I just wanted to say the “barrier at the edge of the galaxy” thing really bugged the snot out of me – both because it meant somebody set up an obstacle around the entire freakin’ galaxy, and because it meant the crew can travel to the edge of the galaxy as if it was just toolin’ down to the neighborhood soda fountain.
A trip to the edge of the galaxy should be epic stuff, barrier or no barrier. It’s the kind of trip you take where you try to find God or something…
I tyhink the title refers to Gary Mitchels change. He is going where No man has gone before. Ok, Charlie had freaky powers too, but couldn’t read minds or… well he wasn’t a man just a boy so the title holds.
Did anyone else think the recorder bouy looked like a garbage can?
The title – they use it in the opening voice-over too – “Where No Man Has Gone Before” is pretty sexist, given this show is supposed to be about an advanced society. Shouldn’t they say “Where Nobody Has Gone Before” or something like that?
What is this word “sexist”?
It’s a word a lot of those college women are using. Doesn’t mean anything. Just be glad they didn’t show any hippies on the spaceship.
As for that Galactic Barrier, I’ve been thinking… You know how so many of the stories we’ve al read about the future usually have some sort of galactic empire? Seems like any older galaxy that already has advanced to the point of empire might want to expand to other, less well developed galaxies. Maybe, some amazingly wise and powerful civilisation in our galaxy (or another, benevolent galaxy) put that barrier there for our protection. It could work, right? Really, God forbid if some super powerful aliens from, say, Andromeda were to try and take over our galaxy.
I wonder. Was there anything I may have missed in this show to say how much of the galaxy Man controls? I mean, if we can go all the way to one edge, how far across have we gone? How much do we control?
I’m thinking of starting a fan club.
<time warp forward>
Not just at Cons. The Great Bird did a lecture tour at which he showed both the black and white pilot and the blooper reel. I saw him at Illinois somewhere around 1975. He was busy talking up the movie, and I remember him mentioning that one of the suits wanted to replace Shatner with Charlton Heston :eek: for it.
[sexism: first known use in print, 1970]
I think it has something to do with that “women’s liberation” crap some dykes in Berkeley are yapping about. Looks like this guy Roddenberry isn’t having any of that, or he’d show the women crew members with skirts lower than their crotches, and maybe even as senior officers. But all the women this show has are a Negress telephone operator and a hot blonde with a pleated wig serving the Captain his coffee.
Imagine that, women thinking they can do the job just as well as men. Thank God society won’t have regressed to that point in just a few centuries.
Gotta do something about those props, though. This ship looks like crayon on cardboard. Maybe they should get the props crew from “Lost in Space” or “Time Tunnel” instead. The scriptwriters too, for that matter.
It seems that the rifles aren’t anymore powerful than the hand phasers we’ve seen. I wonder what they can do that the hand phasers can’t. They do look cool, though, and give the actors a more military look than just quick-drawing the hand phasers would.
And I think that blonde actress was in an episode of “I Spy” earlier this year (March, February?) I remember thinking she and Scotty looked pretty good together.
What’s wrong with being sexy?
[We’re supposed to be in the 1960’s, not the 1860’s.]
This is a whoosh, right? I mean, of course it’s a whoosh, but it’s a total whoosh, right? The original pilot had a female first officer and that idea was scuttled because it twisted the knickers of the women at the previews. The recurring comment was “who does she think she is?”
Different world.
Well, most of us haven’t seen the pilot yet, remember? It’s only 1966.
blowero, I don’t get you - there were no telephones in the 1860’s. 
2005 speaking: That is GR’s version of events.
Desilu Executive Herb Solow (and Robert Justman) revealed in their book that, in truth, the executives felt Majel Barrett (as Number One) was wooden and untalented. Solow tried to sell her as a fresh-faced new talent. They laughed at him and said, “Oh, please save it Herb, it’s Roddenberry’s girlfriend, you dumb dope.”
No test audiences, no hidden agenda against a female character.
Solow says the running bet was to see how soon GR tried to sneak her back onto the show once it went into weekly production. Sure enough she was back, in a blonde wig, as Chapel, early on.
Sir Rhosis
Yep, the Enterprise has an operator, a waitress, and a nurse, all respectable occupations for a woman. All the ship needs now is a schoolteacher and a nun.
When men are exploring the stars, women will still know their place, the little darlin’s. Gotta be a prime situation for them, all those men on board to pick from, even for the ones who like pointy ears.
Thank You, Sir Rhosis. Now I have to ask about the claim that the network was pushing to have characters smoke. Was that overblown as well?
I don’t remember ever reading about NBC wanting the characters to smoke but I do remember an article where De Kelley was said to have wanted McCoy to smoke “health cigarettes” or something equally schmaltzy but Roddenberry shot him down.
Not sure about the validity of it though.
I don’t know for sure, but I’ve heard GR say that he resisted the cig company sponsors’ desire for smoking on the show. But, alas, as I grew older, I began to take most of what he said with a grain of salt.
Try www.TrekBBS.com
There are some hardcore fans there that make Aesiron, NoClueBoy and myself look like fresh recruits on day one at the academy.
IRL, Shatner quit smoking during the production of TOS, Doohan quit after his open-heart surgery in 1980 or so, Nimoy quit during the production of “The Voyage Home” in 1986 when he collapsed, out of breath, climbing a flight of stairs. De Kelley smoked until near his death in 1999.
Sir Rhosis
I don’t remember any of these episodes being sponsored in the same way that shows a few years back were sponsored by a single company (with a name in the credits.) I believe that the networks had mostly moved to selling ad time and away from direct sponsorship of shows, so I’d wonder how much power the cigarette companies would have to demand things. The power of fear to remove things or lose the ad time, sure.
I’m old enough to remeber Star Trek the first time around. And in 1966, “Negro” was the preferred term. “Negress” wasn’t as common, but was still used by those who thought of themselves as genteel, e.g., headline in the Fond du Lac (Wis.) Reporter from 1966: “Negress Is Approved for District Judge”.
“Black” didn’t predominate until about 1968.