A Brief Guide to Star Trek

woman named Vina. Writing without much regard to budget – odd for someone who’d had a fair degree of practical television production experience – Roddenberry seemed more interested in concocting a dramatic introduction to his universe to sell the
Star Trek
concept to NBC than worrying about practical considerations that might face Desilu should the series enter production.
    A bizarre menagerie of non-humanoid creatures featured in the draft script, including a six-legged ‘Rigelian spider ape’ and another character described as a cross between an angel and a snake. These visions would be easy to achieve on screen now with a decent budget and CGI technology. Back in the mid-1960s computers in special effects were non-existent and animation for television was prohibitively expensive. Nonetheless, Roddenberry stubbornly featured an intelligent lemur from Arcturus (the kind of truly alien character that would not be properly visually realised until
Star Trek: The Animated Series
in the early 1970s).
    The final script delivered to NBC at the end of June 1964 featured Captain Pike (replacing April, but still not yet the familiar Kirk) commanding the USS
Enterprise
, en route to a Starbase for a spot of shore leave. Drawn by indications that a ship may have crashed on Talos IV, the
Enterprise
diverts to investigate. A landing party of Pike, Lieutenant Spock, Dr Phillip Boyce, navigator José Tyler and others is convened. The ship is left under the command of the cold, logic-driven female first officer, Number One.
    A group of survivors is discovered, all that remain of the crew of the SS
Columbia
, a ship that crashed over a decade before. Vina – just a child when the ship crashed – forms a strong connection with Pike. Hidden alien intelligences observe them and use Vina to lure Pike into a trap. Captured by the Talosians (large-headed mute creatures, now humanoid in form), Pike is incarcerated with Vina, in fact the sole survivor of the
Columbia
crash. The remaining
Enterprise
landing crew see the encampment vanish, realising it to have been an illusion created by the aliens as a lure.
    The Talosians (played in the episode by short actresses, but voiced by male actors for an ‘alien’ effect) want to breed a race of humanoids, and hope to mate Pike with Vina. Utilising a series of illusions, they try to force Pike to comply, but he resists. Number One and Yeoman Colt are kidnapped from the
Enterprise
, beamed by the Talosians directly to Pike’s cage. If Vina is not to Pike’s liking, think the Talosians, maybe they can tempt him with one of his own female crewmembers? Meanwhile, Spock and company have returned with a laser cannon and turn it on the hidden Talosians’ lair. Although the weapon is effective, the Talosians maintain a psychic illusion so the
Enterprise
crew do not perceive the damage they have done.
    Pike escapes and discovers the truth about the Talosians. Having wrecked their planet’s ecology the race moved underground, developing their mental capacity but losing the ability to produce children (hence their interest in recreating their race via Pike and Vina). The truth is also revealed about Vina: she was disfigured in the crash of the
Columbia
, but the Talosians have psychically maintained her self-image as that of a beautiful young woman. Pike agrees to leave the Talosians alone, as long as they maintain Vina’s illusion – in fact, they create an unreal Captain Pike who stays with her. The
Enterprise
crew resume their ongoing voyages . . .
    Executives at NBC responded to Roddenberry’s full pilot script with a series of ‘notes’ – comments on the settings, characters and structure of the drama. Roddenberry quickly took offence at this interference in ‘his’ project, thinking he knew best how to tell his story, but was persuaded by Solow that if he were to have any realistic hope at all of getting
Star Trek
on air, he’d have to work with NBC, not against them. Again, this was odd behaviour from a producer who’d already run his own TV show in
The Lieutenant
and had previously experienced thetrials and tribulations of dealing with network executives. Roddenberry’s strong personal investment in the
Star Trek
concept as a storyteller was beginning to get in the way of his duties as a practical producer.
    Desilu had previously been known for comedy and variety shows, most of them simple vehicles for the star power of Lucille Ball. Now it was looking at a major, risky