Gary Mitchell

Character
Name:	Gary Mitchell
Occupation:
Relationships:
Fandom:	Star Trek: The Original Series
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Gary Mitchell is a human character who appears in the Star Trek: TOS episode "Where No Man Has Gone Before." He was Kirk's best friend at the academy. Gary is killed by the end of the episode after acquiring dangerous psychic powers.

There was a brief period before Star Trek Into Darkness came out when fans on Tumblr thought Benedict Cumberbatch would play him in the movie, but it was not to be.

The Fanon Gary Mitchell

Although a one-shot character, Gary Mitchell makes appearances in many Star Trek fanworks. He has even shown up as a significant secondary character in some Star Trek (2009) fanfiction, such as strive seek find yield by waldorph.

Fan Comments

In 1992, a fan commented on a story, Direct Hit, that featured Mitchell, and she offered some character analysis:

[In the story], Kirk already has a lover - Gary Mitchell; a stronger, more reliable character than the one we saw in Where No Man..., and a much stronger Mitchell than is usually depicted in fan fiction -- most fan fiction depicts him as basically treacherous and self-seeking, with little compassion -- if not exactly the way he appeared in the episode, not far off it. This Mitchell, however, is loyal and — yes — considerate; a man with whom it is natural for Kirk to be friends. (It's always surprised me that Kirk could have a close friendship with the Mitchell of the episode -- I would have expected him to see Mitchell's basic shallowness.)

Some Gary Mitchell Art

On the show, superpowered!Gary acquired pale, sparkly eyes and had a tendency to tilt his head oddly. Fan artists represented these visual traits faithfully.

• 

  from Saurian Brandy Digest #23, the artist is Vel Jaeger, portrays Kirk and Mitchell

• 

  from T-Negative #12, the artist is Alan Andres (1971)

• 

  from Menagerie #12, the artist is Susan Armstrong (1977)

• 

  from 1001 Trek Tales #2, the artist is Kathy Lynn Higley (1978)

• 

  from Kaiidth #2/3, the artist is Pat Seiler (1981)

• 

  from Grip #12, the artist is Vel Jaeger (1981)

• 

  from Only Trek #1, the artist is Pat Kilner (1982)

• 

  from Spock #54, the artist is Bernice Cuffe (1989)

• 

  from Classic #1, the artist is Warren Oddsson (1996)

Some Gary Mitchell Fiction

• "Direct Hit" by A.T. Bush from the zine Scattered Stars #3: (Kirk and Gary Mitchell crash land on a deserted planet after a battle with Earthʼs enemy, and discover that a Vulcan warrior from the other side is also stranded there.)
• "La'Yan" by Dovya Blacque from the zine Act 5 #1: (Spock confesses his love for Kirk after relating his observations of Kirkʼs reaction to Zephren Cochane, the same reaction he has to women and had to Gary Mitchell.)
• In Any Reality by Brianna Falken (1995)
• Say My Name by Shelley Butler ("Spock is forced to confess his feelings for Kirk while both are held by Gary Mitchellʼs power.") (1995)

Fan Comments: Gary Mitchell vs Gary Lockwood

Gary Lockwood, the actor who portrayed Gary Mitchell in the episode, "Where No Man Has Gone Before," was a guest of honor at the 1999 Shore Leave.

Some Kirk/Spock fans had some things to say about meeting the actor and some ruminations on the character.

1996

I can't quite remember the sequence of the conversation, but with the help of his buddy who sat next to him, he turned on that old Gary Mitchell charm. He was loud, obnoxious, boorish and kept making crude remarks and laughing with his buddy.

Kathy and I loved it.

Hey! This was the real Gary Mitchell! We were so excited and at one point, Kathy gleefully announced "This is great! You're an asshole just like Gary Mitchell!" And he laughed and thought that was really funny. Then I asked him to sign a photo for me so I asked him "How much do I owe you? A dollar?" Because Kathy had told me she thought that was what they charged. So he said indignantly, "Ten dollars!" and to prove it showed me a stack of tens he had under a magazine. Maybe you had to be there but we thought it was hilarious!

Poor Alice was so dismayed, especially after she later overheard him making comments about some woman he'd been with.

To be fair, he did keep making self-denigrating comments about his being so old and I did get a really neat photo showing Gary Mitchell being held tightly by Kirk as Spock gives him the hypo.

1999

I saw Gary Lockwood several times, but did not actually attend any schedule event with him. He looked distressingly like a grandfather on vacation, but then, I never did like Gary Mitchell.

I went to see Gary Lockwood, who was... interesting. I had to look really, really hard to see anything of the young actor in this older guy who looked like he should be out mowing his lawn or something. He's a self-described "hustler," though, so maybe there's a lot of Gary Mitchell in him after all!

Gary Lockwood's talk was the most memorable of these, for a couple of reasons. I guess he must have seen me sneak in a bit late, that must be why, when there was a lull and no one had any questions for him, he pointed at me and demanded that I ask something! He'd been regaling us with stories of his prowess as a dice-thrower, so I asked the first thing that came into my head, did he play poker? He expressed a bit of puzzlement over that one, actually what he said was, "Why did you ask that?", so I simply told him I knew of a New York poker game that would be more than happy to have him! He is one hot guy. The silly poker question had interesting results - it led to his telling a great story about how he beat a champion marble shooter at his own game, while on location filming "Firecreek" (directed by Vincent McEveety!) in 1968. Seems Gary had won thousands in the nightly poker game, and the crew was hoping to get revenge. They didn't know he was a marble expert, too (to hear him talk, he was a champion of everything at one point or another).

Seeing Gary Lockwood in the flesh makes the idea of Gary Mitchell in any sex category or activity totally believable. He is a very colorful, and very sexy (even at 60-something) guy, he exudes physicality and has great legs. He told us he was raised on a big ranch, where he worked hard as a cow-hand until he ran away at 15 to work as a Hollywood stunt-man.

Also, he made some interesting remarks about actors and how sexual chemistry contributes to a performance. He used Sean Penn, rather than a female co-star, to illustrate his point about what made certain actors attractive to him, a detail I found intriguing.

Heard Gary Lockwood speak [at Shore Leave]. Not much of a speaker. Although his last story about almost getting killed by a giant wave surfing in Brazil sounded so much like a dumb Academy stunt that I really loved it. <g> If he's still around tomorrow, I'll have him AUTOGRAPH my FOTO-NOVEL of *WHERE NO MAN HAS GONE BEFORE*!!!!!! (If you've ever seen one of those foto-novels, you'll understand my excessive use of all-caps and asterisks.)

[...]

I got a poker lesson from Gary Lockwood. I am *so* *jazzed* that I got input from GL for a story! Also got him to autograph my FOTO-NOVEL--the picture of "I'LL SQUASH YOU LIKE INSECTS!" He also autographed the Gary Mitchell card from the ST card game--Friend of Kirk(tm). It was suggested to me that I should give him a copy of Golden Boy to read. But he informed me several times that he's a cowboy and very macho, and I think he'd beat me up. Real-life revenge fic. <shudder>

Fannish Resources

• Gary Mitchell at Memory Alpha
• Gary Mitchell fanworks at AO3