The article was published in the June 1999 issue. My copy was long lost, but I finally found a used copy online. It arrived today; I've scanned the pages and converted the article to a PDF.
Nichelle Nichols made her television acting debut in the 21st episode of Gene Roddenberry's TV series, “The Lieutenant.” Video source: getTV YouTube channel.
American commercial television came of age in the 1950s. Much of the programming was filled by cop shows, Westerns, sitcoms, and variety shows.
It has been said that the purpose of network television is to “sell soap.” The term “soap opera” derives from the sponsorship of daytime dramas by consumer goods companies such as Proctor & Gamble, which sold beauty and grooming products. Nighttime shows were often sponsored by cigarette companies; it was not uncommon for episodes to promote their sponsor by depicting characters smoking the sponsor's brand.
Gene Roddenberry and many others who wrote for Star Trek learned their craft churning out scripts for these shows. Science fiction shows were rare, and typically dismissed as children's fare. While employed as an officer by the Los Angeles Police Department, Roddenberry moonlighted as a free-lance screenwriter, pitching scripts to various production companies. He found a home with Ziv Television, which produced low-budget syndicated fare such as Space Patrol, but he didn't write for that early sci-fi TV epic. Writing under the pseudonym “Robert Wesley,” Roddenberry sold scripts to Ziv for Mr. District Attorney, where he'd begun in late 1953 as an LAPD technical advisor. Roddenberry pitched a script to another Ziv program called Science Fiction Theatre, a Twilight Zone predecessor, called “The Transporter,” although the device was more like the holodeck of The Next Generation and its sequelae.
Roddenberry resigned from the LAPD in June 1956 to pursue his screenwriting career full-time. He and many of Star Trek's seminal influences either served in or lived through World War II. One of the first commandments a writer is taught is to “write what you know.” Gene flew a B-17 in the South Pacific during the war, so Ziv assigned him to The West Point Story, a CBS series set at the US Army academy. Roddenberry eventually became the series' head writer. Gene wrote other Ziv shows, such as Highway Patrol, Threshold (a pilot for a series about the US Air Force Academy), and the Western Bat Masterson.
By the end of the 1950s, Roddenberry had outgrown Ziv, pitching and selling scripts to other studios. Entering the 1960s, he tried his hand at producing his own TV shows. He sold a series titled The Lieutenant to a production copmany affiliated with MGM. The series aired on NBC for one season, starting in September 1963. The Lieutenant told tales about a US Marine Corps lieutenant named William Tiberius Rice, whose platoon was based at Camp Pendleton in San Diego County, California. (Gomer Pyle also filmed at Camp Pendleton, but that series was set at the fictional Camp Henderson.)
If Star Trek has a progenitor, it's The Lieutenant. Here was where Roddenberry learned to run his own show. Several directors, writers, and actors from the series found their way to Star Trek.
A memorable episode is “To Set It Right,” the 21st episode to air. The episode was directed by Vincent McEveety, who would go on to direct six Star Trek episodes, including the first season episodes “Miri,” “Dagger of the Mind,” and “Balance of Terror.” The script was written by Lee Erwin, who later wrote the Trek episode “Whom Gods Destroy.”
Three cast members wound up on Trek. Gary Lockwood, who played the eponymous lieutenant, was later cast as Gary Mitchell in the second Star Trek pilot, “Where No Man Has Gone Before.” Don Marshall appeared in the Trek episode “The Galileo Seven” as Lt. JG Boma. (Spoiler — he didn't wear a red shirt, so he survived.)
But the most memorable casting was the debut performance of a supporting actor named Nichelle Nichols. The episode was her first television acting role.
If Star Trek became “a crucible for examining the human condition,” The Lieutenant was the test formula. Many episodes focused on the lead character attempting to resolve an ethical dilemma.
“To Set It Right” examined bigotry. A black private is assigned to the platoon, only to find a white NCO who racially bullied him in high school. Both of them have hardened racist attitudes. The lieutenant tries to resolve the conflict, emblematic of racial conflict in the US at the time, but fails. (Nichols played the private's fiancée.) A Star Trek fan will be reminded of “Let That Be Your Last Battlefield,” in which two survivors of the planet Cheron war with each other simply because their faces are black on one side, white on the other — the difference being which side is which color.
The next episode, “In the Highest Tradition,” featured Leonard Nimoy and Majel Barrett as supporting guest actors. They played Hollywood executives hot to make a film about a now-retired Marine lieutenant who commanded the platoon during a World War II South Pacific battle. The only problem is, the lieutenant wasn't there. Marc Daniels directed; he went on direct fifteen Star Trek episodes, including early episodes such as “The Man Trap,” “The Naked Time,” and “Space Seed.” Nimoy, Barrett, and guest star Andrew Duggan all smoked in the episode, perhaps to help attract a cigarette company as a sponsor.
Leonard Nimoy and Majel Barrett were guest stars in the 22nd episode of “The Lieutenant.” Both would go on to appear in the first Star Trek pilot, “The Cage.” Gary Lockwood went on to guest star in the second pilot, “Where No Man Has Gone Before.” Video source: Warner Bros. Classics YouTube channel.
By early 1964, it was clear that The Lieutenant would not be renewed by NBC. Roddenberry began working on new ideas to pitch, including a series set in the future about a space ship exploring the galaxy. The name? Star Trek.
Science fiction, or at least speculative fiction, was becoming more acceptable as adult fare on network television. Ziv had produced a 30-minute program for CBS called Men in Space about the future US Air Force exploring the solar system and building a base on the moon. The series lasted one season, from September 1959 to September 1960. The Twilight Zone, an anthology series with no regular cast, had been airing on CBS since October 1959. The Outer Limits, with a similar format, had premiered on ABC two days after The Lieutenant debuted on NBC. Irwin Allen was working with Fox on a TV series concept for CBS based on a Gold Key comic series called Space Family Robinson, but later would be renamed . . . Lost in Space.
Space, the final frontier, was all over television, only it was reality, not fantasy. Both the United States and the Soviet Union had begun human spaceflight programs. NASA's Project Apollo hoped to land a man on the moon by the end of the 1960s. The Soviets' program was geared more towards propaganda firsts, but by the mid-1960s Russia had decided they could not let the Americans go to the moon unchallenged, so the Soviets started their own crewed lunar program.
To help explain his concept, Roddenberry developed a sixteen-page outline titled, “Star Trek Is . . .” A PDF copy is on the Collecting Trek website. The document is dated March 11, 1964, about a month before The Lieutenant ended production on April 13.
The document was prepared by Dorothy Fontana, a writer working under the alias D.C. Fontana because she believed producers wouldn't want to hear a pitch from a woman. She wound up working as a secretary for Roddenberry on The Lieutenant. Fontana would go on to write many Star Trek episodes, and would succeed John D.F. Black as story editor during the first season.
Implicit in the outline was a contrast with Twilight Zone and Outer Limits. Roddenberry promised, “ The first such concept with strong central lead characters plus other continuing regulars . . . while maintaining a familiar central location and regular cast, explores an anthology-like range of exciting human experiences.” Roddenberry described Star Trek as “a 'Wagon Train' concept — built around characters who travel to worlds 'similar' to our own, and meet the action-adventure-drama which becomes our stories.”
Much is familiar, but some of the names and concepts are different or remain unevolved. The ship is named S.S. Yorktown, not U.S.S. Enterprise. The captain is named Robert M. April. The “first lieutenant,” Mr. Spock, is described as “the captain's right-hand man” but his alien origin is somewhat vague. In this outline, Spock is “probably half Martian” with “a slightly reddish complexion and semi-pointed ears.” His face is described as “heavy-lidded and satanic.”
Familiarity is assured. Roddenberry wrote of a “parallel worlds” concept that would make “production practical by permitting action-adventure science fiction at a practical budget figure via the use of available 'earth' casting, sets, locations, costuming, and so on.”
There's no mention of an idyllic Earth, a principled Federation or a noble Starfleet. The described story concepts suggest that conflict, and therefore drama, will come from weekly external antagonists, typically on those visited “parallel worlds.” The primary characters are imperfect and flawed, but neither is mention made of internal conflict among the crew.
In April 1964, Roddenberry pitched Star Trek to Herb Solow, an executive at Desilu. He left a copy of the outline with Solow, who wasn't thrilled with the Wagon Train analogy, but agreed to help Roddenberry shop the premise to the networks. A pitch to CBS failed, but NBC agreed to pay for a pilot script order.
An early NBC network commercial promoting the premiere of Star Trek in September 1966. The show was promoted as “the first adult space adventure.” Video source: Morlockmeat YouTube channel.
Space . . . the final frontier.
Star Trek is arguably the most successful entertainment ever birthed by television. The first episode to air, “The Man Trap,” was televised on September 8, 1966. Fifty-eight years later, the franchise is as strong as ever. Its format is so malleable that it has been a network television show, an animated show, movies, a syndicated show, more syndicated shows, launched a network, more movies, and now airs multiple spinoffs on a streaming service.
The Star Trek universe has spun off novels, comics, video games, conventions, and even erotica — the Online Archive of California maintains a collection of K/S fan fiction.
(I can imagine Spock cocking an eyebrow and muttering, “Fascinating.”)
Star Trek has been described as a crucible for examining the human condition. That crucible is the starship bridge, from which its stories inevitably begin.
Being of a certain vintage, I've watched the original series (often called TOS) many times over the decades. I have TOS on DVD, but it's also available for streaming on Paramount Plus with a subscription. The DVD collection has the original effects as well as documentaries, while the streaming service has the “remastered” version with updated effects.
On my bookshelves are many references about the history of Star Trek — not just the cast biographies, but also books written by and about Roddenberry and his producers. The history of Star Trek for me is as “fascinating” as its storytelling.
I'm a writer. Writers share many common traits. One trait is studying and dissecting what other writers write.
This blog is to study and dissect the written Star Trek. We'll go episode by episode, starting with TOS. We'll discuss how the writing evolves, decisions that were made, characters who were added, characters who were dropped, core story structure, and more.
The order in which episodes aired is not the same order in which they were produced. “The Man Trap,” for example, was the sixth episode produced. It was preceded by two pilot episodes — one which failed to sell the show to a network, and the second which did. Both pilots found their way into the first season's broadcast schedule. After the two pilots, the first produced episode was “The Corbomite Maneuver,” which was the tenth episode to air.
We'll revisit the episodes in the production order, because we want to study the evolution of the written Star Trek.
Star Trek was one of the first television shows to create a writer's guide. You can find an April 1967 version on the Boston University website. This version was written after the first season, reportedly updated by staff writer and story editor D.C. Fontana. No earlier version is publicly available; this version reflects lessons learned after the growing pains of the first season. If this blog has a homework assignment for you, it's to download and read the writer's guide.
Popular culture credits much of Star Trek storytelling to Gene Roddenberry but, as this blog progresses, we'll encounter many other influences, some of whom made contributions more significant than Roddenberry. That phrase, “Space, the final frontier . . .”? The “standard opening narration” was hastily composed by Roddenberry and two associate producers, Robert Justman and John D.F. Black. Memos reprinted in Inside Star Trek: The Real Story by Justman and Desilu Studio executive Herb Solow document that Black apparently was the first to add, “Space, the final frontier” to the opening. The narration was written by the three over a few days in early August 1966, about a month before the show premiered. The two pilots did not have the narration; according to Solow and Justman, the NBC network requested that a narration be added to the opening credits.
This was Gene's first draft:
This is the story of the United Space Ship Enterprise. Assigned a five year patrol of our galaxy, the giant starship visits Earth colonies, regulates commerce, and explores strange new worlds and civilizations. These are its voyages ... and its adventures.
It got better.
In any case, this first draft tells us that the “USS” in the starship's name stands for United Space Ship. The “five-year mission” was planned from the beginning, perhaps hoping to air five seasons, which would have produced about 125 episodes for syndication, which would have been the only way its production would have shown a profit for Desilu. The phrase “regulates commerce” intrigues, because to this day it's unclear how commerce works in the Federation. Roddenberry, apparently, foresaw the Enterprise as some sort of trade enforcer, which explains the early first season Harry Mudd episode.
The final version is perhaps the most famous opening narrative in television history.
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.
