Gary Mitchell
From Memory Alpha, the free Star Trek reference.
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| Gender: | Male |
| Species: | Human |
| Affiliation: | Federation Starfleet |
| Rank: | Lieutenant commander |
| Occupation: | Helmsman (USS Enterprise) |
| Status: | Deceased (killed in the line of duty) |
| Born: | Stardate 1087.7 Eldman |
| Died: | 2265 (Stardate 1313.7) Delta Vega |
| Played by: | Gary Lockwood |
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Gary Mitchell was a 23rd century Starfleet officer, born on stardate 1087.7 in the city of Eldman.
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[edit] Early History
A medical study into his family history found that several members of his immediate family, and distant ancestors going back six generations on his mother's side, had esper-oriented abilities. One of his ancestors had an interest in "spiritual readings." His Esper rating (091), Aperception quotient (20/104), Duke-Heidelburg quotient (261), and general knowledge quotient (679532-112) were well above average in all categories.
Growing up, it was found he was unusually better at "guessing games" than chance would allow. He also had a grade school interest in magic tricks.
[edit] Early Career
Mitchell was an Academy friend of James T. Kirk, stemming back to the time Kirk was a lieutenant instructor and Mitchell was a first-year cadet. That year, Mitchell aimed a "little blonde lab technician" towards Kirk as a means to distract his rigid instructor, and whom Kirk, in turn, almost married.
Later in their careers, they encountered sentient rodent creatures on Dimorus that threw poisoned darts. Mitchell took one of the darts meant for Kirk and almost died from it.
Mitchell and Kirk would also spend a wild shore leave together on Deneb IV. While on Deneb IV, Mitchell showed marked ability in sensing the telepathic communication used by the inhabitants of the planet. In at least three cases, Mitchell carried on long telepathic conversations with select Deneb IV natives and scored 80% or higher on comprehension.
[edit] Encounter with Galactic Barrier
In 2265, he was a lieutenant commander assigned as the helmsman aboard the USS Enterprise, by request of Captain Kirk. That year, the Enterprise discovered the flight recorder of the SS Valiant, a starship missing for almost 200 years. Examining it, and exploring the Valiant's last known position, the Enterprise penetrated the galactic barrier, an event that proved disastrous for Mitchell, and nearly so for the rest of the crew.
Mitchell was briefly stunned by the strange energies of the barrier, but he recovered quickly. As his recovery continued, he began to display a wide array of psionic powers, including, but probably not limited to, these:
- Telepathy
- Extrasensory perception of various kinds, including clairvoyance and clairaudience
- Telekinesis
- The ability to attack with directed energy
- The ability to materialize and dematerialize matter
- The ability to control energy, including complete resistance to phaser energy
These abilities, or perhaps the energy itself, gave rise to an alteration of Mitchell's personality: he became cruel, ruthless, and convinced of his own magnificence. Worse, the abilities continued to grow stronger with the passage of time at a geometric rate. They were accompanied by only two physical manifestations, a curious silver light or glimmer that appeared in Mitchell's eyes, and a later accelerated graying of his hair, beginning at the temples.
Damaged by the galactic barrier, the Enterprise limped to Delta Vega. By the time they reached that planet, Kirk was convinced that Mitchell was dangerous, and attempted to maroon him there. But before repairs were complete, Mitchell had grown too strong to be confined. He killed Lee Kelso and left Kirk and Spock stunned, and escaped into the hills around the lithium cracking station, taking another member of the crew, Dr. Elizabeth Dehner, with him.
Recovering, Kirk took a phaser rifle and set out in pursuit. He left orders for Spock: If Kirk had not contacted the ship in twelve hours, Spock was to leave with the Enterprise, and recommend Delta Vega be subjected to a lethal concentration of neutron radiation.
Mitchell, meanwhile, was using his power to establish a pleasant environment for himself, materializing trees and other objects. Sensing Kirk's approach, he sent Dr. Dehner to meet Kirk, where Kirk discovered that Dehner had undergone the same transformation. It took a little longer for her, perhaps because she didn't have quite as high an esper rating as Mitchell. Kirk attempted to appeal to her remaining humanity, and when this seemed to be working, a disappointed Mitchell appeared. Mitchell, at least in his own mind, had already transcended mere humanity.
Dr. Dehner had enough humanity left to be appalled at Mitchell's actions, and she used her new powers to attack him. At the cost of her own life, she weakened Mitchell long enough for Kirk to overpower him. Kirk knocked Mitchell into a hole Mitchell had prepared (ironically) as Kirk's grave. Using a phaser, Kirk collapsed the hillside on top of Mitchell, burying him beneath tons of rock and ending his threat forever.
In his log, Kirk recorded that Mitchell and Dehner both died in the line of duty, noting that neither one of them asked for what happened to them. (TOS: "Where No Man Has Gone Before")
[edit] Quotes
"You should have killed me while you could, James. Command and compassion -- a fool's mixture."
"Morals ... are for men ... not gods."
[edit] Appendices
[edit] Background
It seems he didn't know the middle name of his friend James Kirk, as he put an R. as his middle name instead of T. on his tombstone. (This is explained on Captain Kirk's page, as a production detail.)
On his biographical records, which Spock looks up, Gary Mitchell's birth city of Eldman is listed in a state, colony or province starting with "New", but his record was cropped and didn't show the complete name, the nation, or even the planet of his birth. It also lists his age as "23" and his height as "5' 9", but Dr. Dehner's record shows two more letters in the state of "Newst..." which could be the same location. It is unknown if the medical record shown was a recent one or from Mitchell's last examination, but it is later stated that he had known Kirk for 15 years.
It is popular belief that Mitchell was the navigator of the Enterprise while Lee Kelso was the ship's helmsman, as suggested by their positions at the conn. However, on-screen evidence suggests otherwise. Firstly, Mitchell's responsibilities aboard the Enterprise – neutralizing warp speed and piloting the ship, for example – are those of a helm officer. Secondly, when Mitchell is knocked out of his chair after being "zapped" by the energy barrier, Kirk yells out "Helmsman!", an exclamation aimed at Mitchell. And third, Kelso himself was credited as "Navigator" in early cuts of the episode. In the first pilot, "The Cage", and in subsequent episodes, however, the stations are reversed: Mitchell's post is the navigator's station and Kelso's the helm station. It is never explained – either on-screen or from behind the scenes – why their positions at the conn were reversed.
It has also been argued that Mitchell was indeed the First Officer of the Enterprise, and that Spock was granted that role in addition to his post as Science Officer following the death of Mitchell in the aftermath of the encounter with the galactic barrier. Under Captain Christopher Pike, Number One had been his Executive Officer with Spock as the Science Officer; Spock likely continued in that post after command was transferred from Pike to Kirk, with Kirk naming his own Executive Officer in the person of his trusted friend, Gary Mitchell. Spock's later promotion from Lieutenant Commander to full Commander may have been in response to his increased responsibilities from occupying two crucial starship command positions.
[edit] Apocrypha
The back story of how Kirk and Mitchell met is filled in the three part novel My Brother's Keeper. It explains how they met, Kirk's emotional turmoil at killing his best friend, as well as explaining technical goofs. The "R" for Kirk's middle name is explained as an in joke, in which Kirk had said his middle name was "Racquetball."
In the non-canon Q-Zone novels, it was discovered that the Q had set up the galactic barrier to prevent a being called 0 from re-entering the Milky Way Galaxy. Gary Mitchell and Dehner were infected with a "piece" of 0 and that is the origin of their powers.
In the non-canon Q-Squared novel, it was revealed that the galactic barrier had trapped the essence of Q after a confrontation with Trelane had scattered him across both time and space. Q failed in an attempt to escape the barrier by attaching himself to a SS Valiant crewmember, but succeeded 200 years later by attaching himself to Mitchell and Dehner. The same novel also explains the James R. Kirk inconsistency, by placing the events of that episode in a parallel universe ("Track A", as opposed to the normal Trek universe's "Track B") where Kirk has a different middle name.
It is conceivable that Mitchell could still be alive in his grave, but nobody has as of yet had the misfortune of returning to the planet where he rests, unless you count the non-canon Star Trek - X-Men comic book.
| Helmsmen of the starships Enterprise | |
|---|---|
| Enterprise (NX-01): | Mayweather • Hutchison |
| USS Enterprise (NCC-1701): | Number One • Mitchell • H. Sulu • Leslie • Hadley • Kyle • DePaul • Hansen • Spinelli • Walking Bear |
| USS Enterprise-A: | H. Sulu • Valeris |
| USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-B): | D. Sulu |
| USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-C): | Castillo • Fredericks |
| ISS Enterprise (NCC-1701): | H. Sulu |
