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Why switch to Kirk from Pike?

Stag

Stag

Rear Admiral
Rear Admiral
After all these years of being a TREK fan, a though occurred to me today - why did Gene Roddenberry after the failed first pilot change the main character's name from Pike to Kirk?

I mean, no one outside of NBC execs had seen pilot #1, even though hunter didn't want the part, you could have kept the character's name and simply change the actor. Same with the Captain's overall character - they wanted someone less cerebral and more action oriented. Well all you have to do is re-write the character not re-name him. To me Chris Pike sounds as action oriented as Jim Kirk.

Your thoughts?
 
^ Maybe he thought it'd be more interesting to give the Enterprise a larger backstory than just Kirk had commanded it and kept the possibility that they would revisit the past? They did show Pike in an episode of Season One.
 
nx1701g said:
^ Maybe he thought it'd be more interesting to give the Enterprise a larger backstory than just Kirk had commanded it and kept the possibility that they would revisit the past? They did show Pike in an episode of Season One.
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Could be, if I remember correctly though - Menagerie Pt 1&2 was a quick thinking, disaster aversion plan by Roddenberry because of production delays occurring as a result of getting the series up and running and meeting the hectic deadlines of weekly TV production.

I don't think initially there was a thought that the footage from Pilot #1 would ever see daylight. Most unsuccessful pilots are destroyed, it is possible they never got around to it when the need for footage was realized.

Brolan said:
Shatner was considered a better actor.
Click to expand...

OK, that's fine but that doesn't necessitate a character's name change. I agree though, he was a better actor then Hunter, who was kind of wooden.
 
I'm betting that it was something stupid like some suit didn't like the name Pike because it reminded him of a bad childhood fishing experience or something.
 
Well, before that it was April. And it was Winters before that. GR just couldn't make up his mind, and a new pilot gave him an opportunity to change it one last time. And to be fair, every character's name changed except Spock.
 
SonicRanger said:
Well, before that it was April. And it was Winters before that. GR just couldn't make up his mind, and a new pilot gave him an opportunity to change it one last time. And to be fair, every character's name changed except Spock.
Click to expand...

That seems sensible and is often true of the evolving writing/creative process.

Sharr
 
Shatner a better actor than Jeffrey Hunter? Don't think so. Hunter was Jesus Christ in the big-budget Hollywood movie, The King of Kings.

Back on topic, it was a lucky confluence of events that gave us a backstory for Spock and the Enterprise in the form of the former commander of the ship, Captain PIke. I do seem to recall they did offer the role to Jeffrey Hunter, but he was committed to a Hollywood project at the time.

However, it was pretty clever of the production folks to take the unsold pilot and wrap another story around it.

I want to add that Hunter's career began to founder after King of Kings and his involvement in ST. He died in 1969 from complications of a stroke and a fall suffered as a result of that stroke, it being his second. What would ST be if he was indeed cast as Pike, and then he passed on? Would Nimoy as Spock been the star of the movies? Hmmm.

Red Ranger
 
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nx1701g said:
^ Maybe he thought it'd be more interesting to give the Enterprise a larger backstory than just Kirk had commanded it and kept the possibility that they would revisit the past? They did show Pike in an episode of Season One.
Click to expand...

Sounds, like a good idea on the subject.:)
 
It didn't have to do with the actor (Hunter respected the property but there were a variety of reasons he was unable to continue) and I don't think that was the question. I believe the question was about names.

Roddenberry AGONIZED over the name of the captain character. He prepared a huge list after researching what he thought were powerful characters and deciding which letters and sounds they most often had in common. He went back and forth a lot; even some later-dated scripts for the pilots still use alternate captain names like "Raintree," and there's a hand-corrected one out there where he clearly was stuck between Pike and April. So, the only answer is that he had lots of strong names in the mix and just struggled with which would be best. I respect that he cared and I do think "Christopher Pike" and "James T. Kirk" and "Robert April" are all good and that it's fine they all made it into the canon. (About "Raintree" I find myself not quite so enthusiastic. :D)
 
He probably decided that "James T. Kirk" was a stronger name more befitting a captain of a starship. J, T, and K are good, strong letters that fit a hero or leading character well.
 
Pike and Kirk are two completely different characters played by two different actors. Giving them different names is only logical.
 
Oso Blanco said:
Pike and Kirk are two completely different characters played by two different actors. Giving them different names is only logical.
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They were pretty similar at first. The earliest episodes were probably written for "Pike". As the series progressed Shatner and the writers developed Kirk and he moved in a different direction.
 
Stag said:
Could be, if I remember correctly though - Menagerie Pt 1&2 was a quick thinking, disaster aversion plan by Roddenberry because of production delays occurring as a result of getting the series up and running and meeting the hectic deadlines of weekly TV production.

I don't think initially there was a thought that the footage from Pilot #1 would ever see daylight. Most unsuccessful pilots are destroyed, it is possible they never got around to it when the need for footage was realized.
Click to expand...
The reason for changing their names was the same for changing the name of the doctors... all of this footage was going to make it to air at some point.

And yes, The Cage (in a slightly shorten version) was most likely going to be aired as an episode. The idea of making it into two episodes to relieve the production schedule was what was ingenious.

As for destroying the pilot footage... no other pilot had warranted a network to request a second pilot in the history of television before this, and no other pilot for a television series had cost as much as The Cage did.

Make no mistake... the footage was going to be used. It was just to expensive to not use it.

It is a tribute to the people behind the scenes that characters portrayed by specific actors kept their character's names in most cases. And that a change in actor in a role was followed by a change of character name even if the part would have served the same purpose.

But there was no way that they were going to throw away all the money spent on The Cage or WNMHGB just because of changes in cast, costumes, set design or special effects. They were going to be used in one way or another. In fact, had The Cage been aired before the production crunch (rather than WNMHGB), I'm quite sure that something like The Menagerie could have been done using WNMHGB footage.
 
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