MAJEL BARRETT as Nurse Cristine Chapel
GRACE LEE WITHNEY as Page Janice Rand
*Walter koenig began working in Star Trek in it's second season
Space...the final frontier. These are the voyages of the
Starship Enterprise, it's five year mission:
...to explore strange new worlds...
...to seek out new life and new civilizations...
...to boldly go where no man has gone before.
These words are said in the teaser by William Shatner, Captain of the starship Enterprise. The ship which carried the whole Star Trek Crew in their continuous voyages. Star Trek was created by Gene Roddenberry in April 1964, He went to Desilu Studios ( bought by Paramount some time later ) and told the man who was in charge of the series there, Herbert Sollow, who later became Star Trek's executive producer, that he had an idea for a new series, which was like Wagon Train to the Stars and was called Star Trek. They managed to show the idea to NBC and started to write a pilot episode. It was called "THE CAGE". It was starred by Jeffrey Hunter as Captain Christopher Pike, Majel Barrett (a little known actress, which later married Gene, and later portrayed the nurse of the ship) was the second in command of the starship Enterprise where Spock was the science officer. However NBC didn't buy the pilot, but they gave Gene a second opportunity. NBC thought that the Spock character wasn't going to work and that he looked like a demon. They also didn't want a woman in a such a high place. Later, in 1966 they produced a new pilot which was called "WHERE NO MAN HAS GONE BEFORE",directed by James Goldstone and written by Samuel A. Peeples. Kirk was the captain in this second pilot, Spock was the first officer (Gene fought hard to stop NBC from taking him out of the series), and Doctor Piper was portrayed by Paul Fix. Later Gene put Deforest Kelley, an actor who was famous for acting as a bad guy in many western series. He played Doctor Leonard McCoy. From the second pilot, Scotty and Sulu remained in the cast and later Uhura came into the cast. She was one of the firsts black woman who starred in a series and was able to command a ship. Later in the beginning of the second season, a young actor, Walter Koenig, was chosen to act as the Russian ensign Pavel Chekov. The Star Trek cast was multiracial and represented Gene's vision of the future, where everybody worked together without any racial problems, without taking into account the color of the skin, and the nationality. This is the real spirit of Star Trek. Star Trek only lasted three seasons, and had always problems with the budget and with the cast. Twice, at the end of the first and at the end of the second season, Star Trek was almost going to be canceled, due to it's low ratings and high budget. But "The Great Bird of the Galaxy" (a name which was given to Gene by Bob Justman, producer of the series, and one of the most important persons behind Star Trek) began to encourage the people to send letters to NBC to let Gene and all the technical crew make a second Star Trek Season. The response to this campaign was great and Star Trek was allowed to make another season. Although Gene said that 1.000.000 letters were sent, NBC said later that 12.000 letters were sent, which was a big number. After the second season, another campaign was made. In the third Star Trek season, things got worse. Gene said he was going to work very hard, as in the beginning of the series, but as NBC broadcast Star Trek on Fridays at 10:00 PM, Gene was very angry, but couldn't do anything. Star Trek ended it's third season, after having done 79 episodes. It ended in 1969, but the real success came later when Star Trek was reran. The ratings were high and it seemed that Star Trek wasn't over yet. There were many conventions and Star Trek became a cultural icon. Star Trek experienced a dramatic rebirth in syndication, becoming more popular than ever, spawning the Star Trek feature films and spin-off series.
