Star Trek: The Original Series S01E03, Where No Man Has Gone Before.
Dir. James Goldstone; Wri. Samuel A. Peeples
Summary: A great example of how to do a “godlike being” episode, but do it right. A strange encounter at the edge of the galaxy causes an old friend of Kirk’s to become something…other.
The Good: They make a cool Spinoza reference, making me value (for once) my degree in philosophy. They connect events to character beats, which makes for more compelling TV. The relationship between Kirk and the guest star (Gary Lockwood) is actually believable. There are telekinetic murders! The final showdown is excellent and provides us with some of Kirk’s best impassioned yelling.
The Bad: The outfits look bad; like, really bad. There’s a surprising amount of dawdling and stalling to pad the runtime. There’s no Bones! The guest psychiatrist (Sally Kellerman) is surprisingly inconsistently characterized (she’s an ice queen and a professional, but also emotional and impulsive?).
The Review: This is an absolute classic of Trek, beloved for a very good reason. To be completely honest, I expected to give this four stars, but my nostalgia may have been stronger than I was aware. While this episode is very good, it isn’t perfect. One of the bigger detractions is the incredibly low production values. This episode doubled as the second pilot for the show after “The Cage,” and it’s obviously still very rough around the edges, noticeable even in a show known for being rough. The other thing really working against it is a phrase that I am going to use a lot during these reviews: saggy middle third. The setup is great, the payoff is even better, but the connective tissue is unfortunately weak. After the threat has been realized, there’s a lot of aimlessness to the plot until the final confrontation is forced.
Neither of those problems fully tarnishes the excellent core narrative here, though. The story is very classic Trek: power is a corrupting force, ingenuity and resourcefulness save the day, the cosmos is a really weird place. It manages a sense of scope and excitement despite what was obviously a shoestring budget. The performances are surprisingly strong, even from the guest stars. Lt. Cmdr. Gary Mitchell fares better than Dr. Elizabeth Dehner, because she is written very confusingly, almost as if the story doesn’t know which character trait she is supposed to represent. Credit to Sally Kellerman for doing what she could with a confusing script, but the character still comes off as wildly changeable in her motivations and actions. Gary Lockwood does even better as a reliable subordinate slowly changing into something very different. Shatner and he really sell their chemistry in their relatively short screentime before things get crazy.
The final showdown is one of the best Trek has ever done when it comes to a godlike being (GLB) episode. Too often the endings feel cheap or too easy, or make the GLB look like less of a threat than they should be. This one manages to get it just right. The threat seems real, the solution seems viable, and the execution gives us some great character moments. Despite some shonkiness around the script and the sets, that’s what stays with the viewer. This is grade-A Trek.
The Score: 
