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"These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise, her
five year mission to seek out new life and to go where no man has gone
before."
TOS: PRODUCTION NOTES
NBC panned the first Star Trek pilot
episode (The
Cage) as being "too cerebral". The pointy-eared, 'satanic' looking
crewman
had to go, along with the authoritative, second-in-command "Number One"
being a female (played by Roddenberry's soon-to-be wife, Majel
Barret). Fortunately,
Roddenberry was given an unprecedented opportunity to make a second
pilot,
Where No Man Has Gone Before, which won NBC's approval.
Obviously he kept the satanic looking guy, and commented, ""The
network told me to get rid of Number One, the woman first
lieutenant, and also to get rid of 'the Martian fellow'…meaning, of
course, Spock. I knew I couldn't keep both, so I gave the stoicism of
the female officer to Spock, and married the actress who played Number
One."
Desilu Productions
produced the first series, with The Man Trap being its first
televised
episode, airing on September 8, 1966. Off to a rocky start, Star
Trek (known today as The Original Series or TOS)
was nearly
canceled after its first season due to poor ratings. But a
fan-base
had already formed by then, and was able to successfully petition the
continuation of the series.
Star Trek - TOS ran for
three seasons (1966-1969), and
aired a total of 78 episodes -->.
In line with Gene Roddenberry's vision of a near utopian Earth, the
cast
consisted of actors representing a diversity of Earth's races (African,
Anglo-American, Japanese, Russian, and Scottish). Future series
continue
in this tradition.
CAST -- STAR TREK:
THE ORIGINAL SERIES
| ACTOR |
CHARACTER |
ROLE |
| William Shatner |
James T. Kirk |
Captain |
| Leonard Nimoy |
Spock (half Vulcan/half Human) |
Science and First Officer |
| Deforest Kelly |
Lt. Cmdr. Leonard "Bones"
McCoy |
Medical Officer |
| James Doohan |
Lt. Cmdr. Montgomery "Scotty" Scott |
Chief of Engineering |
| Walter Koenig |
Ensign Pavel Chekov (except in the
first season) |
Security Officer |
| Nichelle Nichols |
Lt. Nyota Uhura |
Communications Officer |
| George Takei |
Lt. Hikaru Sulu |
Navigations Officer |
| Majel Barrett |
Christine Chapel |
Nurse |
| Grace Lee Whitney |
Janice Rand |
Yeoman |
TOS: SETTING
Star Trek TOS is set in the 23rd century
aboard
the starship U.S.S. Enterprise. The crew's main mission is to explore
and
chart the galaxy, so most of the plots center on inter-galactic travel
with
visits to new found planets. Much of the ship-side drama unfolds on the
bridge,
sick-bay, engineering, and crew quarters.
TOS: ALIENS
Besides humans and many one-time met races, there
are three
varieties of aliens commonly encountered in TOS:
| Race |
Home Planet |
Characteristics |
| Vulcan |
Vulcan |
Logic-led and emotion-free, known by their pointy ears |
| Klingon |
Qo'noS (pronounced Kronos) |
Warrior culture, noted by their dark complexion, rough
attitude, and military attire |
| Romulan |
Romulus |
Politically suspicious and territorial, with pointy
ears like Vulcans (to which they are distantly related) |
TOS: UNIVERSE
In TOS, we learn that Earth is aligned in
The United
Federation of Planets -->
(aka 'The Federation'), which includes the Vulcans, one of our closest
allies.
Starfleet is basically the military arm of The Federation, and its
headquarters
and academy are located in San Francisco, Earth.
Our Milky Way galaxy is divided
into four
quadrants --> (Alpha, Beta, Gamma, and Delta), with Earth lying
on the Alpha-Beta
boundary. Explored space covers only about 10-degrees to either
side
Earth.
Within the explored space of the
Alpha and Beta quadrants,
there are three basic political axes extant in the 23rd century: The
Federation,
the Klingon Empire, and the Romulan Empire. The three empires
seem
to constitute a balance of powers, none trusting the others very much,
and
conflict between them is commonplace.
TOS: TECHNOLOGY
The U.S.S
Enterprise NCC-1701 -->, a Constitution class starship, is
capable of
faster-than-light
Warp
speed --> travel. A matter/anti-matter reaction chamber
provides the
power for the Warp engines. These basically bend or warp the space just
behind
the ship in order to propel it forward. An inertial dampening
system
keeps the crew from becoming organic splots on the walls when the
g-forces
of warp acceleration kick in. The ship's weaponry includes phasers
and photon torpedoes.
The common hand-held weapon used
by the Federation is the
Phaser, with adjustable settings, from stun to vaporize.
Communicators are palm-sized and chirp upon opening,
enabling planet-side
away teams to talk with the orbiting ship, and with each other. The
Tri-corder is a medical device that permits diagnosing a
person's
physical condition by simply scanning over their body. One of the most
renowned
elements of Star Trek technology is the Transporter, which
Roddenberry
said he invented because of production costs: it was a lot cheaper to
'beam'
people from the ship to a planet than it was to land them via
spacecraft...
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