1 00:00:01,420 --> 00:00:03,630 [Gates McFadden] For more than half a century and counting 2 00:00:03,714 --> 00:00:08,677 Star Trek has beamed its way into our living rooms and into our hearts 3 00:00:08,761 --> 00:00:09,678 Warp one, Mr. Sulu. 4 00:00:09,762 --> 00:00:12,973 [McFadden] With a staggering quantity of high-quality science fiction, 5 00:00:13,056 --> 00:00:16,727 a fact that's proven with nine TV series, 6 00:00:16,810 --> 00:00:20,606 13 movies, countless books, comics, and toys, 7 00:00:20,689 --> 00:00:25,611 it's safe to say as a human collective, we love Star Trek. 8 00:00:25,694 --> 00:00:26,862 [laughs] 9 00:00:26,945 --> 00:00:30,240 [McFadden] And in this series we'll cover all 55 years' worth. 10 00:00:30,324 --> 00:00:33,994 We'll hear the stories of the pioneers who blazed a trail 11 00:00:34,077 --> 00:00:35,954 and upended television as we know it. 12 00:00:37,790 --> 00:00:40,083 So beam aboard and hold on tight 13 00:00:40,167 --> 00:00:44,379 as we boldly go into the depths of Star Trek. 14 00:00:46,757 --> 00:00:51,303 And you can see it all from here in the center seat. 15 00:00:55,557 --> 00:00:59,937 Since the USS Enterprise blasted to space in the '60s, 16 00:01:00,020 --> 00:01:04,233 it's been on a five-year mission, exploring strange new worlds, 17 00:01:04,316 --> 00:01:07,152 seeking out new life and new civilizations, 18 00:01:07,236 --> 00:01:08,070 and of course... 19 00:01:08,153 --> 00:01:10,739 [Captain James T. Kirk] To boldly go where no man has gone before 20 00:01:10,823 --> 00:01:14,701 [McFadden] And that five-year mission has turned into a 55-year one, 21 00:01:14,785 --> 00:01:16,829 which is, of course, why we're here. 22 00:01:16,912 --> 00:01:21,500 But before we loved Star Trek, we loved Lucy. 23 00:01:21,583 --> 00:01:25,128 And we really can't tell the story of Star Trek without her. 24 00:01:25,212 --> 00:01:29,132 Lucy absolutely is the reason Star Trek exists. 25 00:01:29,216 --> 00:01:32,886 She was the one who put her studio on the line for Star Trek. 26 00:01:32,970 --> 00:01:35,639 [McFadden] But Lucille Ball didn't invent Star Trek 27 00:01:35,722 --> 00:01:37,850 That honor goes to this guy. 28 00:01:37,933 --> 00:01:41,520 No, not him. This guy, Gene Roddenberry. 29 00:01:41,603 --> 00:01:44,815 But long before the stars aligned for Roddenberry and Star Trek, 30 00:01:44,898 --> 00:01:49,486 Lucy was busy becoming a star in the Golden Age of Hollywood. 31 00:01:49,570 --> 00:01:52,281 Lucy went out to Hollywood to be a Goldwyn girl. 32 00:01:52,364 --> 00:01:53,866 Aw, cut it out, fellas. 33 00:01:53,949 --> 00:01:58,203 [McFadden] However, Lucy was destined to be more than just another leggy blonde 34 00:01:58,287 --> 00:02:02,082 After a stint at MGM, someone had a bright idea. 35 00:02:02,165 --> 00:02:05,961 They dyed her hair red, and that became her trademark. 36 00:02:06,044 --> 00:02:09,673 [McFadden] And somehow a carrot top made her perfect for television comedy, 37 00:02:09,756 --> 00:02:11,174 even in black and white. 38 00:02:11,258 --> 00:02:14,177 In the '50s, television was still inventing itself. 39 00:02:14,261 --> 00:02:18,432 [McFadden] In fact, Lucille's radio show at the time, My Favorite Husband, 40 00:02:18,515 --> 00:02:22,019 was pegged as a possible TV show starring Lucille. 41 00:02:22,102 --> 00:02:24,438 [Tom Gilbert] Lucille, she said to CBS, 42 00:02:24,521 --> 00:02:28,942 "I'll only do this TV show if you cast Desi as my husband." 43 00:02:29,026 --> 00:02:29,943 Honey, I'm home. 44 00:02:30,027 --> 00:02:33,697 [McFadden] Lucille Ball's real husband was Cuban bandleader Desi Arnaz, 45 00:02:33,780 --> 00:02:36,575 and people were lining up to work with him. 46 00:02:36,658 --> 00:02:39,161 Desi introduced the conga line. 47 00:02:39,244 --> 00:02:40,537 And so that became a craze. 48 00:02:40,621 --> 00:02:43,832 [McFadden] And Desi Arnaz became Lucille's on-screen husband... 49 00:02:43,916 --> 00:02:45,334 eventually. 50 00:02:45,417 --> 00:02:49,004 They kind of didn't like the idea of a Cuban being married 51 00:02:49,087 --> 00:02:51,924 to, you know, a red-blooded American gal. 52 00:02:52,007 --> 00:02:53,717 [McFadden] And redheaded, of course. 53 00:02:53,800 --> 00:02:55,052 Not that you could tell. 54 00:02:55,135 --> 00:02:56,762 Now, look, I'm serious. 55 00:02:56,845 --> 00:02:58,347 [McFadden] And so was CBS, 56 00:02:58,430 --> 00:03:03,435 because that pilot for a show called I Love Lucy was a legitimate hit 57 00:03:03,977 --> 00:03:08,690 I Love Lucy became number one, six months after it debuted in 1951. 58 00:03:08,774 --> 00:03:10,484 When I'm out on the street, people point me out. 59 00:03:10,567 --> 00:03:11,443 They say, "There he goes." 60 00:03:11,526 --> 00:03:12,527 [Gilbert] And it was huge. 61 00:03:12,611 --> 00:03:15,197 It was like 67 million people are watching this. 62 00:03:15,280 --> 00:03:18,116 You know, at the time, not everyone owned a television set. 63 00:03:18,200 --> 00:03:20,327 I mean, people were watching in appliance stores. 64 00:03:20,410 --> 00:03:22,913 She was a big star, and she ran the show. 65 00:03:22,996 --> 00:03:24,373 It's so tasty too. 66 00:03:24,456 --> 00:03:27,459 [McFadden] The taste of success was sweet. 67 00:03:27,542 --> 00:03:31,588 Lucille and Desi and their aptly named studio, Desilu, 68 00:03:31,672 --> 00:03:34,091 were now producing the biggest show in America. 69 00:03:34,174 --> 00:03:36,301 But what Desi planned to do next 70 00:03:36,385 --> 00:03:39,429 would be one of his greatest contributions to television, 71 00:03:39,513 --> 00:03:41,390 even more so than the conga line. 72 00:03:41,473 --> 00:03:43,183 Desi Arnaz wanted... 73 00:03:43,266 --> 00:03:44,601 Rerun rights. 74 00:03:44,685 --> 00:03:46,269 [McFadden] To which CBS said... 75 00:03:46,353 --> 00:03:47,229 "What's a rerun?" 76 00:03:47,312 --> 00:03:49,940 No one thought of reruns. There was no such thing. 77 00:03:50,023 --> 00:03:52,442 Something aired and it was disposable. You never saw it again. 78 00:03:52,526 --> 00:03:54,611 [McFadden] Unless, of course, it's I Love Lucy. 79 00:03:54,695 --> 00:03:58,740 And suddenly, reruns were a very valuable commodity. 80 00:03:58,824 --> 00:04:01,284 CBS doesn't want to stop airing it during the summer. 81 00:04:01,368 --> 00:04:03,578 They say, "Can we have those reruns back?" 82 00:04:03,662 --> 00:04:05,080 -Lucy! -Yeah? 83 00:04:05,163 --> 00:04:06,748 -Lucy, guess what! Look! Look! -What? 84 00:04:06,832 --> 00:04:08,709 [Marc Cushman] And they had to pay Desi Arnaz a million dollars 85 00:04:08,792 --> 00:04:11,003 to get the rerun rights back for that summer. 86 00:04:11,086 --> 00:04:14,047 [McFadden] And with that cool million, Desi and Lucy... 87 00:04:14,131 --> 00:04:15,424 ...use that money to buy RKO. 88 00:04:15,507 --> 00:04:18,260 [McFadden] Much more than three little letters, 89 00:04:18,343 --> 00:04:20,470 Lucy and Desi now owned... 90 00:04:20,554 --> 00:04:23,724 It was 35 sound stages in three locations. It was huge. 91 00:04:23,807 --> 00:04:25,934 [McFadden] And ultimately important to Star Trek, 92 00:04:26,018 --> 00:04:27,352 but not quite yet. 93 00:04:27,436 --> 00:04:31,857 Because before the USS Enterprise could get its NCC registration number, 94 00:04:31,940 --> 00:04:34,860 Desilu needed another kind of enterprise, 95 00:04:34,943 --> 00:04:36,278 the money-making kind. 96 00:04:36,361 --> 00:04:39,072 [Gilbert] Once I Love Lucy was off and running, 97 00:04:39,156 --> 00:04:42,159 they had all of this equipment to shoot I Love Lucy. 98 00:04:42,242 --> 00:04:45,537 And money was to be made if they could come up with another show. 99 00:04:45,620 --> 00:04:46,580 [McFadden] Either that or... 100 00:04:46,663 --> 00:04:49,958 Everybody came to film at Desilu. The Andy Griffith Show. 101 00:04:50,042 --> 00:04:51,001 My Three Sons. 102 00:04:51,084 --> 00:04:52,127 [Cushman] The Dick Van Dyke Show. 103 00:04:52,210 --> 00:04:54,379 [McFadden] Which generated a lot of money. 104 00:04:54,463 --> 00:04:55,756 I don't discuss money anymore. 105 00:04:55,839 --> 00:04:57,424 You'll have to talk to my business manager. 106 00:04:57,507 --> 00:04:59,134 [McFadden] Just not for Desi and Lucille. 107 00:04:59,217 --> 00:05:02,095 [Gilbert] People just automatically assumed that Lucy owned the world 108 00:05:02,179 --> 00:05:05,348 because she had all these shows on the air with the Desilu logo, 109 00:05:05,432 --> 00:05:07,517 but they weren't necessarily owned by her. 110 00:05:07,601 --> 00:05:11,605 [McFadden] But on the home front, Lucy was feeling owned by Desi. 111 00:05:11,688 --> 00:05:13,940 And that arrangement wasn't working. 112 00:05:14,024 --> 00:05:16,610 '58, '59, Lucy and Desi divorce. 113 00:05:16,693 --> 00:05:19,279 So, uh, I'll see you later. 114 00:05:19,362 --> 00:05:23,366 [McFadden] And suddenly, Desi didn't want to own much of anything. 115 00:05:23,450 --> 00:05:25,494 And he gave up the presidency of Desilu. 116 00:05:25,577 --> 00:05:28,830 And so Desi had to sell his part to her. 117 00:05:28,914 --> 00:05:29,873 Keep the change. 118 00:05:29,956 --> 00:05:33,043 Lucille Ball, divorced from Desi, but still calling it Desilu. 119 00:05:33,126 --> 00:05:35,045 Lucy's queen of TV. 120 00:05:35,128 --> 00:05:38,131 [McFadden] But Lucy wanted to be more than television royalty. 121 00:05:38,215 --> 00:05:41,218 Their stages were very busy, filming everybody else's shows. 122 00:05:41,301 --> 00:05:43,345 [McFadden] She wanted to be in charge of it 123 00:05:43,428 --> 00:05:44,888 because Lucy knew... 124 00:05:44,971 --> 00:05:48,433 ...that the true way to have success is to own it. 125 00:05:48,517 --> 00:05:52,938 She said, "Bring me a show that can rerun as long as I Love Lucy." 126 00:05:53,021 --> 00:05:56,108 [McFadden] The USS Enterprise was about to take flight. 127 00:05:56,191 --> 00:05:58,735 But before we get to that, where did this obsession 128 00:05:58,819 --> 00:06:02,197 with flying ships come from in the first place? 129 00:06:02,280 --> 00:06:05,325 To answer that, we need to touch down in Texas, 130 00:06:05,408 --> 00:06:06,618 but only briefly. 131 00:06:06,701 --> 00:06:10,914 Eugene Wesley Roddenberry was born on August 19th, 1921 132 00:06:10,997 --> 00:06:12,290 in El Paso, Texas. 133 00:06:12,374 --> 00:06:16,419 Like any genius, uh, he's a complicated individual. 134 00:06:16,503 --> 00:06:18,713 [McFadden] Oh, we'll definitely get to that. 135 00:06:18,797 --> 00:06:21,133 But first, we have to get him out of Texas. 136 00:06:21,216 --> 00:06:24,094 He would find his escape inside of science-fiction books, 137 00:06:24,177 --> 00:06:27,889 adventure books, the stories of Jules Verne and H.G. Wells. 138 00:06:27,973 --> 00:06:30,976 [McFadden] He dreamed of faraway airborne adventures, 139 00:06:31,059 --> 00:06:35,397 and a certain major conflict was about to make that a reality. 140 00:06:35,480 --> 00:06:37,858 He was a bomber pilot in World War II. 141 00:06:37,941 --> 00:06:40,193 [John Tenuto] He flies in 89 combat missions 142 00:06:40,277 --> 00:06:41,611 and wins numerous awards. 143 00:06:41,695 --> 00:06:45,365 [McFadden] And when the war ended, Gene continued to spread his wings 144 00:06:45,448 --> 00:06:50,453 as a pilot for Pan Am, where his career was set to change course dramatically. 145 00:06:50,745 --> 00:06:55,041 [Cushman] He was on a Pan Am jetliner that crashed in the Middle East. 146 00:06:55,125 --> 00:06:58,420 He wasn't flying that one. He was riding with the passengers. 147 00:06:58,503 --> 00:07:00,130 And everybody in the cockpit was killed. 148 00:07:00,213 --> 00:07:03,675 [McFadden] So Gene gravitated towards a more grounded uniform. 149 00:07:03,758 --> 00:07:06,428 And then he became a Los Angeles police officer. 150 00:07:06,511 --> 00:07:09,723 [McFadden] But Gene was less interested in arresting people 151 00:07:09,806 --> 00:07:12,684 and more interested in arresting stories. 152 00:07:12,767 --> 00:07:13,602 So much so... 153 00:07:13,685 --> 00:07:16,104 Gene Roddenberry, this budding writer producer, 154 00:07:16,188 --> 00:07:17,981 wrote a script for Have Gun - Will Travel 155 00:07:18,064 --> 00:07:19,858 [theme music playing] 156 00:07:19,941 --> 00:07:21,776 He's like every other up-and-coming writer. 157 00:07:21,860 --> 00:07:23,570 He's trying to get his own show. That's where the money is. 158 00:07:23,653 --> 00:07:25,530 He wrote a ton of scripts, 159 00:07:25,614 --> 00:07:29,534 and he does land his own show called The Lieutenant. 160 00:07:29,618 --> 00:07:32,162 It's about a Marine Corps officer who's a lawyer. 161 00:07:32,245 --> 00:07:35,832 It's not fiction, Mr. Sanders. I mean, you just don't rewrite history. 162 00:07:35,916 --> 00:07:39,002 [Larry Nemecek] Gene Roddenberry, he wants to do hard-hitting adult themes. 163 00:07:39,085 --> 00:07:40,879 One of his episodes is about racism. 164 00:07:40,962 --> 00:07:42,797 But the world has gotta change first. 165 00:07:42,881 --> 00:07:44,382 It's gotta be made to change. 166 00:07:44,466 --> 00:07:47,844 It brings him head-to-head battle with the network, with the studio. 167 00:07:47,928 --> 00:07:51,389 [McFadden] This hard-hitting episode was ahead of its time. 168 00:07:51,473 --> 00:07:56,228 NBC wouldn't give it the time of day, or even a time of day in its schedule. 169 00:07:56,311 --> 00:07:58,396 It winds up not being even shown. 170 00:07:58,480 --> 00:08:00,774 You can't say, "Well, let's not really talk 171 00:08:00,857 --> 00:08:02,943 about anything serious on television." 172 00:08:03,026 --> 00:08:05,862 That... That is a criminal statement. 173 00:08:05,946 --> 00:08:08,114 He's in trouble for writing this racism script. 174 00:08:08,198 --> 00:08:10,659 So he's like, "Fine, guys, fine. 175 00:08:10,742 --> 00:08:14,079 I love science fiction, and that's how we'll get it out to the people." 176 00:08:14,162 --> 00:08:17,332 Here was a chance to do the kind of drama I had always dreamed of doing. 177 00:08:17,415 --> 00:08:19,417 [McFadden] A sophisticated sci-fi drama 178 00:08:19,501 --> 00:08:22,545 that could ask the big questions of the time. 179 00:08:22,629 --> 00:08:25,090 Questions about who we are and what we're up to in the world. 180 00:08:25,173 --> 00:08:26,549 [McFadden] Deep questions like... 181 00:08:26,633 --> 00:08:28,009 Was it you who spoke? 182 00:08:28,093 --> 00:08:30,178 [McFadden] "What if vegetables could talk?" 183 00:08:30,262 --> 00:08:31,846 He doesn't want Lost in Space. 184 00:08:31,930 --> 00:08:34,015 Sure, that's what they all say. 185 00:08:34,099 --> 00:08:38,478 [McFadden] Gene had higher goals for the fledgling TV sci-fi genre. 186 00:08:38,561 --> 00:08:42,190 Be able to talk about love, war, nature, God, sex, 187 00:08:42,274 --> 00:08:45,610 all those things that go to make up the excitement of the human condition. 188 00:08:45,694 --> 00:08:47,487 A dazzling display of logic. 189 00:08:47,570 --> 00:08:49,281 And maybe the TV censors would let it pass 190 00:08:49,364 --> 00:08:51,658 because it all seemed so make-believe. 191 00:08:51,741 --> 00:08:53,785 He actually wanted to address some social issues. 192 00:08:53,868 --> 00:08:55,078 [McFadden] But he couldn't do it alone. 193 00:08:55,161 --> 00:08:59,332 1965, he finally puts the ideas to paper. He's going around to the networks. 194 00:08:59,416 --> 00:09:01,584 [McFadden] Which didn't take long, actually, because... 195 00:09:01,668 --> 00:09:04,504 In the early '60s, there were only three networks. 196 00:09:04,587 --> 00:09:06,589 [McFadden] And they all passed. 197 00:09:06,673 --> 00:09:08,049 He gets turned down everywhere. 198 00:09:08,133 --> 00:09:10,802 [McFadden] But just when all hope seemed lost, 199 00:09:10,885 --> 00:09:13,013 Gene landed a meeting with Desilu. 200 00:09:13,096 --> 00:09:17,976 Remember them? Lucy was still looking for the next big thing to own. 201 00:09:18,059 --> 00:09:21,396 This frumpy guy, very soft-spoken, very mild-mannered, 202 00:09:21,479 --> 00:09:25,775 came in with this single piece of paper and his memo about what Star Trek is. 203 00:09:25,859 --> 00:09:28,445 [McFadden] And then he delivered the killer blow. 204 00:09:28,528 --> 00:09:29,988 Gene's famous pitch line... 205 00:09:30,071 --> 00:09:31,740 A wagon train to the stars. 206 00:09:31,823 --> 00:09:33,241 [McFadden] Which he might not choose today. 207 00:09:33,325 --> 00:09:34,659 But back then... 208 00:09:34,743 --> 00:09:36,369 Westerns were big. 209 00:09:36,453 --> 00:09:39,289 Wagon Train being a very popular western anthology series. 210 00:09:39,372 --> 00:09:40,665 [McFadden] This was right on point. 211 00:09:40,749 --> 00:09:44,044 It was a big wagon train, slowly going west. 212 00:09:44,127 --> 00:09:45,545 Headed to new frontier. 213 00:09:45,628 --> 00:09:47,839 [grunting] 214 00:09:47,922 --> 00:09:49,883 Running into different obstacles. 215 00:09:49,966 --> 00:09:52,427 It's gonna be a western. 216 00:09:52,510 --> 00:09:55,055 But it's gonna be in outer space. 217 00:09:55,138 --> 00:09:58,641 Zap guns instead of six-shooters. Spaceships instead of horses. 218 00:09:58,725 --> 00:10:00,310 [McFadden] Lucy liked what she heard, 219 00:10:00,393 --> 00:10:03,897 and Desilu decided to board this wagon train. 220 00:10:03,980 --> 00:10:07,734 So that put Desilu back in business, as far as owning properties. 221 00:10:07,817 --> 00:10:11,237 [McFadden] Hoping it would lead not just to the stars, but to riches. 222 00:10:11,321 --> 00:10:12,781 This wasn't just for Gene Roddenberry. 223 00:10:12,864 --> 00:10:15,408 This was something that could be the salvation of Desilu. 224 00:10:15,492 --> 00:10:17,952 [McFadden] Suddenly, the future looked very bright. 225 00:10:21,164 --> 00:10:23,083 [McFadden] In the fall of 1964, 226 00:10:23,166 --> 00:10:26,586 a pilot for what would become Star Trek was commissioned. 227 00:10:26,669 --> 00:10:30,298 NBC finally agreed to back Desilu's production 228 00:10:30,382 --> 00:10:32,967 because who could say no to this face? 229 00:10:33,051 --> 00:10:34,886 They wanted to do business with Lucille Ball 230 00:10:34,969 --> 00:10:37,847 because Lucille Ball was CBS's golden girl. 231 00:10:37,931 --> 00:10:40,934 [McFadden] Oh, and there was one other little sweetener for the network. 232 00:10:41,017 --> 00:10:42,977 [Gilbert] Lucy had a development fund. 233 00:10:43,061 --> 00:10:45,063 She gave the money from the development fund 234 00:10:45,146 --> 00:10:46,606 to develop Star Trek. 235 00:10:46,689 --> 00:10:48,650 [McFadden] With Lucille's own money, 236 00:10:48,733 --> 00:10:52,070 Gene began scripting his wagon train to the stars, 237 00:10:52,153 --> 00:10:53,738 starting with his lead character. 238 00:10:53,822 --> 00:10:54,656 James Kirk. 239 00:10:54,739 --> 00:10:55,573 No. [laughs] 240 00:10:55,657 --> 00:10:58,701 In the original drafts for "The Cage," 241 00:10:58,785 --> 00:11:02,497 the captain of the Enterprise was going to be called Robert April. 242 00:11:02,580 --> 00:11:03,415 [McFadden] Robert April? 243 00:11:03,498 --> 00:11:06,418 That fact isn't in the history texts. 244 00:11:06,501 --> 00:11:08,670 And it was just a matter of finding the name 245 00:11:08,753 --> 00:11:10,547 the network responded the most to. 246 00:11:10,630 --> 00:11:12,674 [McFadden] For some reason, they preferred the name... 247 00:11:12,757 --> 00:11:14,092 Christopher Pike. 248 00:11:14,175 --> 00:11:15,635 My name is Christopher Pike. 249 00:11:15,718 --> 00:11:18,847 [McFadden] Now, if Christopher Pike looks like a completely different captain 250 00:11:18,930 --> 00:11:21,349 that's because he's a completely different captain. 251 00:11:21,433 --> 00:11:22,767 But more on that later. 252 00:11:22,851 --> 00:11:25,103 Whatever his name, NBC thought 253 00:11:25,186 --> 00:11:28,481 this captain needed more than just the right name. 254 00:11:28,565 --> 00:11:32,777 NBC was saying, "You gotta find a way to make Americans feel comfortable in space. 255 00:11:32,861 --> 00:11:36,781 Well, let's build something around them that all America is familiar with." 256 00:11:36,865 --> 00:11:39,325 [McFadden] That was something the entire nation had lived through. 257 00:11:39,409 --> 00:11:41,619 World War II was less than 20 years earlier. 258 00:11:41,703 --> 00:11:44,747 [McFadden] And it was now a part of the American story. 259 00:11:44,831 --> 00:11:47,500 [Cushman] We've all seen the movies on American submarines. 260 00:11:47,584 --> 00:11:50,003 Half of the American men fought in that war. 261 00:11:50,086 --> 00:11:51,504 [McFadden] Including Gene himself, 262 00:11:51,588 --> 00:11:54,215 who drew from experience to design the costumes 263 00:11:54,299 --> 00:11:56,092 -and even the radio signals. -[radio whistles] 264 00:11:56,176 --> 00:11:57,093 Mr. Spock here. 265 00:11:57,177 --> 00:11:59,846 'Cause that's what you would hear on ships and aircraft carriers 266 00:11:59,929 --> 00:12:01,306 when they would signal the captain. 267 00:12:01,389 --> 00:12:02,390 This is the captain. 268 00:12:02,474 --> 00:12:03,808 He wanted the terminology. 269 00:12:03,892 --> 00:12:04,893 Evasive maneuvers, sir? 270 00:12:04,976 --> 00:12:05,977 Steady as we go. 271 00:12:06,060 --> 00:12:07,020 [McFadden] And of course, a ship. 272 00:12:07,103 --> 00:12:07,937 Enterprise. 273 00:12:08,021 --> 00:12:10,023 [McFadden] Which is a whole story unto itself. 274 00:12:10,106 --> 00:12:12,650 But for now, Gene had to find the right man 275 00:12:12,734 --> 00:12:13,776 to take the helm. 276 00:12:13,860 --> 00:12:16,279 He had his wish list of who he wanted 277 00:12:16,362 --> 00:12:18,448 to play the captain of the Enterprise, 278 00:12:18,531 --> 00:12:21,784 and right at the top of that list was William Shatner. 279 00:12:21,868 --> 00:12:23,411 [McFadden] So cast as Captain Pike... 280 00:12:23,495 --> 00:12:24,996 No. They couldn't get William Shatner 281 00:12:25,079 --> 00:12:27,582 because William Shatner had another series on at that time 282 00:12:27,665 --> 00:12:29,792 that he was starring in on CBS. 283 00:12:29,876 --> 00:12:31,461 If you want facts, Jameson, I'll give you facts. 284 00:12:31,544 --> 00:12:34,005 [McFadden] Well, the fact was they had to look elsewhere. 285 00:12:34,088 --> 00:12:35,548 And so they had to look down the list, 286 00:12:35,632 --> 00:12:37,300 and that's when they found Jeffrey Hunter. 287 00:12:37,383 --> 00:12:40,470 [McFadden] Jeffrey Hunter was a dreamboat leading man 288 00:12:40,553 --> 00:12:41,763 for the matinee era. 289 00:12:41,846 --> 00:12:42,722 So they were happy to get him. 290 00:12:42,805 --> 00:12:45,934 [McFadden] But Captain Pike could hardly make sense of the universe 291 00:12:46,017 --> 00:12:47,852 without a science officer. 292 00:12:47,936 --> 00:12:48,770 Spock here. 293 00:12:48,853 --> 00:12:51,814 [Cushman] Roddenberry always wanted Leonard Nimoy to play Spock. 294 00:12:51,898 --> 00:12:53,775 That was the first person he thought of 295 00:12:53,858 --> 00:12:56,694 'cause Nimoy had been in an episode of The Lieutenant 296 00:12:56,778 --> 00:12:57,987 which Gene Roddenberry produced. 297 00:12:58,071 --> 00:13:00,073 [McFadden] Not that Mr. Nimoy cares to recall. 298 00:13:00,156 --> 00:13:01,574 There was stuff before Star Trek? 299 00:13:01,658 --> 00:13:02,784 [McFadden] There sure was. 300 00:13:02,867 --> 00:13:03,701 [laughs] 301 00:13:03,785 --> 00:13:05,495 [McFadden] Nimoy had just finished 302 00:13:05,578 --> 00:13:08,665 perfecting his contemplative demeanor on The Lieutenant. 303 00:13:08,748 --> 00:13:10,291 [Leonard Nimoy] I did the job. 304 00:13:10,375 --> 00:13:13,211 A week or two later, my agent called me and said, "Gene Roddenberry, 305 00:13:13,294 --> 00:13:15,797 he's interested in you for his science-fiction pilot 306 00:13:15,880 --> 00:13:17,048 that he's gonna produce." 307 00:13:17,131 --> 00:13:21,344 He said, "A character with pointed ears," and that set me back a bit. 308 00:13:21,427 --> 00:13:23,763 [McFadden] If Spock's ears raised an eyebrow, 309 00:13:23,846 --> 00:13:25,598 what Gene had planned for his first officer 310 00:13:25,682 --> 00:13:28,017 was positively revolutionary. 311 00:13:28,101 --> 00:13:31,813 I can't get used to having a woman on the bridge. 312 00:13:31,896 --> 00:13:35,608 No offense, Lieutenant. You're different, of course. 313 00:13:35,692 --> 00:13:40,238 [Gilbert] Majel Barrett was a student of Lucy's at the Desilu workshop, 314 00:13:40,321 --> 00:13:42,490 where she would train them and give them experience. 315 00:13:42,574 --> 00:13:45,702 [McFadden] And although she had little experience taking orders, 316 00:13:45,785 --> 00:13:47,704 featuring in an episode of The Lieutenant... 317 00:13:47,787 --> 00:13:48,955 Aye aye, sir. 318 00:13:49,038 --> 00:13:51,583 [McFadden] Casting a woman as second-in-command, 319 00:13:51,666 --> 00:13:54,711 even in an imagined future, was ahead of its time. 320 00:13:54,794 --> 00:13:59,841 That was a position of authority, and women just didn't have that position. 321 00:13:59,924 --> 00:14:02,510 It's very much a man's world in those days. 322 00:14:02,594 --> 00:14:03,761 Yes, it is, isn't it? 323 00:14:03,845 --> 00:14:07,307 It is remarkable that a woman is the first officer 324 00:14:07,390 --> 00:14:12,228 of the flagship of the Federation in 1966. 325 00:14:12,312 --> 00:14:14,439 That is unbelievable. 326 00:14:14,522 --> 00:14:18,109 [McFadden] Oh, don't worry. If you think that's unbelievable... 327 00:14:18,192 --> 00:14:19,027 [laughs] 328 00:14:19,110 --> 00:14:21,362 I'm Sandy Gimpel, or Sandra Gimpel. 329 00:14:21,446 --> 00:14:22,530 I played a Talosian. 330 00:14:22,614 --> 00:14:23,615 [McFadden] That's Sandra on the left 331 00:14:23,698 --> 00:14:25,366 and Meg Wyllie on the right. 332 00:14:25,450 --> 00:14:28,328 I think they hired women because they wanted a sleeker line, 333 00:14:28,411 --> 00:14:31,122 and they can make us look tall and thin, 334 00:14:31,205 --> 00:14:32,582 so we look more alien. 335 00:14:32,665 --> 00:14:33,875 [McFadden] And that they did. 336 00:14:33,958 --> 00:14:37,337 Now, last but not least, Gene sent for the doctor. 337 00:14:37,420 --> 00:14:39,422 Gene Roddenberry wanted DeForest Kelley. 338 00:14:39,505 --> 00:14:41,049 [McFadden] Bones, of course. 339 00:14:41,132 --> 00:14:41,966 -[buzzer sounds] -Ooh, or not. 340 00:14:42,050 --> 00:14:45,053 That was because DeForest Kelley had over ten years 341 00:14:45,136 --> 00:14:47,889 working as the heavy in westerns. 342 00:14:47,972 --> 00:14:49,474 [McFadden] So the only cure for this ailment 343 00:14:49,557 --> 00:14:52,101 was a stiff shot of veteran actor John Hoyt. 344 00:14:52,185 --> 00:14:54,187 Who wants a warm martini? 345 00:14:54,270 --> 00:14:55,688 [McFadden] So with the cast in place, 346 00:14:55,772 --> 00:15:00,777 Desilu Studios began filming the pilot on November 27th, 1964. 347 00:15:01,361 --> 00:15:06,074 But instead of delivering a space western the first episode, entitled "The Cage," 348 00:15:06,157 --> 00:15:08,368 dealt with more abstract themes. 349 00:15:08,451 --> 00:15:10,953 [Roddenberry] The enormous power of imagination. 350 00:15:11,037 --> 00:15:13,456 I didn't quite understand how it was gonna work as a television show. 351 00:15:13,539 --> 00:15:17,460 [McFadden] But despite the muddy plot, the special effects were crystal clear. 352 00:15:17,543 --> 00:15:20,713 Star Trek was the first TV series to shoot against a blue screen. 353 00:15:20,797 --> 00:15:22,507 [McFadden] And although it seems primitive now, 354 00:15:22,590 --> 00:15:23,424 back then... 355 00:15:23,508 --> 00:15:26,636 Nobody was doing moving stars. 356 00:15:26,719 --> 00:15:30,640 [McFadden] Providing a sense of realism that was missing from other sci-fi shows. 357 00:15:30,723 --> 00:15:32,600 He doesn't want Lost in Space. 358 00:15:32,684 --> 00:15:33,851 [McFadden] We remember. 359 00:15:33,935 --> 00:15:36,479 But one of Star Trek's signature special effects 360 00:15:36,562 --> 00:15:39,023 was actually a cost-saving measure. 361 00:15:39,107 --> 00:15:41,567 The reason we have the transporter is because they couldn't afford 362 00:15:41,651 --> 00:15:43,361 to land the ship in every episode. 363 00:15:43,444 --> 00:15:45,196 [McFadden] But the pilot didn't look cheap, 364 00:15:45,279 --> 00:15:46,739 and that's because it really wasn't. 365 00:15:46,823 --> 00:15:49,784 The pilot had cost, I think, almost $600,000, 366 00:15:49,867 --> 00:15:51,536 which would be like six million today. 367 00:15:51,619 --> 00:15:54,414 And NBC only put up half the money. Desilu put up the other half. 368 00:15:54,497 --> 00:15:55,998 [McFadden] An excellent investment. 369 00:15:56,082 --> 00:15:59,627 Or maybe not because NBC rejected the pilot. 370 00:15:59,711 --> 00:16:02,130 Some of their executives were outraged. 371 00:16:02,213 --> 00:16:03,923 They didn't like the pointy-eared guy. 372 00:16:04,006 --> 00:16:05,174 What do you call those? 373 00:16:05,258 --> 00:16:06,801 I call them ears. 374 00:16:06,884 --> 00:16:08,219 [McFadden] They feared parts of America 375 00:16:08,302 --> 00:16:12,348 might think Spock's pointy ears pointed to Satan, somehow. 376 00:16:12,432 --> 00:16:13,683 Hello, 1964. 377 00:16:13,766 --> 00:16:14,600 [McFadden] But mainly... 378 00:16:14,684 --> 00:16:16,728 They felt the plot was too cerebral. 379 00:16:16,811 --> 00:16:20,857 It appears that the intelligence of the specimen is shockingly limited. 380 00:16:20,940 --> 00:16:23,693 Aliens using illusion to do what they wanna do. 381 00:16:24,736 --> 00:16:29,741 [McFadden] It was simply too brainy, too wacky, and too much for advertisers. 382 00:16:30,241 --> 00:16:32,368 "We can't use this to sell it to advertisers 383 00:16:32,452 --> 00:16:34,954 'cause it's not reflective of what we would want the series to be." 384 00:16:35,037 --> 00:16:36,497 And that's it. 385 00:16:36,581 --> 00:16:40,918 [McFadden] The USS Enterprise was caught in a negative force field... 386 00:16:41,002 --> 00:16:42,086 for now. 387 00:16:44,964 --> 00:16:49,093 [McFadden] Star Trek's first brave sortie to the television cosmos had failed. 388 00:16:49,177 --> 00:16:51,804 The door was closed on "The Cage." 389 00:16:51,888 --> 00:16:55,099 But the network wasn't ready to abandon the mission. 390 00:16:55,183 --> 00:16:57,268 It's very rare for there to be a second pilot. 391 00:16:57,351 --> 00:16:58,895 [McFadden] But money talks. 392 00:16:58,978 --> 00:17:01,105 They actually funded a second pilot. 393 00:17:01,189 --> 00:17:03,024 [McFadden] And once again, Lucy was happy 394 00:17:03,107 --> 00:17:05,610 to put her money where her famous mouth was. 395 00:17:05,693 --> 00:17:09,197 Lucy reached into her pocket to refinance the pilot, do a new one. 396 00:17:09,280 --> 00:17:11,866 [McFadden] The network was only too happy to split the bill, 397 00:17:11,949 --> 00:17:13,409 with conditions. 398 00:17:13,493 --> 00:17:16,829 This one had better be familiar, action-adventure, or else. 399 00:17:16,913 --> 00:17:19,332 [McFadden] They didn't just take issue with the plot 400 00:17:19,415 --> 00:17:22,001 They also had problems with the personnel 401 00:17:22,084 --> 00:17:24,504 Gene does famously say, "Well, I had to give up the woman..." 402 00:17:24,587 --> 00:17:25,963 No offense, Lieutenant. 403 00:17:26,047 --> 00:17:27,507 "...or the guy with the pointy ears." 404 00:17:27,590 --> 00:17:31,385 [McFadden] And when push came to shove, Gene gave in to his Vulcan side. 405 00:17:31,469 --> 00:17:34,138 Gene really liked the character of Spock. 406 00:17:34,222 --> 00:17:36,182 He would find something else for Majel later on. 407 00:17:36,265 --> 00:17:39,936 [McFadden] The job of casting was a matter of military precision. 408 00:17:40,019 --> 00:17:40,853 Steady as we go. 409 00:17:40,937 --> 00:17:42,730 [McFadden] Thanks to a military drama. 410 00:17:42,814 --> 00:17:44,106 That is real drama. 411 00:17:44,190 --> 00:17:47,360 Gene and I really were in sync on the casting because... 412 00:17:47,443 --> 00:17:48,653 Stealthy approach. 413 00:17:48,736 --> 00:17:52,365 ...the easiest place to go was people that we were both familiar with 414 00:17:52,448 --> 00:17:54,075 that we had both used on The Lieutenant. 415 00:17:54,158 --> 00:17:56,494 And then... whammo! 416 00:17:56,577 --> 00:17:59,205 [McFadden] And if he couldn't have a female first officer, 417 00:17:59,288 --> 00:18:01,916 there had to be another way to get a woman on the bridge. 418 00:18:01,999 --> 00:18:04,335 Michelle Nichols was a true discovery. 419 00:18:04,418 --> 00:18:06,629 [McFadden] Thanks again to The Lieutenant. 420 00:18:06,712 --> 00:18:11,300 Because Gene said that he wanted a woman in the command center. 421 00:18:11,384 --> 00:18:14,303 [McFadden] Meanwhile, Gene suddenly found himself in need of a doctor 422 00:18:14,387 --> 00:18:17,056 because John Hoyt had gone off to do movies. 423 00:18:17,139 --> 00:18:18,558 Oh, that sounds exciting. 424 00:18:18,641 --> 00:18:21,894 [McFadden] Opening the door for Gene's first choice, DeForest Kelley, 425 00:18:21,978 --> 00:18:26,399 who finally landed the role of Bones by giving execs a look beneath his hat. 426 00:18:26,482 --> 00:18:27,316 Fill me in. 427 00:18:27,400 --> 00:18:30,278 [Maria Jose Tenuto] Gene had the idea that if he got a haircut 428 00:18:30,361 --> 00:18:33,155 that would subliminally say "good guy," 429 00:18:33,239 --> 00:18:37,660 that the studio would come around and warm up to having D on the show. 430 00:18:37,743 --> 00:18:39,704 You look just fine, Doctor. 431 00:18:39,787 --> 00:18:41,247 Well, I don't doubt it. 432 00:18:41,330 --> 00:18:44,083 That haircut was based on John F. Kennedy. 433 00:18:44,166 --> 00:18:45,376 [McFadden] He nailed it. 434 00:18:45,459 --> 00:18:47,003 Just like the good doctor's hair, 435 00:18:47,086 --> 00:18:50,298 Jeffrey Hunter would also be brushed aside. 436 00:18:50,381 --> 00:18:51,549 Jeff Hunter was offered a movie. 437 00:18:51,632 --> 00:18:55,636 [McFadden] And so the door slid open for the guy he wanted all along, 438 00:18:55,720 --> 00:18:56,721 William Shatner. 439 00:18:56,804 --> 00:18:58,639 Because We the People had just been canceled. 440 00:18:58,723 --> 00:19:01,309 [McFadden] But his new captain would need a new name. 441 00:19:01,392 --> 00:19:03,185 This is Captain James T. Kirk. 442 00:19:03,269 --> 00:19:06,981 [McFadden] But we wouldn't find out what the "T" stood for until much later. 443 00:19:07,064 --> 00:19:08,399 There'll be no discussion of this. 444 00:19:08,482 --> 00:19:12,945 [McFadden] Evidently, NBC wanted the "T" to stand for "tough." 445 00:19:13,029 --> 00:19:14,989 They wanted something a little more action-oriented. 446 00:19:15,072 --> 00:19:17,408 [McFadden] So Star Trek started to get physical, 447 00:19:17,491 --> 00:19:18,534 like the Olympics. 448 00:19:18,618 --> 00:19:20,620 And then NBC said, "We love it." 449 00:19:20,703 --> 00:19:25,291 [McFadden] With boxing, karate, wrestling, 450 00:19:25,374 --> 00:19:26,584 and possibly shot put. 451 00:19:27,460 --> 00:19:29,170 And one of the lesser-known sports. 452 00:19:29,253 --> 00:19:34,091 The Vulcan neck pinch was Leonard Nimoy's creation. 453 00:19:34,175 --> 00:19:35,009 [McFadden] That's right. 454 00:19:35,092 --> 00:19:39,347 One of the series' most beloved moves came not from the writers' room, 455 00:19:39,430 --> 00:19:41,098 but from the mind of Spock himself. 456 00:19:41,182 --> 00:19:44,268 Spock was supposed to give a karate chop 457 00:19:44,352 --> 00:19:46,896 to the back of that Kirk's neck and knock him out. 458 00:19:46,979 --> 00:19:49,106 So he went over to the director of that episode, 459 00:19:49,190 --> 00:19:51,651 Leo Penn, who's Sean Penn's father, 460 00:19:51,734 --> 00:19:55,404 and said, "A Vulcan would not resort to this kind of violence 461 00:19:55,488 --> 00:19:56,364 unless he had to. 462 00:19:56,447 --> 00:19:58,991 Unless he was just being attacked unprepared, 463 00:19:59,075 --> 00:20:01,911 he would find a more civilized way to do it." 464 00:20:01,994 --> 00:20:04,747 And Leo said, "Well, what do you mean? What? Like what would he do?" 465 00:20:04,830 --> 00:20:07,541 And Leonard Nimoy, just making it up on the spot, 466 00:20:07,625 --> 00:20:11,671 says, "Vulcans understand the electromagnetic nervous system of humans. 467 00:20:11,754 --> 00:20:13,297 They would know that there's a pressure point 468 00:20:13,381 --> 00:20:18,094 that you can put your fingers to and cause a person to go unconscious." 469 00:20:18,177 --> 00:20:21,764 [McFadden] But director Leo Penn needed a little more convincing. 470 00:20:21,847 --> 00:20:23,349 Nimoy looks over at William Shatner and says, 471 00:20:23,432 --> 00:20:24,892 "Bill, can I borrow you for a minute?" 472 00:20:24,976 --> 00:20:28,229 Shatner comes over, and they're just waiting to shoot the scene. 473 00:20:28,312 --> 00:20:29,313 The lights are being tweaked. 474 00:20:29,397 --> 00:20:31,023 Shatner comes over and he says, 475 00:20:31,107 --> 00:20:32,483 "You know that thing I was telling you about 476 00:20:32,566 --> 00:20:34,694 of how Vulcans can knock you out?" 477 00:20:34,777 --> 00:20:37,613 Shatner had never heard this before. [chuckles] 478 00:20:37,697 --> 00:20:39,949 But he goes, "Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, it was really interesting." 479 00:20:40,032 --> 00:20:43,160 He says, "Leo doesn't think it'll work, and I wanted to demonstrate it on you." 480 00:20:43,244 --> 00:20:44,453 "Sure." 481 00:20:44,537 --> 00:20:48,708 Nimoy goes over and presses Shatner's shoulder at the base of his neck, 482 00:20:48,791 --> 00:20:51,544 and Shatner rolls his eyes up into his head 483 00:20:51,627 --> 00:20:53,921 and just collapses to the floor. 484 00:20:54,005 --> 00:20:56,173 And Leo Penn is just stunned. 485 00:20:56,257 --> 00:20:57,591 "Bill, are you okay? Are you okay?" 486 00:20:57,675 --> 00:20:59,635 "Oh, yeah, I'm a little little woozy." 487 00:20:59,719 --> 00:21:01,804 "That's amazing! We gotta do that." 488 00:21:01,887 --> 00:21:04,640 So that's the first neck pinch on Star Trek. 489 00:21:04,724 --> 00:21:08,060 [McFadden] But thanks to Gene Roddenberry nearly the last. 490 00:21:08,144 --> 00:21:11,105 Gene Roddenberry sent a memo out to Leonard Nimoy, 491 00:21:11,188 --> 00:21:13,691 scolding him for doing this 492 00:21:13,774 --> 00:21:17,153 and saying, "Don't ever do anything like this again. 493 00:21:17,236 --> 00:21:19,488 But, by the way, we're going to keep this 494 00:21:19,572 --> 00:21:22,199 and we're going to start writing this into the scripts." 495 00:21:22,283 --> 00:21:25,745 So he got scolded for coming up with that brilliant idea. 496 00:21:25,828 --> 00:21:30,207 [McFadden] So Nimoy had given them the pinch, but then came the twist. 497 00:21:30,291 --> 00:21:32,668 "They also wanted to see if you can make it a little cheaper." 498 00:21:32,752 --> 00:21:37,131 [McFadden] The pilot cost a whopping $450,000. 499 00:21:37,214 --> 00:21:41,469 NBC felt the budget should be more in the orbit of 185,000. 500 00:21:41,552 --> 00:21:43,929 Very low budget. It was undersold. 501 00:21:44,013 --> 00:21:44,930 [McFadden] And even at that price, 502 00:21:45,014 --> 00:21:47,683 the network wouldn't be footing the entire bill. 503 00:21:47,767 --> 00:21:48,809 It's deficit financing. 504 00:21:48,893 --> 00:21:52,438 The networks do not pony up all the cost of a show. 505 00:21:52,521 --> 00:21:54,315 [McFadden] NBC would only back Star Trek 506 00:21:54,398 --> 00:21:57,526 to the tune of 100 grand per episode. 507 00:21:57,610 --> 00:22:00,905 So Desilu's going into the hole 85 grand with every episode they're making. 508 00:22:00,988 --> 00:22:02,490 [McFadden] At such a heavy price, 509 00:22:02,573 --> 00:22:05,743 the board of Desilu convened to consider its options. 510 00:22:05,826 --> 00:22:07,286 The old guard, so-called... 511 00:22:07,369 --> 00:22:10,831 ...told Lucy, "Don't do it. You'll put the studio out of business." 512 00:22:10,915 --> 00:22:13,959 [McFadden] But Lucille Ball still held the deciding vote. 513 00:22:14,043 --> 00:22:16,962 She said, "Let's go ahead and produce the whole thing." 514 00:22:17,046 --> 00:22:20,216 She's like, "I'm putting the fate of the studio in your hands, guys." 515 00:22:20,299 --> 00:22:24,845 [McFadden] With all that pressure, Gene decided to recruit a Gene 2.0, 516 00:22:24,929 --> 00:22:27,765 coincidentally also called Gene. 517 00:22:27,848 --> 00:22:30,476 Here comes Gene Coon, a great writer. 518 00:22:30,559 --> 00:22:32,269 He'd written some scripts on Have Gun - Will Travel 519 00:22:32,353 --> 00:22:33,979 that Gene Roddenberry had worked on. 520 00:22:34,063 --> 00:22:36,315 Didn't have a big science-fiction background, 521 00:22:36,398 --> 00:22:37,233 but he could... 522 00:22:37,316 --> 00:22:38,150 He could tell a story. 523 00:22:38,234 --> 00:22:40,236 He was really in charge of the writing room, 524 00:22:40,319 --> 00:22:42,238 and he was very interested in making sure 525 00:22:42,321 --> 00:22:44,865 that the characters were the most important and central thing. 526 00:22:44,949 --> 00:22:47,409 [McFadden] Evident from the very first episode to air, 527 00:22:47,493 --> 00:22:51,205 which placed its diversity of characters at the forefront. 528 00:22:51,288 --> 00:22:56,127 Tell me how your planet, Vulcan, looks on a lazy evening when the moon is full. 529 00:22:56,210 --> 00:22:57,336 [McFadden] Suddenly, network television 530 00:22:57,419 --> 00:23:01,382 had a glamorous new look and a breath of fresh air. 531 00:23:01,465 --> 00:23:04,093 I was born acting, my father said. 532 00:23:04,176 --> 00:23:05,553 [McFadden] Nichelle had come from the theater. 533 00:23:05,636 --> 00:23:09,056 And since her episode of The Lieutenant never made it to air, 534 00:23:09,140 --> 00:23:11,725 Star Trek would be her first on-screen credit. 535 00:23:11,809 --> 00:23:13,727 Thank you, God. [laughs] 536 00:23:13,811 --> 00:23:15,104 [McFadden] And as the communications officer, 537 00:23:15,187 --> 00:23:18,607 she was sending a clear message which had the execs screaming... 538 00:23:18,691 --> 00:23:19,984 "What are you doing?" 539 00:23:20,067 --> 00:23:21,986 Gene believed in diversity. 540 00:23:22,069 --> 00:23:27,741 He said, "I want all ethnic choices to be considered. Period." 541 00:23:27,825 --> 00:23:31,996 [McFadden] And he was happy to test the limits by casting a Japanese American 542 00:23:32,079 --> 00:23:35,082 even as memories of the Second World War remained fresh. 543 00:23:35,166 --> 00:23:40,045 He says, "By the time we're out in space, borders have disappeared. 544 00:23:40,129 --> 00:23:44,008 People interreact in a natural, comfortable way." 545 00:23:44,091 --> 00:23:46,385 [McFadden] When Star Trek finally broadcast, 546 00:23:46,468 --> 00:23:50,848 it confirmed that America was ready for a fresh vision of the future, 547 00:23:50,931 --> 00:23:52,892 and a bit of action, of course. 548 00:23:52,975 --> 00:23:57,563 The very first episode, "The Man Trap," 47% of the TVs in America were tuned in. 549 00:23:57,646 --> 00:24:00,274 [McFadden] Nearly half of America was seeing something 550 00:24:00,357 --> 00:24:01,775 they'd never seen before. 551 00:24:01,859 --> 00:24:05,112 It was a pioneer show that was creating things every inch of the way. 552 00:24:05,196 --> 00:24:08,324 [McFadden] But delving into whole new worlds every week 553 00:24:08,407 --> 00:24:10,993 soon took a toll on its cast and crew. 554 00:24:11,076 --> 00:24:12,870 Yeah, I'm here usually about 6:30 in the morning. 555 00:24:12,953 --> 00:24:15,873 We actually start shooting at 8:00. The crew arrives around 7:30. 556 00:24:15,956 --> 00:24:18,500 It takes me about an hour and a half to get into the rig. 557 00:24:18,584 --> 00:24:20,836 It was an uphill battle. They were under the gun constantly. 558 00:24:20,920 --> 00:24:22,504 It was taking a toll mentally. 559 00:24:22,588 --> 00:24:24,965 [Roddenberry] Our schedule was 12 to 14 hours a day, 560 00:24:25,049 --> 00:24:27,092 and the production staff worked six days a week. 561 00:24:27,176 --> 00:24:29,053 During the first two years, there was not a member 562 00:24:29,136 --> 00:24:31,347 of our production staff that was not in the hospital 563 00:24:31,430 --> 00:24:33,098 at one time or another from exhaustion. 564 00:24:33,182 --> 00:24:35,684 It was the hardest show to make on television. 565 00:24:35,768 --> 00:24:37,561 [McFadden] Along with monsters, 566 00:24:37,645 --> 00:24:41,065 the original series ranged across monster themes. 567 00:24:41,148 --> 00:24:42,149 Pain! 568 00:24:42,233 --> 00:24:43,150 [McFadden] Colonization. 569 00:24:43,234 --> 00:24:47,196 Crying... for the children. 570 00:24:47,279 --> 00:24:48,447 [McFadden] The ethics of war. 571 00:24:48,530 --> 00:24:49,615 We have the right! 572 00:24:49,698 --> 00:24:53,244 To wage war, Captain? To kill millions of innocent people? 573 00:24:53,327 --> 00:24:54,286 [McFadden] Hairdressing. 574 00:24:55,496 --> 00:24:57,748 Along the way, Spock fell in love. 575 00:24:57,831 --> 00:24:58,832 I love you. 576 00:24:58,916 --> 00:25:00,876 [McFadden] And almost fell out of a tree. 577 00:25:00,960 --> 00:25:03,254 I told Leonard to grab hold of the branch 578 00:25:03,337 --> 00:25:06,090 and hang from it like a monkey and play the scene that way. 579 00:25:06,173 --> 00:25:08,509 The first line of Kirk's was... 580 00:25:08,592 --> 00:25:10,552 You were told to report to me at once. 581 00:25:10,636 --> 00:25:14,598 And Spock, with this glorious grin on his face, said... 582 00:25:14,682 --> 00:25:15,766 I didn't want to, Jim. 583 00:25:15,849 --> 00:25:18,269 And it just worked beautifully. 584 00:25:18,352 --> 00:25:19,395 Yes, I can see that. 585 00:25:19,478 --> 00:25:23,148 And became an iconic Spock scene. 586 00:25:23,232 --> 00:25:25,526 [McFadden] But one iconic episode above all 587 00:25:25,609 --> 00:25:29,780 would come to embody Star Trek as top-shelf science fiction. 588 00:25:29,863 --> 00:25:33,033 And it came from one of sci-fi's finest practitioners. 589 00:25:33,117 --> 00:25:34,076 Harlan Ellison. 590 00:25:34,159 --> 00:25:38,372 Who has written some of history's most important science-fiction books. 591 00:25:38,455 --> 00:25:42,376 [McFadden] Harlan pitched an idea for a time-traveling Star Trek episode, 592 00:25:42,459 --> 00:25:43,294 which he called... 593 00:25:43,377 --> 00:25:44,336 "The City on the Edge of Forever." 594 00:25:44,420 --> 00:25:47,006 I am the Guardian of Forever. 595 00:25:47,089 --> 00:25:50,217 I wrote that script before the show ever went on the air. 596 00:25:50,301 --> 00:25:51,885 [McFadden] But Harlan's gritty story 597 00:25:51,969 --> 00:25:55,472 was not what Gene Roddenberry thought Star Trek should be. 598 00:25:55,556 --> 00:25:58,100 Harlan's original version of "The City on the Edge of Forever" 599 00:25:58,183 --> 00:26:00,894 involved a drug dealer on the Enterprise named Beckwith. 600 00:26:00,978 --> 00:26:02,104 And he was trying to escape. 601 00:26:02,187 --> 00:26:05,190 And escapes through a portal to the planet Earth. 602 00:26:05,274 --> 00:26:09,111 And I wrote what I thought was a dynamite script. 603 00:26:09,194 --> 00:26:12,031 Which, by the way, everybody said was a great science-fiction story. 604 00:26:12,114 --> 00:26:13,866 It just wasn't a Star Trek. 605 00:26:13,949 --> 00:26:15,868 [McFadden] So Roddenberry ordered rewrites. 606 00:26:15,951 --> 00:26:20,080 It needed to be hammered into that formula, that box. 607 00:26:20,164 --> 00:26:21,707 [McFadden] Just like his time-traveling script, 608 00:26:21,790 --> 00:26:24,209 Harlan was on a different timeline too. 609 00:26:24,293 --> 00:26:26,378 It was hard to get Harlan to discipline himself 610 00:26:26,462 --> 00:26:28,922 to turn out pages at the rate that you need it. 611 00:26:29,006 --> 00:26:31,800 [McFadden] So Gene Coon made a bold executive decision. 612 00:26:31,884 --> 00:26:34,136 Producer Gene Coon locked him in a room. 613 00:26:34,219 --> 00:26:35,471 So he couldn't get out. 614 00:26:35,554 --> 00:26:38,223 [McFadden] A defiant Ellison began to blast music, 615 00:26:38,307 --> 00:26:40,309 as he was known to do while he wrote. 616 00:26:40,392 --> 00:26:43,687 And at one point, the record started skipping. 617 00:26:43,771 --> 00:26:44,605 -They got suspicious. -[record scratches] 618 00:26:44,688 --> 00:26:47,524 [McFadden] So they opened the door, only to find... 619 00:26:47,608 --> 00:26:49,526 ...that the window was open and Harlan had gone out the window, 620 00:26:49,610 --> 00:26:52,905 and he was on the set taking pictures with Shatner and Nimoy. 621 00:26:52,988 --> 00:26:55,616 [McFadden] "The City on the Edge of Forever" took forever, 622 00:26:55,699 --> 00:26:59,495 but Harlan's long-overdue script was considered brilliant. 623 00:26:59,578 --> 00:27:00,704 It's a brilliant script. 624 00:27:00,788 --> 00:27:02,331 [McFadden] In more ways than one. 625 00:27:02,414 --> 00:27:04,041 It's brilliantly overwritten. 626 00:27:04,124 --> 00:27:06,835 His script would have cost as much as a major motion picture. 627 00:27:06,919 --> 00:27:09,129 Science-fiction writers very often 628 00:27:09,213 --> 00:27:11,673 are people who have wonderful imaginations 629 00:27:11,757 --> 00:27:14,885 and wonderful ideas which cannot be expressed in other forms. 630 00:27:14,968 --> 00:27:16,303 [McFadden] Gene Roddenberry finally had 631 00:27:16,387 --> 00:27:18,389 the kind of serious science-fiction script 632 00:27:18,472 --> 00:27:20,391 he always wanted to make, 633 00:27:20,474 --> 00:27:22,643 and it was completely unshootable. 634 00:27:27,356 --> 00:27:29,483 [McFadden] While Harlan Ellison's magnum opus 635 00:27:29,566 --> 00:27:31,944 created a headache for Star Trek producers, 636 00:27:32,027 --> 00:27:36,615 it created an opportunity for the young story editor tasked with fixing it. 637 00:27:36,698 --> 00:27:39,243 I worked on the show, obviously, from the very beginning 638 00:27:39,326 --> 00:27:41,286 as Gene Roddenberry's production secretary. 639 00:27:41,370 --> 00:27:44,331 [McFadden] While also moonlighting as one of the show's writers. 640 00:27:44,415 --> 00:27:49,420 I had written, at that point, two scripts and had rewritten "This Side of Paradise." 641 00:27:49,753 --> 00:27:52,297 [McFadden] But sensing potential in his young writer 642 00:27:52,381 --> 00:27:53,799 he gave her a challenge. 643 00:27:53,882 --> 00:27:58,011 "If you rewrite "This Side of Paradise" to my satisfaction and NBC's satisfaction, 644 00:27:58,095 --> 00:28:01,140 I will hire you as my story editor," and I did, and he did. 645 00:28:01,223 --> 00:28:03,350 [Tenuto] When she's working on Star Trek, 646 00:28:03,434 --> 00:28:07,354 she's actually the youngest story editor in the history of television, 647 00:28:07,438 --> 00:28:10,441 and she's one of the very few female story editors. 648 00:28:10,524 --> 00:28:13,360 [McFadden] Which made her job even more intimidating. 649 00:28:13,444 --> 00:28:16,530 'Cause Harlan scared her to death. She was just terrified. 650 00:28:16,613 --> 00:28:18,949 She said, "I'll do a rewrite, but don't tell him." 651 00:28:19,032 --> 00:28:22,786 She didn't tell him for like three decades that she had done the rewrite on it, 652 00:28:22,870 --> 00:28:24,329 and she let him blame Gene. [laughs] 653 00:28:24,413 --> 00:28:28,333 One of the things she did was take each character 654 00:28:28,417 --> 00:28:30,127 and do something special. 655 00:28:30,210 --> 00:28:33,213 [McFadden] That included doing a special on the character of Bones. 656 00:28:33,297 --> 00:28:35,632 I'd better risk a few drops of cordrazine. 657 00:28:35,716 --> 00:28:40,053 Dorothy Fontana came up with the part about McCoy accidentally injects himself. 658 00:28:42,097 --> 00:28:42,931 Bones! 659 00:28:43,015 --> 00:28:44,183 And goes deranged. 660 00:28:44,266 --> 00:28:45,350 Killers! 661 00:28:45,434 --> 00:28:47,853 [McFadden] Which is how D.C. feared Harlan would react 662 00:28:47,936 --> 00:28:50,397 when he found out that they changed the script. 663 00:28:50,481 --> 00:28:51,565 No, he couldn't be mad at her. 664 00:28:51,648 --> 00:28:53,400 Nobody could be mad at Dorothy. 665 00:28:53,484 --> 00:28:55,569 [McFadden] But that didn't mean he was happy about it. 666 00:28:55,652 --> 00:28:57,779 The core of it is that the Joan Collins character... 667 00:28:57,863 --> 00:28:59,072 I'm Edith Keeler. 668 00:28:59,156 --> 00:29:02,284 [Nat Segaloff] ...is going to prevent the United States' entry into World War II. 669 00:29:02,367 --> 00:29:04,870 This would allow Hitler to take over the world. 670 00:29:04,953 --> 00:29:07,122 [McFadden] But if that wasn't horrifying enough... 671 00:29:07,206 --> 00:29:08,624 I'm in love with Edith Keeler. 672 00:29:08,707 --> 00:29:11,126 [McFadden] This was history versus love. 673 00:29:11,210 --> 00:29:15,088 Harlan was probably one of the greatest romantics in science fiction. 674 00:29:15,172 --> 00:29:19,384 [McFadden] Although let's just say it doesn't end well for the lovebirds. 675 00:29:19,468 --> 00:29:22,095 [Cushman] Kirk has to let the woman he loves die. 676 00:29:22,179 --> 00:29:23,972 [screams] 677 00:29:24,056 --> 00:29:24,890 To save the world. 678 00:29:24,973 --> 00:29:28,477 [McFadden] Which might be why Gene felt the need to soften the blow. 679 00:29:28,560 --> 00:29:30,187 Of course, he wrote that speech for Edith. 680 00:29:30,270 --> 00:29:33,732 Now, I don't pretend to tell you how to find happiness and love. 681 00:29:33,815 --> 00:29:38,820 One day, man is going to be able to harness incredible energies. 682 00:29:39,238 --> 00:29:41,698 [McFadden] If nothing else, it was a speech about... 683 00:29:41,782 --> 00:29:42,616 Hope. 684 00:29:42,699 --> 00:29:46,828 [McFadden] But Gene's two cents gave anything but hope to Harlan Ellison. 685 00:29:46,912 --> 00:29:49,748 It's the old French joke 686 00:29:49,831 --> 00:29:52,834 about the chef who has made a great soup, 687 00:29:52,918 --> 00:29:53,877 and all the other chefs come in. 688 00:29:53,961 --> 00:29:56,421 They say, "Well, we must make it just a little bit better," 689 00:29:56,505 --> 00:29:58,048 and they all piss in it. 690 00:29:58,131 --> 00:30:00,008 Everybody pissed in my script. 691 00:30:00,092 --> 00:30:01,051 [McFadden] Which naturally... 692 00:30:01,134 --> 00:30:02,052 ...pissed Harlan off. 693 00:30:02,135 --> 00:30:03,971 [McFadden] So Harlan washed his hands of it. 694 00:30:04,054 --> 00:30:07,099 And so by the time they filmed it, Harlan didn't want his name on it. 695 00:30:07,182 --> 00:30:09,601 [McFadden] Which Gene couldn't afford to lose. 696 00:30:09,685 --> 00:30:12,271 If he lost the name Harlan Ellison, he would have lost all legitimacy. 697 00:30:12,354 --> 00:30:15,440 [McFadden] So Gene gave Harlan an ultimatum. 698 00:30:15,524 --> 00:30:17,276 "If you don't let us put your name on this, 699 00:30:17,359 --> 00:30:18,944 I'm gonna do everything I can to see 700 00:30:19,027 --> 00:30:21,113 that you never work in this industry again." 701 00:30:21,196 --> 00:30:23,991 [McFadden] And surprisingly, that line worked. 702 00:30:24,074 --> 00:30:25,909 They ended up putting Harlan's name on the screen, 703 00:30:25,993 --> 00:30:28,203 with Harlan's permission, but it took a lot of fighting. 704 00:30:28,287 --> 00:30:30,581 [McFadden] But ironically, there came a point 705 00:30:30,664 --> 00:30:34,334 where Harlan Ellison was quite pleased to have his name on the script. 706 00:30:34,418 --> 00:30:38,630 Harlan won a Writers Guild Award for his original script. 707 00:30:38,714 --> 00:30:39,673 [McFadden] That's right. 708 00:30:39,756 --> 00:30:43,385 The way things worked back then, it really paid to be a writer. 709 00:30:43,468 --> 00:30:47,347 In those days, the days of Star Trek and in live and early television, 710 00:30:47,431 --> 00:30:50,225 the writer kept the rights to his script after the show was made. 711 00:30:50,309 --> 00:30:51,727 They always reverted to him or her. 712 00:30:51,810 --> 00:30:54,896 [McFadden] Well, in this case, definitely not for her. 713 00:30:54,980 --> 00:30:56,940 Harlan, therefore, was able to keep the complete rights 714 00:30:57,024 --> 00:30:59,359 to his full script for "The City on the Edge of Forever." 715 00:30:59,443 --> 00:31:01,069 [McFadden] Which was sweet for Harlan. 716 00:31:01,153 --> 00:31:04,698 But for others, uh, it left quite a bad taste. 717 00:31:04,781 --> 00:31:09,077 Harlan, when he won that award at the Writers Guild Awards ceremony, 718 00:31:09,161 --> 00:31:12,873 he held the script up over his head and said, "Don't let them rewrite you." 719 00:31:12,956 --> 00:31:14,041 And Herb Solow... 720 00:31:14,124 --> 00:31:17,002 [McFadden] Then head of TV production for Desilu. 721 00:31:17,085 --> 00:31:21,673 He said, "I zoomed down to my plate, my knife and my fork and my spoon, 722 00:31:21,757 --> 00:31:24,468 and I was thinking, which of these utensils should I use 723 00:31:24,551 --> 00:31:25,927 -when I murder Harlan? -[record scratches] 724 00:31:26,011 --> 00:31:29,598 Which one will take longer and hurt the most?" [laughs] 725 00:31:29,681 --> 00:31:33,602 [McFadden] Long before Herb contemplated knife-and-fork crime, 726 00:31:33,685 --> 00:31:38,190 those onset when shooting began may have been starting on the entree, 727 00:31:38,273 --> 00:31:41,109 but they were already worrying about the bill. 728 00:31:41,193 --> 00:31:43,570 Harlan Ellison's "The City on the Edge of Forever" 729 00:31:43,654 --> 00:31:45,656 would come with a hell of a price tag, 730 00:31:45,739 --> 00:31:48,325 putting the whole series on the edge of forever. 731 00:31:48,408 --> 00:31:52,245 It was the most expensive episode of Star Trek ever. 732 00:31:52,329 --> 00:31:54,456 [McFadden] That meant season two of Star Trek 733 00:31:54,539 --> 00:31:56,541 really needed to turn those thrusters on. 734 00:31:56,625 --> 00:31:59,211 [announcer] William Shatner stars as Captain Kirk 735 00:31:59,294 --> 00:32:01,963 and Leonard Nimoy as Science Officer Spock 736 00:32:02,047 --> 00:32:04,174 on Star Trek in color. 737 00:32:04,257 --> 00:32:06,051 [McFadden] Luckily, it was not only in color, 738 00:32:06,134 --> 00:32:07,803 but in a prime slot. 739 00:32:07,886 --> 00:32:11,765 NBC had promised Gene the 8:00 time slot on Monday, 740 00:32:11,848 --> 00:32:13,308 and then they gave it to Laugh-In. 741 00:32:13,392 --> 00:32:14,726 Hey, you got anything on tonight? 742 00:32:14,810 --> 00:32:17,521 -I certainly hope so. -[audience laughs] 743 00:32:17,604 --> 00:32:19,606 [David Gerrold] Because Laugh-In had gotten such strong ratings, 744 00:32:19,690 --> 00:32:21,108 they didn't wanna lose the time slot. 745 00:32:21,191 --> 00:32:25,320 [McFadden] And so a comedy sketch show sent Star Trek to a distant galaxy. 746 00:32:25,404 --> 00:32:26,905 [Gerrold] 10:00 on Friday nights. 747 00:32:26,988 --> 00:32:28,990 That was a bad time slot for Star Trek. 748 00:32:29,074 --> 00:32:32,119 Gene knew nobody stays home and watches television on Friday night. 749 00:32:32,202 --> 00:32:33,745 That's movie night. That's date night. 750 00:32:33,829 --> 00:32:36,206 But it was still their top-rated show of the night. 751 00:32:36,289 --> 00:32:38,500 [McFadden] Partly because Gene Roddenberry's characters 752 00:32:38,583 --> 00:32:40,419 -had started to click. -[switch clicks] 753 00:32:40,502 --> 00:32:43,588 [Gerrold] You have something very magical with Kirk, Spock, and McCoy. 754 00:32:43,672 --> 00:32:45,549 Kirk is the decider. He's the action. 755 00:32:45,632 --> 00:32:48,135 But over here, you have the logic, the rationality. 756 00:32:48,218 --> 00:32:49,720 And over here, you have the emotions. 757 00:32:49,803 --> 00:32:52,097 [McFadden] And although the cast was shaping up nicely, 758 00:32:52,180 --> 00:32:55,016 NBC wanted to add one more piece. 759 00:32:55,100 --> 00:32:55,934 Navigator. 760 00:32:56,017 --> 00:32:56,852 [switch clicks] 761 00:32:56,935 --> 00:32:58,437 We should be there in seconds. 762 00:32:58,520 --> 00:33:02,733 The network wanted a young character to appeal to the younger audience. 763 00:33:02,816 --> 00:33:04,317 You know this man, Captain? 764 00:33:04,401 --> 00:33:06,403 [McFadden] So they brought in Walter Koenig, 765 00:33:06,486 --> 00:33:09,281 apparently due to his passing resemblance to a monkey. 766 00:33:09,364 --> 00:33:10,741 -[monkey screeches] -Yeah. [laughs] 767 00:33:10,824 --> 00:33:14,077 [McFadden] Or more precisely, Davy Jones of The Monkeys. 768 00:33:14,161 --> 00:33:15,328 The Monkeys was the only show 769 00:33:15,412 --> 00:33:17,664 that was getting more fan mail than Star Trek at that point. 770 00:33:17,748 --> 00:33:19,458 [McFadden] With one clever difference. 771 00:33:19,541 --> 00:33:20,459 This is vodka. 772 00:33:20,542 --> 00:33:22,878 [McFadden] Thanks to a classic Roddenberry twist. 773 00:33:22,961 --> 00:33:23,920 "Let's make him a Russian." 774 00:33:24,004 --> 00:33:24,963 Just like Russia. 775 00:33:25,046 --> 00:33:29,009 And this was huge for 1967. 776 00:33:29,092 --> 00:33:30,719 It was the Cold War going on. 777 00:33:30,802 --> 00:33:33,221 The Garden of Eden was just outside Moscow. 778 00:33:33,305 --> 00:33:34,347 A very nice place. 779 00:33:34,431 --> 00:33:36,892 I know Gene's thinking is that, Star Trek, 780 00:33:36,975 --> 00:33:41,730 you mixed all races, erase all borders. 781 00:33:41,813 --> 00:33:43,482 [Koenig] All nationalities could get together. 782 00:33:43,565 --> 00:33:46,985 We could all work together and bring that sense of humanity, 783 00:33:47,068 --> 00:33:49,905 which was really what Star Trek was about. 784 00:33:49,988 --> 00:33:53,992 [McFadden] And so Walter Koenig became an unwitting ambassador for peace, 785 00:33:54,075 --> 00:33:56,995 right from the first episode of season two. 786 00:33:57,078 --> 00:33:58,330 I do not understand. 787 00:33:58,413 --> 00:34:00,081 Gene felt, "If we're gonna survive, 788 00:34:00,165 --> 00:34:01,750 we have to learn to work with our enemies." 789 00:34:01,833 --> 00:34:04,377 There was some social commentary going on, 790 00:34:04,461 --> 00:34:06,963 particularly on issues that occurred at that time, 791 00:34:07,047 --> 00:34:09,424 the late... the mid to late '60s. 792 00:34:09,508 --> 00:34:13,261 The civil rights situation, the Vietnam War... 793 00:34:13,345 --> 00:34:15,013 [McFadden] But Gene's appetite for the big issues 794 00:34:15,096 --> 00:34:17,599 was causing big issues with NBC. 795 00:34:17,682 --> 00:34:20,727 [Gerrold] Let's put it this way, the network did not love Roddenberry. 796 00:34:20,811 --> 00:34:21,812 He was difficult to deal with. 797 00:34:21,895 --> 00:34:26,900 He had no concept in his mind of why it shouldn't be the way he saw it. 798 00:34:27,984 --> 00:34:31,947 If there is a truism in television, it is that no successful show 799 00:34:32,030 --> 00:34:33,949 has ever given a network exactly what it wanted. 800 00:34:34,032 --> 00:34:39,037 [McFadden] In fact, Roddenberry was giving NBC exactly what it didn't want. 801 00:34:39,120 --> 00:34:41,706 "A Private Little War" is all about the hopelessness of Vietnam. 802 00:34:41,790 --> 00:34:45,335 If this planet is to develop the way it should, 803 00:34:45,418 --> 00:34:47,963 we must equalize both sides again. 804 00:34:49,297 --> 00:34:53,969 Jim, that means you're condemning this whole planet to a war that may never end. 805 00:34:54,052 --> 00:34:57,055 It could go on for year after year, massacre after massacre. 806 00:34:57,138 --> 00:34:58,306 All right, Doctor! 807 00:34:58,390 --> 00:35:00,016 Obviously about Vietnam. 808 00:35:00,100 --> 00:35:02,936 We were the only show that ever talked against Vietnam. 809 00:35:03,019 --> 00:35:03,895 NBC didn't like it. 810 00:35:03,979 --> 00:35:05,981 [McFadden] But a much bigger fight was in the cards. 811 00:35:06,064 --> 00:35:09,776 There was some concern that the show might not be renewed. 812 00:35:09,860 --> 00:35:11,486 [McFadden] Fans were aghast. 813 00:35:11,570 --> 00:35:12,946 None more so than... 814 00:35:13,029 --> 00:35:14,614 Bjo Trimble and and John Trimble. 815 00:35:14,698 --> 00:35:18,869 [McFadden] And they had a question for the creator of their favorite TV show. 816 00:35:18,952 --> 00:35:20,412 "Is there something we can do? 817 00:35:20,495 --> 00:35:22,664 Perhaps we could organize a letter campaign." 818 00:35:22,747 --> 00:35:27,002 [McFadden] Gene saw an opportunity to marshal his troops against NBC. 819 00:35:27,085 --> 00:35:28,795 He was girding for a fight, and he wanted to have 820 00:35:28,879 --> 00:35:31,923 as much public support behind him and the show as possible. 821 00:35:32,007 --> 00:35:36,094 And so the letters started coming in, and then this thing balloons. 822 00:35:36,177 --> 00:35:38,597 [McFadden] With Star Trek seemingly on life support, 823 00:35:38,680 --> 00:35:43,685 thousands of fans picketed NBC, demanding they not pull the plug. 824 00:35:44,561 --> 00:35:45,645 We got a million letters. 825 00:35:45,729 --> 00:35:47,898 [McFadden] A million letters was one thing, 826 00:35:47,981 --> 00:35:51,735 but with production costs approaching a similar number, 827 00:35:51,818 --> 00:35:53,737 fan fury wasn't enough. 828 00:35:53,820 --> 00:35:56,364 It was much more expensive than the average show. 829 00:35:56,448 --> 00:35:59,284 They were trying to shoot half a science-fiction movie every week. 830 00:35:59,367 --> 00:36:02,329 [McFadden] The financial pain was unbearable for Desilu. 831 00:36:02,412 --> 00:36:06,666 They were now making the two most expensive shows on TV. 832 00:36:06,750 --> 00:36:10,128 It was actually a tie between Star Trek and Mission: Impossible. 833 00:36:10,211 --> 00:36:11,546 [Gilbert] Star Trek and Mission: Impossible 834 00:36:11,630 --> 00:36:15,008 were so costly to produce that they couldn't make up the money 835 00:36:15,091 --> 00:36:17,677 that it was costing to produce them. 836 00:36:17,761 --> 00:36:21,306 [McFadden] With Star Trek now one of the most expensive shows on the air, 837 00:36:21,389 --> 00:36:24,267 Desilu had a mountain to climb with every episode. 838 00:36:24,351 --> 00:36:28,647 Lucy's big gamble, Lucy's big risk did break the studio. It did break Desilu. 839 00:36:28,730 --> 00:36:33,276 [McFadden] But here to help was a studio that knew a thing or two about mountains. 840 00:36:33,360 --> 00:36:37,280 Paramount didn't have a real presence in the television industry. 841 00:36:37,364 --> 00:36:39,157 [McFadden] But they really wanted to. 842 00:36:39,240 --> 00:36:42,577 Because now that old wall between movie and TV has come down, 843 00:36:42,661 --> 00:36:45,205 and all the big movie studios are getting into content creation. 844 00:36:45,288 --> 00:36:48,458 [McFadden] So Paramount decided to shop around for a studio. 845 00:36:48,541 --> 00:36:50,043 And they didn't have to look far. 846 00:36:50,126 --> 00:36:53,755 Right next door, here is Desi Lou. Physically next door. 847 00:36:53,838 --> 00:36:56,383 [McFadden] And Desilu was ripe for the picking. 848 00:36:56,466 --> 00:36:58,176 Paramount makes them a plum offer. 849 00:36:58,259 --> 00:36:59,970 [McFadden] Even though it was a sweet offer, 850 00:37:00,053 --> 00:37:02,180 Lucille Ball was reluctant to take it. 851 00:37:02,263 --> 00:37:05,934 The day she was supposed to sign the contract, she ran away. 852 00:37:06,977 --> 00:37:08,728 And they found her in Miami Beach. 853 00:37:08,812 --> 00:37:10,146 That's how torn she was 854 00:37:10,230 --> 00:37:12,857 because this was the studio that she and her husband built, 855 00:37:12,941 --> 00:37:14,776 and it's all she had left of her marriage 856 00:37:14,859 --> 00:37:17,904 [McFadden] But ultimately, this was an offer she couldn't refuse. 857 00:37:17,988 --> 00:37:20,073 Tears in her eyes, she signed the contracts, 858 00:37:20,156 --> 00:37:23,702 and she flew back and cut the ribbon, merging the two studios. 859 00:37:23,785 --> 00:37:25,787 [McFadden] But no sooner had Lucy cut the ribbon 860 00:37:25,870 --> 00:37:28,289 than Paramount began cutting something else. 861 00:37:28,373 --> 00:37:31,668 And then the first thing Paramount did was cut the budgets. 862 00:37:31,751 --> 00:37:33,837 They slashed everything across the board. 863 00:37:33,920 --> 00:37:36,339 [McFadden] On top of increasing budget constraints, 864 00:37:36,423 --> 00:37:39,384 Gene Roddenberry found himself falling out of love... 865 00:37:39,467 --> 00:37:40,385 with his own show. 866 00:37:40,468 --> 00:37:42,762 [laughs] What is it? 867 00:37:42,846 --> 00:37:47,017 What is it? Why, lovely lady, it's a tribble. 868 00:37:47,100 --> 00:37:50,937 [McFadden] There was trouble, and it had something to do with tribbles. 869 00:37:51,021 --> 00:37:53,648 Roddenberry had been away for a few weeks and he came back. 870 00:37:53,732 --> 00:37:54,899 -[crew laughing] -And he heard laughter 871 00:37:54,983 --> 00:37:58,028 coming from Stage 9, which is the Enterprise stage. 872 00:37:58,111 --> 00:37:59,863 [McFadden] Now, why would people be laughing 873 00:37:59,946 --> 00:38:02,949 during a serious thing like a Star Trek taping? 874 00:38:03,033 --> 00:38:05,702 He went in there, and again a big burst of laughter. 875 00:38:05,785 --> 00:38:06,745 [crew laughing] 876 00:38:06,828 --> 00:38:08,872 The scene where Kirk gets the cargo bay 877 00:38:08,955 --> 00:38:11,332 and all the tribbles bury him up to his neck. 878 00:38:11,416 --> 00:38:14,377 [crew laughing] 879 00:38:14,461 --> 00:38:15,295 The crew couldn't help it. 880 00:38:15,378 --> 00:38:17,422 The take was so funny and Shatner was so funny. 881 00:38:17,505 --> 00:38:20,258 [McFadden] But to Gene, this was no laughing matter. 882 00:38:20,341 --> 00:38:23,595 Gene never wanted Star Trek to become silly. 883 00:38:23,678 --> 00:38:25,930 This is my chicken sandwich and coffee. 884 00:38:26,014 --> 00:38:26,890 Fascinating. 885 00:38:26,973 --> 00:38:30,810 He didn't want it to feel like they were acting camp. 886 00:38:30,894 --> 00:38:32,562 This project is ruined. 887 00:38:32,645 --> 00:38:34,689 [McFadden] But not everyone saw it that way. 888 00:38:34,773 --> 00:38:35,607 Just ask the writer. 889 00:38:35,690 --> 00:38:36,608 I thought it was pretty good. 890 00:38:36,691 --> 00:38:40,028 I set out to write the very best Star Trek I knew how to do. 891 00:38:40,111 --> 00:38:42,655 [McFadden] And the episode did connect with a broader audience. 892 00:38:42,739 --> 00:38:44,657 "The Trouble with Tribbles" is a very different episode. 893 00:38:44,741 --> 00:38:46,451 Very carefully contrived. 894 00:38:46,534 --> 00:38:48,536 Instead of saving the galaxy this week, 895 00:38:48,620 --> 00:38:52,415 Kirk's problems are the minutia of everyday life, 896 00:38:52,499 --> 00:38:54,084 which is how most of us live life. 897 00:38:54,167 --> 00:38:57,462 Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a ship to tend to. Au revoir. 898 00:38:57,545 --> 00:38:59,756 [McFadden] Star Trek was exploring new directions, 899 00:38:59,839 --> 00:39:03,968 and Gene wasn't happy to find his writers dancing to a different tune. 900 00:39:04,052 --> 00:39:07,555 And Roddenberry said, "I can't let Star Trek become like Lost in Space." 901 00:39:07,639 --> 00:39:10,225 Moisture! I need moisture! 902 00:39:10,308 --> 00:39:12,685 [McFadden] So he called in his showrunner to course-correct, 903 00:39:12,769 --> 00:39:15,563 but Gene Coon wasn't exactly receptive. 904 00:39:15,647 --> 00:39:18,775 Gene Coon said, "If I can't run the show, I'm walking." 905 00:39:18,858 --> 00:39:20,360 [McFadden] However, Gene wasn't going to let 906 00:39:20,443 --> 00:39:24,447 one of Star Trek's most creative voices just walk out the door. 907 00:39:24,531 --> 00:39:27,283 The original series wouldn't have been what it was without Gene Coon. 908 00:39:27,367 --> 00:39:28,451 Everything from Klingons... 909 00:39:28,535 --> 00:39:29,661 Ridiculous. 910 00:39:29,744 --> 00:39:31,079 ...to General Order Number One. 911 00:39:31,162 --> 00:39:33,123 The Prime Directive is in full force, Captain? 912 00:39:33,206 --> 00:39:34,833 No identification of self or mission. 913 00:39:34,916 --> 00:39:37,418 No interference with the social development of said planet. 914 00:39:37,502 --> 00:39:41,005 [McFadden] Gene knew that Star Trek was on thin ice with the network, 915 00:39:41,089 --> 00:39:43,299 so he struck a deal with his other Gene. 916 00:39:43,383 --> 00:39:46,469 So Roddenberry said, "I'll let you out of your contract..." 917 00:39:46,553 --> 00:39:49,055 [McFadden] "But if we get renewed for a third season 918 00:39:49,139 --> 00:39:52,267 you have to come back and write four episodes." 919 00:39:52,350 --> 00:39:54,018 And Gene Coon agreed to that. 920 00:39:54,102 --> 00:39:57,438 [McFadden] Given the problems with NBC and Gene Coon's departure, 921 00:39:57,522 --> 00:40:00,942 many of the writers weren't optimistic about keeping their jobs. 922 00:40:01,025 --> 00:40:02,569 We believed Star Trek was in trouble. 923 00:40:02,652 --> 00:40:05,446 [McFadden] That was until NBC announced... 924 00:40:05,530 --> 00:40:06,906 "Star Trek is coming back next year." 925 00:40:06,990 --> 00:40:08,283 [McFadden] And no one was happier 926 00:40:08,366 --> 00:40:11,411 than the fans who had written in to save the show. 927 00:40:11,494 --> 00:40:14,914 Really, the point of that announcement was to get people to stop writing letters. 928 00:40:14,998 --> 00:40:17,417 You know what? More letters came in saying, "Thank you." 929 00:40:17,500 --> 00:40:20,795 [McFadden] Having survived the kiss of death from the network, 930 00:40:20,879 --> 00:40:25,675 Gene pulled out all the stops for season three with a kiss of his own. 931 00:40:25,758 --> 00:40:27,635 I'm so very frightened. 932 00:40:27,719 --> 00:40:31,264 This is the first interracial kiss on television. 933 00:40:31,347 --> 00:40:33,016 That's the way they want you to feel. 934 00:40:33,099 --> 00:40:36,186 And everybody was nervous about it. 935 00:40:36,269 --> 00:40:38,771 [McFadden] That included the studio heads in New York. 936 00:40:38,855 --> 00:40:39,939 They were worried about the South. 937 00:40:40,023 --> 00:40:42,609 [McFadden] But undeterred, Gene insisted the time was right 938 00:40:42,692 --> 00:40:45,695 for this singular moment in television. 939 00:40:49,032 --> 00:40:51,451 [McFadden] While embracing a chance to make history, 940 00:40:51,534 --> 00:40:53,828 Gene Roddenberry was facing some pushback 941 00:40:53,912 --> 00:40:57,165 [Nichelle Nichols] The head of the studio came out from New York. 942 00:40:57,248 --> 00:40:59,000 Big deal. 943 00:40:59,083 --> 00:41:01,252 I wish I could stop trembling. 944 00:41:01,336 --> 00:41:05,048 When he came out, they said, "Are you coming out because of...?" 945 00:41:05,131 --> 00:41:07,133 He says, "No, I wanna meet Nichelle Nichols. 946 00:41:07,217 --> 00:41:09,928 She's one of my favorite actresses, and I wanna see her. 947 00:41:10,011 --> 00:41:11,054 I wanna meet her." 948 00:41:11,137 --> 00:41:13,181 [McFadden] Surprising even Nichelle herself. 949 00:41:13,264 --> 00:41:15,975 He just adored Uhura. 950 00:41:16,059 --> 00:41:18,269 And that settled that. 951 00:41:18,353 --> 00:41:20,730 [McFadden] And so Star Trek made history 952 00:41:20,813 --> 00:41:25,068 with a simple, if slightly awkward, meeting of the lips. 953 00:41:25,151 --> 00:41:29,614 Where I come from, size, shape, or color makes no difference. 954 00:41:29,697 --> 00:41:32,533 [McFadden] However, there was still no meeting of the minds 955 00:41:32,617 --> 00:41:34,786 between Gene Roddenberry and the network. 956 00:41:34,869 --> 00:41:38,373 And when NBC decided to move Star Trek to Friday night, 957 00:41:38,456 --> 00:41:40,208 Gene drew a line in the sand. 958 00:41:40,291 --> 00:41:43,211 "If you put it at this time slot, I'm gonna step back. 959 00:41:43,294 --> 00:41:45,004 I'm not gonna be as involved as I was." 960 00:41:45,088 --> 00:41:47,799 He drew a line in the sand like Picard would do later on. 961 00:41:47,882 --> 00:41:49,342 This far, no further! 962 00:41:49,425 --> 00:41:50,260 But they still did it. 963 00:41:50,343 --> 00:41:52,804 And said, "Well, okay, they called my bluff. I'm out of here." 964 00:41:52,887 --> 00:41:56,474 [McFadden] NBC had drawn its own line in the sand around ratings. 965 00:41:56,557 --> 00:41:59,352 And if you didn't get a 30 share, as big as that was, 966 00:41:59,435 --> 00:42:01,354 you faced possible cancellation. 967 00:42:01,437 --> 00:42:04,607 [McFadden] So with Star Trek stuck in the gallows of Friday night... 968 00:42:04,691 --> 00:42:05,525 That's date night. 969 00:42:05,608 --> 00:42:07,568 [McFadden] ...Star Trek's ratings suffered. 970 00:42:07,652 --> 00:42:11,281 And so that made it more inviting for NBC to wanna cancel the show. 971 00:42:11,364 --> 00:42:13,783 [McFadden] Thus, after a lackluster third season... 972 00:42:13,866 --> 00:42:17,036 [Nemecek] Here's Star Trek being canceled, 1969. 973 00:42:17,120 --> 00:42:21,124 The last episode airs 47 days before Apollo 11 lands on the moon. 974 00:42:21,207 --> 00:42:22,959 [McFadden] But as they say in the business, 975 00:42:23,042 --> 00:42:25,128 timing is everything. 976 00:42:25,211 --> 00:42:30,216 Star Trek: The Original Series comprised just 79 episodes. 977 00:42:30,383 --> 00:42:35,388 And although no longer on NBC, its television run was just beginning. 978 00:42:35,972 --> 00:42:38,599 Star Trek gained momentum after it went off the air. 979 00:42:38,683 --> 00:42:40,351 It's a really unique situation. 980 00:42:40,435 --> 00:42:44,188 [McFadden] And it was all thanks to Desi and Lucy's revolutionary idea. 981 00:42:44,272 --> 00:42:45,273 The rerun rights. 982 00:42:45,356 --> 00:42:48,067 [McFadden] Which by now had become standard practice. 983 00:42:48,151 --> 00:42:50,903 The model for television in the '60s was syndication, 984 00:42:50,987 --> 00:42:53,990 and that is, once your program had come off of the first-run network, 985 00:42:54,073 --> 00:42:57,035 it would then go into syndication and be sold to local stations. 986 00:42:57,118 --> 00:42:58,995 [McFadden] Freed from the clutches of NBC, 987 00:42:59,078 --> 00:43:03,041 Star Trek went forth to seek out new civilizations... 988 00:43:03,124 --> 00:43:04,083 of viewers. 989 00:43:04,167 --> 00:43:08,338 It was immediately picked up by about 50 stations across America. 990 00:43:08,421 --> 00:43:10,548 A few years later, it was on 100. 991 00:43:10,631 --> 00:43:15,053 A couple years later, it's on 150, then up to 200 by the end of the 1970s. 992 00:43:15,136 --> 00:43:16,387 [McFadden] But as program manager, 993 00:43:16,471 --> 00:43:19,432 Lucie Salhany wouldn't just play it once a week. 994 00:43:19,515 --> 00:43:21,142 We ran Monday through Friday, 995 00:43:21,225 --> 00:43:23,186 and sometimes Monday through Friday and Saturday. 996 00:43:23,269 --> 00:43:25,897 [McFadden] It was as if it was on all the time. 997 00:43:25,980 --> 00:43:28,191 We kept running it and rerunning it. 998 00:43:28,274 --> 00:43:29,734 [McFadden] This shocked everyone. 999 00:43:29,817 --> 00:43:31,778 Gene used to tell the story of how the ratings people 1000 00:43:31,861 --> 00:43:34,697 come running in to the suits at Paramount TV and say, 1001 00:43:34,781 --> 00:43:37,367 "My God, you've got the perfect show! 1002 00:43:37,450 --> 00:43:40,161 Look at this, it's hitting all the demos, everything we want to hit! 1003 00:43:40,244 --> 00:43:41,496 It's getting to the right audience!" 1004 00:43:41,579 --> 00:43:43,373 [McFadden] And the name of the show was... 1005 00:43:43,456 --> 00:43:45,750 "Star Trek? Oh, we canceled it last year." 1006 00:43:45,833 --> 00:43:48,878 [McFadden] As the number of stations that carried Star Trek grew, 1007 00:43:48,961 --> 00:43:50,088 so did Paramount's profits. 1008 00:43:50,171 --> 00:43:53,257 Paramount was going, "Oh, my God, we've got this moneymaker here." 1009 00:43:53,341 --> 00:43:55,593 [McFadden] So much so that secondhand Star Trek 1010 00:43:55,676 --> 00:43:59,180 was proving more valuable than brand-new TV shows. 1011 00:43:59,263 --> 00:44:02,100 The ratings are actually better, and it continued to grow, 1012 00:44:02,183 --> 00:44:03,851 and people are watching the show now 1013 00:44:03,935 --> 00:44:06,354 for the third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh time. 1014 00:44:06,437 --> 00:44:09,357 [McFadden] Redefining how television worked for everyone. 1015 00:44:09,440 --> 00:44:11,067 And if somebody loves this show, 1016 00:44:11,150 --> 00:44:13,027 they're just gonna keep watching this thing. 1017 00:44:13,111 --> 00:44:16,197 [McFadden] But it wasn't just old fans who flocked to Star Trek. 1018 00:44:16,280 --> 00:44:18,408 [Tenuto] Star Trek captures a whole new audience. 1019 00:44:18,491 --> 00:44:21,119 Even when they were up to their fifth and sixth reruns, 1020 00:44:21,202 --> 00:44:24,747 Star Trek was pulling in ratings of 375,000 people, 1021 00:44:24,831 --> 00:44:28,334 beating first-run network television shows. 1022 00:44:28,418 --> 00:44:31,295 [McFadden] Star Trek became one of the first entertainment properties 1023 00:44:31,379 --> 00:44:35,007 to transform from a show to a show-of-force. 1024 00:44:35,091 --> 00:44:38,636 The very first Star Trek convention in New York, 3,000 show up. 1025 00:44:38,719 --> 00:44:42,098 It's on the front pages of Variety. It's in TV Guide. 1026 00:44:42,181 --> 00:44:43,474 It's in the New York papers. 1027 00:44:43,558 --> 00:44:46,936 It makes the term "Trekkie" a household word. 1028 00:44:47,019 --> 00:44:48,896 [McFadden] And it stars began a legacy 1029 00:44:48,980 --> 00:44:52,984 that would define their careers and their lives. 1030 00:44:53,067 --> 00:44:54,610 When I look at all the fans 1031 00:44:54,694 --> 00:44:57,864 and the people that I talk to in signing autographs, 1032 00:44:57,947 --> 00:45:02,869 it's just amazing to me what an impact it's made on so many people. 1033 00:45:02,952 --> 00:45:05,163 I'm just so proud of that, I can't tell you. 1034 00:45:05,246 --> 00:45:09,375 It sounds funny for saying this, but it's never been canceled. 1035 00:45:10,460 --> 00:45:14,505 We were just off longer than we wanted to be. [laughs] 1036 00:45:14,589 --> 00:45:18,426 [McFadden] Star Trek's popularity stems from Roddenberry's revolutionary take 1037 00:45:18,509 --> 00:45:23,514 on a genre, leading to an epic franchise that's showing no signs of slowing down. 1038 00:45:23,931 --> 00:45:27,602 But without the bravery and determination of Lucille Ball, 1039 00:45:27,685 --> 00:45:30,688 who defied Hollywood and expectations, 1040 00:45:30,771 --> 00:45:34,525 well, Star Trek probably wouldn't exist at all. 1041 00:45:34,609 --> 00:45:37,653 So she's the hero behind Star Trek. She deserves that credit. 1042 00:45:37,737 --> 00:45:42,742 Lucy took a risk on two TV pilots, Mission: Impossible and Star Trek, 1043 00:45:42,992 --> 00:45:45,953 that wind up being the two huge franchises 1044 00:45:46,037 --> 00:45:48,623 in Paramount's back pocket that in some years 1045 00:45:48,706 --> 00:45:51,250 were the two franchises, especially Star Trek, 1046 00:45:51,334 --> 00:45:53,753 that kept the whole damn studio afloat. 1047 00:45:53,836 --> 00:45:57,423 [McFadden] But back in 1969, the studio was in a bit of a quandary. 1048 00:45:57,507 --> 00:45:59,550 Having killed its golden goose, 1049 00:45:59,634 --> 00:46:03,346 Paramount was left wondering how it could be resurrected. 1050 00:46:03,429 --> 00:46:06,140 What do you do with that? Do you pull all those actors back? 1051 00:46:06,224 --> 00:46:07,099 I mean, what would that take? 1052 00:46:07,183 --> 00:46:08,893 "Do we do a movie? Do we do a TV movie? 1053 00:46:08,976 --> 00:46:10,853 Do we launch a season with a TV movie?" 1054 00:46:10,937 --> 00:46:15,942 [McFadden] The answer to that was destined to be... drawn out. 1055 00:46:16,150 --> 00:46:18,236 [theme music playing]