50 Years of Star Trek Page #2

the end of the decade.

The space race heats up as

America looks to the stars.

And one unlikely

supporter sees an opportunity.

Well, "Star Trek"

may be the first TV show

I can really remember.

"Star Trek" and "Mission: Impossible."

In fact, the both... the two

great Desilu productions.

The other player in "Star Trek"

and get it on the air was Lucille Ball

with Desilu Studios.

It was Lucille Ball who

said, "Let's make this."

That studio was built on reruns.

And when "I Love

Lucy" was in production,

they wanted to film it here in LA.

So they said, "We'll pay

the difference and film this

if we can have the rerun rights."

And the answer from

Harry Ackerman at CBS was,

"What's a rerun?"

Nobody had ever rerun anything on TV.

They shot it live, it was gone.

And "Star Trek" was brought in.

And Lucy said, "I think

that could rerun for ten years.

Well, here we are 50 years later.

"I Love Lucy" is still

on five days a week

in every city around the country.

And probably the second most rerun show

in the history of

television is "Star Trek."

Let's give her credit,

Lucy loved "Star Trek."

And we wouldn't have had

"Star Trek" without Lucy,

so we love Lucy.

You know, my father

passed away when I was 17.

He's got such a legacy and

he's touched so many people

that I've learned a great

deal about him after his passing.

You know, he was a bomber

pilot in World War II.

He flew something like,

uh, is it 79 or 89 missions.

My father had seen the best of humanity

and he'd seen the worst of humanity.

But I think that really

helped shape his view

of "Star Trek" and that better future.

Narrator:
The pilot episode

of "Star Trek" is filmed in 1965,

introducing the

world to what would become

one of the most iconic

characters of all time,

Mr. Spock.

And he shoved a

picture of Leonard Nimoy

across the desk at me.

At that point, he was

a Martian first officer.

He said a character with pointed ears,

and that set me back a bit.

I had to think about that one.

Leonard was an

actor. He was a real actor.

And he walked me

through the various departments.

He showed me where they

were making the props.

He showed me where the

sets were being designed,

the design for the Enterprise, the ship.

And I realized that he

was selling me on this job.

And that's the way it would happen.

Narrator:
The network

orders a new "Star Trek" pilot.

Spock stays on board,

but the Enterprise

gets an entirely new crew,

including a brash, young captain,

James T. Kirk.

William Shatner had Kirk down

from act one, scene one,

and he played that

through right till the end

in "Star Trek:
Generations" in 1994.

You know, Shatner, who's

totally nailing the part,

but DeForest Kelley, the

person that Gene wanted

from the beginning for Dr. McCoy.

Scotty felt like he was

a little more fully formed

as a character.

There was an empathy with

Jimmy Doohan's performance.

We just liked Scotty. You

wanted to hang out with Scotty.

You wanted to go have a drink

in the bar with Scotty, you know?

It's a very hallowed and beloved thing

that you don't want to mess up.

I feel honored to play Scotty.

I will always defer to

the greatest Scotty ever,

which was James Doohan,

but if I can do half as good

as he did, then I'll be happy.

George Takei, who plays

Mr. Sulu, sat at the helm.

An Asian man on a show like this,

you seldom saw anything like that.

And here he was, a man

with responsibilities.

He was the helmsman.

Everyone, Nichelle, just

beautiful and smart

and an incredible role model as Uhura.

I think the first memory of

"Star Trek" really was going,

"Oh, look..." [chuckles]

"There's a black lady in the future."

And this was the first time I knew

we would be in the future.

Later on, Walter Koenig as Chekov.

If the circumstances hadn't

fallen the way they did,

if things hadn't

happened the way they did,

then I probably

never been in for the role

of Chekov on "Star Trek."

I read one line. He

says, "You got the part."

And that was the part of a Russian.

Who had a Russian on the show?

We were still just reaching

out trying to make contact

with Russia in a friendly sense.

To bring these people together

created the magic that is "Star Trek."

From day one, we got along... [snaps]

Just like that.

Narrator:
With the

cast and crew assembled,

the Enterprise is nearly

ready to begin its mission.

But Roddenberry

knows something is missing.

G.R. said, "I gotta do

an opening for the show."

So he said, "You take a shot at it,

I'll take a shot at it,

we'll see what happens."

It was, "Space... the final frontier,"

was yours, wasn't it?

- Yeah.

"The final frontier."

"Space...

"the final frontier.

["Star Trek" theme]

So it was some Roddenberry,

it was some Black.

We came out with...

"Boldly go where no

man has gone before."

To boldly go where

no man has gone before.

Narrator:
NBC premieres "Star Trek"

on a Thursday night in the fall of 1966.

Well, the first episode of

"Star Trek," "The Man Trap,"

had 47% audience share.

Lucy wrote a memo to

Gene Roddenberry saying,

"Congratulations, boys, you're a hit."

Back in the late '60s,

what "Star Trek" was doing on

television was cutting edge.

It was ahead of its time.

This was the first time we

saw a miniskirt on television.

"Star Trek"

premiered in September of '66,

the mini made its debut in London

in the summer of '66 and

had not made it to America.

He was way ahead of his time.

It was also a science fiction series

that took the subject

matter very seriously.

Narrator:
"Star Trek" is

unlike anything on television

at the time, but what makes it unique

also threatens to destroy it.

Coming up, the end of "Star Trek"

is just the beginning.

Narrator:
"Star Trek" premieres in 1966,

and instantly becomes one of the

most ground-breaking series

in the history of television.

Gene Roddenberry's vision

is a sign of changing times in America.

A story about a hopeful

future made in a difficult time.

The times were tough.

The war in Vietnam, the

racial issues that were happening,

riots in the streets, riots

at political conventions.

People were angry and

upset and nervous and concerned.

And it was this thing that said, "Hey,

"in the future we have a way

of dealing with these issues.

"It's gonna be okay.

"Here's a group of people who

are solving problems together.

And they're all

different, diverse people."

Narrator:
"Star Trek" tackles

the most pressing

social issues of its day.

We had the one where

Uhura and Kirk kissed.

That, I think, was more of... I

mean, I think that was great.

And the people in the

South, there were probably

a lot of people jumping

out of windows at that.

The director was nervous.

The front office at

Paramount was nervous,

which was just dumb, you

know, then don't do it,

which is what I said.

And they went, "You

don't want to do it?"

I said, "I want to do it.

It's written in the script.

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