Star Trek: The Original Series (TOS) aired on NBC from September 1966 to June 1969, running 79 episodes over three seasons. The show was created by Gene Roddenberry and assembled one of the most iconic casts in television history.
William Shatner as Captain James T. Kirk — A classically trained Shakespearean actor from Montreal who had appeared in The Twilight Zone and The Outer Limits. Kirk is the only character alongside Spock to appear in every episode. After TOS, Shatner was typecast and went through a divorce that left him financially strapped [1].
Leonard Nimoy as Mr. Spock — The only actor retained from both pilots through the entire series run. Nimoy agreed to voice Spock in the animated series only after demanding that George Takei and Nichelle Nichols also be hired. After TOS, he joined Mission: Impossible for two seasons, then returned to Spock for six films, two TNG episodes, and the 2009 reboot [1][2].
DeForest Kelley as Dr. Leonard "Bones" McCoy — A veteran of Western films, Kelley was actually offered the role of Spock first, which he refused. His Southern pronunciation of "nuclear" as "nucular" became part of McCoy's characterization. He was the only main cast member never to write an autobiography [1].
James Doohan as Montgomery "Scotty" Scott — A D-Day veteran who was shot six times on Juno Beach (friendly fire took off his right middle finger, which he hid on screen). When Roddenberry asked which accent he preferred, Doohan said: "If you want an engineer, in my experience the best engineers are Scotsmen." He chose the name "Montgomery Scott" after his grandfather and contributed to the initial development of the Klingon and Vulcan languages [1][3].
Nichelle Nichols as Lt. Nyota Uhura — Nichols almost quit after Season 1 to pursue Broadway. At an NAACP fundraiser, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. — a devoted Trekkie — convinced her to stay, telling her: "For the first time, we are being seen the world over as we should be seen." He said it was "the only show that my wife Coretta and I will allow our little children to stay up and watch." Uhura's name derives from the Swahili word "uhuru," meaning "freedom" [4].
George Takei as Hikaru Sulu — A Japanese-American whose family was interned during WWII, an experience that deeply informed his later activism. Originally cast as a physicist, Sulu was reassigned to helmsman. Takei invented a system of how the buttons on his console worked, refusing to press ones that didn't correspond to orders given — once convincing a director that a particular button was "the self-destruct" to avoid breaking his continuity [5].
Walter Koenig as Ensign Pavel Chekov — Added in Season 2 partly because producers wanted to attract a younger audience. Roddenberry later claimed the Soviet newspaper Pravda complained about the lack of a Russian crew member, but Koenig has said: "All that stuff about Pravda, that's all nonsense. That was all just publicity." He was the first Star Trek cast member to write a Star Trek story for TV — "The Infinite Vulcan" for the animated series [6].
Majel Barrett as Nurse Christine Chapel / Voice of the Ship's Computer — Originally played "Number One" (the first officer) in the first pilot "The Cage." After NBC rejected her, she was written out but returned as Chapel. She later married Roddenberry [2].
D.C. Fontana (Dorothy Catherine Fontana, 1939–2019) — The most important writer on TOS after Roddenberry. Originally hired as his secretary on The Lieutenant, she was promoted to story editor on Star Trek at age 27 — one of the youngest and few female staff writers in Hollywood. She used the pseudonym "D.C. Fontana" because a female name would have been a disadvantage; her gender was hidden from most fans until they saw her photo in The Making of Star Trek. Her key contribution to mythology: she created Spock's childhood history, established his parents Sarek and Amanda, and developed the emotional travails of the half-human, half-Vulcan character [7].
Theodore Sturgeon (1918–1985) — Wrote two TOS episodes: "Shore Leave" and "Amok Time" — the latter being one of the most important episodes in all of Star Trek. Sturgeon invented the Vulcan mating ritual "pon farr," the phrase "Live long and prosper," and the Vulcan hand salute (first spoken by T'Pau in "Amok Time"). He crafted the entire backstory for Spock and Vulcans. The Vulcan salute was inspired by a Jewish priestly blessing Nimoy had seen as a child [8].
Harlan Ellison (1934–2018) — Wrote "The City on the Edge of Forever," widely considered the greatest episode of the series. Ellison won the 1968 Writers Guild Award for Best Original Teleplay for the script. His relationship with Roddenberry was deeply contentious — Ellison felt Roddenberry and others ruined his script through rewrites. He wanted to use his pseudonym "Cordwainer Bird" (his standard protest against mistreatment) but was refused [9].
Gene L. Coon (1922–1973) — Often called "the man most responsible for the show's success after Roddenberry." He was showrunner during Season 1 (mid-season) through Season 2. Created the Klingons (in "Errand of Mercy"), the Prime Directive, and the Organians. His departure during Season 2 was a major blow to the show's quality [7].
David Gerrold — Wrote the beloved "The Trouble with Tribbles" and later worked on TNG.
Eugene Wesley Roddenberry was born August 19, 1921, in El Paso, Texas.
Roddenberry enlisted in the United States Army Air Corps after Pearl Harbor — not the Navy. He was assigned to the 394th Bomb Squadron, 5th Bombardment Group, 13th Air Force in the Pacific Theater, flying Boeing B-17 Flying Fortresses from land bases in Fiji, Espiritu Santo, and Guadalcanal [10].
He flew an estimated 89 combat missions and survived multiple crashes, including a fatal B-17 takeoff crash at Nadi, Fiji, when "Yankee Doodle" plunged into jungle — two crew members were killed; Roddenberry pulled others to safety. He was awarded the Air Medal and the Distinguished Flying Cross [10].
After the war, he flew for Pan American World Airways, surviving yet another crash — Pan Am Flight 121 in the Syrian desert in June 1947, in which 14 people were killed. Roddenberry pulled injured passengers from the burning plane and led the survivors to seek help [10].
Roddenberry joined the Los Angeles Police Department on February 1, 1949. He spent 16 months in traffic, then transferred to the newspaper unit. He became speechwriter for Chief William H. Parker and rose to Sergeant. While still on the force, he became the LAPD liaison to the Dragnet television series and began moonlighting as a television writer. He became friends with Wilbur Clingan, a fellow officer who would later have the Klingon race named after him [11].
His primary writing pseudonym was "Robert Wesley" — used because the LAPD required employees to seek permission for second jobs, and because a fortune cookie told him: "A change of name will bring you fame" [11].
He described Star Trek as "'Wagon Train' to the stars."
The color-coded departmental uniforms in Star Trek (gold for command, red for operations, blue for science/medical) were inspired by U.S. Navy carrier flight deck jersey conventions, where different colored shirts designate different roles — yellow for aircraft handling officers, red for ordnance, green for catapult crews, purple for fuel handlers, and so on. Roddenberry was reportedly fascinated by Navy operations despite serving in the Army Air Forces [12].
The famous color confusion around the uniforms themselves: Kirk's "gold" command shirt was actually chartreuse/lime green in reality. The combination of 1960s studio lighting, velour fabric, and early color TV film stock created the optical illusion of gold on screen [12].
[1] Star Trek: The Original Series - Wikipedia
[2] Memory Alpha - Leonard Nimoy
[4] NPR - Nichelle Nichols on MLK Encounter
[5] George Takei Bio
[7] Television Academy - Dorothy Fontana
[8] Memory Alpha - Theodore Sturgeon
[9] Wikipedia - Harlan Ellison
[10] Army Times - Gene Roddenberry's Near-Death Experiences