A Brief Guide to Star Trek

were flowing out, via line producer Robert Justman, to the cre -ative departments who had to supply the costumes, the props and the planetary locations used to tell
Star Trek
stories.
    Roddenberry had determined that by including ‘Where NoMan Has Gone Before’ and by using ‘The Cage’ footage as the basis for a later two-part episode, he could reduce the required number of new episodes by three. For those first thirteen new instalments, storyteller Gene Roddenberry owned
Star Trek
– others may have contributed to the series’ core concepts and ideals through their scripts (as noted), but every one of those initial thirteen episodic scripts went through the ruthless Roddenberry rewrite machine. He was the final arbiter as to what was or was not part of his
Star Trek
. Working late nights and weekends on others’ scripts, Roddenberry was determined that his universe would make sense and be attractive to viewers. That was one reason he insisted on his show depicting an optimistic future. ‘I believe in humanity’, noted Roddenberry during a speech marking his acceptance of a star on Hollywood Boulevard in 1985. ‘We are an incredible species. We’re still just a child-creature, we’re still being nasty to each other. And all children go through those phases. We’re growing up, we’re moving into adolescence now. When we grow up – man, we’re going to be something.’
    Shooting on the first of the new episodes (‘The Corbomite Maneuver’) began on 24 May 1966, with script revisions continuing right up until the days that various scenes were shot, common practice in television. By now the
Star Trek
production unit was firmly established within Desilu. The budget per episode was set at around $193,000, at the top end of the scale for one-hour drama in the late 1960s, but this was due to
Star Trek
’s many unique production and post-production requirements in sets, props and costumes, as well as special visual and sound effects. One way to keep down costs was in establishing an effects library. Fly-by shots of the
Enterprise
were regularly reused as the ship came into orbit around another planet (usually the same stock planet, recoloured), while regular bits of tech like the medical tricorder, the phaser or the communicator were given their own signature sounds. The background noise for the bridge of the
Enterprise
similarly worked its way into the consciousness of a generation through constant repetition.The pulsing sound effect itself was not created especially for
Star Trek
, but instead came from the Paramount sound library. It can even be disconcertingly heard in earlier episodes of
The Outer Limits
and
The Twilight Zone
, pre-dating
Star Trek
. The consistent use of these sounds establishes time and place in
Star Trek
: they’re different from the sounds surrounding the 1960s viewer at home or at work, yet through reuse and repetition they provide a consistent sense of place in a far out (in time and space, as well as in concept) drama.
    Only William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy were contracted to appear in all thirteen of the first batch of episodes. DeForest Kelley – one of the original actors under consideration for the role of Dr Boyce on ‘Where No Man Has Gone Before’ – filled the role of the irascible Doctor McCoy, but was only signed up for seven of the first thirteen episodes. Canadian actor James Doohan was cast as Scottish engineer Scotty and guaranteed five shows. George Takei was cast as Sulu, fulfilling Roddenberry’s hopes for a multi-ethnic range of characters on the
Enterprise
, and signed up for seven shows. Nichelle Nichols won the role of Communications Officer Uhura, but no minimum number of episodes was guaranteed. Actress Grace Lee Whitney was guaranteed four days’ work across seven episodes, as her character of Yeoman Janice Rand was then considered part of the core group indicated by her inclusion in many of the pre-publicity photos. Rand was, however, quietly dropped while Uhura went on to become one of the characters instantly connected with
Star Trek
. These contractual arrangements go some way to explaining why across the early
Star Trek
episodes, characters appear to come and go and some don’t feature in certain episodes at all, even McCoy, who was nonetheless quickly established as one of the core trio. This flexibility, however, allowed the production team to respond to audience reaction to characters and make changes and substitutions in the hope of