What if the show had started production a year earlier?

[Talos IV]

The "How would the look of TOS have adapted to the 1970s?" thread is fascinating, so here's another one.

What if production of "Where No Man Has Gone Before" happened just earlier enough that NBC bought the show in time for the 1965-66 season? That would have put it on the air the same year that "Lost in Space" debuted (itself a more serious show in its first season than it eventually became).

Would we have had four seasons of TOS instead? Different writers? Producers?

It would have meant an extra season under the Desilu regime, which probably would've been great.

 

[uniderth]

Would there have been as much emphasis on using color? Or would we have gotten a black and white first season?

 

[HGN2001]

It's interesting to consider a first black & white season of STAR TREK. It might have looked something like this:

But the flip side of that is that NBC wanted to be "the full color network" even in the fall of 1965, though it still had a couple of prime-time black & white shows. One was CONVOY, a WWII show that used stock footage that made black & white almost a necessity. The other was I DREAM OF JEANNIE, which because of its trick photography was deemed both unproven and too expensive to do in color that year.

STAR TREK might have fallen into that "too expensive in color" mode, but then there's the fact that Desilu was already doing Lucy in color even though it was being broadcast on black & white CBS.

The other big question would be which show would STAR TREK have replaced in that Fall 1965 schedule.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1965–66_United_States_network_television_schedule

Harry

 

[Kor]

I envision a black and white first season using the uniforms with the ribbed collars a la "The Cage" and WNMHGB. And female crewmembers in trousers.

Kor

 

[TwoJakes]

Read a rumor a few times that the network wanted the cast to be smoking on the show, wonder if a year sooner would have made that more likely.

Would have made Nimoy happy.

 

[Push The Button]

Would there have been as much emphasis on using color? Or would we have gotten a black and white first season?

My first exposure to TOS in the early 70's was primarily through a black-and-white TV, so I would not have noticed, they were all black-and-white for me.

 

[Maurice]

Read a rumor a few times that the network wanted the cast to be smoking on the show, wonder if a year sooner would have made that more likely.

Would have made Nimoy happy.

Pretty sure that's was just another rumor. I don't recall seeing much smoking on any of the sci-fi type shows of the era. Certainly John and Maureen Robinson weren't sharing a Space Chesterfield. I do seem to recall Admiral Nelson smoking in Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, but that show was only set a decade into the future.

 

[Warped9]

Maybe it could have looked something like this.

 

[Kor]

Roddenberry himself commented on how he fought the man so that smoking wouldn't be included in Star Trek.

See "Background Information" here: http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/Smoking

As with many things Roddenberry said, I find myself wondering whether I should take this with a boulder of salt.

Kor

 

[KeepOnTrekking]

I remember in an interview with Fred Freiberger in Starlog #39 that Fred said that Gene Roddenberry was interested in Fred producing the first season but Fred passed on it because he had already planned a family vacation but would be interested if the job if it was still available when he got back. Gene Coon eventually got the job instead. My questions would be--is there any truth to this story and, if so, would Freiberger have been available a year earlier or was he already working on another show in 1965?

 

[JonnyQuest037]

I'd guess that a Trek premiering in 1965 would have likely been in color. The Man From U.N.C.L.E. premiered on NBC in 1964 and was black in white for its first season, but it went to color for its second season in 1965.

 

[JonnyQuest037]

I wonder if Trek premiering a year sooner would have resulted in different casting for certain characters. If, say, DeForest Kelley wasn't available, we could have had a different actor as Dr. McCoy.

 

[johnnybear]

Would Trek have been in black and white? Considering that The Cage was made in colour anyway? Plus for most of us we saw the entire series in monochrome anyway back in the day!
JB

 

[johnnybear]

I'm glad it did start later as Yeoman Rand looked so much better in her red dress and short skirt rather than a yellow top and black trousers!
JB

 

[uniderth]

I wonder, if they had stuck with the original uniform design, but still ended up wanting a skirt version, if they would have made a black skirt the "fairer sex" could have worn instead of the trousers or made a miniskirt version of the tan, beige, blue top. I don't know, maybe they still would have overhauled the uniforms one season in anyway.

 

[Warped9]

The issue with the miniskirt is that it hasn't stood the test of time because the context has changed.

Apparently the miniskirt was Grace Lee Whitney's idea as an attractive symbol of female empowerment at the time. But that context changed within a relatively short period of time. By the time TMP came along a decade later perspectives had changed and the miniskirt was no longer a symbol of viable female empowerment. It was being perceived as another example of sexism and that view continues today.

If TOS had stuck with the trousers for women, and perhaps offered a skirt alternative (albeit of more reasonable length), it might well have helped the presentation of women on the show as genuine equals to men and one of the major symbols of the era's sexism would not remain present for future viewers to criticize.

And if we had never seen the miniskirt on TOS we would never have missed it.

 

[Kor]

Yes, people neglect to really look at the context of the time, and they forget that, for a little while there, the miniskirt was almost like a uniform for feminism.

Some background: https://theminiskirtrevolution.wordpress.com/history-2/

Kor

 

[uniderth]

And if we had never seen the miniskirt on TOS we would never have missed it.

I would have.

 

[Warped9]

I would have.

You can't really miss something you've never actually known.

Did later Treks, as well as other SF, suffer because the miniskirt was absent?

No.

Having said that the catsuits of VOY and ENT were also objectifying women in their own way given they were emulating how women are often drawn in mainstream superhero comics.


One of the shows I've enjoyed was JAG. There were lots of women depicted in the U.S. armed forces where they wore slacks and skirt alternatives (depending on the occasion), and none of them looked any less attractive for not being in a miniskirt. Indeed a miniskirt version of U.S. forces' alternate female uniforms would look totally ridiculous and unprofessional.

If TOS had stuck with the more reasoned and realistic approach it would be yet another positive aspect of the series.

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

A long skirt variant would've been nice. I imagine it might get chilly.