These Are The Voyages, TOS, Season One

by Cushman, Marc

  Jeffrey Hunter, at 37, was more than handsome, he was a movie star. Hunter’s rise to fame started when he was signed by Twentieth Century Fox in 1950. In the first four years of his contract, he was prominently featured in nine films, moving up in the cast until he hit the lead for 1953’s Sailor of the King. Hunter’s breakout role came in 1956 in John Ford’s western classic The Searchers, where he took second billing to John Wayne. He also had second billing that year in The Proud Ones, under Robert Ryan, and A Kiss Before Dying, under another young actor the studio was pushing -- Robert Wagner.

  In 1957, Hunter led the cast for The Way to the Gold and Count Five and Die, and accepted second billing in a much bigger movie, The Last Hurrah, under Spencer Tracy and again directed by John Ford. Hunter worked a third time for Ford, in 1960, this time as lead for the well-received The Trials of Sergeant Rutledge. In the same year, he topped the cast a second and third time, for the film noir Key Witness and, to rave reviews, Hell to Eternity.

  Hunter took a big chance with his career in 1961 when he played Jesus in the Biblical epic King of Kings. In the November 9 edition of Variety that year, the headline on the front page read, “Jeffrey Hunter Sees Playing Savior Start, Not End of Big Acting Roles.” Kings’ director Nicholas Ray said, “Today, a career depends entirely on performance and the importance of the picture -- not on the character portrayed. Smart money is convinced that Hunter will become great box-office after he is seen as Christ.” Variety called the movie “carefully, reverently and beautifully made” and said of its star:

  Foremost among the players must be Jeffrey Hunter as the Savior. Did he not carry conviction one may only imagine the embarrassment. But he does come remarkably close to being ideal.... Hunter’s blue orbs and auburn bob (wig, of course) are strikingly pictorial.

  Hunter had the lead in 1961’s Man-Trap and 1962’s No Man Is an Island. A year later he was asked to star in a one-hour TV series. In a move that surprised Hollywood, he accepted the offer from Jack Webb, currently head of Warner Brothers Television.

  The studio purportedly deemed the expensive pilot film as “too good” for TV and it was released to the big screens as The Man from Galveston. In truth, Jack Webb found it too light in tone and ordered the series to take a more serious route -- like Dragnet.

  NBC, with a hole in its fall schedule, wanted the series – now called Temple Houston -- sooner than was realistically possible. On July 4, 1965, Hunter told J.D. Spiro of The Milwaukee Journal that the series represented a “disappointing experience” for him. He complained, “We had no time to prepare for it. I was notified on July 17 to be ready to start August 7 for an October air date.”

  Then the network moved that first air date further forward to September. This not only meant rushing the production even more, but it required a great sacrifice from Hunter. On July 24, Variety reported:

  Jeffrey Hunter out of star role in John Ford’s The Long Flight at WB, due to Warners preempting him for its Temple Houston teleseries which goes into immediate production.

  Jeffrey Hunter as Temple Houston

  Hunter said, “It was done so fast that the writers never got a chance to know what it was all about. We all wanted to follow the line indicated by the pilot film, which we thought would make a charming series. NBC, however, favored making it serious.” (86a)

  Temple Houston premiered to poor reviews. Variety said that the first episode:

  … tried to mix many elements in the old “oater” [western] form, but came out with neither a fast-paced actioner nor an absorbing, if slowly developed, character study... it was a ho-hum outing, hardly the series which might spell the turn in WB’s fortunes on network TV, which is low at this point.

  Hunter said, “[A]fter 13 episodes, the ratings were rather low and Warners switched to tongue-in-cheek comedy, something on the order of Maverick.” (86a)

  On December 16, Daily Variety reviewed the retooled Houston, saying:

  Changing formats in midseason is a risky business, particularly for a film series because once the change is made the company is more or less stuck with it. NBC-TV and Warner Bros. switched the format of Temple Houston from a straightaway oater to comedy-oater, and the mélange is a poor one, judging from the first entry.

  The disappointing experience would soon end. Hunter later lamented, “We wound it up after 26 episodes.” (86a)

  Just one year later, perhaps fearing his initial failure in television had hurt his chances to reclaim big screen status, Hunter agreed to make another pilot and signed on as Captain of the Enterprise.

  The next biggest role in “The Cage” was Vina, the human crash survivor on Talos IV who is being used by the Talosians to lure Captain Pike into a life of imprisonment. On October 30, Roddenberry sent a memo to Herb Solow and others notifying them of actresses who had responded favorably to playing the character. Anne Francis, Barbara Eden, Piper Laurie, Yvette Mimieux, Susan Oliver, Dyan Cannon, Yvonne Craig and Suzanne Pleshette were all available. According to Roddenberry’s notes, all could dance. The big question then: which one would look best painted green.

  Susan Oliver, at 32, had been a frequent TV guest player, often appearing on Playhouse 90, Wagon Train, The Fugitive and The Twilight Zone. Roddenberry remembered her from a 1957 episode of The Kaiser Aluminum Hour he had written, as well as Wrangler, that short-lived series which put him in the producer’s chair.

  Susan Oliver with Bill Cosby and Robert Culp from I Spy (Courtesy of Three F Productions)

  Oliver gained attention on a national level in 1964 when her character on the popular night time soap Peyton Place was killed off. Months later, after finishing a lengthy film assignment, she was eager to leave for a vacation, but Roddenberry wanted her and asked Oscar Katz to see what he could do.

  Katz said, “Although I’m usually not that charming with women, I talked her into taking the part. Part of the appeal was that it was going to be very easy -- she could knock it off ‘just like that.’” (96-1)

  Katz snapped his fingers. The job, of course, would be anything but.

  To play the ship’s doctor, Roddenberry wanted DeForest Kelley. Robert Butler didn’t, and later said, “I'm not really proud of this, but I was against DeForest. I guess I felt that he was more of a ‘heavy.’ I remember Gene stood up for DeForest to the end, but ultimately he backed me and went with John Hoyt.” (26-2)

  John Hoyt, like Kelley, was a familiar face on television and in films. He had never been a star, or even a regular on a popular series, but he had appeared in hundreds of productions. He was professional, reliable and likeable, but not the face Roddenberry pictured as belonging to the ship’s doctor. The elder actor would have a tough job in proving himself.

  Also cast for “The Cage”: Peter Duryea, at 25, was picked to play Navigator Tyler. He was well recognized in television, not so much because of the work he had done but because he was the spitting image of his father, Dan Duryea, a well-regarded character actor.

  Laurel Goodwin, 22, won the role of Yeoman Colt. A child model, she had begun her acting career only two years before and already had a pair of films out which gave her prominent billing and exposure: as one of the “Girls” in the Elvis Presley sex-romp Girls! Girls! Girls! and as the daughter of Jackie Gleason in Papa’s Delicate Condition.

  Meg Wyllie, center, as The Keeper in Desilu publicity still (Courtesy of Gerald Gurian)

  Meg Wyllie, 47, was made up to play “The Keeper,” a hairless alien man. Director Butler had the idea that it might be interesting to create an “anti-sexuality” for these aliens who had given up all physical sensation in favor of intellectual pursuits. Roddenberry loved the idea; it was an inventive and daring choice. It was also Butler’s idea to cast Wyllie. He had directed her before during her career in television, which included repeat appearances on Perry Mason and Wagon Train.

  Also wanted for the pilot was Malachi Throne, on TV since 1959, including a 1964 episode of The Outer Limits that starred William Shatner. Throne said, “They cal
led me in and said ‘What do you want to play?’ I said ‘I want to play Spock.’ They said, ‘Well, we have Leonard.’ They offered me the part of the doctor, but I had just read a book by Paul Fix, The Third Man through the Door.”

  Throne was hesitant to play the “third man,” a term referring to the character who follows the hero and the hero’s sidekick into the action, typically winding up as comic relief. Author Paul Fix, who was an expert on such roles (he had played Marshal Micah Torrance in The Rifleman), would later enter the Star Trek universe as, you may have guessed, the third man through the door (as the doctor in “Where No Man Has Gone Before”).

  Throne said, “I decided that I didn’t want to be third man through the door. I turned them down and said I was late for the unemployment line. And when they picked themselves up off the floor, they said, ‘Well, we want you to do something.’ I said, ‘I want to do something, but the only thing I can think of right now would be to do the voice of the Talosian.’ I was able to pitch my voice up real high, and demonstrated that. And they said, ‘How much do you want?’ Without even thinking of contacting my agent, I said, ‘I’ll let you know in a minute.’ I called my wife and I said, ‘How much was that chair in Sloan’s window? You want it?’ And she told me, and I told them I’d do it for the price of the chair. It was a wonderful chair -- a big old green velvet wing chair. And it lasted a long time.” (173-2)

  Although not as big a role in terms of lines or storyline, the part of Mister Spock was in many ways the second-most important character in “The Cage.” Gary Lockwood remembered, “After The Lieutenant was off the air, Roddenberry invited me to his house for a meal. Afterwards, we were standing out on his terrace overlooking the city of L.A., both sort of drunk, and, out of nowhere, he started telling me about Star Trek. He says, ‘Hey, I wanted to ask you a question. I got this character and I think he’s going to be named Spock, and he’s an alien traveling with this group of Earth guys in this ship, going through the universe. I’m gonna have him be very intelligent and relaxed and cool, and maybe green or something. Do you have any advice as to who I should get to play that guy?’ And I said, ‘So he’s kind of a strange looking dude and he’s going to be a little different than others? Well, you know, there was a guy in one of our shows, a Jewish guy, and he was really good, but he had kind of a strange face, and he had one of those names -- the kind that Jewish guys get teased about because their mother named them a funny name, like... Leonard.’ And he knew immediately -- the way he looked and sounded when he said, ‘Nimoy.’ And I said, ‘Yeah, that’s the guy. That guy. He would be great as your character.’” (109-3)

  A few days later, Dorothy Fontana read Roddenberry’s proposal for Star Trek. She asked him, “I have only one question, who's going to play Mr. Spock?” Roddenberry handed Fontana an eight-by-ten glossy from his desk. She recognized Nimoy from his one-time appearance in The Lieutenant. When it was time to cast the pilot, however, other actors had to be considered. NBC wanted a say -- and a star. Herb Solow wanted a say, too. And so did Robert Butler. Despite the director’s opposition to DeForest Kelley playing the doctor, he and the network liked the idea of the well-regarded character actor in a different role on Star Trek.

  Kelley recalled: “Gene called me and asked me to have lunch with him; he wanted to talk to me about something. So we had lunch and he started to explain to me about this project he was embarking on. He described the character, this alien with the ears, and asked me how I felt about playing it... and I said, ‘No, Gene, really, I don’t want to do it.’” (98-1)

  To appease his director, and the studio and network, Roddenberry went after another well-known face in movies and TV. “I was offered the role of Mr. Spock, but I turned it down" said Martin Landau. “I felt the emotional range of the character was too limiting. And I didn't want to be locked into playing a character like that, week after week.” (104a)

  A few months later, Joe D’Agosta was able to get Landau to say yes to playing the role of Rolland Hand, master-of-disguise-turned-spy, on Mission: Impossible. With Kelley and Landau out of the picture, Roddenberry was free to bring his first choice on board. And it turned out to be the only logical one.

  Leonard Nimoy was 33 and had been acting for 15 years. His first role of any merit was in a 1952 low-budget boxing film. Daily Variety, for its April 17 review, said:

  Kid Monk Baroni is a fair prize-ring yarn for the [double bill] market... and serves to introduce a young actor named Leonard Nimoy in the title role. He is a capable “juve” who merits attention.... Nimoy delivers a good account of himself both in the ring and out.

  The following year, Nimoy played his first alien in a sci-fi cheapie, Zombie of the Stratosphere. He married actress Sandra Zober in 1954, and then a hitch in the Army during the Korean War interrupted his attempt at an acting career. He later said, “When I got out of the Army, I knew I wouldn’t be returning to a flourishing career.... My first job after I left the service in December 1955 was driving a cab for three months. I also sold life insurance, acted as a soda jerk at Wil Wright’s ice cream parlor, and held all kinds of odd jobs. I wanted to return to being an actor, but it was very difficult to get an opportunity to act. Agents would take one look at me and shake their heads. Some said brutally, ‘You’re not handsome enough.’” (128-20)

  In addition to the odd jobs, small roles in television helped to provide for Nimoy and his wife. He appeared more than once on Highway Patrol, West Point and Dragnet, all series where Roddenberry worked as a writer. In 1958, hoping for more artful acting jobs, Nimoy began studying with Jeff Corey at his actors’ workshop.

  Nimoy said, “[Corey] cast me with Paul Mazursky and Michael Forest in Deathwatch by [the French writer and political activist] Jean Genet. We did the play in a coffeehouse on Cosmo Alley, off of Vine Street. Because Genet had never been produced on the West Coast, and there was this intrigue about this exotic writer, the industry people came.” (128-24)

  Nimoy with Michael Forest (later to play Apollo in Star Trek), from Deathwatch (1966, Altra Films Int.)

  Cosmo Alley [aka Cosmo’s Alley] had 140 seats. The director was Vic Morrow, famous as the switchblade wielding punk from Blackboard Jungle and well-regarded as an actor in films, television and on stage, as well as a director for the stage. Morrow had played the lead role of Jules Lefrank one year earlier for the play’s U.S. premiere in New York City. Now he had written and was preparing to direct an adaptation of the play for the Hollywood stage, and followed Corey’s recommendation to cast Nimoy as Lefrank.

  In an interview from the time, Nimoy said, “The entire story takes place in a French prison with three men in one cell. One of them is a killer -- which means he is tops in this milieu. Therefore, the man I play, and the third inmate, a homosexual, are always struggling for the killer’s friendship. They want to be identified with him.” (128-23)

  The killer was played by Michael Forest, a future Star Trek guest star (Apollo in “Who Mourns for Adonais?”). Paul Mazursky had the role of Maurice, the homosexual. In February 1960, Daily Variety reviewed the play, saying:

  An actor’s play and a stunning exercise in emotions.... Vic Morrow handles his cast with swift, exciting touches, drawing sharp portraits and blending the sympathy and derangement with the interest of careful conniving. The cast is excellent... their work, in single passages and together, has strength and sinew. As actors, they know they are playing flaming characters, and they make a good deal of the sharp dialog furnished in a fine translation.... The off-beat play is bound to cause talk, particularly among the avant garde, and Cosmo’s Alley should be loaded with cats for its indefinite run.

  Nimoy said, “The L.A. Times referred to it as a ‘miasma of homosexuality.’ Of course, everybody wanted to see this.” (128-24)

  On March 18, after eight weeks of standing room only at Cosmo Alley, and with reservations stretching into mid April, Deathwatch moved to the bigger Players’ Ring Gallery Theatre, where it enjoyed a long run. Nimoy told a 1960s tabloid
, “I owe a lot to that play. Many people from the industry saw me in it and I was lucky enough to get great reviews. After that, I worked more regularly.” (128-23)

  Nimoy made multiple appearances on Sea Hunt, Wagon Train, The Virginian and Gunsmoke. He even did a Twilight Zone. With a fair visibility factor, he began substituting for Jeff Corey as the coach of an actors’ workshop in Hollywood and, in early 1963, started his own workshop.

  Daily Variety took notice in its “Legit Bits” column on January 9, reporting that Nimoy was opening a weekend repertoire theater -- The Leonard Nimoy Studio --- where he would direct both classic and original plays. A few weeks later, on February 1, the same trade reported that singer Bobby Vee, who had recently sold over three million records with his hits “Take Good Care of My Baby,” “Devil or Angel,” and “The Night Has a Thousand Eyes,” was turning to acting, with Nimoy as his coach.

  With all the press, Nimoy was being considered for bigger roles on television, and getting cast on hit series, including Perry Mason, Dr. Kildare and, in two episodes, The Outer Limits. He worked on Roddenberry’s The Lieutenant and buddy Vic Morrow got him two jobs on his hit series, Combat!, where the star was also directing.

  It was at this time that the two friends decided to produce Deathwatch as an art house movie. They agreed to jointly produce, with Morrow directing and Nimoy starring. The latter reprised his role from the Hollywood stage production along with Michael Forest and Paul Mazursky. Filmed in early 1964, but held from release for two years, Daily Variety reviewed Deathwatch, saying:

  Picture is remarkable in that it was shot on a limited budget -- $120,000.... Forest and Mazursky both give fine performances in respective parts as the king of the prison inmates and a weak homosexual.... Nimoy, who coproduced the film with Morrow, is excellent as the ‘outsider’ not quite accepted by prison society, even though he has withstood extreme tortures in solitary confinement.