Star Trek history: shooting wraps on Star Trek pilot “Where No Man Has Gone Before”

Gary Lockwood as Gary Mitchell and Sally Kellerman as Elizabeth Dehner in the Star Trek episode “Where No Man Has Gone Before”

ON THIS DAY, July 28th, back in 1965, shooting wrapped on the second pilot episode of Star Trek: The Original Series, “Where No Man Has Gone Before.” This was the eighth day of filming on an episode whose schedule was only budgeted for seven days, and it was in danger of continuing into a ninth day. Star Trek was a show unlike any that had ever been made and had more complicated technical requirements than the typical weekly series. This was Gene Roddenberry’s second chance to sell the series and had they taken nine days to film the pilot, it probably would have been killed by the studio.

That studio, by the way, was Desilu Productions, founded by Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball. Ball was so taken by the premise of the series that she championed its production, even though most of the “money people” couldn’t see its worth.

Star Trek’s impending deadline spurred the director, James Goldstone, to film an astounding and unprecedented 30 camera set-ups in one day! On a typical day, production would begin at 8am and end at 7:10pm, but today was not typical, and shooting wrapped at 9:37pm, after completing the climactic fight between Kirk and Gary Mitchell on Delta Vega. The actors and their stuntmen kicked around sand and styrofoam, covering the dolly tracks that had been laid out for the camera. A possibly apocryphal tale has Lucille Ball herself grabbing a broom and helping to clean off the tracks in order to keep filming moving, saying, “What do I have to do to get you to finish?”

Whether the story is true or not, they did eventually finish, although they had to come in for a few pickup shots the next day. Despite the extra shooting days, the show got picked up, which is good news for Trek fans everywhere.