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were William Nolan, George Clayton Johnson and Harlan Ellison.
    Desilu’s Herb Solow was charged with selling
Star Trek
to the studios. It was quickly rejected by CBS, despite them having initially funded development through the Desilu fund. Solow had more luck with NBC, who offered to finance the writing of a pilot script (subject to a choice from three outlines) that might result in the broadcaster funding the shooting of a pilot. Gene Roddenberry’s
Star Trek
was about to blast off.

Chapter 2

First Flight: The Two
Star Trek
Pilots

‘
I am Spock!
’ Leonard Nimoy

    Gene Roddenberry was first and foremost an accomplished storyteller, and
Star Trek
was the ideal vehicle for telling stories about the modern world that happened to be set in space, in a far-off future that seemed strangely to echo the present. He wasn’t alone in creating
Star Trek
in its lasting incarnation: he drew on the talents of many other individuals who contributed key elements that went in to making the concept durable.
    Unusually for television in the 1960s,
Star Trek
was allowed two pilot episodes to demonstrate to NBC that the show could work. The story of the two
Star Trek
pilots is the story of the two writers involved, Gene Roddenberry and Samuel A. Peeples. For the 1964 pilot, Roddenberry flew solo. In the script for ‘The Cage’ he brought to life the concepts that had featured in his March 1964 series outline in a dramatic form. For his critics, it was not dramatic enough and simply too thoughtful for American television in the mid-1960s.
    For the show’s second pilot in 1965, NBC chose Samuel A. Peeples’ script, ‘Where No Man Has Gone Before’. Peeples brought action and adventure to
Star Trek
, elements that Roddenberry later admitted had been missing from his effort. Between them, the two storytellers used their
Star Trek
pilots tolay down the template for a franchise that would ‘live long and prosper’ for the next forty-five years and beyond.

    Gene Roddenberry had three alternatives to represent the potential of
Star Trek
through the initial pilot storylines requested by NBC in 1964. The first storyline was entitled ‘Landru’s Paradise’ (and would later become the basis for the episode ‘The Return of the Archons’). In the story, Captain Robert April (the name lifted from a character who’d appeared in the final episode of
The Lieutenant
) discovers a seemingly all-American town located on a distant planet. The contented inhabitants are reluctant to question their existence or challenge authority, apparently happy with their lot. Roddenberry’s story outline reveals that this ‘happiness’ is imposed by a group called The Lawgivers, who issue severe punishments for even the mildest infractions of the rules (an idea later explored in more depth in the
Star Trek: The Next Generation
episode ‘Justice’). The climax sees April confront the planet’s ruling computer and proceed (as in several
Star Trek
episodes) to talk it to death, freeing the populace.
    The second proposed storyline was ‘The Women’ (the basis for the later episode ‘Mudd’s Women’). The outline was clear about its inspiration: ‘Duplicating a page from the “Old West”; hankypanky aboard [the
Enterprise
] with a cargo of women destined for a far-off colony.’ Essentially about prostitution, people trafficking and slavery, ‘The Women’ saw a space trader supply plain-looking women to lonely men on far-off mining planets, using a drug to create the illusion that the women are beautiful and happy to cater to the men’s every need without question.
    Finally there was ‘The Cage’, chronicling a battle between illusion and reality. Captured by powerful aliens, April is forced to live through memories and fantasies in the company of another human captive, the beautiful Vina. His captors feed off the emotions generated by his turmoil, and in the end April has to decide between the seductive illusions or harsh reality.
    The three