Star Trek’s 55th Birthday
Star Trek (The Original Series) hit the American TV screens on 8 September 1966 and it now celebrates its 55th birthday. In commemoration of this great sci-fi series, we decided to tell you how the show was originally conceived and how it was received by the studio.
Conception
Star Trek is the ambitious brain-child of Gene Roddenberry. Roddenberry (19 August 1921-24 October 1991) has had a sweet spot for science-fiction since high school. Before he became a television writer and producer, he was a pilot, as well as a press officer for the LAPD. Talking about diverse interests!
Conceived in the 1960’s during the height of the Cold War, Star Trek meant to portray a human future where war and suffering did not exist. A future where all races and ethnicities on Earth were united and lived peacefully together, so much that they could advance technologically and share their peaceful ways with inhabitants of other planets and galaxies.
Roddenberry’s utopia was also described by him as Gulliver’s Travels set in the future where the viewers could track the journey of the spaceship USS Enterprise and get to know its crew. Each episode was said to be a suspenseful exploration of new lands and peoples with a strong moral character. Despite dealing with alien races, Star Trek applied societal issues that troubled Roddenberry’s contemporaries.
Red Light, Green Light
Roddenberry had already worked on a few television productions (The West Point Story, Have Gun – Will Travel etc.) before he decided to pitch his idea for Star Trek. He first went to CBS, but they rejected his idea after his 2-hour-long pitch, and instead bought Lost in Space.
He then tried his luck with NBC, whose executives liked his idea of a western in space (he had to market it that way as to appease the thirst for westerns around this time). Soon after, a pilot episode was in the works.
The Pilot
Named “The Cage”, the pilot was revolving around a mysterious planet with highly-intelligent inhabitants that kidnapped Enterprise’s captain Christopher Pike in order to make him breed with another human, while living in a holographic simulation of his home town.
The pilot is a classic episode that combines many of the themes to be later explored in the show, but that’s not what everyone thought at the time. For one, executives thought the episode was too sexually provocative for television. Secondly, the plot was considered to be “too deep” with its contemplation of reality and illusion, which was a stark contrast to the flying saucers of contemporary sci-fi.
Moreover, the executives and the test audience believed there wasn’t enough action for “a space western”. There might have also been a misogynistic aspect in their criticisms. Pike’s first officer was a woman, which was deemed “unrealistic” or simply “wrong”. However, the issue might have been with the actress, not her sex, since she was having a public affair with Roddenberry.
All in all, “The Cage” almost ruined Star Trek before it even began.
We love Lucy
Enter Lucille Ball, the beloved TV star, turned powerful producer. As a co-owner of Desilu Studios, she vetoed their decision to cut ties with Star Trek, for which she is still remembered by Trekkies worldwide. Let us just say – we love you, Lucy!
NBC paid for a new pilot, an unthinkable thing even today. Still, most actors had to be fired and only Leonard Nimoy (Spock) and Jeffrey Hunter (Pike) remained. However, Hunter soon pulled out of the production on the advice of his wife who believed the show would ruin his career.
Enter William Shatner, a Canadian actor with Shakespearean background. He assumed the role of Captain James Tiberius Kirk and captivated the hearts of viewers. He was joined by newcomers George Takei (Sulu), Nichelle Nichols (Uhura) and James Doohan (Scotty), among others.
Third Time’s the Charm
The second pilot was called “Where No Man Has Gone Before” where the USS Enterprise passed through a magnetic field, which gave two crewmembers powerful ESP abilities that threatened the ship and the rest of the crew.
Like its predecessor though, this episode didn’t actually become the pilot for the show. Although it was received well, the studio shot yet another pilot. This time it was a match made in heaven.
“The Man Trap” telling the story of a shape-shifting alien attacking the USS Enterprise. This is the pilot which aired on 8 September 1966.
Issues
The show creators were struggling to create more content, especially with the low budget they had. Shows typically had 22-25 episodes back then, which led the creators to use footage from “The Cage” for the episode “The Menagerie” in which Spock takes his previous captain Pike back to the Talos system, so he can lead a better life there.
They did the job in the end – the first season boasts of 29 episodes. Although these episodes are still watched and beloved today, this wasn’t exactly the case back then. Critics called it a mess full of complexities even for the sci-fi genre.
The ratings, to our contemporary standards, weren’t bad, but they supposedly were in the era preceding the Golden Age of Television. Star Trek was renewed for a second season, but there were calls for its cancellation. However, the show had a cult following even back then and the letters sent by fans saved it. For a while.
Star Trek Legacy
Unfortunately, the show was cancelled after its third season (regarded as its worst). It wasn’t until later when NBC aired re-runs of Star Trek that more and more people tuned in. The revived interest was immediately noticed and Star Trek: The Motion Picture came out in 1979. It was followed by another 5 movies showing the adventures of Kirk and the gang.
Now, Star Trek is a massive franchise with numerous spin-off TV shows and movies, which prove that you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover or you shouldn’t always trust your studio executive intuition.