I recently rewatched the two pilots for the original Star Trek, in preparation for the beginning of Strange New Worlds, the latest Trek show starring Captain Christopher Pike and the pre-Kirk crew of the USS Enterprise. And wow, I want to talk about Gary Mitchell.
The second Trek pilot, “Where No Man Has Gone Before,” is a massive improvement over the extremely clunky original pilot, “The Cage,” in every respect—except for one. Creator Gene Roddenberry was forced to get rid of Number One, the smart, resourceful, impassive second-in-command played by Roddenberry’s future wife, Majel Barrett. But in general, they got it right the second time.
William Shatner is a massive improvement over Jeffrey Hunter—and Kirk actually enjoys being captain, whereas Pike only wants to complain about how much he hates his job.The worst character in “Where No Man Has Gone Before” is introduced as if he’s going to be a series regular: Gary Mitchell, Kirk’s old friend from the academy who, we are told, has been serving alongside Kirk on the Enterprise for a few years.
When we first meet Kirk, he seems to have two friends: Spock, who appeals to Kirk’s nerdy, thoughtful side, and Mitchell, who brings out Kirk’s inner douchebag. This is shown via a pair of scenes in the opening moments. First, Kirk plays three-dimensional chess with Spock and wins by playing illogically, and then Mitchell busts in on the two of them in the turbo-lift. Mitchell asks Kirk how the game went, and Kirk does a throat-cutting motion while leering. Spock, noticeably, is uncomfortable with Mitchell right away and turns his back away from the two men.
After rewatching this second pilot, I’ve started thinking of it as Kirk’s true origin story. This is the moment that Kirk has to choose between his thoughtful side and his douchebag side, and he is finally forced to choose the better angel—as personified by Spock.
So we only meet Mitchell for a scant few minutes before he passes through the galactic barrier around the galaxy and gets turned into an omnipotent asshole. But it’s very clear that the galactic barrier didn’t make him an asshole, he already was one. He makes a big point of slouching when everybody else on the bridge sits upright—and where Kirk is professional to the point of brusqueness with an attractive young yeoman, Mitchell is clearly excited to sexually harass her. When Dr Dehner, the episode’s other major guest star, shows up, Mitchell immediately tries to hit on her, only to have her insinuate that he has a bad reputation. Mitchell then calls Dr. Dehner a “walking freezer unit,” and visibly sulks.
Here it’s important to caution that, of course, sexual harassment was not a well understood concept in 1966. And a lot of Mitchell’s behavior might have been interpreted as just being a regular red-blooded guy. At the same time, everyone else in the Enterprise crew, from Kirk on down, is depicted in a way that emphasizes their professionalism and their discipline, something that was very important to Gene Roddenberry given his police and military background. The contrast between the louche Gary and the more conscientious other crew members is pronounced and seems intentional.
When the Enterprise actually passes through the galactic barrier, everyone is on edge—so Mitchell makes a point of grabbing the attractive yeoman’s hand and holding on to it for an uncomfortably long time. Seriously, he’s got her hand for at least a minute, even when the ship is out of control and he’s supposed to be steering.
After Mitchell’s crappy apotheosis, complete with sparkle-eyes, we learn a little bit more about his relationship with Kirk. When they were at the Academy, Kirk was known for being a major brainiac who would keep you on your toes. You’d better watch out, because if you’re not studying hard, Kirk will show you up. Or something. Mitchell came up with an elaborate scheme to distract Kirk by getting a young blonde to seduce him—and Kirk almost married her! Womp womp.
The rest of the episode is about Mitchell becoming too powerful, to the point where power corrupts his already atrophied soul, and Spock keeps urging Kirk to take drastic action before it’s too late. Kirk is smart enough to recognize that Mitchell is becoming dangerous, and that his ship is in danger of winding up the same way as the SS Valiant, another ship where crewmembers became godlike beings. But the episode still plays like a conflict in which Kirk has to choose whether to follow Spock’s advice or believe in his old friend from the Academy, and Kirk seems to be slow to accept that Mitchell is a genuine threat—in part because he’s probably been cutting Mitchell slack for years.
So if I had the time and energy to write Star Trek fanfic right now, I’d be interested in writing about an alternate world where Gary Mitchell doesn’t become a space god. Instead, he just hangs around the Enterprise, acting like a creep and exerting peer pressure on Kirk to do the same. In that alternate universe, maybe Kirk and Spock never become quite as close as they do in the actual timeline. I can easily imagine that dynamic we see in the opening moments continuing—Kirk having a nice moment with Spock every now and then, which is then ruined by Gary Mitchell and his douchenozzle behavior.
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Also, in that scenario, I don’t think Kirk ever gets to be as good a captain as he is in the original series. We remember Kirk fondly because he respects Spock’s intelligence (in spite of some good-natured ribbing that occasionally verges on xenophobia). The Kirk we get to know throughout the Original Series is often thoughtful and curious to a fault. He is, in fact, the overthinking turbo-nerd that Gary Mitchell tried to get rid of with a well-placed blonde seduction.
Of course, it’s also possible that Kirk and Mitchell might have had to break up in a less explicit fashion than what we see in this episode.
One final thought: In “The Cage,” Captain Pike tells us at great length about the burden of command and all the tough choices that he has to make, and it falls very flat. In “Where No Man Has Gone Before,” we see Kirk having to make a huge, terrible choice and struggle with the consequences, and it’s easy to get the sense that Kirk is feeling the weight of command in a way that he never has before. This hits home, and leaves us with a greater respect for Kirk’s willingness to do the right thing, even when it hurts. And to listen to the smart people around him—not just Spock, but the rest of his crew. This is one major reason why Star Trek‘s second pilot is so much better than its first.
This article was originally published at Happy Dancing, Charlie Jane Anders’ newsletter, available on Buttondown.
Charlie Jane Anders is the author of Victories Greater Than Death and Dreams Bigger Than Heartbreak, the first and second books in a new young-adult trilogy, along with the recent short story collection Even Greater Mistakes. She’s also the author of Never Say You Can’t Survive (August 2021), a book about how to use creative writing to get through hard times. Her other books include The City in the Middle of the Night and All the Birds in the Sky. Her fiction and journalism have appeared in The New York Times, the Washington Post, Slate, McSweeney’s, Mother Jones, the Boston Review, Tor.com, Tin House, Teen Vogue, Conjunctions,Wired Magazine, and other places. Her TED Talk, “Go Ahead, Dream About the Future” got 700,000 views in its first week. With Annalee Newitz, she co-hosts the podcast Our Opinions Are Correct.
Excellent article, thanks.
I was thinking about this very episode recently, and considered that if Mitchell had been less egotistical – and more intelligent – the outcome would have been far far worse for both his crewmates and the Federation at large….
“Creator Gene Roddenberry was forced to get rid of Number One”
That’s how Roddenberry told it, but there are conflicting accounts. In the book Inside Star Trek, Herb Solow (the Desilu VP who commissioned the series and oversaw its production) asserts that NBC supported the idea of a female Number One, but didn’t think Majel Barrett was experienced enough to carry a lead part (and may have disliked the idea of Roddenberry casting his mistress over a more seasoned actress). It was Roddenberry himself who chose to drop the character altogether rather than recasting, as he did with the other characters Desilu found underwhelming (including the doctor and the yeoman). That might be because the network objected to Spock too and Roddenberry considered him the more important character to fight for.
“Pike only wants to complain about how much he hates his job.”
To be fair, the story is about presenting Pike at his lowest ebb and showing how he regains his balance. Deep Space Nine‘s pilot did the same thing with Sisko, and Strange New Worlds‘s pilot did the same thing with Pike a second time. And we saw Kirk go through similar bouts of self-doubt, e.g. in “Balance of Terror.” Really, Pike and first-season Kirk were the exact same character on the page, differentiated only by performance. Kirk’s description in the writers’ bible is cribbed mostly verbatim from Pike’s description in the original series pitch.
“[Gary] is introduced as if he’s going to be a series regular”
To modern eyes, perhaps, but this was an era when anthologies were the classiest shows and even continuing series tried to emulate them by focusing heavily on guest stars. This was before home video and season sets, so each episode had to stand completely on its own with no dependence on others, in case you weren’t home to catch a given episode or a storm screwed up your reception. That meant that only guest stars could have real story arcs while the regulars had to stay unchanged from week to week, and that encouraged focusing more on the guests than the leads.
Indeed, Roddenberry’s famous “Wagon Train to the stars” pitch, misunderstood today to mean simply “Western in space,” was actually referring to Wagon Train‘s format of centering primarily on guest stars of the week, which was what he intended to do with Trek until Spock became the breakout star and the series ended up focusing more on him, Kirk, and McCoy. (Also to Wagon Train being a critically acclaimed adult drama, since GR wanted to sell the idea that Trek would be a classy adult show rather than the kids’ stuff that sci-fi TV usually was at that time.)
Your points about Kirk’s character development are interesting, but I disagree about “The Cage” being the worse pilot. Maybe its characters aren’t as engaging, but it’s a solid story in its own right, very well-made by ’60s TV standards, and by far the best solo Roddenberry script I’ve ever seen (though I’ve seen very little of his pre-Trek work).
I was a newly-minted teenager when the OG series aired and loved it. I especially loved “The Menagerie” 2-parter and thought Pike would’ve been more interesting to watch weekly than Kirk. Having watched Shatner overact on the short-lived “For the People,” I tolerated him in Trek. Spock and McCoy were the characters I most cared about. Story-wise, I thought, after finally seeing “The Cage,” that the original pilot was a better story, and more interesting than the second pilot was, even if the second one was more polished. I am thrilled that Pike has his own show now and that Anson Mount is the actor who has brought him back to life.
In fairness, Mitchell grabbing hold of the yeoman gives early emphasis to the ship shake problem. If you are not seated or near a railing, you are a loose cannon.
And according to some fanon: no blond lab tech, no David Marcus and no Genesis device. (OK, mixed blessings.)
I think there must have been more to Gary than the ladies man persona he presents or kirk wouldn’t have cared so much about him. He probably did aim a girl at young Kirk and I suspect he’s actually ashamed of that stunt and openly admitting it to Kirk was an early sign of his shift in personality. Gary could have filled the Id angle of the command triumvirate, later filled by McCoy. His relationship with Spock may not have been so bad. Spock does express regret for Mitchell’s death.
The author might want to rewatch the episode. Kirk and Mitchell took part in missions together prior to this episode, including one on the planet Dimorus, where they encountered rodent-like creatures that shot poisonous darts. Mitchell took one of the darts meant for Kirk, saving Kirk’s life but nearly dying himself. Mitchell might not be an ideal person but hardly what the author tries to paint. (Planet name and link back from Fan Site Memory Alpha)
I’m old enough to remember the late sixties and in those days Gary’s behavior was unprofessional but nowhere near as offensive as it seems today. He wasn’t intended to read as a douchebag, just a bit short of the perfect officer and gentleman. Flaws that his sudden superpowers bring to the fore.
I haven’t given much thought to Mitchell because he was a one-off character and was a douche. But watching the pilot, I was always impressed with how such an important character, the captain’s best friend and a senior officer who has served on the ship for at least several years, is offed in the very same episode. As CLB said in his comment above, apparently this wasn’t so unusual with the anthology, heavy emphasis on guest star format common for its time.
Since we’re doing SNW with a young Spock, it would be rather cool if at some point we introduce Gary Mitchell into the series. We would see that this earlier version of Mitchell already has that streak of arrogance to him and perhaps he and Spock don’t get on all that well personally, while still professionally work together alright.
The second season premiere of LOWER DECKS (called STRANGE ENERGIES) is kind of a sequel to the Gary Mitchell episode, with Ransom going Full Mitchell.
While I don’t think Mitchell was intended by the writers to come off as a “douche” (as princessroxana observed, the ’60s were a very different time), I agree that the episode is terrific precisely because it hinges on Kirk having to make a difficult choice, and one that reflects what kind of character he really was in that show (as opposed to how he’s caricatured in popular culture and the first couple of Abrams films). However, I also have to agree with CLB that The Cage isn’t nearly as bad as the article makes it out to be. Of course, I like my sci-fi on the boring side, so YMMV.
I thought that the Dehner and Mitchell characters were supposed to be opposites in temperament. She appears to be caring, where he’s not. She appears to be cold, where he’s not. When Dehner gains the power, she acts with benevolence to Kirk, where Mitchell acts with malevolence.
I believe Kirk was teaching a class and was super hard on his students
I’ve always wanted to see a story done where another ship visits the planet of Kirk and Mitchel’s final confrontation and finds a tombstone with Kirk’s name wrong “James R. Kirk.” There’s a good tale in there somewhere.
@8/garreth: “Where No Man” tells us that Kirk requested Gary on his first command — which was not the Enterprise as people today seem oddly inclined to assume, but according to The Making of Star Trek was a small “destroyer-equivalent” vessel. (After all, the Kelvin films to the contrary, no plausibly depicted military fleet is going to give command of a top-of-the-line capital ship to a first-time captain.) The implication is that they’ve been serving together inseparably since then, that Kirk brought him to the E from his previous command (which is how it’s been depicted in the various novel and comics portrayals, most recently my own The Captain’s Oath). So Mitchell would not be part of the Enterprise crew while Pike is still in command.
However, we know that Kirk (Paul Wesley) will appear in season 2 of Strange New Worlds, so I wouldn’t be surprised if Gary Mitchell appeared as part of Kirk’s own crew.
And roxana’s right — Mitchell’s womanizing would’ve been seen in those days as charmingly roguish, and you can find any number of other characters in the same vein, such as Napoleon Solo on The Man from UNCLE. Dirk Benedict practically made a career out of it between Starbuck on Battlestar Galactica and Face on The A-Team. And heck, Han Solo fits the trope too.
So the idea of portraying Mitchell that way wasn’t to say he was a creep from the start, but to make him a flawed but likeable figure, so that we’d find it tragic when the power amplified his flaws and led to his downfall.
I wonder if Gary Mitchell was the inspiration for the douche character of Lieutenant Gordon Malloy the Captain’s best friend in The Orville TV series.
Different opinion for me: Mitchell was a Lt. Cmdr. and manned the helm, as Number One did in The Cage (helm and nav were probably reversed by the director so that the camera could zoom in on Mitch during the zapping). We see some command authority when he snaps at Lt. Kelso for not paying attention to the engineering circuits. My own theory is that he might have been Kirk’s Number One from his earlier ships and that Kirk had simply brought his best friend along as he rose through the ranks. His fun-loving personality kept Kirk from becoming way too serious and strict, helping him to become a very young but popular captain. I think Spock was only the Science Officer in this second pilot and afterward, he did double duty, which led to his promotion to Cmdr.
Well, I for one enjoyed Charlie Jane’s delightful takedown of Gary Mitchell. Just because he didn’t seem quite such a louche douchenozzle at the time (I too remember watching WNMHGB back in the day and thought he was a bit of a dick but not quite as offensive as he seems now) doesn’t mean we shouldn’t call him on it now. Of course there were plenty of male characters in shows of the time that acted in similarly inappropriate ways, even some I was a big fan of as a kid (Napoleon Solo, as someone pointed out, for one), but the rest of the Enterprise crew did not, by and large, act that way. If Gary does make an appearance on SNW I’ll be curious to see how they’ll portray his friendship with Kirk and whether they play up his douchenozzling behavior, given that pretty much everyone knows what’s in store for him.
It’s interesting to wonder how the late Gary Mitchell would have got on with ‘Bones’ McCoy – it’s amusing to imagine the good doctor be the sensible adult (as opposed to the old coot) in a working relationship.
Also, no lie, it amuses me more than it should to imagine Cadet Tilly (of NCC-1031) being personally acquainted with “books on legs” Cadet Kirk and becoming an absolute picture when she reacts to revelations of the various shenanigans Mr Serious got up to when he actually hit the space lanes (“The Kobayashi Maru thing wasn’t a fluke, Holy Moses!”).
Meanwhile Captain Burnham learns all about the Deeds of Mister Spock and mostly nods “Yes, I could see that one coming” except, oddly enough, for the bit where Enterprise blows up a Romulan who looked exactly like her adoptive father.
I imagine her reaction to that one would be quite memorable.
Also, I have this wonderful mental image of Far Future Starfleet members coming up to Ensign Tilly hoping for some juicy Jim Kirk stories, only to realise that most of Sylvia Tilly’s experiences with James T. make him sound like either a swot or an absolute narc.
@14 – “After all, the Kelvin films to the contrary, no plausibly depicted military fleet is going to give command of a top-of-the-line capital ship to a first-time captain.”
Captain Sulu would like to talk to you on the Excelsior. Chekov at least had served as a first officer. There’s no indication in the films that Sulu was a captain before he appeared in TUC. Yes, I know that at one point Sulu was supposed to become captain of the Excelsior but Shatner shot that idea down.. It never made it to film or perhaps even shooting script and in TFF Sulu’s still a commander.
kkozoriz@21: The operative phrase in that quote is ‘no plausibly depicted military fleet’.
“He makes a big point of slouching when everybody else on the bridge sits upright…”
He didn’t look very slouchish to me. If he did, is that evidence that he’s an “asshole”?
“—and where Kirk is professional to the point of brusqueness with an attractive young yeoman, Mitchell is clearly excited to sexually harass her.”
He didn’t say anything to Yoeman Smith at that point (or make any gestures, etc.).
“When Dr. Dehner, the episode’s other major guest star, shows up, Mitchell immediately tries to hit on her, only to have her insinuate that he has a bad reputation.”
The alleged “hitting on her” line was, Mitchell saying, “Improving the breed, Doctor? Is that your line?”
Note here that both Gary and Dr. Dehner are telepathic (Gary much more so) and Dr. Dehner is in fact interested in improving the human breed.
Dr. Dehner replies, “I heard that’s more your specialty, Commander, line included.”
This isn’t a comment on any reputation he might have relationshipwise. Gary’s record (shown on the view screen later) shows he’s telepathic and that members of his “line” were telepathic as well going back six generations.
“Mitchell then calls Dr. Dehner a “walking freezer unit,” and visibly sulks.”
Mitchell’s comment wasn’t after he’d sexually harassed her, or hit on her in any way, he’d asked about something he knew about her from telepathic contact and inference from her line of work (he’s not even necessarily consciously aware of any telepathic contact with her). Yet Mitchell still responds (to Kelso) as if he had been rebuked from hitting on her and had been rebuked, even though that wasn’t what happened, because he was telepathic and sensed she wasn’t interested in him and reacted in an immature emotional and insulting way to that perceived lack of interest. This shows a problem with telepathy, the possibility of bad emotional responses to casual thoughts a person chose not to express.
The entire scene is foreshadowing. Especially Gary’s emotional reaction to Dr. Dehner’s unvoiced lack of sexual or romantic interest in him.
“When the Enterprise actually passes through the galactic barrier, everyone is on edge—so Mitchell makes a point of grabbing the attractive yeoman’s hand and holding on to it for an uncomfortably long time. Seriously, he’s got her hand for at least a minute, even when the ship is out of control and he’s supposed to be steering.”
Yes. Without looking back, Gary sensed that Yeoman Smith was terrified and he responded to it. (Again an indicator of his telepathy.) Not only did Gary also seem to be terrified, but Spock’s tone of voice etc. suggested he was as well, (“Deflectors say there’s something there, sensors say there isn’t.”) Another possible issue with telepathy is the possibility of fear being read from one person and broadcasted to others. This could explain part of Spock seeming to be scared.
Previous to the episode, Gary took a poisonous dart thrown at Kirk, that Gary mentioned was “meant” for Kirk. This also suggesting a telepathic awareness of the intentions of the alien rodent who threw the dart.
Another interesting point is that Gary had previously had extended telepathic contact with an alien on Deneb (Gary described them as a “super-nova”) which had a significant effect on him (Kirk mentioned being worried about him since then), possibly also affecting his personality at the time of the story.
Yes! Also, one of my favorite things about that episode is that Kirk appeals to Dr. Dehner as a professional.
@23 – If that’s the definition then none of Starfleet qualifies
“Clunky?”
The official complaint has been that ‘The Cage’ was “too cerebral”. I always took that to mean “too intelligent for what the studio expected from the audience”. The 2nd pilot was not as good.
@27/Karl Smithe: “The official complaint has been that ‘The Cage’ was “too cerebral”. I always took that to mean “too intelligent for what the studio expected from the audience”.”
Desilu vice president Oscar Katz clarified the “too cerebral” thing in a speech to a 1972 convention audience (transcribed here by Fact Trek). According to him, the real issue was that NBC president Grant Tinker didn’t think he could present “The Cage” to advertisers as a typical episode of the series, because it was too special, the kind of big, impressive story you’d do maybe once or twice a season. It wasn’t that they didn’t want an intelligent show; it was simply that a pilot needs to represent what a typical episode will be like and how much it will cost to make, and “The Cage” was simply too exceptional a story to work for that purpose. So according to Katz, Tinker took the blame for choosing the wrong story for them to make first, so he didn’t hold it against Roddenberry and asked him to try again with a pilot that would represent a more routine episode.
Inside Star Trek largely agrees, but offers a slightly different take on it. According to it, “The Cage” was made at a time when Desilu only produced one sitcom and survived by leasing out its facilities to other production companies. So to test whether Desilu could really produce a complicated science fiction series like Trek, NBC picked “The Cage” to be the pilot because it would be a big, elaborate enough episode to prove they could handle the production requirements. So that meant they spent a lot more on it than they would on a typical episode, which is why they were asked to go back and do a more conventionally budgeted episode so NBC could estimate how much the season would cost to make. In effect, “The Cage” was made to sell Desilu to NBC, and “Where No Man…” was made to sell Star Trek to NBC.
Inside also suggests that the “too cerebral” line was just a cover story for the press, that NBC’s real concern was that “The Cage” was too sexy.
@28/CLB: That is interesting if Katz’ justification for not committing to Star Trek as a series based on “The Cage” is true: that it was “too special.” Contrast that to a couple decades later through today, and it’s a given that the pilot episode for most dramatic series begin with a bang, from “Encounter at Farpoint” to “Emissary” to “Caretaker” and more.
@29/garreth: Well, technically, I’m pretty sure that none of those were pilots, but premieres. We tend to use the word “pilot” for both, but strictly speaking, it means a “demo” episode made on its own to sell the series, while I’m pretty sure TNG, DS9, etc. got full season orders up front. So in those cases, I suppose, the budgeting was calculated based on other factors.
Although it’s true that there was a tendency from the ’70s through the ’00s to produce TV movies that were backdoor pilots for series that might or might not get picked up.
Interesting… might this be why so many premiere episodes are titled “Pilot?”
@18 — “Well, I for one enjoyed Charlie Jane’s delightful takedown of Gary Mitchell. Just because he didn’t seem quite such a louche douchenozzle at the time (I too remember watching WNMHGB back in the day and thought he was a bit of a dick but not quite as offensive as he seems now) doesn’t mean we shouldn’t call him on it now.”
Wow, this is so incredibly close to my thoughts on this article, I almost could have written it myself. I was only 7 years old the first time I saw WNMHGB, but I remember how the conflict piqued my nascent critical interest. I couldn’t understand why the seemingly sharp, professional, and insightful Captain Kirk was being taken in by the slothful and childish Mitchell. Even the explanation that Mitchell had nearly died in the service of his friend, felt more like an excuse for putting up with a jerk him than a reason for supporting a loyal crewmate. I was actually relieved when Mitchell died.
I doubt I would have gone so far as to claim WNMHGB superior to “The Cage,” but I can see the argument that WNMHGB does a better job of showing the burden of command that “The Cage” wanted us to accept as given. So, overall, great analysis, Charlie Jane.
@31/Malevolentpixy: “Interesting… might this be why so many premiere episodes are titled “Pilot?””
Probably. Since it might be the only episode that ever gets made, I guess there isn’t really a reason to give it a title other than the series title. (Although there are exceptions, like the Babylon 5 pilot movie The Gathering. And there are probably cases of series that get up-front pickups but whose first episodes are still called “Pilot,” since it’s often used for premieres in general.)
I think this episode was not so much about depicting Mitchell as a “douche”. He had his good sides. The point is that he was a bad friend to Kirk, i.e. he brought out his lower characteristics. Spock proved later on to be a good friend because he brought out what was best in Kirk.
Thank you for the review 😊