[Gelliad]

Wanted to share this link with everyone-

http://blastr.com/2011/01/found-gene...-star-trek.php

Think you know the original name Roddenberry proposed for the captain?

What was the name of the ship? Not Enterprise!

[Christopher Halsey]

Very good find. I hope this doesn't come out wrong but was this actually lost? I only ask as most of the details below have been mentioned before.

So is it that the actual document has been discovered rather than it containing new information? I know the bullet points don't cover all of the information from the document such as the recon pods although I seem to remember them being mentioned before and being dropped in favor of the transporter for budget reasons and so the transition could be a lot faster. Do we know if there is any completely new information? The only one of the bullet points that I'm not familiar with was the South American navigator Jose Ortegas.

♦ Roddenberry's original captain was not James Kirk or Christopher Pike, but Robert April;
♦ The ship was first called the U.S.S. Yorktown;
♦ The navigator was not a young Russian hotshot named Pavel Chekov, but a young South American hotshot named Jose Ortegas;
♦ Spock was the "first lieutenant" and described as having a reddish complexion and, of course, pointed ears, and was probably "half Martian."

Robert April did get added to the Star Trek lore and was seen in an episode of The Animated Series as an Ambassador. He was mentioned as being the officer overseeing construction of the Enterprise and being its first Captain.

Although I don't think it is mentioned on screen any where according to Roddenberry the Enterprise A was originally named the USS Yorktown before being re-named in honour of the Enterprise crew at the end of Star Trek: The Voyage Home therefore allowing him to give a nod to the original intended name.

I didn't know about Jose Ortegas instead of Pavel Chekov but I'm not too sure how accurate that is as Chekov himself was not originally a character on the show, he was added in series 2 to replace Sulu (as Takei was involed in filming on another project) and was chosen mainly to appeal to female viewers which is why he had a hair cut meant to resemble one of the members of The Monkees. I'm not saying that in the original pitch there wasn't a Jose Ortegas just that I don't think he would have been in place of a character who wasn't even in the pilot or first season.

As I recall the reason Spock ended up not being half-martian was because the networks thought he would look satanic. Obviously in those days what you could show on TV was a lot stricter and Star Trek was contravershal enough by having its multi-racial cast especially considering the fact that Chekov and Sulu represented nations with less than great relations with America at the time. I also think someone made a point about wanting someone a bit more exotic than a martian since in the Star Trek timeline anything from Mars would have been old hat and would probably have made the whole Spock being picked on for being an alien theme less realistic.

[Gelliad]

Here's a direct link to the PDF of the actual document the article is referring to:

http://leethomson.myzen.co.uk/Star_T...Trek_Pitch.pdf

I haven't read through the document myself - I offer no credibility to the document, article, or any information contained therein.

Actually, I hope for some spirited commentary from our fellow UFP members - along the lines of throwing chum into a tank full of starving sharks, rather than Mrs. Marbury's afternoon tea

[Christopher Halsey]

Thanks for the link very eager to take a look through this :mrgreen:

[U.S.S. Hyperion]

Very nice.

[John Hathaway]

Really interesting to read through it. Haven't read through it all yet but it's quite fascinating to read the initial thought processes that came to be Star Trek as we know it.

[Spectre]

The captain's name gave me a good laugh and what an interesting ship name heh. Good find though never thought I see this ever in my life.

[Stormy]

Very kewl post! I had heard some of the details but to see the entire proposal in Gene's own words is... as Spock would say... fascinating.