These Are The Voyages, TOS, Season One

by Cushman, Marc

  Roddenberry also suggested that Kirk not allow himself the prerogative of letting the crew in on his dilemma. He knew from his own experience in the military that, in order to lead, a leader can never be seen as weak in the eyes of his subordinates. This would be one more weight on the strained shoulders of the tormented Captain.

  These suggestions and more infused the story and character elements with the concepts and themes that elevate “The Enemy Within” to classic status. It was no longer just an outer space version of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

  This was a sizable rewrite to be ordered from a freelancer who had already provided two story outlines before going to script, especially since this rewrite was being provided for free. As such, it was regarded as a Revised First Draft, instead of a 2nd Draft, so Matheson still had one final version he was contractually obligated to deliver and, finally, be compensated for. Gene Roddenberry, as all the Star Trek writers would learn, was a perfectionist who lived by the credo “Scripts aren’t written, they’re rewritten.”

  Matheson later said, “Roddenberry had a specific attitude toward the writing of the show. It had to be maintained or he wasn’t satisfied. Rod Serling, on the other hand, was very open-minded. I mean, he was a writer himself. I guess Roddenberry was a writer, too, but Rod did not have any compulsion to impose his own way of thinking on the other writers. He did his scripts for The Twilight Zone as social commentary, which Chuck Beaumont and I never did, and he never said anything about that. He let ours be different.” (116a)

  Of course The Twilight Zone was an anthology series with no recurring characters or sets, an entirely different kettle of fish.

  It wasn’t until Roddenberry sent his letter to Matheson that NBC, still unaware that a script had been written, finally responded to the story outline. Jon Kubichan, speaking for Broadcast Standards, gave his okay to “go to script” with one very big stipulation that:

  [T]he scenes between Janice and Kirk’s double be tempered in such a means as to make them acceptable both to NBC and the NAB [National Association of Broadcasters] Code. (JK4)

  The next day, Stan Robertson, also having only read the revised story outline, told Roddenberry:

  Our primary concern with this outline in its present form is... the effect upon the viewer that Kirk’s “alter ego,” as outlined here, might have. (ST4-1)

  Matheson’s revised first draft teleplay, meanwhile, was already underway. When delivered on May 19, Roddenberry seemed somewhat content. His memo to John Black and Robert Justman said:

  Like this story very much. Dick has done a good job and it should make a good episode. With some “hypoing” of the perils, both emotional and physical, with some thought and work on increasing the moments of suspense, it could become an outstanding episode. (GR4-3)

  One aspect that Roddenberry felt needed “hypoing” was the character of McCoy. He felt that the yet-to-be-seen ship’s doctor was portrayed too much like Gunsmoke’s “Doc” instead of like “H.L. Mencken, the curmudgeon, the sharp-tongued individual,” and that the dialogue written for McCoy did not have enough “bite.” Roddenberry also felt Matheson was not utilizing the Spock-McCoy relationship as established in the sample scripts provided, and had not understood “that the two men don’t get along too well.” (GR4-3)

  He told Black and Justman:

  As written now, despite Dick’s well-known ability at dialogue, many scenes in this script lack the spice and excitement of individual strong personalities and the conflict of distinct and separate ideas and attitudes on life, medicine, discipline, etc. Too often they are simple exchanges of information, admittedly well done, but without the excitement which sharply defined personalities and attitudes can bring.... Not complaining, understand.... Sure, it is not everything we want, certainly not everything Matheson can do, but it’s still one of the best first drafts we’ve gotten in. (GR4-3)

  Except that this particular “first” draft was Matheson’s second.

  Justman too felt there was still much work to do. The same day Roddenberry’s memo hit, he wrote a long one of his own, complaining to John Black:

  On the first page of the teaser, do we need to establish sixteen crew members down on the surface of the planet? Five lives are important too. Sixteen lives are more than I feel we can afford for this segment.... On here, McCoy’s second speech is schmucko. I don’t think “half of Kirk’s cellular structure is missing” or “half his blood.” I just think the poor fella is emotionally deprived.... Someday I hope to be able to write memos that are full of sweetness and light, and optimism, and faith and hope and charity and all the other chozzerai -- Yiddish for “crap” -- that I have been unable to corral up to now. I really do like to be a happy individual. Maybe I’m in the wrong business? Maybe I’ll just raise chickens. (RJ4-3)

  John D.F. was less critical and becoming bothered that Roddenberry “couldn’t keep his hands off the scripts,” especially when those scripts had been written by sci-fi legends like Jerry Sohl and Richard Matheson. He later said, “In [Matheson’s] case... he really wanted to make his own fight with GR, and could do it. He was a professional. I know he had a talk about the final draft in GR’s office. I was there. He understood what the show was. He knew what we were doing. He tuned in immediately. So it was difficult for GR to make any kind of real arguments about structure. He had some bitches about where the story turned here and there, but, by and large, [‘The Enemy Within’] was one of the easy ones.” (17-4)

  Or perhaps not. Matheson was already on draft number three of his teleplay, to be turned in on May 31 with a clear message to Roddenberry. On the title page, he didn’t type “2nd Draft,” but, instead, sought closure with two simple words: “Final Draft.”

  Beyond the issues of screen credits and residuals, the magnitude of the work being done by the freelance writers on Star Trek was out of proportion to the money paid. The volume of the workload expected at Star Trek was unprecedented, with writers often receiving dozens of pages of notes from the producer on each and every draft, requiring more than mere script polishing but complete overhauling of their teleplays. What would be two weeks’ work on most other shows almost always became -- for the same money -- a full month’s work on Star Trek. This obsessive rewriting helped to make a TV classic but left in its wake many bruised egos, aborted writing assignments, and irreparably damaged producer/writer relationships.

  With the new draft in hand, Robert Justman sent another lengthy memo to John Black concerning production problems in filming the script as written, as well as inconsistencies with ship’s characters and the working of the Enterprise, as established in “The Corbomite Maneuver” and “Mudd’s Women.” These included Matheson calling for doors on the ship to be ajar and a description of Kirk splashing his face with water while in his cabin. The doors on the Enterprise, of course, slide open and shut and would never be left ajar. As to splashing water onto the face, Justman wrote to Black, “We have no provisions for a bathroom or a fire hydrant.” He closed, writing:

  John, I think it is important enough, since this is supposedly our third show to shoot and we are starting our second one in the morning, that we get right to work on the revisions of this screenplay as fast as possible. I don’t know if Dick Matheson will be able to accomplish everything we need done in the amount of time we have left to get it done.... This script is not too feasible in its present state and I don’t think we have anything else that is more ready than this one. (RJ4-4)

  Black rolled up his sleeves and did a script polish. He was careful to confine his changes to those that pertained to character traits of the series regulars and the workings of the Enterprise. He did not want to lose Richard Matheson’s distinctive voice -- that certain something that stamped this work as coming from a science fiction master.

  This latest draft, the mimeo department “Yellow Cover 1st Draft” dated June 6, was intended to go to NBC for approval. It never made it to out of the producers’ offices.

  Roddenberry did a rewrite of hi
s own two days later, creating the June 8 Final Draft. Among the changes, he replaced crewman North with helmsman Sulu as ranking officer among the men left behind, and put more emphasis on this B-story and more personal anguish onto the “good Kirk” over his inability to find a way to save his landing team. It was this draft that was the first to be sent to the network and be distributed to cast and crew.

  Leonard Nimoy was enthusiastic about the script. Nonetheless, he had some issues, and it was here where Nimoy began giving script notes -- something seldom allowed for in television production of the time. His letter to Roddenberry began:

  Gene, I hope you won’t mind my dropping some notes on “The Enemy Within.” Generally, I feel it is the best material we have had so far, and I will not dwell on the things I like but rather on some of the areas which struck me as problematic. (LN4)

  Among them, Nimoy was bothered by the antagonistic relationship between Spock and McCoy. He complained that it “borders on open hostility.” He continued:

  Also, it comes at a time when the Captain is in trouble, and the bickering in scenes 18 and 19 reduces two military men to a pair of children arguing over who should do the errand for mommy. (LN4)

  Time would prove Nimoy wrong; the fans of Star Trek came to love the Spock/McCoy feud. For this story, in particular, the “bickering” helps to visualize much of Kirk’s growing inner conflict. However, the character conflict in this draft of the script needed -- and would receive -- some refinement.

  The next day, a memo arrived from Stan Robertson at NBC. He was perturbed over not having been shown the script until now. He wrote:

  Quite honestly, Gene, our approval of this script is given very reluctantly since we feel that the major point which we objected to in the outline is more prominently apparent in the script. And that is what the characterization of Kirk’s “Alter Ego,” as portrayed, might do to the viewer’s image of our hero. (ST4-2)

  Robertson recommended that the episode be pushed back on the NBC broadcast schedule so as to not alienate audience members tuning in for the first time.

  Roddenberry made additional script changes, with revised pages coming in on June 11 and, even after production began, on June 15. It was Roddenberry who added the tidy conclusion to the confrontation on the bridge, with evil Kirk falling apart and seeking the embrace of the good Kirk. (In Matheson’s script, Kirk had knocked his evil self out with a phaser set on stun.) Despite the screen credit (acknowledging only Matheson as the writer), the script was now a collaborative endeavor.

  “I know he wasn’t happy with the rewrite GR did on ‘Enemy Within,’ and he shouldn’t have been,” John D.F. Black said. “Matheson was a fine writer. I mean, he was fine. He knew screenwriting; he knew teleplay writing. He knew how to do it. And you could tell. Now, when you had somebody in there who didn’t know their ass from a hole in the ground, okay, you got busy behind the typewriter. But, if somebody did know how to write, boy, you knew that right away. Mary would walk into the office and say, ‘Wait until you read this. Wow!’ And that was Matheson.” (17)

  Mary Black said, “You don’t rewrite a good writer. You don’t go fiddle with it, particularly when you’ve had a couple belts. You don’t do that. You just don’t. That’s all. Period. Especially Matheson. He was a superb writer. I had more respect for him than almost anybody.” (17a)

  With the writing and rewriting of this episode, the dissention in the producers’ offices had begun.

  Pre-Production

  June 7-10 and June 13, 1966 (5 days prep).

  Matt Jefferies first sketch of the engineering section (Courtesy of Gerald Gurian)

  While planning the production, Bob Justman worried about the story’s need to show more of the Enterprise than had been designed and built. He contacted Black and Roddenberry, writing:

  We have the chase and fight in the “shadowy cavern of the power plant.” A set of this sort would be extremely expensive to construct and would take up an enormous amount of room. And I know we don’t have this sort of room on either of our two stages for this kind of set. (RJ4-2)

  Roddenberry contacted Matt Jefferies, writing:

  Much pleased with our Enterprise sets, Matt. Now, however, we shall shortly be getting two scripts which call for other Enterprise sets. Referring now specifically to the need for “Engineering Deck” or “Engine Room,” we should definitely think in terms of creating an illusion of a room of considerable size. We’ve got a huge ship and I definitely feel the audience will ultimately be disappointed if they are not taken occasionally into a set or sets with some feeling of vastness. Some areas of considerable spaciousness would only be logical within a vessel of these dimensions. (GR4-4)

  To accomplish this “illusion of room,” Jefferies relied on forced perspective. The engineering deck, deceptive in its scale, was built into a corner of Stage 9.

  Leo Penn, 44, was hired to direct. He was an actor-turned-director and had recently helmed episodes for Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, Lost in Space, and I Spy. The series he was most appreciated at were Dr. Kildare, where he directed seven episodes, and Ben Casey, where he was responsible for 19. He would later win an Emmy in 1973 for directing “Any Port in a Storm” for Columbo. He was also the dad of a future Academy Award winning actor and director Sean Penn.

  No name guest stars were needed for this episode. Jim Goodwin was back for the second time as Lt. Farrell, the ship’s Navigator. He would return again for “Miri.”

  Ed Madden played Fisher, who gets battered by a fall and then by the “Evil Kirk.” Madden worked sporadically in the 1960s, showing up on Gunsmoke and The Fugitive, among other series. He also had been seen briefly in “The Cage” as “Enterprise Geologist.”

  Garland Thompson, 27 at this time, played the Transporter Crewman. Primarily a stage actor, he had also played a dancer in the film version of South Pacific and worked in television with a couple of stops at Perry Mason and other series. He would return as an Enterprise crewman again, for “Charlie X.”

  Production Diary

  Filmed June 14, 15, 16, 17, 20, 21 & 22 (¾ day), 1966 (Planned as 6 day production; finishing ¾ day behind; total cost: $193,646).

  Day 2, second day on the Transporter Room set

  (Courtesy of Gerald Gurian)

  Tuesday, June 14, 1966. Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass clung onto the Top Selling LP position in record stores with the What Now My Love album, for the fifth of eight weeks at the summit. Also in the Top 10, by the same band, Whipped Cream and Other Delights, at No. 3, and Going Places, at No. 5. While American teenagers were going through Beatlemania, their parents were on a Tijuana Brass kick. The kids, however, were controlling the radio. “Paint It Black” by the Rolling Stones was No. 1 on A.M. radio stations turntables. Right under it, “Did You Ever Have to Make Up Your Mind” by The Lovin’ Spoonful and, in third place, “I Am a Rock” by Simon & Garfunkel. In South Africa, anti-apartheid revolutionary Nelson Mandela was sentenced to life in prison. Also, this week, the U.S. Supreme Court passed the Miranda decision, requiring police to inform suspects of their rights. And “The Enemy Within” began filming.

  Production started on Stage 10 with the planet-bound scenes. At half past noon, the company moved to Stage 9 for the first of the transporter room sequences. No one thought it odd that Kirk’s command insignia was missing from his uniform. The insignia had been removed the night before when the shirt was sent in for cleaning, as it was done every day the shirt was worn. This day, however, someone neglected to sew the insignia back on. Cast and crew, wrongly assuming the omission was intentional and racing to beat the clock, went about their work without question.

  Day 2: Shatner and his body double, Don Eitner, prepare for a second camera take (Courtesy of Gerald Gurian)

  Director Penn took his last shot at 6:45 p.m., leaving the second series of transporter room scenes for the next day.

  Day 2, Wednesday. The scene with the odd little dog’s arrival from the planet, and its transporter-generated vici
ous twin, was filmed. Next up: scenes in the corridors, then the turbolift elevator. The insignia was back on Kirk’s shirt, thereby creating a continuity problem in the finished episode.

  Penn worked the company until 7:12 p.m., at which point the crew began wrapping set while the cast had their makeup removed, with costumes sent to the cleaners. For most, the drive home started at 7:30 p.m., with a call time the next morning at 6:30 a.m.

  Day 3, Thursday. Scenes were filmed in Kirk’s quarters and on the bridge. The camera rolled until 6:55.

  Day 4, Friday. Filming took place in sickbay and McCoy’s office. It was here that William Shatner gave a hand to Grace Lee Whitney -- literally. During a sequence in McCoy’s office, where Yeoman Rand confronts Kirk and tearfully accuses him of attacking her, Whitney was not sure how she was going to generate the needed emotion. She said, “When I had to do that scene, where I was crying, with tears running down my face, it was 20 minutes to 12 and everybody was on edge, thinking, ‘Oh god, if this woman can’t cut this scene, we’re gonna be here through our entire lunch break.’ So, at my close-up, I’ve got the tears coming down my face but I’m struggling to bring up the emotion, the confusion and the shock, and Bill comes up from behind the camera and smacks me right across the face to get me into character. Well, what it did was it just shocked me so much that I did the scene in one take.” (183-6)

  Whitney remembered, “The director yelled, ‘Cut! Print it!’ The cast and crew applauded, and Leonard gave me a hug. I looked at Bill, and he smiled at me and said, ‘Beautiful!’” (183-2)

  Shatner (on bed) and his double, Don Eitner, prior to split-screen process (Courtesy of Gerald Gurian)