"I can't get used to having a woman on the bridge"

It's still stupid that's her name given her being called Number One. If that were any more on the nose you could smell with it.

 

From what I understand "The Cage" was rejected for three reasons:

1) Not enough action. (Remember this was the era of westerns and police dramas that usually ended with a shootout of some sort).

2) While the suits at NBC were impressed; the pilot cost the equivalent of a B movie in 1966. They weren't convinced that a series like Star Trek could be produced for 30 episodes for a reasonable cost.

3) Because of the amount of visual and photographic effects required they were also unsure that episodes could be delivered for broadcast in a timely fashion.

That's why when they commissioned a second pilot they dictated certain terms and deadlines that had to be met during production and delivery, in addition to containing a story that they felt would entertain audiences and satisfy advertisers and sponsors.

 

And also, was Commander Riker's name Uno? Again, it's ridiculous. "Number One" was Gene Roddenberry's idea of what a "first" officer's nickname should be. He brought it back, along with "Engage", for Picard. We should just be thankful Spock was spared that unrealistic affectation.

 

If only Picard's ...

Spoiler

dog

... could have been as lucky as Spock.

 

Wasn’t Number One a term used at times in the British Navy?

 

It's a traditional Royal Navy nickname for the first lieutenant, who is second in command on a smaller warship.

 

Una? "Sweeter than bee pollen on a summer wind..."

 

If it is a large ship, and the senior lieutenant isn't second in command, are they still called number one?

 

It's an honorific that dates to the time when the officers ranks aboard a ship were captain/master and lieutenants:

A lieutenant was numbered by his seniority within the ship on which he served, so that a frigate (which was entitled to three) would have a first, a second, and a third lieutenant. A first-rate ship was entitled to six, and they were numbered accordingly.​

 

So GR repurposed the term for “The Cage” and later for TNG.

 

On a ship where the second-in-command has the rank of commander (battleships, cruisers and carriers, historically), they would be called "The Commander," in the same manner as "The Captain." There would still be a first lieutenant, though, in charge of exterior maintenance and deck seaman functions, but "Number one" would be a deputy to "The Commander." There are very few ships that big in the RN today, just the carriers and amphibious assualt ships AFAIK. Lieutenant-commanders are considered senior lieutenants, so would also be a "first lieutenant" if second-in-command.

Sometimes if you're reading stuff from pre-WW2, you have to get used to the idea that if they mention "the commander of HMS Renown" they are probably talking about the second-in-command.

 

Inside Star Trek says that NBC didn't think that Desilu was up to the job, so went for a script that guaranteed failure.
When it was made, NBC asked for a second pilot that would be more like a normal episode.

 

I think he was just making a sexist remark but didn't mean to. I could rationalise it as him specifically thinking on Colt replacing his dead male Yeoman, who in Early Voyages comics was Yeoman Dermot Cusack but then he talks about thinking Number One as a bloke, so it's more like that he thinks of the bridge crew as males even if females are up there. I think in-universe all these Star Trek people try there best to be open minded and sometimes they just fuck up and say something stupid

 

Absolutely.

 

Accidently let out what he really thought?

And when he said "you're different" to Number One, that too could be seen as Pike in a moment of complete honesty. Accidently of course.

 

What about the other female officer sat at the console where the fax printout came from?
Is she "different" too?
http://tos.trekcore.com/hd/albums/1x00hd/thecagehd0273.jpg

 

I think the unsubtle implication is plain as day, "I can't get used to having a [shaggable] woman on the bridge." This is Roddenberry writing this, after all.

 

In the book "Inside Star Trek," didn't Roddenberry tell one of the book's authors that the main reason he hired the actress who played Colt is because he wanted to get her to have sex with him?

 

That story (which IIRC was attributed to GR by director James Goldstone) was about Andrea Dromm, Yeoman Smith in the second pilot.

 

And in an interview decades later, Dromm said that Roddenberry was a perfect gentleman and never made a pass at her, so apparently he was all talk in that instance.