So, I've finally bought volume 3 of 'These Are The Voyages', so here are the strange facts for Season Three. The book series is by Marc Cushman, who had exclusive access to old Trek files and has interviewed many of those involved in the series. He's made a few mistakes along the way, so we'll see how he does for this volume.

We all know that Roddenberry was originally promised 8pm on Monday for the third season, but was given Friday at 10pm instead. However, he was also offered Tuesday at 7:30. Up until the 1970-71 season, Prime Time started at 7:30, not 8 o'clock, and some shows that were first televised at 7:30 include 'Get Smart', 'I Dream Of Jeannie', and 'Lost In Space', so the timeslot wasn't unusual back then.

I checked my TV history book and found that had the series gotten either slot, their competition would have been the first season of 'The Mod Squad' on ABC and 'Lancer's first season on CBS from 8 to 8:30, then the second season of 'It Takes A Thief on ABC and season 18 of 'The Red Skelton' on CBS from 8:30 to 9, if they'd gotten Tuesday at 8. Instead of 'Laugh-In' on Monday at 7:30 slot, they would have faced the 4th season of Britain's 'The Avengers', and the 14th season of 'Gunsmoke'.

New contracts for raises were signed by everyone for season 3, despite a cut in the budget, and among them Walter Koenig got $650 per episode, and DeForest Kelley got $2000 per episode, which would have been bumped up to $2500 per if Trek had gone into a fourth season.

Trek made another model kit deal with AMT; AMT would build the 2-foot long Klingon Battle Cruiser for the series, in exchange for exclusive rights to sell the model kit. The Klingon ship went on sale in August 1968, before it was even seen on the show, and sold for just $2.50. A similar revised kit at culttvman.com's hobby store is $29.95 before taxes now.

There were so many reasons Trek failed in the third season, but sometimes it was because of the past. The executives at NBC couldn't stand Roddenberry, who dared to stand up to them and tried his best to keep the show from turning into 'Lost In Space' He was tough to negotiate with, but for that we got two excellent seasons of Star Trek because of his pigheadedness. On the flip side, NBC liked the producer of 'Laugh-In', George Schlatter, who had produced other shows and several Emmy Awards specials. When 'Laugh-In' brought in steadily improving ratings during the summer of 1968 as a mid-season replacement, as well as $40,000 per commercial minute, compared to Trek's $36,000 per minute, it influenced their decision. "Laugh-In' looked like a hit, so why would you move that to Friday at 10pm, in favor of an overly-expensive series with a troublesome producer?

Fred Freiberger was born in 1915, served as a navigator in the US Army Air Corp and was shot down in 1943. He'd remain in a German POW camp until the war ended. He also co-wrote the Ray Harryhausen stop-motion classic, 'The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms', and was one of about a dozen potential producers that Gene interviewed for the role of Producer, even though Robert Justman had expected to get the role.

As the series budget was cut from $193,500 in season 1 to $187,5000 in season 2 to just $178,500 in the third, it meant that expensive location shooting was eliminated (except for 'The Paradise Syndrome'), fewer guest stars and extras could be hired, and directors began to express frustration at not filming shots that they wanted to get.

During all this, it was discovered that Shatner was billing $15 for breakfast (a lot of money back then), so when he was asked what he was eating and why it cost so much, Shatner replied, "Bacon, eggs, ham, coffee, and juice. The same as what I give my Doberman, Morgan!" He was buying two breakfasts! That little expense didn't continue much longer after that.

Justman wanted out badly-- he didn't get the Producer job, Roddenberry showed up less and less, Gene Coon, D.C. Fontana and John Meredyth Lucas were gone, and in their place as producer and story editor were Freiberger and Arthur Singer. And on the network level, ally Herb Solow (a.k.a. "Herbert! Herbert! Herbert!") was gone and replaced at Paramount by former ABC vice-president Douglas Cramer, who turned out to be even more 'rigid in his limited patterns of thought' by the looks of things.

Leonard Nimoy and Freiberger had been friends since the late 1950's, so they friendship was very strained as Freiberger would do what the networks wanted, rather than responding to actors needs or wishes. Going into the series, he was also unaware of the issues between Nimoy and Shatner.

So, I've finally bought volume 3 of 'These Are The Voyages', so here are the strange facts for Season Three.


The book series is by Marc Cushman, who had exclusive access to old Trek files and has interviewed many of those involved in the series.

Nice that so many were available to be interviewed that that time. Now, however, for most of them, you'd need a Ouija Board.


The executives at NBC couldn't stand Roddenberry, who dared to stand up to them and tried his best to keep the show from turning into 'Lost In Space' He was tough to negotiate with, but for that we got two excellent seasons of Star Trek because of his pigheadedness. On the flip side, NBC liked the producer of 'Laugh-In', George Schlatter, who had produced other shows and several Emmy Awards specials. When 'Laugh-In' brought in steadily improving ratings during the summer of 1968 as a mid-season replacement, as well as $40,000 per commercial minute, compared to Trek's $36,000 per minute, it influenced their decision. "Laugh-In' looked like a hit, so why would you move that to Friday at 10pm, in favor of an overly-expensive series with a troublesome producer?

Laugh-In may have won that battle, but, in the end, they lost the war.

They don't hold Laugh-In Conventions, after all.


Fred Freiberger was born in 1915, served as a navigator in the US Army Air Corp and was shot down in 1943. He'd remain in a German POW camp until the war ended. He also co-wrote the Ray Harryhausen stop-motion classic, 'The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms'

And, years later, he went on to produce the infamous second season of Space: 1999. A season that the fans of that show didn't much like.


Herb Solow (a.k.a. "Herbert! Herbert! Herbert!")

Is that who "Herbert! Herbert! Herbert!" is named after? The accounts vary on this.


Leonard Nimoy and Freiberger had been friends since the late 1950's, so they friendship was very strained as Freiberger would do what the networks wanted, rather than responding to actors needs or wishes.

I wonder if they patched things up later.

I was a kid of 13 back then, and I think Cushman got some time slot stuff wrong. "The Red Skelton Show" aired on Tuesdays, not Mondays. I remember, as I watched the show with my dad and kid sister. "Gunsmoke" aired on Mondays; it was still run on that night when it was cancelled in 1975.
"Laugh-In" was a one-shot special that aired in the fall of 1967 (and was funny as all hell); the series was born out of the quick cancellation of "The Man From U.N.C.L.E." NBC revived the series in 1977, without Dan Rowan or Dick Martin. (Or George Schlatter, who, as I write this, is still with us.) The revived "Laugh-In" lasted half a season. But, it did introduce us to a comedian named Robin Williams.
According to the book "Inside Star Trek", Bob Justman was not only expected to get the third season producer's job, Roddenberry promised it to him. Roddenberry then did an end run around Justman and hired Freiberger; whether or not he was forced to by NBC or Paramount, I can't recall. Justman and Roddenberry patched things up enough for Justman to work as supervising producer for season one of "Next Gen".
For season two of "Space 1999", IIRC, ITC specifically wanted an American producer. Freiberger got the job precisely because of his past involvement with "Trek".

For season two of "Space 1999", IIRC, ITC specifically wanted an American producer. Freiberger got the job precisely because of his past involvement with "Trek".

And that was the whole problem. He went into a show, who's concept he didn't understand, and tried to turn it into a Star Trek clone. And 1999 fans reacted accordingly.

By what I read, the network didn't care if Justman was producer or not. It was Roddenberry's choice. Also, he knew he was going to leave as the season went on, because he gave Freiberger his office, instead of another one.
And re. 1999, it's also a shame that there are fewer 'good' second season episodes of 1999 than there are third season episodes of Trek. Looks like he lost that much vaunted Freiberger magic!
And prior to Star Trek, Freiberger also only lasted 4 months on 'The Wild, Wild West' before being replaced. He replaced the original producer, who was only there for 3 or 4 episodes and treated the series too much like a standard western. Freiberger 'put it back on track' as a western/espionage sorta sci-fi show, it began to get better ratings, and then was kicked off by the network executives.

And re. 1999, it's also a shame that there are fewer 'good' second season episodes of 1999 than there are third season episodes of Trek. Looks like he lost that much vaunted Freiberger magic!

The problem was that Freiberger didn't understand the concept of 1999 and tried to turn it into Star Trek Mark II.

I mean we have Maya, an alien Science Officer, for example. People pointed and said "Spock rip off!"

Every second season episode started with Helena's "Moonbase Alpha's Status Report." People pointed and said "They're ripping off Kirk's Captain's Log reports."

Freiberger didn't understand that 1999 was not Star Trek, never meant to be. And Gerry Anderson, who was going through a bitter divorce at the time (and he never spoke to his ex-wife Sylvia, for the rest of his life) was too distracted to rein him in.

Freiberger was suited to run Star Trek (despite what some of his detractors say).

However, on Space: 1999, he was clearly out of his depths.

And now on to the epiosdes as they were filmed...

'Spectre Of The Gun':

The story retained the title of 'The Last Gunfight' until the film went into editing. It was changed to 'The Spectre Of The Melkot' before becoming 'Spectre Of The Gun'.

Gene Coon wrote the script in secret, unbeknownst to Universal Studios, who he was working for. Roddenberry assigned 6 writing assignments to him, and this was the first, but because of his exclusive contract with Universal, where he was producer and head writer of 'It Takes A Thief', he couldn't use his real name. 'Lee Cronin' became his pseudonym after that.

Chekov wasn't in the original draft. Instead, a security guard named 'Valentine' would be the one shot by the Earps. It was Bob Justman's idea to change him to Chekov, as well as add the character of Sylvia the barmaid, and the scene where an Earp shoots down a gunman outside the bar.

The Melkotians first alien name had been the 'Shawnian', but it sounded too much like an American Indian tribe name to the producers.

Instead of reading Kirk's mind to recreate the Old West setting, it was originally written that the Shawninans had intercepted old TV western transmissions.

Including the force field around Tombstone and changing the episode name were Rodenberry's ideas, while the bullets striking the fence behind the landing party was an idea from director Vincent McEveety, which hadn't been in the script the day of shooting.

Bonnie Beecher (Sylvia) once dated Bob Dylan in 1961 when she was 18 and in University.

Another actor had been hired to play Morgan Earp (the one that almost has a quick-draw with Kirk and later shoots Chekov), but he didn't work out. Perhaps because of drugs, or nervousness he was replaced by Rex Holman, who had been cast as Virgil Earp. And because of that, Charles Maxwell (the oldest one who exchanges punches with Kirk in the Sheriff's Office) was hired to take over the role of Virgil Earp.

...It was originally written that the Shawninans had intercepted old TV western transmissions.

Give me a break. Makes me glad we got what we did (which is one of my favorite third season episodes.) The gimmick of aliens intercepting old TV transmissions was used in the 1985 flick Explorers.
The James Blish adaptation retained the original title.
Gene Coon, IIRC, was working on Universal's The Name Of The Game. Which was the most expensive series on the air that season. And, just happened to be Trek's lead-in. (8:30 - 10 pm Friday nights.) Small world, ain't it?

Chekov wasn't in the original draft. Instead, a security guard named 'Valentine' would be the one shot by the Earps.

And he no doubt stayed dead.


The gimmick of aliens intercepting old TV transmissions was used in the 1985 flick Explorers.

And the movie, Galaxy Quest, in which a bunch of aliens mistake a Star Trek like TV show historical documentaries.

Re The Name of the Game, I just checked imdb.com and he only worked on one episode of that series, and 17 for It Takes A Thief.

Steve: The episode of The Name of the Game that Gene Coon worked on is one of two I remember. (The second one is a doomsday scenario episode titled "L.A. 2017".) Thanks for the correction.

I'm just shocked that you could remember that Coon wrote/produced an episode out of all the episodes you saw of 'Name'! That's quite a memory you have!
Talosian: "We find the subject has excellent memory capacity."
Keeper; "Captain Pike?
Ralosian; "No. Adam Bomb!"

I have a great long term memory for stuff like that; Coon's name came out at me like a projectile as I watched his episode decades ago. Especially as I knew he produced Trek prior to that assignment. Now, my short term memory... that's a bit worse at my age (65). I had to dig a bit for my water bottle at the gym yesterday, as I thought I forgot it. And, I try to hold on to my glasses there, lest I lose them. Like George in the Seinfeld episode "The Glasses".

All right, I'm not the oldest one here after all! I'm 58 (too soon to be 59 in three months). And you look back at your posts from 1999 onwards and think, wow, I was so young back then!
Onward...
'Elaan Of Troyius'

Originally it was called "Helen Of Troyius', and it was a Gene Roddenberry story idea meant for the second season.

Fred Freiberger wrote the scenes of Kryton's sabotage and killing Watson, the love potion specifically in Elaan's tears, and McCoy's proclamation to Spock at the end that he thinks he may have found an antidote to the tears.

France Nuyen is of Vietnamese and French ancestry, but she was raised in France. In 1959 she spent a year on Broadway in the play 'The World Of Suzie Wong', starring alongside William Shatner.

At the time of the episode, she had been married to actor Robert Culp ('I Spy', 'The Greatest American hero') for 6 months.

Victor Brandt played the engineer telling Elaan that they were only using the impulse drive (ie one of Scotty's 'menials0), and later he was the engineer killed by Kryton. Did you guys know that? His murder happens so fast I didn't clue in that it was the same engineer. Brandt would later be hired to play hippie Tonga Rad in 'The Way To Eden'.

Tony Young (Kryton) was married to Madylyn Rhue (Marla McGivers from 'Space Seed').

A deleted scene had McCoy and Uhura visiting Spock in the ship's arboretum, where Spock is playing his Vulcan harp. The music was being played over the intercom into Elaan's quarters in the hopes that it would help Kirk soften her up, but the scenes were deleted.

'The Paradise Syndrome'

It was originally called 'The Paleface', and kept the title all the way into post-production until Roddenberry requested a name change.

The obelisk was going to be a totem pole with odd symbols on it, and was found sitting in the middle of a crater. They don't give the price of the thing, but it was the most expensive prop, as well as the biggest created for the show. It stood about 40 from the base of the platform, and if you add the height of the platform it reaches nearly 50 feet into the air.

NBC didn't like the idea of Miramanee getting pregnant and losing her life and the baby, but Roddenberry insisted on keeping it.

It was also Gene's idea for a beam or weapon to give Kirk amnesia, instead of just a clumsy fall down some stairs.

Script editor Arthur Singer moved the news that Miramanee was pregnant from the hut to the forest, as well as her death scene from the Enterprise to the hut they shared, and should have spent the rest of their lives, making it more tragic.

Sabrina Scharf (Miramanee) would later appear in 1969's 'Easy Rider' with Jack Nicholson.

The show was filmed at Upper Franklin Canyon in the Hollywood Hills, and the lake was the same one where Andy Griffith and Ronnie Howard skipped rocks during the opening credits of his show.

This episode cost $193,627 to make-- a whopping $15,265 over budget. In fact, after just three episodes, all of which went over budget, the Trek producers had gone over by a total of $21,208, abouty a hundred grand in 2014 currency.

Oddly enough, this was the third filmed episode of the third season and was broadcast third. Usually they're filmed and broadcast far out of the order they were made (the fifth episode could be televised eleventh, and the nineteenth could be twentieth).

I've never even heard of The Name Of The Game.


Victor Brandt played the engineer telling Elaan that they were only using the impulse drive (ie one of Scotty's 'menials0), and later he was the engineer killed by Kryton. Did you guys know that? His murder happens so fast I didn't clue in that it was the same engineer. Brandt would later be hired to play hippie Tonga Rad in 'The Way To Eden'.

That was the same guy!? Cool.



NBC didn't like the idea of Miramanee getting pregnant and losing her life and the baby, but Roddenberry insisted on keeping it.

And 23rd Century medicine couldn't help her? As I said on September 30th, I'm not buying it.

[points at Steve] Look at the geezer!!! (I just turned 57)

Geezers in Freezers! (thanx The Simpsons!)

The obelisk was going to be a totem pole with odd symbols on it, and was found sitting in the middle of a crater. They don't give the price of the thing, but it was the most expensive prop, as well as the biggest created for the show. It stood about 40 from the base of the platform, and if you add the height of the platform it reaches nearly 50 feet into the air.

Although never mentioned on the show again, the Preservers was another concept that the novels embraced.

Some novels suggested that the Roman world from Bread And Circuses was another world seeded by the Preservers. The Romans of that planet were descendants of people taken from Earth by the Preservers.

Makes more sense that the parallel development thing.

I remember at one point, the pregnant Miramanee survived. (I could be wrong about that). If she had, that would have made Kirk a double deadbeat dad (alliteration intentional) with both Miramanee and Carol Marcus.

And Scott, if Steve is a geezer, I guess that makes me positively ancient.

Yeah, we know you've got one foot in the grave and the other on a banana peel!

Now we know who Ruk was talking about when he mentioned 'The Old Ones'! It was US! Cool!

'The Enterprise Incident' ;

The story outline was called 'Ears', which seems like a weird title until you realize it refers to not only the pointed ears of Vulcans and Romulans, but also the 'listening in' that the Enterprise was doing near the Romulan border.

It's basis was the then-current diplomatic incident of the American ship, USS Pueblo, which was caught 'spying or listening-in on' North Korea, despite the Americans saying it had been illegally captured in International waters. 82 survivors were held prisoner for 11 months, and not returned until December, 1968. The Koreans kept the USS Pueblo as a trophy.

The story had Sarek in it, but as he began to seem too much like a gimmick for fans, he was eventually removed. He would have been trying to petition the Romulans to release Kirk and McCoy, after they had been captured on a charge of spying (trying to steal the new cloaking device), after both were found disguised as Romulans.

D.C. was annoyed that a funny scene was cut, once only Kirk was given pointed ears, leaving out the irony of McCoy, who'd always made fun of Spock's ears, had to actually wear similar ones.

The Romulan Commander had started out male, but it was Freiberger who suggested it be a female officer, then Justman suggested the romantic angle between her and Spock. Freiberger and Singer added a long seduction scene, with Spock fawning over the Commander, practically sounding like he worshipped her, which made D.C. Fontana complain to Roddenberry that it was ridiculous-- Spock was acting far too human and out of character. She also thought that Kirk's irritability in the beginning was over the top, but it was mostly retained as is.

Joanna Linville (the Commander) and Shatner had appeared together on 'The Kaiser Aluminium Hour' drama show and 'The U.S. Steel Hour' in the late 1950's and the TV series, 'The Defenders' in 1961, while Nimoy and Jack Donner (Sub-Commander Tal) had performed in numerous plays previously.

And the Commander's slap of Spock's face was real-- fortunately done in just one take for Nimoy's sake!

And now for everybody's absolute, best, fantastic favorite of all...

'And The Children Shall Lead' ; ;-p

Writer Edward J. Lakso would go on to be a prolific TV writer-- 61 episodes of 'Charlie's Angels' (and produce 47 of the same series).

Lakso was interviewed for the job of script editor (which Arthur Singer got instead), but was given an episode assignment instead, because of his inexperience.

The backwards dialogue uttered by Kirk was this;

"Remove Lt. Uhura and Mr. Spock from the bridge. Confine them to quarters. Did you hear me? Take Mr. Sulu to his quarters! He's relieved of duty!" And he repeats his order to remove Spock and Uhura.

The storyline was darker, the kids were all 8 years old and didn't have powers, and Sulu saw snakes on his console, instead of swords and daggers on the viewscreen. The producers were enthusiastic about the episode until it began to develop and be plagued by a non-actor (Melvin Belli), an inexperienced scriptwriter (Lakso), a new producer (Freiberger), and lower budget.

13 year old Craig Hundley (aka Craig Huxley) who played Tommy, was a jazz music prodigy at the time and had his own small group, The Craig Hundley Trio, with two other boys, aged 14 and 16, and recorded their own album. Shatner and Nimoy attended a performance and enjoyed themselves.

Pamelyn Ferdin (Mary) was 9 years old at the time, and would later voice the character of Lucy in some of the Peanuts specials. She and Brian Tochi (Ray) would reunite in 1977 for the Saturday Morning live action series, 'Space Academy', also starring Jonathan Harris.

11 year old Ceasar Belli would play Stevie, and was the son of Melvin Belli, who played the Gorgan. He didn't want to be an actor, but rather a lawyer like his Dad. He would become a lawyer later in life.

Melvin Belli was a criminal defense lawyer, most famous for defending Jack Ruby, the assassin of Lee Harvey Oswald. Other famous clients would be Errol Flynn, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Muhammad Ali, and the Rolling Stones.

Why hire a non actor to play the Gorgan?

And does it say anywhere how Kirk knew that the creature was a Gorgan? It comes completely out of the blue in the episode itself.

The editors (or at least one) at TV Guide back in late 1968 thought highly enough of "And The Children..." to give it a half-page "Close-Up" box on its original airing. With a photo of Belli as the Gorgon prominently featured. (IIRC, "Turnabout Intruder" got a "Close-Up" on its original airing, and "The Tholian Web" got one on its repeat in the "Summer of '69". [Apologies to Bryan Adams. ])

I remember at one point, the pregnant Miramanee survived. (I could be wrong about that). If she had, that would have made Kirk a double deadbeat dad (alliteration intentional) with both Miramanee and Carol Marcus.

It would have been interesting to see how Kirk would have dealt with the Miramanee situation, had she lived. However, this being 1968, that was not allowed.

As for Carol Marcus, I don't know if it made it onscreen, but didn't the backstory say that she asked Kirk to stay away, because she didn't want David exposed to Starfleet life?


It's basis was the then-current diplomatic incident of the American ship, USS Pueblo, which was caught 'spying or listening-in on' North Korea, despite the Americans saying it had been illegally captured in International waters. 82 survivors were held prisoner for 11 months, and not returned until December, 1968. The Koreans kept the USS Pueblo as a trophy.

David Gerrold mentioned this in his book, Worlds Of Star Trek.


The Romulan Commander had started out male, but it was Freiberger who suggested it be a female officer, then Justman suggested the romantic angle between her and Spock. Freiberger and Singer added a long seduction scene, with Spock fawning over the Commander, practically sounding like he worshipped her, which made D.C. Fontana complain to Roddenberry that it was ridiculous-- Spock was acting far too human and out of character. She also thought that Kirk's irritability in the beginning was over the top, but it was mostly retained as is.

Kirk and Spock were doing this so Starfleet and the Federation could have deniability (the Secretary will disavow any knowledge of your actions).

The novel, Cloak, by S.D. Perry, suggests that Section 31 masterminded this mission (which Kirk and Spock were unaware of, because they had no knowledge of 31's existence).

I could see 31's hands in this, protect the Federation, consequences be damned.


Joanna Linville (the Commander)

Her daughter, Amy Rydell, recreated the character in Star Trek Continues.


Pamelyn Ferdin (Mary) was 9 years old at the time, and would later voice the character of Lucy in some of the Peanuts specials. She and Brian Tochi (Ray) would reunite in 1977 for the Saturday Morning live action series, 'Space Academy', also starring Jonathan Harris.

I have the DVD's of that show. I remember watching it as a kid.

Brian Tochi also appeared as the navigator on an episode of TNG.


Melvin Belli was a criminal defense lawyer, most famous for defending Jack Ruby, the assassin of Lee Harvey Oswald. Other famous clients would be Errol Flynn, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Muhammad Ali, and the Rolling Stones.

Quite a client list. I believe he also defended Jim and Tammy Bakker in the PTL fiasco, in the late 80's.


And does it say anywhere how Kirk knew that the creature was a Gorgan? It comes completely out of the blue in the episode itself.

Phil asks that same question in his book.

Chalk it up to the sloppiness of Freiberger and Singer, I suppose.

'Spock's Brain' :

The original story was set on an unexplored plabnet where Spock was separated from Kirk and McCoy, who find Spock without his brain. They follow an energy trail from another ship,to another planet and find a race of peaceful, diminutyive people. They also need the brain to run the life support system of their world, or else they would die as a race.

Another change was thast once operated on, Spock's motor skills don't work properly. He falls on his face from the operating table, he tries to move his arms but his legs move instead, and he grins widely instead of sneezing. Sounds like this wouldhave been MUCH worse than what we got in the episode. Apparently, McCoy attached some nerve endings backwards, but he'll be okay since Spock will just use his superior Vulcan intellect to compensate.
Right.
And this came from Gene Coon? Maybe his 6-year old son, if you ask me!

Hard to believe it, but organ transplants were something rather new around now, specifically heart transplants, including one in December 1967, which failed unfortunately after 3 weeks. Religious leaders were apparently against such operations since so many were unsuccessful, but the producers thought this organ transplant story was timely back then.

It was Bob Justman's idea to switch the brain theft aboard the Enterprise instead of a planet, that the crew is knocked unconscious, and they find Spock's body in sickbay. It was also his idea to ramp up the tension by forcing Kirk to choose the right planet amongst several choices in the same solar system, and had the short people changed to large, brutish men. He also had the idea of having McCoy use 'The teacher' to explain how he could do such an impossible operation.

It was Roddenberry's request to add Chekov to the story (again), and he also wanted, but was nixed by Freiberger, to show Kirk's anguish and fear of losing Spock by showing him in alone and in distress, even going to far as to be by Spock's body. Ironically, something like this happens years later in Star Trek III The Search For Spock between McCoy and a sleeping, newly-regenerated Spock.

Peter Keller, who played the Morg guard that fought Kirk, had previously played the Mirror Universe Kirk's Henchman in 'Mirror, Mirror', and would soon play a Klingon in 'Dave Of The Dove' (the one who fights Kirk with a sword and taunts him with, "Stand and fight, you coward!"). He would also appear as a background character in 47 episodes of 'Bonanza'.

Marj Dusay (Kara) was just in her second year of appearing in TV shows, but would get lots of roles in the coming years, including the soap operas 'All My Children' and 'The Guiding Light' from 1999 to 2009.

For this season premiere, Star Trek came in first with 36 % of the viewership, 29 % for the CBS Friday Night Movie, and just 10 % for 'Judd For The Defense'. Those numbers would change as the season wernt on, with the movie usually coming in first and 'Judd' getting much better ratings.

And the movie for that night versus 'Spock's Brain'? The 2-hour pilot for 'Hawaii Five-O'!

'Is There In Truth No Beauty?' ;

It was originally going to be called 'Miranda', but it was changed to a line from a 17th century poem.

Writer Jean Lisette Aroeste took a couple names from Shaespeare's 'The Tempest' and used them here-- Miranda, and Ariel. Ariel would later be changed to 'Kollos'. She had previously been a librarian at Harvard University from 1954 to 1962, then a reference librarian at UCLA when she wrote this script.

The original draft had the insane Marvick attacking Chekov and the crew on the bridge, but since Spock would also go insane on the bridge, it was deemed too repetitive and switched to engineering.

The producers wanted Jessica Walter for the role of Miranda, but she was unavailable. Diana Muldaur was brought in, but Justman had her wear a black wig, so fans wouldn't get confused with her other recent Trek role of Dr. Ann Mulhall.

Leonard Nimoy was very pissed off at the inclusion of the IDIC pin, because he could tell from Roddenberry's added scene that it was a ploy to sell them through his Lincoln Enterprises mail order business. He felt it was exploiting the show, which I guess it was, but hadn't Nimoy and Shatner 'exploited' the show with the record albums? Nimoy's was even called 'Mister Spock's Music From Space'! Anyways., Nimoy was so annoyed he walked off the set until the scene was rewritten so it wasn't so blatantly a commercial for the symbol. It forced the entire day's scheduling to be rearranged, forcing the director to film the Miranda and marvick scenes in her quarters instead, which were supposed to be done in a couple days time.

This was Eddie Paskey's (Mr. Leslie) last episode, making a grand total of 59. He was badly injured during the fight scene on the bridge against Spock. He was thrust very hard against a railing and heard a 'kkkrack' sound, that forced him to leave the set and gather his ability to move normally. He was in terrible pain and knew he wasn't going to be able to continue, as they made previous injuries even worse. He'd suffered from chronic back pain since childhood from a previous injury, and then just a few years before this (in 1968) he'd suffered a whiplash injury in a car accident.

Apparently, if you see a reverse shot of Shatner, it's the fault of editor Fabien Tordjmann, who felt a reaction shot was necessary (but not ordered by the director). This explains why there's a reverse one of him in 'The Way To Eden', one here, and one more at least in another episode. I've tried to figure out what author Cushman is talking about but I don't see a reverse shot of Kirk, when he;s in sickbay with Miranda.

Tordjmann was also responsible for editing the scene of Miranda/Kollos beaming down and Kirk watching it without protection. As filmed, Kirk left and then they beamed down. Edited incorrectly (and making director Senensky angry), it looks like he stayed for the beam-down.

The episode came in under budget by a whole $11,237, cutting the season's deficit down to just $5559. The Paramount desk-bound paper pushers were probably ecstatic.

One change they should have made to Spock's Brain was NOT having Spock's body remote controlled like a meat puppet. That was idiotic. Getting rid of that would in fact have changed the episode from moronic to passably good, IMHO.

And this came from Gene Coon? Maybe his 6-year old son, if you ask me!

I know you're being facetious, but I don't think Coon had any children.

Leonard Nimoy was very pissed off at the inclusion of the IDIC pin, because he could tell from Roddenberry's added scene that it was a ploy to sell them through his Lincoln Enterprises mail order business.

I remember back then that someone, either Paramount or Roddenberry, cut a deal with AMT, as order forms for Lincoln Enterprises catalogs were included with the two Trek model kits (namely the Enterprise and Klingon ships) AMT was marketing at that time.

For this season premiere, Star Trek came in first with 36 % of the viewership, 29 % for the CBS Friday Night Movie, and just 10 % for 'Judd For The Defense'. Those numbers would change as the season wernt on, with the movie usually coming in first and 'Judd' getting much better ratings.

And yet guess which show has stood the test of time. Mention that Judd show to most people today, they'd go "Huh?"


Diana Muldaur was brought in, but Justman had her wear a black wig, so fans wouldn't get confused with her other recent Trek role of Dr. Ann Mulhall.

And she would return to Trek in TNG's second season as Dr. Pulaski.


This was Eddie Paskey's (Mr. Leslie) last episode, making a grand total of 59. He was badly injured during the fight scene on the bridge against Spock. He was thrust very hard against a railing and heard a 'kkkrack' sound, that forced him to leave the set and gather his ability to move normally. He was in terrible pain and knew he wasn't going to be able to continue, as they made previous injuries even worse. He'd suffered from chronic back pain since childhood from a previous injury, and then just a few years before this (in 1968) he'd suffered a whiplash injury in a car accident.

He's done some fan made videos in which he plays Admiral Leslie, the father of his TOS character.

The producers wanted Jessica Walter for the role of Miranda, but she was unavailable. Diana Muldaur was brought in, but Justman had her wear a black wig, so fans wouldn't get confused with her other recent Trek role of Dr. Ann Mulhall.

If you read director Ralph Senensky's blog page about the episode (I've linked to it on this site's page for the episode), Trek had a policy of no repeat casting for guest stars, unless they're playing the same role. Guess they didn't adhere to it too closely. Let's see now...in addition to Diana Muldaur, we have Stewart Moss, Skip Homeier, Ian Wolfe, Morgan Woodward...the list of actors doing double duty goes on and on.

A universe where Mark Leonard didn't get cast as Sarek because he previously played a Romulan scarcely bears thinking about.

I agree.

I'm glad this rule wasn't enforced.

More names...
William Campbell, Jon Lormer, Lawrence Montaigne, Craig Huxley, Phylis Douglass, Ed McCready,,,oh, man, they REALLY didn't pay attention to that rule, did they?!

Nope.

It was one of those silly rules, on the books, but everyone ignores.

'The Empath' ;

Originally it was called 'The Answerer'.

Writer Joyce Muskat, who was into theatre at the time, wanted the sparse, surreal sets, so viewers would focus on the characters. All this time I thought it was low budget and Freiberger's idea, but not so.

Arthur Singer re-titled it 'The Empath', as the story developed Muskat's theme of empathy.

She was also a novice writer-- her Trek script was her first one writen and produced, while her second, one for 'I Spy' wasn't produced because that series was abruptly cancelled.

Gem was supposed to save McCoy on her own, but this was changed to her failing, forcing Kirk to fight for not only McCoy's life, but also her right to live and save her planet.

It was a very accident-prone episode. On day 1 of filming, DeForest Kelley suffered from back spasms that delayed shooting his scenes. On day 2, he still suffered from Back pains, Kathryn Hays (Gem) was plagued by migraine headaches, Shatner and Nimoy were sick from food poisoning after eating something bad from the food truck, and Sound Mixer Carl Daniels suffered from an ulcerated tooth, all of which combined for force the production to shut down nearly 2 hours early at 4:45 pm. The next day, it was the Boom Man's turn to get hurt, hurting his hand badly enough that he needed to go to the hospital.

This would be Director of Photography (Cinematographer) Jerry Finnerman's last Trek, before moving onto bigger things.

Kathryn Hays said that she had a good time, and liked working with Shatner and Nimoy, but not director John Erman. He took offense to the both of them telling him that their characters wouldn't say or do this ir that, and requesting minor script changes to accommodate them.

The episode actually came in number one in the ratings for December 8, 1968 for its 10 pm slot.

The U.K. refused to air this episode, citing it for being to graphic, until January 1994.

'The Tholian Web' :

It was poriginally called 'In Essence - Nothing'.

It was written by Judy Burns, a U.C Irvine student of Anthropology, and someone she was introduced to later, Chet Richards, a Physicist at the same university. She had already come up with an idea of a crewman (Spock, thought to be dead from a transporter accident) trapped on another ship on a different dimensional plane,,but it was a dream that Richards had where he pictured himself on the Enterprise bridge, and a ghost walked through the wall.

'Tholian' comes from an aquiaintance of Chet Richards, who had recently been on an expedition to the Aegean Islands, and had explored a Tholos tomb.

We almost didn't get this episode. Only a series of actions after the script was written ensured it would be prodyuced. Burns and Richards had attended script writing class hosted by Bob and Wanda Duncan, a team that had had a lot pof success with Irwin Allen's TV series. They liked Judy Burns enough to have Bob call Freiberger (whom he had previously worked with), when Judy and Chet heard nothing further about their script submission. It was this phone call that revealed this script had been on the rejection pile! As a favor to the Duncans, Freiberger agreed to send the script back to Bob Justman for a second read, and from there the script was developed after Burns and Richards were called to the Trek offices to develop it further.

It was Justman's idea to switch the lost crewman from Spock to Kirk, since they'd already recently had to retrieve Spock several times from danger ('The Enterprise Incident', 'Is There in Truth No Beauty', 'Spock's Brain').

Adding the jeopardy of Inter-phase madness was Arthgur Singer's idea, as we'll as credit foir writing the ending scene with Kir, Spock, and MCoy on the bridge (re last taped orders).

this was the sixth episode for Sean Morgan, who had previously played Lt. O'Neil in 'Return of the Archons', and now played him in the transporter room.

the epsidoe was fiolled with people previously on the show; Barbara Babcock was the voice of Loskene; Joy Jones (the dizzy crewman in engineering) had been Mallory in 'The Apple'; Bob Bralver (the berserk engineer that attacks Scotty) had played Grant in'Friday's Child'; Lou Elias, the crewman that goes nuts at Kirkj's memorial had fought scotty in 'Amnd The Children Shall Lead' and Paul Baxley, the dead captain of the Defiant, had played Ensign Freeman in'The Trouble With Tribbles'.


The spacesuits arrived late, and only Shatner's was ready for some general close-ups before the others were finished. Director Ralph Senensky didn't like them, but they were better than the orange open-to-the-air suits worn by Spock and Tormolen in 'The Naked Time'.

Because of late spacesuits and falling behind by a day of filming, Senensky was fired by a reluctant Freiberger, who replaced by another director, Herb Wallerstein, who had never directed the series before. It was another case of Freiberger having no backbone to stand up to the suits at Paramount to protect his people.

The Tholian helmet was filmed in front of a curtain of black velvet, but Wallerstein didn't like the look, so he had it remade with crinkled tin foil.

And, of course, forty years later, The Tholian Web got an excellent sequel on Enterprise.


the episode was filled with people previously on the show; Barbara Babcock was the voice of Loskene; Joy Jones (the dizzy crewman in engineering) had been Mallory in 'The Apple'; Bob Bralver (the berserk engineer that attacks Scotty) had played Grant in 'Friday's Child'; Lou Elias, the crewman that goes nuts at Kirk's memorial had fought scotty in 'And The Children Shall Lead' and Paul Baxley, the dead captain of the Defiant, had played Ensign Freeman in 'The Trouble With Tribbles'.

Old home week!

The Tholian helmet was filmed in front of a curtain of black velvet, but Wallerstein didn't like the look, so he had it remade with crinkled tin foil.

Except is wasn't a helmet, that's what Tholians actually look like.

Kathryn Hays said that she...liked working with Shatner and Nimoy, but not director John Erman. He took offense to the both of them telling him that their characters wouldn't say or do this or that, and requesting minor script changes to accommodate them.

Sorry, I'm with the actors here. This was the third year (in Nimoy's case close to four) they had been playing their characters, and they knew what made the characters tick. Better than a director for hire, who may or may not have seen the series. That may be the reason why Mr. Erman was never asked back. I really like the episode regardless; it shows the strong bond between Kirk, Spock and McCoy especially well.

The episode was filled with people previously on the show...

Tsk tsk now. Remember the rule against repeat casting.

Sorry, I'm with the actors here. This was the third year (in Nimoy's case close to four) they had been playing their characters, and they knew what made the characters tick. Better than a director for hire, who may or may not have seen the series.

I agree.

The actors knew those characters far better than some director off the street did.

'For The World Is Hollow And I Have Touched The Sky';

Gene Roddenberry gave out 19 story assignments as the third season preproduction was getting under way, and before he hired Fred Freiberger. Some of the episodes produced were his go-aheads, but others never made it past the story outline stage, such as 'Shore Leave II' by Theodore Sturgeon, David Gerrold's 'BEM', and assignments for D.C. Fontana and Gene Coon. Coming up short for assignments from the original 19, Freiberger began to choose writers, and this was the first one.

The original story had Scotty with the terminal disease as they locate the asteroid ship, which Scotty beams down to first. Kirk and a landing party follow, but Scotty (rather out of character) wants them to leave him alone and let the asteroid ship to crash into the the planet. He ends up repairing the ship (and, I'm assuming) locates a cure for his illness.

Scott remained the main character until the 2nd draft script, when it was changed to McCoy.

Xenopolycythemia is real! I thought it was made up, but it turns out it's a real illness that causes granulation of the hemoglobin.

The episode should have been directed by John Meredyth Lucas, but because he went a day over with 'Elaan Of Troyius' and overtime on numerous days for 'The Enterprise Incident', Paramount bigshot Douglas Cramer ended his contract with the studio. Other directors familiar with Trek that could film the show in exactly 6 days were also wanted, like Jud Taylor, but unavailable. Instead, they went with a new director, Anton 'Tony' Leader, who had previously done the movie 'Children Of The Damned 'in 1963.

Unfortunately for Leader, it wouldn't work out that way for him. The shoot would last 8 days and cost $201,731, one of the most expensive episodes in Original Trek. However, it could be chalked up to having too many new sets, too many extras and costumes for them, expensive SFX, and a third sound stage to rent in another location. Still, Leader, as with other one timers, wasn't asked back.

Katherine Woodville (Natira) was 29 years old, from England, and married to Patrick Macnee of 'The Avengers'/John Steed fame.

The Teaser was supposed to just be McCoy telling Kirk about his illness, but Freiberger didn't feel it was exciting enough, so he moved the missile attack, which was supposed to open Act One, to the very beginning. This is why you see Kirk enter the bridge and interact with Spock in the exact same way at the beginning of the episode, and the beginning of Act One. Editor Tordjmann didn't think anybody would notice, but he couldn't anticipate the sharp eyes of Trek fans or Nitcentral posters!

'Day Of The Dove';

Originally it was called 'For They Shall Inherit'', referencing a line that McCoy was going to quote in the original storyline about the meek inheriting the Earth.

The story was going to be about the Enterprise's mission to evacuate a Klingon colony, but finding all of them dead upon arrival. The landing party is captured by aliens called 'The Dorn', and find Klingon survivors, remnants of the colony that are pitted in games against powerful Dorns. The aliens (humanoid in form, but actually blobs of light) now want to pit the humans against the Klingons, feeding on the hatred created by the two races.

The 3rd Revised Story Outline added Kor to the story, but unfortunately John Colicos was unavailable, shooting a movie at the time. The storyline by then was closer to the episode we saw, and Colicos actually read that script.

Susan Howard (Mara) would later play Donna Culver Krebbs in 198 episodes of 'Dallas'.

Writer Jerome Bixby was very anti-Viet Nam and wanted the fighting to be much more bloodier and graphic, but NBC wouldn't allow it. He did manage to slip in a slogan of the times into the episode, however. Everyone knows that protesters had signs reading 'Make Love, Not War', but the other common one, 'Stop The War Now', made it into Kirk's last captain's log, the one he prefaces with 'stardate...armaggedon'.

The episode was actually filmed in just 5 and a half days (they lost a day because shooting of 'For The World Is Hollow And I Have Touched The Sky' ran over a day past what was allowed), and came in $3627 under budget.

Once edited, the episode was found to be too long, so the Tag scene at the end (which was filmed) was left on the cutting room floor. The show wasn't going to end with the Klingons and Kirk laughing in Engineering and the entity running away into space.

As filmed, Kang and Mara are on the bridge, as Kirk orders Sulu to set course for a neutral planet on the border of Federation and Klingon space. Here's the rest of the dialogue;

Kirk; "You'll be dropped there. No war. This time."

Kang: "Why do you humans revere peace? It is the weakling's way. There is a galaxy to be taken, with it's riches."

Spock: "Two animals may fight over a bone, Kang-- or they can pool their abilities, hunt together more efficiently-- and share, justly. Curiously, it works out about the same."

Kirk: "Agreed. Cooperate...or fight uselessly, for all eternity. A universal rule you Klingons had better learn. We did."

Kang's face is thoughtful, and we fade out.

And, as usual, NBC, in it's attempt to try and kill the show behind the scenes, didn't advertise the show in newspapers, TV Guide, or commercials. This was the same route they took, week after week, as the other networks, ABC and CBS, let viewers know what was in store on Friday at 10pm. The most that was allowed would be TV Guide spotlights on a rerun episode, long after the cancellation decision had been made.

Editor Tordjmann didn't think anybody would notice, but he couldn't anticipate the sharp eyes of Trek fans or Nitcentral posters!

He had never heard of nerds?

The landing party is captured by aliens called 'The Dorn'...

How prophetic.

Colicos actually read that script.

And wanted to do the episode badly. So badly he got quite pissed, and threw the script at the nearest wall. (Something I read a while back.)

The most that was allowed would be TV Guide spotlights on a rerun episode...

TV Guide gave "For The World Is Hollow..." a half-page "Close-Up" box on its first (and only) NBC run. With a photo of DeForest Kelley prominently featured. NBC repeated 12 or 13 third season episodes on Tuesdays at 7:30 in the summer of '69 after The Jerry Lewis Show was cancelled; I don't think either episode named here was afforded the luxury.

The most that was allowed would be TV Guide spotlights on a rerun episode, long after the cancellation decision had been made.

The only episode I can recall that TV Guide spotlighted in reruns was "The Tholian Web". That was (IIRC) due to its receiving an Emmy nomination for visual effects that year. "Turnabout Intruder" got a "Close-up" on its first airing in June of '69. Reason being, of course, is that it was the last episode.

Xenopolycythemia is real! I thought it was made up

Me too.


but others never made it past the story outline stage, such as 'Shore Leave II' by Theodore Sturgeon, David Gerrold's 'BEM'

Both these stories would be resurrected for the animated series, a few years later.


As filmed, Kang and Mara are on the bridge, as Kirk orders Sulu to set course for a neutral planet on the border of Federation and Klingon space. Here's the rest of the dialogue;

Kirk; "You'll be dropped there. No war. This time."

Kang: "Why do you humans revere peace? It is the weakling's way. There is a galaxy to be taken, with it's riches."

Spock: "Two animals may fight over a bone, Kang-- or they can pool their abilities, hunt together more efficiently-- and share, justly. Curiously, it works out about the same."

Kirk: "Agreed. Cooperate...or fight uselessly, for all eternity. A universal rule you Klingons had better learn. We did."

Kang's face is thoughtful, and we fade out.


They should have kept that scene in, IMO. Looks like Kang is really considering what Kirk has just said, that there could be a better way for the Klingon people.

'Platos's Stepchildren':

It was supposed to be called 'The Sons of Socrates'.

In an early draft, Kirk was matched up with a Yeoman, Spock with Chapel, and McCoy with Uhura.

In November 1967, Leonard Nimoy's record producer from Dot Records suggested incorporating one of Nimoy's songs into an episode. It was too late for any second season episodes, but Freiberger saw an opening in the third season with this episode. 'Maiden Wine', written by Nimoy for his fourth album was used, and re-named 'Bitter Dregs' here.

Several Trek directors were either unavailable or on the do-not-call list for overtime or other problems from Paramount, so sitcom director David Alexander was hired. Previously, he'd directed the pilot for 'The Munsters' and 10 episodes of 'My Favorite Martian'.

Michal Dunn (Alexander the dwarf) was 33 years old and 3 foot 6 inches, and had the IQ of a genius. He had been a concert pianist since he was 15. Previously, Freiberger had hired him to play Doctor Loveless, the recurring villain in 'The Wild, Wild West'.

Barbara Babcock had several parts in Trek (Mea 3, Trelane's mother, and others), and was only 31 years old, not the 35 Spock assumed her age to be.

Filming began on September 9, 1968, just 6 days before '60 Minutes' premiered.

NBC's Broadcast and Standards department didn't want Parmon's infected leg to be shown, believing it would be made to look too gruesome by the makeup people, so it was never shown.

Kirk's droning speech ("Being your slave...") is a sonnet from Shakespeare. Of course, that creates a nit-- if the Platonians left Earth 2000 years ago, how could they know about Shakespeare?

The script was approved by Program Practices in L.A., but Program Practices in New York freaked out about the inter-racial kiss, and sent some suits to the studio. They sat down with Nichelle Nichols, but couldn;'t change her mind to not do the scene, or Freiberger who was actually pushing for the scene to be made as is. It even brought Roddemnberry to the set for a rare visit (he'd gotten to the point of just looking at scripts or watching completed episodes by then). The suits were upset that everyone was okay with the kiss, and worried that the South would reject the show and they'd lose viewership (ironic, since NBC was trying to kill the show, anyway!). Shatner left the set, angry that they were interfering, so Roddenberry offered the suits a compromise. He said they'd shoot it two ways-- one with a real kiss, and one without, with Kirk fighting off Parmon's powers, and then decide which take to keep when the film went into editing. Shatner and Nichelle filmed the kiss as seen in the episode, and then our Captain proceeded to screw up every shot after that,, even going so far as to look in the camera with crossed-eyes! And since it was so late in the day (the suits had caused a 3-hour delay by showing up), they decided to keep the scene as planned..

Even with a small cast, only two main sets, limited shots on the Enterprise bridge, few SFX, and access to Paramount's Greek-style set decorations, the episode still went $7,591 over budget.
The BBC refused to air this episode until December 22, 1993, because of 'sadistic elements'.

"Wink Of An Eye"

The concept of people being sped up can be traced back to a 1901 short story by H.G. Wells called 'The New Accelerator'.

Deeming the episode a little too talky, it was Justman's idea to add conflict between Kirk and Rael.

The unlucky crewman in the landing party was going to be killed ruthlessly by the Scalosians, but Roddemnberry rightly pointed out that that didn't make sense if the Enterprise crew was needed for breeding stock, so it was changed to hyper-acceleration cell damage, as well as giving him the name of 'Compton'.

The episode began as a story outline by Gene Coon, but he was too busy with 'It Takes A Thief', so the script job was given to Arthur Heinemann. It was also at this time that Coon asked Roddenberry to release him from his contract, so no further scripts would come from him (or his pseudonym, Lee Cronin.

A line of dialog was removed in editing that stated that all the doors of the ship had been frozen open, which would explain how the Scalosians could move throughout the ship.

Kathie Browne (Deela) was married to Darren McGavin of 'Night Stalker' fame.

'That Which Survives";

D.C. Fontana's story outline was called 'Survival', but it was John Meredyth Lucas, who wrote the script, and had it changed to 'That Which Survives".

Lt. D'Amato was 'Dawson, and he was killed by a mysterious alien monster, not from cellular disruption.

Chekov, not Sulu, was in the landing party. However, Walter Koenig was unavailable, as he was part of an East Coast theater production. This was also why he wasn't in the previous episodes, as well.

The Enterprise was only sent 100 light years away, instead of 990.7. When she returned, she was immediately targeted by the planetary defense systems.

McCoy was captured, and replaced by a replica that tried to kill Kirk and the landing party. However, the twin trick had been done so many times ('The Enemy Within', 'The Man Trap', etc.) it was dropped.

Even at this stage, there was no Losira in the script.

In D.C.'s revised outline, she had Spock lead the landing party instead of Kirk, and the alien killer/creature would appear only on the ship, killing crewmen.

D.C. was also trying to finish 'The Enterprise Incident' script at this time, in a rush to finish it because it was so topical in the news (ie the real-life USS Pueblo), as well as the story outlines for this episode and 'Joanna; However, she didn't want to continue her association with Star Trek with Freiberger in charge, so she asked to be released from her contract. And one more kick at Freiberger-- she asked to have her name removed in favor of her pseudonym, 'Michael Richards', which was a combination of her two brother's names.

Even though John Meredyth Lucas took over the script writing chores from her, story editor Arthur Singer is responsible for about 40 % of the Final Draft's dialog.

Lee Meriwether (Losira) was a former Miss America, and the first one to be crowned on TV, back in 1954.

Arthur Batanides (D'Amato) was friends with Freiberger, having shared a rental house with him, back when they were trying to break into show business.

It was Roddenberry's idea to have the landing party believe that the Enterprise was destroyed, giving them a more urgent need to survive, without hope of rescue.

However, he was also becoming disillusioned with Fred Freiberger, because the new producer wouldn't always accept his advice or suggestions in his memos. He suggested that this Kalandan planet was too static, no breeze was evident, and wind machines should have been brought in to make it more realistic. Freiberger was too much of a front office man, keeping an eye on finances, and deemed it unnecessary because it would cost too much. Gene also complained that too many 'aliens' encountered this season were too human-looking (ie. American), and even suggested meeting up with aliens, all of whom are bald. Freiberger never did this, but Gene obviously kept it in mind when he created Ilia and her Deltan race.

'That Which Survives' was supposed to be televised on December 13, 1968, but a news special pre-empted it, pushing it back to January 24, 1969, 6 weeks later than expected.

Kirk's droning speech ("Being your slave...") is a sonnet from Shakespeare. Of course, that creates a nit-- if the Platonians left Earth 2000 years ago, how could they know about Shakespeare?

They have subspace communication technology, as illustrated by the distress call that brought Enterprise there, so they could have been listening to Federation (and other) broadcasts.

NBC's Broadcast and Standards department didn't want Parmon's infected leg to be shown, believing it would be made to look too gruesome by the makeup people, so it was never shown.

That probably wouldn't have looked any worse than the torture makeup seen on DeForest Kelley in "The Empath".

Lee Meriwether (Losira) was a former Miss America, and the first one to be crowned on TV, back in 1954.

And had come off The Time Tunnel not long before she was cast in Trek.

The script was approved by Program Practices in L.A., but Program Practices in New York freaked out about the inter-racial kiss, and sent some suits to the studio. They sat down with Nichelle Nichols, but couldn;'t change her mind to not do the scene, or Freiberger who was actually pushing for the scene to be made as is. It even brought Roddemnberry to the set for a rare visit (he'd gotten to the point of just looking at scripts or watching completed episodes by then). The suits were upset that everyone was okay with the kiss, and worried that the South would reject the show and they'd lose viewership (ironic, since NBC was trying to kill the show, anyway!). Shatner left the set, angry that they were interfering, so Roddenberry offered the suits a compromise. He said they'd shoot it two ways-- one with a real kiss, and one without, with Kirk fighting off Parmon's powers, and then decide which take to keep when the film went into editing. Shatner and Nichelle filmed the kiss as seen in the episode, and then our Captain proceeded to screw up every shot after that,, even going so far as to look in the camera with crossed-eyes! And since it was so late in the day (the suits had caused a 3-hour delay by showing up), they decided to keep the scene as planned..

Hard to believe all the fuss that caused in this day and age.


A line of dialog was removed in editing that stated that all the doors of the ship had been frozen open, which would explain how the Scalosians could move throughout the ship.

Phil points out in his book how the doors were conveniently open.


Freiberger was too much of a front office man, keeping an eye on finances, and deemed it unnecessary because it would cost too much.

That was one of the things out of Freiberger's control. NBC slashed the budget


And one more kick at Freiberger-- she asked to have her name removed in favor of her pseudonym, 'Michael Richards', which was a combination of her two brother's names.

Not to be confused with the actor who played Kramer on Seinfeld.

Several "Trek" directors were either unavailable or on the do-not-call list for overtime or other problems from Paramount...

Which may be the reason why regular Trek directors Marc Daniels and Joseph Pevney were not around much after season two. Daniels directed only one third season episode (the infamous "Spock's Brain"). Pevney may have been persona non grata; he directed no episodes in season three.

Frieberger's stance on the kiss in "Plato's Stepchildren" is a credit on his side of the "good or evil" debate.

Lee Meriwether was also Catwoman in the 1966 Batman movie.

As I said, it's funny to see all the fuss that kiss made.

Of course, we've come a long way in the last fifty years.

ScottN - "Lee Meriwether was also Catwoman in the 1966 Batman movie."
...which she co-starred with Bele, er, Frank Gorshin, another third season alumni.

Francois - "...so they (the Platonians) could have been listening to Federation (and other) broadcasts."

Actually, now that you mention it, you gave me another idea. Maybe Anton Karidian and his theater troop visited Platonius!

Lee Meriwether was also Catwoman in the 1966 Batman movie."
...which she co-starred with Bele, er, Frank Gorshin, another third season alumni.

Yep, that's true.

I also saw some Trek guest stars appears on Gilligan's Island. Among them Michael Forrest (Apollo) and Stanley Adams (Cyrano Jones). Both these men played Polynesian natives that visited the island (back then white actors could get away with playing natives, today, of course, it's unacceptable, and rightfully so).

'Let That be Your Last Battlefield':

The story outline came from Gene Coon (as 'Lee Cronin') and was called 'Down From Heaven'.

Oliver Crawford ('The Galileo Seven') wrote the First Draft teleplay for it, and re-named it 'Down From Heaven, Up From Above'. Arthur Singer, once he re-wrote parts, called it 'Let That Be Your Last Battlefield'.

Coon's story had the Enterprise rescue an alien called 'Satrana', who resembled the devil, complete with pointed ears, tail, and horns. Later, his pursuer arrives, an alien called 'Mikel', dressed in a blinding white robe and sporting wings on his back. It would then question our sense of good and evil, as the aliens returned to their home planet and found the outdated religious beliefs a thing of the past.

The devil and angel characters were changed to two half-black/half-white aliens, just 4 days before filming began, thanks to a suggestion by director Jud Taylor.

Singer then wrote the Final Draft Script one Act at a time, overlapping with days that the crew was filming with an incomplete script (shades of Star Trek - The Motion Picture!).

At one point it was considered using a black actor as one of the characters, but this was not done because the producers felt 'it would really look like a clown situation'.

Lou Antonio (Lokai) would later direct episodes of 'McCloud', 'The Rockford Files', and 'Boston Legal'.

Filming wrapped a day late on Day 7 at 2:55 pm, and then the crew went straight into 'Whom Gods Destroy' with some scenes on the bridge. Usually an episode was wrapped at the end of the day, according to studio schedules.

'Whom Gods Destroy'

Fred Freiberger assigned Jerry Sohl ('The Corbomite Maneuver') to write a script assignment, and apparently neither had seen 'Dagger Of The Mind', because both thought this would be the first time the Enterprise had visited a penal colony.

Sohl's story found the Enterprise responding to a garbled distress signal at a prison planet, only to find the inmates in control. Once Sohl saw the direction that Freiberger and Singer were taking the story, away from what he intended, he allowed them to give the script assignment to another writer, since Sohl was a busy sci-fi novelist, anyway.

Spock killed Garth, instead of stunning him, when confronted with two Kirks.

A line was removed by Broadcast Standards (and probably for the better for present-day ears); "Keep your hands off Kirk, you treacherous slut!"

The inmates also acted more irrational, barbaric, and rambunctious, while Garth was more sadistic and evil, so Freiberger was told to tone it down.

Steve Ihnat was a friend of Roddenberry. He died in 1972 at the age of 37 from a heart attack. To make him look older than Kirk, his hair was streaked with grey.

Nimoy vociferously balked at Spock just standing there, clueless as to who was the real Kirk, and argued about this with Freiberger for days, pushing filming of the scene back a couple days. He went to makeup and costumes, as his contract insisted he had to 'show up for work', but nothing could stop him from leaving the set and waiting it out in his dressing room. Then he sent a letter to studio head Douglas Cramer (and a copy to Roddenberry) complaining about the situation, also claiming that they'd already done a similar, better story ('Dagger Of The Mind'). Eventually, they wrote the scene in a way that it appeared that Spock knew who the real Kirk was, but let himself get hit and allow the two Kirk's to wrestle.

Yvonne Craig hated the green makeup. Nobody could remember what they used for Susan Oliver in 'The Cage', so they globbed on a mixture that forced her to take two showers at the studio, then an oil bath at home, and another shower to get rid of whatever else was left on her skin, four days in a row. Weeks after filming her scenes, she said she was still finding bits of green paint under her toenails! Only on the fourth day of filming did they find a makeup artist that could paint her with a formula that wouldn't rub off on other actors and their clothing.

William Shatner actually cut the palm of his hand when he slapped Marta's knife away from her when they were in bed.

Garth;'s robe had been previously worn by Arnold Moss when he played Anton Karidian in 'The Conscience Of The King'.

This would be the lowest rated episode of Star Trek for the whole series when it was broadcast for the first time. CBS won the timeslot with the movie, 'The Incredible Mr. Limpett' (41%), ABC had 24% of the audience with 'Judd For The Defense', and Trek at 20%. In fact, NBC made a rare full Friday night loss in third place with every show that night on January 3, 1969.

By the way, here are the opening credits for that long-forgotten Quinn Martin-produced extravaganza, 'Judd For The Defense', that somehow crept up to second place on Friday nights, helping to seal Trek's fate;

https://youtu.be/f52Eq-KlbL0

This would be the lowest rated episode of "Star Trek" for the whole series when it was broadcast for the first time.

For some reason, yours truly, a loyal "Trek" viewer, didn't see the episode in it's first run. And, since NBC never repeated it, I didn't catch it until the syndicated repeats in fall, 1969.

IIRC, "... Battlefield" was Bob Justman's last episode. He would return as supervising producer for season one of Next Gen.

I read somewhere that Shatner told Yvonne Craig to be careful during their "love" scene, as Shatner was down to his last clean costume.

Carl Betz, who played "Judd For The Defense" (a series I do remember, even though I never saw an episode), died in 1978. If he had lived, maybe he could have played the character again on Law & Order.

The devil and angel characters were changed to two half-black/half-white aliens, just 4 days before filming began, thanks to a suggestion by director Jud Taylor.

I think they made the right choice there.


Fred Freiberger assigned Jerry Sohl ('The Corbomite Maneuver') to write a script assignment, and apparently neither had seen 'Dagger Of The Mind', because both thought this would be the first time the Enterprise had visited a penal colony.

Geez, guys, I know there was no Internet back then, but come on! Was checking whether the Enterprise had been to a penal colony before too much like work?


Spock killed Garth, instead of stunning him, when confronted with two Kirks.

Whaaaat!?


Steve Ihnat was a friend of Roddenberry. He died in 1972 at the age of 37 from a heart attack.

A heart attack at 37? Did he have a pre-existed condition, such as diabetes, I wonder.


Nimoy vociferously balked at Spock just standing there, clueless as to who was the real Kirk, and argued about this with Freiberger for days, pushing filming of the scene back a couple days. He went to makeup and costumes, as his contract insisted he had to 'show up for work', but nothing could stop him from leaving the set and waiting it out in his dressing room. Then he sent a letter to studio head Douglas Cramer (and a copy to Roddenberry) complaining about the situation, also claiming that they'd already done a similar, better story ('Dagger Of The Mind'). Eventually, they wrote the scene in a way that it appeared that Spock knew who the real Kirk was, but let himself get hit and allow the two Kirk's to wrestle.

Good for Mr. Nimoy.

Adam - "IIRC, "... Battlefield" was Bob Justman's last episode."

You remember correctly, Adam. 'Battlefield' was in pre-production (actors hired, sets built, scripts given final adjustments) from September 26 to October 3, 1968, and was filmed between October 4 to 14. Justman's last day was October 3, just as 'The Mark Of Gideon' began pre-production.

For the Third Season, NBC only ordered 16 episodes, with an attitude of wait-and-see what happens in the Friday, 10pm slot. By early October, after seeing the ratings for the first three episodes doing well enough, NBC ordered just 2 more, for a total of 18. Additional episodes to create a full season would be decided at a later date.
James Doohan married Anita Yagel, Gene Roddenberry's secretary, on November 22, 1967. Since Dorothy Fontana started out as Gene's secretary (before showing her worth as a scriptwriter and story editor), it's possible that Anita replaced her directly.
3 days after Fred Freiberger reported for work, Roddenberry gave himself the 98th and 99th Trek story assignments. These would become 'Turnabout Intruder', and 'The Savage Curtain'.
Abraham Lincoln was one of Roddenberry's heroes, and would be the namesake for his mail order company, Lincoln Enterprises'.
Potential story assignments that weren't used for the Third Season included 'Beware Gryptons Bearing Gifts' by Davuid P. Harmon ('A Piece Of The Action'), 'The Aurorals' and 'The Foreseeable Future' by Jean Listette Aroeste ('Is There In Truth No Beauty'), and 'The Beast' by director Marc Daniels.
Regarding the infamous fact of Gene Roddenberry re-writing scripts, I've discovered with this Third Season book that it wasn't as uncommon as some people might want to believe. I've pointed out that others, like D.C., and Gene Coon, and Justman, and others have re-written scripts, but it always seemed like Roddenberry got the worst of it from the actual script writers.
But, here's the thing; Freiberger and story editor Arthur Singer re-wrote or 'revised', or 'polished' every Third Season script.
EVERY
SINGLE
ONE!
For better, or for worse, that's what producers and script editors do to all shows, not just Star Trek. So the writers that whined that too much was changed (like John D.F. Black, or (sadly) D.C. Fontana, who should already know that, being the former script editor, shouldn't hold this over Roddenberry. One Third Season scriptwriter, resigned that his story was changed, is quoted in the book as saying that you're lucky if 50% of what you wrote actually makes it to the screen!

'The Mark Of Gideon'

It was originally called 'No Place To Die'.

Friends Stanley Adams and George Slavin had previously written two scripts for Fred Freiberger for his other show, 'Iron Horse'. Slavin was a prolific writer of TV and movie westerns.

The character of Hodin was changed to that from 'Hodan', to prevent confusion over a real-life U.S. politician with the name 'Hodan'.

In the original story, Kirk, Spock, McCoy, and Chapel were forced to beam down to Gideon, because of Hodan's plan to take over the ship and beam down the crew to spread disease and curb their over-population problem. Hodan knew the Prime Directive would prevent Federation interference in their culture, so he concocted this desperate plan. The crew were housed in rooms replicating sections of the Enterprise to make it easier to settle into their new lives. When Chapel refuses to eat and remain a healthy doner, she is force-fed in what seems like a graphic scene with tubes running into her mouth. Blood transfusion is begun on two Gideonite males and a woman called Odona (she wasn't Hodin's daughter yet). However, Hodan becomes sick from human germs, too, and begs Kirk to beam him back up to the ship to be cured by Federation medical technology, since the plan was just for the general public to be infected and die-- the rulers would remain immortal. He and Odona are cured.

There was supposed to be a scene showing Hodan regenerating a missing hand, then it became Odona's hand, and then just a finger. The scene was cut from the script by the network as seeming too graphic, but it would have helped to press the point that Gidionites instantly regenerate organs and appendages, so any type of sterilization would be instantaneously corrected by the person's own body.

Sharon Acker (Odona) was 33 and a Canadian actress who had worked with Shatner 12 years before in Canada. She appeared in an episode of 'Mission: Impossible' with Leonard Nimoy, and Gene Coon liked her enough to put her in three episodes of 'It Takes A Thief', when he was producer.

It was Gene Roddenberry's idea in post-production to have the creepy Gideonite faces appear on the bridge viewscreen behind Kirk and Odona's back.

The episode cost $166,416 to make, $11,946 under the Third Season budget limit, so the series' deficit was erased, giving Star Trek a surplus of $4829.

In 1969, the Earth's population was 3.5 billion. In the 50 years since this episode was first shown, the population has doubled to 7 billion.

James Doohan married Anita Yagel, Gene Roddenberry's secretary, on November 22, 1967.

They would divorce in 1972. Anita Doohan has at least one screenwriting credit - a 1976 movie titled Embryo, with Rock Hudson and Barbara Carrera. (I just saw a photo of the Doohans' wedding on Instagram; Leslie Nielsen was James Doohan's best man.)

There was supposed to be a scene showing Hodan regenerating a missing hand, then it became Odona's hand, and then just a finger. The scene was cut from the script by the network as seeming too graphic, but it would have helped to press the point that Gidionites instantly regenerate organs and appendages, so any type of sterilization would be instantaneously corrected by the person's own body.

They could have obstructed the fallopian tubes of women and the deferent ducts of men with devices that their bodies could not have metabolized. The organs themselves would not have been injured.

Abraham Lincoln was one of Roddenberry's heroes

And that was transferred to Kirk in the finished episodes.


Regarding the infamous fact of Gene Roddenberry re-writing scripts, I've discovered with this Third Season book that it wasn't as uncommon as some people might want to believe. I've pointed out that others, like D.C., and Gene Coon, and Justman, and others have re-written scripts, but it always seemed like Roddenberry got the worst of it from the actual script writers.
But, here's the thing; Freiberger and story editor Arthur Singer re-wrote or 'revised', or 'polished' every Third Season script.
EVERY
SINGLE
ONE!
For better, or for worse, that's what producers and script editors do to all shows, not just Star Trek. So the writers that whined that too much was changed (like John D.F. Black, or (sadly) D.C. Fontana, who should already know that, being the former script editor, shouldn't hold this over Roddenberry. One Third Season scriptwriter, resigned that his story was changed, is quoted in the book as saying that you're lucky if 50% of what you wrote actually makes it to the screen!

All writers must know that, once they sell a script, that's the moment they lose sole ownership of it.

The producers of the show in question can make as many changes as they see fit (of course, that little fact didn't stop Harlan Ellison bitching for the next fifty years about how Roddenberry "butchered" City On The Edge Of Forever).


Sharon Acker (Odona) was 33 and a Canadian actress who had worked with Shatner 12 years before in Canada.

She's still with us (she's 84 now). From the Great White North, eh

Sharon also appeared in the 1973 TV Movie/Pilot, The Stranger (opposite original Zefram Cochrane, Glenn Corbett). I mentioned this in my February 15, 2017 post in the Metamorphosis thread.


Leslie Nielsen was James Doohan's best man

Another Canadian.

'The Lights Of Zetar':

It was originally called 'Sentry 7', which referred to the planetoid in the story that served as a galactic early warning system.

Writer Shari Lewis's credentials included no produced TV scripts, but she had written much of her material for her TV and stage appearances (with Lamb Chop, I'm guessing), and had written over a dozen children's books. Co-writer Jeremy Tarcher, her husband, was a TV Programmer.

They described the story to Freiberger, who liked it but thought it was too similar to another story in production, so he asked them to create a more light-hearted, humorous story. They did so, but he liked the one with 'the intelligent lights', so the Zetaran story was what we got.

'Sentry 7' was about the Enterprise responding to a challenge from the surviving intellect of a long-dead race.

The 2nd draft outline, now re-titled 'The Lights Of Zetar' saw Sentry 7 changed to 'Memory 7, which was now a research library in space.

Director Herb Kenwith had never directed the series before, but he had experience-- 750 episodes of the soap opera, 'The Doctors'. (Maybe he should have done some 'Doctor Who' episodes!). Anyways, he was a friend of Lucille Ball, who was instrumental in getting Star Trek picked up by Desilu, so she called in a favor to Gene Roddemnberry, and Gene told Freiberger to give him an episode. I think he did okay, considering he'd never even seen an episode of Trek before.

This episode would have the only appearamnce of John Winston's Lt. Kyle in it, which would also be his eleventh and last appearamce, until 'Star Trek II'.

Half way through production, around November 7, 1968, NBC ordered a final batch of episodes-- 8 more, but with an option to make it only 6. At this point the seventh episode of Season Three was televised, and in that time Trek had been number 1 in its spot only once (the season premiere), second place five times, and only once in third place.

'The Cloudminders':

David Gerrold's story outline was called 'Castles In The Sky'.

Roddenberry told Freiberger that Gerrold (at just age 23) could use an established collaborator on the script, so Freiberger chose Oliver Crawford ('The Galileo Seven', 'Let That Be Your last battlefield'), even though Gerrold didn't really think he needed help. Story Editor Arthur Singer called Gerrold's story 'a dull, polemical tract with boring philosophical discourse" that "wandered all over." (This was before Armin and Crawford got their hands on it).

The inspiration for Gerrold's story was Beverly Hills, with the rich and their luxurious mansions, having poor people (who probably lived in seedier, rougher neighborhoods) serve them. he pressed the point by having the sky of Stratos literally look down on the worker-class on the surface of Ardana.

Margaret Armin was brought in to help with the outline for Gerrold and Crawford's story outline, and she renamed it 'Revolt'. With her 2nd Draft teleplay, the title finally became 'The Cloudminders'.

Roddenberry had asked Freiberger to give her 'a problematic script' when one came along, believing that she might be the next D.C. Fontana writer/script editor for the show, so this one was given to her after Gerrold and Crawford worked on it. However, she wasn't shown their work-- just given the basic details of the outlines that they'd worked on, so she wouldn't be influenced by whom she was re-writing, but also to add more action to a talky script.

Vanna started out as 'Varga'.

Freiberger wrote the Spock / Droxine flirtatious scene, himself.

Fred Williamson (Anka) had spent 8 years in the NFL with the Oakland Raiders, Pittsburgh Steelers, and Kansas City Chiefs, and later appeared in 'blaxploitation movies, as well as the original 'M*A*S*H' movie.

Garth Pillsbury was the Troglyte that jumps off the balcony. Previously, he'd played the devious Wilson in 'Mirror, Mirror', the would-be assassin that switches sides from Chekov to help Kirk.

This episode was filmed the same week that 'Yellow Submarine' was the number one movie in theaters, as well as the week that Maxwell Smart and Agent 99 got married in 'Get Smart'.

Regarding that downward view of the surface of Aradana...uh...IT'S REAL!!!! 50 years I'd believed it was an artist's rendition, but now I've just found out it's real! It's Earth! Specifically, it's a shot of the Arabian Peninsula, photographed from the orbiting Gemini IV craft in 1965, and then tinted red to match the red sky of Ardana.

The episode was broadcast February 28, 1968, and cancellation of the series had been confirmed, despite mostly having second place ratings in their timeslot. Unfortunately, when combined with shows for the entire week, the show was further down the list.

They described the story to Freiberger, who liked it but thought it was too similar to another story in production

What was that other story?


Lucille Ball, who was instrumental in getting Star Trek picked up by Desilu

And for that, I love Lucy!


The inspiration for Gerrold's story was Beverly Hills, with the rich and their luxurious mansions, having poor people (who probably lived in seedier, rougher neighborhoods) serve them. he pressed the point by having the sky of Stratos literally look down on the worker-class on the surface of Ardana.

See also the Eloi and the Morlocks.


Regarding that downward view of the surface of Aradana...uh...IT'S REAL!!!! 50 years I'd believed it was an artist's rendition, but now I've just found out it's real! It's Earth! Specifically, it's a shot of the Arabian Peninsula, photographed from the orbiting Gemini IV craft in 1965, and then tinted red to match the red sky of Ardana.

Cool. I never knew that.


The episode was broadcast February 28, 1968, and cancellation of the series had been confirmed, despite mostly having second place ratings in their timeslot. Unfortunately, when combined with shows for the entire week, the show was further down the list.

Nothing could have saved the show at this point. When you have a hostile network, the die is cast (Doctor Who fans learned this lesson in the late 80's).

Unfortunately, Cushman didn't reveal details of Lewis and Tarcher's other story.
But, the back story is this; when Roddenberry hired Freiberrger, he told the new producer he wanted to tone down the humor, because Gene didn't like episodes like 'The Trouble With Tribbles' and 'I, Mudd'. Freiberger was okay with this, as he didn't hsave much of a sense of humor (according to actors that worked with him on various episodes-- nice guy, very professional, but not very funny).
Roddenberry had chosen most of the 18 outlines to develop into scripts before Fred took over, and by now he'd realized that the stories were all very serious, and little humor was present. So, Shari Lewis, being a puppeteer and a comedian, seemed like the right choice to write a story with humor in it. Unfortunately, by the time she and her husband had submitted their second story, Freiberger had changed his mind and liked the story that became 'The Lights Of Zetar' better than the funny one.

A late addition to 'The Cloudminders'; I have a co-worker with an encyclopediac knowledge of sports, and I asked him if he'd ever heard of Fred Williamson (Anka). Turns out that he not only knew that Williamson's nickname was 'The Hammer', but he also told me that he'd played in the very first NFL Superbowl! (Although they weren't called 'Superbowl's until the fifth one.

The episode was broadcast February 28, 1968...

Shouldn't that read 1969?

Half way through production, around November 7, 1968, NBC ordered a final batch of episodes-- 8 more, but with an option to make it only 6.

The late Joan Winston, who was on set during production of "Turnabout Intruder" in late December, 1968, spoke with Gene Roddenberry (who was on set for at least that one day) about that. He had said that NBC passed on the option for the two extra episodes. Which, although the cancellation decision hadn't come down yet, was not a good sign.

Although they weren't called 'Superbowl's until the fifth one.

I disagree. IIRC, the games were called "Super Bowl" from the first in 1967 (which was won by the Green Bay Packers). The overbearing hype began with Super Bowl III in 1969. Which was won by the New York Jets, led by QB Joe Willie Namath. (Namath is currently "running back" ads for a Medicare supplement company. The last movie I remember Fred Williamson in was 1996's Original Gangstas.)

Although they weren't called 'Superbowl's until the fifth one.

I disagree. IIRC, the games were called "Super Bowl" from the first in 1967

According to Wikipedia, it was called the AFL-NFL World Championship Game for the first two years, and became the Superbowl on the third.

Thanks, Francois. I stand corrected.
IMHO (and a bit off topic), the championship games had a lot to do with the NFL/AFL merger. Which was fully realized in 1970.

But, the back story is this; when Roddenberry hired Freiberrger, he told the new producer he wanted to tone down the humor, because Gene didn't like episodes like 'The Trouble With Tribbles' and 'I, Mudd'. Freiberger was okay with this, as he didn't have much of a sense of humor (according to actors that worked with him on various episodes-- nice guy, very professional, but not very funny).
Roddenberry had chosen most of the 18 outlines to develop into scripts before Fred took over, and by now he'd realized that the stories were all very serious, and little humor was present. So, Shari Lewis, being a puppeteer and a comedian, seemed like the right choice to write a story with humor in it. Unfortunately, by the time she and her husband had submitted their second story, Freiberger had changed his mind and liked the story that became 'The Lights Of Zetar' better than the funny one.

Good thing.

Lights Of Zetar is one of the better third season episodes, IMO.

'The Way To Eden':

We all know the original title was 'Joanna', referring to McCoy's daughter.

The idea came to D.C. in January 1967, after she was talking to DeForest Kelly, and suggested a story where we discover McCoy has a son from a failed marriage. However, De suggested it be a daughter.

8 months passed, as Fontana was busy with other people's scripts, before she sent a memo and some ideas to Roddenberry and Robert Justman. Gene didn't think it was much of a story, so it was shelved for another 6 months. D.C. wrote another outline, this one from July 1968, where McCoy finds out that his daughter, whom he's barely communicated with for 3 years (hmmm...his entire stay aboard the Enterprise...), hasn't been in nurses training, but rather running around the galaxy with a bunch of gypsies (also referred to in the same outline as 23rd century flower children).

Fontana had wanted either Nancy Sinatra or Bobbie Gentry to play Joanna.

Doctor Sevrin and his followers were searching for a planet called 'Nirvana', a place based on a 100-year old legend from a 'space prospector'. Nirvana allegedly has a race of people living in love and peace, having rejected the dehumanizing, big government aspects of life. The ship is taken over by the followers, as Joanna seeks advice about her father from Kirk. McCoy comes across as a nasty father, warning Kirk that Joanna is 'a witch, just like her mother', and to stay away from her.

Joanna was supposed to be 20. Kirk about 35. Somehow, even in 1969 this was okay?

So they make it to Nirvana, Sevrin sends the ship away on automatic pilot, back into space, but McCoy and Kirk take a shuttle to track down Sevrin. However, they find a planet 'involved in a war of extermination', so it's not the paradise it seemed. Kirk fights Sevrin and wins, and McCoy and Joanna reconcile.

Freiberger didn't like the story, but he also didn't think McCoy was old enough to have an adult daughter, which makes it look like he didn't not only know McCoy was about 45 years old (and able to have a 20-year old daughter), but also that he hadn't read the Star Trek 'bible' with character facts in it.

Fontana was so upset that McCoy's daughter was changed to Chekov's ex-girlfriend (and therefore less character development for McCoy), she told her agent to remove her name from the script and be released from her contract-- the reason why her pseudonym, Michael Richards, was used a second time.

Arthur Heinemann turned the outline into a script, and added the deadly Eden plant life. The 2nd Draft was also where the singing scenes was added.

Mary-Linda Rapelye (Irina) had worked in TV and theater, with a part in the movie, 'In Cold Blood'. Later, she would be a regular in the soap opera, 'One Life To Live'.

Victor Brandt (Tongo Rad), had previously played engineer Watson in 'Elaan Of Troyius'. At the time of this episode, and in between acting parts, he was a gopher on his producer father's B-movie, currently in production at Paramount. He'd bumped into director David Alexander and Script Editor Arthur Singer in the hallway, both of whom were family friends of his father. Right there and then they asked him to read a small part of the script, he did so, and got the part of Tongo Rad.

Roger Holloway, the crewman doing the air drums and getting down with the hippies music on the bridge (much to Scotty's chagrin), would appear in 32 episodes of Trek, eventually being named 'Mr. Lemli'. But that's a bit of a nit, isn't it? If he's sitting in the engineering chair on the bridge, why is he in security in other episodes like 'Turnaboiut Intruder'?

After filming wrapped, George Takei took the entire guest cast out to dinner and paid for the whole meal.

The scene of Kirk watching Sevrin on Eden, the one where the image is flipped backwards, was done because the film editor needed a shot of Kirk looking in the proper direction at Sevrin, but one hadn't been filmed.

'The Way To Eden' was televised on February 21, 1969, and scheduled as a rerun for July 15. However, NBC pre-empted it to show live pre-launch coverage of Apollo 11, instead. Sounds fair to me!

Okay, so 'the Way To Eden' is frequently lambasted as the worst episode, or one of the worst (when compared to 'Spock's Brain'. But the fact remains it came from D.C. Fontana, as 'Spock's Brain' came from the great Gene Coon. Their skill and creativity are evident in the first two seasons, but with the third season, not so much. Having read her outline, which is still about hippies, and flower children, and the Enterprise taken over by them, 'The Way To Eden' would have still looked a lot like what we got, just with added soap opera scenes between McCoy and his daughter, instead of relationship problems between Chekov and Irina. Either way, this was not D.C.'s best (or mddle-level). It was a stinker all the way through; 'witch', 20 / 35 age gap, hippies, space prospector fables. Ugh.

'Requiem For Methuselah':

Originally, the planet was going to be a jungle, Flint had numerous android servants, and he died by the end of the episode. Budget restrictions eliminated the androids and the jungle.

Writer Jerome Bixby wanted Carroll O'Conner or Richard Boone for the part of Flint, who at one time was going to be called 'Mister Nova'.

Supposedly, Methuselah lived for 969 years. He would have used up nearly one-sixth of Flint's 6000-year life.

Rayna Kapec's name was a nod to Czech writer, Karel Capek, who coined the term 'robot' in a 1921 story.

Names that writer Jerome Bixby wanted included in Flint's lineage, but were removed because of NBC; Jesus and Moses (didn't want to offend Christians), Kublai Khan (different race), Picasso (still alive in 1968, could cause legal trouble), and Beethoven (Brahms chosen, instead).

James Daly (Flint) would have two children that carried on the family career in acting; Tyne Daly ('Cagney And Lacey'), and Tim Daly ('Private Practice' and frequently the voice of Superman in DC animated shows).

Louise Sorel (Rayna) would work with Shatner five times; this episode, an episode of 'Route 66', once in 'Barbary Coast', in a TV-movie called 'Perilous Voyage', and again in the movie, 'Airplane II - The Sequel'. She would also work with James Daly six times on his series, 'Medical Center'.

Natural brunette Louise would also ask director, Murray Golden, if she could wear a blonde wig for the role, and he said yes.

However, De suggested it be a daughter.

Wishful thinking, perhaps. De Kelley and his wife Carolyn were married for 53 years, but had no children.

Louise Sorel (Rayna) would work with Shatner...in a TV-movie called 'Perilous Voyage'...

That TV flick was shot between seasons two and three of Trek. NBC sat on it for eight years, finally airing it in the summer of 1976. Shatner's performance in it...let's just say he was still high from the pot he smoked on his date with Tania Lemani.

Sounds like Way To Eden would have been better, had Freiberger not interfered.

I recalled that the last episode was filmed in January, and so I looked ahead in my book, and sure enough there it was.
51 years ago yesterday, January 9, 1969, the last scenes were filmed of the original series; the close ups of Kirk and Lester on the couch on Camus II in Act I.
Just 3 more episodes to go...

I recalled that the last episode was filmed in January, and so I looked ahead in my book, and sure enough there it was.
51 years ago yesterday, January 9, 1969, the last scenes were filmed of the original series; the close ups of Kirk and Lester on the couch on Camus II in Act I.

And with that, Star Trek was over. It would never be seen again.

Or so they thought...

'The Savage Curtain':

Lincoln, Socrates, Lvak of Vulcan, and Pon, the Flower Child Messiah from the 1970's were going to be the personalities found on the planet. On the evil side, it was Hitler, Attila The Hun, Green, Kahless, and two others.

In the episode, Yarnek mentions they learn from 'such spectacles'. In Roddenberry's outline, he was 'The Playright', and they taught their species by forcing aliens to act in their 'theater'.

Gene's 1st Draft script was only half a story. He only wrote Acts I and II, since he was more concerned with his two-film deal with MGM, one of which was supposed to be a new Tarzan movie.

Arthur Heinemann (Wink Of An Eye, The Way To Eden) was brought in to finish the script, just as he'd been called in to 'fix' those other two scripts.

In his 1st Draft he removed Hitler and Socrates, while Freiberger changed Lvak's name to 'Surak' to follow the established Vulcan norm (something Gene should have been aware of).

Robert Herron (Kahless) had previously appeared as (the disappearing) Sam in 'Charlie X', and had performed Jeffrey Hunter's stunts in 'The Cage'.

Janos Prohaska designed and played Yarnek, just as he had with the Horta and the Mugato, however it was the voice of Bart Larue (the Guardian of Forever) that was used, but altered to disguise it.

With two episodes left to film, this was the last one that Nichelle Nichols appeared in as Uhura. Since they knew the show was over, I don't know why they didn't just keep her for 'Turnabout Intruder' (Shatner, Nimoy, Kelley, and Doohan's voice-over was all that would be needed for 'All Our Yesterdays').

There was a humorous scene filmed but cut because the episode ran too long with it; after Kirk, Spock, and Lincoln leave the transporter room, we find them in the briefing room, where Lincoln is marveling about 'an iron ship that floats on air'. Soock corrects him with a bunch of technobabble about orbital velocity and speed conversion, to which Lincoln replies, "When the choice is between exposing ignorance or honesty...a wise man chooses the later. I haven't the slightest idea what you said."

They question him as to why he can accept some things, like a ship in the air, but that he can't explain how he got there or knows certain things about them. They then give him a tour of the ship, which brings us back to the briefing room, where an impatient McCoy and Scotty are waiting for Kirk and Spock to show up for a meeting.

The final fight was going to be on location, but being mid-December it was felt they wouldn't have enough light.

'All Our Yesterdays':

Originally it was called 'A Handful Of Dust', referring to a scene where Kirk, on the dead Sarpeidon, picks up a book from the ground but it disintegrates into a handful of dust.

Writer Jean Lisette Aroeste (Is There In Truth No Beauty) was a librarian at UCLA and was inspired by her surroundings. She's quoted as telling the author, "We travel into those books mentally, so why not physically?"

Originally, the planet was supposed to be a vast, dead wasteland, with only one intact building left, lit up and powered. It's a library with multiple Atoz's maintaining it. Kirk is shown a recording of an ancient sea-merchant trade, like the Barbary Coast, while Spock and McCoy view a hostile, desert environment.

Kirk hears a scream on the other side and goes to investigate, as do Spock and McCoy, and the story follows much like it was on TV. However, there is no Zarabeth yet, but rather mutants-- misshaped humanoids, for Spock and McCoy to deal with. Kirk is helped by a Magistrate, who is also from the future, but this time, he returns to the present with Kirk. Spock and McCoy return, fighting off a mutant as they make it back. The Magistrate fights Atoz, since Atoz was not just a librarian, but a defender of the Library. The Magistrate tells the trio to leave, he'll deactivate the time machine to avoid future visitors from using it, and as they escape, they look back and find a hollowed out, ruined, ancient building where the library used to be. Kirk sees an old book, picks it up, and it turns into dust in his hand.

Freiberger had Aroeste add a love interest for Spock, and change the setting for Spock and McCoy, as well as getting Kirk charged with being a witch.

Freiberger wanted a new title, so Aroeste chose a line from Shakespeare's 'MacBeth' that reads, "Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow, creeps in this petty pace from day to day, to the last syllable of recorded time, and all our yesterdays have lighted fools the way to dusty death."

Script editor Arthur Singer did a re-write, producing what was nearly what we saw in the episode.

Freiberger did one last re-write, naming the time machine the 'Atavachron', and changed Zarabeth's fear of aging to death (if she returned to the future), to simply being afraid she'd die instantly.

The episode was filmed December 20, 23, 24, 26, 27, and 30, 1969. Only one day off for Christmas, and then back to work!

Kirk's scenes were filmed on Paramount's Gower European Street with 'day for night' lenses' to darken the daylight. I thought it was in a studio, but this was the last filming done outside.

Shatner cut his hand for the second time this season (the first being fighting Marta in 'Whom Gods Destroy'). This time, it was because of the sword fight. The Constable was played by a friend of the director, but he wasn't skilled with a sword, resulting in the inevitable.

There is a scene at the very beginning that doesn't make sense, which might not have been noticed by us Nitpickers here at Nitcentral. As the opening credits are rolling, and Kirk, Spock, and McCoy encounter Atoz at the desk, Kirk says, "We...came as soon as we knew what was happening."
Then Spock says, "It is my fault, sir. I must have miscalculated. Somehow, the ship's sensors indicate there was no one here at all."
To which Atoz says, "Of course I know."

He's responding to a question, not a comment. Turns out there were a few lines cut (again for a long-running episode), so here's what we should have seen and heard;

KIRK: "We...came as soon as we knew what was happening."

SPOCK: ."It is my fault, sir. I must have miscalculated. Somehow, the ship's sensors indicate there was no one here at all."

ATOZ: "In a very few hours, you would have been absolutely correct. You three would have perished and most painfully, may I warn you! You arrived just in time!"

McCOY: "Then, you know what's going to happen?"

ATOZ: "Of course I know."

Director Marvin Chomsky (also 'And The Children Shall Lead' and 'Day Of The Dove') would later direct parts 3 and 4 of 'Roots' in 1977, and be nominated for an Emmy award for his work on that mini-series.

>The episode was filmed December 20, 23, 24, 26, 27, and 30, 1969. Only one day off for Christmas, and then back to work!

I think it was 1968, not 69. The last episode aired in June 1969.

Kirk is shown a recording of an ancient sea-merchant trade, like the Barbary Coast.

Word play, Steve? Especially since Shatner did a series in the mid-'70s (with Doug McClure) that had that title.

Lincoln, Socrates, Lvak of Vulcan, and Pon, the Flower Child Messiah from the 1970's were going to be the personalities found on the planet.

You're kidding about Pon, right? That would have severely dated the episode. Possibly made it as much a target for derision and ridicule as "The Way To Eden" still is. I, and I'm sure many other fans, thank Arthur Heinemann for that.

Gene...was more concerned with his two-film deal with MGM...

The other film (the one that was made) was, of course, the juvenile sex romp Pretty Maids All In A Row. I don't know if you've seen it. I have, and still can't believe that Roddenberry blew off season three of Trek for that drivel.

one of which was supposed to be a new Tarzan movie.

Africa, the first frontier. These are the adventures of Tarzan, lord of the apes, as he swings from tree to tree seeking out lost civilizations and bizarre creatures. To boldly swing where no ape-man has swung before.

The reason that Roddenberry "blew off" Season Three was because NBC had screwed him over. They promised him Monday nights, and then moved Trek to the Friday Night Death Slot.

His refusal to produce the show was the only weapon he had.

Fifty years on, and this decision is still questioned.

"I think it was 1968, not 69."

ARGH! That's the second time I did that! You're right.

"...the Barbary Coast. Word play, Steve?"

Probably on the part of the author, Cushman. I figured I might as well keep the visual.

" I don't know if you've seen it. "

Ummmm...maybe I'll aboid it. I've managed that for 51 years, so far!

I heard about that Tarzan movie that Gene wanted to make. He abandoned it because of Executive Meddling.

"Turnabout Intruder"

It was Freiberger and Singer's idea to use the mind meld for Spock to believe Lester/Kirk's story.

In the 1st Draft script, both Lester and Coleman died.

Freiberger wrote the lines; "We could have roamed the stars together." "We'd have killed each other."

Singer was guaranteed an episode of his own, after he'd edited other scripts throughout the season, so he chose this one, which was based on a story by gene Roddenberry. Freiberger felt he had no choice but to accept the story and take it to script because it came from his boss, Roddenberry.

As Freiberger and Singer were preparing the script for the 25th episode, 'the Joy Machine', which would have been directed by William Shatner, NBC exercised their contractual right, and cut back the season from 26 episodes to 24. Abruptly, it was discovered that this would be the last episode produced.

Roddenberry came to the set and told Shatner, but not the crew. He still had to perform the scenes of Kirk/Lester arriving on the bridge for the first time. However, word somehow began to spread amongst the cast and crew, and finally at the end of the day Associate producer Gregg Peters told everyone, with just 2 more days left to film.

Sandra Smith was 28 years old (she looks older to me, and if Lester is the same age as she really was, just how young was she at Starfleet Academy? She was previously on 'The Guiding Light' soap opera for 3 years.

Harry Landers was 47, had a long-time role on 'Ben Casey' and had been the spokesman for taster's Choice coffee at the time of this episode for several years.

Roger Holloway, as Mr. Lemli, was in his 35th Trek episode. His name was the same as Shatner's licence plate at the time-- LEMLI, which was a mixture of his daughter's names-- LEslie, Melanie, and LIsabeth Shatner.

Nichelle Nichols wasn't in the episode because of a prior singing engagement at the time. Had there been a 25 or26th episode produced, as most the cast expected, she would have probably been in one or both.

The last episode was filmed on December 31, 1968, January 2, 3, 6, 7, 8, and 9, 1969, and cost $177,986.

There was no filming on January 1st, but Shatner took part in the Rose Bowl Parade, which was probanly wwere he picked up a nasty flu bug (shaking hands, perhaps?). At the time Asian Flu was wide spread in the Los Angeles area.

Shatner argued with Director Wallerstein about leavoing the Briefing Room in the wrong direction, where no door had been established. He tried joking about it, then he got serious, saying the fans would know. Wallerstein looked at him like he was crazy and told him, "What difference does it make?" If only he knew what Nitpickers would spawn Nitcentral! Me personally, I've said it before-- it's not the Briefing Room, as far as I'm concerned,. but a room that's right next door, or at the very least designed like it, just as it served as a lounge for the ambassadors to congregate in 'Journey To Babel'. We all know it's the Briefing Room set, but it's covered for a couple other rooms in the past, like the Rec Room.

On Day 6 of filming, Shatner was now very sick, so much so that he was sweating profusely and needed his makeup retouched after every take. A studio nurse told him that he should go to the hospital, but he refused, so he was only given some kind of medicine to keep him going. I don't know what kind of 'medicine' it is-- Cushman isn't specific.

So it takes 7 takes to get one scene done-- the one where Kirk/Janice carries Janice/Kirk to the couch and drops her/him into it. Take 1 was ruined by a plane flying overhead. Take 2 was ruined when an odd sound was made as Shatner set Sandra Smith onto the couch. Take 3 was no good, because a light flickered. Take 4 was also not good thanks to a comb falling out of Smith's hair. Take 5 was stopped because the camera ran out of film. Take 6 wasn't good because Shatner (getting weaker by the minute, dropped Smith onto the couch a little too roughly. Take 7 worked out, and that's what we see in the episode.

'Turnabout Intruder' was supposed to be televised on Match 28, 1969, but former President Eisenhower died of a heart attack, so they had to cover that event. 'Spectre Of The Gun' was already scheduled to be re-run on April 4, so that was out.

And then Star Trek went off the air on NBC until June 3, in a new time slot-- Tuesday at 7:30, where it's competition was 'The Mod Squad' and 'Lancer'. For the next 14 weeks, there would be 11 repeats, but also 3 pre-emptions, one being the pre-flight stage of the Apollo 11 mission.

NBC continued to do zero promotions for Star Trek, not telling anyone about Trek's new (temporary) day and time.

According to the Nielsen Ratings, on average, season 1 had 12.5 million viewers, season 2 and 11.5 million, and season 3 had 10 million.

However, according to other ratings sources, Star Trek had higher numbers. Which seems strange, since when paramount began to advertise Star Trek for syndication, it claimed that Star Trek had a 39.5 share of the audience for a particular episode, when Nielsen claimed just 27.3 for the exact same time and episode.

We take it for granted that every episode is a re-run, and has been since 1969, but the very first episode to be a re-run was 'What Are Little Girls made of?' on December 22, 1966. The last one on NBC was 'Requiem For Methuselah' on September 2, 1969.

There was much more information for the author, Cushman, to access in seasons one and two since Roddenberry, Coon, Fontana, and Justman did a lot of their communicating via memos. Fred Freiberger and his story editor, Arthur Singer, preferred to hash out story elements on the phone-- so no paper trail.

Other shows renewed for the 1969-70 season, but had garnered lower ratings than Star Trek included 'Land Of The Giants', 'Adam-12', 'Hawaii Five-O', 'The Newlywed Game', '60 Minutes', and 'It Takes A Thief'.

After Trek, D.C. Fontana would writes scripts for 'The Six Million Dollar Man', 'Logan's Run', 'Land Of The Lost', 'Babylon 5', 'Earth: Final Conflict', and 'Buck Rogers In The 25th century'.

Bob Justman would co-produce Roddenberry's 1974 Tv movie, 'Planet Earth'.

Costume Designer William Ware Theiss would also work on 'Planet earth', as well as Gene's other TV movie, 'Genesis II'.

Fred Freiberger went to the U.K. to become story editor for 'Space:1999', but when he was met by series creator Gerry Anderson, he was told that the series had been cancelled. Not wanting a wasted trip, Freiberger asked to see some episodes, and watched about 6, taking notes. he forwarded these to ITV boss, Sir Lew Grade, who was so impressed that he reversed his decision, and brought back 1999 for a second season, but with Freiberger as producer.

Freiberger would also write episodes for 'Starsky And Hutch', 'Ironside', 'The Dukes Of Hazzard', and 'All In The Family'.

Across the 3 seasons, there were 116 story assignments, 78 of which were turned into episodes, leaving 38 unused.

So it takes 7 takes to get one scene done-- the one where Kirk/Janice carries Janice/Kirk to the couch and drops her/him into it.

Even though Shatner was quite ill, his sense of humor was still intact. During one of those takes, he said to Sandra Smith "Baby, you know I love you, but you've got to lose some off that ass".

Episode 26 would have been "The Godhead", written by John Meredyth Lucas. Something about an all-powerful alien who wanted to steal the Enterprise.

I believe Joan Winston also discussed Shatner's flu, and the problematic couch scene in Star Trek Lives

As Freiberger and Singer were preparing the script for the 25th episode, 'the Joy Machine', which would have been directed by William Shatner, NBC exercised their contractual right, and cut back the season from 26 episodes to 24. Abruptly, it was discovered that this would be the last episode produced.

The Joy Machine was published as a TOS novel in the 1990's.

The last one on NBC was "Requiem For Methuselah" on September 2, 1969.

There was supposed to be an additional repeat on September 9, according to some material I received from Lincoln Enterprises at that time. I don't remember what tabled it, nor what episode was to be rerun. My guess, 51 years later, is that NBC moved the start of their 1969-70 season a week early. NBC could not resist sticking it to Star Trek and the series' fans one last time.

But the fans had the last laugh in the end.

There was supposed to be an additional repeat on September 9...
Which was supposed to be "The Mark of Gideon", according to one of the comments on Trekmovie.com. But, as written previously, NBC tabled it.

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Joanna was supposed to be 20. Kirk about 35. Somehow, even in 1969 this was okay?

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Much bigger age gap.

'The Paradise Syndrome'

It was originally called 'The Paleface', and kept the title all the way into post-production until Roddenberry requested a name change.

Perhaps due to a Bob Hope comedy film with that title, that had come out a few years prior.

The second one (from "The Name of the Game") is a doomsday scenario episode titled "L.A. 2017".

Directed by a then unknown named Steven Spielberg. I think he did OK afterward.

Fascinating.

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Tordjmann was also responsible for editing the scene of Miranda/Kollos beaming down and Kirk watching it without protection. As filmed, Kirk left and then they beamed down. Edited incorrectly (and making director Senensky angry), it looks like he stayed for the beam-down.

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Just one more thing (with apologies to Columbo. ) Trek's replacement in the Friday at 10 slot was Bracken's World, a series about the inner workings of a movie studio. (Like tbe general public is interested in that.) The studio head, named (guess what) Bracken, was a disembodied voice (Warren Stevens) in season one. In season two, he was played (in person) by Leslie Nielsen. This was ten years before Nielsen turned to comedy with Airplane, and twelve years before his signature role as Frank Drebin in Police Squad. More on Bracken's World here.

Warren Stevens AKA Rojan.

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Freiberger and Singer added a long seduction scene, with Spock fawning over the Commander, practically sounding like he worshipped her, which made D.C. Fontana complain to Roddenberry that it was ridiculous-- Spock was acting far too human and out of character.

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Thank the dead gods of Krypton for D.C. Fontana.

Friends Stanley Adams and George Slavin had previously written two scripts for Fred Freiberger...

Adams himself was quite concerned with overpopulation; that no doubt was the basis from which "Mark Of Gideon" sprung. He committed suicide in the late summer of 1977, just before a New York Trek convention he was scheduled to be a guest at. Yours truly was looking forward to his appearance, and was extremely sad and disappointed at that turn of events.

Thankfully, we have a ways to go before we get as bad as Gideon.