ALL SCI-FI

[Bud Brewster]

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He was also terrific in several TV series and movies like these.
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When World's Collide

X: The Man with the X-Ray Eyes

The Time Travelers

The Outer Limits (three episodes)

Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (one episode)

The Time Tunnel (three episodes)

The Man from U.N.C.L.E.

The Wild Wild West (two episodes)

The Six Million Dollar Man (one episode)

Battlestar Galactica (one episode)

and Attack of the Puppet People!
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

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These Are The Voyages : TOS.

TATV:TOS } There was also a "request" from the network to shake up the cast.

Roddenberry himself had decided not to bring back John Hoyt as the doctor. When the smoke cleared, only Mr. Spock made the cut, despite NBC's reservations.

Roddenberry shared the story often.

"The network told me to get rid of Number One, the woman first lieutenant, and also to get rid of 'the Martian fellow.'...I knew I couldn't keep both, so I gave the stoicism of the female officer to Spock, and married the actress who played Number One. Thank God it wasn't the other way around."

Sidebar: Roddenberry claiming that NBC ordered him to eliminate the Number One role appears not to be true based on other sources. The network was actually fine with the role of a female second-in-command of the Enterprise. This was never a case of NBC being anti-women. It just didn't feel that Majel Barrett had the star quality for that part. Had Gene chosen to recast that part with a female that NBC thought could successfully carry the part, they'd have been fine with it.

Yeah, the alien Vulcan role of Mr. Spock was not popular with the network due to his frightening visage. In retrospect, it's astonishing his role managed to ever survive.

TATV:TOS } Majel was devastated at being let go from the role.

Surprisingly, Desilu agreed to co-finance a second pilot. Despite the massive monetary loss with "The Cage". The old guard was not ready to do battle with Lucy. And Lucy was still determined that her studio needed to own prime-time real estate. Everything was at stake.

Roddenberry was well aware of the risks. Gene said, 'I'm either going to make Desilu or break Desilu.'

TATV:TOS } NBC took steps to be certain that the second pilot would have the write stuff, authorizing money for three scripts this time, of which only one would be produced.
In order, the scripts were: "Where No Man Has Gone," "The Omega Glory," and "Warrior World."

"The Omega Glory" would become a second season episode for Star Trek.

"Warrior World" was about a planet where combat created a sort of a regency existence. The crew of the Enterprise found itself caught up in this highly hierarchal villagerized [sic] world where everybody was excessively polite because a breach in manners would lead to deadly combat. The problem was not to offend and thereby create an interstellar incident. But, of course, they did offend and this lead to a great deal of individual combat.

Sidebar: They absolutely went with the right script for their second shot at producing a pilot for Star Trek.

"Where No Man Has Gone Before" was an intriguing tale.

"The Omega Glory" was a poor episode for Star Trek when they did get around to producing it for their sophomore season. Hard to believe that it would have ever successfully sold Star Trek to the network and been picked up as a weekly brand new television show.

"Warrior World" never was realized as an episode on Star Trek, but it could have been an entertaining one had it been done.

TATV:TOS } In late May of 1965, it was decided that the new captain of the Enterprise would be named Kirk. Jack Lord was approached first. He had been gaining attention in television with high profile guest appearances and had received rave notices for his turn as C.I.A. agent Felix Leiter in the first James Bond movie, 1962's Dr. No.

Next, ABC snatched him up to play a modern day rodeo rider in the 1962~63 series Stoney Burke. The series didn't hit, but the buzz around Hollywood was that Lord's star was on the rise (a 12-year stint as Steve McGarrett on Hawaii Five-O would soon prove this to be true).

Roddenberry wanted Lord to play Captain Kirk. But according to numerous Star Trek insiders, the actor demanded a hefty ownership of the series and co-producer status, something that Roddenberry was not going to let happen.

Dorothy Fontana said Roddenberry quipped, "Jack takes his [last] name too seriously."

Lord was out.

Sidebar: Jack Lord was well known in the business as a problematical actor. He wasn't all that well liked by many in the business who worked with him. I liked him as an actor, he was intense and had a strong screen presence. He owned his role as McGarrett on the terrific Hawaii Five-O, no question about it. But as a person I don't think I would have liked the man.

However, he would have been wrong for the Captain Kirk role on Star Trek.

And if the supporting cast (rightly) felt that William Shatner constantly overshadowed them throughout the TV series and Trek films, Lord would have pushed 'em all off a cliff in order to hog the camera.

[Bud Brewster]

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A fine, fact-packed post — and very enjoyable to read.

Thanks, Mike!
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Pow]

These Are The Voyages.

TATV } Being a sci-fi enthusiast, William Shatner was happy to meet with Gene Roddenberry, who arranged for a screening of "The Cage." Shatner later said, "I remember as I watched it I was impressed by a number of things — the green girl, and Leonard, and Majel Barrett as Number One, and I thought it was extremely innovative and extremely inventive."

By the end of the day, Shatner agreed to play James Kirk.

TATV } The captain was on board. However, the science officer was considering jumping ship. Like the character of Mr. Spock, Leonard Nimoy was experiencing great internal conflict. After the ordeal of making "The Cage" and the embarrassment over the makeup, he again feared that playing such a character on weekly TV could hurt his career. Like Jeffrey Hunter, Nimoy's contract allowed for an escape clause. If a series had been ordered, he would have been stuck. But he wasn't obligated to appear in a second trial run.

Nimoy visited his friend Vic Morrow who was playing the role of Sgt. Chip Saunders on the hit series Combat! which made Morrow famous as a brooding hero.

Morrow considered his friend's problem and then advised Nimoy to take a chance, to do the second pilot and commit to the series. If Star Trek even sold, it was likely to be cancelled in a year or less, and with all the makeup Nimoy would be wearing it was unlikely he would be recognized as the actor who had played that strange alien on a short-lived TV series. All he had to really worry about was if Star Trek was a hit.

Sidebar: Interesting that Nimoy actually considered walking away from the Mr. Spock role on Star Trek. It's not that he could have possibly foreseen just how enormous a phenomenon Trek would become, especially his part on the series. Nobody could have predicted that back then, not even the most savvy TV insiders.

I find it intriguing because of Nimoy thinking of refusing the role for a number of reasons.

Firstly, with all due respect to this fine actor, Nimoy was hardly a household name at this stage in his career. Yes, he had appeared in a number of roles on stage and TV, but very film parts though.

Nimoy sometimes had the lead in a guest starring part on TV, and still just as often as a supporting part. By 1965, he'd been in Hollywood for a little over a decade and wasn't anyone's first pick to play the lead in any TV series even after all this time.

Secondly, Nimoy had struggled long and hard to find a niche for himself in the acting world. He once said that he generally never had more than four or five days work in a part. Now he had the opportunity to work consistently at his craft for months at a time. And it was an intelligently crafted show to boot, not something along the silliness of the Irwin Allen SF TV shows.

Thirdly, I'm guessing that financially he was not very secure; and he had a wife and two children to support. Wouldn't a weekly paycheck look like he'd won the lottery? Even if Trek did manage to run merely one season as some predicted, it could give he and his family somewhat more financial security than they've ever had before.

I perfectly understand his fears regarding accepting the part of the Vulcan Science officer. However, it could also provide for he and his wife and children for a spell.

TATV } With Nimoy's new contract, Spock would now be a more important character in the series — not merely the ship's Science Officer but also First Officer, taking over that position from the departing Number One.

[Bud Brewster]

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Mike, you've provided a fine first-hand look at the situation which Nimoy faced, and we understand his decision better.

Thanks!
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

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R.I.P. beautiful and talented Sally Kellerman AKA Dr. Elizabeth Dehner in this second Star Trek pilot, who was 28 years old during the filming of this episode.

Sally's other SF TV credits were The Outer Limits episodes "The Human Factor" (November 11, 1963), and "The Bellero Shield'' (February 10, 1964)
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The Invaders episode "Labyrinth" (November 21, 1967.)

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NBC press release, issued August 31, 1966:

Gary Lockwood and Sally Kellerman are guest stars in the story of two spacecraft crew members who are transformed into superior beings following a collision in space on the NBC Television network colorcast of Star Trek Thursday, Sept. 22.

Co-starring regulars in this episode, "Where No Man Has Gone Before," are William Shatner as Captain James Kirk and Leonard Nimoy as Mr. Spock.

As the first manned spacecraft to venture beyond the limits of the Earth's galaxy, the U.S.S. Enterprise is severely damaged after passing through the totally strange and unfamiliar elements of an outer galaxy. Not until the craft makes its way to a friendly planet for repairs is it revealed that Lt. Commander Mitchell (Lockwood) and psychiatrist Elizabeth Dehner (Miss Kellerman) are possessed of powers of a master race after their exposure to the new atmosphere.

Sidebar: I'm guessing that sometimes the writers of these press releases haven't actually seen the episode they're writing about? Perhaps someone from the show explains the premise to them. If they do, then they really don't grasp some of the finer points of science fiction as explained to them, or the individual who does the explaining does an inadequate job?

Sidebar: They write that the Enterprise "passes through the totally strange and unfamiliar elements of an outer galaxy."

Sidebar: Technically true but rather vague and it sounds rather unexciting. How about writing it as : While approaching the edge of the galaxy, the Enterprise discovers the recorder buoy from the long missing starship the Valiant. According to the fragmented information on the antiquated buoy, the Valiant encountered an energy barrier at the galaxy's edge which seriously damaged the ship and resulted in the death's of six crewmen. A frantic search by the crew on ESP followed for unknown reasons, after that no more information is available from the recorder.

Sidebar: "Not until the craft makes it way to a friendly planet for repairs....," is another line that could have been better written.
The planet in question is Delta Vega, it has a automated lithium cracking station on it and it can aid the Enterprise in its much needed repairs.

Sidebar: So it is a friendly planet in the sense that this station will be able to offer the Enterprise the ability to fix itself which it so desperately requires. However, if one interprets "friendly" as a planet having congenial humans or aliens, it is incorrect in this case because this world is uninhabited.

Sidebar: The press release refers to Mitchell & Dehner as being "possessed of powers of a master race." Master race was a phrase used to describe the Nazis. One can conclude that in the case of Mitchell & Dehner that won't be a good thing of course. Still, I'd have just written that they both now are manifesting omnipotent powers and leave out that "master race" deal.

Sidebar: The release goes on to say that Mitchell and Dehner become possessed of their powers due to exposure to new the planet's atmosphere.

Sidebar: Nope. Nothing in this second Star Trek pilot indicates this at all. Their powers strictly were due to their exposure to the mysterious energy barrier. Gary was showing incredible abilities on the Enterprise in sickbay before the starship even reached Delta Vega. Sulu even explained how Gary's abilities were growing exponentially each day once they figured out what was happening to him. The atmosphere of Delta Vega had zilch to do with his growing prowess, or Elizabeth's abilities finally manifesting.

Sidebar: Not sure why the press release refers to the planet's new atmosphere?" The cracking station appears to have been there for some time, so the planet itself is hardly new. Did the Federation of Planets terraform Delta Vega and introduce a new atmosphere? No dialogue on the episode says so. In any event, the air on the planet has nothing to do with the characters powers increasing.

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Scotty refers to the Transporter as a Materializer.

Male uniform shirts were pullovers with a zipper located on the left shoulder. Female uniforms had a full zip-up in the back with a cowl on their neck.

Captain Kirk & Mr. Spock wear command gold shirts while the bridge crew wear tan colored shirts.

Mr. Spock's phaser belt is a standard U.S. Army parade belt.

The Enterprise's warp nacelles have spikes on the dome.

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[Maurice]

[Maurice]