A Brief Guide to Star Trek

support
Star Trek
regardless of whether they personally liked the show or not.
    Some television producers may have seen Roddenberry’s attendance at the 24th Annual World Science Fiction Convention in Cleveland – just five days before his new show premiered on NBC – as foolhardy. They’d no doubt be keener on him touring the TV talk shows and news studios to promote their new show. Roddenberry, however, felt it important to cultivate fan support – you never knew when it might come in useful . . .
    Roddenberry screened ‘Where No Man Has Gone Before’ to a 500-strong fan audience, who welcomed the new show with a standing ovation. This was just the prelude to Thursday, 8 September 1966 when NBC aired ‘The Man Trap’ as the first episode of
Star Trek
. Most critical reaction was lukewarm, seemingly preferring to postpone judgement until the series had run a little longer. Only the
Hollywood Reporter
wholeheartedly endorsed the new series as a ‘winner’. One appreciative viewer, though, was Lucille Ball, who sent a note to the production team’s Desilu offices congratulating them all on having ‘a hit on your hands’ and expressing how ‘proud and happy I am’.
    Never one to waste anything, Roddenberry had come up with an idea on how to use the material shot for ‘The Cage’ pilot episode – and keep the production on schedule at the same time. That pilot could not now be screened as so much had changed in terms of cast, approach and even the look of the show. However, by concocting a ‘wraparound’ story featuring the current
Enterprise
crew, Roddenberry figured he could use the material from ‘The Cage’ as a flashback, with the common link being Spock. The result was the two-part tale ‘The Menagerie’. Spock hijacks the
Enterprise
, along with the now-crippled Captain Pike (Sean Kenney standing in for the non-returning Jeffrey Hunter), and returns to Talos IV. Trapped aboard the
Enterprise
, Kirk and Starbase Commodore Mendez stage an investigation into Spock’s actions – aided by avisual record of his previous visit to Talos IV, transmitted from the now forbidden planet itself. The new material was shot in just five days at a lesser cost than a regular episode, while the participants in ‘The Cage’ were paid additional fees for the reuse of their material. The result was a cheaper-than-usual two-part
Star Trek
story (the only one in
The Original Series
) that made the universe of the show appear just that little bit larger – and helped the production make up for time lost when it slipped behind schedule.

    Leonard Nimoy’s Spock rapidly proved to be the break-out character in
Star Trek
. NBC had initially objected to his look and depiction in ‘The Cage’ and ‘Where No Man Has Gone Before’ – even going to the lengths of ‘doctoring’ publicity material to tone down his Vulcan ears. Executives had urged Roddenberry to drop the ‘satanic-looking’ character, but the series’ creator was not to be dissuaded. He knew that
Star Trek
needed a regular alien character as part of the
Enterprise
crew, alongside his diverse selection of humans. Just as the Lone Ranger needed his Tonto, the Green Hornet his Kato, so Captain Kirk needed Spock by his side.
    Roddenberry knew that the character opened up a whole universe of story possibilities that would otherwise be difficult to reach. His half-Vulcan, half-human heritage meant that Spock was a conflicted character from the beginning, striving to live up to the Vulcan ideals of non-emotionalism, yet torn by his genetic human leanings. In early episodes this would be explored through Nurse Christine Chapel’s crush on Spock and how he dealt with the very human feelings she brought out in him.
    It was under the influence of a mood-altering drug that Chapel admitted her feelings for Spock (in ‘The Naked Time’), while Spock’s experience of Pon farr (the Vulcan mating ritual) would bring out Chapel’s maternal instincts (in ‘Amok Time’). Their relationship developed in odd ways through
The Original Series
, with Chapel housing Spock’s consciousness within her own mindin order to save him from Henoch, an evil disembodied energy being (in ‘Return to Tomorrow’, an inspiration for the Spockcentric trilogy of
Star Trek
movies, II–IV), while the pair ‘enjoyed’ a forced kiss while controlled by bored telepaths (in ‘Plato’s Stepchildren’). Much later, Spock himself expresses his infatuation with Chapel while