Editing Star Trek: The Original Series (section)

==Development==
In April 1964, Roddenberry presented the ''Star Trek'' draft to Desilu Productions, a leading independent television production company.<ref name="startrekhistory.com">{{cite web |url=http://startrekhistory.com/cagepage.html |title=Star TrekHistory – Behind the Scenes |work=startrekhistory.com |access-date=February 12, 2015 |archive-date=February 17, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150217072942/http://startrekhistory.com/cagepage.html |url-status=live }}</ref> He met with [[Herbert Franklin Solow|Herbert F. Solow]], Desilu's director of production. Solow saw promise in the idea and signed a three-year program-development contract with Roddenberry.<ref name="dartmouth.org">{{cite web |url=http://www.dartmouth.org/classes/53/archives/solow.php |title=Articles & Archives |work=dartmouth.org |access-date=February 12, 2015 |archive-date=February 18, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140218103330/http://www.dartmouth.org/classes/53/archives/solow.php |url-status=live }}</ref> [[Lucille Ball]], head of Desilu, was not familiar with the nature of the project, but she was instrumental in getting the pilot produced.<ref name="buinessinsider">{{cite web |url=http://www.businessinsider.com/lucille-ball-is-the-reason-we-have-star-trek-heres-what-happened-2016-7 |date=July 8, 2016 |author=Meryl Gottlieb |title=Lucille Ball is the reason we have 'Star Trek' – here's what happened |work=Business Insider |access-date=January 4, 2017 |archive-date=January 10, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170110223658/http://www.businessinsider.com/lucille-ball-is-the-reason-we-have-star-trek-heres-what-happened-2016-7 |url-status=live }}</ref>

The concept was extensively revised and fleshed out during this time—"[[The Cage (Star Trek: The Original Series)|The Cage]]" pilot filmed in late 1964 differs in many respects from the March 1964 treatment. Solow, for example, added the "[[stardate]]" concept.<ref name="dartmouth.org"/> Desilu Productions had a [[first-look deal]] with [[CBS]].<ref name="memory-alpha.org">{{cite web |url=http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Desilu |title=Desilu |work=Memory Alpha |access-date=February 12, 2015 |archive-date=March 3, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150303041246/http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Desilu |url-status=live }}</ref> Oscar Katz, Desilu's Vice President of Production, went with Roddenberry to pitch the series to the network.<ref name="memory-alpha.org1">{{cite web |url=http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Herbert_F._Solow |title=Herbert F. Solow |work=Memory Alpha |access-date=February 12, 2015 |archive-date=January 29, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150129045948/http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Herbert_F._Solow |url-status=live }}</ref> They refused to purchase the show, as they already had a similar program in development, the 1965 [[Irwin Allen]] series ''[[Lost in Space]]''.<ref name="PearsonDavies2014">{{cite book |author1=Roberta Pearson |author2=Máire Messenger Davies |title=Star Trek and American Television |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=H_dYAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA21 |date=2014 |publisher=[[University of California Press]] |isbn=978-0-520-95920-0 |pages=21– |access-date=February 12, 2015 |archive-date=May 17, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160517063901/https://books.google.com/books?id=H_dYAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA21 |url-status=live }}</ref>

In May 1964, Solow, who had previously worked at [[NBC]], met with [[Grant Tinker]], then head of the network's West Coast programming department. Tinker commissioned the first pilot—which became "The Cage".<ref name="startrekhistory.com"/><ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=D243tpTRNnQC&q=grant+tinker+the+cage+1964&pg=PA17 |title=Star Trek |isbn=9780760343593 |last1=Greenberger |first1=Robert |date=2012 |publisher=Voyageur Press }}</ref> NBC turned down the resulting pilot, stating that it was "too cerebral".{{r|davies2007}} However, the NBC executives were still impressed with the concept, and they understood that its perceived faults had been partly due to the script that they had selected themselves.<ref name="whitfield1968" />

NBC made the unusual decision to pay for a second pilot, using the script called "[[Where No Man Has Gone Before]]".{{r|davies2007}} Only the character of [[Spock]], played by [[Leonard Nimoy]], was retained from the first pilot, and only two cast members, [[Majel Barrett]] and Nimoy, were carried forward into the series. This second pilot proved to be satisfactory to NBC, and the network selected ''Star Trek'' to be in its upcoming television schedule for the fall of 1966.

The second pilot introduced most of the other main [[List of Star Trek characters|characters]]: Captain Kirk ([[William Shatner]]), Chief Engineer Lt. Commander [[Montgomery Scott|Scott]] ([[James Doohan]]) and Lt. [[Hikaru Sulu|Sulu]] ([[George Takei]]), who served as a physicist on the ship in the second pilot, but subsequently became a helmsman throughout the rest of the series. [[Paul Fix]] played Dr. Mark Piper in the second pilot; ship's doctor [[Leonard McCoy]] ([[DeForest Kelley]]) joined the cast when filming began for the first season, and he remained for the rest of the series, achieving billing as the third star of the series. Also joining the ship's permanent crew during the first season were the communications officer, Lt. [[Nyota Uhura]] ([[Nichelle Nichols]]), the first African-American woman to hold such an important role in an American television series;<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/31/nichelle-nichols-star-trek-uhura_n_1244343.html |title=Nichelle Nichols on Having First Major Black Female TV Role And That First Interracial Kiss On 'Star Trek' |work=[[The Huffington Post]] |date=February 6, 2012 |access-date=August 11, 2012 |author=Spiegel, Lee |archive-date=July 31, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120731084622/http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/31/nichelle-nichols-star-trek-uhura_n_1244343.html |url-status=live }}</ref> the captain's [[Yeoman (United States Navy)|yeoman]], [[Janice Rand]] ([[Grace Lee Whitney]]), who departed midway through the first season; and [[Christine Chapel]] (Majel Barrett), the ship's nurse and assistant to McCoy. [[Walter Koenig]] joined the cast as Ensign [[Pavel Chekov]] in the series' second season.

In February 1966, before the first episode was aired, ''Star Trek'' was nearly canceled by Desilu Productions. Desilu had gone from making just one half-hour show (''[[The Lucy Show]]'') to deficit-financing a portion of two expensive hour-long shows, ''[[Mission: Impossible (1966 TV series)|Mission: Impossible]]'' and ''Star Trek''.<ref>[http://badassdigest.com/2013/09/08/how-lucille-ball-made-star-trek-happen/ "How Lucille Ball Made ''Star Trek'' Happen"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150315130539/http://badassdigest.com/2013/09/08/how-lucille-ball-made-star-trek-happen/ |date=March 15, 2015 }} (September 8, 2013). ''BadAssDigest.com'' (''Birth.Movies.Death'').</ref> Solow was able to convince Lucille Ball that both shows should continue.<ref name="memory-alpha.org"/>