Where no man has gone before
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"Where no man has gone before" is a saying used in the introductory sequence of episodes of the original Star Trek science fiction television series. The Star Trek character Zefram Cochrane, who was the first to fly at warp speed, supposedly originated the phrase in a speech which described what humans could do with this new warp technology. He utters the phrase in the first episode of the Trek prequel series Star Trek: Enterprise.
Usage in Star Trek
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The term was also the name of Star Trek's second pilot episode, which introduced Captain James T. Kirk and much of the original series cast.
In Star Trek: The Next Generation, the word "man" was changed to "one" both to avoid accusations of sexism and also to reflect the increased number of non-human aliens aboard the Enterprise. The latter rationale is acknowledged at the end of the motion picture Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country in which Captain Kirk uses both versions of the phrase, following a story that dealt with cross-species racism. An episode early in TNG's first season used the updated catchphrase as its title, just as an early episode of the original series used the original phrase for its title.
Usage in popular culture
The phrase has become popular outside the Star Trek franchise, having been adopted by NASA [1]. Interestingly, one commentator, Dwayne A. Day [2] has suggested the phrase may have been adopted from a White House publication of March 1958 "Introduction to Outer Space" [3] which contained the lines
- the compelling urge of man to explore and to discover, the thrust of curiosity that leads men to try to go where no one has gone before.
This booklet was produced in an effort to garner support for the national space programme and potentially read by Gene Roddenberry as part of his research for Star Trek. Also of interest as noted by Dwayne, if the phrase was the inspiration, Gene Roddenberry changed the wording from no one, to no man. However the inclusions of several reference to man shows the White House publication to be no more gender neutral.
The split infinitive phrase that precedes it, "To boldly go" has been both ridiculed and praised. British humorist and science-fiction author Douglas Adams parodied it in his series The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, describing a long-lost heroic age when bold adventurers dared "to boldly split infinitives that no man had split before". Cleverly enough, said split infinitive was deftly avoided by Dr. Cochrane himself in his Enterprise appearance by declaring how his engine would allow the human race to go boldly, rather than boldly go.
There is an entire Futurama episode involving Star Trek called "Where No Fan Has Gone Before".
A futuristic level in the videogame Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time is called "Where No Turtle Has Gone Before".
See also
- "Where No Man Has Gone Before" (1966), a first-season episode of the original Star Trek
- "Where No One Has Gone Before" (1987), a first-season episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation
- Cultural impact of Star Trek