WI: First Star Trek Pilot Picked Up?

Emperor Norton I

Emperor Norton I

Star Trek was originally piloted in 1964 with a completely different cast and design. In lieu of Kirk, there was Jeffrey Hunter as Captain Christopher Pike, a female First Officer, a Mr. Spock who wasn't emotionless, blue and tan turtlenecks as the official uniform, and slightly different designs for the ship and interiors.

This pilot was rejected but, impressed by this initial pilot, NBC ordered a second. This one featured a more colorful set, the First Officer replaced by Mr Spock*, who was now without emotions (to make up for the sternness that was removed when they replaced the first officer), and the traditional Star Trek crew for the most part.

Part one can be seen here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sh_jy_LOknk

The question is, what if they had not rejected the initial pilot and picked up the series from there.

*This was because everyone freaked out about a woman with such a powerful position.
 

981101128

From what I've read it was women who were mostly put off by the emotionless female first officer. Finding her pushy and unlikable.

Other than that I don’t think much would change, perhaps Spock and the Vulcans would be less popular?
 

981101128

Mike Stearns said:
Not nessesarily. It just means that Spock would evolve in a different direction.
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I’ve always theorized the reason Spock and Vulcans appealed to nerds/trekkies is that they like to see themselves as Vulcan like, well they sometimes get the obnoxious arrogance thing down:p. Without the seemingly cool level headiness adherence to logic and intellectualism over “silly emotionalism” I just don’t think Vulcans would become as iconic and popular as they are.
 

SRT

Honestly, while the feminist in me would've loved for Star Trek to go ahead with a female first officer, I can understand NBC's other reasons for not going with Christopher Pike. Shatner playing Kirk was a much better character that really focused the show, I thought. Something about how cheesy he is really plays up the whole "Western in Space" aspect. I've always found the relationship between Westerns and Scifi very interesting. Thematically they can be pretty different but when you get down to it a lot of the plot devices are basically the same. I think it might have something to do with scifi's history of coming in pulp magazines, which previously had had mostly western adventure stories...

I dunno. The show was already pretty progressive in a lot of ways (first interracial kiss on TV, positively portraying an actually-somewhat-multicultural crew, general lefty values -- come to think of it Star Trek is, at points, a lot like Champagne Socialism: The TV Show, but I mean that in a good way :eek:) and I guess this would make it a bit more so. It's possible there would be some kind of controversy over the female first officer, but honestly I think there would just be a lot more people who silently wouldn't watch the show because they didn't like the portrayal. I don't really know how controversial the other things that Star Trek did were, obviously I only familiarized myself with TOS due to my mom's videotapes in the attic in the 90's.
 

W.W.A.F.T.

the different characters are interesting to think about, the emotional vulcans and a captain that doesn't seem to be so much of a horndog would certainly change some of the ways that the show is represented. of course the green women are still there.

its entirely possible that the first officer's charachter could develop to be more likeable as the series went on.

and, it seems to me at least that spock and the vulcans could become just as iconic just on the back of their powers and martial techniques as they did OTL.

the most important differences that I could see though were primarily small things like the different communicators, timewarp vector instead of warp factor etc. and the crew is so...white; that makes for some big differences, especially without uhura.
 

WCDouglas

One note, the idea of a woman XO/First Officer (or powerful woman) wasn't the issue NBC had with Number 1, it was the choice of the actor/ Gene's Mistress..... NBC reacted the same way when she reappeared as the completely sterotyped female character (Nurse Chapel) later in the series.

Several of the other key people in the creation have said if Gene had been willing to recast the XO with another female actor, he could have gotten it thru NBC.

Gene over the years rewrote a lot of the early years history to make himself look better and more progressive, and to protect Majel.
 

Catmo

But Majel Barret did a fine job as Number One. I read on TV Tropes that the real reason Roddenberey conceded to so many changes is that NBC wanted the characters to smoke cigarettes. Gene thought it better to make the changes than to introduce cigarettes.

Imagine Pike, Number One, and Spock having a smoke? Would totally kill it.

And the only emotions Spock showed were getting a little het up under stress and a smile when he gripped the leaves of a singing plant. That smile was the same as saying "fascinating".
 

The Oncoming Storm

Something I preferred in The Cage was how more Spartan and utilitarian the Enterprise set was, it had been heavily influenced by Forbidden Planet and you really got the impression that it was a warship. I also really liked the "view cam" at each station on the bridge!

For TOS the set was softer in appearance and the amount of flirting between the crew was good for character development but not really the sort of thing encouraged in a military service! :D I thought in TNG they really pushed that too far with families allowed on an active warship, sometimes it seemed more like a cruise liner with added phaser banks! :rolleyes:
 

Tim Thomason

Star Trek Season 1 cast (1965-1966)
Starring
Jeffrey Hunter as Capt. Christopher Pike
Leigh Hudec as Number One
and Leonard Nimoy as Mr. Spock

Co-Starring
DeForest Kelley as Dr. McCoy
James Doohan as Lt. Scott
Peter Duryea as Mr. Tyler
Laurel Goodwin as Yeoman Colt

Star Trek Season 2 cast (1966-1967)
Starring
Jeffrey Hunter as Capt. Christopher Pike
Leigh Hudec as Number One
and DeForest Kelley as Dr. McCoy

Co-Starring
James Doohan as Lt. Scott
Peter Duryea as Mr. Tyler
Laurel Goodwin as Yeoman Colt
Mark Lenard as Lt. Stonn

Star Trek (1973 TV movie)
Starring
Jeffrey Hunter as Admiral Pike
Leigh Hudec as Number One/Luanna
DeForest Kelley as Dr. McCoy
Mark Lenard as Captain Stonn
James Doohan as Commander Scott
Peter Duryea as Lt. Cmdr. Tyler
and Leonard Nimoy as Ambassador Spock

Star Trek (1980 Motion Picture)
Starring
Jeffrey Hunter as Captain Pike
Leigh Hudec as Captain Luanna
DeForest Kelley as Dr. McCoy
Mark Lenard as Stonn
James Doohan as Commander Scott
Peter Duryea as Commander Tyler
and Laurel Goodwin as Lt. Colt

Star Trek: Phase II (1983 TV Series - one season)
Starring
Leigh Hudec as Captain Luanna
Mark Lenard as Stonn
James Doohan as Commander Scott
Laurel Goodwin as Lt. Colt
Persis Khambatta as Yeoman Isis
and LeVar Burton as Tommy Laredo

...and thus ended Star Trek (plans for the second movie fell through as Hunter pressed for retirement and to get away from "that damned show").
 

The Oncoming Storm

Yes, John Hoyt played Dr Philip Boyce, not sure he was an alcoholic, there was the scene when he gives Pike a scotch saying "A man will tell his bartender things he wouldn't tell his doctor!" but I don't think it went any further than that.
 
Grey Wolf

Grey Wolf

Donor
The Oncoming Storm said:
Yes, John Hoyt played Dr Philip Boyce, not sure he was an alcoholic, there was the scene when he gives Pike a scotch saying "A man will tell his bartender things he wouldn't tell his doctor!" but I don't think it went any further than that.
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Ah right, lol, memory fades as I get older

Best Regards
Grey Wolf
 

Tim Thomason

Grey Wolf said:
Ah right, lol, memory fades as I get older

Best Regards
Grey Wolf
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Yeah, the thing about that though, is Gene Roddenberry had worked with Kelley before, and privately told him he wanted him to be the Doctor, but Desilu wouldn't allow Kelley in either Pilot due to his work on another show, so Gene had him snuck into the first regular episode (The Corbomite Maneuver). He never intended Hoyt (Dr. Boyce) or Fix (Dr. Piper) to be a regular on the show.

Admittedly, all of that is according to Kelley himself, and no one else, so it's possible he was lying. Although I just tossed in Kelley as the Doctor in case he wasn't.
 

ZaphodBeeblebrox

Tim Thomason said:
Yeah, the thing about that though, is Gene Roddenberry had worked with Kelley before, and privately told him he wanted him to be the Doctor, but Desilu wouldn't allow Kelley in either Pilot due to his work on another show, so Gene had him snuck into the first regular episode (The Corbomite Maneuver). He never intended Hoyt (Dr. Boyce) or Fix (Dr. Piper) to be a regular on the show.

Admittedly, all of that is according to Kelley himself, and no one else, so it's possible he was lying. Although I just tossed in Kelley as the Doctor in case he wasn't.
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Unfortunately, for your Timeline, Jeffrey Hunter Suffered a PAIR of Strokes in 1969 ...

Admittedly, The Change in Altitude on an Airplane May have Led to The First One, And he didn't HAVE to Fall Down a Flight of Stairs During The Second One, But in OTL he Died at 42 ...

Good POD, though!
 

Tim Thomason

ZaphodBeeblebrox said:
Unfortunately, for your Timeline, Jeffrey Hunter Suffered a PAIR of Strokes in 1969 ...

Admittedly, The Change in Altitude on an Airplane May have Led to The First One, And he didn't HAVE to Fall Down a Flight of Stairs During The Second One, But in OTL he Died at 42 ...

Good POD, though!
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I knew he had the strokes, but I thought his death was caused by the skull fracture from falling down the stairs. The fact that his work history is drastically changed, means that he wouldn't have been on those same exact stairs in that same exact situation in May of 1969.

I figured if I said he died, coincidentally on the exact same day in both timelines, from causes that aren't exactly natural, then it'd be too much of an ASB situation. So, I used my powers of complete control of space and time to save Jeffrey Hunter's life.
 

ColeMercury

But Majel Barret did a fine job as Number One.
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Agreed.
And the only emotions Spock showed were getting a little het up under stress and a smile when he gripped the leaves of a singing plant. That smile was the same as saying "fascinating".
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Yeah, but it was a smile. Spock had emotions in "The Cage". His main alien attribute was originally going to be "catlike curiosity" (basically the "fascinating" thing, really).
Leigh Hudec as Number One
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Majel Barrett was originally credited as "Majel Barrett" for "The Cage" -- the credit was only changed to "M Leigh Hudec" after the fact to hide the fact that it was the same woman playing Nurse Chapel (which is also why she bleached her hair blonde). If "The Cage" had been accepted, she still would've been credited as Majel Barrett.
Yeah, the thing about that though, is Gene Roddenberry had worked with Kelley before, and privately told him he wanted him to be the Doctor, but Desilu wouldn't allow Kelley in either Pilot due to his work on another show, so Gene had him snuck into the first regular episode (The Corbomite Maneuver). He never intended Hoyt (Dr. Boyce) or Fix (Dr. Piper) to be a regular on the show.
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It was NBC who rejected John Hoyt, and Roddenberry himself who rejected Paul Fix. DeForest Kelley was actually originally approached to play Spock for "The Cage" but turned it down.
 

Tim Thomason

ColeMercury said:
Majel Barrett was originally credited as "Majel Barrett" for "The Cage" -- the credit was only changed to "M Leigh Hudec" after the fact to hide the fact that it was the same woman playing Nurse Chapel (which is also why she bleached her hair blonde). If "The Cage" had been accepted, she still would've been credited as Majel Barrett.
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Okay. That seems plausible. I knew she was credited as "Majel Barrett" for The Cage, but I wasn't sure if that was after-the-fact editing when it was released in the '80s or not. I haven't really read many of the Roddenberry biographies out there, but the false fact I was under the impression of was that Hudec adopted her Barrett stage name post-Cage.

Her real name is Hudec, though. So for her first starring role, it's possible (albeit unlikely), that she'd revert to her real name.

ColeMercury said:
It was NBC who rejected John Hoyt, and Roddenberry himself who rejected Paul Fix. DeForest Kelley was actually originally approached to play Spock for "The Cage" but turned it down.
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According to Kelley on the Tom Snyder show Tomorrow, Roddenberry was dead-set on getting Kelley into the show. And Kelley never turned it down (according to him, ten years later). That was the sole reason why I assume Kelley would be snuck in there no matter what, like he was in OTL. Presumably, although they OK'd the first pilot here, NBC still could've rejected Hoyt, leading to Roddenberry sneaking Kelley in as a guest star-turned-co-star-turned-main star.
 
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