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Here's the scoop on the weird, one-sided feud between NBC and Spock
To boldly beef where no man has beefed before.
As one of the stars of Star Trek: The Original Series, William Shatner has no shortage of memorable stories from the set. The actor was all too happy to share some of those stories in his memoir, Star Trek Memories.
One thing that became incredibly clear early on in the filming process was that the cast and crew would have some difficulty convincing the network executives at NBC to put their faith in the show and its characters.
After series creator Gene Roddenberry had shot the initial Star Trek pilot, the network came down hard against the creator, demanding that he make some steep changes before the show made it to air.
This included budget cuts and cast changes. Notably, NBC seemed to hold a staunch hatred for a certain Vulcan on board.
"Gene knew he could scrape by with a three-hundred-thousand-dollar budget, he could live with NBC's decree that he axe most of the cast, and he could even bring himself to drop most of the characters in question," Shatner wrote. "However, he felt quite strongly about retaining his token Vulcan, and so for the first time Roddenberry chose to bite the hand that fed him, going head to head with NBC's highest ranking execs."
Spock wasn't just a pretty face; Roddenberry felt that the character was integral to the story of Star Trek.
"Spock, he felt, was a complex, multilayered, and important character whose basic inner turmoil and unalterable alien presence could provide a strong focal point for any number of dramatic possibilities," Shatner wrote. "This was something Gene truly believed in, and he was not a man who could be coerced into diluting his vision."
Luckily, a compromise was reached between Roddenberry and the network, and by compromise, we actually mean some good old-fashioned deception.
"Spock could stay, said NBC, but Gene was told that he absolutely, positively would not be allowed to focus much attention on him. Spock, according to NBC, would be seen, not heard, and treated as a sort of living, breathing set decoration. At this point, Gene employed the age-old producer's trick of nodding, smiling through clenched teeth, and muttering under his breath at a just barely inaudible level. As you might expect, he had no intention of obeying their edict."
Viewers everywhere were no doubt grateful for Roddenberry's deceit, which brought Spock into the spotlight, where he belonged.
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