On This Day In History...... 1966... Fascinating!

[ToraToraTora]

The first episode of Star Trek was aired on US TV.
Did you know? Kirk was not in the pilot, the Capt was Christopher Pike, played by Jeffrey Hunter, also famous for playing Jesus in King of Kings (1961).
Star Trek Trivia please.....

[Togo]

She appears to live long and prosper though Douglas.

[Togo]

Yup she doesn't half Klingon.

[Togo]

The only person to play themselves on the entire series was Stephen Hawkins. He played poker with Data. Mick Fleetwood ( of Fleetwood Mac) played an alien fish and had to shave off his moustache. He could have played I am a Walrus and kept it on.

[JimF]

In Gene Roddenberry original screenplay, the ship was the Yorktown, not the Enterprise.

[Tuvok]

I recommend that you read this book

Amazon.com User Recommendation

I picked up a copy years ago at a second hand book sale.

I then bought a reissued copy a few years later.

Its a good book, lots of behind the scenes stuff including back and forth memos about Vulcan names - with replies to the fact that the same name was listed twice with the reply that they were “pronounced differently” - and the pronunciations were also provided!

Also stuff about how props were obtained. You’ll not look at Bone’s equipment the same way once you find out they are salt and pepper shakers https://scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/133672/were-mccoys-medical-instruments-swedish-salt-shakers

[jno]

I had dinner with Shatner once (me and a handful of other people). I don't think this has entered official Star Trek lore, though.

[Dagman]

I remember seeing a Honeywell temperature control unit the same as the ones I serviced in a factory being used on the wall of a shuttlecraft, it was state of the art in the 60s and I worked on them into the 80s. Perhaps TTT that kiss I mentioned was the first white and Afro American?

[ToraToraTora]

togo: "The only person to play themselves on the entire series was Stephen Hawkins" - Is he related to Stephen Hawking?

[Gromit]

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 2 concluded a few weeks ago.
It has been a good series and did a lot of character development with our TOS favourites. Nurse Chapel in particular has been properly fleshed out with a history and some great stories. In TOS she was mainly used as decoration on the Bridge but SNW uses her effectively, and the storytelling has been great.
Season 2 made reference to the Heisenberg compensator, and [SPOILER] … we see the introduction of Montgomery ‘Scotty’ Scott. And for the first time ever, the actor playing Scotty is a real Scotsman.
The season ends on one part of a two part episode like TNGs ‘The Best of Both Worlds’ did. Only problem is, due to the strikes in Hollywood, we might have to wait 2 years to see the conclusion :-(

[Gromit]

I am sure Tora knows this, but others might not. The prototype Space Shuttle was named ‘Enterprise’ after Trekkies inundated NASA with the name suggestion. It never went to space but all the components and test flying for the Space Shuttle were done on ‘Enterprise’.

https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:1344/format:webp/1*dVQzCf6RpfreEvHY6klHdQ.jpeg

[William51]

It was the start of a long franchise. I wonder if it was made as a reaction to our own Dr. Who that started in 1963.

[Gromit]

It was inspired by ‘Wagon Train’ a cowboy series on in the US in the early 1960s. With the start of the Space Race between the US and Russia, Gene Roddenberry, the shows creator pitched it as ‘Wagon Train to the Stars’.

[ynnafymmi]

Never really liked Star Trek.Doctor Who was our main sci-fi interest up here in Scotland.Nothing will ever beat the Cybermen for"hiding behind a cushion"type tv watching.

[ToraToraTora]

I read somewhere that it was basically Horatio Hornblower in space.

[ToraToraTora]

In Leonard Nimoy's book he expresses a lot of gratitude to George Lucas because start wars in 1977 induced a resurrection of Star Trek in films starting with The Motion Picture in 1979.

[rowanwitch]

He returned in a wheelchair in a two parter The menagerie

[ToraToraTora]

Thanks Tuvok, bit expensive that book.

[ToraToraTora]

....just found it on Ebay for £4!

[Gromit]

TTT,
That may have been what Roddenberry developed Star Trek into. They have played with that theme several times most notably in ST: Generations.

https://mightymega.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/star_trek_cruise_1.jpg

Of course Hornblower is a military man, and Kirk, Picard are explorers. TNG and Picard often quoted Captain Ahab of Moby Dick.

[Gromit]

rowanwitch

The Menagerie was actually a re-edit of the pilot episode called the Cage.
The NBC television liked the pilot episode but wanted to make a lot of changes to characters and actors. So Star Trek had changed considerably by the time the series was commissioned. Instead of scrapping the Cage, they used the footage to make the episodes the Menagerie 1 and 2.