Star Trek: The Alternate Adventures Fan Casting Poster

Fan CastingStar Trek: The Alternate Adventures

by Gene Roddenberry

Story added by knightranger on August 2, 2022

In 1966, Star Trek debuted on US network, NBC, after over two years of development during which it was given the unusual opportunity of producing two pilots to prove itself. What if, during that extensive process, someone else at NBC or Desilu had been advising Gene Roddenberry during the casting process? What if some actors were approached before they signed onto other productions? What if characters were changed or retained between pilot(s) and series? Who might be admired now as the crew of the original Enterprise which started the franchise off?read more

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#scifi #startrek #adventure

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knightranger After the character of Number One from The Cage is dismissed by NBC executives - ostensibly because having a woman in such a high ranking role in the military broke their suspension of disbelief - the only female presence left is the Captain's Yeoman, essentially a "non-part" that it's agreed would be difficult to write for if given a full series order. During pre-production of the second pilot, they struggle to work out a meatier female role without running foul of the same reasoning. Eventually after an absent comment a staffer makes about liking fast cars and fast woman, the idea "What if we literally have a fast woman?" is sparked, but fast in the occupational rather than sexual sense of the word. A bio is quickly drawn up of a young and promising pilot that broke cadet speed and manoeuvrability records at the Academy. The casting of a woman in the role would push against the common belief of women being poor drivers. After negotiations with Jeffrey Hunter crash and burn, Laurel Goodwin - whose character was closely tied to Captain Pike - was initially dropped. However remembering how popular the actress was during presentation of The Cage, Herb Solow invites Goodwin back and Yeoman Colt turns into Lt (jg) Jessie Colt, a shuttle pilot assigned as permanent helmsman after the loss of her immediate superior, Gary Mitchell.

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knightranger When looking to recast the communications officer, Roddenberry angles for Nichelle Nichols, an actress who'd guest-starred in his previous show, The Lieutenant. However, correctly deducing that Roddenberry is just trying to cast people he wants to sleep with, Herb Solow vetoes the idea. Besides which they already have one woman on the bridge, two might be pushing it with the network. He agrees though that they should cast a black actor to show the diversity Roddenberry has envisioned for the future of humanity. That's when someone suggests another actor that looks impressive from the same Lieutenant episode Nichols appeared in. After being invited to audition, Don Marshall is given the role of Comms Officer Dan Alden from the second pilot, retooled to give the character more action opportunities. He's only missing from one episode of the first season, due to an internal studio agreement for him to film an episode of Bruce Geller's Mission Impossible, Star Trek's stable mate at Desilu.

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