Roddenberry went on to marry Majel Barrett. She also is the voice for the computer in the shows. Not to mention Deanna Troi’s mother in TNG. Even though she was removed as Number One after the first episode, she still had quite the impact on the franchise.
While mostly true, Lucille Ball had no idea what the show was about. When Desilu found itself without a show, they flipped thru all the options they had. When Lucille Ball pitched Star Trek, she thought it was a traveling USO-type show where celebrities would go to visit troops. LOL!!! True story, I'm afraid.
Jeffrey Hunter wasn't fired, he decided not to return to the series. In his contract, he was obligated to return if the show went into production or if the pilot was turned into a TV movie, calling for extra scenes to be filmed. Since NBC ordered a second pilot, Hunter was not under contractual obligation to continue working Star Trek. Desilu tried many times to rehire him at first, but all their offers were refused.
When Startrek TOS became available on Netflix, I started with The Cage. I was mesmerized by the storyline and storytelling. So glad I started on The Cage.
If you have not seen the film "FORBIDDEN PLANET" you are in for a treat. About 70% of The Cage was taken directly from that film - it's really the first pilot in a sense, and actually better than The Cage.
@@DeMan59 its too bad the rights with forbidden planet could not be retroactively be made into star trek universe, but then again the writer may no like that
Majel Barrett went on to play McCoys Nurse Chapel through the entire run of the show and the motion picture as well as the ships computer, she wasn't fired from the show, she also then went on to play Lwaxana Troi in TNG and DS9
She was Roddenberry's mistress. She was shit canned because the studio didn't want to deal with the troubles of the show's creator hiring his mistress becoming public knowledge. In the pilot, she was credited as Majel Hudec, her real last name. When Roddenberry brought her back to play Nurse Chapel, she changed her last name to Barrett.
@@krim7 I have always thought what a person did off screen was their business not mine.. unless it was against the law and then the whole world would know . Just for the heck of it how would you like your every move talked about by those you don't even know?
@@cynthiamerrick2335 All of this is public knowledge, which has been talked about ad nauseum for 60 years both by the fans and by the people involved in what happened.
I cant imagine what life would be like if star trek never happened. it's a huge part of my memories watching the original star trek with my dad when i was a kid.
The original title of the pilot was "The Menagerie". It was only renamed "The Cage" when it went on to be released separately from the the famous two-parter in TOS, which by then had inherited the original name. Also, Majel Barrett wasn't Rodenberry's girlfriend at the time of filming the original - she was his mistress, a potential scandal that was an open secret in the studio at the time. The bigwigs would have been perfectly happy with a female as the second in command, they just wanted someone other than Majel. Kudos for not falling into the trap that refilming a pilot was somehow unusual or unique to Star Trek though.
@@dirdib69 Personally I suspect that the story began with something Gene told to Majel (in order to shift the blame away from himself) and then just stuck around in the retellings he did over the years
I rewatched the pilot a ton of times on Netflix, I never knew they redid it by the next pilot, I just thought it went forward in time with Pike being shown later. They managed to patch up the canon with the managerie episodes and i didnt noticed
In the small town where my parents and I lived in the mid-1960s, color TVs weren’t the norm as yet. My parents had saved and saved to buy one, so when TOS aired in that time........ WOW, so special!! TOS series became my dad’s favorite TV show because it had in our future ‘world peace’. He had joined the USN the day after Pearl Harbor and had served his WWII time in the Pacific (had nightmares due to it too). Spock is my favorite and as that young teen girl back then, my wall had a poster of him.
I think it's interesting how the pilot of TOS is being honoured in a way with the new series coming out next year I think, Star Trek Strange New Worlds, which is going to be an episodic Star Trek show about the crew Pike captained. It has Pike, Spock and Una all there in the show as main characters so in some way it's coming full circle.
I downvoted this video simply because it was wrong about the NBC execs wanting to keep Spock. It was Gene that insisted he be kept. NBC wanted to "delete the martian". Also Jeff Hunter wasn't fired. He just refused to come back for a second pilot and wanted to do movies instead.
@@petemccutchen3266 Then the dislike is worth it. Spock was not the only actor retained from the pilot. Both Bob Johnson and Tom Curtis were in "The Cage" and did voice work or appeared in other Star Trek Episodes.
Too cerebral, too slow, not enough action" The consistent criticism of star trek which should never be given any credit. The slow cerebral tone of the show is what makes it amazing.
I loved The Menagerie precisely because it incorporated the original pilot into the series. Although it was really done because they were short on scripts during the first season, and the 2-parter gave them breathing room to come up with more usable scripts to finish the season.
They weren't short on scripts. They were falling behind on production. Doing The Menagerie allowed them to film for a usual week, but get two episodes out of a week's worth of shooting. If more of "The Cage" had been usable, they might have even saved another day of production, but they cut some 13 minutes out of it, including a scene where the Talosians cut the ship's power (and Spock acts VERY emotionally), leaving questions about the scene where Spock is told all power's coming on and the helm is responding. Cut scenes also showed the very human and humorous interplay of characters but that didn't really add to the story for Spock's trial.
Honestly my favorite scenes in TOS is when Kirk, Spock and bones shit talk with each other, mostly at Spock’s expense. Those times you could really see the dynamic story potential of such well written characters.
Yes, as a character in Star Trek, Spock was the only returning character from the original pilot. However, both Majel Barret (Nurse Chapel) and George Takei (Sulu) returned to the series as other characters.
@@MsCuriosity37 Actually George Takei had a brief cameo as a department head on the bridge during the second pilot (with Kirk) titled, " Where no man has gone before". He was not in the first pilot after all.
Of you’re going to do more videos like this, I’d be very interested in a video about the character change between Prescription: Murder and Columbo. The change in Columbo’s personality is so drastic it would be very interesting to compare.
People keep repeating the "Execs didnt want a woman as second-in-command". Actually, the people involved have stated that Roddenberry was told Majel Barrett (as married Gene's mistress) was an inappropriate choice. Plus, they say, at the time, she was not a very good actress.
Indeed. Many lies were told over the decades about Roddenberry, in order to keep some of the less than savory aspects of his behavior secret. Among many others is the idea that he created Number One specifically because Barrett asked him to, and got rid of the character when the executives said "recast this part".
Did she need to be a good actress? Her character was an ice queen. That cold trait got passed to Spock, which was fortunate. Of course, Spock wasn't emotionless; he just suppressed that side of himself, which occasionally required Nimoy to act (and he was great at it). One of the Talosians flat-out said that Number One wasn't cold underneath, and I do wonder if Majel could have shown us that internal conflict. She *was* emotional as Christine Chapel, but that's easier than being a complex character with a frigid mask.
@@racookster I think, at the time, it was more about Gene having his mistress on the set. They probably said "bad actress" to justify their actions. I agree that it was in poor taste to have Barrett there. Of course, Nichelle Nicholls was also Gene's mistress at the time. LOL!!!
@@salsanchez4177 And actually Nichelle Nichols also got cast because of her close ties to Gene. In fact, the character of Uhura was a last minute addition to the cast after Nichols phoned up Roddenberry: "Hi dear, I heard you're doing a new TV series. I'm out of a job, so you might have one for me." She was offered such a ridiculously good contract (she earned more than either DeForest Kelley, James Doohan or George Takei per episode) that the studio immediately smelled foul play and forced Roddenberry to renegotiate it with her. The stories about Nichelle not earning as much as her white male co-stars is another big lie which fans tend to believe for some reason.
I heard that the reason the "suits" didn't keep Number One was that they didn't like Majel's acting or the fact that she was Gene's mistress at the time. They didn't think she should play a main role. However, they agreed to accept her in the fairly minor recurring role of Nurse Chapel.
Actually she’s in every single episode. She is also in every episode of the next generation, and every episode of Voyager. And she is in all six of the star trek films. She is the voice of the computer.
@@gz9520 That's true, but I guess back then the execs were more concerned about her screen presence. They probably didn't mind who did the computer voice.
@@gz9520 Additionally she played Lwaxana Troi in Star Trek the Next Generation. I met her at a Star Trek convention and she said that Gene came home one day and said to her, "Majel, I have a part for you and you don't even have to act." That part was Lwaxana Troi. She also did voice work in 2 episodes of Star Trek: Enterprise as well as voice work in Deep Space 9.
"NBC fired everyone involved in the original pilot except for one guy - Spock" False - Bob Johnson was the voice of the first Talosian (played by Meg Wyllie) in "The Cage" and played the role of Transporter Chief Pitcairn in "The Menagerie." He did voice work in other Star Trek The Original Series episodes including; Provider 3 in "The Gamesters of Triskelion", Starbase 6 Commander in "The Immunity Syndrome", and ground control in "Assignment Earth". Tom Curtis did voice work in "The Cage", played Jon Daily in "The Menagerie", and the part of Corrigan in "Court Martial".
An actor named Edward Madden appeared in both "The Cage" and a Season 1 episode called "The Enemy Within." It could be argued that he even played the same character: Geologic Technician Fisher.
Meg Wylie played the chief Talosian, the "Keeper", whose voice was dubbed by Malachi Throne. When Throne played Commodore Mendez in the two-part "Menagerie," his voice as the Keeper was pitch-shifted using an analog tape machine called an Eltro Information Rate Changer.
Actually, Spock was not the only carryover. The actress cased Number One, later known as nurse Chapel, Majel Barrett went on to appear in 210 episodes +7 movies.
Spock is Star Trek, Star Trek is Spock now and forever linked. When ever I think, or hear or even say the word Star Trek the first and only person in my mind is Spock.
Now, I’m no one special, but I’ve seen “The Cage” in its entirety in various reconstructions and presentations; however, the command staff viewing the reactions of the NBC Peacock made this video worthwhile.
You debunked some myths, but my understanding is that the letter-writing campaign is also likely a myth. There was such a campaign, but it's far from certain that TOS was ever on the verge of cancellation, and when NBC announced the renewal in context of the campaign, the implication was more of "stop writing to us" rather than "we listened to you."
not a myth because i took part in it the myth was that it was started by the fans, when it was in fact started by rodenberry and his production team and fans thought it was organic was a brilliant pr stunt and yes, the show was on the verge of cancellation and the 3rd season was given a smaller budget
@@thewkovacs316, I didn't say it didn't happen. And there are conflicting reports about its cancellation status, as well as whether the campaign had any effect.
@@sm5574 if rodenberry wasnt worried about the show being canceled, why did he start the campaign? still an amazing thing to happen before the advent of the internet the problem at the time was how ratings were counted. when the show went to syndication, it got big numbers for local stations....so as usual, the suits were wrong
@@thewkovacs316, Roddenberry could have been worried about something that wasn't actually a problem. Or maybe the studio execs had changed their minds before the campaign actually started rolling. No one knows for sure. That's my point.
There is a story that filming an episode a cameraman got sick or had to leave for some reason. Lucy was there in a full evening gown for a later formal engagement. The cameraman could not be replaced soon enough so she got behind the camera and shot the episode.
"Studios often don't have their hands of the pulse of the bodies they're bearing." 100% accurate. There thousands of shows we could say about this. But as far as Sci fi is concerned... I start that list with Firefly.
As someone who only got into Star Trek a few months ago, watching "The Cage" first and then the "actual" first episode confused me so much because where the heck did everyone except Spock go? I only realised afterwards lol
Since you said that Star Trek laid the foundation for all the modern-day sci-fi franchises, I'm just going to mention that Doctor Who was launched years before the original Star Trek, and there are even a few Star Trek episodes and concepts that are dangerously close to Doctor Who ones (the most notable one being the Borg)
Yeah, and Roddenberry and company tried to launch their own spin off trek show Gary Seven, which was a blatant Dr Who clone show, which was the season 2 finale of Trek. Pretty wild stuff, honestly.
There were also a lot of similarities between Star Trek and another sci-fi show that began two years before Star Trek called Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, about a military group of explorers who encountered adventure, disaster and aliens. One could argue THAT show laid the foundation for Star Trek.
@@Nerdstalgic Gary seven makes it sound like Terry Nation (the guy who created the daleks) may of took quite a bit of ideas from star trek and changed things to his liking for Blake's 7.
FYI: If you own the Season 3 of Star Trek TOS the Original Pilot titled ‘The Cage’ is on the 6th Disc both the Original Cut and the Extended Cut of that Episode on the same Disc. And as for that ‘Where No Man Has Gone Before’ maybe the Pilot for the Kirk Version of Star Trek TOS but it is always Listed as the Third Episode after ‘The Man Trap’ and ‘Charlie X’
At 8:00 what episode is this scene where Kirk holds the hand of the swordsman using the rapier? I found it: All of our yestardays. I imagined involved time travel and season 3 where the less watched episodes are.
Star Wars took heavy inspiration from Frank Herbert's classic Sci-Fi novel "Dune" as well as comics of the time. Star Wars would still absolutely exist even without Star Trek, albeit in an alternate form.
Jeffrey Hunter did so well in the role of Capt. Christopher Pike. This is why there is so much interest in the character until now, and the latest TV iteration of ST features him in the lead. Too bad Hunter could not or did not return to the part during his time.
We could have easily still had Star Wars without Star Trek but we certainly would not have had the Star Trek movies without Star Wars (as Paramount decided to scrap the new Star Trek show and make a Star Trek movie after they saw the wild success of Star Wars).
Yeah, it's the other way around. Star Trek became a big hit after Star Wars. The reason Paramount started releasing Star Trek movies was because of the success of Star Wars.
Star wars would had been a much smaller film. Positive reaction by Trekkies at conventions led Fox to invest the full 11 million it would be logical to assume many of those who stood in line 5-25-77 were Trekkies
@@OmegaPoint042 actually no, the Trek movie that came after Star Wars bombed...for the same reason Blade Runner bombed. Star Wars made a big splash and at the time everybody wanted more of the same cotton candy. Not real science fiction. [Lucas acknowledged in interview at the time that SW was not really science fiction]. Don't get me wrong. the original SW trilogy were all great fun movies. I loved it when i was 10 years old. still has a place in my heart.
" But few probably know what led to everyone but Spock being replaced with a new crew" Well, they didn't replace Majel Barret, although they gave her a new role. It's because Roddenberry was "dating" her.
3:50 THIS IS A KNOWN FALSEHOOD. Majel Barrett was not removed from the cast because of sexism. The network was fine with a female first officer. She was removed because the network knew she was Roddenberry's affair partner.
Big Brain Alien: "Its necessary to perpetuate the species." Picard: "You realize the Federation has entire planets of people perpetuating the species."
Fun fact.. Leonard nimoy did the voice of decepticon commander "Galvatron" in the 1986 animated transformers movie and also voiced "seintinal prime" in the live action transformers movie Dark of the moon.
@@LaurenceQuint fuck off loser. Its a public comment section and I can say what I want and I sure as hell DONT need your (or any one else's) "consent" to say anything. 🖕🖕🖕
Of course, Leonard Nimoy wasn't the only actor to make the jump to ST:OS. Majel Barrett also made the jump. But not as Number 1, but as the ship's computer, and later as Nurse Chapel as well as Lwaxana Troi in ST:NG.
I don't know about the others, but Jeffrey Hunter and Majel Barrett were not fired. A technicality in Hunter's contract allowed him to quit, the studio tried more than once to bring him back. Barrett was recast as Dr McCoy's assistant as well as the voice of the computer, and went on to play Counselor Troi's mother.
4:57 - that's an original-pilot style phaser pistol in that frame, rather than the version used for the rest of the series. The second pilot is also the only time you see a phaser rifle in the original series.
Majel Barrett was also on the initial pilot. She changed roles but was not fired. She was giver a smaller role but was not fired. Leonard Nimoy also changed roles.
Don't get me wrong I like the video. But......This is called "The Very Different Version Of Star Trek You Never Saw",but it not talk about the show I never saw. You know the one with Pike,Spock,and Number One. That is the Trek I never saw. I was born in 1966(the same year it was put on TV) 55 years age. So I've been watching all my life. I thought this video was going to be about what Trek would have been like with out Kirk,McCoy, Scotty and the rest of the crew we all know. Plus I saw The Cage(mixed BW and Color cut) back in the 90's and knew about it back in the 80's.
It was such a huge step up from previous corny and low tech designed sci fi movies ( I say that excluding the pilot which was a little like previous stuff ) it was amazing
It took sixteen years to bring back Doctor Who because the bigwigs at the BBC didn't realise what they had. The modern series has been successful all over the world and a ton of merchandising is sold every year. Doctor Who is finally a pop culture icon
I saw somebody calling you a fake intellectual TH-cam essayist and I was like what you mean the dude who makes videos about Spider-Man I don't think he's pretending to be anything other than a nerd and I don't think you're pretending that either. Nice video keep up the good work
The studio told Roddenberry to ditch number one because the test audience didn’t like her. Ironically, the women in the test audience didn’t like her because she dared to be pikes equal while talking to him.
The studio told Roddenberry to ditch Majel because he was having an affair with her and they didn't want to be associated with a scandal. The stories saying otherwise were made up by Roddenberry to protect Majel and to make NBC look bad.
@@jamesalexhowlett If anything, the fact that it happened so long ago will lead directly to misinformation, since there's fewer people to refute claims. The most obvious example being things like pirates, ninjas, and vikings all having a cartoony misrepresentation in modern times thanks to much more recent books and movies.
When The Cage was originally released on video it was in B&W and colour. Pretty sure there were two releases. The missing colour segments were later found and the pilot was restored and released to video. That was back either in the late 80s or early 90s. The Cage does suffer from poor audio in places, I assume these were the previously missing colour segments?
When I was in high school, I found the beta tape my dad recorded when this pilot was aired. It was an event hosted by Patrick Stewart, with a majority of it being The Cage and then some promos for the new series, The Next Generation. I liked it.
Maybe they fired everyone but they brought back the actress (Majel Barrett) shown @0:35 at the far right. Any Star Trek fan will recognize her in everything from the original series (nurse Chapel) to the Next Generation (Lwaxana Troy) and even the video games!
Good beginning and middle, but the concluding post-amble was Ring Around the Rosie. Studios back in the day evaluated line-ups, not shows. It wasn't like TH-cam where you can still push "publish" to share a video with just two family members and a devoted Border Collie with with an assistive-input paw glove. A lot of people wanted those broadcast hours, and there were a lot of bills to pay when the dust settled under the sign-off colour bars.
Star Trek (TOS) was the catalyst that brought about the mainstreaming of the Sci-Fi genre, for without it one would most likely never had the following shows and movies: • Star Wars • Battlestar Galactica • Buck Rogers In The 24th Century (TV series) • Galaxy Quest • Close Encounters Of The Third Kind • E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial
Spock was not the only character to make an appearance in both the original pilot and then TOS. It can be argued that Geologic Technician Fisher (played by Edward Madden) appears in both as well.
They hadn't gotten the full cast together by the time the filmed the first episode "Where No Man Has Gone Before", which was aired third. In fact, some of the actors look like they were left overs from the pilot, which is why that episode looks strange compared to the previous two.
Few things: 1) Star Trek was *not* a ratings sensation. It never spiked above 54th in the Nielsen Ratings of the time. 2) There were two letter writing campaigns. Star Trek was cancelled *twice*. Once after the first season, and again after the second. What actually saved it was that RCA, then parent company of NBC said that they wanted the show to stay on the air because people were buying color TVs just to watch it. 3) The Writer's Strike of 1968, and internal strife (thanks to Gene Roddenberry being "absentee dad" in season 3, and the subsequent hiring of Fred Frieberger as Executive Producer/Showrunner) killed Star Trek. In fact, there was supposed to be one more episode after "Turnabout Intruder", but NBC told them *not* to bother filming it. Most people didn't even watch the final episode first run because it was aired 3 months after the penultimate episode ("All Our Yesterdays"). 4) Star Trek's second go-round had not one, but THREE pilots submitted: "Where No Man Has Gone Before", "The Corbomite Maneuver" and "The Man Trap". NBC bought all of them. Then aired them out of order. On September 8, 1966, the first episode aired was "The Man Trap", not "Where No Man Has Gone Before". This really confused people because they inexplicably switched the entire cast around again. 5) In 1972, NBC apparently got a new computer algorithm to compute demographic data and included new categories in the Nielsens. With this new data, Star Trek actually scored 2-3x better than they thought and realized they had cancelled a potential gold mine. They asked Gene Roddenberry if he still had access to the old sets and wardrobe. Sadly, Gene responded, it was all burned when the show was finally cancelled as per tradition (or sold or lost). Since NBC was run by skinflints, they instead commissioned The Animated Series as an "official continuation" of the series. I love these nostalgic retrospectives. But when you either gloss over or completely misrepresent key details (there's more, but the point is made), especially given that this show is one of the most thoroughly compiled, researched, and preserved pieces of science fiction in television history (one that has an extensively monitored and updated wiki behind it to chronicle this information), it makes mistakes or omissions much more egregious. And I've yet to find one that is 100% correct in any respect. Somewhat alarming. That said, I did enjoy your video, even if it seems I did not from this lol
"You're fired, and you're fired.. you're fired. You with the ears, you're f-" "BILBOWWW! BILBO BAGGI-" "Oh hell, no. We're gonna give you the most wooden role ever!"
Actually, according to Nimoy, the first thing the network told Roddenberry when viewing the pilot was "Get rid of the alien". Roddenberry did stick with Nimoy but over their objections -- which is more likely the reason for the change in Spock's character.
This is one show that I don’t remember as a youngster back in the late 1960”s!I just remember the re-runs of;Star Trek!The re-runs had grown on me as a teenager,too,way back in the late 1970”s.Now,the Hereo’s and Icon”s channel show”s Star ⭐️ Trek on the weekend’s on Saturday evening’s.Of course,there’s still those Star Trek collectable’s that they sell at the used book 📕 store!
I can actually remember Watching the original broadcast of the salt monster episode and I wasn’t quite two years old. It gave me nightmares. I grew up trying to be Spock which is why went into math and computer science.
The first episode of Star Trek to air was not the pilot ("Where No Man Has Gone Before"). It was the episode that was #6 in production ("The Man Trap"). The pilot would air later in the season. Also, Star Trek was never a ratings success in its original run. The first season got good enough ratings to keep the show from being cancelled, but that was about it. It only became truly successful in syndication reruns.
That intro...the foundation :). Asimov's works, Metropolis, Dr Who, Dune series, Flash Gordon have far greater influence on Matrix, Star Wars etc. But I think Star Trek contributed to the result as there are parallels.
Akira as well, Japanese anime arguably played a bigger part in all of these series to build a foundation. Star trek certainly carried this forward. The other piece star trek helped do is build confidence that sci fi and the like has a place in American cinema and tv. Before then, metropolis and some dark sci fi comedies tried to dabble but nothing like a true space faring opera/adventure series. It was and still is unique. I still think if someone were to present star trek today, it would laughed out the door
@@cheetah219 I think it would be ok introduced today, but execs would want something changed. Dr Who had to evolve to be about future robot/aliens instead of history, just as Star Trek evolved to be about War instead of exploration. Star Wars sells best with family as a theme, which is odd given the name. Who knows what executives would want the original series Star Trek to be like introduced today.
Roddenberry went on to marry Majel Barrett. She also is the voice for the computer in the shows. Not to mention Deanna Troi’s mother in TNG. Even though she was removed as Number One after the first episode, she still had quite the impact on the franchise.
She also played Nurse Chapel
Oh, wow, I didn't know that. I love Lwaxana Troi! Barrett did a good job with her.
Nurse Chapel.
Gene loved shrimp.
And Rebecca Romjin is now playing Number One quite well
I love the fact that we owe star trek primarily to Lucille ball
a shrewd and talented woman. had no idea she had anything to do with star trek though, really surprised me.
IT'S JUST SO RIDICULOUS!!!
(read in a Ricky Ricardo voice)
While mostly true, Lucille Ball had no idea what the show was about. When Desilu found itself without a show, they flipped thru all the options they had. When Lucille Ball pitched Star Trek, she thought it was a traveling USO-type show where celebrities would go to visit troops. LOL!!! True story, I'm afraid.
A bit overstated, but I'm glad I learned about her important role.
And Mission Impossible. In fact, the guest stars would be in both shows at the same time.
Jeffrey Hunter wasn't fired, he decided not to return to the series. In his contract, he was obligated to return if the show went into production or if the pilot was turned into a TV movie, calling for extra scenes to be filmed. Since NBC ordered a second pilot, Hunter was not under contractual obligation to continue working Star Trek. Desilu tried many times to rehire him at first, but all their offers were refused.
I've read that Jeffrey Hunter's wife felt that her husband was a MOVIE Star, not a "mere TV actor" and kept everyone at bay.
I guess he missed out.
His wife made him quit
He wanted to concentrate on movies.
@@Otokichi786 ironically of course there’d be many Trek movies. Of course Hunter wouldn’t live to see them anyway.
When Startrek TOS became available on Netflix, I started with The Cage. I was mesmerized by the storyline and storytelling. So glad I started on The Cage.
If you have not seen the film "FORBIDDEN PLANET" you are in for a treat. About 70% of The Cage was taken directly from that film - it's really the first pilot in a sense, and actually better than The Cage.
Gotta start with The Cage.
@@charleskramer6189 Forbidden Planet is one of my favorite Si Fi movies. Watched it for the first time with my dad long ago. Good times.
@@DeMan59 its too bad the rights with forbidden planet could not be retroactively be made into star trek universe, but then again the writer may no like that
Majel Barrett went on to play McCoys Nurse Chapel through the entire run of the show and the motion picture as well as the ships computer, she wasn't fired from the show, she also then went on to play Lwaxana Troi in TNG and DS9
She was Roddenberry's mistress. She was shit canned because the studio didn't want to deal with the troubles of the show's creator hiring his mistress becoming public knowledge. In the pilot, she was credited as Majel Hudec, her real last name. When Roddenberry brought her back to play Nurse Chapel, she changed her last name to Barrett.
@@krim7 I have always thought what a person did off screen was their business not mine.. unless it was against the law and then the whole world would know . Just for the heck of it how would you like your every move talked about by those you don't even know?
@@cynthiamerrick2335 All of this is public knowledge, which has been talked about ad nauseum for 60 years both by the fans and by the people involved in what happened.
Lately I've been hearing the studio did not dump Barret for being a woman, but because she wasn't a strong enough actor.
I cant imagine what life would be like if star trek never happened. it's a huge part of my memories watching the original star trek with my dad when i was a kid.
The original title of the pilot was "The Menagerie". It was only renamed "The Cage" when it went on to be released separately from the the famous two-parter in TOS, which by then had inherited the original name.
Also, Majel Barrett wasn't Rodenberry's girlfriend at the time of filming the original - she was his mistress, a potential scandal that was an open secret in the studio at the time. The bigwigs would have been perfectly happy with a female as the second in command, they just wanted someone other than Majel.
Kudos for not falling into the trap that refilming a pilot was somehow unusual or unique to Star Trek though.
Yup - the outrage over not wanting a woman as the first officer was perhaps popular amongst fans but it just isn't the truth.
@@dirdib69 Personally I suspect that the story began with something Gene told to Majel (in order to shift the blame away from himself) and then just stuck around in the retellings he did over the years
@@MatthewCaunsfield This has been my assumption as well.
"Firefly" Cough! cough! (The Pilot episode was "Too slow/not enough action" for the Teen Ade Mutant Fox TV programmers!?)
Majel Barrett was the voice of the computer, also she was a flamboyant betazoid Lwaxana Troi.
They didn’t fire Majel Barret (Gene Roddenberry’s wife.) They recast her as Nurse Chappell.
Also Sulu( George Takei) He remained from the pilot.
@@davesion01 no. he wasn't in the menagerie
Jeffrey Hunter (Christopher Pike) wasn't fired. He declined to return for the second pilot. He wanted to focus on his movie career instead.
And now the only thing he’s remembered for it being Pike in the pilot. Ironic, isn’t it.
@THE RENAGADE that's fine. Either way it was their decision not to return, not that he was fired from the show.
@@keirfarnum6811 wow, interesting observation
Tragic mistake on his part. He was great in The Searchers but his film career cost him his life.
@@keirfarnum6811 The Searchers with John Wayne, one of the best westerns ever made. Watch it. Hunter is great in it.
I rewatched the pilot a ton of times on Netflix, I never knew they redid it by the next pilot, I just thought it went forward in time with Pike being shown later. They managed to patch up the canon with the managerie episodes and i didnt noticed
Hahaha, the Wilhelm scream in The Lieutenant! Nice touch :)
I recall the network did not like Spock either hence the " Get rid of the guy with the ears " comment. Glad Gene stuck to his guns there :)
Female fans loved those ears!
@@tomryan914The Horta loved those ears.
In the small town where my parents and I lived in the mid-1960s, color TVs weren’t the norm as yet. My parents had saved and saved to buy one, so when TOS aired in that time........ WOW, so special!! TOS series became my dad’s favorite TV show because it had in our future ‘world peace’. He had joined the USN the day after Pearl Harbor and had served his WWII time in the Pacific (had nightmares due to it too). Spock is my favorite and as that young teen girl back then, my wall had a poster of him.
I think it's interesting how the pilot of TOS is being honoured in a way with the new series coming out next year I think, Star Trek Strange New Worlds, which is going to be an episodic Star Trek show about the crew Pike captained. It has Pike, Spock and Una all there in the show as main characters so in some way it's coming full circle.
Wait, it's gonna be episodic, and not the galaxy being in imminent danger ever season?
Pike sounds familiar 🤔
@@AB-dm1wz that’s what I heard anyway
Too bad it still has Kurtzman in charge. He doesn't have the ability to honor classic Star Trek.
Kurtszman Treck is just copyrighted names and brand stamped in twisted aberrations.
I downvoted this video simply because it was wrong about the NBC execs wanting to keep Spock. It was Gene that insisted he be kept. NBC wanted to "delete the martian". Also Jeff Hunter wasn't fired. He just refused to come back for a second pilot and wanted to do movies instead.
Is that worth a dislike? A correction like you've just given would definitely suffice.
@@KorriTimigan I’d say multiple factual inaccuracies are worth a dislike.
@@petemccutchen3266 Then the dislike is worth it. Spock was not the only actor retained from the pilot. Both Bob Johnson and Tom Curtis were in "The Cage" and did voice work or appeared in other Star Trek Episodes.
@@KorriTimigan What else would be worth a dislike? A video that supposedly gives facts when they are actually untrue is definitely worth a dislike.
@@petemccutchen3266 this. The video has a good meaning but is improperly researched.
Too cerebral, too slow, not enough action" The consistent criticism of star trek which should never be given any credit. The slow cerebral tone of the show is what makes it amazing.
True, but tell that to the less than cerebral company execs...without a clue...
Nu Trek (in all its forms, movies and nu shows) is exactly what Paramount wanted (and that's why is garbage).
I loved The Menagerie precisely because it incorporated the original pilot into the series. Although it was really done because they were short on scripts during the first season, and the 2-parter gave them breathing room to come up with more usable scripts to finish the season.
They weren't short on scripts. They were falling behind on production. Doing The Menagerie allowed them to film for a usual week, but get two episodes out of a week's worth of shooting. If more of "The Cage" had been usable, they might have even saved another day of production, but they cut some 13 minutes out of it, including a scene where the Talosians cut the ship's power (and Spock acts VERY emotionally), leaving questions about the scene where Spock is told all power's coming on and the helm is responding. Cut scenes also showed the very human and humorous interplay of characters but that didn't really add to the story for Spock's trial.
@@chizmcquade489 Thanks for the clarification. I knew The Menagerie was meant to buy them time, but I had the particulars wrong.
Hunter wasn't fired he didn't want to do a series he wanted to do movies😊
Honestly my favorite scenes in TOS is when Kirk, Spock and bones shit talk with each other, mostly at Spock’s expense. Those times you could really see the dynamic story potential of such well written characters.
Yes, as a character in Star Trek, Spock was the only returning character from the original pilot. However, both Majel Barret (Nurse Chapel) and George Takei (Sulu) returned to the series as other characters.
What was George Takei before?
@@MsCuriosity37 Actually George Takei had a brief cameo as a department head on the bridge during the second pilot (with Kirk) titled, " Where no man has gone before". He was not in the first pilot after all.
As a young minority Star Trek lead me to believe that nothing could stop me from rising above my circumstances! And so I did.
Hundreds of thousands of people DID already know this.
Right. Anyone who calls himself a Star Trek fan knows about The Cage and The Menagerie.
Wow. I never knew Lucille Ball had such a connection to Star Trek history.
Watch the series The Center Seat on History. It's great so far. The one on the animated ST from the 70s was top notch.
Of you’re going to do more videos like this, I’d be very interested in a video about the character change between Prescription: Murder and Columbo. The change in Columbo’s personality is so drastic it would be very interesting to compare.
People keep repeating the "Execs didnt want a woman as second-in-command". Actually, the people involved have stated that Roddenberry was told Majel Barrett (as married Gene's mistress) was an inappropriate choice. Plus, they say, at the time, she was not a very good actress.
NBC actually supported the idea of a strong female second-in-command. Their problem was the actress portraying her.
Indeed. Many lies were told over the decades about Roddenberry, in order to keep some of the less than savory aspects of his behavior secret. Among many others is the idea that he created Number One specifically because Barrett asked him to, and got rid of the character when the executives said "recast this part".
Did she need to be a good actress? Her character was an ice queen. That cold trait got passed to Spock, which was fortunate. Of course, Spock wasn't emotionless; he just suppressed that side of himself, which occasionally required Nimoy to act (and he was great at it). One of the Talosians flat-out said that Number One wasn't cold underneath, and I do wonder if Majel could have shown us that internal conflict. She *was* emotional as Christine Chapel, but that's easier than being a complex character with a frigid mask.
@@racookster I think, at the time, it was more about Gene having his mistress on the set. They probably said "bad actress" to justify their actions. I agree that it was in poor taste to have Barrett there. Of course, Nichelle Nicholls was also Gene's mistress at the time. LOL!!!
@@salsanchez4177 And actually Nichelle Nichols also got cast because of her close ties to Gene. In fact, the character of Uhura was a last minute addition to the cast after Nichols phoned up Roddenberry: "Hi dear, I heard you're doing a new TV series. I'm out of a job, so you might have one for me."
She was offered such a ridiculously good contract (she earned more than either DeForest Kelley, James Doohan or George Takei per episode) that the studio immediately smelled foul play and forced Roddenberry to renegotiate it with her.
The stories about Nichelle not earning as much as her white male co-stars is another big lie which fans tend to believe for some reason.
I heard that the reason the "suits" didn't keep Number One was that they didn't like Majel's acting or the fact that she was Gene's mistress at the time. They didn't think she should play a main role. However, they agreed to accept her in the fairly minor recurring role of Nurse Chapel.
Actually she’s in every single episode. She is also in every episode of the next generation, and every episode of Voyager. And she is in all six of the star trek films.
She is the voice of the computer.
@@gz9520 That's true, but I guess back then the execs were more concerned about her screen presence. They probably didn't mind who did the computer voice.
@@gz9520 Additionally she played Lwaxana Troi in Star Trek the Next Generation. I met her at a Star Trek convention and she said that Gene came home one day and said to her, "Majel, I have a part for you and you don't even have to act." That part was Lwaxana Troi. She also did voice work in 2 episodes of Star Trek: Enterprise as well as voice work in Deep Space 9.
I heard that women audience members at the time didn't like her commending attitude.
that is what herb solow claimed. but he is the only one who claimed this
"NBC fired everyone involved in the original pilot except for one guy - Spock"
False - Bob Johnson was the voice of the first Talosian (played by Meg Wyllie) in "The Cage" and played the role of Transporter Chief Pitcairn in "The Menagerie." He did voice work in other Star Trek The Original Series episodes including; Provider 3 in "The Gamesters of Triskelion", Starbase 6 Commander in "The Immunity Syndrome", and ground control in "Assignment Earth".
Tom Curtis did voice work in "The Cage", played Jon Daily in "The Menagerie", and the part of Corrigan in "Court Martial".
Bears beats Battlestar Galactica.
An actor named Edward Madden appeared in both "The Cage" and a Season 1 episode called "The Enemy Within." It could be argued that he even played the same character: Geologic Technician Fisher.
Meg Wylie played the chief Talosian, the "Keeper", whose voice was dubbed by Malachi Throne. When Throne played Commodore Mendez in the two-part "Menagerie," his voice as the Keeper was pitch-shifted using an analog tape machine called an Eltro Information Rate Changer.
@@scotpens really? whats info source? it was a good choice. That voice really worked.
Actually, Spock was not the only carryover. The actress cased Number One, later known as nurse Chapel, Majel Barrett went on to appear in 210 episodes +7 movies.
It didn’t hurt that she was Gene Roddenberry’s girlfriend. 😁
@@DoubleMrE Let's be honest. She wasn't a good actress. She was there for other reasons. : -)
Spock is Star Trek, Star Trek is Spock now and forever linked. When ever I think, or hear or even say the word Star Trek the first and only person in my mind is Spock.
Now, I’m no one special, but I’ve seen “The Cage” in its entirety in various reconstructions and presentations; however, the command staff viewing the reactions of the NBC Peacock made this video worthwhile.
You debunked some myths, but my understanding is that the letter-writing campaign is also likely a myth. There was such a campaign, but it's far from certain that TOS was ever on the verge of cancellation, and when NBC announced the renewal in context of the campaign, the implication was more of "stop writing to us" rather than "we listened to you."
not a myth because i took part in it
the myth was that it was started by the fans, when it was in fact started by rodenberry and his production team and fans thought it was organic
was a brilliant pr stunt and yes, the show was on the verge of cancellation and the 3rd season was given a smaller budget
@@thewkovacs316, I didn't say it didn't happen. And there are conflicting reports about its cancellation status, as well as whether the campaign had any effect.
@@sm5574 if rodenberry wasnt worried about the show being canceled, why did he start the campaign?
still an amazing thing to happen before the advent of the internet
the problem at the time was how ratings were counted.
when the show went to syndication, it got big numbers for local stations....so as usual, the suits were wrong
@@thewkovacs316, Roddenberry could have been worried about something that wasn't actually a problem. Or maybe the studio execs had changed their minds before the campaign actually started rolling. No one knows for sure. That's my point.
@@thewkovacs316 I wrote a letter also, so there was at least two!
My favorite part of the pilot was when at some point towards the end the doctor breaks out his little kit and mixes up martinis for he and Pike.
Actually it was the beginning
There is a story that filming an episode a cameraman got sick or had to leave for some reason. Lucy was there in a full evening gown for a later formal engagement. The cameraman could not be replaced soon enough so she got behind the camera and shot the episode.
I love at the end, your final lines, you so carefully say what needs to be said…without saying it.
Keep this content gold my guy love your work. The discord love u also.
"Studios often don't have their hands of the pulse of the bodies they're bearing."
100% accurate.
There thousands of shows we could say about this.
But as far as Sci fi is concerned... I start that list with Firefly.
And I will follow up with Enterprise. 🙄
As someone who only got into Star Trek a few months ago, watching "The Cage" first and then the "actual" first episode confused me so much because where the heck did everyone except Spock go? I only realised afterwards lol
...to ST: Strange New Worlds.
The first episode is awesome! One of the best.
Since you said that Star Trek laid the foundation for all the modern-day sci-fi franchises, I'm just going to mention that Doctor Who was launched years before the original Star Trek, and there are even a few Star Trek episodes and concepts that are dangerously close to Doctor Who ones (the most notable one being the Borg)
Yeah, and Roddenberry and company tried to launch their own spin off trek show Gary Seven, which was a blatant Dr Who clone show, which was the season 2 finale of Trek. Pretty wild stuff, honestly.
There were also a lot of similarities between Star Trek and another sci-fi show that began two years before Star Trek called Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, about a military group of explorers who encountered adventure, disaster and aliens. One could argue THAT show laid the foundation for Star Trek.
@@Nerdstalgic Gary seven makes it sound like Terry Nation (the guy who created the daleks) may of took quite a bit of ideas from star trek and changed things to his liking for Blake's 7.
I would argue that Dune laid a far greater literary foundation yet than Trek did. And that was written in 1965.
@@darkjedi74 You could also say that Isaac Asimov's "Foundation" was the foundation for Dune.
FYI: If you own the Season 3 of Star Trek TOS the Original Pilot titled ‘The Cage’ is on the 6th Disc both the Original Cut and the Extended Cut of that Episode on the same Disc. And as for that ‘Where No Man Has Gone Before’ maybe the Pilot for the Kirk Version of Star Trek TOS but it is always Listed as the Third Episode after ‘The Man Trap’ and ‘Charlie X’
That would be because what is commonly used is the broadcast order, not the production order.
@@manic5378 Yeah I kind of suspected it that
At 8:00 what episode is this scene where Kirk holds the hand of the swordsman using the rapier? I found it: All of our yestardays. I imagined involved time travel and season 3 where the less watched episodes are.
Your last words in this video are so true. Thanks, I needed to hear them today.
Star Wars took heavy inspiration from Frank Herbert's classic Sci-Fi novel "Dune" as well as comics of the time. Star Wars would still absolutely exist even without Star Trek, albeit in an alternate form.
Jeffrey Hunter did so well in the role of Capt. Christopher Pike. This is why there is so much interest in the character until now, and the latest TV iteration of ST features him in the lead. Too bad Hunter could not or did not return to the part during his time.
We could have easily still had Star Wars without Star Trek but we certainly would not have had the Star Trek movies without Star Wars (as Paramount decided to scrap the new Star Trek show and make a Star Trek movie after they saw the wild success of Star Wars).
Yeah, it's the other way around. Star Trek became a big hit after Star Wars. The reason Paramount started releasing Star Trek movies was because of the success of Star Wars.
Star wars would had been a much smaller film. Positive reaction by Trekkies at conventions led Fox to invest the full 11 million
it would be logical to assume many of those who stood in line 5-25-77 were Trekkies
@@Chitchatjf2 42 million
@@OmegaPoint042 actually no, the Trek movie that came after Star Wars bombed...for the same reason Blade Runner bombed. Star Wars made a big splash and at the time everybody wanted more of the same cotton candy. Not real science fiction.
[Lucas acknowledged in interview at the time that SW was not really science fiction].
Don't get me wrong. the original SW trilogy were all great fun movies. I loved it when i was 10 years old. still has a place in my heart.
@krim7 Star Trek, along with its predecessor, Forbidden Planet, was the original. It paved the way for all that came after.
Oh heck you're crossing over into my territory! Great video, wonderful coverage of the story! ^.^
1:04 “It was a long journey”
So you could say it was a long road getting from there to here? 😉
It was a trek.
" But few probably know what led to everyone but Spock being replaced with a new crew"
Well, they didn't replace Majel Barret, although they gave her a new role. It's because Roddenberry was "dating" her.
negative.
@@jv-lk7bc No, completely accurate. That's how Majel was cast in the show. Roddenberry was dating her.
3:50 THIS IS A KNOWN FALSEHOOD. Majel Barrett was not removed from the cast because of sexism. The network was fine with a female first officer. She was removed because the network knew she was Roddenberry's affair partner.
Big Brain Alien: "Its necessary to perpetuate the species."
Picard: "You realize the Federation has entire planets of people perpetuating the species."
and only have to risk the death penalty to bring any more ..
I saw this title and immediately thought "jokes on you, of course I've seen that."
Fun fact.. Leonard nimoy did the voice of decepticon commander "Galvatron" in the 1986 animated transformers movie and also voiced "seintinal prime" in the live action transformers movie Dark of the moon.
Those facts are not fun.
@@LaurenceQuint I wasn't asking you.
@@Kickback-dm7zt You were making a statement. As was I. Your consent was neither sought nor required.
@@LaurenceQuint fuck off loser. Its a public comment section and I can say what I want and I sure as hell DONT need your (or any one else's) "consent" to say anything. 🖕🖕🖕
@@Kickback-dm7zt Wow, it's like you're actively trying to miss the point! Good work!
Your wrap up reminds me of Frank Herbert's now famous experience of Dune being rejected by publisher after publisher before finally getting accepted.
What TOS episode was that where Kirk & Spoke were strapped and fighing those red-suited guys @ 8:10?
Of course, Leonard Nimoy wasn't the only actor to make the jump to ST:OS. Majel Barrett also made the jump. But not as Number 1, but as the ship's computer, and later as Nurse Chapel as well as Lwaxana Troi in ST:NG.
I didnt realize Roddenberry did "The Lieutenant". I just watched it recently.. It's a great little hidden 60s TV gem.
What's the episode of TOS where the crew are motionless in the hallways at one point, as if time stopped?
There were two who were not fired: Leonard Nimoy and Majel Barrett (XO in the pilot episode and Nurse Chappel in TOS).
I'm impressed with this informative video. My brother Robert is a big fan of Star Trek.
Lovely presentation. Thank you for the Trek love :)
I don't know about the others, but Jeffrey Hunter and Majel Barrett were not fired. A technicality in Hunter's contract allowed him to quit, the studio tried more than once to bring him back. Barrett was recast as Dr McCoy's assistant as well as the voice of the computer, and went on to play Counselor Troi's mother.
4:57 - that's an original-pilot style phaser pistol in that frame, rather than the version used for the rest of the series. The second pilot is also the only time you see a phaser rifle in the original series.
Majel Barrett was also on the initial pilot. She changed roles but was not fired. She was giver a smaller role but was not fired. Leonard Nimoy also changed roles.
Majel Barrett, who played Number 1, was recast as Nurse Chapel.
The pilot has been available for awhile
Don't get me wrong I like the video. But......This is called "The Very Different Version Of Star Trek You Never Saw",but it not talk about the show I never saw. You know the one with Pike,Spock,and Number One. That is the Trek I never saw. I was born in 1966(the same year it was put on TV) 55 years age. So I've been watching all my life. I thought this video was going to be about what Trek would have been like with out Kirk,McCoy, Scotty and the rest of the crew we all know. Plus I saw The Cage(mixed BW and Color cut) back in the 90's and knew about it back in the 80's.
I saw episodes of "The Lieutenant" recently. Excellent show. Many of the actors from this show also appeared in Star Trek.
It was such a huge step up from previous corny and low tech designed sci fi movies ( I say that excluding the pilot which was a little like previous stuff ) it was amazing
It took sixteen years to bring back Doctor Who because the bigwigs at the BBC didn't realise what they had. The modern series has been successful all over the world and a ton of merchandising is sold every year. Doctor Who is finally a pop culture icon
and Chibnall has all but destroyed it.
I saw somebody calling you a fake intellectual TH-cam essayist and I was like what you mean the dude who makes videos about Spider-Man I don't think he's pretending to be anything other than a nerd and I don't think you're pretending that either. Nice video keep up the good work
Who called him that?
The studio told Roddenberry to ditch number one because the test audience didn’t like her. Ironically, the women in the test audience didn’t like her because she dared to be pikes equal while talking to him.
The studio told Roddenberry to ditch Majel because he was having an affair with her and they didn't want to be associated with a scandal. The stories saying otherwise were made up by Roddenberry to protect Majel and to make NBC look bad.
@@ZeroSpawn47 my bad, it’s funny how something that happened so long ago still has misinformation
@@jamesalexhowlett If anything, the fact that it happened so long ago will lead directly to misinformation, since there's fewer people to refute claims.
The most obvious example being things like pirates, ninjas, and vikings all having a cartoony misrepresentation in modern times thanks to much more recent books and movies.
Is this channel related to nerdwriter1?
LOL, that Chris Pine footage was from SNL
"Wilhelm scream" at @1:32
You just couldn't help yourselves.
When The Cage was originally released on video it was in B&W and colour. Pretty sure there were two releases. The missing colour segments were later found and the pilot was restored and released to video. That was back either in the late 80s or early 90s. The Cage does suffer from poor audio in places, I assume these were the previously missing colour segments?
This explains why Leonard Nimoy argued that the Star Trek story was about him due to him being in every episode with a long dialogue .
When I was in high school, I found the beta tape my dad recorded when this pilot was aired. It was an event hosted by Patrick Stewart, with a majority of it being The Cage and then some promos for the new series, The Next Generation. I liked it.
Maybe they fired everyone but they brought back the actress (Majel Barrett) shown @0:35 at the far right. Any Star Trek fan will recognize her in everything from the original series (nurse Chapel) to the Next Generation (Lwaxana Troy) and even the video games!
Good beginning and middle, but the concluding post-amble was Ring Around the Rosie.
Studios back in the day evaluated line-ups, not shows. It wasn't like TH-cam where you can still push "publish" to share a video with just two family members and a devoted Border Collie with with an assistive-input paw glove. A lot of people wanted those broadcast hours, and there were a lot of bills to pay when the dust settled under the sign-off colour bars.
2 views? Never been this early, should i come back?
was that alec baldwin on the left at 1:13
Ironically, it went on to become one of the best Star Trek episodes ever.
Great video.
Star Trek (TOS) was the catalyst that brought about the mainstreaming of the Sci-Fi genre, for without it one would most likely never had the following shows and movies:
• Star Wars
• Battlestar Galactica
• Buck Rogers In The 24th Century (TV series)
• Galaxy Quest
• Close Encounters Of The Third Kind
• E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial
what music are you using?
Spock was not the only character to make an appearance in both the original pilot and then TOS. It can be argued that Geologic Technician Fisher (played by Edward Madden) appears in both as well.
They hadn't gotten the full cast together by the time the filmed the first episode "Where No Man Has Gone Before", which was aired third. In fact, some of the actors look like they were left overs from the pilot, which is why that episode looks strange compared to the previous two.
Few things:
1) Star Trek was *not* a ratings sensation. It never spiked above 54th in the Nielsen Ratings of the time.
2) There were two letter writing campaigns. Star Trek was cancelled *twice*. Once after the first season, and again after the second. What actually saved it was that RCA, then parent company of NBC said that they wanted the show to stay on the air because people were buying color TVs just to watch it.
3) The Writer's Strike of 1968, and internal strife (thanks to Gene Roddenberry being "absentee dad" in season 3, and the subsequent hiring of Fred Frieberger as Executive Producer/Showrunner) killed Star Trek. In fact, there was supposed to be one more episode after "Turnabout Intruder", but NBC told them *not* to bother filming it. Most people didn't even watch the final episode first run because it was aired 3 months after the penultimate episode ("All Our Yesterdays").
4) Star Trek's second go-round had not one, but THREE pilots submitted: "Where No Man Has Gone Before", "The Corbomite Maneuver" and "The Man Trap". NBC bought all of them. Then aired them out of order. On September 8, 1966, the first episode aired was "The Man Trap", not "Where No Man Has Gone Before". This really confused people because they inexplicably switched the entire cast around again.
5) In 1972, NBC apparently got a new computer algorithm to compute demographic data and included new categories in the Nielsens. With this new data, Star Trek actually scored 2-3x better than they thought and realized they had cancelled a potential gold mine. They asked Gene Roddenberry if he still had access to the old sets and wardrobe. Sadly, Gene responded, it was all burned when the show was finally cancelled as per tradition (or sold or lost). Since NBC was run by skinflints, they instead commissioned The Animated Series as an "official continuation" of the series.
I love these nostalgic retrospectives. But when you either gloss over or completely misrepresent key details (there's more, but the point is made), especially given that this show is one of the most thoroughly compiled, researched, and preserved pieces of science fiction in television history (one that has an extensively monitored and updated wiki behind it to chronicle this information), it makes mistakes or omissions much more egregious. And I've yet to find one that is 100% correct in any respect. Somewhat alarming.
That said, I did enjoy your video, even if it seems I did not from this lol
"You're fired, and you're fired.. you're fired. You with the ears, you're f-"
"BILBOWWW! BILBO BAGGI-"
"Oh hell, no. We're gonna give you the most wooden role ever!"
Fascinating (Raised eyebrow)
Agreed.
This pilot " the cage" just aired on the over the air channel H an I this week. Its been titled " the Manangry as long as i can remember.
Actually, according to Nimoy, the first thing the network told Roddenberry when viewing the pilot was "Get rid of the alien". Roddenberry did stick with Nimoy but over their objections -- which is more likely the reason for the change in Spock's character.
Title: The Very Different Version Of Star Trek You Never Saw
The Episode: Literally the first episode on Netflix.
3:46 track id please
" You Never Saw"
the fucking thing is available literally everywhere
This is one show that I don’t remember as a youngster back in the late 1960”s!I just remember the re-runs of;Star Trek!The re-runs had grown on me as a teenager,too,way back in the late 1970”s.Now,the Hereo’s and Icon”s channel show”s Star ⭐️ Trek on the weekend’s on Saturday evening’s.Of course,there’s still those Star Trek collectable’s that they sell at the used book 📕 store!
I can actually remember Watching the original broadcast of the salt monster episode and I wasn’t quite two years old. It gave me nightmares. I grew up trying to be Spock which is why went into math and computer science.
oh thank god it's this guy
The first episode of Star Trek to air was not the pilot ("Where No Man Has Gone Before"). It was the episode that was #6 in production ("The Man Trap"). The pilot would air later in the season. Also, Star Trek was never a ratings success in its original run. The first season got good enough ratings to keep the show from being cancelled, but that was about it. It only became truly successful in syndication reruns.
Donald Glover would make a good Miles Morales though
That intro...the foundation :). Asimov's works, Metropolis, Dr Who, Dune series, Flash Gordon have far greater influence on Matrix, Star Wars etc. But I think Star Trek contributed to the result as there are parallels.
Yes. Not just literary works but in cinema as well. The only thing star trek helped with was commercial merchandising.
Akira as well, Japanese anime arguably played a bigger part in all of these series to build a foundation. Star trek certainly carried this forward.
The other piece star trek helped do is build confidence that sci fi and the like has a place in American cinema and tv.
Before then, metropolis and some dark sci fi comedies tried to dabble but nothing like a true space faring opera/adventure series. It was and still is unique. I still think if someone were to present star trek today, it would laughed out the door
@@cheetah219 I think it would be ok introduced today, but execs would want something changed. Dr Who had to evolve to be about future robot/aliens instead of history, just as Star Trek evolved to be about War instead of exploration. Star Wars sells best with family as a theme, which is odd given the name. Who knows what executives would want the original series Star Trek to be like introduced today.