Star Trek: The Original Series
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Template:Infobox televisionStar Trek is a science fiction television series created by Gene Roddenberry in the 1960s and aired between September 8, 1966 to September 2, 1969, with a total of 79 episodes produced. Although cancelled after its short run, the program was placed in syndication and spawned a strong fan following. The success of the program was followed by five additional television series and ten theatrical movies. The Guinness Book of Records lists it as having the largest number of spinoffs. To distinguish this first series from the sequels which followed (all of which comprise the Star Trek universe or franchise), it has acquired the retronym Star Trek: The Original Series (sometimes shortened to ST:TOS or TOS).
Set in a utopian vision of the 23rd century, Star Trek follows the adventures of the starship Enterprise and her crew, led by William Shatner as Captain James T. Kirk and Leonard Nimoy portraying his first officer, Mr. Spock. Shatner's voiceover at the beginning of each episode—with the exceptions of both pilots, "The Cage" and "Where No Man Has Gone Before"—stated the ship's purpose:
- Space, the final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. Its five-year mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before.
When Star Trek debuted on NBC in 1966, it was not successful; ratings were low and advertising revenue was lackluster. For the show's second season, it was moved to Friday nights at 8:30 P.M. and the threat of cancellation loomed. The show's devoted fanbase conducted an unprecedented campaign, petitioning NBC to keep the show on the air, succeeding in gaining a third season. But after the show was moved from 8:30 P.M. to 10 P.M. on Fridays, ratings remained poor. The series was cancelled at the end of its third season.
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Creation
A longtime fan of science fiction, in 1960 Roddenberry put together a proposal for Star Trek, a science fiction television series set on board a large interstellar space ship dedicated to exploring the galaxy. Some influences Roddenberry noted were A. E. van Vogt's tales of the Space Beagle, Eric Frank Russell's Marathon stories, and the 1956 science fiction film Forbidden Planet. Roddenberry also had extensive experience in writing westerns that were particularly popular television fare at the time, and pitched the show to the network as a "Wagon Train to the stars."[1]
In 1964, Roddenberry secured a three-year development deal with leading independent TV production company Desilu (founded by comedy stars Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz). In Roddenberry's original concept, the protagonist was named Captain Robert April of the "S.S. Yorktown". Eventually, this character became Captain Christopher Pike. The first pilot episode, "The Cage", was made in 1964, with actor Jeffrey Hunter in the role of Pike.
Roddenberry envisaged a multi-racial and mixed-gender crew, based on his assumption that racial prejudice and sexism would not exist in the 23rd century at a time when racial segregation was still firmly entrenched in many areas of the United States. He also included recurring characters from alien races, including Spock, who was half human and half Vulcan, united under the banner of the United Federation of Planets.
Other innovative Star Trek features involved solutions to basic production problems. The idea of the faster-than-light warp drive was not new to science fiction, but it allowed narrative device that permitted the Enterprise to quickly traverse space. The matter transporter, where crew members "beamed" from place to place, solved the problem of moving characters quickly from the ship to a planet, a spacecraft landing sequence for each episode being prohibitively expensive.
The Star Trek pilot was first offered to the CBS network, but the channel turned it down for the more mainstream Irwin Allen production, Lost In Space. Star Trek was then offered to NBC, and executives were favorably impressed with the concept and made the highly unusual decision to commission a second pilot: "Where No Man Has Gone Before". Only the character of Spock (played by Leonard Nimoy) remained from the original pilot, and only two cast members (Majel Barrett and Leonard Nimoy) carried on to the series. Much of the first pilot's footage was utilized into a later two-part episode, "The Menagerie".
In the second pilot, the main characters, Captain Kirk (William Shatner), chief engineer Lieutenant Commander Scott (James Doohan) and Lieutenant Sulu (George Takei) were introduced. Chief medical officer and the captain's confidante Dr. Leonard McCoy (DeForest Kelley) (a Dr. Piper was present on the pilot) , Yeoman Janice Rand (Grace Lee Whitney) and communications officer Lieutenant Uhura (Nichelle Nichols) were introduced later. Roddenberry's inclusion of the Asian Sulu and black Uhura was a bold move when most television characters of the time were white.
Members of Roddenberry's production staff included art director Matt Jefferies. Jefferies designed the Enterprise; his contribution was commemorated in the so-called Jefferies tube, which became a standard part of the (fictional) design of Federation starships. Jefferies' starship concepts arrived at a final saucer-and-cylinders design that became a template for all subsequent Star Trek space vehicles. Jefferies also developed the main set for the Enterprise bridge (based on an original design by Pato Guzman) and used his practical experience as a WWII airman and his knowledge of aircraft design to come up with a sleek, functional, ergonomic bridge layout. Costume designer William Ware Theiss created the look of the Enterprise uniforms and the risqué costumes for female guest stars. Artist and sculptor Wah Chang, who had worked for Walt Disney, was hired to design and manufacture props: he created the flip-open communicator, the portable sensing-recording-computing tricorder and the phaser weapons.
The series introduced viewers to many ideas which have become common in science fiction films: warp drive, teleportation, wireless hand-held communicators and scanners, directed energy weapons, desktop computer terminals, laser surgery and computer speech synthesis. Although these concepts had numerous antecedents in sci-fi literature and film, they had never before been integrated in one presentation. Even the ship's automatic doors were a novel feature in 1966.
Characterizations
Star Trek made celebrities of its cast of largely unknown actors. Kelley had appeared in many films and TV shows, but mostly in smaller roles. Shatner and Nimoy also had previous TV and film experience but neither was very well-known (although Shatner had starred as the terrified air traveler in the classic Twilight Zone episode "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet"). After the episodes aired, many performers found themselves type-cast due to their roles.
The three main characters were Kirk, Spock and McCoy, with writers often playing the different personalities off each other: Kirk was passionate and resourceful, Spock was calm and logical, and McCoy was sardonic and spoke his mind. The Spock character was at first rejected by network officials who feared that his vaguely "satanic" appearance (with pointed ears and eyebrows) might prove upsetting to some viewers. The network had even airbrushed out Spock's pointed ears and eyebrows from publicity materials sent to the network affiliates. But Spock went on to become one of the most popular characters on the show as was McCoy's impassioned country-doctor personality.
The series was created during a time of cold war politics, and the plots of its episodes occasionally reflected this. The original series shows encounters with other advanced spacefaring civilizations, including the Klingons and the Romulans, both of which were involved in separate "cold wars" with the Federation.
Episodes
- See related article List of Star Trek: TOS episodes
In terms of its writing, Star Trek is notable as the first science fiction TV series to utilize the services of leading contemporary science fiction writers, such as Harlan Ellison and Theodore Sturgeon, as well as established TV writers. Series script editor Dorothy C. Fontana (originally Roddenberry's secretary) was also a vital part of the success of Star Trek — she edited most of the series and wrote several episodes.
Several notable themes were tackled throughout the entire series. Arguably, the most important was the exploration of major issues of 1960s America, like sexism, racism, nationalism, and global war. Roddenberry utilized the allegory of a space vessel set many years in the future to explore these issues. Star Trek was the first television show to feature an interracial kiss, Roddenberry getting around the censorship of such displays by depicting it as being compelled by an alien of great mental ability.
Episodes such as "The Apple", "Who Mourns for Adonais?", and "The Return of the Archons" display subtle anti-religious themes. "Bread and Circuses" and "The Omega Glory" have themes that are more overtly pro-religion and patriotic. Network interference, up to and including wholesale censorship of scripts and film footage, was a regular occurrence in the 1960s and Star Trek suffered from its fair share of tampering. Many scripts had to be revised after vetting by the NBC censors and, according to one book about the series, the gaping mouth of the "salt vampire" monster in the episode "The Man Trap" was actually an in-joke which referred to the network censor's persistent habit of cutting love scenes which featured open-mouthed kisses.
The Original Series was also noted for its sense of humor such as Spock and McCoy's pointed, yet friendly, bickering. Episodes like "The Trouble with Tribbles", "I, Mudd" and "A Piece of the Action" are written and staged as comedies. This humor is much more subdued in the spin-offs and movies, with the exception of Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home.
Theme song
The show's theme tune was an instrumental piece written by Alexander Courage, immediately recognizable by many, and has been featured in a number of Star Trek spin-off episodes and motion pictures. The "lyrics" for the introduction were written by Gene Roddenberry without Courage's knowledge and without intending for them ever to be sung. Roddenberry would nevertheless get a 50% share of the music's performance royalties.
See related article Star Trek: The Original Series (theme song).
Characters
Regular cast
| Picture | Performer | Rank | Role | Position |
| Image:Kirk001.jpg | William Shatner | Captain | James T. Kirk | Captain and commanding officer of the Starship Enterprise. |
| Image:Spock001.jpg | Leonard Nimoy | Commander | Mr. Spock | Science officer and second-in-command; sole non-human regular crew member and Kirk's best friend. |
| Image:320x240.jpeg | DeForest Kelley | Lt. Commander | Leonard McCoy | Chief Medical Officer and the captain's closest confidant second only to Spock. |
| Image:Jamesdoohan.jpg | James Doohan | Lt. Commander | Montgomery Scott | Chief Engineer and third-in-command (usually called "Scotty" by the captain). |
| Image:Nichellenicholsuhura.jpg | Nichelle Nichols | Lieutenant | Uhura | Communications officer and sole female commissioned officer in the regular cast. |
| Image:HikaruSulu001.jpg | George Takei | Lieutenant | Hikaru Sulu | Helmsman (character was a scientist in the second pilot episode). |
| Image:Janice Rand TOS.jpeg | Grace Lee Whitney | Yeoman | Janice Rand | Captain's yeoman (season 1). |
| Image:Christine chapel.jpg | Majel Barrett | Nurse | Christine Chapel | Head nurse, assistant to Dr. McCoy. |
| Image:Pavelchekov001.jpg | Walter Koenig | Ensign | Pavel Chekov | Navigator (seasons 2-3) as well as sensor duties in Spock's absence. |
Sulu and Uhura were not given first names in this series. Sulu's first name, Hikaru, was revealed in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country.
Majel Barrett also provided the voice of the computer in TOS and Star Trek: The Next Generation. She also played (as a brunette) the part of Captain Pike's First Officer in the pilot episode "The Cage". Barrett married Roddenberry in 1969.
The relatively young, mop-topped Russian navigator Chekov was added in the second season. Studio documentation suggests that the intention was to introduce a character with more appeal to a teenage market, especially the female sector. [2]
Semi-regular
- Transporter Chief Kyle (John Winston).
- Lieutenant Galloway (David L. Ross), the only recurring character to be killed off during the original series.
- Mr. Leslie (Eddie Paskey).
- Kevin Riley (Bruce Hyde), who appeared in "The Naked Time" and "The Conscience of the King".
In addition, the series is notorious for repeatedly including characters (usually security personnel wearing red uniforms) that are killed or injured soon after their introduction. So prevalent was this plot device that it inspired the term "redshirt" to denote a stock character whose sole purpose is to die violently in order to demonstrate the dangerous circumstances facing the main characters.
Characters who survive into the Next Generation era and beyond
The sequel to the original series, Star Trek: The Next Generation, which premiered in 1987, was set approximately 80 years after the events of TOS. As that show and other spin-offs progressed, several TOS-era characters made appearances:
- Spock, now a Vulcan ambassador, is said to have gone underground in the Romulan Empire in hopes of fostering peaceful coexistence with the Federation and reunification with Vulcan society ("Unification, Parts I and II").
- McCoy, now a 137-year-old admiral, inspects the Enterprise-D during her maiden flight in "Encounter at Farpoint".
- Scott, who is promoted to captain, is revealed to have spent about 70 years trapped in a transporter buffer before being rescued by the Enterprise-D crew and resuming his life in "Relics".
- Sarek, Spock's father, continued to be an ambassador for the next century, finally retiring to Vulcan where he passes away during the events of "Unification".
- Kang, Koloth and Kor, the three Klingons featured in "Day of the Dove", "The Trouble with Tribbles" and "Errand of Mercy", continued to serve the Empire well into the 24th century. They appeared in the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode "Blood Oath" in which Kang and Koloth were killed. Kor later died fighting in the Dominion War. A younger version of Kang, from the era of Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, later appeared in the Star Trek: Voyager episode "Flashback".
- James Kirk disappears in 2293 during the maiden voyage of the Enterprise-B while visiting with Chekov and Scotty but 75 years later Kirk is recovered from an alternate plane of existence by Enterprise-D Captain Jean-Luc Picard. Kirk's emergence in the 24th century is short-lived, however, when he is killed in Star Trek: Generations.
Besides the above examples, there have been numerous non-canon novels and comic books published over the years in which TOS-era crew are depicted in the TNG era, either through time-travel or other means.
Trivia
- Fans of the original Star Trek series became known as Trekkies, though some fans prefer the term Trekkers.
- Leonard Nimoy (Spock) and Majel Barrett (Number One/Nurse Christine Chapel) are the only actors to appear in the both the first pilot ("The Cage") and last regular episode ("Turnabout Intruder") of the series.
- Nimoy also appears in every episode of the series. William Shatner is a close second, appearing in 78 episodes, all except the first pilot.
- When "deck plans" for the Enterprise were published, bathrooms were omitted. This was jokingly acknowledged in TNG, when the chart of the Enterprise-D at the back of the Engineering set featured a toilet located in the middle of the saucer section. This was also referenced in Star Trek: First Contact, when Zefram Cochrane (played by James Cromwell) says, "Don't you people from the 24th century ever pee?"
- The Jefferies tubes were access tunnels leading to every part of the ship and were named after Matt Jefferies, the art director on the show.
- The series has been noted for a certain prescience as to future technological developments, including mobile phones (the communicators) and magnetic resonance imaging (used in tricorders).
- The arrowhead insignia wore by Enterprise crew members was originaly unique to the Enterprise. When the crew encountered other Starfleet vessels, they bore different insignia depending on their ship. While no explanation was given within the series as to why the arrowhead insignia was adopted by the time of Star Trek: The Motion Picture, fans assume it was to done by Starfleet to honor the exploits of the Enterprise.
- There are several pipes and tubes in many sets marked with the designation "GNDN". While it is never explained in the show what this designation meant, it was in fact an in-joke from set designers and stood for "Goes Nowhere, Does Nothing".
See also
References
External links
- Star Trek: The Original Series at StarTrek.com
- Roddenberry's original March 1964 pitch outline for Star Trek
- Excruciatingly Detailed Star Trek (TOS) Plot Summaries by Eric Weisstein.
- Supernova (Star Trek) World Directory - A site about the worlds of TOS. It sticks to TOS facts, rarely adding in TNG facts when needed. Highly detailed.
- Template:Memoryalpha article
| Star Trek television series and feature films | ||
| Television Series The Original Series · The Animated Series · Phase II · The Next Generation · Deep Space Nine · Voyager · Enterprise | ||
| Feature Films The Motion Picture · The Wrath of Khan · The Search for Spock · The Voyage Home · The Final Frontier The Undiscovered Country · Generations · First Contact · Insurrection · Nemesis · XI | ||
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