James Hise - The Unauthorized History of Trek

But the Captain cannot bring himself to terminate an old college buddy from Starfleet Academy. Ultimately, Kirk and Mitchell battle to the death in a harsh landscape altered by Mitchell’s godlike powers. At one point, Mitchell produces a tombstone bearing the name of James R. Kirk, proving that even a nearly omnipotent being can get someone’s middle initial wrong. Finally, Kirk destroys Mitchell, but it is a hollow triumph, as he has killed the friend he once had.

The audience gave Roddenberry a standing ovation; he knew then that he was on the right track.

Finally, on September 8, 1966, Star Trek premiered on NBC. (Actually, the first broadcast was two days earlier, on Canadian television.) The episode aired was not the pilot (that was shown two weeks later) but the sixth episode filmed, “The Man Trap,” perhaps best known for its piteous Salt Vampire nemesis.

This episode was most notable for introducing audiences to a character who was not actually in the pilot, but who would quickly become an indispensable part of the Star Trek myth: Dr. Leonard “Bones” McCoy.

This seemingly cynical but strongly compassionate humanitarian would provide a constant counterpoint to the cold logic of Spock, and their battle of wits would soon become legendary.

Fed up with protocol, distrustful of technology (especially transporters), and wary of dehumanizing influences, in a way McCoy represents the probable reaction of an intelligent twentieth-century man cast forward into the twenty-third century. He has his roots very much in our present. Veteran actor DeForest Kelley was called upon to bring this crucial character to life.

DeForest Kelley was born in Atlanta, but bucked his Baptist minister father’s desire for him to become a doctor and opted for acting instead. Moving to Long Beach, California, he continued the radio work he had begun in Georgia, and also worked as an elevator operator.

In the navy during World War Two, he worked in training films, where he was spotted by a talent scout from Paramount. He worked as a contract player at Paramount Studios for two and a half years. About this time, a fortune-teller told him that he would not achieve success until after he passed the age of forty, which proved to be true!

Then, in 1948, he went to New York City and worked in television and on stage. Returning to Hollywood, he worked extensively in westerns, both on television shows such as Gunsmoke, Rawhide , and Bonanza and in movies such as Gunfight at the O.K. Corral and Warlock. For Gene Roddenberry, Kelley starred in two pilots: 1960’s Free. Free, Free Montgomery , in which he played a famous, controversial defense attorney named Jake Early, and the unsold Police Story (no relation to the later TV series).

With the key elements in place and the show finally in production and on the air, Star Trek was now more than a dream in Gene Roddenberry’s mind. It was a reality. Variety insisted that the series wouldn’t work; time has certainly proven the newspaper wrong.

CHAPTER THREE:

ONWARD TO THE STARS, WITH HOPE

(THE FIRST SEASON)

A week before Star Trek premiered, the Buffalo Evening News previewed new shows:

A 400-man space ship, the U.S.S. Enterprise, cruises the TV universe this fall starting Thursday night in Star Trek , NBC’s expensive full-hour science fiction adventure series about puny man exploring the wide blue yonder. Starring the talented Canadian actor William Shatner as spaceship commander Kirk, assisted by brainy, elf-eared Mr. Spock (Leonard Nimoy), Star Trek goes back and forth in time, jousting with alien spirits, bewildering viruses and ordinary human conflicts on a never-ending trip to other worlds.

In this article, both NBC and Shatner are already defending the show against criticism, days before it even premieres. NBC tries to cast Star Trek as action/adventure rather than science fiction. At a time when Bonanza was a hit and science fiction television was represented by Lost in Space , their concern was well-founded! Shatner insists, “We’re not going to be like the children’s show Lost in Space , where characters battle villains in eerie costumes. … We deal with human conflicts against a science fiction background.” Some of these conflicts will include Kirk’s Jekyll and Hyde battle with his own self, the attack of a bizarre virus that robs humans of will, and Mr. Spock’s battle to be a true Vulcan and control his feelings.

Star Trek promises to deliver new and exotic technology, fun gadgets, and wild special effects:

The Earth men have a few dandy tools and gadgets on display, all calculated to catch the fancy of young viewers. Captain Kirk and crew make excellent use of laser beam guns, jolting enemies with the sizzle of cutting light. They listen and understand various alien languages by way of walkie-talkie interpreters that translate foreign words in a split second.

From these clumsy attempts to describe Star Trek’s technology, it would have been hard to imagine that much of its terminology would actually one day be incorporated into common daily usage. The only clue is that according to Shatner, there is already a company working on a real-life walkie-talkie interpreter! “That’s the point of our show—science fiction projections into the future based on what is possible today.”

The Buffalo Evening News places Star Trek a step above Lost in Space and Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, but calls it a Twilight Zone set in space. Of course, a show this new would be hard to categorize—Roddenberry even once tried to sell the idea as a space western!

The News comes out in praise of Shatner, both for his bold plugs for the new show and for his previous acting credits, including Shakespeare, Broadway, and the short-lived TV series For the People. Fortunately for the actor, the new show would enjoy a longer TV life than his first effort; in fact, it would make him world-famous.

“The Man Trap,” written by Twilight Zone alumnus George Clayton Johnson, kicked off the Star Trek series with a story featuring Dr. McCoy’s apparent reunion with his old flame Nancy, now married to archaeologist Robert Crater. Unfortunately, Nancy is actually dead and is being impersonated by a creature that lives off the body salt of other living creatures.

Things are further compounded by its ability to take on any form. McCoy is faced with the agonizing truth in a story that is quite poignant and moving. The good doctor’s futuristic medical supplies came out of the prop search for this episode, as futuristic salt shakers were sought out but then discarded for fear that they wouldn’t be recognized as such. The props department, always on a budget, converted the salt shakers into medical devices.

The next episode aired, “Charlie X,” featured Robert Walker, Jr., as a space foundling whose hidden psychic powers are ill matched with his adolescent need for attention and approval, in a story about loneliness and alienation. In hindsight, the story has more than passing similarities to the central character in Robert Heinlein’s 1961 novel Stranger in a Strange Land.

“Where No Man Has Gone Before” was the third episode broadcast.

Things really hit their stride with “The Naked Time,” which gave the Star Trek cast a chance to show off their range when an alien microbe opens up the ship’s crew to their innermost personal conflicts. Kirk’s love of the Enterprise wars with his knowledge that the command keeps him from having a normal life. Spock’s dual heritage leads to even more divided behavior, and he is seen to actually weep.