The actor mentions a couple of important points the network wanted to cut.
Star Trek wouldn’t be what it is today, nor would the franchise be celebrating its 60th anniversary without William Shatner’s Captain James T. Kirk and the late Leonard Nimoy’s Mr. Spock. However, while reflecting on Trek’s enduring six decades of success, Shatner mentions a couple of very important points that NBC wrongly wanted to cut.
Shatner said in an interview (per Inverse Magazine): “There was a magic about the pilot, and that became the magic of Star Trek that caught the imagination of the audience. Spock with his ears—the first thing they said with Spock is, ‘Get rid of the ears.’ And bless our management, they said, ‘No, we’re not getting rid of the ears.’”
Shatner, who last portrayed the role of Captain Kirk in the feature film Star Trek Generations (1994), continued during the same sit-down by saying:
“And the ears being an example of the crazy magic of science fiction. You can have weird people coming out of a rock and saying, ‘These are the people who live on this planet,” and accept it because you don’t know who’s living on that planet in the sky.”
In case you’re new to the Star Trek fandom, Shatner is referring to NBC’s reaction to creator Gene Roddenberry fighting to keep Spock in The Original Series after the show finally made it to television in September 1966 following its failed first pilot. That initial attempt to make the TV schedule, which is now known as “The Cage,” also featured Spock.
However, and I still laugh at this line of thought today, NBC thought Spock looked a bit too — shall we say — devilish for television. So, bobbing his ears seemed natural to the network’s illogical executives 60 years ago. Can you imagine if Spock had been a human rather than a Vulcan?
Now, put that aside for the moment because NBC didn’t just want to cut Spock’s ears. No, the network wanted to lose the beloved character altogether! What would Star Trek be without Spock? I strongly believe there wouldn’t have been a 60th anniversary celebration without him, and that's my two cents.
In fact, Spockmania took hold shortly after Star Trek’s first episode, “The Man Trap,” debuted on Sept. 8, 1966, and he was undoubtedly a fan-favorite character and still is. So, can you believe NBC nearly dropped the ball — ears in this case — 60 years ago? Share your thoughts and comments with us on the Redshirts Always Die Facebook and X pages.
Live long and prosper, Trekkies!
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