50 Years of Star Trek Page #3

Lucy loved "Star Trek."

And we wouldn't have had

"Star Trek" without Lucy,

so we love Lucy.

You know, my father

passed away when I was 17.

He's got such a legacy and

he's touched so many people

that I've learned a great

deal about him after his passing.

You know, he was a bomber

pilot in World War II.

He flew something like,

uh, is it 79 or 89 missions.

My father had seen the best of humanity

and he'd seen the worst of humanity.

But I think that really

helped shape his view

of "Star Trek" and that better future.

Narrator:
The pilot episode

of "Star Trek" is filmed in 1965,

introducing the

world to what would become

one of the most iconic

characters of all time,

Mr. Spock.

And he shoved a

picture of Leonard Nimoy

across the desk at me.

At that point, he was

a Martian first officer.

He said a character with pointed ears,

and that set me back a bit.

I had to think about that one.

Leonard was an

actor. He was a real actor.

And he walked me

through the various departments.

He showed me where they

were making the props.

He showed me where the

sets were being designed,

the design for the Enterprise, the ship.

And I realized that he

was selling me on this job.

And that's the way it would happen.

Narrator:
The network

orders a new "Star Trek" pilot.

Spock stays on board,

but the Enterprise

gets an entirely new crew,

including a brash, young captain,

James T. Kirk.

William Shatner had Kirk down

from act one, scene one,

and he played that

through right till the end

in "Star Trek:
Generations" in 1994.

You know, Shatner, who's

totally nailing the part,

but DeForest Kelley, the

person that Gene wanted

from the beginning for Dr. McCoy.

Scotty felt like he was

a little more fully formed

as a character.

There was an empathy with

Jimmy Doohan's performance.

We just liked Scotty. You

wanted to hang out with Scotty.

You wanted to go have a drink

in the bar with Scotty, you know?

It's a very hallowed and beloved thing

that you don't want to mess up.

I feel honored to play Scotty.

I will always defer to

the greatest Scotty ever,

which was James Doohan,

but if I can do half as good

as he did, then I'll be happy.

George Takei, who plays

Mr. Sulu, sat at the helm.

An Asian man on a show like this,

you seldom saw anything like that.

And here he was, a man

with responsibilities.

He was the helmsman.

Everyone, Nichelle, just

beautiful and smart

and an incredible role model as Uhura.

I think the first memory of

"Star Trek" really was going,

"Oh, look..." [chuckles]

"There's a black lady in the future."

And this was the first time I knew

we would be in the future.

Later on, Walter Koenig as Chekov.

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