"Where No Man Has Gone Before" is the third episode of the first season of the American science-fiction television series Star Trek. Written by Samuel A. Peeples and directed by James Goldstone, it first aired on September 22, 1966.

In the episode, after the attempts to cross the energy barrier at the edge of the galaxy, two crew members develop powerful ESP abilities that threaten the safety of the crew.

The episode was the second pilot, produced in 1965 after the first pilot, "The Cage", was rejected by NBC. Reportedly, Lucille Ball, who owned Desilu Productions (where the pilot was produced), persuaded NBC management to consider a second pilot, thereby exercising a special option agreement it had with Desilu, because she liked Gene Roddenberry and believed in the project. The episode was eventually broadcast third in sequence, and it was the first episode to be shown in the United Kingdom by the BBC on July 12, 1969.<!--&lt;ref name="IMDB" /> commented out because it is never defined-->

"Where No Man Has Gone Before" was the first produced episode of Star Trek to feature William Shatner as Captain James Kirk, James Doohan as Chief Engineer Montgomery Scott, and George Takei as Lt. Sulu (in this episode, the ship's astro scientist, whose character became helmsman in subsequent episodes). The episode also guest stars Sally Kellerman (prior to her role on M*A*S*H) as Dr. Elisabeth Dehner, the ship’s psychiatrist. The episode title is the final phrase in the opening voice-over,

Roddenberry wrote two story outlines, "The Omega Glory" and "Mudd's Women". He wrote the teleplay for the former and gave the latter to Stephen Kandel. Roddenberry asked long-time associate and veteran scriptwriter Samuel Peeples to submit ideas for another. Peeples came up with the premise and episode title for "Where No Man Has Gone Before", and was assigned to write it. Roddenberry rewrote Peeples's script several times. While he enjoyed working with Roddenberry, after seeing the pilot Peeples preferred his original version of the script. There was some discussion over who came up with the title "Where No Man Has Gone Before"; Peeples stated unequivocally that it was his idea, and not Roddenberry's.

Kandel had fallen ill and his script was not finished in time; the other two were submitted to NBC for consideration. NBC preferred "Where No Man Has Gone Before" as a pilot. "Mudd's Women" was later made as the second episode in regular production, and "The Omega Glory" was made towards the end of the second season. The character of Number One, the female second-in-command, was dropped on the insistence of the NBC network, and Science Officer Spock was given Number One's unemotional demeanor. NBC was worried about Leonard Nimoy's "satanic" appearance and pressured for his removal. As Roddenberry later explained at conventions, he felt he had a strong enough negotiating position to save one character, but not both. Roddenberry went on to muse that, had he done it the other way around, he could not have then married the losing actor (Majel Hudec, who changed her surname to Barrett and returned in the role of Christine Chapel). Kirk, who became "James T. Kirk" for the main series, is "James R. Kirk" here, according to the gravestone Mitchell prepares for him on the planet.

Apart from Captain Kirk, the episode introduced two other regular characters to the show: James Doohan, a friend of director James Goldstone, was cast as the Chief Engineer Montgomery Scott (the name chosen after Doohan had tried various accents, and had decided that an engineer ought to be Scottish) and George Takei was cast as the ship's physicist. Sulu would become the helmsman in the regular series. Lieutenant Uhura and Dr. Leonard McCoy do not feature; the ship's doctor is instead Mark Piper (Paul Fix), who lost the role to DeForest Kelley.

Gary Lockwood, as Lt. Commander Gary Mitchell, had starred in the title role of Roddenberry's earlier series on NBC, The Lieutenant; Sally Kellerman was cast as Dr. Elizabeth Dehner. Both actors needed silver eyes and scleral lenses were called for, which were produced by expert contact lens fabricator, John Roberts, who laminated wrinkled tinfoil between layers of the scleral lenses which covered the entire eye. These, outdated by the 1960s, could be painful, perhaps dangerous to the actors' eyes (modern scleral lenses can "breathe" and are oxygen permeable). Although Kellerman could insert and remove the prosthetics easily with no discomfort, Lockwood found them difficult to see through. He needed to raise his face and sight along his nose in order to see through tiny holes in the foil. He was able to use this to enhance his performance as the mutating Mitchell, the unusual gaze giving him an arrogant and haughty demeanor.

Other cast members included Paul Carr as Navigator Lee Kelso, Lloyd Haynes as Communications Officer Alden and Andrea Dromm as Yeoman Smith (Alden and Smith were intended to be regulars in the show, but were replaced by Uhura and Janice Rand, respectively).

The costumes from the first pilot were used in "Where No Man Has Gone Before" with the exception of the insignias in two respects &ndash; the outlines were gold in the first pilot but black in the second, and the insignia symbols for engineering and sciences were reversed for the series proper. Completely new uniforms and insignia would be unveiled when the series was approved, with the colors altered and black collars introduced. Most of the Enterprise sets were also reused from "The Cage", while Sickbay was the only major set constructed for the episode. Like "The Cage", the episode was shot at Desilu's Culver City studios.

The episode was directed by James Goldstone. He was hired primarily to get his opinion on which of the first three scripts should be the second pilot. While his best friend Stephen Kandel wrote "Mudd's Women", Goldstone agreed "Where No Man Has Gone Before" was the right choice. Robert H. Justman was credited as assistant director.

Shooting started on July 19, 1965, several days later than originally scheduled.

Original cut

Post-production on the episode was delayed by Roddenberry's involvement in another pilot, Police Story. Post-production finished in January 1966 and the episode was presented to NBC for approval (which finally came in February 1966). This original version (production number 02a) differed from the later final broadcast cut (production number 02b, airing on September 22, 1966) in that each of the four acts had on-screen titles ("Act I", "Act II", etc.), as well as an epilogue. It also featured a much longer opening narration by Shatner. In some places alternate musical scores were used. In total almost five minutes of footage was removed to accommodate the original series' 50-minute network broadcast format to allow for commercials. The episode in its original version was seen by the public before the aired version, having been shown at the 24th World Science Fiction Convention in Cleveland, Ohio, on September 3, 1966—shortly before the premiere broadcast of Star Trek on NBC.

The studio did not retain a print of this original version, and it was officially thought to be lost. In 2009, a German film collector discovered a print of it and brought it to the attention of CBS/Paramount, which then released it under the title "Where No Fan Has Gone Before" – The Restored, Unaired Alternate Pilot Episode as part of the TOS season 3 box set on Blu-ray.

The episode was adapted into a short story by James Blish for Star Trek 8, published by Bantam in 1972. It also became the second in Bantam's series of Fotonovels, published in 1977.

Non-canonical books

The Galactic Barrier is later associated with the Q in the 1994 novel Q-Squared by Peter David and the 1998 Star Trek: The Q Continuum trilogy by Greg Cox.

765874 – Unification

Gary Lockwood returned to the role of Gary Mitchell in the 2024 short film, 765874 – Unification, appearing to use his godlike powers to help Kirk reunite with Spock in his dying moments.

Reception

In 2013, Wired magazine ranked this episode one of the top ten episodes of the original television series. They note famous lines such as Kirk's plea for compassion, and the absence of series regulars such as Dr. McCoy, Uhura, and Chekov.

In 2016, IGN ranked "Where No Man Has Gone Before" number six in a top ten list of original series episodes. They also ranked it the 17th best episode of all Star Trek series.

In 2018, PopMatters ranked this the 4th best episode of the original series.

Releases

"Where No Man Has Gone Before" was released on PAL-format LaserDisc in the United Kingdom as part of The Pilots collection, in April 1996. This included the color version of "The Cage", "Where No Man Has Gone Before", "Encounter at Farpoint", "Emissary", and "Caretaker" with a total runtime of 379 minutes.