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Tuesday, December 21, 2010

2nd Pilot






Here are some images of Polar Lights 1/1000 scale U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701 from Star Trek TOS 2nd pilot episode "Where no man has gone before".
From Wikipedia "

Constitution Class:
In the fictional Star Trek universe, the Constitution class is a Starfleet starship type that began service in the mid-23rd century.

In the original television series, ships of this class support multiple exploratory, diplomatic, and — when needed — adversarial missions. The restrained use of their military capabilities reflects Starfleet's primary role as an exploratory agency, and is reflected back in the fleet designation of these ships as heavy cruisers, and not the battlecruiser appellation borne by equivalent Klingon vessels.

The class design consists of a saucerlike, eleven-deck-thick primary hull, separatable from and dorsally connected to a cylindrical secondary hull, from which spring angled pylons supporting the vessel's engines in two nacelles fully half the ship's length. The class is armed for combat, with offensive weaponry including photon torpedo launchers and phaser banks, and defensive shields. The separation of hulls was a rare event in the 23rd century, undertaken in emergencies; led from an auxiliary bridge, the secondary hull and nacelles retain FTL warp capabilities, while the main bridge and primary saucer are relegated to sublight propulsion from aft-mounted impulse engines. ("The Apple" TOS.) This contrasts with the more routine saucer separation of the later Galaxy class, often employed as a combat tactical maneuver, whose secondary hull is commanded from a dedicated 'battle bridge.'

Constitution was the only major ship class seen in the original series. Other Starfleet capital ship types include the Miranda class of the live-action films, and the older design of Bonaventure, seen in the animated episode "The Time Trap".

Though understood as such, the class was never named Constitution in the original series; Enterprise's bridge dedication plaque declares her a 'Starship' class vessel. The name debuted in show creator Gene Roddenberry's novelization of the first film, and was cemented in Trek fandom thereafter. (His novel also set K't'inga as the Klingon class name for the film's refinement of the venerated D7 battlecruiser.) The Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "The Naked Now" tags the original Enterprise as a Constitution ship, fixing it in canon; a diagram seen in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country puts Enterprise A in the Constitution class as well.

The Next Generation episode "Relics" puts a Constitution-class vessel in the Starfleet museum.

The novelizations of the second, third, and fourth Star Trek films, written by Vonda N. McIntyre, identified the Enterprise as a "Constellation-class" heavy cruiser. This was disproven with the Next Generation episode "The Battle", in which the USS Stargazer was listed as Constellation-class.

"Where No Man Has Gone Before"

The original pilot of Star Trek, "The Cage", was rejected in February 1965 by NBC executives. The show had been sold to them as a "Wagon Train to the stars", and they thought the first pilot did not match the adventure format they had been promised and was "too cerebral" for the general audience. However, NBC maintained sufficient interest in the format to order a second pilot episode in March 1965.

Gene Roddenberry said later in a 1988 TV special that as with the first pilot, this pilot still had a lot of science-fiction elements in it, but at least it ended with Kirk in a bare knuckle fist fight with the god-like Mitchell and according to Roddenberry that's what sold NBC on Star Trek.

Series creator Gene Roddenberry wrote two story outlines, "The Omega Glory" and "Mudd's Women". He wrote a teleplay for the former, and gave the latter to Stephen Kandel to write. Roddenberry asked long-time associate and veteran scriptwriter Samuel Peeples to submit ideas for another. Peeples came up with the premise and episode title for "Where No Man Has Gone Before", and was assigned to write it.

Kandel had fallen ill and his script was not finished in time; the other two were submitted to NBC for consideration. NBC preferred "Where No Man Has Gone Before" as a pilot. "Mudd's Women" was later made as the second episode in regular production, and "The Omega Glory" was made towards the end of the second season.

While the first pilot, "The Cage", has a running time of approximately 63 minutes, the second pilot, "Where No Man Has Gone Before", ran just over 55 minutes with additional footage and formatting since cut to reduce it to the standard series run-time format of approximately 50 minutes for the original NBC network broadcast in order to accommodate commercials.

Casting took place in June 1965. Jeffrey Hunter was unavailable to reprise his role as Captain Christopher Pike, and William Shatner was cast as his replacement, Captain James Kirk. The character of Number One, the female second-in-command, was dropped. The only character to be retained from the first pilot was Science Officer Spock, played by Leonard Nimoy, who was given Number One's unemotional demeanor. Spock was retained despite pressure from NBC, who were worried about his "Satanic" appearance.

Apart from Captain Kirk, the episode introduced two other regular characters to the show: James Doohan was cast as the Chief Engineer — the name Montgomery Scott was chosen after Doohan had tried various accents, and had decided that an engineer ought to be Scottish - and George Takei was cast as Ship's Physicist Sulu, who would become the ship's helmsman in the series. Uhura did not appear, nor did Dr. Leonard McCoy; the ship's doctor is instead Mark Piper (Paul Fix). Piper was intended as a regular, and DeForest Kelley - who played McCoy in the series proper—was considered for the role.

Gary Lockwood, chosen to play Lt. Commander Gary Mitchell, had starred in the title role of Roddenberry's earlier series on ABC, The Lieutenant. The other major guest part was Elizabeth Dehner, played by Sally Kellerman. Both actors needed silver eyes, which were produced by an expert contact lens fabricator who sandwiched wrinkled tinfoil between two scleral contact lenses which covered the white of the eye as well as the iris. These were outdated even in the 60s and dangerous to the health of the actors' eyes. Although Kellerman could insert and remove the prosthetics easily with no discomfort, Lockwood found them almost impossible to use. He needed to raise his face and sight along his nose in order to see out of the tiny holes in the foil that aligned with his pupils. He used this to enhance his performance as the mutating Mitchell, as the unusual gaze gave him an arrogant and haughty demeanor.

Other cast members included Paul Carr playing Navigator Lee Kelso, Lloyd Haynes as Communications Officer Alden and Andrea Dromm as Yeoman Smith (Alden and Smith were intended to be regulars in the show, but were replaced by Uhura and Janice Rand, respectively). The episode also is the first time long-running background actor Eddie Paskey appeared; his character would later be identified as Lt. Leslie.

The costumes from the first pilot were used in "Where No Man Has Gone Before" but would be changed in the series proper, with the colors altered and black collars introduced. Most of the Enterprise sets were also reused from "The Cage", while Sickbay was the only major set constructed for the episode. Like "The Cage", the episode was shot at Desilu's Culver City studios.

The episode was directed by James Goldstone. Ernest Haller, who had won the 1939 Oscar for Best Color Cinematography on the movie Gone with the Wind, served as director of photography for the show. He had been brought in out of semi-retirement at Goldstone's recommendation at the last minute, after attempts to locate a cameraman had proved problematic. Robert H. Justman was credited as assistant director.

Shooting started on July 19, 1965, several days later than originally scheduled. During the filming of this episode, a wasp's nest high in the rafters of the studio was somehow disturbed, and many cast and crew members suffered stings as a result. As this happened on a Friday, the weekend break allowed time for the swelling to go down; Shatner, however, required additional makeup to hide the stings during shooting the following Monday. Filming finished late on July 28, 1965; the final footage filmed was part of the fight between Kirk and Mitchell. While the schedule allowed seven days to shoot the episode, it required nine, which was Justman's original estimate. The episode cost around $300,000, around half the money spent on making "The Cage".

Post-production on the episode was delayed by Roddenberry's involvement in another pilot, Police Story. Post-production finished in January 1966, and the episode was presented to NBC for approval; that version differed from the final broadcast cut in that each of the four acts had on-screen titles ("Act I," "Act II," etc.), as well as an epilogue, in the manner of Quinn Martin's television productions. It also featured a much longer opening narration by Shatner. In total almost 5 minutes of additional footage was removed to accommodate the original series 50 minute network broadcast format, allowing for commercials. The restored alternate pilot version of the episode will be included on the TOS Season 3 Blu-ray release, entitled: "Where No Fan Has Gone Before" - The Restored, Unaired Alternate Pilot Episode. Approval finally came in February 1966, and the series proper ramped up for production for broadcast in September 1966. The episode was shown at the 24th Worldcon in Cleveland, Ohio, on September 3, 1966, shortly before the debut of Star Trek on NBC, where it received a standing ovation. "Where No Man Has Gone Before" aired as the third episode of the series on September 22, 1966. It was the first episode to be shown in the UK by the BBC on July 12, 1969.

The episode's name is the first usage of the phrase "Where No Man Has Gone Before" in Star Trek. The phrase would be incorporated into the opening credits sequence in following episodes, as part of the famous "Space: The Final Frontier..." speech given by Captain Kirk. The phrase would also be used (with "man" changed to the gender-neutral "one"), in the credits voice-over of Star Trek: The Next Generation.

Kirk's middle initial is given as "R." in "Where No Man Has Gone Before" and is seen clearly on the gravestone fashioned by Mitchell for Kirk; subsequent episodes use "James T. Kirk", and Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country later made official the middle name "Tiberius" (used previously in "Bem", an episode from the animated series). Various suggestions have been made to explain this discrepancy; Michael Jan Friedman's My Brother's Keeper trilogy speculates this results from an in-joke between Mitchell and Kirk. Roddenberry cited human error on Mitchell's part. Peter David's novel, Q-Squared, placed the events of this episode in a parallel universe in which, among other differences, Kirk's middle initial was indeed R.

The episode contains the first stardate (1313.8) and makes the first reference to the Academy, at which Kirk taught Mitchell. The "lithium crystals" mentioned in the episode would later be renamed to the fictional "dilithium crystals". The episode opens with Kirk and Spock playing a game of 3D chess.

Michael and Denise Okuda's Star Trek Chronology sets the episode in 2265, 300 years after its production. The Galactic Barrier is referenced and revisited in a subsequent episode, "By Any Other Name".

Many changes to the USS Enterprise bridge were made after this episode was produced. Among these were a new forward viewscreen and an updated helm/navigation console. Also, the positions of the helmsman and navigator were swapped (in this episode, the navigator sat on the port side of the console, and the helm officer was to starboard. In the regular series, the opposite was the case). When production of the series proper began, it was also decided to introduce a new uniform design for the Enterprise crew, although in the first regular episode produced, The Corbomite Maneuver, some characters, such as Uhura, are shown wearing the uniform style of Where No Man Has Gone Before. Adjustments to Spock's make-up were also made, specifically to the angle of his eyebrows, refinement of his haircut and tempering of the overall greenish-yellow cast of his skin.

Spock also makes reference to his ancestor marrying a human when in a later episode, his mother was introduced as a human.

In this episode the helm and navigation station console was used for the transporter room console. In future episodes a dedicated station would be built with the iconic sliding controls and centrally located, hooded beam-down coordinate selection screen.

The sickbay in this episode uses conventional sheets on the beds; later episodes used the more "futuristic" metallic weave materials. The "bio-probe", located under the medical monitor panel, pointed to and monitored the physiological functions of the patient. It was a simple rod, later replaced with the more detailed, internally-lit acrylic set piece.

Hand weapons are referred to as lasers and the phaser rifle makes its single appearance in Star Trek: The Original Series.


4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Very nice classic ship.
I had one years ago. Already missing.

-Warren Zoell said...

Thanks sinfuselaje - You may be happy to know that next year they will be releasing a 1/350 scale TOS Enterprise. I can't wait.

Anonymous said...

Nice Enterprise again Warren. At 1/350 scale the new Polar Lights version will be an imposing sight.

Dave

-Warren Zoell said...

Thanks Dave - It will indeed.