"Where No Man Has Gone Before" is a must watch for any sci-fi fan. It is by far my most favorite episode so far, and I find that it will be hard for any episode to surpass it. I don't want to spoil it, so I will only give a short summary.
Basically, the United Space Ship Enterprise has discovered a piece of a destroyed ship. Captain Kirk and his crew then try to determine what caused the destruction; after all, knowledge of what caused that destruction can be used to prevent any future destruction from happening. Also, the USS Enterprise's goal seems to be to explore and seek out knowledge for the betterment and protection of mankind.
Unfortunately, things go awry, and a crew member is electrocuted in a strange storm of the likes no one has ever seen. I especially love how the show chooses to portray the storm. It is truly eerie, and I get goosebumps imagining experiencing that in person. That is what I love about Star Trek--it truly is a Twilight Zone in space. Strange, bizarre things happen to the USS Enterprise constantly, things that have never happened to anyone else. These phenomena are what drives the show for me. I am at the edge of my seat waiting to find out how Captain Kirk, Spock, and the rest of the crew will solve the conundrum.
What I especially love about "Where No Man Has Gone Before" is how I had an epiphany about God. Seeing how the Godlike crew member acts and behaves allows me to imagine what being a Superior being might be like. It is not so far fetched; even if you look at the Bible, you would see God treating humans like play things that can be created or destroyed in the blink of an eye. It is all dependent on how God might feel at the time.
"Where No Man Has Gone Before" also gives us an enlightening metaphor: the comparison of God to humans is the same as the comparison of humans to animals. God can do whatever He or She chooses to do with humans, just as humans can do whatever humans choose to do with animals. If the human wants to kill, skin, eat, torture, force breed, or cage the animal, the human can choose to do so. It kind of is scary to think about how much power we hold, and then imagine that power held by a God, only then can we begin to understand God's power.
There is one line in the episode that really strikes at me. When Captain Kirk confronts the Godlike crew member, Kirk emphasizes the necessity of Compassion in a God. This God is without Compassion, seeing the crew as animals or play things. That's where the epiphany dawned on me. God must have Compassion. To not have it, humanity is doomed, and in the same way humans must have Compassion towards animals. To not, then the animal kingdom is doomed. It makes me sad to think about, especially since many people show little to no compassion towards animals. People like to eat meat, and they want to eat all the meat they can every day of their life. But imagine if there was a God that liked to eat people, and He or She chose to eat people every day of His or Her life. You know how terrifying that would be?
Anyway, I know that was a wild tangent, but it is something that occurred to me while watching this episode. Overall, I found "Where No Man Has Gone Before" phenomenal, and the show is hard pressed to live up to it. I have a feeling, however, this show is going to deliver, and I can't wait to watch the rest!
10 out of 10.
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