A Brief Guide to Star Trek

actors Jeff and Beau Bridges and star of
Sea Hunt
) for the new role of Captain James Kirk. He also once again approached Jack Lord, who had been sounded out about the role of Pike in the previous pilot. Neither actor secured the job, but it was third time lucky for Gene Roddenberry in his hunt for a new
Enterprise
captain.
    Robert Justman had worked with William Shatner on anthology show
The Outer Limits
. ‘[Shatner] had a good reputation in the television and entertainment industries. He was someone to be reckoned with and we certainly understood that he was a more accomplished actor than Jeff Hunter . . . he gave us more dimension. Shatner was classically trained. He had enormous technical abilities to do different things and he gave the captain a terrific personality. He embodied what Gene had in mind.’
    While the drama of ‘Where No Man Has Gone Before’ was built around the captain trying to rescue his friend Gary Mitchell from the consequences of his transformation into a God-like being, the recasting of the central role allowed for new relationships with the ship’s other remaining crewmembers, especially Spock.
    For the second pilot, the character of the strong female Number One was dropped (relegating Roddenberry’s lover Majel Barrett to the smaller background role of Nurse Chapel in later episodes) and Spock promoted in her place. The emotional Spock of ‘The Cage’ was rethought and he acquired the coldly logical characteristics of Number One, his new natureplaying nicely with his unearthly looks. Noted Nimoy, ‘Bill Shatner’s broader acting style created a new chemistry between the captain and Spock, and now it was quite different from that of the first pilot.’ The central trio of
Star Trek
legend was not yet complete, however, as the second pilot did not feature the yetto-be-developed character of Dr McCoy. Although Roddenberry had included a ship’s doctor in the series outline, the role of captain’s confidant was filled in the second pilot by the character of Gary Mitchell.
    To ensure that such an effects-heavy, unconventional TV show could be made in a standard television time scale of around a week per episode, NBC insisted that
Star Trek
’s second pilot be shot in an eight-day period rather than the sixteen days taken to film ‘The Cage’ (each episode of the regular series would have to be shot in seven to eight days if it was to meet fall transmission dates). Director James Goldstone was hired to helm the show. ‘“Where No Man Has Gone Before” [went through] a great deal of polishing and rewriting on a conceptual and physical level, so that we could make it in eight days’, he later said. ‘[It] seemed to have the potential to establish those characters on a human level. The only gimmick is the mutation, the silvering of Gary Mitchell’s eyes, and it works because it’s simple, as opposed to growing horns or something. Ours was a human science fiction concept, perhaps cerebral [but] certainly emotional.’
    Production on ‘Where No Man Has Gone Before’ began on 15 July 1965, with shooting commencing on 19 July on Stage 15 at the Desilu Studio in Culver City. As the production was able to use many of the sets already constructed for ‘The Cage’, the budget for the new episode came in at just $300,000, around half of the first attempt. The second pilot featured all the elements that NBC had liked about the
Star Trek
concept, but thanks to Peeples’ script, the action-adventure element that had been missing from ‘The Cage’ had been beefed up considerably. It didn’t take NBC long, upon viewing the completed cut of ‘Where No Man Has Gone Before’, to greenlight
Star Trek
as an ongoing TV series for the fall 1966 schedule.

Chapter 3

Where No One Has Gone Before:
Star Trek
’s First Year

‘
Although we were in the seemingly simplistic medium of television, this simplistic medium allowed us to really ask very deep questions. And we didn’t always give deep answers, because it wasn’t possible. That’s why the audience, over the last twenty-five years has stayed with
Star Trek.’ Gene Roddenberry

    Star Trek
was all about its characters. That was as much a sensible storytelling decision as anything else. Gene Roddenberry’s ‘
Wagon Train
to the stars’ concept was sound enough, but someone – in this case the practical production team of Robert Justman and Herb Solow – had to realise the planets, creatures, aliens and future technology that