Dir.: James Goldstone
The Lowdown: The U.S.S. Enterprise is approaching the edge of our galaxy preparing to explore the great barrier and beyond when it intercepts a distress call. The call emanates from a marker buoy from the SS Valiant previously lost some two hundred years ago. After beaming it aboard Spock accesses it's memory core and finds that the doomed ship was swept up into the great energy barrier surrounding our galaxy. After setting course back into the galaxy and making repairs(a six month voyage at sub light we are told) there are frantic requests of the ships' memory banks regarding ESP(extra-sensory perception) Not long after the logs become erratic and the Valiant's captain orders the ship destroyed.
Undaunted, the Enterprise heads into the strange barrier to take readings and pierce the space between galaxies. While entering the colorful phenomena the ship is struck by an unseen force. First officer Gary Mitchell and newly assigned physciatrist Liz Dehner are struck by some strange energy field and collapse. The ship sustains major damage and limps back through the energy cloud on impulse power. When Mitchell regains consciousness his eyes glow silver. Nine other crewman are dead, all elven had higher than average ESP ratings with Mitchell having the highest.
While continuing to make repairs, the Enterprise is headed to the nearest planet Delta Vega. The planet has an automated mining station that has equipment which can be cannibalized to get the ship back to a repair station. Mitchell meanwhile, has shown an exponential increase in mental powers, diagnosing engineering problems, reading through the entire ships library at lightning speed and sensing peoples thoughts before they enter the room, all from his sick bay bed. Gary is becoming increasingly arrogant, and disconnected from the rest of humanity, Spock recommends that he should be killed so the Enterprise does not suffer the same fate as Valiant.
Kirk is torn because Mitchell is one of his oldest friends and has saved his life on a past occasion. He decides the most humane option is to maroon him on the remote planet.
As the ship arrives at Vega, Mitchell now believes he is a god and that the crew are insects. Gary imprisoned in a holding cell on the surface now kills helmsman Lee Kelso then encourages Dehner to join him as she now exhibits the same silver eyes. They leave the station to start their ascension into godhood, The crew rig the lithium cracking station to explode. The captain goes hunting for his former best friend with a phaser rifle. As they struggle Dehner regains some of her humanity and realizes that her and Gary cannot survive, she helps Kirk kill his first officer at the cost of her own life. Heart broken Kirk leaves Delta Vega behind listing Mitchell and Dehner as dying in the line of duty.
The DVD: Outstanding work by CBS-D the re-interpretation of the great barrier looks amazing and the approach shots of the ship give the barrier more depth and vastness. The barrier looks huge like it is all encompassing. Nice tip to the original by using "The Cage" enterprise with the lightning rod tips on the nacelles, the bigger bridge dome and deflector dish good continuity. With all the detail of hd the sets look so cheap, for example when Dehner talks to Mitchell in sick bay you can actually see the nail holes that were covered up with drywall compound in the background on the wall she is leaning on. Not to mention the horrible early make-up for Spock he looks alien alright! Once again great looking transfer.
Overall: 5 out of 5 One Treks finest hours, great sf storytelling with a real human element to the narrative to keep the story going. Some classic action and Kirk gets his tunic ripped for the first time. Interesting to see Scotty in command gold and Sulu in science blue, as their characters were not fully established yet. The sets have a strange unfinished quality to them and it must have been quite jarring for anyone first following the series back in the sixties. One gripe that they could have fixed the bridge view screen when Kirk,Mitchell and Spock first walk out of the turbo lift with a star field or something other than the flickering TV interference. Guest stars Gary Lockwood and Sally Kellerman are fantastic and really have all the best scenes in this episode. Lockwood's other famous role was as Dr. Frank Poole in 2001: A space Odyssey. Kellerman's was as 'hot lips' O'Houilihan in MASH. Samuel Peeples script really established Kirk and Mitchell's relationship and the captains personal torture as what to do with his increasingly dangerous best friend. And for god sakes change the name on the tombstone to James T Kirk not James R Kirk! Wonder what the 'R' stood for; Roy maybe.
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