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stories were surprisingly revealing and reflected Roddenberry’s attitudes to life, especially as his marriagecrumbled. In dealing with subjects such as God-like beings, judicial authority, and the role of women Roddenberry laid down a marker as to the ambitions of
Star Trek
: his science fiction TV show was going to be ‘about’ something, rather than just entertaining fluff filling the airwaves between advertisements.
    There was no denying that living and working in the Hollywood milieu of 1960s television was having an effect on Roddenberry and his family life. He’d long had a roving eye and not thought twice about cheating on his wife, even during his police days. Now, in a position of relative power in the Los Angeles television business, it was easier than ever for Roddenberry to indulge his passions. His regular extra-marital relationship continued with actress Majel Barrett, but she wasn’t alone. Roddenberry told friends he remained married for the sake of his children, but that did little to curb his wandering ways. One of the reasons for the growing distance between Roddenberry and his wife Eileen may have been the widening of his horizons compared to hers. While he grew and changed, perhaps not always for the better, she remained the policeman’s wife and home-making mother, disapproving of the ‘Hollywood’ lifestyle. That they grew apart is not surprising.
    As the distance between him and his wife grew larger, Roddenberry focused on his work. Although NBC had agreed to fund the writing of a pilot script for
Star Trek
in 1964, it would be a further two years before the regular series would reach American TV screens. The intermediate time was a frustrating one of repeated development and failure for Roddenberry, eventually followed by compromised success.
    According to Desilu executive Herb Solow (in his personal memoir
Inside Star Trek
, co-authored with
Star Trek
producer Robert Justman), NBC continued to harbour doubts about whether Desilu could pull off a show as ambitious and complicated as the
Star Trek
pitch. Of the three storylines submitted, NBC finally chose ‘The Cage’. The plot had been further refined in numerous pitching sessions with the NBC brass, so writing the script itself came fast and easy to Roddenberry. Dated 29 June 1964, his story outline featured a group of sixlimbed, crab-like aliens who capture the
Enterprise
’s Captain April and subject him to a variety of tests. In captivity with him is another apparent human, a woman named Vina. Writing without much regard to budget – odd for someone who’d had a fair degree of practical television production experience – Roddenberry seemed more interested in concocting a dramatic introduction to his universe to sell the
Star Trek
concept to NBC than worrying about practical considerations that might face Desilu should the series enter production.
    A bizarre menagerie of non-humanoid creatures featured in the draft script, including a six-legged ‘Rigelian spider ape’ and another character described as a cross between an angel and a snake. These visions would be easy to achieve on screen now with a decent budget and CGI technology. Back in the mid-1960s computers in special effects were non-existent and animation for television was prohibitively expensive. Nonetheless, Roddenberry stubbornly featured an intelligent lemur from Arcturus (the kind of truly alien character that would not be properly visually realised until
Star Trek: The Animated Series
in the early 1970s).
    The final script delivered to NBC at the end of June 1964 featured Captain Pike (replacing April, but still not yet the familiar Kirk) commanding the USS
Enterprise
, en route to a Starbase for a spot of shore leave. Drawn by indications that a ship may have crashed on Talos IV, the
Enterprise
diverts to investigate. A landing party of Pike, Lieutenant Spock, Dr Phillip Boyce, navigator José Tyler and others is convened. The ship is left under the command of the