Series premieres are not always indicative of the potential of a television show, and it proved with Star Trek: The Original Series. Over the years, many iconic shows started with a weak or downright average episode, only to rise to greatness after warming up. Far more often, a TV show starts off with a bang before entering a gradual decline in quality, never really delivering on its initial promises.
For Star Trekthe question of which episode came first is ambiguous. “The Cage” served as the first pilot, but was not released until its footage was later used in season 1’s “The Menagerie.” Star Trek: The Original Series in production order, “Where No Man Has Gone Before” is the opener, but the first episode actually broadcast in the 1960s was “The Man Trap”. The first of the series Star Trek I should have had it, but it was none of that.
None of the “early” Star Trek episodes were the right choice
When Star Trek was about to be released in the early 1960s, a number of episodes had already been recorded, and it was from this fateful batch that a premiere would be selected.
The choice of network – and the payment Star Trek ultimately went with it – was “The Man Trap”, a surprisingly forgettable experience considering the mammoth franchise it launched. Functioning more as a schlocky sci-fi horror, “The Man Trap” did not accurately represent what Star Trek it was very much about the subject, which should be a prerequisite for any series premiere. The tone was wrong and the script lacked the touches that made Star Trek: The Original Series so revolutionary for science fiction. William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy disliked “The Man Trap”, with the latter expressing surprise that it was chosen for the “episode 1” slot.
Look Star Trek in production order is generally considered the superior experience and places “Where No Man Has Gone Before” at the front of the queue. There’s no doubt about the episode’s quality compared to “The Man Trap,” nor its ability to present Gene Roddenberry’s central themes. Star Trek concept.
Although he liked this second pilot enough to order a full series, NBC felt the episode was too dense to serve as an introduction to Star Trek (via Inside Star Trek: The True Story), thus opting for the more accessible “The Man Trap”. Star TrekThe success of in the United Kingdom (where the episodes were broadcast in production order) suggests that such fears were unfounded. Likewise, it’s fair to say that “Where No Man Has Gone Before” was written as a pilot for the studio, not an episode intended for ease of audience access. Star Trek.
“The Naked Time” was another consideration for Star Trekaccording to Robert Justman. Similar to “Where No Man Has Gone Before,” however, this was an excellent episode ill-suited to the curtain-raising job. The very premise of “The Naked Time” involved the Enterprise team acting out of character, which only works if the audience already has a good idea of how Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Sulu, etc. act. usually act during a typical day.
There is an anecdote that Leonard Nimoy (via Leonard Nimoy: Star Trek Memories) saw a large increase in fan mail responding to Spock’s crying scene in “The Naked Time”. It’s hard to imagine such a strong reaction if these fans hadn’t already gotten used to Spock’s lack of emotion in previous episodes.
“The Corbomite Maneuver” should have been the first episode of Star Trek
After “The Cage” and “Where No Man Has Gone Before”, the first episode of Star Trek produced was “The Corbomite Maneuver”. So it was the first Star Trek episode filmed for an audience rather than as a pilot designed to convince the studio that Gene Roddenberry was right.
And it shows, because “The Corbomite Maneuver” would have created a perfect first impression. More true than Star TrekThe spirit of “The Man Trap”, less explanatory than “Where No Man Has Gone Before”, and a better introduction to Kirk’s team than “The Naked Time”, an ideal point could have been found with “The Corbomite Maneuver”.
The macabre face of “Balok” (before the final twist) would have given Star Trek a surprisingly sinister image to elicit a genuine sense of fear, while the eventual reveal of Balok as a childish alien showed the kind of moral feud that would become Star Trekthe foundation. Leaving a member of the Enterprise crew behind to learn more about Balok’s species would have perfectly highlighted the message of cooperation that Star Trek sent – better than “The Man Trap”, at least, which ended with the gradual death of the alien antagonist.
As a demonstration of Star TrekThe main characters of – James T. Kirk in particular – there is nothing better than “The Corbomite Maneuver”. The intimate, enterprise-based narrative brought strong personalities, interpersonal relationships and Starfleet ethics to the forefront, creating a tense drama that raised a host of intriguing questions. It was, in fact, a crash course in everything Star Trek. If you don’t enjoy “The Corbomite Maneuver”, there’s no point in skipping to episode 2.
While “The Corbomite Maneuver” would have been the perfect way to start Star TrekDuring the trip, the decision to save him was not a creative one. Although it was made directly after “Where No Man Has Gone Before”, post-production of “The Corbomite Maneuver”, with its various space objects flying towards the Enterprise, delayed the episode and meeting the pilot’s air date became impossible (These are the journeys: TOS Season 1). If this had not been the case, Star Trek: The Original Series could have gone down in history as having one of the greatest opening episodes in science fiction history.
Sources: Inside Star Trek: The Real Story (Robert H. Justman and Herbert F. Solow), Leonard Nimoy: Star Trek Memories, These Are the Voyages: TOS Season 1
- Release date
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1966 – 00/00/1969
- Showrunner
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Gene Roddenberry
- Directors
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Marc Daniels, Joseph Pevney, Ralph Senensky, Vincent McEveety, Herb Wallerstein, Jud Taylor, Marvin J. Chomsky, David Alexander, Gerd Oswald, Herschel Daugherty, James Goldstone, Robert Butler, Anton Leader, Gene Nelson, Harvey Hart, Herbert Kenwith, James Komack, John Erman, John Newland, Joseph Sargent, Lawrence Dobkin, Leo Penn, Michael O’Herlihy, Murray Golden
- Writers
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DC Fontana, Jerome Bixby, Arthur Heinemann, David Gerrold, Jerry Sohl, Oliver Crawford, Robert Bloch, David P. Harmon, Don Ingalls, Paul Schneider, Shimon Wincelberg, Steven W. Carabatsos, Theodore Sturgeon, Jean Lisette Aroeste, Art Wallace, Adrian Spies, Barry Trivers, Don Mankiewicz, Edward J. Lakso, Fredric Brown, George Clayton Johnson, George F. Slavin, Gilbert Ralston, Harlan Ellison
