THESE ARE THE VOYAGES
ALSO BY MARC CUSHMAN
These are the Voyages — TOS: Season Two
These are the Voyages — TOS: Season Three
I SPY: A History and Episode Guide of the Groundbreaking Television Series
THESE ARE THE VOYAGES
TOS: SEASON ONE
Marc Cushman
with Susan Osborn
foreword by John D.F. Black and Mary Black
Jacobs/Brown Press
San Diego, California
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGUING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA
Cushman, Marc
These Are the Voyages – TOS: Season One /
Marc Cushman, with Susan Osborn; with a foreword by John D.F. Black and Mary Black;
First Edition edited by Jon Zilber and Dylan Otto Kryder, with Judith Bleses
Revised Edition edited by George A. Brozak and Mark Alfred, with Thomas C. Tucker
Publishers: Robert Jacobs and Matthew Williams Brown
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical reference and index
ISBN 978-0-9892381-0-6 (hard)
ISBN 978-0-9892381-2-0 (soft)
ISBN 978-0-9892381-3-7 (ebook)
First Edition print run … August 2013
Revised Edition print run … December 2013
Library of Congress Control Number: 2013940946
©2013 Marc Cushman. All rights reserved
This book is a work of journalism, protected under the First Amendment, and is not endorsed, sponsored, or affiliated with CBS Studios Inc. or the “Star Trek®” franchise. The Star Trek® trademarks, logos, and related names are owned by CBS Studios Inc. and are used under “fair use” guidelines.
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying or recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
Cover design: Susan Osborn, Leo Sopicki and Gerald Gurian
Interior Design: Marc Cushman, Susan Osborn and Gerald Gurian
Back photo of author: Mike Hayward Photography
Manufactured in the United States of America
Jacobs/Brown Press
An imprint of Jacobs/Brown Media Group, LLC
San Diego, California
www.JacobsBrownMediaGroup.com
To Gene Roddenberry and Robert H. Justman
for their encouragement and invaluable help in providing the documents needed for this telling of the Star Trek story.
To Dorothy C. Fontana
for her extra efforts in supplying me with the information and further connections to make much of what follows possible.
To John D.F. Black and Mary Stilwell-Black
for their friendship and candidness in regard to their Star Trek memories.
Acknowledgments
Beyond Gene Roddenberry and Robert H. Justman, who guided this project through its early research stages, dating back to 1982, and Dorothy Fontana, John D.F. Black and Mary Black, my appreciation to those who gave further encouragement and guidance and support:
For all her help going through the Star Trek show files at the UCLA Performing Arts Library (since absorbed into the UCLA Special Collections Library), my gratitude to Lauren Buisson.
For locating the Nielsen ratings for the original broadcasts of ST:TOS, I am indebted to Kate Barnett at Nielsen Media Services.
A special thank you to those who kindly granted interviews: Barbara Anderson, Jean Lisette Aroeste, Emily Banks, Hagan Beggs, John D.F. Black, Mary Black, Bill Blackburn, Robert Brown, Judy Burns, Marvin Chomsky, Paul Comi, Joe D’Agosta, Leslie Dalton, Win de Lugo, James Doohan, John M. Dwyer, Harlan Ellison, John Erman, Dorothy C. Fontana, Michael Forest, David Frankham, Ben Freidberger, Lisa Freidberger, Gerald Fried, David Gerrold, Clint Howard, Bruce Hyde, George Clayton Johnson, Robert H. Justman, Stephen Kandel, Sean Kenney, Tanya Lemani, Gary Lockwood, Barbara “BarBra” Luna, Don Mankiewicz, Bruce Mars, Don Marshall, Tasha “Arlene” Martel, Richard Matheson, Vincent McEveety, Lee Meriwether, Lawrence Montaigne, Sean Morgan, Stewart Moss, Joyce Muskat, Julie Newmar, Leonard Nimoy, France Nuyen, Leslie Parrish, Eddie Paskey, Roger Perry, Ande Richardson, Gene Roddenberry, Rod Roddenberry, Joseph Sargent, Ralph Senensky, Peter Sloman, Louise Sorel, Norman Spinrad, Malachi Throne, Tralane, Bjo Trimble, Beverly Washburn, Andrea Weaver, Grace Lee Whitney, William Windom, John Winston, and Celeste Yarnell.
Many of those who helped to make the original Star Trek are sadly no longer with us. In an effort to include their voices in this documentation, I relied on hundreds of newspaper and magazine articles, as well as dozens of books. A full list of these sources can be found in the bibliography, but I wish to give special mention here to the following books and their authors:
Beam Me Up, Scotty by James Doohan with Peter David. Beyond Uhura: Star Trek and Other Memories by Nichelle Nichols. The City on the Edge of Forever by Harlan Ellison. Eighty Odd Years in Hollywood by John Meredyth Lucas. From Sawdust to Stardust: The Biography of DeForest Kelley by Terry Lee Rioux. Gene Roddenberry: The Last Conversation by Yvonne Fern. Gene Roddenberry: The Myth and the Man Behind Star Trek by Joel Engel. Great Birds of the Galaxy by Edward Gross and Mark A. Altman. I Am Not Spock and I Am Spock by Leonard Nimoy. Inside Star Trek: The Real Story by Herbert F. Solow and Robert H. Justman. The Longest Trek: My Tour of the Galaxy by Grace Lee Whitney with Jim Denney. The Making of Star Trek by Stephen E. Whitfield and Gene Roddenberry. The Music of Star Trek, by Jeff Bond. On the Good Ship Enterprise: My 15 Years with Star Trek by Bjo Trimble. Science Fiction Television Series by Mark Phillips and Frank Garcia. Shatner: Where No Man … by William Shatner, Sondra Marshak and Myrna Culbreath. The Star Trek Compendium by Allan Asherman. Star Trek Creator by David Alexander. The Star Trek Interview Book by Allan Asherman. Star Trek Memories by William Shatner with Chris Kreski. To the Stars: The Autobiography of George Takei by George Takei. Trek Classics by Edward Gross. The Trouble with Tribbles and the The World of Star Trek by David Gerrold.
For those who have either shared in the decades of work or have given their support and encouragement in other meaningful ways:
Mark Alfred, Barbara Asaro, Paul Barry, Wayne Beachley, Andrew Beirne, Brian Beirne, Judith and Tony Bleses, George A. Brozak, Shay Cranfield, Mike Crate, Dawn Cushman, Druanne Cushman, Steven Dai Watkins-Cushman, Kathleen Dougherty, Curtis Fox, Melody Fox, David Furlano, Gerald Gurian, Bonnie Hill, Gerald Hill, Joan Furlano, Dylan Otto Kryder, Bernie Kulchin, Linda J. LaRosa, Jon Laxton, Kathy Marshall, Tom McClane, Larra Morris, Alex Nava, Susan Osborn, Ian Peters, Mark Phillips, Jim Plaster, Patti Plaster, Bill and Mikki Jo Resto, Jake and Patricia Satin-Jacobs, Ruth Anson-Sowby, Paul Stuiber, Jeff Szalay, Paula Taylor, Thomas C. Tucker, Gary Werchak, Eric Zabiegalski, Michael Zabiegalski, and Jon Zilber.
A final message of gratitude to those who rallied in the eleventh hour to make certain this work could find its way to the fans of Star Trek:
Jef Allard, American Ninth Art Studios LLC, De Baisch, Toni Bates, Catherine Bell, John Bernardo, Jeffrey F. Bradander, Freda Callahan, John Campbell, Mark Chaet, Cliff Chandler, Brian Chapman, Benjamin Chee, Christian, Andrew Cohen, Ray Cole, Calo Corrao, Joe Corrao, Paul Covelli, Mark Craig, Kathleen Currence, Claude Demers, Cathy Evans, Paul and Joyce Flanzer, Ernest Frankel, Fuchsdh, Joseph Filice, Gene Gilbert, Aimee Gross, Jim Hartland, William H. Heard, Jr., Brenda F. Hemphill, David Hetherington, Daniel Hodges, Brad Hunziker, Anna Innocenti, Norman Jaffe, Caspar Jensen, Steve Kellener, Sandra Kerner, Robert Khoe, K.S. Langley, Ellen Levine, Debbi and Harvey Lazar, Steven Lord, Lochdur, Katia Destito Marbu
rger, Marian, Ana Martinez, Daimos May, April Maybee, Terry Matsumoto, Maria McQuillen, Crystal Mechler, Sharad Mulchand, Sawn Oshima, Bob and Mitsue Peck, Eleni Prieto, J.R. Ralls, Bert Sackman, Stephen Sandoval, Marshall J. Simon, Ed and Nancy Soloski, Mariam True, Thomas C. Tucker, Franz Villa, Eileen White, and Hans de Wolf.
May you all live long and prosper.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Foreword / Preface / Author’s Note
01: The Creator
02: To Boldly Pitch
03: Designing Star Trek
04: Test Flight -- Filming The Cage
05: Double or Nothing – A Second Pilot
06: Episode 1: Where No Man Has Gone Before
07: The Calm Before the Storm
08: Episode 2: The Corbomite Maneuver
09: Episode 3: Mudd’s Women
10: Episode 4: The Enemy Within
11: Daniels Leaves His Marc / Episode 5: The Man Trap
12: Episode 6: The Naked Time
13: Episode 7: Charlie X
14: Episode 8: Balance of Terror
15: Episode 9: What Are Little Girls Made Of?
16: Episode 10: Dagger of the Mind
17: Enter Gene L. Coon / Episode 11: Miri
18: Deadlines, Breakdowns, and Replacements
19: America Meets Star Trek
20: Episode 12: The Conscience of the King
21: Episode 13: The Galileo Seven
22: Episode 14: Court Martial
23: Episodes 15 & 16: The Menagerie, Parts 1 & 2
24: Mid-Season 1966
25: Episode 17: Shore Leave
26: Episode 18: The Squire of Gothos
27: Joseph Pevney into the Arena / Episode 19: Arena
28: Episode 20: The Alternative Factor
29: Episode 21: Tomorrow Is Yesterday
30: Episode 22: The Return of the Archons
31: Episode 23: Space Seed
32: Episode 24: A Taste of Armageddon
33: D.C. Joins the Staff / Episode 25: This Side of Paradise
34: Episode 26: The Devil in the Dark
35: A Back Order of Three / Episode 27: Errand of Mercy
36: Episode 28: The City on the Edge of Forever
37: Episode 29: Operation: Annihilate!
38: Ratings, Reactions, Repeats, and Rewards
Appendix / Season One Quick Reference
Bibliography
FOREWORD
Why Star Trek?
Has there ever been anything like the Star Trek phenomenon? Not in our lifetime.
Has anyone ever offered an explanation of what caused it to explode like that meteor over Russia in February 2013, becoming so deeply meaningful to millions, maybe billions, of people? There’s been no explanation so far, not one that we can recognize as the full and real answer.
Whatever we’re watching, whatever we’re reading … Bang, there it is! Star Trek!
We’ll be listening to a news show. The panel will be using phrases like “the latest iteration” and “fiscal consequences,” then one of the experts decides to reference Star Trek to illustrate a problem and a second expert proposes a solution, using another Star Trek reference.
A travel show on PBS presents Paris, its museums, restaurants … and a charming hotel where the show’s host steps into a small, vintage elevator and announces “Beam me up, Scotty.”
Central characters in comic strips identify themselves as Trekkers and expound lengthily on the subject, as do central characters in comedy series like The Big Bang Theory and Family Guy.
Pundit-comedians, such as Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart, make the idiom of Star Trek part of their own idiom as though the language invented nearly fifty years ago had been taught them in a university classroom, not from a television screen.
Maureen Dowd, in her New York Times column -- The New York Times, for God’s sake! -- uses the plot of “The Naked Time” to make a political point.
When we left the show, we pretty much believed that was the last time that Star Trek would be any part of our everyday life. Then, when it was cancelled after three seasons, we were certain it was no longer anything to be reckoned with. We were not alone in that conviction.
When it all started, nobody – nobody – in Building 9 at Desilu had the slightest clue how gigantic Star Trek would become. The hope that everybody in Building 9 and on Stages 9 and l0 had in the spring of l966 -- the “Oh, whoopee, we’ve got a real hit!” kind of hope -was that the series would go five seasons on NBC, hence the Enterprise’s “five year mission” that Captain Kirk’s voice intoned at the start of each episode. The significance of five? At that time, if a series managed to hold on for five years, building up a package of l30 episodes, it was an easy sell to syndication where the big money came from … a nice, neat expectation, one that was achievable, not grandiose or unrealistic.
We’d all do our jobs, we’d do them well -- in fact, we set ourselves to do them very well -- and we could expect the work we’d done on this new series would serve to fill out our resumes for future work.
There was good reason to be optimistic:
- The writers who’d signed on for the first group of episodes -- among them giants in the science fiction field -- had committed themselves to bring their best possible work to Star Trek. The lead actors, Bill Shatner and Leonard Nimoy, were gifted, not merely solid. “Solid actor in the lead” usually means that a series had to settle for someone who was attractive, well-trained and only moderately interesting. Bill and Leonard were many, many notches above “solid.”
- Bob Justman was so reliable that he might have been a perfectly-tuned robot -- a robot with a dry sense of humor.
- The intense dedication extended through the company, from the editor Fabien Tordjmann to our art director, Matt Jefferies, to … everyone.
And Gene Roddenberry? Gene was the leader. There was never a moment when Gene showed the slightest degree of hesitance or uncertainty. He was committed to that vision he had of what the series should be, of what direction each scene and segment should take, and he never wavered. Like a general -- Patton comes to mind -- he knew his plan and nothing would stand in its way.
All of us marched together, our eyes on that distant star.
As spring 1966 was turning into summer 1966, it wasn’t that difficult to put in an occasional 9 a.m to 2 a.m. workday. Not when you’re young, you’re happy in your work and you’ve been set up in an office that Desilu had newly carpeted, newly painted and equipped with the first real copier that most of us had ever had access to!
9 a.m. to 2 a.m. Seventeen hours. From this distance, it sounds like relentless, intense work. It was. You’re like that frog in the water … you’ve been put in a pot … the pot’s been put on a stove … you’re paddling around, not noticing that the water is changing from cool to lukewarm to warm to ...
Looking back, the whole experience seems less like the frog getting gradually poached and more like the frog locked inside a pressure cooker.
Could that be the answer to Why Star Trek? ... why Star Trek has its never-ending energy?
Maybe all that stress and urgency and agita threw itself into the very soul of the series, making it what it has become for so many. The clashing of egos, like flint on steel … did it create that spark?
Or maybe some kind of magnetic lines of force converged, creating a new universe on film, opening up a world that so many needed to have … filled now with devices that parallel those that appeared on Star Trek, like cell phones and Kindle and the internet … the miniskirt that Grace Lee Whitney wore … and even her swirly hairstyle which shows up now and then. The crew of the Enterprise would set their weapons to stun, not kill. Now we have tasers. Stretching it a bit: Spock, the perfect nerd. appeared in l966 and not too long after came the emergence of Steve Jobs.
Whatever the next fifty years holds for Star Trek, the book that follows these two pages does put forth the complete, truthful and conscientious narrative of the Star Trek phenomenon. The fa
cts Marc Cushman has so meticulously assembled -- they can stand as a Bible for Star Trek true believers.
And answer, for Star Trek non-believers, that question … Why Star Trek?
John D. F. Black and Mary Black
May, 2013
PREFACE
Toward the end of 1966, my fellow fifth graders at Hebo Elementary School had fallen in love with a new TV series called Star Trek. I remember the first time I heard about it -- on a Thursday, just a few minutes before the end of the school day. Mrs. Ruff, our teacher, was about to assign homework when nearly every kid in the class let out a collective groan. Now, no fifth grader likes homework, but I had never heard a disheartening sound like this after the mere mention of it. And then Mrs. Ruff said, “I know. It’s Star Trek night.” It was an odd sounding combination of two words, greeted by a knowing murmur, then her adding, “All right, no homework tonight.” A cheer went up. I felt like cheering, too. Hey, no homework. But because of what…something called a star trek?
After the bell rang and we headed into the hall, I asked a friend what a star trek was. He looked at me as if I were from another planet. In a way, I suppose I was.
Most of the students and teachers at Hebo Elementary lived in or around the town, which was deep in the heart of a dairy community near Tillamook, Oregon, and were able to watch the three television stations transmitting out of Portland, 100 miles away. On our family farm, the antenna my father placed on a hill behind the house only picked up the ABC and CBS affiliates. Except for during a month or two in the summer when its signal penetrated the tree covered mountain tops, KGW, Channel 8, the NBC broadcaster, was nothing more than a snowy picture with a lot of static. My three older sisters were just as curious and frustrated as I was. You see, all the students and teachers at the local high school had been talking about it, too.
During the remainder of 1966 and early ’67, Thursdays continued to be designated as “no homework night,” and my fellow students kept buzzing about this Star Trek show. I’d ask them to tell me about it and, in answering, I noticed something strange -- these 11 and 12 year olds from this cow town weren’t just talking about story plot but something much deeper. There seemed to be little morality lessons in each episode, something akin to Aesop’s Fables, but with, they said, “A really ‘boss’ space ship and a cool guy with pointed ears.” Mrs. Ruff would even use the storylines of these episodes as springboards into what we were studying.
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