My wife Irene and I watched Star Trek: Enterprise recently- the whole series, beginning to end in order. I acquired access to the Paramount Plus streaming service to facilitate this and it worked pretty well on Apple TV. Well enough that when we finished and Irene asked “what comes next?” I felt confident in saying “The original series (TOS)”. Strange to say the “next” thing after watching a show from 2003 is to watch a show from 1966, but that is the way the Star Trek series chronology works.
I have probably seen every episode of the original 1966 Star Trek at least six or seven times. I will never memorize the scenes but I know them well. But it has been a while since I saw the whole series in order from the beginning, and it is a hoot and a half to watch now.
Things observed from the first season of Star Trek: TOS
In no particular order, here are some things I observed from that very first season of the sixty year old Star Trek:
- Spock yells: For the first four or five episodes Leonard Nimoy kept projecting Spock’s voice in stressful situations, effectively shouting. There was even an incident where he chastised a crewman for shouting unnecessarily… then proceeded to shout himself. I don’t know if this was stage direction or an acting choice, but thankfully Spock gradually calmed down as the season progressed
- Turtlenecks: The pilot was repurposed as the Menagerie and was shown later in the season. But the uniforms and weapons from the pilot carried over to the first couple of episodes of season one. This meant the crew was wearing turtleneck sweater tops, a strange-to-modern-eyes style choice. There was also tremendous inconsistency regarding uniform top colour and bridge crew role, with some characters switching colours nearly every episode despite not changing their jobs
- Women wore pants… then miniskirts: Episode one had the women on board wearing practical pants just like the male crew members. But after about episode two women switched to panty revealing mini-skirts. This was such an obvious choice to pander to the young male audience that it was shocking to see play out in real time between just a couple of episodes
- Doctor Piper: The show was struggling a bit in the first few episodes of the season to figure out its regular cast. Everyone is there except Deforest Kelley, who shows up about three episodes in, but they don’t quite “fit”. Until Bones joins the crew without explanation we have either no one in the medical officer role or Doctor Piper, who sort of blends into the background as “old guy doctor”
- The women’s complicated hairstyles: The women’s hairstyles are engineering marvels. I tried to imagine Yeoman Rand’s daily time budget for assembling her gigantic hair ziggurat, and all I can come up with is “several hours”. Were women in the 1960s really wearing hairstyles like this?!
- Mudd’s Women, the Menagerie, and Space Seed: There are other great episodes in this season, but Mudd’s Women, the Menagerie, and Space Seed (“KHAAAAN!”) are all classics that immediately pop up in any conversation amongst dedicated Trekkers. And yes, I know “KHAAAAN!” is from the movie, not the series- it is just appropriate to reference here as a callback. I was surprised that all three of these classic episodes are from the very first season. Oh, and Squire of Gothos! Almost forgot that one… classic Trek
- Theodore Sturgeon: I was somewhat surprised to see at least one of the first season’s episodes was penned by Theodore Sturgeon. I knew he had written for the original Star Trek, but I didn’t realize it was season one
- Vulcanians: throughout season one anyone of Spock’s alien race is called “Vulcanian”. To me this term sounds… wrong. I’m sure that they later simplified this to “Vulcan”, but I’m not exactly sure when the change occurred or if, perhaps, I’m just mistaken. Episode 24 of season one had at least one use of the word “Vulcan”, so there is hope
Conclusion
Season 1 of the original Star Trek started off as a bit of a mess, but it quickly hit its stride. The main crew of Kirk, Spock, Uhura, Bones, Scotty, and Sulu are established within the first six episodes. It is fascinating to see the things that changed and the things that stayed the same from the original pilot through the rest of the season.
I believe all the women wore wigs, so you’re not seeing their real hair. Wigs were popular in the 60s. A British SF show, UFO, done by the same husband and wife team who would later do Space: 1999, used wigs as uniform parts. Also, from what I understand, the women actors loved the miniskirt uniforms. They were very stylish in the 60s.
Lots of famous SF writers of the time wrote Star Trek episodes. Harlan Ellison, Robert Bloch, many others. D.C. Fontana built a career from writing Star Trek and associated books. James Blish did a lot of novelizations!
Wigs, of course: that still would take a fair amount of time each day to get organized, but a bit better than generating the hair engineering they wear.
I was aware of the fact that famous science fiction writers had participated in Star Trek. I think what “got” me was that they were already involved during the first season. It must have been an exciting thing to have a TV show to write for even before it was released.
Yup, I was a child of the 60s and my mum wore had a wig she wore when she dressed up to go out, and she also loved her mini skirts.