While television in 1966 might be considered "infancy" relative to television today, for innovation during the infancy of television, it might be worth looking five or ten years earlier to various incarnations of The Ernie Kovacs Show.
Probing beyond Robert Sabaroff's 'The Immunity Syndrome'
- Thread starter Captain Tracy
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Television was more in its adolescence in 1966. And as stated above performers like Ernie Kovacs broke far more ground relative to the evolutionary stage of TV at the time. Trek took its cues from stories like Forbidden Planet, TV Westerns and Horatio Hornblower but Kovacs and those like him influenced both humor and television presentation for generations to come and turned early TV on its ear.
Yeah, it’s not one of the usual suspects. I’ll post a clean copy
but the TrekCore image might be better.
https://www.trekcore.com/specials/rarephotos3.html
Even Steve Allen, quite the Herbert in some ways, could be surprisingly subversive.
As we seen in Network (1976), the maverick early days of television took place in the mid-1950s.
Yeah, there'd have been no Johnny Carson, David Letterman, Jay Leno or any other talk show host interviewing famous guests at a desk and with acerbic wit without Steve Allen. He was the prototype for every other legend that followed.
Disagree. They didn't know that there was a danger ahead that could destroy ships until after they had brought the recorder-marker aboard. KIrk called the alert based on that and then explained to the crew why the crew was on alert once he reached the bridge, where he mentions the very same reason.
I also disagree with the assertion that alert automatically means emergency. Having served on three different Navy vessels during my active and reserve career, I can tell you that that is a false premise.
Blame the editor then, because the pilot was edited for TV after the show was bought by NBC.
Ellison is an egotistical jerk; I wouldn't ask him for the time of day.
ETA:I didn't realized he had passed. Thanks for the heads up, @cooleddie74
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Plus, it's not like you can ask him anyways. 
See, Harlan would appreciate that joke.
See, Harlan would appreciate that joke.
I think that photo was in The Making of Star Trek, but not in color.Yeah, it’s not one of the usual suspects. I’ll post a clean copy
but the TrekCore image might be better.
https://www.trekcore.com/specials/rarephotos3.html
That one's not, but there is one captioned "Captain Kirk in the Transporter Room" of Kirk in second pilot costume that's not from the episode.
Thanks for checking. I was not where I could consult my copy of the book.
I of course oversimplified and failed to call out the distinction.
My friend Jennifer used to say that back in the 70s.
My intent wasn't to correct, per se, but to clarify. Your initial point about there being multiple levels of alert is still valid. A key point of my post that I should have emphasized is that GQ, war-time cruising, etc, affect how a ship is manned and material conditions of readiness do not.
(And in fairness, I also simplified; I didn't talk about the implementation of the "circle" versions of X-RAY, YOKE and ZEBRA, or Dog ZEBRA, or WILLIAM and Circle WILLIAM.)
I probably heard it that long ago!
Back on topic..I think part of this discussion is Ship Sensors versus Probes versus Manned Ships. From The Immunity Syndrome:
I find it interesting that this episode showed the audience the progression of sensors-to-probes-to-manned ships to investigate the space ameba. Good science fiction writing!
With the space ameba, vision and ship sensors can't penetrate it's zone of blackness. Since Chekov was able to scan the Gamma Seven-A system and confirm its is "dead", we can assume one of two things, one, the ameba has passed through the system, moved on and left it behind, or two, "dead" meant that no information was seen and the star system was simply masked behind the zone. The zone size is not given, but it seems to be around 1 AU to solar system size since later we find out that the ameba itself is planet size.
Telemetry inside the zone can't be detected outside the zone. But once inside the zone, telemetry and vision works:
The difference between the probe and manned shuttlecraft is firstly, the shuttlecraft has shields and has a more capable drive to travel around inside the ameba. This could also imply longer lasting due to its more powerful power systems. Also, the specially equipped sensors may be more diverse and powerful implying they take up more space than a probe can carry. Up to this point in the series, TOS has not demonstrated full robotic control of shuttlecraft, so, the man interface will be needed. To precisely target a probe, the Enterprise needed to get point blank due to eddies and currents that the probe's weak drive system can't handle.
I find it interesting that this episode showed the audience the progression of sensors-to-probes-to-manned ships to investigate the space ameba. Good science fiction writing!
But much less adventurous and interesting.
