These Are The Voyages, TOS, Season One

by Cushman, Marc

  From the Mailbag

  Received the week after “Court Martial” first aired:

  Dear William [Shatner], “The Court Martial” was extra-super tremendously great!!!! You are the ideal person to play our friendly neighborhood heroic Captain Kirk. Man, the list of honors they rattled off at your court martial was very impressive. You wouldn’t think that such a genius would be having a court martial. I didn’t mean that sarcastically. You, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley, and everyone else connected with Star Trek are geniuses!! Thank you for being you!!! Ellen H.

  Dear Sirs... As a rule our family is not prone to writing fan letters, but we feel that in respect to the overall excellence of Star Trek we would like to express our gratitude and appreciation for the enjoyable entertainment it provides. That your writers, technical directors, members of your staff, crew, and cast have so realistically and meticulously prepared and presented week after week of excellent entertainment is indeed a tribute to their individual and collective talents.... Further, the ethnic backgrounds represented within the cast are exactly as they should be, for it will require the best of all Earth to achieve in fact what you are presenting as today’s fiction. We hope the above will serve as one small voice expressing a sincere desire for a long and highly successful run of Star Trek. Respectfully, Mr. & Mrs. Robert G. & family.

  Dear Gene Roddenberry... in all sincerity, I like best your “Court Martial.” It may be significant that it had fewer gimmicks than the others in the series, a thoroughly believable motivation for characters, and an intensely interesting story and denouement. Aside from the space ship angle, it could have happened in the very near future…. I’m rooting for you in your effort to put on an adult s-f series. Best, Phillip Jose Farmer.

  (Farmer was a highly respected and successful science fiction author who, at this time, was interested in writing for Star Trek.)

  Memories

  Win De Lugo didn’t stay upset at Shatner for long. He said, “We all used to hang out at the Raincheck on Santa Monica. That was where all the actors got together. And this was, like, a month-and-a-half later, and Shatner sent a drink over and invited me to his table to make up for that day. He was with a date, and he really amazed me, because, in making the introductions, he told the girl what he had done to me on the set of Star Trek. I was really bowled over that he was so open and forthcoming. He didn’t try to hide anything. And then he apologized for it and shook my hand. That was pretty classy.” (47)

  Don Mankiewicz said, “I was very pleased with it. I didn’t care for how the end was changed, losing the daughter and adding in the narration. It’s just that the show was so good that I would have liked to have seen that part done differently.” (113-3)

  Marc Daniels remembered the feeling on the set when “Court Martial” wrapped, said, “We all felt, ‘Thank God that’s over with.’” (44-3)

  23

  Episodes 15 & 16: THE MENAGERIE, Parts 1 & 2

  Written by Gene Roddenberry

  (additional story elements by John D.F. Black, uncredited)

  Directed by Marc Daniels

  Spock on trial, with Nimoy, Shatner and Malachi Throne (Unaired film trim courtesy of Gerald Gurian)

  TV Guide listing, November 12, 1966 issue:

  In the first of a two-part story, Spock inexplicably abducts crippled Captain Pike, the Enterprise’s former commander, locks the spaceship on a course for the only forbidden planet in the galaxy -- and then turns himself in for court-martial.

  TV Guide listing, November 19, 1966 issue:

  Conclusion of a two-part story. Science officer Spock conducts his defense against a mutiny charge. Using the weird communication method of the planet Talos IV, Spock offers a startling re-enactment of his former commander’s visit to the forbidden world.

  It is learned that Pike had once been held in captivity by the mentally-advanced Talosians, who penetrated the Captain’s thoughts and used his memories to create vivid hallucinations, forcing him to experience the most pleasurable and traumatic moments from his conscious and subconscious mind. As these images from Talos IV are received by the Enterprise, Kirk’s problem is to discover the reason for his First Officer’s uncharacteristic actions, and unravel the mystery of Pike’s past.

  Roddenberry’s sly agenda with the original story of “The Cage” that forms the core of “The Menagerie” was a commentary on modern man’s tendency to live vicariously through television and movies, as well as the erosion of the human spirit as a result of non-activity. His message: Live and let live -- not through others, but through one’s own personal adventures.

  With the wraparound material -- the envelope script – we were given a counterpoint: Live and let die, honoring an individual’s freedom to choose when, where, and how.

  SOUND BITES

  - Commodore Mendez: “His wheelchair is constructed to respond to his brain waves; he can turn it, move backwards and forward slightly... Through the flashing light he can say ‘yes’ or ‘no’... But that’s it, Jim! That’s as much as the poor devil can do. Inside, his mind is as active as yours or mine. But it’s imprisoned inside a useless, vegetating body. He’s kept alive, mechanically, with a battery driven heart.”

  - Dr. McCoy: “Blast medicine anyway!... That man can think any thought we can, hope, love, dream as much as we can -- but he can’t reach out and no one can reach in!”

  - McCoy: “Jim, forgetting how well we both know Spock, just the fact he’s a Vulcan means he’s incapable of falsehood...” Kirk: “You’re forgetting that Spock is half-human.”

  - Talosian Keeper, to Kirk: “Captain Pike has an illusion, and you have reality. May you find your way as pleasant.”

  ASSESSMENT

  “The Menagerie” constitutes an amazing and unparalleled creative work, most notably to the credit of writer/producer Gene Roddenberry, director Marc Daniels, and film editor Robert Swanson. With precious little time and resources, these three, with the support of the entire Star Trek team, pulled off a near-miracle and created one of the series most highly regarded episodes.

  If the primary element of any good story is to present a character with a problem, then “The Menagerie” gives us a conflict four times over: Spock and Kirk have conflict with one another, and even inner conflict with themselves, as do Vina and Pike in the story-within-a-story. This one is about friendship. It is also about the quality and dignity of life.

  THE STORY BEHIND THE STORY

  Script Timeline

  John D.F. Black’s 1st Draft teleplay, “From the First Day to the Last”:

  August 12, 1966.

  Gene Roddenberry’s 1st Draft teleplay, “The Menagerie”: September 21, 1966.

  Roddenberry’s 2nd Draft teleplay (Mimeo Department reformatted

  “Yellow Cover 1st Draft”): October 3, 1966.

  Roddenberry’s revised teleplay (Final Draft): October 7, 1966.

  Coon’s script polish (Revised Final Draft teleplay): October 10, 1966.

  Additional page revisions by Roddenberry or Coon: October 13, 14 & 17, 1966.

  On March 6, 1966, Desilu received notification from NBC that the series had sold and was given an order for 16 episodes. The studio heads took a few days to decide if they wanted to proceed with the costly venture. At the end of the week, with a “go” from Desilu, Roddenberry gave out the first four story assignments: “Dagger of the Mind,” “The Corbomite Maneuver,” “The City on the Edge of Forever,” and “What Are Little Girls Made Of?” Then, just days later, on March 14, he sent a memo to Herb Solow suggesting that “The Cage” be incorporated into a two-part episode, melding old footage and cast with new. He made the argument that this would not only save the studio money but, more importantly, would insure that Star Trek not fall behind in its production schedule and risk missing its air date commitments.

  It was surprisingly early in the game for Roddenberry to be so sure that a move such as this would be needed. His real motivation for making the suggestion was to bring to the airw
aves a work of which he was immensely proud.

  NBC had already agreed that “Where No Man Has Gone Before,” despite further cast changes made since it had filmed, could be one of the 16 episodes ordered. Now the network would consider letting “The Cage” be another.

  Two days later, on March 16, “The Cage” went off to Stan Robertson. Like the others at the network, he was impressed by its scope, with production values that far exceeded anything produced for television in the past. He was quick to embrace the idea.

  Even without a story outline to serve as a blueprint, NBC agreed to this unique proposal on March 21. “The Cage” could be used as one of the 16 episodes, with two caveats: 1) It would be combined with a companion story featuring the current cast members, comprising close to 50% of the material to be seen in the two-part episode, and 2) that the network would only pay for one of those two episodes. NBC, after all, had already contributed a fair amount of money into the making of “The Cage.”

  Desilu was not happy. If the studio went along with Roddenberry’s proposal, it would be forfeiting $100,000 in revenue from the network, with the order for newly produced episodes decreasing from 15 to 14. On the other hand, if the companion episode -- that “envelope story” -- could be produced for the budget of a single new episode, the studio would save itself $92,000 in deficit financing by not having to make that 15th new episode.

  The day after NBC agreed to the proposal, Roddenberry wrote to Mickey Rubin, the Financial Executive at Desilu. He appealed to the studio to accept the deal, stating that he believed the series would not be able to produce and deliver 15 new episodes in time to meet all air dates, but they might be able to produce and deliver 14. Rubin slept on it, uneasily, and then sent word the next day that Desilu reluctantly agreed to the network’s terms.

  It was an early victory for Roddenberry, and then the project was immediately put onto the back burner. He had suddenly found himself far too busy rewriting scripts to make time for creating the needed envelope story -- a teleplay which would clearly require intricate planning and structuring in order to properly utilize the bulk of the first pilot while, at the same time, incorporating a new storyline worthy of a marriage with the old. He asked John D.F. Black to take on the headache as his second Star Trek assignment, just as soon as he was finished rewriting “Mudd’s Women.”

  Starting May 23, 1966, Black focused on finding a suitable structure for an envelope script that could solve the puzzle he’d been given. He ran his ideas past Roddenberry, then broke ground on his script, “From the First Day to the Last,” on Friday, May 27, spending the weekend roughing out the better part of a first draft, then abandoned it for an urgently needed rewrite of “The Enemy Within,” followed by the writing of a story outline, then three script drafts of “The Naked Time.” More work followed for Black, with script polishing of “The Man Trap,” “Balance of Terror,” “What Are Little Girls Made Of?,” “Charlie X,” “Dagger of the Mind,” and “Miri,” before he could turn full attention back to the envelope script.

  A memo from Robert Justman in late July, 1966, advised Roddenberry and Black:

  The most important thing I can say about the “Envelope” is that we must shoot it as the last of our commitments for the first batch of shows to be delivered to NBC. This means that we should start shooting the “Envelope” portion of this effort approximately October 7, 1966. It would be directed by Marc Daniels and should shoot no more than a total of four days.

  Justman understood that the point of creating a two-part episode by combining “The Cage” with new wrap-around footage was to help Star Trek catch up in production, and also reduce the deficit spending. The new footage, therefore, would need to be shot in four days in order to make this goal possible. Having just done the near impossible in directing “The Man Trap” and “The Naked Time” combined in less than 12 days, with no preparation time for the latter episode, Marc Daniels seemed the best choice for the directing chore … provided the “envelope” was written with economics in mind.

  Black delivered his first draft teleplay of “From the First Day to the Last” on August 12, just two days before his contract with Star Trek as associate producer/story consultant was due to run out. He had one last obligation -- to provide a script polish of this final assignment.

  Roddenberry did not give any notes to Black for his second original teleplay. Nor did he ask for a rewrite. Instead, notification was sent out on August 17 that Black’s assignment was to be cut off at first draft.

  Roddenberry now had Gene Coon on the front line, backed by Steven Carabatsos, to handle the rewriting of scripts and the assigning of further story outlines, allowing him to take the time to do the envelope script himself and, he felt, do it better than Black had.

  While Roddenberry worked on the script, Robert Justman got a sinking feeling in his gut. On September 14, he wrote to Ed Perlstein at Desilu Legal, asking:

  Is there liable to be any hang-up with cast members that were used in the original pilot? Are we going to be able to use the original pilot as a two-parter in this series? Does Jeff Hunter’s original contract allow for this sort of contingency? Perhaps you ought to check it out with his agent. I don’t want to have Gene write an envelope to make this pilot into a two-parter, have us shoot the envelope section and then discover that we can’t use the [original] film at all because of various contractual difficulties. (RJ15)

  Remarkably, no one had thought about this until now. Of course, no one had ever tried anything like this before.

  Seven days later, while Perlstein was still trying to work out the specifics concerning how the footage from “The Cage” could be used, Roddenberry turned in his first draft teleplay for Part 1 of “The Menagerie,” certain he had not borrowed from Black’s script, at least not to any consequence. Perlstein compared the two scripts and half agreed, making John Black an offer of $750 on September 28, provided he sign a document stating that he had been fully compensated and that he had not been asked to do any work beyond the expected duties of the series’ executive story consultant.

  Black’s radar antenna went up. Not trusting Roddenberry, he filed a complaint with the Writers Guild of America, which automatically mandated that the Arbitration Board compare the two scripts and come to a determination of its own as to whether “From the First Day to the Last” and “The Menagerie” were in fact one and the same, or that the latter was based on the former.

  Herb Solow, meanwhile, sent Roddenberry’s first draft to Grant Schloss and Jerry Stanley at NBC, telling them:

  Folks – Here’s part one of the two-part episode explaining what we are doing with the 1st pilot that you kindly financed. Script pt [sic] two ready soon – as you know – should Jeff Hunter’s wife won’t [sic] agree to let him appear in any envelope, Roddenberry has come up with an interesting device to treat Pike [sic] Character (Hunter) as having been injured beyond recognition – this so the actor can play the part. The whole affair is surrounded by newly produced footage featuring our trustworthy Enterprise crew -- thus we have two sets of actors in one episode. The only carryover is Leonard Nimoy!

  Roddenberry continued working and, on October 3, had his second draft ready. He ran this version through the Mimeo Department, which put it into yellow covers and sent it to the network and to De Forest Research for review. Two days later, Stan Robertson at NBC responded, writing:

  This is a very creditable job of integrating the footage from our Pilot #1 with an original story by you, the screen results of which should make two exciting Star Trek episodes. We are very pleased that you have written in Mr. Spock as the primary character since, as you know, he is emerging as one of the definite “pluses” in the series. (SR15)

  Roddenberry collected his notes from all concerned and did a third draft. Time was very quickly running out.

  On October 7, Bob Justman found two things on his desk -- a Final Draft of “The Menagerie” and a memo, saying:

  An indication of my vast sincere regard for yo
u, I leave behind while I am on vacation in the High Desert some fifty or sixty pages of sheer genius. Read and weep as did Alexander when he beheld the glories of Egypt. Humbly, GR.

  While Roddenberry vacationed, Gene Coon did a polish of the script, armed with a heavily annotated copy of the Final Draft by Herb Solow. And this constituted a Revised Final Draft from October 10. Roddenberry returned from his short break and then, either by his typewriter or Coon’s, or both, additional revised pages were put into the script, from October 13, 14, and 17, the last being the day filming began.

  As for the complaint John D.F. Black made with the Writers Guild, he believed his original teleplay was proof enough of the origin of the new story and did not bother to file a statement on his own behalf. Roddenberry did submit a statement. He said that the idea for the envelope episode was his alone. What little of Black’s scene descriptions and dialogue which remained was a contribution made in accordance to his position as the executive story consultant.

  The Guild compared the two scripts. With no statement from Black, there could be no dispute to Roddenberry’s claims to have been the sole idea man. And, since the approach to writing out those ideas was so different, as documented by two very different scripts, the Arbitration Board ruled in favor of Roddenberry.

  Roddenberry believed the Board decision was correct, saying, “I had the idea of Mr. Spock breaking with regulations and taking his former captain aboard the Enterprise, even against the wishes of that former captain. Then, that he would have to take command of the Enterprise in Kirk’s absence and that he would set course for the forbidden world. That was mine.

  “But it was also always important to keep Kirk at the center of the story. With the Captain’s log, it was set up that our Star Trek stories were told to us by Kirk. When a particular episode appears to be a Spock story, it is as much a Kirk story. And that had to be the case with this one. Why has Spock done this? Why would an officer as loyal to his captain as Mr. Spock is do this to him -- to Kirk? And how can Kirk get to the bottom of this and stop this from happening, if, in fact, it should be stopped. That’s Kirk’s part of the story, which is important.