Star Trek: The Original Series
Star Trek is an American science fiction television series created by Gene Roddenberry that follows the adventures of the starship USS Enterprise (NCC-1701) and its crew. It acquired the retronym of Star Trek: The Original Series (TOS) to distinguish the show within the media franchise that it began.[2]
"The Original Series" redirects here. Not to be confused with Original programming.Star Trek: The Original Series
Star Trek
United States
English
3
79 (list of episodes)
Gene Roddenberry
50 minutes[1]
- Desilu Productions (1966–1968)
- Paramount Television (1968–1969)
- Norway Corporation
Season one
$190,000 per episode
(~$1.4 million in 2019)
Season two
$185,000 per episode
Season three
$175,000 per episode
September 8, 1966 –
June 3, 1969
The show is set in the Milky Way galaxy, c. 2266–2269. The ship and crew are led by Captain James T. Kirk (William Shatner), First Officer and Science Officer Spock (Leonard Nimoy), and Chief Medical Officer Leonard H. "Bones" McCoy (DeForest Kelley). Shatner's voice-over introduction during each episode's opening credits stated the starship's purpose:
Norway Productions and Desilu Productions produced the series from September 1966 to December 1967. Paramount Television produced the show from January 1968 to June 1969. Star Trek aired on NBC from September 8, 1966, to June 3, 1969.[3] It was first broadcast on September 6, 1966, on Canada's CTV network.[4] While on NBC, Star Trek's Nielsen ratings were low and the network canceled it after three seasons and 79 episodes. In the United Kingdom the series was not broadcast until July 12, 1969, coinciding with the Apollo 11 mission to land the first humans on the Moon.[5] Through broadcast syndication it became an international success in the 1970s, achieving cult classic status and a developing influence on popular culture. Star Trek eventually spawned a media franchise consisting of 11 television series, 13 feature films, and numerous books, games, and toys, and is now widely considered one of the most popular and influential television series of all time.[6]
Creation[edit]
On March 11, 1964, Gene Roddenberry, a long-time fan of science fiction, drafted a short treatment for a science-fiction television series that he called Star Trek.[7] This was to be set on board a large starship named S.S. Yorktown in the 23rd century[8][9] bearing a crew dedicated to exploring the Milky Way galaxy.
Roddenberry noted a number of influences on his idea, some of which includes A. E. van Vogt's tales of the spaceship Space Beagle, Eric Frank Russell's Marathon series of stories, and the film Forbidden Planet (1956). Some have also drawn parallels with the television series Rocky Jones, Space Ranger (1954), a space opera that included many of the elements integral to Star Trek—the organization, crew relationships, missions, part of the bridge layout, and some technology.[6]: 24 Roddenberry also drew heavily from C. S. Forester's Horatio Hornblower novels that depict a daring sea captain who exercises broad discretionary authority on distant sea missions of noble purpose. He often humorously referred to Captain Kirk as "Horatio Hornblower in Space".[10]
Roddenberry had extensive experience in writing for series about the Old West that had been popular television fare in the 1950s and 1960s. Armed with this background, he characterized the new show in his first draft as "Wagon Train to the stars".[7][11] Like the familiar Wagon Train, each episode was to be a self-contained adventure story, set within the structure of a continuing voyage through space. Most future television and movie realizations of the franchise adhered to the "Wagon Train" paradigm of the continuing journey, with the notable exceptions of the serialized Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Star Trek: Discovery, Star Trek: Picard, and the third season of Star Trek: Enterprise.
In Roddenberry's original concept, the protagonist was Captain Robert April of the starship S.S. Yorktown. This character was developed into Captain Christopher Pike, first portrayed by Jeffrey Hunter. April is listed in the Star Trek Chronology, The Star Trek Encyclopedia, and at startrek.com as the Enterprise's first commanding officer, preceding Captain Pike.[12][13][14] The character's only television/movie appearance was in the Star Trek: The Animated Series episode "The Counter-Clock Incident",[15] until Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, where he is portrayed by Adrian Holmes.
Development[edit]
In April 1964, Roddenberry presented the Star Trek draft to Desilu Productions, a leading independent television production company.[16] He met with Herbert F. Solow, Desilu's director of production. Solow saw promise in the idea and signed a three-year program-development contract with Roddenberry.[17] Lucille Ball, head of Desilu, was not familiar with the nature of the project, but she was instrumental in getting the pilot produced.[18]
The concept was extensively revised and fleshed out during this time—"The Cage" pilot filmed in late 1964 differs in many respects from the March 1964 treatment. Solow, for example, added the "stardate" concept.[17] Desilu Productions had a first-look deal with CBS.[19] Oscar Katz, Desilu's Vice President of Production, went with Roddenberry to pitch the series to the network.[20] They refused to purchase the show, as they already had a similar program in development, the 1965 Irwin Allen series Lost in Space.[21]
In May 1964, Solow, who had previously worked at NBC, met with Grant Tinker, then head of the network's West Coast programming department. Tinker commissioned the first pilot—which became "The Cage".[16][22] NBC turned down the resulting pilot, stating that it was "too cerebral".[23] However, the NBC executives were still impressed with the concept, and they understood that its perceived faults had been partly due to the script that they had selected themselves.[10]
NBC made the unusual decision to pay for a second pilot, using the script called "Where No Man Has Gone Before".[23] Only the character of Spock, played by Leonard Nimoy, was retained from the first pilot, and only two cast members, Majel Barrett and Nimoy, were carried forward into the series. This second pilot proved to be satisfactory to NBC, and the network selected Star Trek to be in its upcoming television schedule for the fall of 1966.
The second pilot introduced most of the other main characters: Captain Kirk (William Shatner), Chief Engineer Lt. Commander Scott (James Doohan) and Lt. Sulu (George Takei), who served as a physicist on the ship in the second pilot, but subsequently became a helmsman throughout the rest of the series. Paul Fix played Dr. Mark Piper in the second pilot; ship's doctor Leonard McCoy (DeForest Kelley) joined the cast when filming began for the first season, and he remained for the rest of the series, achieving billing as the third star of the series. Also joining the ship's permanent crew during the first season were the communications officer, Lt. Nyota Uhura (Nichelle Nichols), the first African-American woman to hold such an important role in an American television series;[24] the captain's yeoman, Janice Rand (Grace Lee Whitney), who departed midway through the first season; and Christine Chapel (Majel Barrett), the ship's nurse and assistant to McCoy. Walter Koenig joined the cast as Ensign Pavel Chekov in the series' second season.
In February 1966, before the first episode was aired, Star Trek was nearly canceled by Desilu Productions. Desilu had gone from making just one half-hour show (The Lucy Show) to deficit-financing a portion of two expensive hour-long shows, Mission: Impossible and Star Trek.[25] Solow was able to convince Lucille Ball that both shows should continue.[19]
Although this series never won any Emmys, Star Trek was nominated for the following Emmy Awards:
Eight of its episodes were nominated for one of science-fiction's top awards, the Hugo Award, in the category "Best Dramatic Presentation". In 1967, the nominated episodes were "The Naked Time", "The Corbomite Maneuver", and "The Menagerie". In 1968, all nominees were Star Trek episodes: "Amok Time", "Mirror, Mirror", "The Doomsday Machine", "The Trouble with Tribbles", and "The City on the Edge of Forever". Star Trek won both years for the episodes "The Menagerie" and "The City on the Edge of Forever", respectively. In 1968, Star Trek won a special Hugo Award for Dramatic Presentation. No episode was named. This was the show's 3rd Hugo Award, and 9th Hugo nomination.
In 1967, Star Trek was also one of the first television programs to receive an NAACP Image Award.
In 1968, Star Trek's most critically acclaimed episode, "The City on the Edge of Forever", written by Harlan Ellison, won the prestigious Writers Guild of America Award for Best Original Teleplay, although this was for Ellison's original draft script, and not for the screenplay of the episode as it aired.
In 1997, "The City on the Edge of Forever" was ranked #92 on TV Guide's 100 Greatest Episodes of All Time.[114]
In 2004 and 2007, TV Guide ranked Star Trek as the greatest cult show ever.[115][116]
In 2013, TV Guide ranked Star Trek as the greatest sci-fi show (along with Star Trek: The Next Generation)[117] and the #12 greatest show of all time,[118] while the Writers Guild of America ranked it #33 on their list of the 101 Best Written TV Series.[119]
Distribution[edit]
Home media[edit]
Episodes of the Original Series were among the first television series to be released on the VHS and laserdisc formats in North America. The first episode on VHS for sale to the public was Space Seed released in June 1982 (to celebrate the release of the second Star Trek film, The Wrath of Khan) at a price of $29.95, as prior to this titles were rental only.[120] In 1985, the first 10 episodes went on sale on video at a price of $14.95 with further batches of 10 during 1985 and 1986, making it the first long-running TV series to be released on home video in its entirety,[121] with all episodes eventually being released on both formats. By 1986, sales had reached 1 million units.[122] With the advent of DVD in the mid-1990s, single DVDs featuring two episodes each in production order were released. In the early 2000s, Paramount Home Video reissued the series to DVD in a series of three deluxe season boxes with added featurettes and documentaries. In February 2009 CBS and Paramount announced that they would release the Original Series on Blu-ray. Season one, two, and three were released on April 28, September 22, and December 15, respectively. The Blu-ray releases let the user choose between "Enhanced Effects" or "Original Effects" via a technique called multi-angle.[123]
All 79 episodes of the series have been digitally remastered by CBS Home Entertainment (distributed by Paramount) and have since been released on DVD.
CBS Home Entertainment released season one of The Original Series on Blu-ray on April 28, 2009. The Blu-ray release contains both Original and Remastered episodes by seamless branching.
Reception[edit]
Rod Serling said of the series that "Star Trek was again a very inconsistent show which at times sparkled with true ingenuity and pure science fiction approaches. At other times it was more carnival-like, and very much more the creature of television than the creature of a legitimate literary form."[149]
Isaac Asimov and Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry developed a unique relationship during Star Trek's initial run in the late 1960s. Asimov wrote a critical essay on Star Trek's scientific accuracy for TV Guide magazine. Roddenberry retorted respectfully with a personal letter explaining the limitations of accuracy when writing a weekly series. Asimov corrected himself with a follow-up essay to TV Guide claiming despite its inaccuracies, that Star Trek was a fresh and intellectually challenging science fiction television show. The two remained friends to the point where Asimov even served as an adviser on a number of Star Trek projects.[150]
On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, Season 1 received an approval rating of 92% based on 24 reviews, with an average rating of 9/10. The critical consensus reads, "An optimistic ode to humanity, Star Trek may look dated, but its gadgetry and solid storytelling solidify its place as one of pop culture's most enduring franchises."[151] Season 2 received an approval rating of 100% based on 6 reviews, with an average rating of 7.33/10.[152] Season 3 received an approval rating of 50% based on 10 reviews, with an average rating of 5.5/10. The critical consensus reads, "Budget cuts leave the stars of Star Trek stranded among shoddy set pieces and clunky writing – though even at its worst fans may still enjoy its campy delights."[153]
In 2016, in a listing that included each Star Trek film and TV series together, this series was ranked first by the L.A. Times, ahead of the 1982 film Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, in third place.[154]
In 2017, Vulture ranked the original Star Trek the third best live-action Star Trek television show, while at the same time praising it for "laying down the foundation".[155]
In 2018, IndieWire ranked Star Trek the original series as the 8th best space science fiction show set in outer space, including 18 overall shows from this genre.[156]
In 2018, Io9/Gizmodo ranked the fictional spacecraft design shown in this television series, the Enterprise, as the number one best version of starship Enterprise of the Star Trek franchise.[157] They felt that the original design was still superior to almost a dozen different later versions.[157]
In 2019, Nerdist ranked the original series number one best out of seven Star Trek franchise television series, including up to the second season of Star Trek: Discovery.[158]
In 2019, Popular Mechanics ranked Star Trek the 6th best science fiction television show ever.[159]
In 2021, Empire magazine ranked it the 36th greatest television show ever.[160]
