The Unauthorized History of Trek. James Hise van
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so, Ellison sent out five thousand letters urging science fiction fans to press NBC with a letter-writing campaign. Dated December 1, 1966, Ellison’s missive bore the letterhead of “The Committee,” an impressive listing of names: Paul Anderson, Robert Bloch, Lester Del Rey, Ellison, Philip Jose Farmer, Frank Herbert, Richard Matheson, Theodore Sturgeon, and A. E. Van Vogt. Thus Ellison, who would later be less than keen on his involvement with Star Trek (“The City on the Edge of Forever” had yet to be filmed), was in fact responsible for the very first letter campaign organized to benefit the series.
This, of course, was in the days when the Nielsen ratings presupposed a bland, all-encompassing uniformity belonging to the “average” TV viewer. With this sort of a priori approach, it is hardly surprising that the appeal of Star Trek did not dovetail with the Nielsen company’s concepts, and hence eluded its comprehension. But in those pre-demographics days, before the variety of the American mind-set was taken into consideration, the Nielsen ratings were the voice of God as far as the networks were concerned. Those were the numbers that determined a show’s advertising value and marketability, as well as its popularity, despite whatever evidence reality had to offer to the contrary.
And evidence there was. The stars of Star Trek had become wildly popular with the public … almost, if not quite, overnight. The ratings problem seems almost ironic when held up against this fact.
In 1966, Leonard Nimoy and William Shatner were invited to appear in Hollywood’s annual Christmas parade. This newfound fame was no guarantee of respect, however, for while the parade announcer got Shatner’s name correct, he introduced the other Star Trek star as “Leonard Nimsy.” Despite this gaffe, Nimoy was, for the first time in his life, frequently recognized on the street, and constantly besieged for autographs.
He took it all in good humor, although he soon became weary of smart-aleck fans asking him where he’d left his ears. Fan mail began to pour in, too, a great deal of it from younger viewers.
All of this was uncharted territory for Nimoy. At first, he was determined to answer all his fan mail by himself. Thirty or so letters a week was no big deal, after all. Unfortunately for this plan, the numbers began to increase every week, until thousands of messages were pouring in. He had to hire an assistant, Teresa Victor, to help him cope with his popularity. The other Star Trek stars made similar arrangements.
With the success of the show, the principal actors were better off financially than they had been in their entire careers. Nimoy used this money to upgrade his personal transportation, and replaced his battered old car with a new Buick luxury auto. Shatner went for something sportier, while DeForest Kelley bought a Thunderbird—which he managed to ram into Nimoy’s Buick one day at the end of shooting. Things proceeded amicably, but passersby were probably a bit nonplussed to see a normal-looking man exchanging insurance information with Leonard, who was still rigged up in full Spock regalia.
There was also a downside to Nimoy’s newfound celebrity. Early in Star Trek’s run, NBC arranged for him to be the grand marshal of Medford, Oregon’s annual Pear Blossom Festival; this was to be his first real promotional trip, and he was quite unprepared for the chaos that would surround it. The parade went without a hitch—but it had also been announced that Nimoy would sign autographs in a small park at the end of the parade route. A crowd, with a large number of young people, actually followed Leonard’s itinerary. By the time he reached the park, it was swarming with immense numbers of people. The lone park employee was swamped by this madness; traffic was completely fouled up. In the end, Medford police had to make their way in and “rescue” Nimoy from the friendly mob.
Eventually, it reached the point where people actually turned down the chance for a Spock/Nimoy appearance. Macy’s, the famous New York department store, declined to have Nimoy appear to promote one of his record albums. The stone honestly admitted that it could not handle the sort of crowds which would undoubtedly attend such an event.
Nimoy himself turned down many requests for public appearances because they asked for him to wear the ears in public; he estimated losing about fifty thousand dollars in passing up these offers.
His popularity continued to manifest itself in a bewildering variety of ways. Spock was the only Star Trek character to merit solo reproduction as a model kit. While Kirk and Sulu did join Spock as small figures in AMT’s Enterprise Bridge model, a six-inch-tall Spock was featured in a larger diorama kit that featured him facing off against a three-headed alien serpent. (In 1975, Spock and other Star Trek characters would have the dubious honor of being reproduced as ice pop molds!)
His face also appeared on a variety of series-related toy packages over the years, including original show style phaser rifles and the ever-popular Star Trek disc gun. “I Grok Spock” buttons, alluding to Robert Heinlein’s classic 1961 science fiction novel Stranger in a Strange Land, began to crop up as well.
By this point, the NBC executives who had wanted to give Spock the axe were now acting as if they’d been for the character all along. Leonard’s place in the public consciousness was rock-solid, and the first season wasn’t even over yet!
“The Conscience of the King” involves Kirk in efforts to determine whether a well-known Shakespearian actor is actually the man responsible for a massacre some years earlier; Kirk is one of the few survivors. An intriguing study of guilt and self-punishment, with an intriguing plot twist or two, it is ably supported by actor Arnold Moss in a very demanding role.
“Balance of Terror” introduces the Romulans, who have returned after a century to harass the Federation with the assistance of their new cloaking devices. This story, essentially a submarine movie set in space, featured Mark Lenard as the Romulan commander. Lenard would, of course, play Spock’s father Sarek in a future episode.
“Shore Leave,” written by Theodore Sturgeon, prefigures the movie Westworld by some years, as the crew beams down for R&R on a planet that seems to be deadly but is actually an artifact programmed to custom-tailor amusements for each individual. This marks the first time a leading Star Trek character dies, only to return intact. (This time around it’s McCoy.)
“The Galileo Seven” brings Spock to the forefront as he commands a shuttlecraft which crashes, leaving him, Scotty, and Dr. McCoy stranded on a hostile planet. Is his logic sufficient to save the castaways, or must he learn to look at things from an irrational perspective?
“The Squire of Gothos” is Trelane, who traps the Enterprise and her crew to be his playthings; he is a powerful, godlike being, but also a child, ultimately answerable to his parents … though not before shaking up the resolute Captain Kirk a bit.
“Arena” adapts the classic science fiction story by Fredric L. Brown and casts Kirk in the lead, as the captain and the lizardlike Gorn are chosen as champions of their respective races by the meddlesome superior Metrons.
“Tomorrow Is Yesterday” is the first solid time-travel story for Star Trek, in which the Enterprise is hurled back to the twentieth century by the gravitational field of a black hole. Matters are complicated when an air force jet spots the Enterprise and Kirk must decide what to do with pilot John Christopher.
In “Court Martial,” Captain Kirk is tried for criminal negligence which resulted in the death of an officer; the redoubtable Mr. Spock applies his logic to the case and ultimately proves that the officer is really alive, having staged his own death in order to satisfy a personal grudge against Kirk.
Sulu gets to go nuts on-screen in “The Return of the Archons,” in which the Enterprise investigates the planet Beta III, which is ruled by a mysterious computer. (The last Federation ship to visit, a century earlier, was called the Archon; hence the returning Archons of the title are Kirk and his crew.) The outsiders are threatened with absorption, but Kirk ultimately talks the ancient computer into destroying itself. Spock actually hits someone in this episode.
“Space Seed” introduces Ricardo Montalban as Khan, a late-twentieth-century fanatic who, with his followers, has been adrift in a “sleeper ship” for hundreds of years. The Enterprise revives the sleepers only to be