Gene Roddenberry created the transporter as an easier (and cheaper) way of getting Enterprise crew members onto a planet's surface, rather than landing the ship on the planet.
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The tribble-inundated Kirk is holding one of the small fur balls in both hands in some shots, but when the camera angle changes, that tribble vanishes and his hands are no longer even close together. See more...
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Star Trek (1966) - 39 trivia entries
starring DeForest Kelley, George Takei, James Doohan, Leonard Nimoy, Nichelle Nichols, Walter Koenig, William Shatner (add more)
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Gene Roddenberry created the transporter as an easier (and cheaper) way of getting Enterprise crew members onto a planet's surface, rather than landing the ship on the planet.
This was the first cancelled TV show to be brought back. The only other cancelled shows to be brought back to date are "America's Most Wanted", "Cagney and Lacey" and Family Guy. I am happy to say that you can now add Farscape to this list.
Though the Captain Kirk line of "Beam me up Scotty" is an often quoted Star Trek line Kirk never actually said that line at any point during any of the episodes.
The Vulcan Nerve Pinch was invented by Leonard Nimoy as a way for Spock to overpower opponents without having to resort to violence.
The slanting crawlway that leads up to the warp-drive nacelles is referred to as a "Jefferies tube." This is a tribute to art director Walter M. Jefferies.
Leonard Nimoy created the hand gesture that Vulcans give when they say, "Live Long and Prosper." He is Jewish, and the spreading of the fingers resembles the hand gesture taken from the ceremony performed by the descendants of the priestly family during holiday prayer services.
The Klingon species was named for Lt. Wilbur Clingan, who served on the LAPD with Gene Roddenberry.
Before the series went on the air, Gene Roddenberry expressed concerns about the sound effects in Star Trek's intro. He wondered if the "swish" effect of the passing ship should be removed, since there's no sound in space. Desilu Studios polled preview audiences about it; the majority said they liked the effect because it conveyed great speed, and that the scientific inaccuracy didn't bother them. So the "swish" was allowed to remain.
A perennial Star Trek extra, the tall blond Eddie Paskey played a red-shirted crewman standing in the background in virtually every Trek episode for all 3 seasons. He rarely had any lines, and was even killed off in "Obsession," but was back on duty anyhow in the following episodes and for the rest of the series.
A constant question during the run of all the Trek series is why Klingons look so much different, from "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" on, than they did in the original series. The real reason is the movies and later TV series had a better makeup budget. However, the "Star Trek: Enterprise" episodes "Affliction" and "Divergence" provide a canon answer. Klingons acquired genetically engineered human embryos left over from Earth's Eugenic Wars and used them to augment their soldiers. It worked but created a virus that threatened to annihilate the Klingon race. Dr. Phlox and a Klingon doctor found a cure, but it resulted in all Klingons becoming far more human in appearance. Sometime between these episodes and the first Trek movie, a cure was found, returning the Klingons to their present day "ridged-head" appearance.
A UK pop band from the late 1980s, T,Pau, got their name from a character in Star Trek. She was head of the planet Vulcan.
Operation -- Annihilate! (series 1)
Don't know if its intentional or not? This is the only episode of Star Trek, (the Original Series) that I know of, where a person makes a sound after being stunned by a phaser. As Kirk and crew stun the group of men with pipes, listen carefully as the last one falls to the ground. He makes a "oh-ah" or groaning sound. After reviewing all the episodes prior and after. This is the only person who makes any kind of noise after being stunned. Maybe it was the parasite infecting his body that allowed him to do this.
The dead body of Kirk's brother, Sam, is played by William Shatner.
The Squire of Gothos (series 1)
The costume of the Salt Vampire from "The Man Trap" appears in Trelane's castle. It is in an alcove near the front door.
William Campbell later appeared as Klingon captain Koloth in "The Trouble with Tribbles."
Shore Leave (series 1)
Because Theodore Sturgeon's original script for "Shore Leave" was so complex, many scenes were too expensive to film. Gene Roddenberry had to hastily rewrite many of these minutes before they were shot, resulting in some segments that were ad-libbed because the rewrites hadn't been completed. McCoy's "distracted" scene with Yeoman Barrows is one of these.
William Shatner recalls having a "lame-brained" attack of bravado during "Shore Leave's" filming and insisting that Kirk should wrestle the tiger - without a stunt double. Gene Roddenberry finally convinced him that he was much too valuable to the show to risk his life for a stunt. Thirty years later on a Sci Fi Channel special, Shatner said, "Thank you, Gene, for preventing me from becoming a hair ball!"
"Shore Leave" was the first of many Star Trek episodes (and movies) partially shot at Vasquez Rocks, a distinctive California desert rock formation named for a 19th Century bandit who once had a hideout there. Kirk and Finnegan's fistfight and Kirk's encounter with Ruth were both shot at Vasquez. The formation is most prominently featured in "Arena," when Kirk pushes the boulder off its peak onto the Gorn.
The Menagerie (1) (series 1)
For her Orion slave girl dance, Susan Oliver was painted green from head to toe. But every time production footage of her came back from the processing lab, no trace of her green make-up job showed on film. After three rounds of Gene Roddenberry ordering the make-up crew to "paint her greener!" it was finally deduced that the lab techs, assuming her color was a lighting error, had been re-tinting her a nice, healthy pink every time.
Gene Roddenberry wanted "alien plants" for the planet's surface, but had trouble communicating the idea to the prop department. They sent dozens of lush, green potted specimens, all very terrestrial. A frustrated Roddenberry finally grabbed one potted tree, yanked it out of the soil and stuck it back in upside down with its bare, tangled roots exposed. "There," he grumped. "Now that's an alien plant!"
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