A Star Trek Fan's Tribute

"Space, the final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. Its 5-year mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before!"

Those Famous Words Spoken By Captain James T. Kirk of the Starship, Enterprise In the Begining of Each Star Trek Episode That Aired on TV From 1966 To 1969.

In 1964, Gene Roddenberry Changed Television history forever by penning a brief outline of a new series Called "Star Trek", The Adventures of an Interstellar Spaceship and it's crew, Exploring The Glaxy's Outermost Reaches. While MGM demonstrated modest interest, it's executives did not believe that Roddenberry's Sophisticated vision could be realized under the budgetary and scheduling constraints of weekly television.

Roddenberry quickly realized that a studio would have to be in "acquisition mode" to agree to develop this series. Fortunately, he happened upon just such a place --- Desilu Studios, which at the time had only one hit series, "The Lucy Show", On CBS. Desilu, which Needed another successful series, was willing to take a chance on "Star Trek".

But producing the show's pilot episode would cost at least half a million dollars. Roddenberry's dream would Either save Desilu... or bankrupt it.

Roddenberry's and Desilu's First Attempt To Sell "Star Trek" To a Television Network Was A Failure. Roddenberry Pitched The Series, which he discribed as "Wagon Train To the Stars," To *Then* CBS President James T. Aubrey, Jr. And Other CBS Excutives. CBS Passed On "Star Trek", Declaring their other show --- "Lost In Space" --- Was Too Similar. Home To Desilu's Succesful "The Lucy Show", CBS Should Have Been "Star Trek"'s Best Sales Prospect; in a Flash, that prospect was gone.

Fortunately, Mort Werner, NBC's *then* VP in Charge of Programming, gambled $20,000 In "Story Money," Enabling Desilu To generate a Script suitable for a pilot episode. Of the three stories developed, NBC and Desilu Approved Roddenberry's "The Cage," as the seires pilot. However, when NBC programming Executives Screened "The Cage," They regarded it as "too cerebral" To sell to a mass audience and turned it down. Once again, "Star Trek" had seemingly burst into flames on the launch pad.

But the pilot moved Werner to take an unprocedented Step --- he ordered a second pilot! Certain changes, however, would have to be made. Jeffrey Hunter, who had Protrayed Captain Christopher Pike in "The Cage," Had Devoted Himself to Films, and thus did not reprise his role. The Remainder of the Cast was replaced, leaving Leonard Nimoy (Mr. Spock) as the first Pilot's only survivor, although NBC Officals Attempted to Replace him as well, fearing negative audiance reaction to his "Satanic" Appearance. Both NBC and Delsilu regarded the second pilot, "Where No Man Has Gone Before," As far more Audience-accessible and representative of the series then was it's Predecessor. Broadcast on September 22, 1966, this Second Pilot Got "Star Trek" Off The ground at last, forever changing the network television landscape.

The Inside Story of "Star Trek"

Gene Roddenberry's Original outline for "Star Trek" was Dated March 11, 1964. And ran 16 Pages in length! In addition to it's descriptions of the series' concept and characters. It contained several story spring boards, including two which ultimately became the finish first-season Episodes "Charlie X" And "Mudd's Women"! (as Spock would Say "Fasinating".)

Based on this outline, the property-hungry Desilu Studioss Signed Gene Roddenberry for a Three-Year Series-development Deal!

Werener, NBC's VP In Charge of Programming, Said That "The Cage" was the First Science-Fiction Televison Program That Made Him Actually Believe He Was In a Space Vessel. This "Believability Factor" Formed the basis of his decison to authorize the production of a Second "Star Trek" Pilot.

The First time Desilu Owner Lucille Ball Heard about "Star Trek", All She Knew of the show was it's tittle. Unfamiliar with Science Fiction, Ball Assumed That the Series was to be about a group of Celebrities [Stars] on a mission [Trek] To entertain allllied troops in the south seas during The World War II!

Before NBC's 1966-1967 Sales Brochure was distributed to prospective advertising sponsors, all photos of Actor Leonard Nimoy As Mr. Spock were retouched to "Normalize" his pointed ears and upswept eyebrows. This was apparently done to avoid offending sponsors who might regard the spock character's appearance as "Satanic," Ironically, Mr. Spock almost immediately became one of the most popular characters on the show. And Received tremendous quantities of enthusiastic fan mail throughout the run the series.

Did You Know?:

The Shooting of The Climactic battle between Captain Kirk And Lt. Gary Mitchell Began To Fall Behind Schedule Because sand from the set interfered with the movement of the camera dolly on it's tracks. Because of the urgency of the Schedule, producers Bob Justman And Herb Solow pitched in with the sweeping --- as did the owner of Desilu Studios, Lucille Ball!

Quote:

"Now, After We Showed it ["The Cage"] To The Network and they turned it down, but they said, 'you can make another pilot,' and they said 'we'd like to have a couple of changes.'... they said to us at that time, 'we would like you to take out the female [Number one, Played By Majel Barrett], because we don't believe here in command of anything,' and to show the intelligence behind that remark, they said: 'and while you're at it, get rid of the guy with the ears.' It Seemed to me that we were having so many arguments at this time that I couldn't save both of them. And so, I Decided To save alien character, and it was at this time that we gave Mr. Spock the Woman's logical, unemotional qualities and kept him on the show, created the Vulcan background, and leonard Nimoy stayed on the show. I Then Married the woman, but obviously, I could Not have Legally Done it The Other Way Around" -Gene Roddenberry Talking about The First Pilot "The Cage", it's Cast. From "Inside Star Trek Record Album, Columbia Records, 1976"

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This Site Was Made � In Memory of �

Gene Roddenberry, Creator of "Star Trek"
Nerine Shatner, Wife of William Shatner
DeForest Kelly "Dr. Leonard H. McCoy"
Mark Lenard "Vulcan Ambassador Sarek" *Spock's Father*
Merritt Butrick "Dr. David Marcus" *Kirk's Son*
Michael Dunn "Alexander" (From ST:TOS Ep: "Plato's Stepchilderen")

Meet The Crew Of The U.S.S Enterprise Both TOS & TNG Crew