Beyond the Farthest Star (episode)

Kirk's crew come across an ancient derelict vessel, but something is still living inside it. (Series Premiere)

Summary
En route to investigate, the Enterprise suddenly experiences severe hypergravitational effects from Questar M-17's negative star mass. The starship gets pulled towards the remnants of the star, but manages to achieve a standard orbit.

The crew discover a huge damaged pod ship of unknown alien origin. It turns out this vessel is the source of the radio emissions. Kirk orders Sulu to put the Enterprise alongside the ancient starship, and then he asks Spock for readings on the ship. Spock reports that the temperature is absolute zero and that there is no energy in the ship to support life or send the radio messages. The only thing detected is a magnetic reading that could be normal for the metal used in the ship's construction. To Kirk's questions as to whether the metal or design can be identified, Spock answers, "Negative to both, Captain. Unknown alloy, harder and lighter than any registered metal. It is not a recorded galactic starship design. Retro analysis of the ship's spectrum dates it as having been in orbit here for slightly more than 300 million years."

Kirk decides to board the impressively-designed starship with Scotty and Dr. McCoy, so they strap on their life support belts and beam over. The ship appears to have been built by an insectoid race. Spock remarks, "The hexagonal shape of the windows suggests a similarity to natural insect designs of Earth, the honeycombs of bees; the individual cells are shaped precisely like this." Scotty marvels, "Would you look at this, now. This metal isn't cast or rolled; it was drawn into filaments and spun." Kirk is fascinated and adds, "Like a spider spins its web." Making a scientific observation, Spock says, "A lighter and stronger material than anything we have now." Kirk then notices something about the ship and remarks, "Look, every pod – they've all been burst open." Scotty agrees, "Aye, from the inside, from the looks of them." McCoy conjectures, "Must have been some accident to get almost every pod." Spock refutes this statement, "''Accidents seldom have such system, Dr. McCoy. I believe we must consider the alternative possibility. That the crew of this ship destroyed her... themselves.''"

Kirk contacts the Enterprise and reaches Lieutenant Uhura. Kirk asks her, "Lieutenant, are you still getting that radio signal from this ship?" She replies, "Negative, captain. It stopped transmitting when you beamed aboard." Kirk then requests she keep a transporter lock on them because he has decided to investigate the inside of the strange spaceship. Spock registers a slight energy reading on his tricorder. He tells Kirk that it seems the ship is receiving the energy being generated by the away team and that the craft is apparently storing up the energy. The whole ship was made for just that purpose.

When the Enterprise crew enter the control center of the ship, the door seals behind them and an interference field prevents communicators and phasers from operating. The source of this field turns out to be a device attached to the navigational console. Spock describes it as "not part of the normal equipment; it's like something they jury-rigged during an emergency." The field's purpose seems to have been to shield the control center from an intruder.

Further investigation is interrupted when something begins trying to break through the door of the control center. A log entry begins playing, explaining that the original crew chose to destroy their vessel to avoid carrying a malevolent entity to other worlds. As the door collapses and explosions begins to destroy the control center, the interference field fails and the landing party is beamed back aboard the Enterprise.

After materializing in the transporter room, they discover that the the malevolent entity has beamed aboard with them. It takes over control of the ship's systems, using the Enterprise's phasers to destroy the insectoid craft. The entity wants to use the Enterprise to take it away from the dead star. But Spock has placed the navigation console inside a static shield, so the entity cannot steer the ship. However, the entity has taken the crew hostage. Kirk acts as if he is obeying the entity, but actually plans to use the slingshot effect to break out of orbit. The entity, thinking Kirk is going to crash the Enterprise into the star, flees for its life while the Enterprise frees itself from Questar's gravitational pull, leaving the creature to orbit around the star forever, wailing in terrible, endless loneliness.

Memorable Quotes
"Look, every pod, they've all been burst open."

"Aye, from the inside from the looks of them."

"Must have been some accident to get almost every pod."

"Accidents seldom have such system, Dr. McCoy. I believe we must consider the alternative possibility that the crew of this ship destroyed her... themselves."
 * - Kirk, Scotty, McCoy, and Spock

"The whole ship is designed to receive and store energy."
 * - Scotty

"A physiological symptom of latent primal superstition. The fear of primitive people confronting something unknown to them."

"Compared to the people who built this ship, we are primitives. Even you, Mr. Spock."
 * - Spock and Kirk

"Danger! Danger! The dead star... we are being drawn to it! Rather than carry this malevolent life form to other worlds, we have decided to destroy our own ship! There is no other answer! If you understand this message, you are protected only for this moment in this room! This thing, it wants..."
 * - Insectoid Captain

"Jim, you don't think that's going to help us. Whatever that thing is, it survived a millennia in a dead hulk. All it has to do here is outlast us and just take over."

"No. It must be held by the magnetic force of the dead star. And it needs a starship to break free and a crew to man it."

"You are correct, Captain James T. Kirk. And I have the starship I've waited for so long, so terribly long!"
 * - McCoy, Kirk and Magnetic organism

"You will now remove the static shield from the navigation console, Captain James T. Kirk."

"You have shut down life support systems and endangered members of my crew. Restore those systems first!"

"All non-essential systems are extinguished. You will obey me."

"And if I refuse?"

"Obey me!"
 * - Magnetic organism and Kirk -

"Stop! You'll hurt him!"

"Remove the static shield from the warp drive controls! Do it now!!"

"No, Captain!"

"I'll obey! Let him go!"
 * - Kirk, Magnetic organism and Spock

"You will leave this orbit and plot course to galactic coordinates zero-three-six-point-two-three-one!"

"That's the heart of the galaxy, Captain!"

"Plot the course, Mr. Sulu."

"Captain, this symbiote can reproduce itself by mitosis and take over every starship we encounter. It can control computer centers...whole planets."

"I'm aware of that, Mr. Spock."

"Complete repairs! Obey me!"
 * - Magnetic organism, Sulu, Kirk and Spock

"No! Accelerate! Do not destroy the ship! Obey! Obey!! OBEY!!!"
 * - Magnetic organism

"Is it gone?"

"Affirmative. It fled the ship when it thought we would crash into the dead star."

"Don't leave me alone! Please! Please! So lonely...!"
 * - Kirk, Spock and Magnetic organism

Title, Story and Script

 * This episode's title was inspired by a book of the same name, one of ' lesser-known science fiction novels. (Star Trek Concordance, Citadel ed., p. 78) There is also a similarly-named episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, entitled.
 * This episode was penned by Samuel A. Peeples, who previously wrote the second Star Trek pilot, . He remembered, " [ Dorothy Fontana ] called and said, 'Gene suggested that since you had done the pilot for the original Star Trek, maybe you'd like to do the pilot for the animated Star Trek.' And that's what I did [....] As far as the inspiration for the story, I don't have the vaguest idea. It seems to me that I was trying to say that it would be interesting if there was a space ship which was actually a living creature. It's alive, but it is used to going from one planet to another." (Captains' Logs: The Unauthorized Complete Trek Voyages, pp. 98-99)
 * A revised draft of the episode's script was submitted on, though certain pages were revised on 10 May 1973.

Cast and Audio

 * Lieutenant Kyle reappears from the original series here, though with a moustache, brown hair, and voiced by James Doohan, replacing John Winston. This is the only TAS episode in which Kyle has any dialogue.
 * The dialogue from this episode's script was recorded with the full regular cast in attendance (the first time they had reunited since filming of the original series ended in January 1969). This recording session was at Filmation's studios in Reseda, California, in June 1973 (on or prior to the fourth of that month), and also included recording of the vocals for and . (Star Trek: Communicator issue 119, p. 32; The Star Trek Compendium, 4th ed., p. 143)
 * When the cutter beams cut the hinge of the core hatch trapped on Scotty, the sound effect it makes when it hits the floor is a common sound effect from The Flintstones (a loud clang noise).

Production

 * Gene Roddenberry once related that the medium of animation made it easy to depict a massive starship such as the one featured here. "If we want an exotic space ship fifty miles across," he said, "it's as easy to draw that as it is to do one the size of the Enterprise."
 * The cutting beam in this episode emanates from an instrument that looks almost exactly like the hand-held spectrum analyzer used by Spock in the TOS episode.
 * In a production inconsistency, Scotty is shown wearing – for a brief moment, when he is pinned beneath the engineering casing – the insignia of a captain.

Continuity

 * The fact that Lieutenant Kyle is seen to have grown a mustache by this point foreshadows the character sporting a goatee in.
 * This episode marks the first and only use of the "Automatic Bridge Defense System". The device was never seen again in any subsequent series.
 * A number of sources, beginning with the Star Trek Concordance by Bjo Trimble, incorrectly list the stardate of this episode as 5521.3.

Original Airing and Reception

 * On 4 June 1973, NBC made the announcement that Star Trek's regular cast had reunited to record the script for this installment (as well as the teleplays for an additional two episodes). (Star Trek: Communicator issue 119, p. 32)
 * At one point during the first week of, this episode was shown at a private NBC screening, at which  critic Cecil Smith was overheard remarking, "This is definitely not a kid's program." Smith's positive impression of the episode influenced a review (entitled "Star Trek Bows in Animated Form") that was written by him and was published in the 10 September 1973 edition of the Los Angeles Times. (The Making of Star Trek: The Motion Picture, pp. 19 & iv)
 * Although this episode's original air date was 8 September 1973 (or seven years to the day from the premiere of TOS), its first broadcast in Los Angeles was on 22 December of that year, due to George Takei's run for City Council and "equal time" issues. (Star Trek Concordance, Citadel ed., p. 78)
 * As the first episode of Star Trek: The Animated Series to air, this was also the first episode of the franchise to be broadcast in the 1970s.
 * D.C. Fontana has repeatedly cited this as one of her favorite installments of the animated Star Trek (along with, , and ). (Star Trek Magazine issue 128, p. 46) In a  video interview for StarTrek.com, Fontana also remarked that she thought this outing "was very good."
 * In the magazine , this episode received a review that Samuel A. Peeples thought was both "absolutely incredible" and "incredibly positive." (Captains' Logs: The Unauthorized Complete Trek Voyages, p. 99; Starlog issue #124, p. 37)
 * The editors of Trek magazine collectively scored this episode 1 out of 5 stars (a rating that they termed "poor"). (The Best of Trek #1, p. 111)
 * In the unofficial reference book Trek Navigator: The Ultimate Guide to the Entire Trek Saga (p. 21), co-writer Mark A. Altman rates this episode 2 out of 4 stars (defined as "mediocre") while fellow co-writer Edward Gross ranks the episode 2 and a half out of 4 stars (defined as "average"). Altman describes the episode as "an unspectacular entry" with an "unremarkable" story and, despite recognizing "some nice touches" (counting the life-support belts among them), he laments a lack of "new" elements in the installment, finding that aliens hijacking the Enterprise has been done too much and that the episode's only innovative aspect is the design of the pod ship. Altman concludes, "It's enough to leave one longing for Sybok and ." Gross agrees that much about the episode has been seen before but also comments, "Samuel Peeples [...] has taken the animated format and attempted to concoct a script whose sheer scale is unlike anything that could have been accomplished in the live-action show back in the 1960s." Gross also describes the alien's loneliness-fearing pleas at the end of the episode to be "a bit touching" but ultimately, considering the entity's other actions, "too little too late."

Additional Information

 * This episode was adapted for a novelization, written by Alan Dean Foster, published in Ballantine Books' Star Trek Log 1 (along with and ).
 * A limited-edition collector's animation cel inspired by this episode was once available from Filmation. (A Trekker's Guide to Collectibles, p. 46) The cel was number "ST-16" and illustrated the Enterprise drifting in between the massive pod ship.
 * A Daren Dochterman illustration of the pod ship is featured in the Ships of the Line book (pp. 70-71), a publication that is made up of images from the related calendars.

Video and DVD releases

 * UK VHS release (CIC Video): Volume 1, catalog number VHR 2535,
 * As part of the The Animated Series LaserDisc collection.
 * As part of the The Animated Series DVD collection.

Starring

 * William Shatner as James T. Kirk
 * Leonard Nimoy as Spock
 * And


 * DeForest Kelley as Leonard McCoy

Also starring

 * George Takei as Hikaru Sulu
 * Nichelle Nichols as Uhura
 * James Doohan as:
 * Montgomery Scott
 * Kyle
 * Ancient insectoid
 * Magnetic organism
 * Sciences division officer

Background characters

 * Arex
 * Christine Chapel
 * Operations division officer
 * Sciences division officer

External link


Beyond the Farthest Star Das körperlose Wesen Beyond the Farthest Star Beyond the Farthest Star Beyond the Farthest Star Beyond the Farthest Star