Gene Roddenberry had been racking up credits in the TV industry for a full 12 years before he created “Star Trek” in 1966. Like many writers of his generation, he entered into the biz right when Westerns, military dramas, and cop shows were enjoying a particular cultural high, so many of Roddenberry’s earliest writing gigs were for shows in those genres. He wasn’t yet known for his sci-fi. His earliest credits were for the series “Highway Patrol,” using his pen name, Robert Wesley.
Roddenberry worked pretty constantly throughout the 1950s, filming episodes of “West Point Story,” and 24 episodes of “Have Gun — Will Travel.” In 1958, Roddenberry tried his hand at creating his own show, making a pilot for a series called “Sam Houston,” about the historical Texan. That show, however, never made it past its pilot and never aired. In 1960, Roddenberry created a short-lived Western called “Wrangler,” his first actual aired series. Sadly, it only lasted for six episodes. He went back to writing single episodes of many hit shows for a few years before trying again with “The Lieutenant,” a military series that he created in 1963.
“The Lieutenant” takes place at Camp Pendleton, and follows the travails of a young and idealistic Marine lieutenant named William Tiberius Rice, played by actor Gary Lockwood. “Star Trek” fans will immediately notice that Gary Lockwood appeared in the “Star Trek” episode “Where No Man Has Gone Before,” and that his middle name was eventually repurposed to be the middle name of Captain James T. Kirk.
Trekkies might also know that Nichelle Nichols, who would play Lieutenant Uhura on “Star Trek,” made her TV debut in an episode of “The Lieutenant.” Roddenberry was meeting all the right people.
Nichelle Nichols made her TV debut on Gene Roddenberry’s The Lieutenant
“The Lieutenant” was seemingly a series about idealism vs. the realities of war. Gary Lockwood starred alongside Robert Vaughn, who played Captain Raymond Rambridge, William Tiberius Rice’s superior officer. The hour-long drama followed the difficult dramas encountered by a young Marine as he went on dangerous missions, exploring his initial idealism and juxtaposing it with the violence demanded of him by the military.
Nichelle Nichols acted in an episode called “To Set It Right,” playing a character named Norma, the fiancee of a Black Marine named Private Earnest Cameron (Don Marshall). A white Marine in the unit is found guilty of racism, something that Cameron had witnessed from him back in high school (they attended the same school, you see). Rice naively attempted to broker a peace between the two officers, but found that racism was too pervasive and deep-rooted to be overcome with a simple discussion and handshake. Keep in mind that this episode was intended for broadcast in 1964, so such matters were still atypical in mainstream television. This was before the Civil Rights Act of 1964, so racial justice was swirling in a miasma of political struggle.
According to the IMDb’s trivia page, “To Set It Right” never actually aired. NBC was said to have pulled the episode from circulation, finding its themes of racism to be too controversial for a mainstream (read: white) audience. (In fact, it seemed to air in at least a few markets across the country.) But “To Set It Right” reruns eventually made their way to TNT in 1990. Supposedly, NBC’s reluctance to address racism in 1964 was part of what radicalized Roddenberry into writing stories about alien racism and Earthly racial unity into “Star Trek” a few years later.
Other Star Trek actors had guest spots on The Lieutenant
“The Lieutenant” lasted for a full 29-episode season, with Gene Roddenberry credited as the writer on two of its episodes (under his name, or the pen name Robert Wesley). A quick glance over the show’s guest stars reveals that Roddenberry worked with multiple actors who would go on to appear on “Star Trek.” Leonard Nimoy, best known for playing the half-Vulcan Spock on “Star Trek,” appeared in the episode “In the Highest Tradition.”
That episode also starred Majel Barrett as a character named Ruth. Barrett would play Number One in the original “Star Trek” pilot, and Nurse Chapel on the original series. She would also play the voice of the computer on the Enterprise-D on “Star Trek: The Next Generation” as well as the Auntie Mame-like Lwaxan Troi. And, yes, Barrett and Roddenberry got married in 1969, and stayed married until his death in 1991.
Additionally, Walter Koenig joined “Star Trek” in its second season playing the young buck Ensign Chekov, and he appeared in the “Lieutenant” episode “Mother Enemy.” Superstar Ricardo Montalbán turned up in the episode “Tour of Duty,” and he would famously play the villain Khan on both “Star Trek” and in the movie “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.”
Of course, Roddenberry and the eventual “Star Trek” cast were all swimming in the same network pools, and all variously worked on many of the same shows. Roddenberry came up with a story for the Western series “The Virginian,” and most of the main “Star Trek” actors took jobs on that series, for instance. “The Lieutenant,” however, marked the beginning of many valuable collaborations.
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