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This is
the first episode of "Star Trek" ever produced.
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Gene
Roddenberry pitched "Star Trek" to NBC as "wagon train to the
stars." |
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Originally, the captain of the Enterprise was to be named
Captain Robert April. It was eventually changed to Captain
Christopher Pike, but Captain April would later appear as the first
captain of the Enterprise in the
"Star Trek: The Animated
Series" episode
"The Counter-Clock Incident". |
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Majel
Barrett, who plays Number One, is credited as M. Leigh Hudec.
Barrett would later play the recurring role of Nurse Christine
Chapel in the regular series, as well as in the animated adventures,
the role of Lwaxana Troi on "Star Trek: The Next Generation" and
"Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" and the speaking voice of Federation
computers during the classic series,
"The Next Generation",
"Deep
Space Nine", "Star Trek: Voyager", all four
"The Next Generation"
motion pictures, as well as
"In a Mirror, Darkly, Part II" and
"These Are the Voyages..."; two episodes of
"Star Trek:
Enterprise". |
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The
original name of the starship was to be "S.S. Yorktown." It
was eventually changed to "U.S.S. Enterprise." The
Yorktown would later be referenced in
"Star Trek IV: The
Voyage Home" as one of the ships immobilized by the probe. (Gene
Roddenberry also postulated that the Yorktown was later
renamed "Enterprise" and became the NCC-1701-A that appears
in the film's ending.) In the final episode of
"Star Trek: The Next
Generation",
"All Good Things...", Admiral William Riker claims
that the Yorktown is patrolling the Romulan border. |
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In Gene
Roddenberry's original pitch for "Star Trek", Mr. Spock is described
as being "probably half Martian." Dr. Boyce also had the nickname
"Bones", which would eventually be given to Dr. Leonard McCoy during
the series. |
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Gene
Roddenberry had wanted DeForest Kelley to be in
"Star Trek" and was
given the choice of either Mr. Spock or the ship's doctor. Kelley
eventually would pick the role of the doctor (and later claimed he
couldn't possibly play Mr. Spock better than Leonard Nimoy), but not
before Roddenberry was forced to cast John Hoyt in the role.
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NBC
rejected this pilot as being "too cerebral" (as in, too much
thinking required to fully understand all the nuance and complexity
of the story), but liked the format of the show enough to order, for
the first time in television history, a second pilot episode;
"Where No Man Has Gone Before". |
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It was
long since believed that NBC was uncomfortable with a woman as
second in command of the Enterprise, but other accounts claim
that NBC was actually unhappy with Gene Roddenberry casting his
girlfriend (and eventually his wife), Majel Barrett, in such a
high-profile role. |
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Publicity photos of Leonard Nimoy as Mr. Spock from this episode had
his pointed ears airbrushed away as to not frighten people with his
Satanic looking image. |
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Janos
Prohaska, the actor who played both the ape-like creature and the
humanoid bird in the Talosian zoo would later play many other
"body-suit aliens" on "Star Trek" such as the Horta in
"The Devil in the Dark", the Mugato in
"A Private Little War" and the Yarnek in
"The Savage Curtain". |
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Meg Wylie, who plays The
Keeper, has the distinction of playing the very first villain on
"Star Trek" and
would later reprise the role in "The
Menagerie, Part II". |
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Malachi Throne originally did the "dubbed-over" voice of The Keeper. Throne would go on to play Commodore Mendez in "The Menagerie, Part I" and "The Menagerie, Part II" (Throne's pre-existing voice track of The Keeper was electronically processed to a higher pitch so the Keeper would sound different from Mendez), as well as the role of Senator Pardek in "Unification, Part I" and "Unification, Part II" on "Star Trek: The Next Generation". |
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The
model of the Enterprise used in this episode differs from the
one that is used in the actual series. The warp nacelles have large
spikes protruding from them, the bridge dome is taller and the
typeface used on the "U.S.S. ENTERPRISE" markings is also different. |
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Gene
Roddenberry originally envisioned the Talosians as being crab-like
creatures, but budget constrains and the visual effect capabilities
of the mid 1960's made this unfeasible. |
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Footage
of Vina as the Orion Slave Girl came back from the processing lab
with the green skin changed to flesh-colour. Alternate takes were
shot with different hues of green out of concern that certain
colours would not show up on film. It was later discovered that the
processing lab had manually coloured her green flesh back to normal,
thinking it was a processing error. |
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The
uniforms used in this episode have no rank insignia on them, aside
from a gold stripe on the cuffs. Gene Roddenberry postulated that in
the future, mankind would have no need for ranks, and didn't want
the Enterprise to be part of a military organization.
Eventually, for the regular series, a rank system was instituted. |
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Over
time, all colour prints of this episode were presumed to have been
destroyed. The only remaining full length cut of the episode was a
black and white film reel that Gene Roddenberry personally owned.
When Paramount decided to release the episode on home video, they
used the black and white reel to fill in the gaps in between footage
taken from "The Menagerie". Soon afterwards, Paramount attempted to
colourize the black and white footage and planned to re-release the
episode on home video, only to discover an all colour version of the
episode buried deep within the Paramount library. Eventually, the
all colour version was released. |
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This
episode served as a filler episode, hosted by Patrick Stewart
(Captain Jean-Luc Picard), for "Star Trek: The Next Generation's"
second season due to the writer's strike of 1988. This special
airing of "The Cage" with the Patrick Stewart segments would later
re-air in 1996, and also included some behind the scenes footage
from "Star Trek:
First Contact". |
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Captain
Pike's love of horses would later be recycled into Captain Picard's
back-story in the episode
"Pen Pals", as well as
"Star Trek:
Generations". Coincidentally enough, William Shatner also shares
an affinity for horses. |
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The
Keeper punishes Captain Pike by forcing him to experience Dante's
Inferno. Captain Janeway would lend Commander Chakotay her copy of
"Dante's Inferno" in the "Star Trek: Voyager" episode
"Shattered". |
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In a
blooper, the long spear that Captain Pike pokes at the Rigellian
Warrior bends like rubber upon contact with him. |
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The
Enterprise's "time-warp" effect of the stars passing through the
ship is never used again. |
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Captain
Picard would nickname Commander William T. Riker "Number One" on
"Star Trek: The Next Generation". |
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Captain Pike has a television set in his quarters.
Lieutenant Tom Paris would eventually have one in his
quarters aboard the U.S.S. Voyager in the
"Star Trek:
Voyager" episode
"Memorial". |
