Star Trek: The Original Series 1x03 - Where No Man Has Gone Before

Gary Mitchell's Eyeballs Aka more Star Trek History

Because I'm me, I needed to know how they did this in the 60s.

Turns out it's really interesting.

To begin with, for those of you youngins who don't know about old contact lenses. They were literally glass back in the day. That's why in some old movies/tvs shows, when someone loses a lense and they're panicking looking for it, you hear a crunch when they inevitably step on it.

They also had to soak in these crazy ass things:

So that's to give you some context about old contact lenses.

So in the show, they took two of these lenses and sandwiched foil with a pinhole in the center between them. And then just made the actors wear them.

Apparently they were VERY hot under the lights (I'd imagine so) and it explains why the actor for Gary is tilting his damn chin all the time, I bet the director was constantly on him about it to get the best reflection.

PS, hot damn, that man was fine.

THE ORIGINAL SERIES (1966) • 1.03 “Where No Man Has Gone Before” // DISCOVERY (2017) • 1.03 “Context Is For Kings”

Do you have any idea how badly I want to see smol, nerdy Kirk?

Star Trek: The Original Series [1/79] » “Where No Man Has Gone Before”