YMMV / Star Trek S1 E3 "Where No Man Has Gone Before"

• Alternate Character Interpretation: The episode is ambiguous as to whether Spock or Mitchell is Kirk's First Officer, though it is generally assumed that Spock is First Officer because that's the role has for the rest of the series. A stronger argument can be made that Mitchell is First Officer for these reasons:
  • To the extent that "The Cage" can be taken as precedent, Mitchell is the Helmsman, as Number One was, though curiously (and for the only time) the positions of Helm and Navigation are reversed relative to the Captain (in "The Cage", and in the series proper, Helm is to the Captain's left, and Navigation is to his right.)
  • When the department heads are brought to the bridge, Mitchell announces their arrival, something the First Officer would do, since they worked for him (granted, Spock was working on the Valiant's probe.)
  • Dehner mentions that Kirk asked for Mitchell, most likely to be his First Officer.
  • During the same discussion, Kirk refers to Spock as his Science Officer, not First Officer. Spock always maintained he preferred to be Science Officer, but was also First Officer due to his rank.
• Angst? What Angst?: Gary Mitchell, who is made out to be Kirk's good friend from years back goes mad from receiving godlike powers and Kirk is forced to kill him. Only the book versions of the movies talk about him, giving the impression that Kirk forces himself to not think about it.
• Fair for Its Day: In most regards the episode's treatment of women is a step back from what we saw in the first pilot, with Dehner starting out as an Ice Queen who's subtly mocked for being disinterested in Mitchell's advances, then later coming across as overly emotional and hysterical next to the far more rational male officers when they plot to maroon Mitchell on Delta Vega. (At one point she comments that "female professionals do tend to overcompensate", which is of a piece with the "...for a woman" rejoinder we would often hear in the series proper.) However, Kirk is at least able to bring her around and turn her against Mitchell by appealing to her humanity and making her see how insane Mitchell has become; in most later episodes, chances are Kirk would have brought Dehner around by seducing her. Her outburst in the conference room can also be inferred to be the result of her mind starting to be affected by her encounter with the Galactic Barrier as well as her own personal interest in people with ESP, given that she wrote a thesis about testing and studies of other beings with some form of ESP and the fact that she had unusually high ESP levels herself.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: Gary Lockwood plays a character who is transformed into a god-like being after an encounter with a mysterious space phenomenon. Two years later, something similar would happen to Lockwood's co-star Keir Dullea in 2001: A Space Odyssey.
• Retroactive Recognition:
  • Gary Mitchell is Frank Poole.
  • Dr. Dehner is Sally Kellerman, subsequently known for being part of Robert Altman's Production Posse, including playing Hot Lips in the film version of M*A*S*H.

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