Star Trek: Season 1, Episode Three “Where No Man Has Gone Before”

Original Air Date: September 8, 1966
Stardate: 1312.4 (2265)
Writer: Samuel A. Peeples
Director: James Goldstone

“Morals are for men, not gods.”

After NBC initially rejected Gene Roddenberry’s pilot episode for Star Trek entitled “The Cage” (claiming it was too cerebral) Star Trek was offered the rarest of opportunities in show business: a second chance. This was thanks in part to the earlier efforts of Lucille Ball and her company Desilu Studios which was impressed by the show’s diverse cast, in particular its elevation of women to more prominent roles. But somewhat ironically the series’s second chance removed the main female character “Number One” (Majel Barrett) from the show. And instead of Captain Pike’s character (played by Jeffrey Hunter) we get our first glimpse of Captain Kirk (played by William Shatner). Shatner had previously made a name for himself in a variety of Broadway productions as well as on The Twilight Zone and Outer Limits. He also previously worked with Leonard Nimoy together on The Man From U.N.C.L.E. Notably, in “Where No Man Has Gone Before,” the first recorded episode of Star Trek, often referred to as the “Second Pilot,” Spock is the only character who has been carried over from “The Cage” (there are unfortunately no appearances by some of the staple characters like Uhura or Dr. McCoy in “Where No Man Has Gone Before”).

In this episode, the USS Enterprise intends to probe beyond the galaxy’s barrier when the impossible happens –a distress call is received from the S.S. Valiant, a ship that has been missing for over two centuries. Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock are in the midst of an “irritating” game of three-dimensional chess (a rare moment in which Spock suddenly experiences a “human emotion”), a game which Kirk wins, when Kirk is suddenly called away to monitor the distress signal. We learn that the Valiant is found to be within the Enterprise’s tractor beam range but once beamed aboard, it is revealed to be no larger than an escape pod and is shown to be nothing more than an old disaster recorder which was likely jettisoned during an emergency crisis. Spock begins reviewing the badly burned tapes from the recorder and Kirk orders a staff presence on the bridge where we are introduced to the Enterprise’s life sciences division which includes a new psychiatrist, Dr. Elizabeth Dehner (Sally Kellerman) who was previously brought aboard at the Aldabaran Colony (also spelled “Aldebaron”) to study the effects of space travel on the crew.

While investigating the tapes, Spock discovers something unusual. The Valiant had encountered a forcefield at the edge of the galaxy and crew members began frantically searching their records for information on extra-sensory-perception (ESP). The captain of the Valiant then ordered the ship to self-destruct. This ominous discovery offers some ominous foreshadowing for the Enterprise which is headed along the same path as the Valiant. When Kirk directs the Enterprise to exit the galaxy they encounter a similarly explosive field which causes an electric storm inside the ship. Several people die and two crew members are struck by the electric field –Dr. Dehner and the ship’s helmsman named Gary Mitchell (an old friend of Kirk’s from the Academy days who apparently once introduced Kirk to a blonde woman he nearly married –perhaps a reference to Carol Marcus with whom he had a son per Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan; Gary Mitchell is played by Gary Lockwood). After the electrical shock, Mitchell’s eyes suddenly appear shiny and he behaves strangely. He reads tapes of classic books stored in the Enterprise’s data library at an astounding speed, like Spinoza’s Ethics, and he now possesses the ability to drop his own vital signs. He correctly predicts a problem within the starboard impulse packs aboard the Enterprise without physically inspecting them himself. His telepathic powers begin growing exponentially with each passing moment. There is a fascinating scene wherein Kirk convenes his officers to discuss the matter and to deliberate on next steps. At the table, Dr. Dehner represents the optimist –she is in favor of embracing Mitchell a “new and evolved” human being who can become perfected, and so she thinks Mitchell should be studied rather than discarded, while Spock represents a pessimist in this discussion –he is primarily concerned with the dangers of an all-powerful human being onboard the Enterprise and the threat that unchecked god-like abilities might pose to the ship. Kirk mulls over the two options. Personally, I love seeing these kinds of scenes in which characters are intelligently reasoning with one another about the best path forward. These moments of steady discussion are almost wholly absent from our present-day cinematic landscape –consider the endless explosions and breakneck pace of the “Kelvin Timeline” Star Trek movies. They are fun but not exactly cerebral.

At any rate, the Enterprise approaches Delta Vega, a desolate and abandoned mining planet that is rich in minerals but uninhabited (it contains a “lithium-cracking station”). Kirk and Spock tranquilize and temporarily imprison Mitchell on Delta Vega inside an abandoned facility. At the same time, Mitchell’s powers continue to grow stronger. Lt. Lee Kelso is left behind to potentially detonate the self-destruct button on Delta Vega before being beamed back to the ship, thus hopefully destroying Mitchell and his dangerous powers, but Mitchell quickly kills Kelso before any detonation can occur by strangling him with a bit of loose wiring (using his ESP powers from afar). Meanwhile Dr. Dehner’s own powers have also started to develop. Like Mitchell, her eyes have begun to appear shiny and silvery. From here, Mitchell and Dr. Dehner become mysteriously aligned. They flee the facility together to live “like gods” in this new world while Kirk chases them down. Notably, in order for them to become “like gods” they must become powerful and therefore evil in the Nietzschean sense. At any rate, in the ensuing dramatic conflict between Mitchell and Kirk, Dr. Dehner bears witness to Lord Acton’s maxim: “Power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely.” In the end, Dr. Dehner helps Kirk defeat Mitchell when she is persuaded of his villainy (she watches as Kirk is forced to bow at the feet of Mitchell) –in the ensuing scuffle, Kirk kills the monstrous powers within Mitchell (the god) while also begging forgiveness from Mitchell (the man). Following the battle with Mitchell, Dr. Dehner lies in the dirt and before she dies she leaves Kirk with some ominous words:

“I’m sorry. You can’t know what it’s like to be almost a god.”

Once back aboard the Enterprise, Kirk omits this whole escapade from his log by simply stating that both Mitchell and Dr. Dehner died while performing their jobs in the line of duty. Neither of them asked for this to happen them and Kirk intends preserve their immaculate service. Not revealing the full truth can actually serve a good purpose in deep space. The episode closes as Spock admits, “I felt for him, too.” And a smiling Kirk replies, “I believe there’s some hope for you after all, Mr. Spock.”

---

My Thoughts on “Where No Man Has Gone Before”

In this classic mission, Captain Kirk is confronted with a painful decision –whether or not to sacrifice his old friend in order to save his ship. It is another case of ‘the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few’ as Spock says in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. The ethical dilemma is made more acute by the fact that Kirk was best friends with Mitchell. And this is but the first of many such situations in which a godlike supernatural force poses a grave threat to the Enterprise. Interestingly enough, godlike powers are perceived as an unqualified threat to the starship; they apparently cannot be harnessed for good.

Notably, telepathy and mind control were popular topics in ’60s. The CIA had wrapped up a string of mind control experiments in the ’50s, and the introduction of psychedelic drugs in the ’60s made altered states of mind somewhat more accessible (though, to be clear, Gary Mitchell is not drug-influenced in this episode, instead his mind has been transformed by something more akin to a naturally occurring phenomena). His Extra Sensory Perception grants the power to live “like a god.” As in ancient Greece, in the 23rd century becoming like a god is a terrifying power, it contains at once a touch of evil and also an awe-inspiring state of being. Fearsome godlike powers do not transform people into meek and mild servants, but rather into something beyond good and evil. And strangely enough, it is established in this episode that some ordinary humans are known to have latent ESP abilities. Will this fact ever be explored in future episodes of Star Trek? And what are we to make of the mysterious “galactic barrier”? Will it ever be revisited in future episodes of Star Trek?

Lastly, there was one small but unusual moment in this episode wherein Kirk orders Dr. Mark Piper to hold off on giving Spock a pill to help him recuperate from the recent attack by Gary Mitchell on Delta Vega, while Kirk leaves to chase after Mitchell and Dehner. But why do this? Why not employ Spock’s help? Wouldn’t Kirk want Spock’s speedy recuperation in this instance?

At any rate, in “Where No Man Has Gone Before,” is great example early horror on display in Star Trek, and this remains a uniquely haunting story. Ultimately, Kirk wins the day with a mixture of aggression (toward Mitchell) and persuasion (toward Dehner). Both skills are ideal for a starship captain.

---

Credits:

• Directed by: James Goldstone
  • James Goldstone (1931-1999) was the son of Hollywood agent and early television producer Jules Goldstone. At Dartmouth College, he was classmates with future Desilu vice president and production head Herbert F. Solow, and he later recommended Robert H. Justman as assistant director on the first Star Trek pilot, “The Cage.” He directed two episodes of TOS: “Were No Man Has Gone Before” and “What Are Little Girls Made Of?” In August 1966, Gene Roddenberry offered Goldstone the job of line producer on Star Trek, but he declined, saying, “Gene, if I produced it, I’d have to watch it.” In addition to Star Trek, he directed two episodes of The Outer Limits. He also directed episodes of Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, Dr. Kildare, and other shows. In 1998, Goldstone was interviewed in the documentary Inside Star Trek – The Real Story in which he joked that his headstone would probably read, “What’s his name? He’s the guy who directed the second pilot of Star Trek.” One year later in 1999, Goldstone succumbed to cancer in Vermont.
• Written by: Samuel A. Peeples
  • Samuel A. Peeples (1917-1997), was a creative consultant for Gene Roddenberry. He was known for coining the famous phrase that Star Trek was Gene Roddenberry’s “Wagon Train to the Stars.” He declined an offer to become a full writer for Star Trek but he later created the initial story idea for the classic movie Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. He was known as primarily a Western writer (selling scripts for shows like The Rifleman, Bonanza, and Have Gun – Will Travel among other shows), as well as Lovecraftian science fiction and horror. He later returned to Star Trek to write the inaugural episode of Star Trek: The Animated Series (“Beyond the Farthest Star“) and he penned an early unused draft script for the second Star Trek film entitled “Worlds That Never Were.” Peeples died of cancer on August 27, 1997, at the age of 79.
• Music by: Alexander “Sandy” Courage
• Cinematography by: Ernest Haller
• Cast:
  • Gary Lockwood…..Lt. Cmdr. Gary Mitchell
    • Gary Lockwood (1937-present) also appears in Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) as Frank Poole. He took the role shortly after completing his stint in this Star Trek episode. He previously played the lead in The Lieutenant (1963–1964), which was also created by Gene Roddenberry. He has been married twice and has a daughter. He is still alive as of the time I am writing this.
    • During a brief moment in this episode, Gary Mitchell’s “personnel medical record” can be seen on the screen. He was born in the city of Eldman in the year 1087.7. His present address is 8149 in the city of Eldman in the state of “Newst…” (the visual cuts off). Notably, there are apparently no street names in the future, just numbers in a city. He is 5’9″ and is 23 years old. Both he and Dr. Dehner have high ESPER ratings (or ESP ratings). He is simply called “Mitch” by Lt. Kelso.One subtle thing to note about Gary Mitchell’s appearance in this episode is that his hair becomes gradually more gray as he uses his newfound powers. Mitchell and Kirk have known each other for fifteen years, since their Starfleet Academy days –Kirk requested that he be assigned to the Enterprise. At one point, Mitchell recalls an old story to Kirk about “those rodent things on Dimorus” that threw poison darts at them. Mitchell apparently took a poison dart for Kirk.
  • Sally Kellerman…..Dr. Elizabeth Dehner
    • Sally Kellerman (1937-2022) previously appeared in shows like M*A*S*H, Bonanza, The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, The Twilight Zone (“Miniature“), and The Outer Limits (“The Human Factor” and “The Bellero Shield”) among many other television shows. She was, perhaps best known for playing Major Margaret “Hot Lips” Houlihan in Robert Altman’s film M*A*S*H (1970) (for this she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress). She was married twice and had three children. She died in 2022.
    • During a brief moment in this episode, Dr. Dehner’s “personnel medical record” can be seen on the screen, as well as her ESP rating document. She was born in 1089.5 in a city called Delman and she is 5’2″. Her father’s name was Gerald Dehner and she resides at 1489 in Delman in the state of “Newst…” (the visual cuts off). Both she and Lt. Cmdr. Gary Mitchell have high ESPER ratings (or ESP ratings).
  • Lloyd Haynes…..Mr. Alden (a helmsman, he is a relieved and replaced by Gary Mitchell at the start of the episode)
    • Samuel Lloyd Haynes (1934-1986) served in the Marines during the Korean War. In addition to Star Trek, he appeared in television shows like Batman. He was perhaps best known for his starring role in the Emmy Award-winning series Room 222. He was later replaced on Star Trek by Nichelle Nichols as Lt. Uhura when the series went into full production. He was an accomplished airplane pilot and developed a program to encourage and train minorities in aviation. He was married three times and had one daughter. He died in 1986 in Coronado of lung cancer.
  • Andrea Dromm…..Yeoman Smith
    • Andrea Dromm (1941-present) is a former American actress. Her career began as a child model and performing in commercials before pursuing a career in Hollywood. her first acting job was as Yeoman Smith in “Where No Man Has Gone Before.” When the series was picked up Dromm’s role was replaced by Grace Lee Whitney as Yeoman Janice Rand. Dromm chose to appear in the film The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming (1966). In 1988, People reported that she was living on real estate investments and splitting her time between homes in The Hamptons, Long Island and Palm Beach, Florida.
  • Paul Carr…..Lt. Lee Kelso
    • Paul Carr (1934-2006) had over a hundred television appearances in shows like Rawhide, Lawman, The Rifleman, Gunsmoke, The Tall Man, The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters, The Virginian, Perry Mason, Hawaii Five-O, The Fugitive, Twelve O’Clock High, The Time Tunnel, Land of the Giants, and Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea among others. Carr would later use the name Lee Kelso as a pseudonym for his voice performances. In 1981, he joined the cast of the remade Buck Rogers in the 25th Century. He later returned to his love of stage performances. Carr died of lung cancer in Los Angeles in 2006 at the age of 72.
    • Lt. Kelso is the ship’s navigator he takes command of the bridge while Kirk and Spock play 3-D chess in the opening scene of the episode, and he is technically the first crewman killed off in Star Trek when he is strangled by Gary Mitchell on Delta Vega). Paul Carr later told an amusing story about how Gene Roddenberry promised him they would “freeze” his character’s body and bring him back.
  • Paul Fix…..Dr. Mark Piper
    • Peter Paul Fix (1901-1983) appeared in more than 100 movies and dozens of television shows over a 56-year career between 1925 and 1981. He served in the National Guard and the U.S. Army during World War I. He pursued an acting career, befriended John Wayne, was a regular performer in Frank Borzage films. He appeared in shows like Adventures of Superman, Perry Mason, Rawhide, Wagon Train, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, The Time Tunnel, The Wild Wild West, Gunsmoke, and Battlestar Galactica among others. He played the presiding judge in To Kill a Mockingbird (1962) and The Twilight Zone episode “I Am the Night – Color Me Black.” He was married twice and had one daughter. He died in 1983.
  • Bill Blackburn…..Lieutenant Hadley (uncredited)
    • William “Bill” Blackburn (1929-present) played a wide variety of TOS roles all believed to be known as the character “Hadley.” In total, he appeared in 61 episodes of the series. He was originally hired through his connection with assistant director Leonard “Tiger” Shapiro, whom he had worked with on the television series My Favorite Martian wherein he served as a stand-in for actor Ray Walston. Blackburn reportedly saved Shapiro’s job on My Favorite Martian so, to return the favor, Shapiro arranged for his role on Star Trek. As Blackburn later recalled, he was told to sit at the conn and to not speak. He was originally hired to be DeForest Kelley’s stand-in but went on to play many background roles and voice-overs in the show. During his time on the show, he shot over an hour’s worth of Super 8 homemade video footage which he has since kept in a safe deposit box, preferring not to capitalize on his connection to the show. However, in more recent years, he was contracted to release several minutes of the footage in conjunction with the Star Trek home DVD release.
  • John Burnside…..Bridge Crewmember (uncredited)
    • John Burnside (1928-2010) had four uncredited appearance in Star Trek (“The Cage,” “Where No Man Has Gone Before,” “Tomorrow Is Yesterday,” and “A Taste of Armageddon“). He appeared in other shows like Batman, The Virginian, Bonanza, M*A*S*H, and two episodes of The Twilight Zone (“The Purple Testament” and “To Serve Man“). He also had an uncredited minor appearance in The Sound of Music (1965). He died in 2010.
  • Darren Dublin…..Sciences Crewman (uncredited)
    • Darren Dublin (1923-present) was a lifelong friend of Marlon Brando, they appeared in several films together. He made uncredited appearances in films like Airplane!, East of Eden, and Around the World in Eighty Days, among others. He appears to be alive as of the time I am writing this.
  • Robert Metz…..Operations Division Lieutenant (uncredited)
    • Robert Metz (1938-present) was a teacher and minor league baseball player. By 1964, Metz began teaching full-time while making sporadic appearances on Star Trek through all three seasons. He later served as principal of Mission Viejo High School in the 1980s and 1990s. The school currently has a Bob Metz Scholarship which is awarded to students with the most improved GPA each year. He appeared in a total of six Star Trek episodes (“Where No Man Has Gone Before,” “Charlie X,” “The Changeling,” “Mirror, Mirror,” “Is There In Truth No Beauty?” and “The Tholian Web“). He is still alive as of the time I am writing this.
  • Eddie Paskey…..Lieutenant Leslie (uncredited)
    • Eddie Paskey (1939-2021) appeared in television shows like The Dick Van Dyke Show, Mission: Impossible, The Wild Wild West, and others. For Star Trek, he appeared in some sixty episodes of TOS, sometimes as a stand-in for William Shatner and a hand double for James Doohan, but most frequently as the recurring background character of Lt. Leslie. He appeared in most of the episodes from the first two seasons, but a bad back and cluster headaches from an old injury led to him leaving the show in the third season. His first appeared on Star Trek was on “Where No Man Has Gone Before” (as a “crewman”). Paskey often amusingly credited the longevity of his character to his sense of caution, he was on the set most of the time and knew the script well, so he made sure that he was always elsewhere when an episode called for someone to die. After retiring from acting, he and his wife later ran a car-detailing business in Santa Ana, California. In 2004, Paskey appeared in the pilot episode of the fan-produced internet series Star Trek: New Voyages “Come What May.” This time, he portrayed Admiral Leslie, the father of Lieutenant Leslie. He died in 2021.

---

Star Trek Trivia:

• This episode was the “second pilot.” It sold the show after “The Cage” was rejected, but it was not the first episode to air (it was actually the third).
• The original version of this episode that was screened for NBC featured William Shatner reading an entirely different introductory monologue. It read as follows: “Enterprise log, Captain James T. kirk commanding. We are leaving that vast cloud of stars and planets which we call our galaxy. Behind us, Earth, Mars, Venus, even our Sun, are specks of dust. A question: What is out there in the black void beyond. Until now, our mission has been space law regulation. Contact with Earth colonies and investigation of alien life. But now, a new task –a probe out into where no man has gone before.” This original recording can be found as a special feature on the Season 3 Blue-Ray release of the original series.
• When Gary Mitchell conjures up a gravestone intended to entomb the captain, it reads “James R. Kirk” though we later learn his name is actually James T. Kirk, the animated series identifies the T. as standing for “Tiberius.” An explanation for this is given in the 2009 “Kelvin Timeline” reboot from J.J. Abrams. James was named after his father, and his middle name came from his grandfather: Tiberius. Another explanation given by the team at Paramount was that Gary Mitchell was utterly insane at this point and he simply forgot Kirk’s middle initial (thus preserving canonical consistency).
• At the start of this episode, Spock seems slightly befuddled by playful jabbing with Kirk, and irritation at the game of three-dimensional chess (both human emotions), and by the end, Spock admits to feeling sorry for Gary Mitchell (also a human emotion).
• The three-dimensional chess contains all the same pieces as traditional chess, but it has three main levels (with several sub levels).
• The first appearance of Scotty occurs in this episode inside the transporter room, though he is not wearing a red shirt. Mr. Sulu also makes his first appearance in this episode as a physicist in the life sciences division on the ship.
• The visual effects director Darrell A. Anderson of the Howard Anderson Company suffered several nervous breakdowns when completing the graphics of the USS Enterprise for the opening sequence in this episode.
• In this episode, Mr. Sulu is introduced as a physician but in all future episodes he is a helmsman.
• “The Nightingale” poem which Gary Mitchell reads was actually written by Gene Roddenberry about his World War II airplane. It is located on page 387 of a tape –“My love has wings, slender feathered things with grace in upswept curve and tapered tip.” It is called “Nightingale Woman” in this episode and is said to have been written by Tarbolde on the Canopus planet back in 1996. Mitchell says it is “one of the most passionate love sonnets of the past couple of centuries.”
• There are some notable differences in this episode from the rest of the series: changes to the Enterprise architecture, the fact that all the women wear pants, and Spock’s yellowish skin tone.
• To give the effect of silvery eyes, actors Gary Lockwood and Sally Kellerman wore contact lenses with tin foil in the middle of them. They were extremely uncomfortable for Lockwood who was forced to tilt his head upwards but it worked in the context of his character’s arrogant attitude.
• A close look at the ESP reports on the health screens for Dr. Dehner and Mitchell highlight that Mitchell’s ancestors have a history of “metaphysical studies” and “spiritual readings.”
• Kirk makes an amusing response to Dr. Dehner upon arriving at the Delta Vega colony. When she comments that nobody is here on this planet, Kirk responds: “Nobody but us chickens, Doctor.” It is a reference to Louis Jordan’s 1946 song “Ain’t Nobody Here But Us Chickens.” The song was apparently inspired by a 1908 anecdote from Everybody’s Magazine, in which a confronted thieving chicken says, “Nobody here ‘ceptin’ us chickens.”
• When Gary Mitchell begins building his own paradise he announces “let there be food” as a tree of Kaferian apples suddenly springs forth. Whenever Mitchell visited “that planet ” (somewhere he and Kirk previously visited), he always favored Kaferian apples (they are described as large, red fruit akin to pomegranates that grow on low-hanging trees).
• Kirk can be seen carrying a heavy duty phaser rifle which was beamed down from the Enterprise. He uses it to create a rock slide that ultimately kills Gary Mitchell. This is the only time it appears in TOS. Apparently, there was a shooting in the United States after this episode so Gene Roddenberry moved away from featuring the phaser rifle. It was a little too lethal for Gene’s taste. Indeed the phaser rifle is used to blast a huge rock formation down upon Gary Mitchell, ultimately killing him. It’s power seems to be unparalleled among Starfleet weaponry.
• At one point, Kirk playfully mentions that he has been worried about Mitchell every since that night on Deneb IV. Interestingly enough, Deneb IV is the planet featured in the first episode of TNG “Encounter at Farpoint.”
• Mitchell recalls Kirk at the Academy as “a stack of books with legs.” Upperclassmen said: “Watch out for Lieutenant Kirk! In his class you either think –or you sink.” Mitchell then wistfully remembers ‘aiming a little blonde lab technician’ at Kirk, a woman he nearly married.
• The color of the tunics were not yet finalized in this episode. The shirts for operations crew members are beige instead of red. The seats of the helmsman and navigator are reversed in this episode (when Kirk is facing the viewscreen, Mitchell, whom Kirk addresses as “helmsman,” is on his right, and Kelso, the navigator, is on his left). Also, Spock can be seen wearing a gold command shirt (rather than a blue science one), and both Mitchell and Kelso wear beige operations shirts (rather than the gold command shirts), among other clothing changes.
• Delta-Vega has a lithium-cracking station which Spock suggests could be adapted to the Enterprise engines.
• A large panel seen in the background of the Delta Vega control room was recycled as part of the main engineering set in the series itself and it appeared in the very next produced episode “The Corbomite Maneuver” on Balok’s ship.
• Cinematographer Ernest Haller was Gene Roddenberry’s fifth choice. When asked for his qualifications, Haller mentioned that he filmed a little movie called Gone With The Wind some decades back.
• During filming of this episode, a wasp’s nest was found within the ceiling of the set. William Shatner was stung several times on his face and as such he was mostly filmed from the other side of his face in this episode.
• The brilliant matte painting of Delta Vega as featured in this episode was originally created by British artist Albert Woodlock. He contributed several more extraordinary matte paintings to the series.
• The set of Delta Vega was the same as the one used for Talos IV in “The Cage.”
• Notably, the command colors as identified by the crew’s shirts were actually a yellow-green color, however they appeared gold on most screens.
• DC Fontana has described how difficult it was for women to wear their costumes on the show, particularly whenever they needed to use the restroom (they often had to bring another person for assistance). However, in the first couple episodes women wear slacks (Gene Roddenberry later changed their costumes to short skirts so that women would show more leg).
• Per the show’s timeline, Captain Kirk’s five-year mission takes place from 2265-2270, however this episode is the only canonical adventure of the original series that takes place in 2265.
• Gene Roddenberry ranked “Where No Man Has Gone Before” one of his top ten favorite episodes.

---