Unseen Trek: "Where No Man Has Gone Before" (FINAL REVISED DRAFT)

Still from "Where No Man Has Gone Before" (1965)

Written by Samuel A. Peeples
FINAL REVISED DRAFT, dated July 9, 1965
(with further revised pages inserted, dated July 14 & 15, 1965)

Report and Analysis by David Eversole

Originally posted at Orion Press

This one matches the aired pilot pretty closely with one major and a few small exceptions.

The major one — a page and a half opening teaser (which I understand is on the alternate version of the episode which was prepared for the execs).

The Teaser (for the record, Peeples (or the studio typist) misspells a couple words, but I've typed them as was):

FADE IN:

PHOTO PLATE - TIGHT ON EARTH'S GALAXY

CAMERA PULLING BACK to establish the saucer-shape, the vast cloud of suns and planets.

                                                        KIRK'S VOICE

                                       This is our galaxy -- a gigantic cloud of 

                                       suns and planets, in which our Earth is

                                       but a pinpoint, one speck of dust. The

                                       galaxy is so vast that even traveling at

                                       millions of miles per hour it would still

                                       take millions of years to cross through it.

Then CAMERA PANNING along the photo plate away from Earth's galaxy to reveal the gulf of empty, black space dotted only by a few milky spots of phospherescence which mark other galaxies millions of light years away.

                                                        KIRK'S VOICE

                                       And yet, as incredible as it seems, it is

                                       itself only one of untold billions of other

                                       galaxies, each separated by voids of

                                       emptiness so vast that time, matter

                                       and energy may not even mean the

                                       same out there.

EXT. SPACE - U. S. S. ENTERPRISE (STOCK)

Our starship APPROACHING CAMERA through fairly dense star background, at first only a pinpoint in the distance, then flashing into view and PAST CAMERA.

                                                        KIRK'S VOICE

                                       The U. S. S. Enterprise. Until now its

                                       task of space law regulation, contact

                                       with Earth's colonies, and investigation

                                       of alien life, had always kept the vessel

                                       within galaxy limits.

EXT. OUTERSTELLAR SPACE - U. S. S. ENTERPRISE

moving AWAY FROM CAMERA, but now using only a single PLATE of star motion -- our combination of this and the preceding scene giving the impression of the U. S. S. Enterprise moving out of the galaxy and through thinning stars toward that black void of emptiness beyond.

                                                        KIRK'S VOICE

                                       But on star date 1312.4, its massive

                                       space-warp engines brought it to the

                                       edge of that black void. 

                                                  (pause) 

                                       My name is James Kirk...

                                       commanding the Enterprise. Our

                                       mission -- a probe out into where

                                       no man had gone before.

As the U. S. S. Enterprise moves away and out of sight, TITLE ZOOMS INTO FULL FRAME:

"STAR TREK"

OUTERSTELLAR SPACE STOCK (to be selected).

OPENING CREDITS

FADE OUT.

Mitchell is shown walking along a corridor, nodding to passing crewmen, passes Yeoman Smith, gives her a "special male approving look." Then he dashes for the elevator with Kirk and Spock.

No mention of who the first officer is.

Kirk's gravestone is described as a simple white cross like those that adorn the graves in national cemeteries. His initial is "R" as in the aired episode.

After Spock tells Kirk that he too felt for Mitchell, he continues with: "I hated every minute of being logical about it."

SAMUEL A. PEEPLES (1917-1997): Best known as the writer of Star Trek's second pilot, "Where No Man Has Gone Before," but some people forget that he also contributed an episode ("Beyond The Farthest Star") for the animated Star Trek series, and wrote an unused script for the second Star Trek movie (Worlds That Never Were) which discarded the character of Khan and, instead, involved two travelers from an alternate dimension facing off against Kirk and company. Peeples has an impressive array of credits on other television series as writer, series creator and producer. They include: Wanted: Dead or Alive, Bonanza, Burke's Law, The Legend of Jesse James (which he created), A Man Called Shenandoah, and The New Animated Adventures of Flash Gordon.

Editor's Note: A different version of Kirk's narration excerpted above can be found in the workprint release of the second pilot, available on the season three Blu-Ray release, and in these segments on YouTube.

Image courtesy of Trek Core.

This article was originally published by Orion Press and is reprinted by permission of publisher Randall Landers. All rights revert to the original authors.

Unseen Trek: "Where No Man Has Gone Before" (FIRST DRAFT)

Still from workprint version of "Where No Man Has Gone Before" (1965)

Written by Samuel A. Peeples
FIRST DRAFT, dated May 27, 1965

Report and Analysis by David Eversole

Originally posted at Orion Press

Peeples' first draft, amazingly, was changed relatively little — it is about 85% what was finally filmed. Some names are different — here we have Lieutenant Clark Mitchell, Lieutenant Leroy Kelso and Ship's Doctor Johnson (Johnson is only referenced by his last name once, the senior staff are simply tagged as Ship's Doctor, Ship's Engineer, Ship's Physicist, etc.).

Some differences between this script and what aired:

• The action opens with the Kirk log detailed in my review of the shooting script, then cuts directly to the bridge; no introductory chess game between Kirk and Spock, no first meeting with Mitchell in the elevator.
• There is no mention of stardates. One of Kirk's logs opens with, "Captain's Log, Report 197."
• It is stated in the narrative that Spock is senior to Mitchell. Spock is described as red-hued, much as in Roddenberry's first series outline. Perhaps Peeples never saw "The Cage."
• The Valiant was lost 132 years ago. The Valiant's recorder is brought into an engineering airlock by the tractor beam, not beamed directly onboard via the transporter.
• Mitchell is even more flirtatious than in the aired version--he even refers to Yeoman Smith as "kitten." Spock is the one who knew and worked with Mitchell for years. Although friends, Mitchell and Kirk are not as close as in the aired version, and there is no talk of any shared history.
• When the Enterprise passes through the barrier at the edge of the galaxy, everyone is enveloped in a greenish glow and bolts of green "electricity" shoot from their hands and feet.
• A mass funeral is held in the Ship's Chapel (described as containing symbols such as the Christian Cross and the Jewish Star of David, as well as several unknown alien religious icons) and the bodies of the dead are consigned to space.
• Much of the action then transpires as aired, though in this draft Kirk does not divert to Delta Vega with the intent of stranding Mitchell. Kelso and three others are strangled onboard the Enterprise, then Clark Mitchell, using his mental powers, diverts the ship to an unnamed planet which he beams down to with Elizabeth Dehner.
• Kirk regains control of the ship, and, armed with a laser rifle, beams down after them. He makes his way across the mountainous terrain toward Mitchell and Dehner, suddenly finds that the blue sand he is crossing is quicksand. He sinks fast, but pulls a small gun, armed with a steel barb, from his belt, fires it toward a rock wall. A thin nylon-like rope shoots out and the barb embeds itself in the wall. Kirk drags himself free of the quicksand.
• Using his power, Mitchell blocks Kirk's path with a wall of blue flames. Kirk, using his barb/rope weapon, swings over the flames, lands safely on the other side. Mitchell then attempts to stop him with a gale-force wind, but Kirk continues on doggedly, eventually confronts the two. Things play out as in the aired version, but in the final fight, there is no grave or tombstone. Weakened by Dehner's dying blast of energy, Mitchell is at the edge of a cliff, below him is a thousand-foot drop. He and Kirk fight, and Mitchell, weakened, is forced over the edge. Kirk extends a hand to him, Mitchell grabs hold, but he is too weak, lets go and plummets to his death.
• Onboard the Enterprise, Spock agrees with Kirk that Mitchell and Dehner should be listed as casualties since they did not ask for what befell them. Kirk and Spock smile at each other, and for the first time there seems to be the beginning of a friendship between the two.

SAMUEL A. PEEPLES (1917-1997): Best known as the writer of Star Trek's second pilot, "Where No Man Has Gone Before," but some people forget that he also contributed an episode ("Beyond The Farthest Star") for the animated Star Trek series, and wrote an unused script for the second Star Trek movie (Worlds That Never Were) which discarded the character of Khan and, instead, involved two travelers from an alternate dimension facing off against Kirk and company. Peeples has an impressive array of credits on other television series as writer, series creator and producer. They include: Wanted: Dead or Alive, Bonanza, Burke's Law, The Legend of Jesse James (which he created), A Man Called Shenandoah, and The New Animated Adventures of Flash Gordon.

Editor's Note: Although this draft does have Kirk say, "Ship's log, Report 197" in it (on page 67) it also used the stardate system. For example, at the beginning of the script (on page 2), Kirk says, "On stardate 1312.6." Read more about the origins of stardates in this previous post.

Image courtesy of Trek Core.

This article was originally published by Orion Press and is reprinted by permission of publisher Randall Landers. All rights revert to the original authors.

Captain's Log, Stardate: Unknown

Captain Kirk (William Shatner) records a log in "Dagger of the Mind"

The number of web pages and fanzine articles Star Trek fans have devoted to justifying and explaining the franchise's "stardate" system is incalculable. I won't attempt to step on their toes here; rather, I am interested in the behind-the-scenes history of the stardate system on the original Star Trek television series.

Here's the history of the stardate system according to a magazine authorized by Paramount Pictures to promote the thirtieth anniversary of the franchise in 1996:

Few Star Trek topics generate as much heated debate as the stardate system, the time calculation used by the United Federation of Planets which was introduced to the classic series by Gene Roddenberry, who borrowed the notion from the Julian date currently used by astronomers. Developed by Joseph Justus Scaliger (who named his dating system after his father, Julius Caesar Scaliger), the Julian time calculation measures the number of days elapsed since 1 Jan. 4713 BC, the date derived by Joseph Justus. In the case of the 30th anniversary of the air date for the original series (8 Sept. 1996), that's 2,450,335 days. To make it easier, astronomers only use the last five digits – making 50335 the Julian date for the Star Trek anniversary. For Star Trek, Roddenberry added a single digit after the decimal point (50335.2) to represent one of the 10 time measurements in a 24-hour period... Roddenberry borrowed the five-digit Julian date, shortening it to four digits and renaming it "stardate." Not a precise measurement of each episode’s time frame, the stardate was simply a reminder that the series was set in the future. (Star Trek 30 Years Special Collector's Edition, 1996, p.81)

Like a lot of promotional material related to Star Trek, this account gives complete credit to series creator Gene Roddenberry, but a little research suggests that the truth of the matter is more complicated.

According to biographer Joel Engel, when Roddenberry wanted a futuristic way to measure time, he called writer Samuel Peeples.  Peeples had been a consultant on 'The Menagerie' and wrote the second pilot which sold the series:

The two men had a few drinks while brainstorming, and soon began chuckling over their imaginative 'stardate' computations. 'We tried to set up a system that would be unidentifiable unless you knew how we did it,' Peeples says.

They marked off sections on a pictorial depiction of the known universe and extrapolated how much earth time would elapse when traveling between given points, taking into account that the Enterprise's warp engines would be violating Einstein's theory that nothing could exceed the speed of light. They concluded that the 'time continuum' would therefore vary from place to place, and that earth time may actually be lost in travel. 'So the stardate on Earth would be one thing, but the stardate on Alpha Centauri would be different,' Peeples says. 'We thought this was hilarious, because everyone would say, 'How come this date is before that date when this show is after that show?' The answer was because you were in a different sector of the universe.'

--Joel Engel, Gene Roddenberry: The Myth and the Man Behind Star Trek (1994), p.64

Whether or not you accept Peeple's account, one thing's for certain: the stardate system doesn't appear in Roddenberry's final draft of 'The Menagerie' (dated November 20, 1964), nor does it appear in the finished episode. The first time the familiar dating system does appear is in Samuel Peeple's first draft of 'Where No Man Has Gone Before,' dated May 27, 1965:

The script went through a number of revisions, first by Peeples and then by Roddenberry, but the stardate system as established in that first draft was relatively unchanged by the time the 'final draft' of the teleplay, dated July 8, 1965 (some additional revisions would occur after this date):

In the documentary adaptation of Herb Solow and Bob Justman's Inside Star Trek: The Real Story (1998), script researcher Kellam de Forest recalls:

The script originally had dates in it like 2362, and months, and days. I thought that sounded a little awkward for the twenty-third, twenty-second century, so I thought that there should be another dating system.  So I checked, that, yes, astronomer's had a way of dating called [the] Julian Day System.

With respect to the plethora of contributions he and his firm made to Star Trek, in this case the passage of thirty-three years appears to have clouded Mr. de Forest's memory. After reading the first draft of the script, as well as the July 14, 1965 de Forest Research report for the episode, it's obvious that 'Where No Man Has Gone Before' never utilized a conventional dating scheme. However, the archival evidence does indicate that the Julian day system was recommended by de Forest Research (and not Roddenberry, as the magazine I quoted earlier stated). There are two comments from the de Forest Research report for the second pilot addressing the use of stardates:

(Page 2, Scene 3) 

But on star date 1312.4 – Astronomers already have adopted a method of dating which makes possible the counting of the number of days elapsed between widely separated observations called 'the Julian Day'. Today July 14, 1965 is 2,438,956 in Julian days.  A Julian cycle is 7,980 years, and the Julian day measurement would be scientifically authentic. Suggest “on Julian B 1312.4”.  This date would be August 5, 3271.

(Page 65, Scene 175) 

C-1277.1 to 1313.7 – We presume dates are in days, Kirk would only be 36 days  old.  For conventional dating suggest 3235 to 3271.  For Kirk’s birth date in Julian system figure would be in millions.  If desired, can be calculated.

Although de Forest Research made many script comments that were incorporated into the program, these suggestions were ignored. Roddenberry chose to stick to the stardate terminology rather than name-check the Julian day, and the confusing gravestone markings in the script can be seen on the prop in the finished episode.

Kirk's gravestone from 'Where No Man Has Gone Before'

de Forest Research would reference the Julian day in their research reports for three early first season episodes ('The Corbomite Maneuver,' 'What Are Little Girls Made of?' and 'Dagger of the Mind'), but their attempts to get stardates to match the real-life dating system were eventually abandoned. By the end of the first season, their efforts concerning stardates dealt with three issues: stardates that didn't match the numbering scheme of each season, stardates that weren't numbered sequentially within a script, and stardates that directly conflicted with other episodes. Getting stardates to be progress sequentially from episode to episode was a lost cause, since episodes were often aired out of production order.  An explanation to this problem, similar to the one Samuel Peeples recalled in his interview with Joel Engel, can be found in the Star Trek Guide for potential writers:

In short, the stardate system was probably invented by Roddenberry and Peeples for use in the second pilot, not Roddenberry alone. Although the system they designed had similarities to the Julian day system, which was recommended by de Forest Research, Roddenberry was probably unaware of the real-life dating scheme, and de Forest Research's to get the series to abide by its rules were eventually dropped.

Thanks to TrekBBS user Sir Rhosis for the 'Where No Man Has Gone Before' script excerpts. His script reviews for the original series at Orion Press have been an invaluable resource and come highly recommended.

Images courtesy of Trek Core.

Sources:

The Gene Roddenberry Star Trek Television Series Collection (1964-1969)

Gene Roddenberry: The Myth and the Man Behind Star Trek (Joel Engel, 1994)

Star Trek 30 Years Special Collector's Edition (1996)

Inside Star Trek - The Real Story (Documentary, 1998)