Geological TOS Review: Episode #3 - "Where No Man Has Gone Before"

"Where No Man Has Gone Before" was the second pilot produced for TOS, but actually the third episode broadcast in the United States. 

Captain Kirk has the command of the Enterprise when a distress signal from a spaceship, lost years before along the borders of the galaxy, is received. Following the signal, they soon encounter an energy field. As they try to fly into the field, impulses of energy cause some members of the crew to develop extrasensory perception abilities. Both helmsman Gary Mitchell and ship's psychiatrist Dr. Elizabeth Dehner quickly develope god-like powers, threatening to destroy the Enterprise. As there is now way to control Mitchell, Kirk decides to leave Mitchell stranded on the nearby planet Delta Vega, a planet similar to Earth except it has a slightly smaller size, with an automated lithium cracking station operating there. The set of the barren and rocky landscape used to show the planet's surface was recycled from the episode (and rejected original pilot) "The Cage."

The matte painting of the cracking station on Delta Vega.

Mining an extraterrestrial world is still fiction, but science shows that it may be profitable. Asteroids are rich in platinum, iridium, palladium and gold. One hundred tons of rock from an asteroid might today be worth more than 9,000 dollars, compared to just 60 dollars worth the same amount of terrestrial rocks. Estimated 5,000 to ten millions of asteroids can be found near Earth and companies are already dreaming of future prospecting and mining spaceflights. Mining asteroids would not necessarily benefit Earth, as bringing the ore to Earth would be extremely costly, but might benefit nearby colonies, outposts or industrial complexes.

Mitchell escapes from his prison in the cracking station. Dr. Dehner, now also developing unknown powers, is able to distract and injure Mitchell, but is killed in the attempt to stop him. In the end Kirk must face the injured and weakened, but still dangerous Mitchell. After a hand-to-hand battle in the mountains and a ripped shirt, Kirk uses a phaser rifle to create a rock slide, killing Mitchell.

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