Trivia: 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.
Trivia: The Vulcan Nerve Pinch was invented by Leonard Nimoy as a way for Spock to overpower opponents without having to resort to violence.
Trivia: 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.
Trivia: 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.
Trivia: 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.
Trivia: 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.
Trivia: Mark Lenard played Sarek, father of Spock (Leonard Nimoy). In real life, Lenard was only seven years older than Nimoy.
Trivia: 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.
Trivia: 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, also Futurama.
Trivia: Leonard Nimoy is the only actor to appear in all 80 episodes (including the pilot) of the original series.
Trivia: For a lot of the first few seasons: When it was time to officially shoot the episodes, William Shatner would be late getting to the set, and when he finally showed up, he was drunk! But no one could really stop the filming to wait for him to be sober, so they would film the episode with Shatner in a dramatic tone (he never spoke that way on purpose, he was just so drunk he didn't realize how he was talking, and that's why it's become so infamous today).
Trivia: Before being cast as Dr. McCoy, DeForest Kelley was offered the role of Mr. Spock.
Trivia: Throughout the series, planets are given a Class rating, most commonly "Class M", suitable for humans. The M is never defined in this series, or TNG, but in Star Trek: Enterprise, S1: E3 "Strange New World", T'Pol says the new planet is "Minshara Class", meaning suitable for humans. Therefore, the classifications for planets used by the Federation were probably determined by the Vulcans.
Answer: Kirk was getting his physical and Dr. McCoy probably turned off communications, because if he hadn't, Kirk would have left and headed straight for the bridge, leaving McCoy irritated.