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Science Fiction » alt.startrek » TOS Recap: Where No Man Has Gone Before, part 1 of 4
TOS Recap: Where No Man Has Gone Before, part 1 of 4 [message #180285] Mo, 19 Dezember 2005 21:43
Empok Nor  
This is the second in a series of recaps of the original Star Trek
episodes. Today's selection: the second pilot, "Where No Man Has Gone
Before" by Samuel A. Peeples. Our story opens some time in 1965, when
the suits at NBC, having rejected Gene Roddenberry's pilot episode for
his Star Trek series, decide to have him make a second pilot. In an
unusual moment of candor, the suits admit that they were the ones who
chose "The Cage" story, so it's not really GR's fault that the
resulting pilot is so "cerebral" (ie intelligent). The suits draw up a
laundry list of changes to the series concept, rejecting most of the
cast and asking in particular that the half-alien character Mr. Spock,
with his Satanic pointed ears and upswept eyebrows, be dropped from the
series. GR agrees to the rest of the suggested changes, but balks at
losing Spock, and eventually he prevails. When Jeffrey Hunter turns
down the role of the captain, it is (according to Wikipedia) also
turned down by Jack Lord before being given to William Shatner. With a
new actor playing the role, the character was renamed James Kirk. Mr.
Spock is moved up a place in rank to first officer, and will be played
again by Leonard Nimoy.

To make sure there's no repetition of the cerebral story fiasco, the
suits ask Desilu to produce three complete shooting scripts for the
second pilot. GR, Desilu and NBC get together and agree to hire two
freelance writers, Samuel A. Peeples and Stephen Kandel, to produce two
of the scripts, while GR himself will write the third. By early June
the three scripts are ready: "Where No Man Has Gone Before" by Peeples,
"Mudd's Women" by Kandel, and "The Omega Glory" by GR. The suits
choose the first, and production is slated to begin on 5 July 1965.

Art director Matt Jeffries calculates that the starship Enterprise is
947 feet in length, rather more than his original estimate, and the
ship's crew complement is boosted from 203 to 430. The remaining
characters in the second pilot are finalized, and actors are chosen to
play them. . Doctor Philip Boyce is changed to Doctor Mark Piper,
played by Paul Fix. Yeoman Colt is changed to Yeoman Smith, played by
Andrea Dromm. The nameless communications officer is given the name
Alden, and will be played by Lloyd Haynes. Two other new regulars will
be chief engineer Scott, who will be played by James Doohan, and
astrophysicist Sulu, who will be played by George Takei. Three guest
stars will be Gary Lockwood, playing navigator Gary Mitchell; Paul
Carr, playing helmsman Lee Kelso; and Sally Kellerman, playing
psychologist Dr. Elizabeth Dehner.

There had been four Enterprise sets built for the first pilot: the
bridge, the corridor, the transporter room, and the briefing room,
which with suitable redressing doubled as the captain's cabin. For the
second pilot, they also build a sickbay set. James Goldstone is chosen
to direct, and filming of "Where No Man Has Gone Before" begins on 19
July 1965.

****************************

TEASER

A starscape, with the Enterprise approaching the viewer. A piece of
background music that we can call the Enterprise theme is playing. We
hear the voice of Captain Kirk: "Captain's log, stardate thirteen
twelve point four. The impossible has happened." This is the first
recorded use of the "captain's log" device for providing exposition,
and also the first use of stardates. Stardates allowed GR to give a
sense of the passage of time on the show without being tied down to an
actual time period for the show's setting. After the show's run ended,
it was decided that the series had been set in the 23rd century, but
this wasn't established at the time. In the Star Trek Concordance, Bjo
Trimble sets the original series in the 22nd century.

Cut to an Enterprise-view of the space ahead, as stars drift by.
Kirk's voice continues: "From directly ahead, we're picking up a
recorded distress signal, the call letters of a vessel which has been
missing for over two centuries." We pull back to reveal that the
starscape is on a monitor screen being watched by Kirk and Spock as
they play three-dimensional chess in the briefing room. According to
Stephen E. Whitfield in The Making of Star Trek, this scene was
originally set in Kirk's cabin, but was changed to the briefing room to
save money (there were other scenes set in the briefing room, but no
other scenes set in Kirk's cabin, so changing the setting of this scene
meant one less set to dress and light).

Kirk's voice continues: "Did another Earth ship probe out of the galaxy
as we intend to do? What happened to it out there? Is this some
warning they've left behind?" Kirk, Spock, and the crewmen watching
them are all dressed in the same uniforms worn by the crew in the first
pilot. Kirk and Spock are wearing muted gold tunics and black pants.
Both have the starburst command insignia. According to The Making of
Star Trek, this scene was the first to be filmed.

Kirk is watching the monitor. "Your move, captain," says Spock.

Kirk's mind is definitely not on the game. "Should have intercepted by
now," says Kirk. "Bridge said they'd call."

"I'll have you checkmated your next move," Spock observes.

That's enough to get Kirk's attention. He turns back to Spock, laughs,
and says, "Have I ever mentioned you play a very irritating game of
chess, Mr. Spock?"

Spock looks momentarily puzzled, then brightens. "Irritating? Ah,
yes, one of your Earth emotions."

Still smiling, Kirk moves a bishop up a couple of levels. Spock's look
of smug superiority transforms into dismay. He's not quite as
emotional as he was in the first pilot, but he's still not quite the
stoic Vulcan of legend.

A grinning Kirk says, "Certain you don't know what irritation is?"

Still looking unhappily at the bishop, Spock says, "In fact, one of my
ancestors married a human female." If you look behind Spock as he says
this, you can see a woman wearing the same red sleeveless top and
pleated white miniskirt who passed Captain Pike in the corridor in the
first pilot. Man, you'd think she would have gotten a new outfit in
eleven years.

"Terrible, having bad blood like that," says Kirk.

Any further comments Kirk might have chosen to make are interrupted by
a comm whistle. "Bridge to briefing lounge," says Lee Kelso, in a
muted peach tunic. Oddly, he has that round insignia that would later
be science and medical, but is evidently engineering and support
services here, since everyone in a peach tunic has one. The monitor
switches to a view of Kelso sitting at the helm console on the bridge.
We can see that the bridge is rather more colorful than it was in the
first pilot, with the rails, turbolift doors, and helm-navigation
console trimmed in red. Also, the video monitors on the gooseneck
mounts are gone from the helm and navigation. "Object is now within
tractor beam range."

"No visual contact, Mr. Kelso?" asks Kirk.

"No, sir," Kelso answers. "Too small to be a vessel. Only reads about
one meter in diameter." A surprising use of the metric system, here.
This is 1965 after all.

"Not large enough even for a lifeboat," Spock observes.

"Small enough to bring it aboard, sir, if you want to risk it," says
Kelso.

"Lock on to it, Mr. Kelso," says Kirk. He and Spock rise from the
table and head for the exit.

*************************

Close-up on the transporter console as a pair of hands in muted peach
work the controls. We pull back to reveal that the hands belong to Mr.
Scott. Kirk and Spock are already in the transporter room.
"Materializer ready, sir," says Scott. As with the helm-navigation
console on the bridge, the transporter console is now red with a gray
top, and no longer has any video monitors on gooseneck mounts. (As the
Okudas note in the DVD commentary, this is because the transporter
console was the helm-navigation console. As they also note, there are
no slide controls.) The wall to the left of the transporter stage has
a large display of a spiral galaxy.

"Bring it aboard," orders Kirk. This, GR thinks, is going to be the
viewing audience's introduction to the transporter. We hear a rising
hum, the transporter stage lights up, and with the familiar sparkle and
materialization sound, we see a tapering cylindrical object appear. It
has a dome on top, and stands on three legs, and looks like it's seen
some action. The name VALIANT can be made out on the top.

"Old style ship recorder," Kirk notes. "It could be ejected when
something threatened the ship."

"More like destroyed the ship in this case," says Spock. "Look at it:
burnt, pitted."

"Let's hope its tapes are intact," says Kirk. To Scott he says, "We'll
feed it through Mr. Spock's computer."

"Yes, sir," says Scott.

The dome on the recorder begins flashing. "It's begun transmitting,
sir," says Scott, accompanied by a dramatic sting.

"Flash to bridge," says Kirk decisively. "Put all decks on the alert."

As Kirk and Spock emerge into the corridor from the transporter room
(there's a sign above the doorway that says TRANSPORTER), the alert
alarm sounds, a single rising tone that's much more authoritative than
the wimpy two-tone alert we heard in the first pilot. We pan left as
Kirk and Spock make their way down the corridor, then cut to a flashing
red light as a dramatic version of the Enterprise theme ushers us out
of the teaser and into the

OPENING CREDITS

The opening notes of Alexander Courage's title theme. The Enterprise
comes into view from the left and passes on the right as the first
dramatic sting sounds. Cut to a view of a distant red planet as the
Enterprise passes by on the left and heads toward it. Shot of the
Enterprise orbiting the red planet. As the second dramatic sting
sounds, we cut to a shot of space as the Enterprise flashes silently
past. The synthesizer version of the title theme plays as the words
STAR TREK come up in the familiar angular font. Another silently
zooming Enterprise heralds the words STARRING WILLIAM SHATNER. Yet
another silently zooming Enterprise brings us the words LEONARD NIMOY
AS MR. SPOCK as the title theme ends.

***************************

ACT ONE

The Enterprise passes from left to right as the words "WHERE NO MAN HAS
GONE BEFORE" appear. Cut to a shot of the corridor as crewmen pass
back and forth. Cut to an overhead view of a turbolift door as Kirk
and Spock enter. Just as the doors are about to close a third man, in
a peach tunic, dashes in, saying, "Hold it, Jim."

Cut to the interior of the turbolift as the doors close. The man in
the peach tunic is Gary Mitchell. A smiling Kirk says to him, "Getting
into shape?"

"Yeah, well, I figured you weren't on the bridge," Mitchell responds.
"Kelso's voice sounded a little nervous." Something I never noticed
before: as the turbolift starts rising, the camera drops ever so
slightly, adding to the impression that the lift is rising. A nice
touch from Goldstone. Turning to Spock, Mitchell adds, "Well, uh, you
finish the game?"

Spock nods. "He played most illogically. His next move should have
been the rook." Kirk grins and makes a throat-cutting gesture
accompanied by a shhhk noise. Note that this is Mr. Spock's first ever
reference to logic.

The turbolift doors open onto the bridge. Yeoman Smith is standing to
the left of the turbolift holding a computer tape. Kelso is seated at
the helm console. A crewman in a blue tunic (a black man, btw) enters
the lift from the left.

Mitchell steps up to the navigation console and says, "You're relieved,
Mr. Alden."

"Acknowledged, Mr. Mitchell," says a blue-tunicked Alden. According to
Michael Jan Friedman's "My Brother's Keeper" trilogy, Alden's first
name is Daniel. Alden's insignia is the gearwork "e" that would later
be the engineering symbol; everyone in a blue tunic has it. Alden
moves to the communications console as Yeoman Smith follows Kirk to the
captain's chair. Kelso smiles at Mitchell.

"Screen on," says Kirk as he sits. Shot of Kelso flipping a switch,
then a shot of the main viewscreen over the shoulders of Kirk, Kelso
and Mitchell. As in the first pilot, the main viewscreen has rounded
corners and flashing lights above it rather than below. The screen
comes on, revealing stars.

"Screen on," Kelso acknowledges.

Kirk, with Smith standing behind him, glances to his left. The
helm-navigation console no longer has the gooseneck-mounted monitors it
had in "The Cage", but the other stations do, as does the captain's
chair. We see Spock at his library computer station, listening to the
signal from the recorder. Another shot of Kirk, then one of Kelso as
he says, "Approaching galaxy edge, sir."

"Neutralize warp, Mr. Mitchell," Kirk orders. "Hold this position."

Mitchell works his console. A shot of the viewscreen as the stars slow
to a stop. We hear Mitchell say, "Neutralize warp, sir." A bit of
treknobabble that didn't make it into the regular series.

"Address intercraft," says Kirk.

Mitchell waves his hand over his console, producing a transporter-like
bleep, and says, "Intercraft open." The navigator opened intercraft in
the first pilot, too. A nice bit of continuity.

"This is the captain speaking," says a reverbed Kirk. "The object we
encountered was a ship's disaster recorder, apparently ejected from the
S.S. Valiant almost two hundred years ago."

"Tapes are burnt," says Spock. "Now trying the memory banks."

"We hope to learn from the recorder what the Valiant was doing here and
what destroyed the vessel," Kirk continues on intercraft. Behind him,
the turbolift doors open to reveal Doctors Piper and Dehner, Mr. Sulu
and Mr. Scott. The first three are wearing blue tunics. "We'll move
out into our probe as soon as we have those answers. All decks stand
by."

Mitchell turns and explains, "Our department heads, sir. You wanted
everybody on the bridge before we left the galaxy." It would have made
more sense for Kirk et al to meet in the briefing room, but
dramatically that would have interrupted the momentum that's building
for the big probe into the intergalactic void.

Kirk turns and looks at his department heads, then rises from his
chair. Finding Yeoman Smith in his way, he says, "Uh, Jones?"

"Name's Smith, sir." Kirk gestures for her to get out of his way
(well, I guess it beats bumping into her, like Pike did), then goes up
to join the department heads.

"Astro-sciences standing by," says Sulu.

"Engineering division ready as always," says Scott with a slight smile,
which Kirk returns.

"Life sciences ready, sir," says Piper. "This is Doctor Dehner, who
joined the ship at the Aldebaran colony." (Wikipedia notes that
Aldebaran is a red giant star in the constellation Taurus, spectral
type K5 III, and that it is 65.1 light years from Earth.)

"Psychiatry, captain," Dehner amplifies. "My assignment is to study
crew reactions in emergency conditions."

We hear a beeping sound coming from Spock's station. "Getting
something from the recorder now," says Spock.

Kirk joins Spock at his station, and Dehner follows him, saying, "If
there was an emergency, I'd be interested in how that crew reacted,
too."

Mitchell says, " 'We're improving the breed', doctor, is that your
line?" You know, even without any super mental powers, he's kind of an
asshole.

"I've heard that's more your specialty, Commander," Dehner responds
with a malicious smile. "Line included." Ouch!

Mitchell, confirming his asshole status, turns to Kelso and says,
"Walking freezer unit."

"Decoding memory banks," says Spock. "I'll try to interpolate." Mr.
Spock's ability to discern the information in the recorder by listening
to its beeps has been compared to reading a teletype message by
listening to it print out. "Valiant had encountered a magnetic space
storm and was being swept in this direction."

"The old impulse engines weren't strong enough," Kirk notes.

"Swept past this point about a half light year out of the galaxy,"
Spock continues. "They were thrown clear, turned, and headed back into
the galaxy here." (A fuller account of the Valiant's last days can be
found in Michael Jan Friedman's Next Generation novel The Valiant.)

"I'm not getting it all," says Spock, "the tapes are badly burnt.
Sounds like the ship had encountered some unknown force." Spock
pauses, and we see shots of Kirk and Alden listening attentively. "Now
orders, counter-orders. Repeated urgent requests for information from
the ship's computer records for anything concerning ESP in human
beings."

"Extra-sensory perception?" says Kirk. Spock nods. Kirk turns to his
department heads and calls, "Dr. Dehner." A psychiatrist! Boy, talk
about your lucky coincidences! "How are you on ESP?"

Dehner says, "In tests I've taken my ESP rated rather high." It's a
bit of necessary foreshadowing, but Dehner misunderstanding what Kirk
wants makes her sound dense.

"I'm asking what you know about ESP," Kirk clarifies. Also, we need
some exposition for the audience.

"It is a fact," Dehner exposits, "that some people can sense future
happenings, read the backs of playing cards, and so on." By an
interesting coincidence, playing cards also play a minor role in
Kandel's script for "Mudd's Women". "But the esper capacity is always
quite limited."

"Severe damage," Spock relays from the recorder. "Seven crewmen dead.
No, make that six. One crewman seemed to have recovered." Recovered
from being dead? That's never a good thing. "That's when they became
interested in extra-sensory perception. More than interested, almost
frantic about it." Another pause, while we glance at the department
heads standing in front of the turbolift doors. "No," Spock finally
says, "this must be garbled. I get something about 'destruct'." A
musical sting. Spock continues, "I must have read it wrong. It
sounded like the captain giving an order to destroy his own ship."
More dramatic music, accompanied by shots of Mitchell, the department
heads, then back to Kirk and Spock.

We pan right as Kirk crosses back to the department heads. "Comments?"
he says to them.

"The only fact we have for sure is that the S.S. Valiant was
destroyed," says Piper.

Kirk nods and says, "That's probably the best argument to continue the
probe. Other vessels will be heading out here someday and they'll have
to know what they'll be facing." Seating himself in the captain's
chair, Kirk announces, "We're leaving the galaxy, Mr. Mitchell. Ahead
warp factor one."

Mitchell operates his console, and we hear the engines ramping up. On
the viewscreen, the last few stars pass out of view. More shots of
crewmembers looking at the screen. Back to the screen, where we see a
shifting reddish haze. The energy barrier theme plays.

"Forcefield of some kind," announces Spock.

"We're coming up on it fast," says Mitchell.

Kirk glances at Spock, who calls out, "Sensor beam on."

"Sensor beam on, sir," acknowledges Kelso.

"Deflectors full intensity," calls Spock.

"Deflectors full intensity," acknowledges Kelso.

Another shot of a concerned-looking Kirk. Another shot of the
ever-growing reddish haze.

"Deflectors say there's something there, sensors say there isn't,"
Spock calls out. Nimoy has since acknowledged that his loud readings
of Spock's lines here were a mistake. "Density negative. Radiation
negative. Energy negative."

"Whatever it is," Kelso says, "contact in twelve seconds." As an
aside, I'll note that Kelso makes this statement eight minutes and
forty-eight seconds into the episode.

Shot of Mitchell taking hold of Smith's hand. Hmmmm. I guess Dr.
Dehner wasn't kidding about Mitchell's efforts to "improve the breed",
one female crewmember at a time.

Shot of the Enterprise approaching the swirling red haze. The
Enterprise theme joins the energy barrier theme.

Wide angle shot of the bridge. Mitchell is still holding Smith's hand.
At 9:05 the engines start to slow down. At 9:07 the bridge lights
flicker and go dim.

Shot of the shifting red haze filling the viewscreen.

At 9:20 the first sparks start flying. "Gravitation on automatic,"
Kirk orders.

At 9:31 the first console blows up. It's the one just to the left of
the main viewscreen. (According to Franz Joseph's Starfleet Technical
Manual, this is the Engineering Sub-Systems Monitor.)

At 9:32 a second console goes up, this one is second to the left of
Spock's station. (Per Joseph, the Defense and Weapons Station.)
"Emergency stations," Kirk orders. "All decks at fire alert."

More sparks are flying. "Neutralize controls," Kirk orders. "Kelso,
put it on manual."

9:43: shot of Kelso waving smoke away from the helm console.

Kirk turns to Spock. "Any radiation? Anything?"

"Negative."

The department heads are standing there, watching the mayhem around
them.

"Helmsman," Kirk shouts, "take us out of here!"

Shot of Mitchell, who is still holding Smith's hand.

Shot of the viewscreen, showing the swirling haze turning yellow.

9:51: shot of Dehner getting zapped. Scott grabs her as she falls
over.

9:56: shot of Mitchell getting zapped. His hand comes loose from
Smith's as he falls to the deck.

"Mitch!" Kelso calls to Mitchell.

"Helmsman!" Kirk calls to Kelso as he takes Mitchell's place. "Lateral
power!"

Spock crosses to the navigation console and replaces Kirk there.

Shot of the Enterprise as she heads out of the energy barrier.

Shot of the bridge. Sulu is hanging on for dear life to the railing.
Spock and Kelso are struggling with their controls. Kirk steps up next
to Spock and orders, "Take damage reports."

"Damage control reports, all stations," Spock calls out.

As the faint voices of damage control reports make themselves heard,
Kirk joins Scott and Sulu as they assist Dehner. "Something . . . hit
me," she says. "Like an electrical charge."

Piper joins them, nods toward Mitchell. "He's alive. Appears to be in
shock."

As Kirk passes by navigation Spock arrests him with a hand on his arm
and says, "Main engines are out, sir. We're on emergency power cells.
Casualties, nine dead."

Kirk kneels down next to Yeoman Smith, who is cradling Mitchell's head
in her hands. "Gary," he says, "Gary, are you all right?" As Kirk
takes over from her, Smith leaves.

"I'm a little weak for some reason, Jim," says Mitchell, who is lying
on his right side with his face turned away. "But I feel all right
now." He turns his head, opens his eyes, and we zoom in for an extreme
close-up of Mitchell's brightly glowing silver eyes. The picture
slowly fades to black, leaving only those glowing silver eyes, then
they fade out too.
Re: TOS Recap: Where No Man Has Gone Before, part 1 of 4 [message #188008 ] Mi, 21 Dezember 2005 16:40
Wouter Valentijn  
Empok Nor wrote:
> This is the second in a series of recaps of the original Star Trek
> episodes. Today's selection: the second pilot, "Where No Man Has Gone
> Before" by Samuel A. Peeples.

<snip>

> "I'm a little weak for some reason, Jim," says Mitchell, who is lying
> on his right side with his face turned away. "But I feel all right
> now." He turns his head, opens his eyes, and we zoom in for an
> extreme close-up of Mitchell's brightly glowing silver eyes. The
> picture slowly fades to black, leaving only those glowing silver
> eyes, then they fade out too.

Another great job!
I also really like the background info and the comments.


--
Wouter Valentijn

www.wouter.cc
www.nksf.nl
www.zeppodunsel.nl
liam=mail

The glory of creation is in its infinite diversity and the ways our
differences combine to create meaning and beauty.
Vulcan IDIC "Is There In Truth No Beauty?"
Re: TOS Recap: Where No Man Has Gone Before, part 1 of 4 [message #188010 ] Mi, 21 Dezember 2005 19:26
Kweeg  
"Wouter Valentijn" <liam [at] valentijn.nu> wrote in message
news:43a97784$0$11075$e4fe514c [at] news.xs4all.nl...
> Empok Nor wrote:
> > This is the second in a series of recaps of the original Star Trek
> > episodes. Today's selection: the second pilot, "Where No Man Has Gone
> > Before" by Samuel A. Peeples.
>
> <snip>
>
> > "I'm a little weak for some reason, Jim," says Mitchell, who is lying
> > on his right side with his face turned away. "But I feel all right
> > now." He turns his head, opens his eyes, and we zoom in for an
> > extreme close-up of Mitchell's brightly glowing silver eyes. The
> > picture slowly fades to black, leaving only those glowing silver
> > eyes, then they fade out too.
>
> Another great job!
> I also really like the background info and the comments.

Indeed. Let me echo Wouter's sentiments, well done.

--

Qapla'
Kweeg
Ten of Canadian Clubs in the Eeeevil Trek Cabal
http://members.shaw.ca/iksbloodoath
"Half a gallon a'scotch!" Scotty (Spectre of the Gun)
Vorheriges Thema:Re: dio would be proud!!!
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