'These Are The Voyages' is here-book series written by Marc Cushman, who submitted the storyline for the TNG episode 'Sarek', and actually knew and interviewed Gene Roddenberry, as well as many others to make this series one of the most information-filled I've ever read. He spent years writing this three book series, which was published back in 2013.
He also got his hands on the original production notes, Nielsen ratings, and countless magazine and TV interviews from the 1960's to the present, plus new interviews with the cast and guest stars and production staff. I'd highly recommend the series.
Here's what I've found out from book one (season one) so far...

Roddenberry was writing TV scripts at the same time as being a cop for the L.A. police department. However, the Los Angeles Police Department didn't allow their officers to moonlight as TV writers, so Gene was forced to use a pseudonym; ' Robert Wesley'. Wesley is his actual middle name, but we all know the two names were used years later for the Commodore in 'The Ultimate Computer'.

Gene Coon created the term "United Federation Of Planets'. Before that they used the term 'United Earth Space Probe Agency' twice ('Charlie X and 'Tomorrow Is Yesterday'.

Gene went to ABC to sell the idea of his Star Trek pilot script, since they had 'The Outer Limits' and 'Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea'. They said 'no thanks'.
Then he went to CBS, that had 'Lost In Space', and had the (infamous) meeting where they basically said, 'Thanks. But we already have our own space alien show, 'Lost In Space'" and it seemed to Gene that they were just picking his brain for ideas and called them a bunch of 'SOBs' to their faces.
Then finally to NBC, which had never had any science fiction shows, ever., to that point, and were frankly desperate for new shows, since they'd been in third place in the ratings for a few years.

The bridge set cost $60,000 to build in 1964, and it took 6 weeks to construct.

The first scene of Star Trek to be filmed is between Pike and Dr. Boyce in Pike's quarters. It was filmed on Friday, November 27, 1964. It took 16 days to film 'The Cage', when it should have taken just 11, and it went way over budget (about $200,000), costing $616,000 ($4.6 million in 2013 dollars). Meanwhile, the Enterprise model wasn't even ready for filming, once the live-action portion had been completed. One thing that delayed it was that at the last minute Roddenberry decided he wanted flashing running lights on the ship, after earlier saying 'no lights'.

Matt Jeffries, as we all know, created the design of the Enterprise, with numerous alternations and comments from Gene, who 'liked this part of this design, and this part of this one'). He started with a ball-shaped main hull but 'It looked too awkward, and didn't look like it could get out of first gear!" He'd wanted to avoid the saucer shape, because it reminded him of flying saucers and UFO's, but it looked better in the long run, and Gene wanted it that way. Also, Matt felt "The engines are very powerful, even to the point of being dangerous to be around, so they were placed away from the main hull," on struts.

Once it was given a final design, a small, rough model made of wood and a pair of doilies was made for Gene to check out. It was attached to a string, and when Matt handed it to Gene, the model flipped around upside down-- and Roddenberry liked it BETTER that way! With the engines and saucer below and the secondary hull up top!
Ironically, something similar would happen almost 18 years later during the making of 'Star Trek II - The Wrath of Khan'. The story goes that producer Harve Bennett approved the design of the USS Reliant-- but she was upside down, too! He signed off on the blueprints, thinking her engines were above her saucer, and not below as we've all seen!

If you've ever wondered like me why the Enterprise has the nomenclature 'NCC-1701', here's the answer.
Real-life International Aviation Agreements designate American planes with the letter 'N'. For the Soviet Union it's 'CC' (or 'CCC'). Told that the Earth was united, Matt Jeffries used 'NCC'. For the numbers, he "didn't want numerals that were hard to read at a distance", or could be mistaken for another, so that eliminated 3, 4, 6, 8,, and 9.
That left 0, 1, 2, 5, and 7.

For the role of Captain Pie, the names suggested were Lloyd Bridges, Peter Graves, Mike Conners, George Segal, Efrem Zimbalist Jr., Rod Taylor, Warren Stevens, and...William Shatner! Meanwhile, NBC was pushing for either Patrick O'Neal, James Coburn, or Jeffrey Hunter.

For the role of Vina, suggested actresses were; Anne Francis, Barbara Eden, Yvette Mimieux, Susan Oliver, Dyan Cannon, Yvonne Craig, and Suzanne Pleshette.
Having grown up watching them, I can't imagine anyone else but Hunter and Oliver in those roles.

For the role of Captain Pie

Who the heck is Captain Pie?

Having grown up watching them, I can't imagine anyone else but Hunter and Oliver in those roles.

I can actually imagine Yvette Mimieux as Vina.

Stranmge New Facts

Is that typo on the book or a case of Fat Finger Syndrome? ;-)

Before that they used the term 'United Earth Space Probe Agency' twice

I think in the Classic Guide the Chief pointed out them using the initials in a third episode which Kirk pronounced as "You-spa".

Then finally to NBC, which had never had any science fiction shows, ever.

Ahem. Tom Corbett, Space Cadet - July to September 1951 & December 1954 to June 1955.

Peter Graves as Pike?
"Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to prevent the Klingons from allying with the Organians. This communications console shall self-destruct in 30 seconds."
Have a scene of Pike looking through files of people on the ship to choose the best away team. ;-)

Barbara Eden as Vina? Hmmm... While I don't think she would play her like Jeannie some of her mannerisms and speaking style would probably invoke comparisons years later.

Roddenberry was writing TV scripts at the same time as being a cop for the L.A. police department. However, the Los Angeles Police Department didn't allow their officers to moonlight as TV writers, so Gene was forced to use a pseudonym; ' Robert Wesley'. Wesley is his actual middle name, but we all know the two names were used years later for the Commodore in 'The Ultimate Computer'.

And of course, the name Wesley was given to another famous character in TNG


Gene went to ABC to sell the idea of his Star Trek pilot script, since they had 'The Outer Limits' and 'Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea'. They said 'no thanks'.

And, while those two show do have fans, they are not nearly as many as Trek does. Bad move, ABC, bad move.


Then he went to CBS, that had 'Lost In Space', and had the (infamous) meeting where they basically said, 'Thanks. But we already have our own space alien show, 'Lost In Space'" and it seemed to Gene that they were just picking his brain for ideas and called them a bunch of 'SOBs' to their faces.

If Gene thought CBS were a bunch of SOB's back then, imagine what he'd think now, seeing the CBS Swindlers butcher his legacy to con people into signing up for their All Access.


Matt Jeffries, as we all know, created the design of the Enterprise

The Jeffries Tube is named after him.


For the role of Captain Pike, the names suggested were Lloyd Bridges, Peter Graves, Mike Conners, George Segal, Efrem Zimbalist Jr., Rod Taylor, Warren Stevens, and...William Shatner!

Warren Stevens would later play Rojan in By Any Other Name.


Is that typo on the book or a case of Fat Finger Syndrome

Said typo has now been fixed.

Thanks for the fix, Tim.
In the immortal words of that immortal Poet Laureat, uttering immortal immortaliness...
"D'OH!"
Yes, fat fingers strike again.

Francois "Who the heck is Captain Pie?"
You know, that big guy in the center seat, with his trusty science officer Mr. Cookie, his helmsman Mr. Donut, and the lovely communications officer, Lt. Danish!
(You thought I was going to say Lt. Tart, didn't you! bad idea!)

KAM - "Tom Corbett" Oh, well. So much for the author's research!

The main Enterprise model is 11 feet and 2 inches long, weighs 220 pounds, and took 350 hours to build over a span of 6 weeks. It cost $3000 to build, but that was prior to the installation of lights on the hull. Originally, Roddenberry didn't want lights, but they were a late addition that required another 300 hours to install.

For the Star Trek theme, names suggested to write it were Alexender Courage, Lalo Schifrin, who created the 'Mission: Impossible' theme instead (it was also being produced by Desilu at the same time), John Williams ('Star Wars', 'Lost In Space', 'The Time Tunnel', 'Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea', 'Land of the Giants, need I say more?), Jerry Goldsmith (who'd do 'Star Trek - The Motion Picture 14 years later), and Dominic Frontiere, who wrote the theme for 'The Outer Limits'.

"Where No Man Has Gone Before":
It was called 'Esper' in the storyline, then 'Star Prime', and finally 'Where No Man Has Gone Before'.

Herb Solow suggested the series use a captain's log to move the stories along, and eliminate the need for 'pages of boring exposition'. 'The Cage' didn't have one, but starting with WNMHGB it was always used.

Roddenberry added the Kirk/Mitchell friendship (Mitchell started out as Spock's friend), Kirk's decision to maroon Mitchell alone on Delta Vega, Mitchell's creation of Kirk's grave, and the Mitchell's death by being squashed by the giant rock.

It took 8 and a half days to film, instead of 7, and cost $355,000. First day of filming was Monday, July 19, 1965, and went until July 29.
And then Gene waited.
And waited.
And waited some more.
NBC didn't approve Star Trek to go to series until February 1966, seven months later!

James Doohan was offered two TV series parts at the same time. He took Scotty; he didn't take the part of Seaview Chief on 'Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea' to replace actor Henry Kulky. Instead, 'Voyage' hired Terry Becker as Chief Sharky.

DeForest Kelley made military training films in 1945 at the 18th Army Air Force Base in Hollywood.
One of his frequent co-stars was George Reeves of 'Superman' fame.

DeForest Kelley made military training films in 1945 at the 18th Army Air Force Base in Hollywood.
One of his frequent co-stars was George Reeves of 'Superman' fame.

The two of them actually became good friends.

DeForest Kelley was one of the folks that didn't believe that Reeves committed suicide in 1959.

Courtesy of From Sawdust to Stardust: The Biography of DeForest Kelley by Terry Lee Rioux.

'The Corbomite Maneuver';

It was first called 'Danger Zone'.

Roddenberry changed Balok from being a normal-sized humanoid to an alien that resembled a human child-- fortunately writer Jerry Sohl liked the idea.

Roddenberry also added scenes such as McCoy talking himself in sickbay, Baily's meltdown on the bridge, Kirk and his green leaf salad, and the adrenal gland comment and Balok being similar to Spock's father.

The part of Baily almost went to Bruce Mars (Finnigan from 'Shore Leave') or Stewart Moss (Tormolen from 'The Naked Time').

The first scene to be filmed for the official Original series was on Tuesday, May 24, 1966, which consisted of Kirk and McCoy in sickbay for the captain's physical.

Tranya is actually pink grapefruit juice and Clint Howard HATED it. When he complained, his father told him, "You'll drink it! And you'll LIKE it!"

There was a scene filmed but cut, thanks to NBC. Kirk arrives in his quarters to find Rand there waiting for him, with clean clothes after his physical. NBC didn't want any hint that there was any hanky-panky going on between the two, but Roddenberry still managed to put in some hints in other episodes to show they were attracted to each other.

Roddenberry wanted this as ther first episode for the premiere, but NBC wanted a 'planet show', so he made it the second one to be televised. Unfortunately, all those special effects delayed the final editing, so it was penciled in as the sixth episode. Then the eighth. And finally the tenth.

As the season began, Star Trek's competition was 'The Tammy Grimes Show' at 8:30 on ABC, which didn't last long at all, so a prime-time version of 'The Dating Game' replaced it until January '67. After that 'Bewitched', in it's 3rd season, was moved from the 9pm slot into the 8:30 spot. At 9 pm ABC had a show I've never heard of-- 'Love On A Rooftop' starring a pre-'Laugh-In' Judy Carne. CBS kept the same schedule for the full season-- the 7th season of 'My Three Sons' the Thursday Night Movie from 9 to 9:30.

'Mudd's Women';

It started out as a pilot outline from Roddenberry called 'The Women', but scriptwriter Stephen Kandel renamed it 'Mudd's Women'.

Originally, there were five women and five miners, but due to budget constraints it was knocked down to 3 and 3.

Producer John D.F. Black did some of the re-writes, but it was Roddenberry's idea for the Enterprise to chase Mudd's ship for the teaser.

'The Enemy Within':

Roddenberry changed one of the stranded crewman from someone called 'North' to Lt. Sulu.

He also changed the climactic scene on the bridge from the evil Kirk simply being stunned by a phaser to what we see in the episode.

The director of this episode, Leo Penn, is the father of actor Sean Penn.

Most of us might know the story of how Leonard Nimoy approached director Penn about the scene in engineering where the two Kirk's confront each other, and Spock simply sneaks up to evil Kirk and knocks him out with a punch. Thinking that Vulcans wouldn't do that, he suggested a neck pinch, and demonstrated it on Shatner, who agreed with him. It was filmed as shown, but here's the catch; Roddenberry and Robert Justman weren't consulted and didn't find out about the changed scene until the next day when they watched the dailies. Had they discussed it, it might have been vetoed and we might never have had the neck pinch in future episodes.

The camera was accidently set up the wrong way for the Kirk and evil Kirk bridge scene, and it was too late to switch it around, so the film had to be 'flipped' in editing, resulting in another nit with evil Kirk's scars on the wrong side of his face.

And the missing emblem on his shirt when he beams in at the start of the episode? It wasn't even noticed by the crew (this was just the second episode produced and who was paying attention to those pesky emblems, anyway?). However, at the core of the nit, is that the clothing was sent out for cleaning after every day, and to do that ALL emblems on ALL unifioms were regularly removed! This was the only time it slipped by everyone!

Gene Roddenbery has said that this was one of his Top 10 favorite episodes.

Tranya is actually pink grapefruit juice and Clint Howard HATED it. When he complained, his father told him, "You'll drink it! And you'll LIKE it!"

Seriously, how much would it have cost them to change the stupid thing for something the kid could stomach?

Clint Howard HATED it. When he complained, his father told him, "You'll drink it! And you'll LIKE it!"

Said father was Rance Howard, who would, thirty years later, play David Sheridan, father of John (Bruce Boxleitner) on Babylon Five.


There was a scene filmed but cut, thanks to NBC. Kirk arrives in his quarters to find Rand there waiting for him, with clean clothes after his physical. NBC didn't want any hint that there was any hanky-panky going on between the two, but Roddenberry still managed to put in some hints in other episodes to show they were attracted to each other.

NBC was bound and determined to make sure that Kirk and Rand would never be a thing.


Most of us might know the story of how Leonard Nimoy approached director Penn about the scene in engineering where the two Kirk's confront each other, and Spock simply sneaks up to evil Kirk and knocks him out with a punch. Thinking that Vulcans wouldn't do that, he suggested a neck pinch, and demonstrated it on Shatner, who agreed with him. It was filmed as shown, but here's the catch; Roddenberry and Robert Justman weren't consulted and didn't find out about the changed scene until the next day when they watched the dailies. Had they discussed it, it might have been vetoed and we might never have had the neck pinch in future episodes.

I remember Leonard Nimoy telling that story in an interview.


And the missing emblem on his shirt when he beams in at the start of the episode? It wasn't even noticed by the crew (this was just the second episode produced and who was paying attention to those pesky emblems, anyway?). However, at the core of the nit, is that the clothing was sent out for cleaning after every day, and to do that ALL emblems on ALL unifioms were regularly removed! This was the only time it slipped by everyone!

Well, the Transporter WAS malfunctioning at the time...

'The Man Trap'

It started out as 'The Man Trap' in a storyline submit Lee Erwin, who would later submit the storyline for 'Whom Gods Destroy' for season three. He was paid off when the story needed work, so it was given to George Clayton Johnson. Johnson changed the title to 'Damsel With A Dulcimer', but it was later re-renamed 'The Man Trap', even though he didn't like the title.

Previously, Johnson had written 8 episodes of 'The Twilight Zone' which included 'Kick The Can' and 'T Four Of Us Are Dying', and also wrote the storyline for Frank Sinatra's original version of 'Ocean's11.'

Johnson gave the creature the shape-shifting power.

Roddenberry changed the ending to how we saw the episode-- originally, Crater lived, and decided to remain on the planet, to search for other survivors. Roddenberry also added red rings on victim's faces and replaced Scotty with Spock when he and Kirk beam down to confront Crater. That makes se, because why is the Chief Engineer down there?

The Salt Vampire was played by Sandra Gimpel, who as it turns out has had a very long career in Hollywood, but mainly behind the scenes. She was also one of the Talosians in 'The Cage', but she was also a stunt double on 57 episodes of 'The Bionic Woman', the stunt coordinator on the episode of 'Seinfeld' called 'The Fire' (George pushes a clown and kids out of the way in a small kitchen fire), and movies such as 'Con Air', 'Mystery Men', and 'Bruce Almighty'.

'The Naked Time':

Originally, it was Spock, McCoy, and Scotty on the surface of Psi 2000, and the contamination was spread when Tormolen, on the Enterprise, was handed the environmental suits.

Roddenberry wanted a sequel to this one, and there was some talk about making 'Tomorrow Is yesterday' a sequel, but it was too far away in production order, and wasn't finished in script-form, anyway. A story treatment was written in May 1967, but set aside. Elements of it would eventually appear in the TNG episode, 'The Naked Now' 20 years later.

There was no Lt. Riley in the original drafts, so it was Lt. Farrell ('The Enemy Wthin' and 'mUdd's Women') who locked himself in Engineering, and he was singing 'Oh, Danny Boy', not 'I'll Take You Home Again, Kathleen'.

The Vulcan neck pinch was invented by Nimoy for 'The Enemy Within' which was filmed before this one, and televised a week after this episode. However, Spock neck pinches Sulu here-- viewers must have thought, "Wha' hoppin'?!"

Riley tells Chapel, "You have such lovely eyes, pretty lady." Since Majel was his girlfriend at the time, and Roddenberry thoroughly re-wrote this script, I'd imagine that he was giving her a personal message with that line.

This is George Takei's favorite episode.

It was also the straw that broke the back regarding tensions between Roddenberry and the writer, associate producer John D.F. Black. He couldn't stand seeing professional writers like Robert Bloch, George Clayton Johnson, and Stephen Kandel re-written (even though the early episodes are considered classics by fans and critics). He hated his own script being re-written so much that he quit the show soon after that. But that's okay-- we got the amazing Gene L. Coon after Black left.

'Charlie X';

It began as an outline from Roddenberry in april 1964, called 'Charlie Is God'. Dorothy Fontana (Gene's secretary and aspiring scriptwriter at the time) asked to write for Star Trek, so he gave her the outline to turn into a script.

Abraham Sofaer, who played the Thasian, also apparently was the voice of the melkotian in 'Spectre of the Gun'. I thought it was James Doonhan, however.

The mystery of Kirk's 2 shirts is solved. Charlie speaks to him about swatting Janice on the behind, and he's wearing his yellow shirt. He and Charlie go directly to the bridge from there, and Kirk is suddenly wearing his green shirt.
The reason is they ran out of time to film the bridge scene on the same day, and a week's worth of filming in other sets was performed, before they went back to the bridge to film the green-shirt. Unfortunately, nobody noticed the wardrobe mistake.

We were going to get a shot of the S.S.Antares, but the dreaded issue of money sprang up again, and Justman nixed the idea. Fortunately, the mastered version gives us a neat spaceship.

I've discovered by reading these two volumes of 'These Are The Voyages' that what we saw on screen was the result of major decisions and a relentless pursuit for perfection by Robert Justman, and later Gene Coon, as well as, obviously, Gene Roddenberry.
Justman (and later Coon) wouldn't think twice to rip apart a draft script or outline and fill up seven to FIFTEEN pages of notes for the writer. If you have a copy of 'The Making Of Star Trek' you'll remember dozens of 'memos' exchanged between Roddenberry, Coon, Justman, and others. Lots of the time they were funny, or gave you a little snippet in the creation of the series.
The truth is that Justman and Coon were so committed to producing the best product possible that they could make enemies along the way, depending on whether or not the writer could take criticsm (I'm looking at you, John Kingsbridge).
The memos were detailed and sometimes ideas were adapted, agreed to, or discarded. Roddenberry had the final say, but I've gained a new respect for the people behind the scenes.
Without the people I mentioned (and D.C. Fontana, and all the rest) we could have wound up with a very different series.

Originally, it was Spock, McCoy, and Scotty on the surface of Psi 2000, and the contamination was spread when Tormolen, on the Enterprise, was handed the environmental suits.

Well, that would have made more sense than someone taking off his glove in a hazardous environment just to scratch his nose.

---

quote:

Abraham Sofaer, who played the Thasian, also apparently was the voice of the Melkotian in 'Spectre of the Gun'. I thought it was James Doohan, however.

---

Why one actor didn't do both is beyond me.

Those are different characters, so them being played by different actors is logical.

The mystery of Kirk's 2 shirts is solved. Charlie speaks to him about swatting Janice on the behind, and he's wearing his yellow shirt. He and Charlie go directly to the bridge from there, and Kirk is suddenly wearing his green shirt.
The reason is they ran out of time to film the bridge scene on the same day, and a week's worth of filming in other sets was performed, before they went back to the bridge to film the green-shirt. Unfortunately, nobody noticed the wardrobe mistake.

Gives us nitpickers reasons to exist.


We were going to get a shot of the S.S. Antares, but the dreaded issue of money sprang up again, and Justman nixed the idea. Fortunately, the mastered version gives us a neat spaceship.

The remastering did away with a lot of nits in regards to shots in space.


The truth is that Justman and Coon were so committed to producing the best product possible that they could make enemies along the way, depending on whether or not the writer could take criticsm (I'm looking at you, John Kingsbridge).

And let's not forget the big crybaby, Harlan Ellison, who spent the next fifty years bitching to anyone who'd listen how they'd "ruined" his script for City On The Edge Of Forever.


James Doohan did the voice of the Melkotian space buoy.

James Doohan and Majel Barrett did a lot of the voices.

"Balance Of Terror";

Writer Paul Schneider started his career by writing Mister Magoo cartoons, and later wrote several episodes of 'Bonanza'.

Bob Justman worried so much about the cost of the special effects, costumes, ears, makeup, and extra staff to prep the actors that he he tried to stop production of this episode at the outline stage. We might actually have never gotten 'Balance Of Terror' if Roddenberry had listened to him.

It was Justman's idea, therefore, to give the Romulans helmets and save the cost of making lots of pointed ears.

The original story had a 'scarred veteran and young crewman' subplot in addition to the newlyweds.

Director Vincent McEveety directed over a dozen Trek episodes, but would also go on to direct 45 episodes of 'Gunsmoke' between 1968 to 1975.

Lawrence Montaigne auditioned for the role of the Romulan Commander, but got the Decius part instead. The only reason he said 'yes' to this was because he found out that Mark Lenard had the Commander's role, and he thought it 'would be fun' to act with him again, since they knew each other from a previous production.

Gary Walberg (Commander Hanson), would play Oscar and Felix's poker buddy, Speed, in 'The Odd Couple' from 1970 to 1974, and appear in 145 episodes of 'Quincy M.E.', also starring Jack Klugman.

The episode cost $236,150, $47,336 for the SFX alone-- higher than for any other episode in the entire series.

The Bird of Prey model was built by Wah Chang in 2 weeks, and had a wingspan of 3 feet.

This episode is also in Roddenberry's Top 10.

"What Are Little Girls Made Of?":

Instead of Nurse Chapel, a wealthy woman named 'Margo' is searching for Korby, whom she simply admires. And she 'hires' the Enterprise to look for him.

A draft of the script was deemed too similar to a recent episode of 'Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea', so it was altered by having Korby be an android, and Margo became Korby's fiancé.

Margo was then changed to Christine Baker, then Christine Ducheaux, and finally Nurse Chapel.

"Dagger Of The Mind"

The writer of this episode, Shimon Wincleberg, also wrote the pilot of 'Lost In Space' (the one without Doctor Smith and the Robot), and elements would be used throughout the first five episodes of the first season.

He wrote 22 episodes of 'Have Gun, Will Travel'-- the series that Gene Roddenberry wrote 24 episodes for, before he created Star Trek.

Doctor Adams was originally Doctor Asgard, and Yeoman Rand was Kirk's beam down partner, not Helen Noel.

James Doohan's contract was set for 5 out of the first 13 episodes, so his small part was taken out of this episode to make better use of his character in another episode. And just saved his weekly pay of $850 for something else.

NBC was so paranoid about Van Gelder's hypnotizm scene that they insisted that Doctor McCoy perform it, unless it was established that Mister Spock 'was qualified', so Roddenberry created the Vulcan Mind Meld to keep the scene as written. NBC actually feared that viewers could be hypnotized for real!

"Miri":

Gene Coon's first job at Star Trek was to re-write this script, which had Miri telling the landing party everything and spoiling the suspense, instead of letting the crew figure things out for themselves.

The little black boy in the crowd of Onlies is Phil Morris, the son of 'Mission: Impossible' 's Greg Morris. Phil Morris would return in 'Star Trek III - The Search For Spock' as cadet Foster (asking Kirk if there'd be a celebration), and later in episodes of 'Star Trek - Deep Space 9', and 'Star Trek - Voyager'. However, you might also know the little black kid as Kramer's long-suffering, quick-talking lawyer, Jackie Chiles, in 'Seinfeld'!

Also in the crowd of Onlies; Roddenberry's daughters, Dawn and Darlene, Shatner's daughters, Lisabeth and Leslie, Grace Lee Whitney's sons, Jonathan and Scott, and Steve McEveety, the director's nephew.

John Megna (the 'Bop-bop on the head!" kid) was the brother of singer/actress Connie Stevens.

The episode was filmed at Culver City 40 Acres, the outside location filming area used for Stalag 13 of 'Hogan's Heroes', Camp Henderson for 'Gomer Pyle USMC', and Mayberry for 'The Andy Griffth Show'. In fact, when the team beams down, in the background are places in Mayberry such as the Court House, the town's bank, and Floyd's Barbershop.

'Miri' premiered the same night as the first showing of 'It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown', which destroyed the competition, with a 49 % rating. Star Trek got 25.4, and 'The Dating Game' got 15.5.

James Doohan's contract was set for 5 out of the first 13 episodes, so his small part was taken out of this episode to make better use of his character in another episode. And just saved his weekly pay of $850 for something else.

Which is why Scotty was in so few first season episodes.


The little black boy in the crowd of Onlies is Phil Morris, the son of 'Mission: Impossible' 's Greg Morris. Phil Morris would return in 'Star Trek III - The Search For Spock' as cadet Foster (asking Kirk if there'd be a celebration), and later in episodes of 'Star Trek - Deep Space 9', and 'Star Trek - Voyager'.

Phil Morris is one of a handful of actors that appeared on TOS and later Trek incarnations.


Also in the crowd of Onlies; Roddenberry's daughters, Dawn and Darlene, Shatner's daughters, Lisabeth and Leslie, Grace Lee Whitney's sons, Jonathan and Scott, and Steve McEveety, the director's nephew.

A regular family gathering.


The episode was filmed at Culver City 40 Acres, the outside location filming area used for Stalag 13 of 'Hogan's Heroes', Camp Henderson for 'Gomer Pyle USMC', and Mayberry for 'The Andy Griffth Show'. In fact, when the team beams down, in the background are places in Mayberry such as the Court House, the town's bank, and Floyd's Barbershop.

No doubt this is the reason why that duplicate of Earth thing happened, so they could use those set.

If you read the James Blish adaptation, the planet is a colony that severed relations with Earth centuries earlier.

No doubt that was the original idea for Miri's world.

later wrote several episodes of 'Bonanza'

Hoss: Paw, beam me up!

Mr. Cartwright: All right, boys, set your six-shooters to stun.

Yeoman Rand was Kirk's beam down partner, not Helen Noel.

Yes! I knew it!

NBC actually feared that viewers could be hypnotized for real!

I think even today scientists aren't sure how hypnosis works, so you could hardly blame non-scientists 50 years ago being naturally concerned.

Phil Morris, the son of 'Mission: Impossible' 's Greg Morris

And years later Phil was in a revival of Mission: Impossible, I believe playing the son of his dad's character.

'Miri' premiered the same night as the first showing of 'It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown'

Bop Bop On The Head, Charlie Brown! ;-)

Bob Justman worried so much about the cost of the special effects, costumes, ears, makeup, and extra staff to prep the actors that he he tried to stop production of this episode at the outline stage. We might actually have never gotten 'Balance Of Terror' if Roddenberry had listened to him.

And we would never have had the Romulans had that happened.

"The Conscience Of the King":

In the outline submitted, it was an alien invasion of Earth, not a colony, that the incident occurred on, and one of the first victims included 'Area Commander Kirk, Governor of a Province' (Kirk's father).

Riley was originally 'Daiken' and he was found by a fellow engineer after he'd been poisoned.

Roddenberry changed it to Uhura singing to Riley on an open communications line and hearing his call for help.

'Beyond Antares', the song Uhura sang, was created by Gene Coon who wrote the lyrics, and Wilbur Hatch, who wrote the music. Hatch's name appears in numerous episodes as 'Music Consultant'.

Grace Lee Whitney had scenes that were cut or not filmed-- she was supposed to find Kirk and Lenore down in the shuttlecraft observation deck, to get him to sign a report. Lenore is also perceptive enough to know that both of them are hiding their feelings for one another. However, since Whitney was already about to be written out, the scenes were cut.

Another cut scene was Karidian hiding down the corridor, eavesdropping in on Spock and McCoy talking about the massacre and Kodos.

"The Galileo Seven":

The story started out with Kirk on the shuttle, and Spock on the Enterprise. A yeoman was killed, and a character called 'Finney' was also killed. Seems somebody really like the name 'Finney' or 'Finnigan'.

Roddenberry switched Kirk and Spock's places, but not until 2 story outlines and one draft script had been written.

Baily, from 'the Corbomite Maneuver' was back (for a short time), and McCoy and Scotty were still on the Enterprise at a late stage of the scripting, and even High Commission Ferris wasn't written in yet.

Desilu said 'no' to the full-size shuttlecraft, so work on the script abruptly stopped, and the production was stalled for 2 months. In July 1966, NBC was running Fall TV Previews, and some of the guests included executives from the AMT Corporation, a model kit company. They wanted an exclusive model kit contract for the Enterprise, and got it for a price-- they paid for the full size exterior and interior Galileo shuttles, as well as the miniature that was filmed! All this time we thought NBC or Desilu paid for all the shuttles, but no. It was a model kit company based in Phoenix, Arizona!

The Galileo was built for $24,000, during August 1966, in Phoenix.

When the script needed work, writer Shimon Wincleberg ("What Are Little Girls made Of?"), did a re-write on the second raft. He added Ferris, and Yeoman Rand (to replace a character named 'Butler'), and replaced Swan, Finney, and Guines, with Latimer, Gaetano, and Boma.

It was Bob Justman who suggested a landing party (the one led by Kelowitz) that returns with deaths and injuries, to emphasis the danger of the planet.

Phyllis Douglas (Yeoman Mears) began her acting career at age 2-- she played 'Bonnie Blue Butler' in 'Gone With The Wind' in 1939.

The episode cost $232,690 to make, one of the most expensive of the entire series, and pushed the first season deficit up to $51,936.

Several scripts after this included the character of Boma, but Don Marshall would be hired later by Irwin Allen for 'Land of the Giants'.

"Court Martial":

It was originally called 'Court Martial On Starbase 811', and included the ship's computer who disliked Kirk but liked the officer that fed it new information, and was convinced to lie about the crewman's death.

The writer of this episode, Don Mankiewicz, is the son of Herman J. Mankiewic, who co-wrote 'Citizen Kane' with Orson Welles.

At the draft stage, there were two Samuel Cogley's-- a father and son lawyer team. And Commodore Stone was 'Base Commander Sherek'. Hard to believe in this day and age, but it was a big deal in 1966 to show a black man with such authority and power.

Finney Senior was stationed at the base, while his son, Finney Junior, was killed aboard ship.

Joan Marshall (Areel Shaw) played Phoebe Munster in 'The Munsters' pilot. 'Phoebe' would be changed to 'Lily'. She had the same straight black hair and black costume as Morticia from 'The Addams Family', so this was changed to black hair with a white streak and white outfit, and a bigger star, Yvonne Dicarlo, took the role.

Hagan Beggs (Lt. Hansen, but listed in the credits as 'helmsman') was from Canada, and had worked with James Doohan. They'd later become friends.

Elisha Cook Jr. was in two movies with Humphrey Bogart-- 'The Maltese Falcon' and 'The Big Sleep'.

There was a scene filmed but cut-- Jamie is brought aboard ship by Cogley, and it's she who convinces Finney to tell Kirk how he'd sabotaged the ship. Instead, the director wanted to keep the pace of the climax going after the fight, so he substituted voice-over narration by Kirk.

All this time we thought NBC or Desilu paid for all the shuttles

I'm pretty sure that detail was mentioned in some early book(s) about Star Trek. I don't have my copies of The Making of Star Trek or The World of Star Trek handy, but I think I read it in one of them.

Roddenberry changed it to Uhura singing to Riley on an open communications line and hearing his call for help.

'Beyond Antares', the song Uhura sang, was created by Gene Coon who wrote the lyrics, and Wilbur Hatch, who wrote the music. Hatch's name appears in numerous episodes as 'Music Consultant'.

No doubt this was put in when they found out that Nichelle Nicols is a talented singer.


Grace Lee Whitney had scenes that were cut or not filmed-- she was supposed to find Kirk and Lenore down in the shuttlecraft observation deck, to get him to sign a report. Lenore is also perceptive enough to know that both of them are hiding their feelings for one another. However, since Whitney was already about to be written out, the scenes were cut.

This was, in fact, her last episode.


When the script needed work, writer Shimon Wincleberg ("What Are Little Girls made Of?"), did a re-write on the second raft. He added Ferris, and Yeoman Rand (to replace a character named 'Butler'), and replaced Swan, Finney, and Guines, with Latimer, Gaetano, and Boma.

And only two of those guest characters, who were on the Galileo made back to the Enterprise.


Several scripts after this included the character of Boma, but Don Marshall would be hired later by Irwin Allen for 'Land of the Giants'.

He would have been a recurring character, like Leslie and Kyle were.


Hard to believe in this day and age, but it was a big deal in 1966 to show a black man with such authority and power.

Yeah, the Civil Rights Act was only two years old when this episode was made.


Hagan Beggs (Lt. Hansen, but listed in the credits as 'helmsman') was from Canada, and had worked with James Doohan. They'd later become friends.

I remember a Canadian TV show he was on in the 1980's, called Danger Bay.


Elisha Cook Jr. was in two movies with Humphrey Bogart-- 'The Maltese Falcon' and 'The Big Sleep'.

I remember him from a recurring role he had on the original Magnum P.I. He played a character called Ice Pick, the guy that Magnum and Co. went to when they needed information on the criminal underground.

'The Menagerie' Part 1 and 2:

Jeffrey Hunter was filming a movie in Spain when it was time to film this episode, so a replacement was required for the crippled Captain Pike. John D.F. Black, the associate producer who had just quit was considered because the producers thought he 'had Pike's eyes', but Black said no. As a result, they hired Sean Kenney for the role. And Kenney, for putting up with the make-up job and restrictive part, was rewarded with the role of Lt. DePaul in 'Arena' and 'A Taste Of Armageddon'.

In this episode, we find Commodore Mendez in command of Starbase 11, the same base that Commodore Stone was in command of in 'Court Martial'.. However, in a weird bit of ti8ming involving the filming of this episode and the televised show, it seems like Mendez was first (these episodes are the 11th and 12th televised) and Stone replaced him, because 'Court Martial' was televised 20th. However, 'Court Martial' was filmed first, so Stone was actually replaced by Mendez in that respect.

To use the old 'Cage' footage', Jeffrey Hunter received $5000, Majel Barrett $750, and the other cast members between $600 and $750. Leonard Nimoy wanted $1250, but Desilu said no, since he 'd already been paid for that performance.

"Shore Leave":

The script had Janice Rand in place of Yeoman Barrows, but Grace Lee Whitney was gone by then. Also, the script had Baily in it, instead of Estaban Rodriguez.

The script had Sulu's gun firing off 11 shots, and when this was pointed out, Gene Coon reduced the shots to 7, which was still one too many for that type of gun. Coon figured that any alien race that could create such a fantasy land cpould make such a weapon shoot more than it really could.

They had to change the knight from a White Knight to a Black Knight, since one of the show's sponsers was Ajax cleanser, and at the time their trademark was a White Knight and White Horse.

Shirley Bonne was 31 at thew time of filming. If 'she hasn't changed' since Kirk met her, but it's 15 years after 33-year old Kirk knew her, WOW!

Bill Blackburn (Lt. Hadley) was in the Rabbit costume, and as Bill Theiss was wont to do, he sewed the ator up into the costume, essentially sealing him in. Barely able to breathe or see, Blackburn developed life-long claustrophobia from the bad experience.

And speaking of the White Rabbit, it was on the chopping block in a memo Roddenberry intended to give Justman. However, he forgot to give it to him, just as he went on a holiday. Roddenberry came back to find the memo undelivered, the first day of shooting for this episode. he drove out to Africa USA, but didn't arrive in time to change the script-- the Rabbit scene had been filmed. This led to him re-writing sections of the script as they were filming it, sending the revisions back for copying and back to the location shooting.

This was fortuitous for Bruce Mars who played Finnegan, since he wanted the character to be less nasty and more of an Irish joker. He was able to approach Roddenberry in person and suggest the change-- which coincidently, Roddenberry had wanted to do, anyways.

Mechanical arms were supposed to appear from under a rock and pull McCoy's body underground, but it was deemed too expensive to do. It would later be used in an Animated episode sequel, 'Once Upon A Planet'.

Bruce Mars sprained his ankle on the second day of shooting, but was able to return two days later. He was asked to go to the edge of a cliff and jump up and down to taunt Kirk, but the height made Mars nervous. The director kept yelling up to him, "Forward! Move forward, Bruce! More forward!"

Because filming went late, numerous shots were actually recorded in the dark (it was filmed in late October, early November), but with powerful lights-- namely the scene where Sulu encounters the Samurai.

Bob Justman wanted Yeoman Barrows to return, but Gene Coon nixed the idea, since they were unsure how to deal with their budding relationship.

NBC cut the budget for Star Trek mid-way through it's first season from $193,500 to $185,000, probably because they could rarely, if ever, produce episodes with that much money. Even after this cut, they continued to go over budget.

When it was time for Gene Roddenberry to pick a new Producer to replace John D.F. Black who was leaving after just a dozen episodes, his first choice was James Goldstone, the director of 'Where No Man Has Gone Before', but he said no.
Gene's second choice was Samuel Peeples, who wrote the same episode. he also declined.
Gene's third choice was Fred Freiberger! Yeah, THAT Freiberger. Apparently his work on 'The Wild, Wild West' was a deciding factor. Fortunately for fans, Fred was on his way to Europe for a 6-week vacation. He told Gene that if the position was still available, he'd still be interested.
Fortunately, Gene's fourth choice, Gene Coon said yes before we were stuck a years and a half earlier with Freiberger. Some facts about Gene Coon; previously he had changed the premise of 'McHale's Navy' from an hour-long drama to a half hour sitcom for the network, and it was his efforts that created the concept for 'The Munsters'. He wasn't the sole creator, but others took over and changed some elements around for it to become what we all know it as.

The first season competition for Star Trek was 'The Tammy Grimes Show'. She was a Tony award-winning Broadway actress, who turned down the role of Samantha Stevens in 'Bewitched', thinking the show would be a flop. Can't say much about her career choices outside broadway.

The A.C. Nielsen Nation Report for the period of Sept 12 to 25, 1966, Star Trek was number 31 out of 90 Prime Times shows. Here's the placement for others;
40 - Lost In Space
34 - Hogan's Heroes & Batman (Thursday (episode)
32 - The Ed Sullivan Show
21 - Get Smart & Bewitched
17 - The Man From UNCLE
10 - The Beverly Hillbillies
4 - Bonanza & Gomer Pyle USMC
3 - Rat Patrol
2 - Green Acres
1 - The Sunday Night Movie

The Star Trek office received dozens of outlines that were never produced for one reason or another-- too expensive, not sci-fi enough, the writer couldn't get the characters right, etc. However, several outlines retained elements that found their way into episodes such as 'A Piece Of The Action', 'Elaan Of Troyius', 'I,Mudd', and 'Is There In Truth No Beauty?', e;lements that didn't even come from the actual writers of those episodes, but were transplanted there by Roddenberry, Justman, or Coon.

NBC cut the budget for Star Trek mid-way through it's first season from $193,500 to $185,000, probably because they could rarely, if ever, produce episodes with that much money.

Bwha?

"Sir, the board you gave me won't cover the hole."
NBC "Here! Use this smaller board!"

---

quote:

Bob Justman wanted Yeoman Barrows to return, but Gene Coon nixed the idea, since they were unsure how to deal with their budding relationship.

---

Bob Justman wanted Yeoman Barrows to return, but Gene Coon nixed the idea, since they were unsure how to deal with their budding relationship.

I'm guessing you mean her and McCoy's budding relationship. It was clearly going somewhere, she was in tears when McCoy "died".


Gene's third choice was Fred Freiberger! Yeah, THAT Freiberger. Apparently his work on 'The Wild, Wild West' was a deciding factor. Fortunately for fans, Fred was on his way to Europe for a 6-week vacation. He told Gene that if the position was still available, he'd still be interested.
Fortunately, Gene's fourth choice, Gene Coon said yes before we were stuck a years and a half earlier with Freiberger.

Again I must point out that Freiberger is often blamed for things that were beyond his control. That would later happen to TOS is not all on him.


The first season competition for Star Trek was 'The Tammy Grimes Show'. She was a Tony award-winning Broadway actress, who turned down the role of Samantha Stevens in 'Bewitched', thinking the show would be a flop. Can't say much about her career choices outside Broadway.

Never heard of her.


However, several outlines retained elements that found their way into episodes such as 'A Piece Of The Action', 'Elaan Of Troyius', 'I,Mudd', and 'Is There In Truth No Beauty?', elements that didn't even come from the actual writers of those episodes, but were transplanted there by Roddenberry, Justman, or Coon.

Nice that those episodes did eventually get made.

Never heard of her.

I have; I'm sure I watched her show with my kid sister. This was before I got turned on to Trek during it's summer reruns in 1967. The Tammy Grimes Show was cancelled after four episodes; six were left unaired, according to Wikipedia. Dick Sargent, the second Darrin on Bewitched, played her brother. Grimes was married to Christopher Plummer; their daughter is Amanda Plummer. Tammy Grimes passed away in 2016.

Mechanical arms were supposed to appear from under a rock and pull McCoy's body underground, but it was deemed too expensive to do. It would later be used in an Animated episode sequel, 'Once Upon A Planet'.

No doubt, if that were filmed today, they would use CGI.

And yet the body just disappearing is so much more eerier, whereas robot arms yanking him under a rock... eh, whatever.

Yeah, that's true. I mean they only looked away for a moment or two, and when they look back, McCoy, and the black knight, have both disappeared.

And Spock's Vulcan hearing didn't notice it. Imagine four people, all within a few yards of his body and POOF! Gone! Definitely a much better turn of events. than arms.

Best they saved it for the animated episode.

"The Squire Of Gothos":

Janice Rand was in it instead of Yeoman Teresa Rosds, which made Kirk's jealousy make more sense. The writer (Paul Schneider) didn't know that Grace Lee Whitney had been let go just a couple weeks previous, her last day being September 20, 1966.

Kirk and Sulu were discovered as marble statues, but since it was too expensive to make, they were turned green by lighting, and stood very, very still.

The translation of Trelane's greeting to Jaeger is, "And Officer Jaeger, you're a German soldier, no? One, two, three, four!"

Director Don McDougall and casting dsirector Joe D'Agosta wanted Roddy McDowall as Trelane, while Gene Coon preferred William Campbell.

Venita Wolf, who played Yeoman Teresa Ross, was the cover-girl for the July 1967 issue of Playboy. She would marry a wealthy nightclub owner, and leave show business.

Uhura is playing a real song on the harpsichord-- "Roses From The South" by Johann Strauss Jr. (1825-1899).

William Campbell must have gotten into the fight too much, because he ended up dislocating his shoulder during it, since he wanted to do his own stunts.

"Arena":

Fredric Brown's original story, 'Arena' was published in 'Astounding" magazine in 1944. Gene Coon insisted he'd never heard of it, but come on. Both stories called 'Arena', involving a human vs an alien in mortal combat, one on one?

'Cestus', as in the planet's name, Cestus III, is a Latin word describing a form of boxing glove worn by gladiators in arenas.

This episode marked the first time the 'Federation' and 'photon Torpedoes' were ever mentioned-- because they were Gene Coon inventions.

This episode had the shortest time frame from story outline to filming of any episode; October 10 for the outline to November 8, the start of filming. It usually took about 3 to 6 months between outline and filming. The production staff simply had fewer problems or issues with the story and production.

Jerry Ayres, a.k.a. Ensign O'Herlihy, a.k.a. "Captain, I see something!" ZAP! Disintegration! would return the next season as Ensign Rizzo in 'Obsession'.

It was on Day 4 of filming, November 11, 1966, that Shatner and Nimoy's ears were damaged by poorly-executed special effects explosions, resulting in permanent Tinnitus for both actors.

"The Alternative Factor":

The outline was deemed too confusing by the producers, since both Lazarus's acted 'good', and neither was psychotic and evil.

At one stage, Kirk met his other self, but this was removed, since he'd already met 2 other Kirk's-- his evil side and an android version.

Lazarus swept Lt.Charlene Masters off her feet, when he was depicted as a kind of swashbuckler and hunter, and more interesting than 23rd century men. They were both lonely, and were prepared to never leave each other, now that they'd found their soul mate. However, this was too similar to what was in store for soon-to-be-produced 'Space Seed' so it was dropped.

It was always going to be an inter-racial romance, even involving an inter-racial kiss, 2 years before Kirk and Uhura.

Masters created the fire diversion for Lazarus, she beamed down to the planet with him, and even entered the void/corridor with him, only to discover then that the man she loved was insane.

It was Robert Justman's idea to depict the Corridor as a negative image.

Actor John Drew Barrymore (son of John Barrymore Sr. and father of actress Drew Barrymore) was hired to play Lazarus.
However, on the first day of shooting, Barrymore visited the set, was shown the script changes and revisions, and immediately quit the production. Robert Brown was called at 11pm that night, and agreed to take over the part, having just read a copy of the script and having no rehersals. The producers got his name from William Shatner, who suggested him, since they'd worked together on an unsold TV pilot called 'Collosus' together.

Gene Coon receieved several 'off-the-record' phone calls from people in the Desilu studio, who told him that either black actress Janet MacLachian had to go, or the Masters/Lazarus romance had to be removed, since they were concerned how the episode would do in the Southern States.

The reason Lt. Masters is in a blue science uniform instead of red engineering is because her character started out as a chemist, but the script later changed her to an engineer. Somehow, the wardrobe department wasn't informed of the change and she was suited up in blue by mistake.

There was also supposed to be a new sign created saying 'Lithium Crystal Recharging Section' for her area, but they stuck one saying 'Engineering' on it, instead.

The ending was supposed to end with Lazarus 1 clawing at the walls, as Lazarus 2 pulls him away, they fall down together as their ships are destroyed, resulting in a howl of anguish from Lazarus 1. A better ending than what we got, if you ask me-- just more wrestling.

Roddy McDowall as Trelane

Interesting choice, although I don't think he'd have played it as wild as Campbell did, McDowall's characters tended to be more reserved.

Fredric Brown's original story, 'Arena' was published in 'Astounding" magazine in 1944. Gene Coon insisted he'd never heard of it, but come on. Both stories called 'Arena', involving a human vs an alien in mortal combat, one on one?

Given the genericness of the title "Arena" which usually implies fighting, and that SF tended to have humans vs. aliens, I tend to believe Gene. The title and basic plot are just too generic. Also, if you've read Brown's story, there is a world of difference in the finished stories.

Also, if you've read Brown's story, there is a world of difference in the finished stories.

It is explicitely stated in the show's intro that the episode is based on Brown's story. What I think Gene Coon meant was that he had never heard of the story before someone decided to base a Star Trek episode on it.

Ok, did a little more research.

From Wikipedia:

According to an account by Herbert Solow in the book Inside Star Trek, The Real Story, the relation to Brown's short story may have been an unconscious inspiration. After Coon had written what he thought was an original script, Desilu's research department, headed by Kellam de Forest, noted the similarity. It was therefore agreed that Desilu's Business Affairs office would call Brown and offer a fair price for the story, before it was shot and broadcast. Brown agreed without knowing that the script had already been written; he was granted screen credit for the story.

The translation of Trelane's greeting to Jaeger is, "And Officer Jaeger, you're a German soldier, no? One, two, three, four!"

Ah, so that's what it means.


Gene Coon preferred William Campbell.

And Mr. Campbell gave a great performance.


Fredric Brown's original story, 'Arena' was published in 'Astounding" magazine in 1944.

I remember reading that story, many years ago.


Jerry Ayres, a.k.a. Ensign O'Herlihy, a.k.a. "Captain, I see something!" ZAP! Disintegration! would return the next season as Ensign Rizzo in 'Obsession'.

And that character died too. Poor guy couldn't catch a break!


Gene Coon receieved several 'off-the-record' phone calls from people in the Desilu studio, who told him that either black actress Janet MacLachian had to go, or the Masters/Lazarus romance had to be removed, since they were concerned how the episode would do in the Southern States.

And they chose to drop the romance. Besides, as you said, it would have been too similar to the McGivers/Khan thing.

Interesting to see that the Masters character originally had a bigger part.


There was also supposed to be a new sign created saying 'Lithium Crystal Recharging Section' for her area, but they stuck one saying 'Engineering' on it, instead.

And the place looks nothing like the real Engineering.


BTW: Fixed your post, Francois.

Thank you

KAM - 'The title and basic plot are just too generic.'

Moreso now, but remember, this was 1966, and there were far fewer shows that dug into the past for a plot.
I'm not dissing Coon, though. I love this episode, and I read a version of Brown's 'Arena' a long time ago in several issues of Starlog magazine, and back then I was surprised to discover it was the idea for the Trek episode.

This is not the only time a work was adapted for Trek.

Robert Bloch adapted his 1944 short story, Yours Truly, Jack The Ripper, into the episode Wolf In The Fold.

"Tomorrow Is Yesterday":

While writing this, D.C.Fontana quit as Gene Roddenberry's secretary, preferring to become a full-time writer.

It was Dorothy Fontana's idea that Starfleet had 12 ships like the Enterprise, so it was included in the Star Trek guideline 'bible'.

It took just 5 minutes for Roger Perry to get the part of Captain Christopher.

You may have noticed the wrinkly, warped 'viewscreens' above Spock and Uhura's station by this time. They were worn out after so much set separation and moving, that new ones were installed after this episode.

The Westheimer Co., one of 5 special effects companies that worked on the series, only had access to the smaller Enterprise model for the scenes in Earth's atmosphere. The Howard Anderson Company had the 11-foot-2-inch model, but failed to deliver footage on time. By the looks of the photo on the set, we could have seen the big model flying in the sky, using a close angle that saw the ship move forward, as the camera lined up with the starboard warp engine.

It wasn't unusual for one episode to use more than one special effects house in it. However, the only company listed in the credits is the one that provided the majority of the effects. So if Howard Anderson had all the spaceship effects, but all Westheimer did was a couple phaser shots from Kirk and Spock, Westheimer wouldn't get their name in the end credits.

"The Return Of The Archons":

This episode had previously had the titles 'The Perfect World', 'Paradise XML', and 'Landru's Paradise', when they were all Gene Roddenberry's outlines. He gave the job of making it a screenplay to Boris Sobelman, who changed it to 'The Return Of The Archons'.

'Paradise XML' was an early contender for the pilot, but NBC chose 'The Cage'.

Gene Coon created the concept of the 'Prime Directive' here, when he made script revisions.

Landru was originally going to be a robot, but Justman suggested changing it to a computer.

The crazy Betan that crashes through a window and cries out, "Festival! Festival!" is Bobby Clark, a stunt performer who had been one of the main Gorn performers, and would return in 'Mirror, Mirror' as one of Chekov's henchmen that gets phasered.

Maybe it's because it was his story outline, or it was the final product, but this was also a Top 10 episode for Gene Roddenberry.

"Space Seed":

Writer Carey Wilbur's outline was called 'Botany Bay'.

Wilbur wrote scripts about a space ship wandering deep space with a crew in suspended animation, until something goes wrong. No, not 'Space Seed'-- Wilbur also wrote some scripts for 'Lost In Space'!

The leader's name was Harold Ericson, not Khan, and he was described as a 'Nordic superman'.

It appears we would have had a similar episode to this, if 'Space Seed ' had been passed over for 'The Rebels Unthawed', an unsolicited story by science fiction writer Philip Jose Farmer.

As usual, Yeoman Rand was in the story at the first draft script stage, but strangely she was announcing to the crew to go to action stations over the intercom. Obviously, Wilbur didn't know Rand's function on the ship, at that time.

McGivers started out as a communications officer-- Gene Coon made her an historian.

A memo that Roddenberry sent to Coon told him he didn't see the logic in the Earth authorities using a valuable spaceship to send criminals into space, instead of just executing them. That comment would show up in the episode in a conversation between Kirk and Spock.

Another memo from Roddenberry talking about the real world we live in, said, "Let's say the Earth of the 1990's...was a period of crime and the criminals being glorified." I immediately thought about the '90's and thought, yeah, we kind of did that! Not to mention something like 'The Sopranos', which ran from 1999 to 2007, and glorified the crime family in it.

And yet another comment from Gene regarding this script: "There seems to be a compulsion among writers to picture the future as totally computerized, inhumanely authoritarian, and coldly big-brotherish. I know none of us want to go that direction, but God help Star Trek if our writers push us that way."
Gene is officially rolling in his grave, and has been ever since that first wretched episode of 'Star Trek Discovery' premiered, showing every negative point in that memo!

Gene Coon did the 3rd draft script (usually scripts made it just to 2nd draft, with a few minor re-writes), which saw him change Harold Ericson to 'John Ericsson', who would later to be revealed as criminal 'Ragner Thorwald'. If this name had stuck, would we have been watching 'Star Trek II - The Wrath Of Thorwald' in 1982?

Roddenberry re-wrote the script for the 2nd Revised Final Draft, and it was he who changed Ericsson to Khan Noonien Singh.

Ricardo Montalban and Madlyn Rhue (McGivers) would work together three times; the first in 1960 on 'Bonanza', Trek in 1967, and 'Fantasy Island' in 1982.

On the first day of filming for this episode, December 15, 1966, Walt Disney passed away at the age 65, and just a few days later was the first showing of 'How The Grinch Stole Christmas'.

There was a scene that was filmed, but cut for time. McGivers spoke to Angela Martine (last seen in 'Shore Leave'), and she's trying to set up McGivers with another crewman. Marla answers that she's not interested in any man that doesn't have the spine to do the asking himself, showing how Marla's not impressed with 23rd century men, and how men of the past are more interesting to her.

Matt Jeffries designed the Botany Bay, which was actually drawn before the Enterprise. It had just been a throw-away, extra drawing in his notes for a potential future spaceship model for the show (but not as the Enterprise). There's no other information about the model, but judging by the photos of it side by side with the 11-foot Enterprise, the Botany Bay looks to be approximately 4 and a half feet long.

The leader's name was Harold Ericson, not Khan, and he was described as a 'Nordic superman'.

In his Eugenics Wars novels, Greg Cox has a character with a similar name. No doubt this is where it came from.


And yet another comment from Gene regarding this script: "There seems to be a compulsion among writers to picture the future as totally computerized, inhumanely authoritarian, and coldly big-brotherish. I know none of us want to go that direction, but God help Star Trek if our writers push us that way."
Gene is officially rolling in his grave, and has been ever since that first wretched episode of 'Star Trek Discovery' premiered, showing every negative point in that memo!

Thank the dead gods of Krypton that Gene is not alive to see how he CBS Swindlers are butchering his legacy.

Hmmmm, Discovery's future is NOT totally computerized, inhumanely authoritarian, and coldly big-brotherish by any stretch of the imagination.

Well, it certainly ain't part of Gene's vision.


Anyhoo...

Seems a lot of these outlines included Janice Rand. Of course, that's not surprising, since the scripts were probably commissioned well before Grace Lee Whitney was let go.


Another memo from Roddenberry talking about the real world we live in, said, "Let's say the Earth of the 1990's...was a period of crime and the criminals being glorified." I immediately thought about the '90's and thought, yeah, we kind of did that!

Oh yeah, O.J., the Menendez Boys. Gene sure called it that time.

And when Greg Cox did his Eugenics Wars novels, he used the above media circus as one of the reasons said wars went unnoticed at the time.


Matt Jeffries

In case anyone is curious as to who the Jeffries Tube is named for

"Discovery's future is NOT totally computerized, inhumanely authoritarian, and coldly big-brotherish by any stretch of the imagination."

Waaaaait a moment, Francois.
Did you not see that 'trial' for Michael in the first episode? It was a darkened room, the faces of the 'judges' were completely in shadow, I'm not even sure she had a counsel to defend her, and the whole scene played like it took place in the Mirror Universe! Where was the properly-lit court room of not just our reality, but what we've seen FOUR times in the original series? (The Menagerie, Court Martial, Turnabout Intruder, Star Trek IV The Voyage Home).
That was a cold, SCARY, dangerous place to be in, so don't tell me that it doesn't look inhumanely authoritarian. The Discovery universe, after that, was NEVER a friendly, nice place you'd want to visit.

Did you not see that 'trial' for Michael in the first episode? It was a darkened room, the faces of the 'judges' were completely in shadow, I'm not even sure she had a counsel to defend her, and the whole scene played like it took place in the Mirror Universe!

That was more George Orwell than Gene Roddenberry. That whole trial looked like something out of Nineteen Eighty-Four.

There is no way that TOS and STD are taking place in the same reality, despite what the CBS Swindlers would have us believe.

They could saved a lot of grief and just set STD in the Kelvin Timeline. I mean wasn't that the whole reason said timeline was created, as to not take a cr*p all over established canon?

Well, to me, True Star Trek ended with Enterprise in 2005. Everything made since then happen in alternate realities.

Did you not see that 'trial' for Michael in the first episode? It was a darkened room, the faces of the 'judges' were completely in shadow,

Yes, that was shocking to see. However, it was hardly typical of the world we were shown. Scenes set in civilian surroundings showed happy populations with no hint of Orwellian like oppression. Even in Starfleet, everyone seemed quite free to live their lives as they saw fit, with little or no interference from higher authorities, outside of what their duties called for of course.

The Discovery universe, after that, was NEVER a friendly, nice place you'd want to visit.

Well, what I have just said shows that I strongly disagree with that assessment.

I'm not even sure she had a counsel to defend her,

I'm pretty sure she did not put up much of a defense anyway. She seemed determined to blame herself for Georgiou's death and for starting the Klingon-Federation war. And what we saw was her being sentenced, prosecution and defense counsels don't play a very visible role in that part of a trial.

the Klingon-Federation war

And that's another reason STD can't be happening in the same reality as TOS. No such war took place in the True Star Trek reality.

In fact, according to Spock, in The Trouble With Tribbles, there had been no major engagement between the Federation and Klingons since the Battle Of Donotu V, some twenty-three years before. Since Trouble happens in 2267, said battle took place in 2244.

And, of course, the creatures in STD are NOT Klingons!

You mean the (NOT!)Klingons that speak with their mouths full? Yeah, those can't be Klingons!
But, seriously, how is it that in 1987 they perfected Klingon teeth (fangs?) so that we could clearly understand every word from Michael Dorn, but 2017 comes along, and those aliens sound like they have plastic Dracula fangs over their real teeth?

The difference is that TNG was made by people who actually knew and cared about Star Trek and its fan.

STD is being made by a bunch of swindlers who's only goal is to con people into signing up for CBS All Access.

Yeah, those creatures do sound like they have a mouth full of marbles!

The Marblingons?

Yeah, that would be a better name for those things.

While writing this, D.C.Fontana quit as Gene Roddenberry's secretary, preferring to become a full-time writer.

And she was one of the best, IMO.

Too bad TNG lost her so early on (thanks to the constant meddling of Leonard Maizlish). One can only wonder what other episodes she might have penned for that show.

I read (can't remember where) that the reason for Kirk's missing insignia at the beginning of "The Enemy Within" was due to the small size of the planet set. In order to show two different locations on the planet (the second one being after Fisher's injury) they had to reverse the image to make it look different. So they took Kirk's insignia off (and had Sulu carrying the dog in front of him) to make the reversal much less noticeable.

"A Taste Of Armageddon":

Originally, the Enterprise had been damaged in a meteor storm, and had no choice but to approach Eminiar VII to do repairs.

The landing party would have beamed down outside the city, but wopuld have been met by the inhabitants that were sent to find them. And in keeping with the old-time Flash Gordon style of show design, the cioty would have been depicted much like 'Metropoilis' had in the 1920's. As usual, the budget prevented this.

And as usual, Yeoman Rand was in the landing party, but now that Grace was gone, she was replaced by Yeoman Tamula. Sidenote-- I'd always thought her name was TAMARA, not TAMULA.

Kirk was supposed to fall in love with Mea 3, who started out as Anan 7's daughter.

The script showed Anan 7 using a device and a microphone to mimic Kirk's voice, but the way it was filmed, it looks like Anan 7 is a great impersonator!

"This Side Of Paradise":

Jerry Sohl (writer of 'The Corbomite Maneuver') wrote the story treatment, calling it 'Sandoval's Planet, then the outline as 'Power Play', then the 1st draft script as 'The Way Of The Spores'. It was D.C.Fontana who created the final title, 'This Side Of Paradise', after she was brought in to make the script more in line of what the producers wanted.

In Sohl's version, Sulu fell in love with a woman from his past, not Spock.

Sohl was so annoyed by how much of his story was changed that he had the producers use a pseudonym for him-- 'Nathan Butler'.

D.C. established in this script that Spock's parents were a teacher(Amanda) and an ambassador (Sarek). These books are really opening up my eyes as to things we might have believed Roddenberry thought up, but were, in fact, additions from other staff.

When the research department disputed radiation not harming the colonists after their contact with the spores, Gene Coon changed it to 'berthold rays'.

Jill Ireland was 30 at this time, and married to 'Man From UNCLE' star, David McCallum. (Charles Bronson would marry her a few years later). However, if Leila was also 30 at the time, that means that she was under 25 when she and Spock were together.

Days 3 and 4 of filming had to be rearranged when Jill Ireland called in sick-- she believed she had the measles. Fortunately, this was not the case.

"The Devil In The Dark":

The man in the Horta costume was Janos Prohaska, a 6 foot-4 Hungarian stuntman in Hollywood, who also made his own costumes. He had an agreement with Star Trek; if he made the costumes, himself, he'd also be the man in the costume during filming. In season 2, he would create and 'act' in the Mugato costume for 'A Private Little War'.

He showed the lumpy, rocky, rubber Horta costume to Roddenberry, Justman, Coon, and Dorothy Fontana at the same time, doing all of the moves we saw her do in the episode-- it even laid an egg!

Gene Coon was so enthusiastic about the creature costume, after Prohaska was told it would be used for an episode, Coon wrote the outline in just 4 days.

As expected when wearings such a heavy, confining costume, Prohaska lost a lot of weight in the six days of filming.

William Shatner's father died unexpectedly in Florida, on the third day of filming (January 18, 1967). He still filmed a few more scenes on the day that he heard the news (to keep busy and the flight was not until night, anyway), but eventually a stand-in was required. We've already mentioned in 'The Devil In The Dark' thread that it's kinda obvious it isn't Kirk from behind, as Spock is mind-melding with the Horta (I didn't notice the difference until I read it here). I also didn't know until now that the double was Eddie Paskey, a.k.a. Lt. Leslie.

Jill Ireland was 30 at this time, and married to 'Man From UNCLE' star, David McCallum. (Charles Bronson would marry her a few years later).

Bronson was on set, though, IIRC, so no one would "mess with his woman". See the episode page here for more.

Kirk was supposed to fall in love with Mea 3, who started out as Anan 7's daughter.

I don't know about you, but I'm glad the script was changed to eliminate that plot point. A similar idea would be used in "The Mark Of Gideon".

And as usual, Yeoman Rand was in the landing party

Yeah, these scripts were commissioned months before Grace was let go.


D.C. established in this script that Spock's parents were a teacher(Amanda) and an ambassador (Sarek). These books are really opening up my eyes as to things we might have believed Roddenberry thought up, but were, in fact, additions from other staff.

Odd that Spock spoke of his parents in the past tense, as both were alive at that time.


The man in the Horta costume was Janos Prohaska, a 6 foot-4 Hungarian stuntman in Hollywood, who also made his own costumes. He had an agreement with Star Trek; if he made the costumes, himself, he'd also be the man in the costume during filming. In season 2, he would create and 'act' in the Mugato costume for 'A Private Little War'.

He also did some Gilligan's Island episodes, including that giant spider (NEAHHHHHHHH).


William Shatner's father died unexpectedly in Florida, on the third day of filming (January 18, 1967). He still filmed a few more scenes on the day that he heard the news (to keep busy and the flight was not until night, anyway), but eventually a stand-in was required.

Yeah, I read about that too.

Jill Ireland was 30 at this time, and married to 'Man From UNCLE' star, David McCallum. (Charles Bronson would marry her a few years later).

Bronson was on set, though, IIRC, so no one would "mess with his woman". See the episode page here for more.

Nimoy discusses this in "I Am Spock". He says he was a tad... nervous... about it.

I read (can't remember where) that the reason for Kirk's missing insignia at the beginning of "The Enemy Within" was due to the small size of the planet set. In order to show two different locations on the planet (the second one being after Fisher's injury) they had to reverse the image to make it look different. So they took Kirk's insignia off (and had Sulu carrying the dog in front of him) to make the reversal much less noticeable.

I remember reading about that somewhere. Can't remember where though.

From imdb.com for Jill Ireland;
"Born in London, Ireland was the daughter of a wine importer. She began acting in the mid-1950s with bit parts in films including Simon and Laura (1955) and Three Men in a Boat (1956).
In 1957, Ireland married actor David McCallum after the couple met while working on the film Hell Drivers (1957). Later they appeared together in five episodes of The Man From U.N.C.L.E.: "The Quadripartite Affair" (season 1, episode 3, 1964), "The Giuoco Piano Affair" (season 1, episode 7, 1964), "The Tigers Are Coming Affair" (season 2, episode 8, 1965), "The Five Daughters Affair" (season 3, episodes 28 & 29, 1967). They had three sons, Paul, Valentine, and Jason (who was adopted). McCallum and Ireland divorced in 1967. In 1968, Ireland married Charles Bronson. She had met him when he and McCallum were filming The Great Escape (1963) some years earlier. Together they had a daughter, Zuleika, and adopted a daughter, Katrina."

I recall reading (or hearing Nimoy recount the episode on stage a convention) about Bronson being on set, too. It looks like she was seeing the tough guy at the same time as her marriage to David was ending. Now that I've checked imdb.com, I can see how close her divorce to McCallum and marriage to Bronson was, even though I didn't know until now that she was even married to McCallum.

Quite a few up and coming actors appeared on TOS.

"Errand Of Mercy":

The title comes from a line in the Charles Dickens novel, 'The Life And Adventures Of Nicholas Nickleby' - "It is an errand of mercy that brings me here. Pray, let me discharge it."

Victor Landin played the Klimngon lieutenant, and he was almnost chosen to play Spock. He was one of the last three candidates for the role-- him, Nimoy, and one other actor. Fortunately, Gene Roddenberry wanted Nimoy.

The Organian town square had previously been Jerusalem in Cecil B. Demille's 'King Of Kings' in 1927.

And speaking of the town square, in the scene where Kirk, Spock, and Ayebourne enter it, Spock asks to go about the towen to take some readings. Ayelbourne then leads Kirk past some villargers in the background standing beside a couple goats and a cow. But they're not real! The goats and the cow are life-size cut-outs!

The Organian 'fortress or castle' that Kirk and Spock observe after beaming down, is actually a place called 'Citadelle Laferriere' in the northern region of Haiti. It was built in the 1800's by Haitian resistance fighters to prevent the French from returning, and it stands to this day.

Fred Philips didn't know how to design the Klingon makeup, so he took some suggestions from John Colicos, who saw the character as a bit of Genghis Khan, with a 'vaguely Asian/Tartar appearance'. The hair style and skin color were Colicos's ideas.

"The City On The Edge Of Forever"

Although Harlan Ellkison was one of the first writers asked to create a story to be put into script form, Ellison wasn't focused enough on the project, and allowed the script to linger for months, as scripts came in after his was assigned, were filmed, and televised, even as his remained unfinished.

It's also infamously believed that Roddenberry, alone, rewrote Ellison's script (one reason being that Gene DID say that), but the truth is it went through THREE other people, as well as Roddenberry to complete it.

Ellison submitted his outline in March 1966, a revised outline in May '66, a second revised outline, also in May, a first draft script in June '66, and a a 2nd draft script in August '66.

Unfortunately, the characters didn't sound like the Enterprise crew, and the story was still going to be way too expensive to film as was.

The first person to re-write it was Steven Carabatsos (the show's script consultant), who did a rewrite in October '66, seven months after the outline was submitted-- an amount of time no other story remained in production.

Ellison then arrogantly typed '2nd revised FINAL DRAFT SCRIPT' in, December 1966, thinking that nobody on staff was allowed to change anything about it.

Unfortunately, even after all this time, it still wasn't right and too expensive, so Gene Coon submitted an outline in December '66, based on Ellison's script, and then a 1st draft script in January 1967.

Then D.C. Fontana had a shot at it in January, followed by additional rewrites by Coon, and only then, finally, by Roddenberry in February 1967, ELEVEN MONTHS after it had been assigned! No other episode went through this, and if not for the name 'Harlan Ellison' on it, I, personally, doubt the staff would have tolerated this length of time on a TV script, after having read about the process for the first and second seasons.

Complicating getting the script into shape, Ellison was a procrastinator, who liked to wander down to the studio, and socialize, as well as having other projects in the works like a novel and a short story, not to mention his own marriage on the verge of breaking up.

Carabatsos got rid of the drug dealer crewman, as well as the addict crewman, and changed it to McCoy getting 'adrenalin poisoning' after saving Sulu on the bridge.

It was Bob Justman's idea for Kirk to catch Edith from falling down the stairs.

Gene Coon wrote the 'head in a rice picker' joke-- Ellison hated it, but I think evertyone else thinks it's funny.

On her first day as story editor, the script was dumped on D.C. Fontana's lap with a 'It's your turn!" by the two Genes. She played up the Kirk and Edith romance, but she was also the one that invented the word 'Cordrazine'. 'Cordwainer Byrd' is Ellison's pseudonym. Cordrazine, Cordwainer; I wonder if that was a dig at Ellison?

Hal Baylor, who played the cop, would return, uncredited, as an Enterprise guard in 'Elaan Of Troyius'.

The show took 7 and a half days to film, and cost $245,316, making it the most expensive episode in the Original Series ($1.7 million in 2013).

It was filmed outside at Desilu 40 Acres, the same places as 'The Andy Griffith Show' was filmed, and in fact you even see 'Floyd's Barber Shop' right beside them as Kirk walks Edith home (the 'Goodnight, Sweetheart'/'Let me help' scene).

D.C. Fontana never had the guts to tell Ellison that she was one of the people to re-write his story, but he found out, anyways, 20 years later in the late 1980's. Not a nice thing to do, since Ellison put 100 % of the blame on Roddenberry all that time.

---

quote:

Victor Landin played the Klingon lieutenant, and he was almost chosen to play Spock. He was one of the last three candidates for the role-- him, Nimoy, and one other actor. Fortunately, Gene Roddenberry wanted Nimoy.

---

The goats and the cow are life-size cut-outs!

Geeze, the Organians couldn't even counjure up animals and had to conjure up cut-outs???

;-)

Steve's comments on Harlan Ellison showed what a huge hypocrite the man was. He would always moan that Hollywood would screw him over, yet that didn't stop him from cashing those cheques now, did it.

On February 16, 2013, I posted this in the City On The Edge Of Forever thread:

For almost half-a-century now, Harlan Ellison has moaned, whined, and bleated about how they changed his script. It I could, I would say one or all of the following to him:

"Mr. Ellison, surely you must know how Hollywood works. Once you sell a script to a movie or tv show, that's the moment you lose sole ownership of it. The producers can change it as they see fit."

"Mr. Ellison, in my honest opinion, I don't think your original idea would have been so well embraced by the fans as the televised story was. Can't you take some comfort in that this episode is always regard as one of the best, if not THE best episode of Classic Trek."

Or finally:

"Mr. Ellison, it's been almost fifty years: GET OVER IT!!"

While I can be sympathetic towards him in regards to The Starlost, since that was his baby, I can't here. In City, he was writing about characters that weren't his, in a universe that wasn't his. He was playing in someone else's sandbox. If he didn't like the way Gene and the others did things, he should never have agreed to write a script for them.


Then D.C. Fontana had a shot at it in January, followed by additional rewrites by Coon, and only then, finally, by Roddenberry in February 1967, ELEVEN MONTHS after it had been assigned! No other episode went through this, and if not for the name 'Harlan Ellison' on it, I, personally, doubt the staff would have tolerated this length of time on a TV script

Was the guy that big a writer? I've tried some of his stuff, and, truth be told, I was less than impressed.

Surprisingly, yes, he was a big deal.

A number of younger writers were blown away by his stuff and were inspired, and a few may have stolen from him, and others (particularly comic writers) included him, or a lawyer friendly cameo, in their stories.

He did have some nice ideas and could string words together well, but yeah, I think it was an Omni magazine story that he wrote where I realized that what he really wrote was 20th Century Fables as opposed to straight SF or Fantasy stories.

Still he had the personality of a porcupine with ingrown quills.

Still he had the personality of a porcupine with ingrown quills.

Ellison was gracious enough to pose for a photo for me at a Trek convention in 1974. He was strolling around the convention foyer, and I met him by dumb luck. I don't think our conversation went beyond my saying "Thank you".

Still he had the personality of a porcupine with ingrown quills.

And a swelled head to boot.


Ellison was gracious enough to pose for a photo for me at a Trek convention in 1974. He was strolling around the convention foyer, and I met him by dumb luck. I don't think our conversation went beyond my saying "Thank you".

Of course, he wasn't dumb enough to bite the hand that fed him. You •••• off your fans, they stop buying your books, and your career is finished.

However, my point of him being a hypocrite stands. If Ellison hated the way Hollywood was run, he could have just walked away. Yet, he was more than happy to cash the cheques given to him every time he sold them a script.

In the case of City, perhaps he didn't like the changes that Roddenberry, Fontana, and the others made, well tough noogies. He sold them the script, and that's when he lost sole control of it. And yet he spent the next fifty years bleating to anyone who'd listen how Gene Roddenberry had screwed him over (even though he knew that others were involved in re-writing the script).

And yet whenever City got massive praise, Ellison was always quick to step up and take credit for writing it. He wanted to have his cake and eat it too.

As I said, what a hypocrite.

O.o

Didn't you post that yesterday, or am I developping the power to see the future?

Which would be cool. ^_^

Yeah, I did. However, this morning I was editing it, and accidentally deleted it somehow (don't ask me how).

Luckily, I'd copied it first, so I was able to re-post it.

Sorry, Francois, no future seeing here

Awww! And I was planning to find out tomorrow's lottery numbers!

Awww! And I was planning to find out tomorrow's lottery numbers!

You'd also have to ask a genie to make it so you have the only winning ticket in the state ;)

Sorry, Francois, no future seeing here

Darn, I was almost starting to think I was becoming a Timelord.

You'd also have to ask a genie to make it so you have the only winning ticket in the state ;)

Nah, I think he would be willing to share, especially if he could consistently win week after week.

I guess, by the time of Trek, there are no more lotteries, not in the Federation at least.

The Ferengi, on the other hand...

Tell me if you can figure out which episode this scene is from....

When Kirk and Spock first arrive in New York City in 1930 they see homeless men listening to an 'Orator', who's inciting them to riot.
He tells them, "What kind of country is this, where men stand in bread lines just to fill their bellies? I'll tell you what kind-- a country run by foreigners! All the scum we let in take the food from our mouths, all the alien filth that pollutes our fine country!"
Hearing this, Spock says to Kirk, "Is this the heritage Earthmen brag about? This sickness?"
Later after Kirk and Spock flee an angry mob incited by the Orator and take refuge in the basement of a building,
Spock says, "Barbarian world! As violent as any aboriginal world we have ever landed on. My race never had this. We went to space in peace. Earthmen came with all this behind them."
Kirk fires back, "And that's why you hit space 200 years after us!"
Spock counters, "Try to tell me Earthmen uplifted my race. Tell me that, and use Beckwith (the drug dealer aboard ship) as an example of nobility."
An angry Kirk retorts, "I should have left you with the mob!"

Can remember which episode? That's a good thing, because that was a small portion of the 1st draft script for 'City On The Edge Of Forever'! That's what we almost had! Justman got this script on June 7, just as the fourth episode was being filmed ('The Enemy Within'), but can you picture our characters saying such things?
To be fair (grudgingly) to Ellison, Justman is quoted as saying it was beautifully written for some other SF anthology series but it wasn't Star Trek. Having seen what Trek became, I can't believe that Ellison was still pissed that this out-of-character script wasn't accepted. He can be forgiven, from the standpoint of June 1966, when no episodes had been televised, but after decades of reruns we know what everyone should sound like, and this obviously is not correct.

"Operation: Annihilate!":

It was originally called 'Operation: Destroy!'.

The outline was darker and grimmer-- what with the episode ending with Kirk destroying all life on Devena.

In the script, Spock comes into contact with a parasite and learns the location of the central organism's home planet, so the Enterprise goes there and destroys the planet.

Thanks to D.C. Fontana's re-write, she put Chapel into the script, and added the parasite stinger element.

Gene Coon added blindness to Spock, as well as to Scotty, who accidently got stung, too. It also required planet-wide corrective eye surgery for a million blind people.

Roddenberry changed the character of Aurelan to Kirk's sister-in-law, added Sam Kirk as his brother, and Peter as his nephew. He also removed the unnecessary Scotty plotline, but he added the cure-- certain light wave lengths destroy the parasites, and he added the convenient idea of the protective inner eyelid of Vulcans.

The Denevan city was actually the TRW Defense and Space Group campus in Rendondo Beach, California.

There was a scene filmed, but cut. Peter Kirk is cured, and is sitting in the command chair wearing a mini Starfleet uniform with the same color as Kirk's, and he tells Kirk that he wants to stay on Deneva..

The show ended the first season with a deficit of $146,603, which Desilu, unfortunately, had to write off.

AMT sold 100,000 Enterprise model kits in their first 6 months of production from 19966 to '67-- more than any other kit at the time.

Gene Roddenberry would send 'thank-you' letters to actors, directors, or writers that he was particularly pleased with.

Throughout the first season, the producers had 45 story assignments to work with, and as there were 29 episodes, that leaves 16 unproduced. Some had decent titles like "World Of Warriors" by Paul Schneider (who wrote 'Balance Of Terror'), or "Warrior's World" and "Dreadnaught" by Stephen Kandel ('Mudd's Women'). However, there were some strange titles that we almost got (or which would have had different titles); 'Rock-A-Bye Baby Or Die!', "Rites Of Fertility', 'Accident Of Love', and 'Sisters In Space'.

As 'Return Of The Archons' was being filmed in December, 1966, NBC requested an additional three episodes to finish off the season for a total of 29. They would turn out to be 'Errand Of Mercy', 'City On The Edge Of Forever' (because of Ellison's procrastination), and 'Operation: Annihilate!'. Had NBC not requested those last three, we might not have had them produced-- or at best they might have made it into the second season, which means they'd have bumped some other episodes that we got instead.

AMT sold 100,000 Enterprise model kits in their first 6 months of production from 19966 to '67-- more than any other kit at the time.

Timey-wimey, wibbly-wobbly

I got one of those kits for Christmas 1967 and it was actually my first encounter with Trek. I was only 11 at the time of Star Trek's premiere and very much not in control of the TV. I heard kids talking about it at school, but I didn't see an episode until 1969. My father was in the USAF at the time and we moved to West Germany at Halloween 1966 and stayed there until Sept. 1969. Armed Forces Network carried "Lost in Space" instead. Charming in its own way, but not Star Trek.

The outline was darker and grimmer-- what with the episode ending with Kirk destroying all life on Devena.

In the script, Spock comes into contact with a parasite and learns the location of the central organism's home planet, so the Enterprise goes there and destroys the planet.

Thank the dead gods of Krypton to whomever got rid of that.


Roddenberry changed the character of Aurelan to Kirk's sister-in-law, added Sam Kirk as his brother, and Peter as his nephew.

That explains why in the James Blish adaptation, they were not related to Kirk. It was based on an early draft of the script.


There was a scene filmed, but cut. Peter Kirk is cured, and is sitting in the command chair wearing a mini Starfleet uniform with the same color as Kirk's, and he tells Kirk that he wants to stay on Deneva..

Shame that got cut. We're left wondering what happened to him.


However, there were some strange titles that we almost got (or which would have had different titles); 'Rock-A-Bye Baby Or Die!', "Rites Of Fertility', 'Accident Of Love', and 'Sisters In Space'.

Wonder what episodes those were.

---

quote:

Shame that got cut. We're left wondering what happened to him.

---

I gather Trek never did a planet blower upper gun or Star Wars ("A New Hope") wouldn't have had such an impact on the audience with Alderaan?

There were actually several entities capable of destroying entire planets, even entire stars in the original Star Trek, like the Planet Killer in the episode The Doomsday Machine, or the giant space amoeba in the episode The Immunity Syndrome. However, they were never actually shown doing the destruction per se. We were shown a planet being vaporized by an exploding nova though, in the episode All our Yesterdays.

Considering that the energy required to destroy a planet like Earth is equal to the energy output of the sun for a week it really makes one wonder about the Empire's power source for the Death Star.

To connect this back to Trek, even if Leia or Luke were able to do the Kirk slingshot around the sun TT technique and arrive in the past, good luck convincing the Jedi Council that the kindly and unassuming Senator from Naboo is effectively Sith Hitler.

Peter wanted to stay on Deneva, but was sent to live with his grandmother

In an earlier episode, it was mentioned that Sam had three sons. Yet, the other two were not present in OA. Even if they were left back on Earth for some reason, you would think they would have gotten a mention.

I believe Phil brought this nit up in his book.

The outline was darker and grimmer-- what with the episode ending with Kirk destroying all life on Devena.

In the script, Spock comes into contact with a parasite and learns the location of the central organism's home planet, so the Enterprise goes there and destroys the planet.

Thank the dead gods of Krypton to whomever got rid of that.

IIRC, that was still in as of the time of the Blish novelization. The early script used by Blish also had magnetism as the means to destroy the parasites, rather than light, which made the blindness storyline unnecessary.

I don't remember any of that happening in the Blish novelization.

Granted, it's been decades since I last read it, so maybe my memory is wrong.

Me - "However, there were some strange titles that we almost got (or which would have had different titles); 'Rock-A-Bye Baby Or Die!', "Rites Of Fertility', 'Accident Of Love', and 'Sisters In Space'.
Tim - "Wonder what episodes those were."

They were some of the 16 outlines that didn't go as far as a 1st draft script, in most cases. An idea would be presented as an outline or idea, it would be exp[anded upon by the writer and he or she would get permission to write a 1st draft script. Depending on the story sand skill of the writer, some assignments would end there, which was the case for those strange-titled outlines.

A correction on the one for 'Dreadnaught"; Stephen Kandel didn't write it-- it was from a pair of writers that never sold a script to Trek, named Alf Harris and Jeeli Jericho.

Three more facts; Ellison was the 7th story assignment out of 45-- and he still couldn't finish it until the very end of the season.

'Amok Time', 'Friday's Child', and 'The Omega Glory' were all assignments for the first season, but were all pushed back to the second.

Robert Justman was the man behind the job of deciding not just what end credit photos to show at the end of every episode, but it was also his decision which episodes were repeated at the end of the season-- about 18 out of 29 episodes.

An idea would be presented as an outline or idea, it would be exp[anded upon by the writer and he or she would get permission to write a 1st draft script. Depending on the story sand skill of the writer, some assignments would end there, which was the case for those strange-titled outlines.

I wonder if any of those scripts still exist. They could be adapted into novels, like The Joy Machine (which was based on a script that Theodore Sturgeon wrote).

I actually have that novel on my shelf


Robert Justman was the man behind the job of deciding not just what end credit photos to show at the end of every episode, but it was also his decision which episodes were repeated at the end of the season-- about 18 out of 29 episodes.

I remember a TNG episode in which there was a shuttlecraft named the Justman. No doubt in honour of this chap.

So, on to Season Two now?

Already did Season 2, in the other thread.
Now I gotta buy Season Three's book. and for some reason it's more expensive than either of the other two books I bought.

Well, once you get that book, I look forward to seeing your comments

At 9 pm ABC had a show I've never heard of-- 'Love On A Rooftop' starring a pre-'Laugh-In' Judy Carne.

I do remember it (showing my age again ) but never watched it. The sitcom was about a young couple struggling to survive on a small income. In addition to the aforementioned Carne, it also started Pete Duel. According to Wikipedia, the series lasted one season of 30 episodes. Duel would go on to star in the western Alias Smith and Jones; it was during his tenure on that show that Duel would commit suicide in 1971.

"The Menagerie' Part 1 and 2"

From what I remember, probably from The Making of "Star Trek" the two-parter was pretty much a bit of leverage, in case an air date would be missed. I don't remember if TPTB did come close to missing one.

Could be.

They did come close, they were desperate for scripts, and the two parter was a way to give themselves a little breathing room.

Did not know that.

I don't know if Cushman addressed this issue in any of the three books. The first season episodes were not copyrighted at the the time of production; they weren't copyrighted until (IIRC) the 1980s. When Trek went from a cult TV show to a very valuable property. The second and third season shows were copyrighted at the time of production.

I don't remember reading that, so I don't think he commented on it. What would copyrighting them involve, Adam? Would it prevent others from using a portion on other shows?

Yes. And, copyrighting would prohibit broadcasting or outright selling copies of episodes or movies without paying royalties or a license fee. It's also a bit more involved than I postulated; more on that here.

Fascinating.