📺 Watched: Star Trek TOS S1E3 & S1E4

04 Sep, 2026

📺 Watched: Star Trek The Original Series S1E3: "Where No Man Has Gone Before" & S1E4: "The Naked Time".

I've been loosely following along with the companion book, These Are the Voyages, and reading the various production notes. I skipped a few bits in between episodes (mostly about casting—for instance I didn't read how DeForest Kelley came on board after filming the second pilot (S1E3)).

S1E3: This is the second pilot shot after "The Cage". There are two things very evident in this episode:

1. They re-used many of the costumes and set design from the first pilot, which makes for a very different visual experience than what we get in every other TOS episode;
2. They're still not quite sure what to do with the characters, and Dr. McCoy is missing after showing up in "The Man Trap" and "Charlie X"" without any mention of why he's not there.

The episode is pretty good and sees some good drama between characters. There are some pretty significant gaps between scenes as the evolution of Gary Mitchell into a superior being continues, but for a 45 minute show you can only do so much. Those eyes are creepy¹. This was a solid story choice for a second pilot.

S1E4: Aka the one where the crew gets drunk. OK it's not that simple, but it's a plot device that works really well. We start off with a creepy frozen outpost where crew members are frozen in place (one was showering with their clothes on, whom we did not see), while another is found strangled. There are some dark moments when the first infected crewmember tries to kill himself (and eventually succeeds on the biobed, despite McCoy's assertion that he should have lived based on the severity of his injuries). The sickness spreads via contact and basically renders the crew unable to perform their duties. But that's not the entire problem! The planet they're visiting is in the process of destruction, and the Enterprise is in a precarious orbit that requires quick maneuvers. One crewmember takes control of the ship, and the pressing danger is that they're going to burn up in the atmosphere unless they can regain control.

It's a heavy episode but works very well and I liked it better than the first three episodes (four, including "The Cage"). Leonard Nimoy even gets a chance to do some great acting after he's touched by Nurse Chapel (who proclaims her love for him) and loses control of his emotions.

Actually — something that I liked before his loss of control was Spock rushing through the decks of the ship trying to problem-solve. It reminds me of how he had to run the entire ship in the latest Strange New Worlds episode "Off-Hour". That was cool.

EDIT: I didn't mean "Off-Hour". I meant "Level-Five Transporter Accident".

I kind of feel like watching TNG's follow-up, "The Naked Now", but that's one I've usually skipped and never watched in full. It likely doesn't hold up but it has me interested.

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