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Original 'Star Trek' pitch features Captain April, 'satanic' Spock

If Gene Roddenberry’s original concept for “Star Trek” had boldly gone forward without a whole lot of tweaks, life on the U.S.S. Enterprise would have been very different. For instance, there would have been no U.S.S. Enterprise.Instead, the S.S. Yorktown would have ferried its crew across space in what Roddenberry described as a “Wagon Train” story. And rather than having Captain Kirk

If Gene Roddenberry’s original concept for “Star Trek” had boldly gone forward without a whole lot of tweaks, life on the U.S.S. Enterprise would have been very different. For instance, there would have been no U.S.S. Enterprise.

Instead, the S.S. Yorktown would have ferried its crew across space in what Roddenberry described as a “Wagon Train” story. And rather than having Captain Kirk or even Captain Pike leading the way, Captain Robert April — a character familiar only to die-hard Trekkers (and even then, in cartoon form) — was the imagined main man.

Some of the other characters in the pitch made it to the small screen briefly, such as female first officer Number One and ship’s doctor Philip Boyce, both from the pilot episode of the '60s show. Only one character made it all the way: Mr. Spock. Well, sort of. Spock 1.0 was described as a “satanic” looking, reddish half-Martian but ... close enough.

Read the full 16 pages of the "Star Trek" pitch here.