Star Trek Rewatch -- Where No Man Has Gone Before

[such_heights]

Captain Kirk worries when his friend, Gary Mitchell, is transformed by the galaxy's edge into a powerful psionic being, endangering the ship, crew and beyond. [Memory Alpha]



We start with a Captain's Log voiceover explaining that they've picked up a distress signal from a ship lost centuries ago.

The first interior shot of the series is of Kirk, Spock, and a 3-D chess board.


The distress signal turns out to be emitting from a small beacon, and Kirk orders it beamed onto the ship.


(hi Scotty!)



It's a ship recorder designed to be ejected in case of emergency, and Spock tries to decipher what he can from the burnt out tapes.



As Spock relays the troubles of the SS Valiant, the Enterprise is approaching the edge of the galaxy.



With tales of peril being narrated by Spock, and deflectors picking up something strange at the galaxy edge, the ship plunges on regardless, which is going to end in tears.



Sparks fly, and two officers on the bridge get hit.



Dr. Elizabeth Dehner, a psychiatrist travelling on the Enterprise to study the crew, and Gary Mitchell, an old friend of Kirk's.





When Kirk rushes to Mitchell's side, it's only to find his eyes have been replaced by Ominous Plot Developments.



Turns out Mitchell and Dehner both had high ESP test scores, as did other crew members who were killed seemingly at random throughout the ship.

In sickbay, Mitchell starts displaying supernatural powers, like reading and retaining information almost instantly.



His behaviour is becoming more and more concerning. Meanwhile, the Enterprise is in dire need of repairs, or it won't make it back to the Earth in the crew's lifetimes.

Spock realises that what's happening to Mitchell must have happened to one of the crew of the Valiant, and that's why the ship was destroyed. Kirk doesn't disagree, but he rejects Spock's notion of killing Mitchell, deciding to maroon him instead.


(hi, Delta Vega!)



Once down there, the crew start making repairs and Mitchell is imprisoned behind a forcefield, growing ever more powerful, threatening, and disconnected from his crewmates.



Mitchell uses his powers to kill Kelso, and when he's left alone with Dehner it turns out she's developed powers too.



They escape, and Mitchell wanders the landscape, transforming it as he goes.



Realising Mitchell has to be stopped, Kirk goes after them.



However, Mitchell's already pretty prepared.



Dehner stays with Mitchell for a time, but then she sides with Kirk and uses her powers against him.





This puts Mitchell and Kirk on more even terms. They fight, and in a stunning turn of events, Kirk gets his shirt torn.



Kirk eventually kills Mitchell by bringing down the rockface that was intended to kill him.



He rushes to Dehner, but he's too late.



When he returns to the Enterprise, he records both Dehner and Mitchell as having given their lives in the performance of their duty.



As Kirk explains that's how he wants Mitchell's service record to end, Spock admits that "I felt for him, too."



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I find it fascinating looking at the show in its infancy - we catch a few glimpses of Sulu, but there's no McCoy or Uhura or Chekov yet. They haven't quite settled on what they're doing with Spock yet. The women wear trousers!

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