These Are The Voyages, TOS, Season One

by Cushman, Marc

  “I’m sitting there frozen with fear that it’s going to turn out badly,” said Johnson. “I have no idea what they’ve done with it. Even though I had watched them film parts of it, I had no idea how it would really fit together or how it would play. But I was vastly relieved when it was all over because I felt like I had my dignity. I had succeeded another time. And this was not going to be held against me the next time I go looking for work. I could talk about this.” (93-1)

  On the night Star Trek premiered, the series won its time slot across America hands down. The first word from A.C. Nielsen came in the form of the company’s Trendex report -an overnight phone survey conducted in 26 cities across the united States.

  RATINGS / Nielsen 26-City Trendex report for Thursday, Sept. 8, 1966:

  For this early report, Star Trek pulled in over 40% of the total viewing audience between 8:30 and 9:30 p.m. The numbers improved once a more detailed National report could be analyzed.

  RATINGS / Nielsen National report for Thursday, September 8, 1966:

  At its peak, “The Man Trap” lured in just under 47% of all the TV sets playing across the United States.

  Dorothy Fontana recalled, “The very first day after we were on the air, I went into the office, nine o’clock, same as always. First call that I got was from Leslie Nielsen, one of my heroes, because I love Forbidden Planet. He said, ‘I would like to say that I saw the show last night and I thought it was great.’... So, the very first call was from an actor of a rather well-known science fiction movie who said, ‘I loved it.’” (64-2)

  And while the men at NBC also loved this episode, not everyone at Star Trek did. “The Man Trap,” per Robert Justman’s choice, was not given a network repeat.

  Some reviews for “The Man Trap” were favorable, but many were critical; the harshest words came from Daily Variety. The trade paper’s critic wrote:

  The opener won’t open up many new frequencies after this sampler. The vampire act of paralyzing victims by drawing salt out of their bodies is not very palatable.... [The cast] move around with directorial precision with only violence to provide the excitement and very little of that over the hour spread. It needs to be shaken up and given more life than death.... William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy are the good guys, who pass most of the time tracking down the phantom killer. For what they have to do they do well, but hardly impressive enough to vitalize the story line.

  Weekly Variety, out on September 14, reported:

  Star Trek obviously solicits all-out suspension of disbelief, but it won’t work. Even within its sci-fi frame of reference it was an incredible and dreary mess of confusion and complexities at the kickoff. The interplanetary spaceship trudged on for a long hour with hardly any relief from violence, killing, hypnotic stuff and a distasteful, ugly monster.... By a generous stretch of the imagination, it could lure a small coterie of the small fry, though not happily time slotted in that direction. It’s better suited to the Saturday morning kidvid bloc.... The performers are in there pitching, but the odds are against them in all departments -- script, direction and overall production. William Shatner, one of a star billed pair, has a good track record in TV and legit, but as the skipper of the Enterprise spaceship appears wooden, and uncertain about his function; same goes for Leonard Nimoy, costarred as Mr. Spock, so-called chief science officer whose bizarre hairdo (etc.) is a dilly.... A quota of decorative females, most of them in vague roles, are involved in the out-of-this-world shenanigans.

  Not all who watched were disappointed. The morning after Star Trek’s premiere, Roddenberry received a letter from a special fan:

  Dear Gene: Saw Star Trek last night and I thought it was just tremendous. It was one of the most exciting hours I’ve seen on television in a long time. Garry Morton [Lucille Ball’s husband].

  Memories

  Marc Daniels said, “Right from the beginning, it was easy to see that the characters were extremely well drawn. There was some trial and error with the peripheral characters, but the main ones -- Kirk, Spock, and McCoy -- were excellent.” (44-2)

  George Clayton Johnson, regarding the legacy of “The Man Trap,” said, “One of the things about that is it’s the very first one America saw, so almost all the critical reaction to Star Trek came off that first show -- and the things that I read, the basic attitude of America’s reviewers, was one of total bewilderment.” (93-1)

  Bewilderment, as we’ll see, can be either good or bad.

  12

  Episode 6: THE NAKED TIME

  Written by John D.F. Black

  (with Gene Roddenberry, uncredited)

  Directed by Marc Daniels

  Day 2, a department store mannequin on the frozen “Observation Station” set, Stage 10 (NBC promotional photo courtesy of Gerald Gurian)

  NBC press release, September 1, 1966:

  The space ship U.S.S. Enterprise faces imminent destruction when a strange sickness incapacitates the crew in “The Naked Time” on Star Trek Thursday, Sept. 29, NBC Television Network colorcast.... Co-starring regulars are William Shatner as Captain James Kirk and Leonard Nimoy as Mr. Spock.... A landing party returns to the Enterprise from another planet, unaware that they are bringing aboard a disease with which they have been contaminated and which soon spreads throughout the crew. As Dr. McCoy (DeForest Kelley) frantically seeks an antidote to stem the epidemic, the crew verges on mutiny which virtually paralyzes the huge craft.

  To compound the situation, due to an act of sabotage carried out by one of the inflicted, Lt. Kevin Riley, the ship is being pulled toward an unstable arctic world and inescapable destruction.

  The theme tells us that we are not alone with our particular neurosis and that all humans repress certain dark emotions, often a damaged side that we dare not show. We are in good company, as we witness the principal Star Trek characters stripped bare and revealed with their insides out. There is no monster in this story. Or is there?

  SOUND BITES

  - Joe Tormolen, to Sulu: “Get off me! You don’t outrank me and you don’t have pointed ears! So just get off my neck!”

  - Sulu: “I'll protect you, fair maiden.” Uhura: “Sorry, neither.”

  - Nurse Chapel: “I’m in love with you, Mr. Spock... you... the human Mr. Spock... the Vulcan Mr. Spock. I see things... how honest you are... I know how you feel... you hide it, but you do have feelings. How we must hurt you... torture you. You... just as you are... I love you.” Spock: “I’m sorry. I am sorry.”

  ASSESSMENT

  This classic episode begins on a series of bad notes. The teaser is marred. First, there are those ridiculous looking environmental outfits. Since the hoods do not connect to the rest of the suits, they create no seal and, therefore, provide little protection. Next, Joe Tormolen, a trained officer picked to accompany Spock to investigate a strange occurrence at an isolated research station, lacks the good sense to keep his gloves on -- even when the room and all that he touches could be contaminated. Moments later, Spock tells Tormolen, “Be certain to touch nothing.” Tormolen doesn’t seem to “get” that he’s already screwed up. And then Spock calls the ship, ending the teaser with the unforgivably melodramatic line, “It’s like nothing we’ve dealt with before.”

  Once the awkward start is out of the way, “The Naked Time” has nothing to apologize for.

  We hear a very loud ticking clock. The tension on the bridge and throughout the ship is unrelenting as the Enterprise spirals out-of-control toward a certain burn-up in the planet’s atmosphere. Kirk is losing his command and nothing he does seems to help. This is his greatest challenge and nightmare. His crew, losing the ability to reason, is abandoning him.

  Nurse Christine Chapel is seen first here, and confesses her hopeless love for Spock. She places her hand on his. The disease is transferred and, with Spock infected, Kirk loses his greatest asset: “The best first officer in the service.”

  Under the influence of the disease, Spock confesses to his stunned Captain: “My mother... I could never te
ll her I loved her... An Earth woman, living on a planet where love; emotion… [it’s] bad taste.” Of his relationship with Kirk, Spock says: “When I feel friendship for you, I’m ashamed.”

  Kirk crashes. He’s been carrying the bug for a while but was too driven to let it overpower him. Now it comes to the surface with his own confession: “Love! You’re better off without it! And I’ll be better off without mine. This vessel. I give, she takes! She won’t permit me my life; I have to live hers. Now I know why it’s called ‘she’.”

  Darker still, Kirk speaks directly to the ship: “Never lose you... never.”

  “The Naked Time” tells a story that would be difficult for a drama set contemporaneously in the 1960s -- a fantastic disease, something that can only exist in the future worlds of science fiction, is the catalyst for an examination of subdued emotion, inner conflict, obsessive ambition and the loneliness of unanswered love.

  THE STORY BEHIND THE STORY

  Script Timeline

  John D.F. Black’s story outline, ST #9: April 4, 1966.

  Black’s 1st Draft teleplay: June 14, 1966.

  Gene Roddenberry script polish (Revised 1st Draft teleplay): June 15, 1966.

  Black’s 2nd Draft teleplay: June 20, 1966.

  Black’s script polish (Mimeo Depart. “Yellow Cover 1st Draft”): June 23, 1966.

  Gene Roddenberry’s first rewrite (Final Draft teleplay): June 28, 1966.

  Roddenberry’s second rewrite (Rev. Final Draft teleplay): July 1, 1966.

  Additional page revisions by Roddenberry: July 5 & August 11, 1966.

  Star Trek associate producer/script editor John D.F. Black wrote the 1957 sci-fi horror movie The Unearthly. For TV, he was a regular contributor to many series, including Laredo, The Untouchables and Mr. Novak. It was a Novak script which won him a Writers Guild award, and that led to Roddenberry pursuing him for Star Trek.

  With “The Naked Time,” Black saw the potential of the series’ format and used his script to get the most out of the characters. He later said, “What I did, purely and simply, was take drunkenness and remove the slurs and staggers.” (17-5)

  There was one visual concept being kicked around between the creative staff members that was eliminated prior to the writing of the first draft script. Bill Theiss summed it up in a memo from April 18, 1966 to Gene Roddenberry:

  I had heard that the idea of the frozen corpses splitting open in this script had been scrapped. (BT6)

  And, with this, NBC’s Broadcast Standards (the censors) breathed a heavy sigh of relief.

  As the story evolved from outline to script, the characters played a game of musical chairs. In Black’s story outline, and also his first try at the script, it is McCoy and Scott that accompany Spock to the frozen outpost, not Joe Tormolen, as filmed. The three witness the results of the mayhem and return to the ship without incident. For this version, it’s in the transporter room where we meet Tormolen, a member of the “decontamination section.” It is his job to collect the environmental suits. He also wears one. It’s here where he gets the urge to scratch his nose and, to do so, removes his glove, thereby becoming contaminated. We get to the same end, but Tormolen comes off as just a little less idiotic in this handling, since his breach in procedure happens on the Enterprise and not in a frozen madhouse where horrific and unexplainable events have occurred.

  Something else that’s very different in this version than in those to follow: Spock’s breakdown happens in one of the ship’s corridors, in front of numerous crew members, with Janice Rand calling out to the others, “He’s crying!” And then the crying Spock is hurried away to sickbay where we see little of him until after a cure is found.

  As he had done during the filming of “The Enemy Within,” with the invention of the Vulcan Neck Pinch, Leonard Nimoy was again looking to help develop -- or perhaps protect -- his character. He told this author, “John Black and I had, I think, an unfortunate confrontation. On ‘The Naked Time’ script, there was originally written that an elevator door opens up in one of the corridors and Spock is there crying. And there’s a guy going around with a paint brush, painting silly stuff on walls and so forth, and he comes up and paints a funny mustache on Spock’s face. And Spock goes on crying. I said to John Black, ‘I think we’re missing an opportunity here. If Spock can get into a private space, then he can let out some of his interior strife, and we might learn something touching and interesting about him.’ What I remember John saying was, ‘No, it would spoil the rhythm of the piece.’ Well, I thought strongly enough about it that I really did not want to do this painted face thing, so I went to Gene and I told him my idea. Then, a little while later, John came down to the set and said, ‘Alright, tell me again what you have in mind.’” (128)

  George Takei also wanted to have a hand in the development of his character. He recalled, “John D.F. Black was thinking of putting a Samurai sword in Sulu’s hands. I told John... ‘Sulu is a 23rd century guy. I’m a 20th century Asian-American, and I didn’t grow up brandishing a Samurai sword. I was swept away by Errol Flynn and The Adventures of Robin Hood. What about putting a fencing foil in Sulu’s hand?’ He said, ‘Great idea; do you fence?’ I said, ‘My favorite hobby.’ I was lying, of course. But you never ask an actor whether he can or cannot do anything, because we are experts at everything. And, if we aren’t, that night, we’ll go out and become one.” (171-2)

  The one person Black expected to get notes from was Roddenberry, but Roddenberry chose to give his feedback in a different way, one which damaged his working relationship with Black. He did a script polish.

  After only two months, John Black was becoming increasingly bothered watching Roddenberry overhaul material by renowned writers such as Jerry Sohl, Richard Matheson, George Clayton Johnson and, soon to come, Robert Bloch, all of whom Black believed displayed better talent at writing. He said, “I couldn’t bear to see quality work changed to the point where the dialogue did not have the sharp edge that it had. And Roddenberry would use the word ‘fast’ at least once a page -- as in, ‘We’ve got to get there fast.’ I was watching too much good material getting screwed up and I couldn’t take it.” (17-4)

  In fairness to Roddenberry, examination of his rewriting reveals the word “fast” used on an average of two times per script, not once per page -- and almost always in descriptive action, rarely in dialogue. In “The Man Trap,” the one script from this period which does not clearly show improvement from Roddenberry’s contributions, the dreaded adverb is used four times.

  Defending his inclination to rewrite, Roddenberry said, “You understand, television series are a hungry thing; that’s one way to look at it.... We didn’t have big writing staffs back then, so there would be two of us... trying to do that; to feed this TV show.... Every show had a writer/producer, and he had someone, his ‘re-write man,’ and you rode herd over all the stories and scripts that came in.... When you have something that is so different like Star Trek was, the creator has to be there, has to get it all set up, has to get the format set. Others can do more once everything is in place, but you have to establish that first.

  “During those first shows, none of our writers knew what I wanted to do. Not fully. But I had this idea; I could see where to take it, who Kirk was, who Spock was. In that first year, I put everything on hold. You live for the show. Writers write; we do that. But no writer wants to write that much -- to risk your health like I did... sometimes still writing a particular script even as it was being photographed. They’re waiting on the stage for these changes; or production needs them for the next week’s show, to know what they will need in terms of the sets and so on. I’d find myself changing one script during the morning, another during the afternoon; maybe another at night, dictating changes for the next one to come up. That was my life that first year. I put the scripts out there [through Lincoln Enterprises, Roddenberry’s merchandising business]; the First Drafts, the Final Drafts.... You can see the type of changes I made... and with each rewrite, th
e characterizations were more locked in.” (145-12)

  John Black said, “My deal with Roddenberry, by the by, was that neither he nor I would touch a script until the writer had finished his first draft, his second draft and his polish, or her polish [with regard to Dorothy]. When I delivered mine -- my first draft on ‘The Naked Time’ -- there were two or three scripts that were in on that day – Friday. I delivered it to Gene, on time, as I always did, then went home – six o’clock, seven o’clock. I came back on Monday and I was told that Gene had rewritten me over the weekend.” (17)

  Mary Black remembers, “I was hit with it first. John, throughout his career, has always been prone to work late and then sleep in. I don’t have that schedule in my head, so I went in at nine and Dorothy came in to see me as I was setting up in my office, outside John’s office, and she had pages in her hand and she didn’t like what she was there to do at all. She said to me, ‘Mary, GR rewrote John’s script over the weekend and he wants all the secretaries to copy it.’ I can still feel the way I felt then. John and I are Catholic; we’re used to saying, ‘Oh, that’s what we’re supposed to do? Alright, got it, I trust you.’ And, honest to God, I tried. And I was not only given pages, I was also given a Dictaphone machine so I could transcribe the notes GR had recorded. Now, the word is, he was drunk while he was doing it, and he could well have been, because he was very slurry. And the things that he had written across the lines on the pages were rather sloppy. And I kept trying to type these changes, but the sense I had at the time was that he was showing us, and saying, ‘This is mine. Mine. And I’m going to prove to you that it is mine.’ And, finally, I knew that I just couldn’t do this with John’s material, so I carried it back to Dorothy and said, ‘Dorothy, I simply can’t do this.’ And Dorothy, to her credit, said, ‘Mary, don’t worry. I’ll take care of it. I’ll do it.’ So Dorothy did get me out of that horrible situation. When John came in, I told him what had happened and I think he went straight over to GR’s office.” (17a)