Read Roddenberry’s Original Pitch for Star Trek, Complete with “Satanic” Spock
Before Star Trek became a worldwide phenomenon, it was just a pitch to NBC. We know that the show ended up being quite different from its original pilot, but even the pilot is pretty removed from Roddenberry’s recently-unearthed original pitch. Roddenberry describes the show as a “Wagon Train” analog in the future, starring Robert April, captain of the SS Yorktown. He describes Mr. Spock, April’s first mate, as having a reddish complexion, pointed ears, and an overall look “so satanic you might expect him to have a forked tail.” Most of the beloved characters are absent, and some character archetypes never made it into the show at all; Chekhov, for example, is replaced by hotshot South American navigator Jose Ortegas. In fact, Spock is really the only character who made it completely into the actual series mostly intact, though Phillip “Bones” Boyce kept his nickname even if his full name is quite different now. It’s a fascinating look into what might have been.
Michael Sacco is a freelance editor and writer, currently working as senior editor at WoW Insider.