And did they actually go outside the galaxy borders? What happened? Why are we receiving them now? So then we pop into our back room and Spock and Kirk are playing their fabulous 3D chess game. They have new pieces now. Yes, they've somehow recovered more about plugs. It is a different, it is a different set of chess pieces than last week. They didn't get replacements. They just replaced the whole set for this episode. And Kirk is like talking to himself about like why the bridge hasn't called back about why they have the distress calls. And if he has to go find out himself, he will, but Spock is like, just keep playing dude. And he's like, 'cause your next move is checkmate for myself. And I'll point out for consistency one of many inconsistencies. I'm sure that'll get brought up during the episode. Spock is not wearing the traditional science blue uniform. He's wearing a gold or beige color uniform, which would be consistent with command uniforms. One of the one of the inconsistencies it's going to pop up during this episode will cover the reasoning behind the inconsistencies at the very end during our fun facts or triple tidbits for the episode, but we'll point them out along the way as we come to them. And I still have no idea what really the colors mean. So that's probably a lie. I didn't catch it. I just thought, okay, they're wearing the same color. Yeah. And so when Spock is boasting about how he's check mating. Kirk's like, that's so irritating. And Spock just says, that's just the human emotion. You're fine. But oh well. And then finally the transport room is like, it was my man, Mel Kelsow almost called them. Mel so but Kelsow and he said that the someone is coming and the person vessel, whatever it is is less than a meter. Yes, the meter. I'm like, my, what is my other measurement? So well, there shouldn't be that big. So we could bring it on, right? And Kirk's like, yeah, bring it on. Yeah, they're chasing the distress signal. That's why Kirk is so anxious. And he's less focused on the chess game and more waiting for news or an update to this distress signal. They're chasing down the source of the distress signal. They're, I think anticipating running into a human. I think they're anticipating running into the SS valiant and they're not expecting this device that they run into. Yes, because we're back in the transport, we haven't gone back, but in the transport room, this old transmitter arrives and it reminds me of a wood burning stove. And I was like, oh, how cute it wouldn't surprise me if it was a word, a wood burning stove. Oh, that makes sense. But supposedly this transmitter was adjusted when our port valiant became debris. And that tell it has been floating around and finally found its way to the enterprise. Yeah, Kirk describes the device as basically a black box from an airplane and it's designed to be jettison or ejected from a starship when the starship runs into distress to preserve the records of the ship so others can learn what went wrong. And then my wood burning stove black box starts to transmit and beeping and that is when Kirk is alarmed and alerts everybody else in the ship itself and turns on the alarms himself and they all race to the turbo lift. Maybe the first time that I believe in the series that we get a red alert sent throughout the ship, which is funny because it's such an iconic thing that happens over and over throughout star track, but here we are an episode three and they're just getting to it also would like to point out as a spoiler. The probe starting to transmit serves no purpose to the rest of the episode, nothing ever comes of this thing transmitting causing all this panic and for calling for red alert and it shouldn't be a huge surprise to the enterprise that this emergency probe is transmitting. And then it's literally the signal source that they were tracking that brought them to this so again no reason no understanding of why as far as the viewers why this thing transmitting is such a problem but again just a little inconsistency. Well, so we can see all those long strides they take over to the turbo lift that I learned the proper phase for an elevator. Yes, I guess this is reminiscent of the pilot episode of the next generation encounter at far point where we get the extremely long drawn out sequence of watching the enterprise separate into its two sections, but again, it's just a weird reason for this episode in this series to introduce this red alert and get this brief sequence, but I digress. Well, there's a lot of things that they don't explain overall that I've learned the last three episodes, so. And then we get the opening credits that is so short. Yeah, it's like, pupipu pie. Yeah, again, an inconsistency will address. So we're over to our turbo lifts and spot them. Kirk are going down, but then our commander Mitchell, like leaps in is like you guys can't go down without me. Point of order, they're going up. Oh, yeah, even know the whole ship thing. Yeah, technically the bridge is at the very top of the saucer section. So no matter what deck the transporter room is on, they would have to go up the turbo lift to get to the bridge. Oh, that makes sense. So Spock mentions that they're going to this this emergency, but Spock's like we're playing chess and logically. I would have won because he would have played a real connects. Right. This is also the scene where we're introduced to Mr Mitchell, who is the navigator of the enterprise. He's the he would be called the Ensign in other episodes, but he doesn't have the rank of Ensign because they call him commander. Yeah, but his job is pilot. Oh, okay, interesting. And then they get onto the bridge, though, and then Mitchell's like tapping the shoulder of my man, Kelso and moves him over and sits in the seat. Yeah. And he's just he's explaining basically that Kelso that they received this destroyed recorder and Spock is working on how to read its transmission, but he can't the first try. But then he's like, I'll just download the black box part itself. Yeah, there's a weird inconsistency. Where Spock talks about he's trying to extract the data from the backup tapes and the tapes are destroyed. So he's accessing the main database or mainframe. But then he refers back to the tapes that are destroyed. It's this also in the same scene. We get this awkward ship wide announcement that Kirk makes to the rest of the ship with the very cheesy echo sound effect. As he's addressing the rest of the ship, he's his yeoman is also just hovering directly behind him over his shoulder very awkwardly. He doesn't even get her name right. He calls her Jones and she's like Smith right. Okay, nice to meet you. Yeoman's are disposable except yeoman Janis love her not in the episode. I noticed rude neither is a hurrah again rude. Again, we'll address the inconsistencies in the end of the episode. So over that call though, he asked for his department heads to come to the bridge. Does that not normally happen? I would say that it's very out of place for the captain of a starship to summon all of his department heads, quote unquote to the bridge for an impromptu meeting. I would say that it's more consistent that he would have conferences with his department heads, but this would take place in a conference room like we see later in the episode. Okay, like a board. Yeah, again, I think this is done for the benefit of the viewers to be introduced to some of these characters. Right, because we have astro science engineering, my science, who is no longer Dr. McCoy, but his name is Dr. Piper. Yes, like where do he go? And Dr. Piper then introduces a psychiatrist, Dr. Dana, who's also a blonde woman. Like they only have blonde ladies on here because the yeoman's blonde. Yeah. And side note, the women are wearing pant. Yep, hello, and they're Navy. Yep. In an episode past I mentioned that that episode itself was one of the one of two times that you would see female crew members in the original series wearing traditional pants or trouser uniforms instead of skirts. This is going to be the second of two instances. Again, an inconsistency will cover at the end. And so she joined the trip at I'm sorry, she joined the ship at a colony that I'll be there and I know I but you're that close enough. But so it was recent though, so they don't really know who she is. And but she seems to be fantastic at her job, super smart and her main study in the psychiatry area is ESP and Kirk is like, what do you know about it? And she goes on to talk about her marks and school has like, no, no, no, no, what do you know about it? Well, the whole reason that we're talking about ESP is due to what spark discovers in the backup tapes and database for the SS valiant. Yes, because the captain is wanting to know about it because he lost seven of his crew members, but then one of them came back to life at themes. Right. So specifically, there's this weird awkward, I call it awkward, spark is holding an earpiece up to his ears, listening to data from the probe from the opening to the episode. And the timeline is right. They and by day, I mean the SS valiant that sent out the distress signal and the probe is from reached to the quote unquote edge of the galaxy ventured right up to the edge encountered some mysterious force got pushed past the edge of the galaxy. And then as they came back seven crew members died, one came back and then the captain frantically searched the computer database of his own ship for any record of ESP and then all hell seemed to break loose and the captain ordered the self destruct sequence for the SS valiant, which is really so sad because like, why, you know, why would you destroy your own ship unless something bad had happened. And oh, we're going to find out. And this is also when I noticed that Smith leaves Kirk's side and goes to Mitchell's side and they're like holding hands. Well, because skipping a step, everyone tries to figure out what is the next logical course of action. Kirk decides to continue to explore the mystery of the destruction of the SS valiant. So Kirk orders that the enterprise retrace the footsteps of the SS valiant and to proceed beyond the edge of the galaxy quote unquote, which is scary and completely unfounded and new territory, aka where no man has gone before the title of the episode. And yeah, Yom and Smith just comforting him. I think I think Mitchell is comforting. Yom and Smith, but. And doctor Dana is she's like, can I study what everybody does drain this emergency? Oh, and by the way, can I also study what the other crew went through. And she gets all these weird looks from everybody. Yeah, we should also point out that in this whole exchange, it's brought up that as you mentioned, Dr. Dana has some expertise in studying the phenomena of ESP in humans. And she herself has some ESP powers. And by that, I don't mean anything supernatural or super defined. This isn't like she has psychic abilities more along the lines. If she was asked to flip over one card at a time from a deck of playing cards, she would more times than the average person be able to guess or predict what card is being flipped over. That's a good way to describe what they believe to be is ESP in this example in universe. The captain Kirk wants to get go back to the valiant not back to the ship, but why did it be what happened? So he's like, let's go on and at warp speed one, but orp. I have no idea what that means. So can you explain to me what warp factor one means? So on layman's terms, and this is not established at this point in Star Trek. It's established later. Warp factors go from zero, which is it's all based on the speed of light. So okay, in Star Trek, it is possible to travel faster than the speed of light. Warp drive is FTL or faster than light travel. Warp one would be one time faster than the speed of light. Warp 10, which is in most cases in Star Trek, purely hypothetical. They can't travel 10 times faster than the speed of light. But that's about the fastest you'll hear referenced on this scale. So again, it's not established in this episode. They're probably not referencing. We're going to travel one times the speed of light or the speed of light. But that's essentially what they're doing and it's super underwhelming because the orders warp factor one, they punch it and all you see out the view screen is a little bit of movement of the stars. It is certainly not what we see in the previous episode. I think it was the cage where we got the super psychedelic trip where they went faster than light quote unquote. Oh, it's a measurement of speed, not smiles, etc. Yeah, interesting. And while we're looking outside, we have a pink line popping up. And I'm presuming that's the galaxy edge. No, I think it's the force field. Yeah, it's the force field that they encounter. It's not the edge of the galaxy. So it was like a force field to protect them to stay inside where they are or from going outside. No, it's a mysterious force field that they don't ever explain what it is. And then we're revisited. We don't ever talk about it in this episode again. Based on what happens and other ideas. It's been theorized that the force field itself is some kind of manifestation of this is going way far into start track. The intuition of the Q entity either their reality or perhaps what a dead Q manifests when they die, but that's a little weird because in theory, the Q never die. I think it is some kind of manifestation of the Q based on what happens to Mitchell here shortly, but that's just me. I don't necessarily think it's a dead Q or if it is, it is an unrecorded instance of when the Q dies. And we do notice when they're showing the ship in the galaxy that there's a pink line around the planet that they go to Delta Vega. Yeah, I was interesting. I think that's an artistic decision. I think I don't think that has anything to do with this force field. I think it's just artistic choice. I do really enjoy the exterior shot of the enterprise that we get as it ventures into the force field or the enterprise transitioning and flying into this giant purple force. I think that's a really cool shot for television back in the mid 60s. I thought that was just awesome. Me too almost as good as a music. And so the Kirk doesn't really know what to do. So he's like turn on everything the deflectors and the sensors. And then it's just power through it and then spark is confused. It seems because it know nothing is reading Mike, but something is happening to the ship. Yes, like they can't tell what is happening. All those special things that they have to tell them, you know, in a perfect world. But everything should quote unquote be fine. Yeah, otherwise they're visually flying into something that exists, but they get no sensor readings. There's no mass. There's no quote unquote gravity, no magnetic field, no radiation readings, but something is there and something absolutely starts to go haywire on the ship. Because all the panels are exploding, Mitchell is like thrown out of his chair, he gets zapped. Yes. And Dr. Dana even is zapped a bit and falls. I didn't catch her. Zapped, but she falls. I think it's less of a zapped to Dana and a visually less intense. Why I may miss it. It's visually less of an intense zapped to Dr. Dana, then it is to Mitchell foreshored. Mitchell is thrown out of his chair. He's knocked around hard. Mitch, not Mitchell. Dana has just kind of a fainting episode. Right. And Kirk, I'll save the day and go to Mitchell's chair and spark this pushes him out of the lake, because there's a lot of the same thing that happened. I'm presuming. Yeah. And so he continues, you know, manning the fort, I guess the chair. And finally, when they're through sadly, nine people have died. Yeah, kind of first they don't make it through the force field. They turn around and they pull themselves back out of the force field back into the galaxy. Because if they went through the force field, they would have to return back through the force field. Oh, I get it. So I don't know these things. I'm so glad I have you. That's the point of the podcast, but also, yeah, kind of a flip it decision of the captain to just power through a situation that obviously caused something bad to happen to the SS valiant little weird that Kirk would be like, bucket. Let's try it. I'll let you want 200 years later. He assumes his better technology. Sure. Or he's just got a terrible ego, which makes sense for Shatner, but that's beside the point. But yeah, nine are dead from his flip it decision. I mean, it could have been a love and but thankfully, Mitchell and Dr. Dane are okay. But Mitchell has glassy marble eyes now. Yeah, definitely very metallic white glowing eyes. And he did have marks on his forehead, but in the next scene, they're gone. So I'm presuming that's where the just, you know, he hit his head. Yeah. And then we have an admit or an addition to our captain's log and it's 1312.9 and Kirk talks about the chip condition on impulse engines only the powers out. You can't warp. They used to be days away from any kind of earth base. I'm presuming that's like the little station that they can go to. Yeah. And but now they're years away. Yeah, he says years it would be closer to tens of thousands of years because again, the enterprise is now lost the ability to travel faster than light. So picture how far things are in space. If you can't travel faster than light, you're stuck with just traveling the speed of light. And you're trying to make it back across a galaxy. This is now something that will take years. They are walking. Yeah, they don't have a choice. They're going to have to fix the engines. Otherwise, none of them will see civilization again in their lifetime or the lifetime of several generations. That's really scary, but they are on the bridge again and Kirk and Spock are researching Dr. Dana might she's so fantastic. But why is she fantastic? And that's when we learn about all those high scores. When that her parents had ESP she's pretty smart, but then they scooch over to the commander Mitchell and his scores are even higher. His parents are go back six generations of ESP. Yeah, and it's wild and the specific notes that they pull up show that Dana has quote unquote above average ESP ratings and skills. But Mitchell's ratings are the steps and described as exceptional to give the implication that Mitchell has more quote unquote ESP levels than Dr. Dana. And it's like he keeps it to himself or maybe we never really know well before you know everything happens. And I think it's at this point just kind of a background thing that is tested for again, the level of ESP up until this point is just like the ability to correctly guess or predict what card is going to be flipped over in a deck of cards more often than the average person. But it's like likely and unlikely correct it gives someone the ability to get better predictions on something extremely mundane. This would not be a talent or skill that would necessarily provide any benefit or any measurable talent up into now it's like well you're a blonde person. Yeah, and you happen to be able to guess the card being flipped over correctly 20 times in a deck of cards versus the average person who would do five or 10. That makes sense. Dr. Dana does return to the bridge after she's learned that she's been at the autopsy and she notates or tells them that those that died all have ESP abilities and that part of the brain has been burned out. Yes, and she does say that both she and Mitchell are feeling better, but his eyes are still that glassy that glassy shade right. This is also when Spock explains that the other captain was searching on asperers and Dr. Dana gets upset like it's not harmful is just something to again talk about cards. Yeah, specific independent nothing to you know it's just a thing. Yeah, specifically pointing out asperers is what appears to be a term that they're going to use to describe people with elevated ESP talents. Talents is the wrong word I keep using the word talent ESP ratings and they almost make it like a bad thing now because they're like why that catch panels on fire. Why are we unable to fly away like what's we need to answer to these questions. Yeah, Dr. Dana is definitely very defensive against any negative opinions towards someone with an elevated ESP rating or being an asperer. So it takes a personal she is an asperer by definition. Yeah, we're back of a stick Bay, because we want to check on Mitchell. See how he's doing and Kirk of course goes into check on his friend and Mitchell already knows it's him because he doesn't look up he's like what's up, Kirk and like how are you doing your eyes look kind and normal, but they're still super shiny. And then I was like they look like marbles to me, but okay. Yeah, I thought in this scene in the rewatch, I had to remind myself it seemed almost that Mitchell had gone blind, especially because we just had the interaction with him on the bridge and he seemed like he didn't see anything. He's definitely not looking up when Kirk enters, but then he does turn to look at Kirk and the rest of the episode it's very clear that he's not blind. So, Bern a fun fact, part of the reason why some of the way that the actor who plays Mitchell holds his head has to do with the contact lenses that he's wearing for that I effect. He had a hard time seeing through the contact lenses. And then I thought that he was going to lower his head and kind of look out the top of his eyes to be able to see anything. So a lot of the times as you're watching the episode he's lowering his head and he's looking out the top of his eyes. Like someone who's trying to look over the top of their glasses. That's him trying to look past the contacts. And near the end he's kind of looking up to look down. Yeah, I thought that was just part of him being his character. And then he slowly it off very well. Yeah, he did a great job. And I mean you can and at the beginning he was nice and knew that Kirk was the captain, but during this time I can see a change though because he jokes about when they were in the academy. Kirk was a teacher, I'm presuming. I think it was Kirk at a time at the academy where he was an instructor. I think it was less of an instructor and more of Kirk attending graduate programs and courses at the academy while teaching undergraduate courses. I'd have to go back and look. Okay, because he's like joking about manipulating him and throwing this lady at him and Kirk site, dude, I was about to marry her and Mitchell just starts laughing. This is fleshed out in other stories of Star Trek and novels and comic books, but Mitchell in order to get ahead in Kirk's class that he was teaching found a lab technician and kind of played wingman without Kirk knowing and kind of tried to set the two of them up as a way I guess to distract Kirk from performing his teaching duties and making it easier to pass his class. Yeah, and he even talks about he better be good to him, but half of that is just means sounding echo voice and turns, you know, turns a voice grin and ends it with to him, you know, just playing with you. Yeah, and then after Kirk leaves though we see his monitor beeping faster and he's just scrolling through that book he was reading like super, super fast and on the bridge, Spock and Kirk seems to be overseeing like some how they somehow they're able to observe him in sick bay from some kind of camera system. Yeah, and they're like look at all this that's happening and of course Mitchell we can tell that which Mitchell has this ability and he looks right into the screen as he's doing everything and it's super creepy. Yeah, as if he knows he's being observed. And we're back at the sick bay and Dr. Piper finally pops in to check on him and he's you know moving his lovers are leaving us around on that machine with the that reads how he's doing. No, no, no, no, doctor is moving his lovers around the sick bay. He's got any lovers around the sick. Well, he is a nice man and and then he's like, well, I'm glad you're doing well. And so he believes and then Dr. dinner walks in to make sure everything is peachy and Mitchell he's like, look what I can do and starts literally moving his own vital machine up and down. He's specifically changing his he's not manipulating the system the monitor he's changing his own vitals to become elevated and then he uses the same technique to completely flat line his vitals and quote unquote kill himself before he rouses himself. Yeah, she's like you were dead for 22 seconds. Right. And then they discuss like his retention as she tests him like this is page tell me what happens on page 22 and he's like it was written by this starboard on planet in 1996 and he finds it amusing that she that she chose a loves on it. Like, why does that have anything to do with it? It's kind of her estimate. Yeah, it's definitely a weird little scene where Mitchell pulls dinner close after she tests is reading with this loves on it that she chose it random. It's kind of hard to read dinner in her response to this. Mitchell is definitely trying to come on to dinner and she's not really pulling away. She's kind of seems to be scared, but not really again, it's hard to read. I think this is when he finds out that she too. As we learn, yes, that could be so they're like, you know, canoe d'ling. But Kelsa interrupts him on the coffee bait trying to check on his friend and dude Mitchell is mean to him is like, right, don't you have somebody in the fix and sends him out. Yeah, Mitchell warns his friend that there's a problem with the ship's system and then he needs to go check it and his friend doesn't believe him. He's kind of annoying like that's my part, but Mitchell is insistent so his friend backs down says he'll check it and he leaves and doctor dinner asks Mitchell, how did you know that that fact about the ship and Mitchell just says that well, my friend observed that system earlier having a problem but didn't consciously recognize the problem, but I saw from his memory. And back on the bridge, or I'm sorry, not in the bridge, you're actually in a meeting and Kelsa was surprised. Well, he actually knew this. Good thing I fixed it because we won't blow up now, but it's a board meeting of all the heads that we met earlier and they're talking about Mitchell and what to do about him because it's nothing good is really happening. I mean, Spock and Kirk are discussing after they send everyone away, they're discussing options because Mitchell is just becoming worse. He was affected by the electricity from the force field earlier. Yes, and it's either one. We go to the Delta Vega planet as planned because we have to get some lithium batteries and fix up our enterprise. Yep, they need some diracells and hopefully everything fits nicely and then they'll just leave him, but Kirk doesn't want to leave his friend. He's left his friend and spot cast six playing. He's no longer a human. It's only going to get worse as you can see. He was talking about and only a few moments that it's going to be told Mitchell playing around with all of the humans like their mice. Yeah, there's definitely a conversation that Mitchell is getting stronger and stronger and there is going to reach a point where they can't do anything about the problem because they won't be able to overpower Mitchell. He'll be too strong. Spock even goes so far as to say, if marooning him on the Delta Vega planet in this automated mining facility is too cruel of a solution, then we should just kill Mitchell now while we can. So now we've arrived at the planet and it's time to start our plan and they're heading out to their heading to the sick bay to grab Mitchell. And he's like, hmm, I'm thirsty and you see him fill up this paper cup from he's in bed still from water and it floats along and he's drinking his water as the men walk in. Yes, they the crew now all see that Mitchell has expanded his powers and he now has telekinetic powers to move objects with his mind. Mitchell knows something's up he knows that Kirk is worried he knows that Spock is like just killed us dude and let's get this over with he has or it seems he has the ability maybe not to directly read their minds but definitely pick up on the context and general thoughts that they're having. So the men start walking towards him and Mitchell shoots him shoots them all electricity they come back to quote quote wife and attack him again and doctor dinner gives him a sedative or something then he's standing up again and fighting because that wasn't enough and then our dear doctor piper has to give him something else something stronger. During all this time he's just shouting that he's going to be a god they're going to be squished there you can't stop me blah blah blah definitely revealing his inner thoughts and true emotions no longer our dear friend Mitchell no. We're at the transport room they beam down to the planet Delta Vega as they're getting back to human form Kirk forms of kill so about the plan. Like can their plan work per gas about the fail safe plan that he's already devised with him about the little kill switch and they be a new project. Yes specifically Kirk asks if the mining facility can be rigged below as a backup fail safe to kill Mitchell but yes they begin the project of taking the systems from the mining facility to convert and incorporate into the enterprise to fix their warp engines so they can get back to civilization. But they make the mistake of saying all of this in front of i'm saying a faking Mitchell that he subdued in front of this cell like room as they push him in because he can hear everything yeah it's a little weird to me that this completely automated facility that has no human inhabitants this is literally just. Way station for ships to stop by refuel pick up the cargo of the fruits of the mining facility and take it back to civilization why is there a jail cell I didn't know what a jail cell until Mitchell tries to come out and he. So I don't know what other purpose this room has it has a bed it has a mirror and a sink and that's about it it is literally a prison cell on what is supposed to be a facility in a planet with no humans it shouldn't be there and because he hits the force field it drains his whatever power he has in his eyes go back to quote unquote normal. Very briefly Kirk so excited and then yes back to glassy I he goes and dreams are crushed yes I think fully back on the bridge of enterprise the new panels from the planet are fitting like a glove quote quote and everyone is happy and Scotty reports that from the enterprise down to the away team on the planet specifically to Kirk they also all point out. Scotty asks if spot received the laser rifle that he requested and Kirk originally says no and then spot walks around the corner holding this giant laser rifle and Kirk goes wait I guess he did because again spot does not trust Mitchell spot I believe would have been perfectly happy and wanted to kill Mitchell on the enterprise and not deal with any other plan agreed because he's logical not emotional correct. So they're back at his cell and doctor denim is just staring at him and she said this has been like for hours and Kirk tells spot to just gather doctor paper and Kel so in the control room and let's get ready to get out of here we have we have a plan set let's go doctor dinner says she's going to stay with Mitchell she doesn't carry with everybody else is doing in the planet control room. Kelso is saying I'll shoot back to go normal all is great let's go back going and he Molly's talking though he doesn't realize that there is a electrical an electrical cord rising up behind them and getting to strengthen him and he is killed he is choked out and we learn in another scene or two that he is dead and then we jump back to doctor dinner and Kirk and spot and they're all arguing because as you mentioned dinner wants to stay with Mitchell and in and amongst all of that fighting Mitchell's attention comes back to the argument after killing the other crewman with the wire and Mitchell says it's all over you should have killed me while you had the chance and he zaps Kirk and spot unconscious and doctor dinner and he almost walk hand in hand into his own cell and look at each other in the mirror look at themselves in the mirror and that's when we see doctor dinner's eyes turn into that marble glassy shape color doctor piper finally comes down and he finds that Kirk and spot are knocked out unconscious he gives the pill to Kirk and Kirk's like don't give spot this pill until I'm gone as he takes the phaser from him. Yeah, what is this pill? I have no idea it's the first time I've seen anyone eat a smelling salt I have no idea what doctor gives Kirk in this moment but at least it wasn't a giant piece of green candy it probably was candy at this point. But yeah Kirk briefly outlines the plan that he's going to go after doctor Mitchell and doctor doctor Mitchell Mitchell and doctor dinner because at this point they were unconscious they didn't see that doctor dinner had transformed to be like Mitchell. Oh, he says she's a hostage. Yes and so but they know that she's sympathetic toward Mitchell she wanted to stay so not not entirely convinced that she's been kidnapped just going along with him. Anyways, Kirk says he's going to go after them. He tells the doctor piper go ahead and bring spock around after I leave you all get back to the enterprise. If you don't hear from me in 12 hours rush back to civilization with the fixed ship come back and then bombard this planet with radiation so that Mitchell cannot cause any further harm doctor dinner and Gary are walking outside of his cell outside of the buildings they're out in the open. And doctor dinner is like no one can live here. Gary's like, haha specifically for clarification Gary is Mitchell my apologies. Yes, Mitchell and he you know things he's a god and he creates this beautiful oasis and it really is gorgeous and she's like well what about food and I think it's ironic that he makes an apple tree. They're alien apples but he yeah he calls them an apple of some variety and he did like it from that planet I who went but I you know say apple because it's you know I'm an eve they're all by themselves on this planet all alone. And then so he's like I also can see a foolish man wandering around and he calls that to Kirk. Yeah he senses Kirk as Kirk is trying to catch up to them. Mitchell sends doctor dinner out to talk to Kirk so that she could see that he as well as other humans are lower life forms they're unneeded. Why need them so let's get rid of them and Kirk is like no no no no you still have humanity in you so that frail beautiful parts of it. Parts that we also want to keep hidden so don't you know fight it be a human for a little bit longer well he's trying to point out to doctor dinner that. While Mitchell has all of these powers and is proclaiming himself as a god he still is in a human body and so. Mitchell is vulnerable to all the frailties of being human physically he is weak and he has primal instincts that are obviously showing themselves in his interactions with others and so he's trying to reason with dinner to say he's not really a god he's not perfect he is an imperfect being that has been granted all of these powers and he is unpredictable you don't know what he's going to do. You don't know that he's going to share his god thrown with you he says that you're equal until it fits his own agenda to get rid of you i'm glad you got all of that because I I didn't that's why i'm here and so of course Mitchell arrives he's like of course can't send this chick to do a man's job God's job and he stands there but Kirk tries to shoot him with the sphager gun and. He's a gun and literally no effect but but Mitchell's like well it was nice knowing you now it's time for you to die but first you have to pray to me as your God right specifically in this order of sequence he uses his powers he Mitchell starts to shake loose this boulder implying that he's going to crush Kirk with this boulder but then he starts toying with Kirk and playing with Kirk he uses his abilities and powers to. To make an open grave appear next to them and the headstone he creates the headstone that has Kirk's name he then forcibly makes Kirk kneel in front of him to pray as if he is a God all of which is the tipping point for dr denner to show that all of the things Kirk has been saying even up to this point as he's being forced to pray Kirk is begging with dr denner look this is what he is he is not good he needs to be stopped and there's only going to be jealousy and only one God can become of it so dr denner uses her own powers and shoots Mitchell which does make him less powerful and he and Kirk are fighting now specifically also as. So as dr denner uses her abilities to attack Mitchell Mitchell fights back and uses his abilities to attack dr denner and they have a back and forth that is what drains Mitchell I believe is fighting off denners attack oh like in the force field yes and she is just stays laid on the ground as the boys are fighting and then finally Kirk gets him and he uses that grave of his and he. He gets him on the ground inside the grave and shoots because that's when we use our human mind and he shoots the those rocks that he was toying with Mitchell and kills Mitchell with the rock and like lays it over again I want to go to that biblical reference there's like a giant tomb coverage giant rock capstone yeah yeah and then that's when he runs over to dr denner maybe he could save her but no her powers are gone and she succumbs to her injuries and she does say that it was he will never know how close it was to becoming a god like even she was enticed yeah finally back on the enterprise Kirk does mention that we're adding two more casualties both dr denner and command of yeah commander Mitchell and that they died during duty he didn't want to have he didn't want them to be dead disgraced because it wasn't their fault right then spark does admit that he did have you know he was developing nice feelings for Mitchell I don't know that they were nice feelings the spot expresses that he has empathy for Mitchell situation and then there is hope for a spot after all according to Kirk and role credits so Jackie what did you think about season one episode three where no man has gone before I liked much better than see the episode two of course and I I liked how it made you think and obviously as a new be a new person a layman of someone doesn't know anything I had to learn about what I was watching but it makes me want to it looks I'm looking forward to the next episode yeah I like this episode a lot I really like the thought experiment deep in diving into the star Trek lore this idea of what is the actual cause for Mitchell and dr denner's transformation and the transformation of supposedly the crew member on the SS valiant again I mentioned that it might be the spirit of a q and then I'm going to be entering Mitchell or dr denner is it q an alien a q is an alien that we will learn about in the next generation okay is one of my favorite characters is favorite character for a lot of people he's one of the more interesting characters in all of star Trek I believe and he's recurring and he has lots of cameos and he's just an all character but again q can't die none of the q are supposed to be able to die that's actually a plot line of one of the episodes later on in star Trek is what happens when q dies because they're not supposed to die maybe come a pink for film in theory I guess it's on according to if you try to force this story into the rest of star Trek this takes place at the edge of the galaxy so this could very well be an undocumented q or a q that's the birth and is split off from the q continuum and is dead and their death creates this force field anomaly that infects people with high ESP ratings that come in contact with it huge stretch I like the idea and overall this is just a fun episode it's got some great effects it's got a lot of fun music as Jackie mentioned was during the fight scene alone I mean the 10 peneering the kicks yeah and it does have that fight scene so I really like the episode but I do have some trouble tidbits or fun facts for the episode September 22nd 1966 was the original air date for where no man has gone before I mentioned earlier the effect of Mitchell and dr denner's eyes was achieved by contact lenses specifically they took tin foil and they sandwiched it in between two contact lenses with poor people that covered the entire eye they were made by a licensed optatrition that created it and the associate producer that ordered them in conjunction with the optatrition they both extensively tested them over periods of time and it was deemed safe by a doctor to where for short periods of time certainly not day to day use not for multiple hours so it was overseen by a license position for the safety of of the actors so these are like the beginning of today's crazy eye contacts yeah so to address all of the inconsistencies that we mentioned throughout the episode this in fact is one of three secondary pilots that were submitted as ideas to the network to try to get a second chance for star track and this is the pilot episode that the network chose to fund to reshoot to give star track a second chance because it tell so this was actually the second pilot that was filmed it filmed a significant time before it aired on television again they filmed the pilot they brought the pilot back to the network the network had to review it they had to approve it and then order additional episodes to go into full production so it was filmed a full year before it aired on television so this is technically the first star track episode even though it aired out of order that's why there's the inconsistencies they filmed the pilot the television series was picked up by the network then they went back and started filming the other episodes and creating those scenes and redoing some of the uniforms but that is why it is so inconsistent with so many things this show was definitely a labor of love for whoever created it and Gene Roddenberry like what an amazing force of a human he was right wow we mentioned in our very first episode of this podcast when we covered the failed pilot that the set for the bridge of the enterprise was infested with pigeons this time when they filmed this pilot episode it was infested with wasp nest in the rafters of the set William Schatner and Sally Kellerman who played Dr. Denner were both stung during production so there's they had to take a couple breaks in filming to allow those wasp stings to heal couple parts where they only film part or a side of William Schatner's face to kind of try to obscure some of his wasp stings the headstone that Mitchell creates at the head of the grave at the end of the episode for Kirk initially showed the middle initial for Kirk as are later in star track this would change to the letter T his official name middle name is type yes again the pilot episode it's another inconsistency that changed when the series was picked up the phaser rifle that we see requested by Spock and later used by captain Kirk later sold at auction for $615,000 this episode both a body count of 12 you have the nine crew members that died when they first go into the force field you have the crew man that is choked to death by the power cable on the planet rip Kelso and then you have Mitchell and doctor denner so this is the highest body count so far in star track for enterprise crew members and finally in the nineteen sixties esp was actually seriously believed by many to be a true phenomenon and an actual thing that people possessed of course studies sense have proved or at least studies have failed to produce any serious evidence that this is actually a phenomenon that can take place and those are your triple tidbits interesting and to round out the episode this week we will give this episode our ranking we rank each episode based on our own unique system where we have our fictitious starship that represents this season of star track and each episode gets assigned a literal rank that represents a member of the crew a higher ranked episode means that not only found it more entertaining and we liked it but it's more of an important member of our starship for the season a lower rank episode means we didn't like the episode so much but also it's a more disposable episode for our starship we have five ranks captain commander lieutenant commander lieutenant and lieutenant junior grade representing roughly a scale of one to ten we also have a top rank of admiral which is a ten plus out of ten the perfect episode a keystone episode and then we have our fun rank of at and sin which is zero out of ten which is a terrible I'm talking of which last week's episode Charlie X Jackie gave that a ranking of and sin which is zero out of ten I gave Charlie X a rank of lieutenant junior grade which would be like a two or three out of ten Jackie what ranking would you give this week's no man has gone before I am going with the good old lieutenant commander lieutenant commander which is I would say about middle of the road slightly above middle of the road we only are going to allow ten total episodes to hold the rank of lieutenant commander is an officer so that would be about a six to seven out of ten why do you give it that ranking well like I said I love the music you told me about the poor ten foil people eyes so yes but I learned a lot there was a lot of interaction we were instead of jumping around from seen to seen it was like a hop and I was able to keep up with what I was watching and but only with a little bit of help that I need to understand more and what held this episode back for you why not a higher ranking. I mean also probably not a higher ranking also because again I even though I got to learn things if this was supposed to be the pilot that you now that you told us I would have had no idea and I probably would wanted would not want to watch the next episode there enough last week I gave Charlie X a lieutenant junior grade or two or three out of ten I'm going to go ahead and give this episode a lieutenant commander rating as well just like Jackie I really enjoyed this is a pilot I think they really found their stride in filming this pilot episode it had a compelling storyline the pacing was excellent great special effects fantastic moment seeing the enterprise flying to the force field that's probably one of the most beautiful scenes in the early star track this is my opinion so much color so much color what's holding it back for me is some plot whole points again they beam the distress beacon from the SS valiant onto the ship and it starts transmitting and they all freak out but again there's no reason for them to freak out there's also a question of if Mitchell has all of these powers why would the possibility of marooning him on that planet be an absolute solution to keep him on the planet his power is going to continue to grow and grow and grow wouldn't it be believable that he somehow would create enough power to get himself off the planet it's also mentioned by Kirk that there are these cargo ships that stop at Delta Vega to refuel pick up the fuel that the automated mining system has created so and they stop every 20 years or so again Mitchell proves that he has enough power to create food out of nothing he could easily survive for 20 years and hijack one of those cargo ships and of course the biggest plot hole point for me was never coming back to try to give any explanation to what the force field is at the edge of the galaxy that creates this whole phenomenon to begin with is it a dead cue is it something else we don't know we never find out so I think there was some room to expand on it but again I understand it's a pilot I just think that those plot holes hold the episode back from ranking higher for me so again just like Jackie lieutenant commanders going to be my rank a six or seven out of ten looking at IMDB as of this recording it is seven point seven out of ten we'll be back next week to track through another episode but before we go we're going to give our turbo lift to the turbo lift T's or elevator pitch to next week's episode I'm going to give Jackie the title of next week's episode and Jackie with no other information and never seeing the episode before is going to give her brief pitch or guess to the plot I may have spoke too soon Jackie next week's episode is entitled the naked time time is in T H Y M E or time as in what you think it is T I M E the naked time keep in mind we're not trying to get canceled I'm going to say that the naked time is literally time my the passing of it it's A to Z to you know biological clock naked time all right and we'll see next week how close or accurate you are with your guess these titles are weird yeah if you want more show information you can find and directly support our podcast on patreon at patreon dot com slash trex and tangents you can also follow us on X at trex underscore tangents we're also on instagram and blue sky at trex and tangents Jackie working people find you in what you're up to well I'm very excited I am read vamping or up in my glitter pity designs Instagram I have been making dog necklaces forever and now with this this love boo boo craze that I'm on I have adjusted to make love boo boo jewelry family excited about that lately and of course I have my normal just the regular old to boom where I have my music weight loss cloak how to just for that size and make up everything is super fun and you can watch me stream a variety of video games over at twitch dot tv slash pirate pound town on youtube I post video game and other pop culture random content on my main channel at pirate pound town you can also find me posting coin collecting and hobby content over at my secondary channel pirate treasure hunting also on youtube I post socially on blue sky at pirate pound town and finally I can be found on instagram under pineapple cannibal because I am proudly banned from instagram as pirate pound links to all social media mentioned can be found in the episode description thank you everyone for tuning into this episode we hope you had fun like we did we will see you all next week don't forget that phase your home and transmission(soft music)