The Pilot Ejected

 

On this day in 1964, Gene Roddenberry's original draft of the first Star Trek pilot, "The Cage," was released. NBC reportedly called it "too cerebral", "too intellectual", and "slow with not enough action." Apparently having some faith in the concept, the network commissioned a second pilot, "Where No Man Has Gone Before." The series struggled for ratings its entire run, not becoming iconic until the movie franchise was well underway. The USS Enterprise was under the command of Captain Christopher Pike, played by noted film actor, Jeffrey Hunter, seated far left above. Illogically, Leonard Nimoy plays a rather emotional Spock but the first officer was played by Majel Barrett, known as Number One. Much of the footage from "The Cage" was later incorporated into season one's two-parter episode, "The Menagerie" (1966). Hunter bowed out of any future episodes to concentrate on his movie career, which ended tragically in 1969 by a brain hemorrhage and subsequent fall down a three-stair set of steps at his home, fracturing his skull. The same year the Star Trek series was canceled.