Star Trek Thoughts: Where No Man Has Gone Before

The eighth and last episode on the two "Best of The Original Series" DVDs I had to watch was one I'd been contemplating commenting on beforehand. That was in good part a product of my having seen it before, the first time years and years ago when my family rented the videotape of it (the only Star Trek episode we ever did that for, as I remember). As the famous "second pilot" of the series, its rare second chance at getting under way (if, in the narratives of some, proof Gene Roddenberry's role as series creator should have just amounted to giving very general ideas others would totally rework, an ambiguously familiar statement), one thing I find interesting about it is seeing the series still in development, with the familiar cast beginning to assemble but not all there yet.
( 'Captain's log, stardate 1312.4. The impossible has happened.' )