Star Trek: Kirk’s First Villain Gary Mitchell Explained

Warning: SPOILERS for Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 2, Episode 1 – “Strange Energies.”

Star Trek: Lower Decks‘ Commander Jack Ransom (Jerry O’Connell) was imbued with strange energies and transformed into a god-like being similar to Gary Mitchell (Gary Lockwood) from Star Trek: The Original Series. In Star Trek: Lower Decks season 2’s premiere, the USS Cerritos has resumed its Starfleet mission of Second Contact and one of their own command crew is turned into a superpowered menace tying back to the first enemy of the iconic Captain James T. Kirk (William Shatner) faced in TOS.

Although the TOS episode “Where No Man Has Gone Before” was the fourth season 1 episode aired in 1966, it was actually the second Star Trek pilot that was produced. Three other episodes aired before “Where No Man Has Gone Before” because its post-production was completed late. This explains why the uniforms worn by Captain Kirk and his crew are different from what they wore in the rest of the series. Meanwhile, Lt. Commander Gary Mitchell was the USS Enterprise’s helmsman (predating George Takei’s Mr. Sulu, who appears as part of the Life Sciences division). Mitchell is also an old friend of Kirk’s from Starfleet Academy. When the oft-destroyed USS Enterprise crossed the galactic barrier, Mitchell, who had latent ESP abilities, was transformed; his eyes turned silver and he gained powers like telepathy, telekinesis, and matter manipulation. Mitchell also began to shed his humanity and he became a threat to the Enterprise. Kirk had to fight Mitchell and he killed the god-like being with the help of Dr. Elizabeth Dehner (Sally Kellerman), who was also changed by the strange energies.

Star Trek: Lower Decks season 2’s premiere not only adopted the title “Strange Energies” but Commander Jack Ransom turned into a Gary Mitchell-like menace when he was hit by his own strange energies. Ransom’s latent animosity towards Captain Carol Freeman (Dawnn Lewis) because of the preferential treatment she shows her daughter, Ensign Beckett Mariner (Tawny Newsome), spurred Jack to project his newfound power into outer space to threaten the USS Cerritos. Meanwhile, returning Caitian Dr. T’Ana (Gillian Vigman) even drew the direct parallel between what was happening to Ransom via the strange energies and Gary Mitchell back in TOS 115 years earlier.

Kirk was finally able to kill Mitchell because Dr. Dehner turned on Gary and used her own powers to weaken him. Mitchell fell into a grave he made for Kirk and the god-like being was buried under tons of boulders that Gary had intended to use to kill Kirk. Similarly, Mariner was able to stop Ransom when Captain Freeman’s attempt to appeal to Ransom’s vanity failed. Mariner realized Ransom’s body was still mortal and she repeatedly kicked Jack in the groin until he expelled the strange energies controlling him. Finally, she dropped a boulder on Ransom to completely stop him the same way rubble finally put an end to Gary Mitchell.

From the immortal Q (John de Lancie) to the Prophets on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Gary Mitchell in TOS set the tone for the god-like beings the Starship Enterprise and other Starfleet heroes would encounter throughout the franchise. In fact, Gary Mitchell was the forerunner to omnipotent menaces like Trelane, the Squire of Gothos (William Campbell), and the Greek god Apollo (Michael Forest). Mitchell epitomized the bizarre alien deities that the Enterprise would run across as it explored the galaxy in the 23rd century.

“Strange Energies” also isn’t the first time Gary Mitchell has been referenced in Star Trek: Lower Decks. Mariner name-dropped Mitchell along with Kirk, Spock (Leonard Nimoy), and other Star Trek legends in Lower Decks‘ series premiere. But Gary Mitchell was really just a footnote from the earliest days of TOS and “Where No Man Has Gone Before” was his only canonical appearance. Still, nothing in Star Trek is too obscure for Star Trek: Lower Decks to parody so Gary Mitchell and his “strange energies” just became relevant again in the 24th century.

Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 2 streams Thursdays on Paramount+.

About The Author