Thursday, January 24, 2013

Star Trek - Where no man has gone before

SPOILER WARNING!!! This post spoils Star Trek episodes The Man Trap, Charlie X, Where no man has gone before and Naked Time.

Where no man has gone before is second pilot of series. Pilot version of episode hasn't been released. It was later made into real episode of same name. In early episodes all pieces haven't found their places and these episodes have things we don't see in later episodes.

The Man Trap is horror episode and in missed opportunity to be philosophical. It is episode about shape shifting creature that is last of its kind. Problem is that it kills crew members. Most notable thing about these killing is that killed persons doesn't wear red shirt. That wasn't introduced to series yet. Episode end with crew killing creature knowing that it was last of its kind. Only one person was against this but he was killed by creature during episode. McCoy killed creature only after he saw it was ugly. Star Trek was really searching for its form during this time. In later episodes this would have been more philosophical story and this ugliness thing would have been used otherwise.

Charlie X is another episode with horror flavor in it. I also have some filler scenes like one musical scene. It is about powerful teenager who takes Enterprise and crew under his control because world doesn't work as he wants. We get happy end where Charlie is taken away by aliens that gave him the powers. Charlie was too powerful to live among humans so he had to live among aliens.

Episode Where no man has gone is somewhere in middle of first pilot and actual series. We have some crew members who we never see again and some regular crew members are missing. I story one of the crew gains god like powers and becomes danger to rest of the crew.This is first episode we see Kirk in fist fight and where he has ripped shirt. Where no man has gone before and Charlie X were prototype episodes for later episodes where Enterprise meet super powerful entities and can't survive only with raw power.

The Naked Time is character building episode where we learn more about characters when they lose their control. Episode was remade in Star Trek: The Next Generation with name The Naked Now. Along with character building this episode introduces time travelling to series. After this episode Star Trek found its formula. This is probably why this story was remade in The Next Generation.

By themselves these episodes weren't that interesting. I wanted to write about them because in these episodes because pieces weren't in their places yet and episodes had thing we don't see in future episodes when they had found the formula. Rest Star Trek posts will be of one episode and go through only the most interesting episodes which have more philosophical or moral or ethical content in them. Or have something else interesting I want to write about.

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