The original Star Trek took a very circuitous route to TV screens, with a rare second pilot produced before the series was greenlit. “Where No Man Has Gone Before” was shot after NBC executives famously rejected “The Cage,” and addressed enough of the first pilot's perceived oversights to earn a weekly series. And yet the second pilot was still replaced as The Original Series’ premiere. “The Man Trap” served as the official first episode, with “Where No Man Has Gone Before” airing a few weeks later. It’s a strange extension to an already unusual story, though there were some understandable reasons behind it.
NBC felt “The Cage” was too “cerebral” and objected to its comparatively progressive view of women, among other things. The pilot also entailed a high amount of eroticism in its problematic depiction of an Orion slave girl, making the executives nervous. “Where No Man Has Gone Before” contained plenty of action and women in less prominent roles, and NBC finally cleared the show for a regular series slot on its strengths.
The fact NBC ordered a second pilot indicates they felt the concept held potential. According to Inside Star Trek: The Real Story, NBC asked Gene Roddenberry to submit multiple story pitches of which they would choose one for the pilot. He ultimately turned in two others besides “The Cage”, both of which would go on to become scripts for the show itself (“Return of the Archons” and “Mudd’s Women”).
In fact, the same process took place for “No Man:" Roddenberry resubmitted “Mudd’s Women” and added a script that became “The Omega Glory” for NBC to choose from to shoot the second pilot. They went with “No Man,” despite the fact that it would cost more than either of the other two, adding to the already considerable costs of “The Cage” without any immediate return on the investment. In short, NBC was betting on the entire package, not just the pilot.
As a pilot, “No Man” had the task of getting audiences up to speed on Star Trek's concept and purpose. That meant a lot of actors delivered plot exposition, which didn’t make for a compelling introduction to the show. Instead, they went with “The Man Trap,” which featured a compelling mystery wrapped in the kind of sci-fi storytelling that Star Trek intended to convey.
“No Man” first aired two weeks later, and no attempt was made to explain the differences in uniform and demeanor between the crew in other episodes. In fact, the title sequence that ran with the episode lacked Captain Kirk’s narration and used a different score, but it was subsequently replaced with the finished title sequence for reruns. That was the nature of television at the time; continuity didn’t necessarily matter and while NBC wanted to get the show off to a strong start, subsequent airings didn’t need to arrange the episodes in any particular order. Without the impetus to put it in the premiere slot, NBC thought it wiser to wait a few weeks.
Nothing about Star Trek was typical, and its unprecedented development cycle ultimately became the first in a number of surprising twists and turns. The second pilot and its odd placement in the show’s running time, reflects how hard it was to say no to what Gene Roddenberry was selling.
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