By Chris Snellgrove | Published
What was the first episode of Star Trek? That’s actually a tricky question: not only The Original Series had the original pilot (aside from Leonard Nimoy) a completely different cast, but the producers filmed the episodes in a different order than they were originally televised. That first pilot (“The Cage”) would later have some of its footage reused in “The Menagerie” before being released as a separate episode. Meanwhile, “Man Trap” was the first Star Trek episode that fans saw on television.
It’s a solid sci-fi adventure that features some of the worst (not to mention fictional) monsters in the genre’s history. The network carefully selected “Man Trap” as the first episode to air, and their gambit worked. The new show quickly attracted a strong following, and would become an even bigger cultural phenomenon when it was rediscovered by college students in the ’70s. However, strangely, there is none you hate it the first episode of Star Trek beyond its biggest star: William Shatner!
Captain On The Bridge!
In “The Man Trap,” the Enterprise goes around a rented facility to check on all the local residents. This is meant to be a routine mission, but things go awry when Captain Kirk and his crew are attacked by a mutant monster. It’s hard for them to confirm who this alien is, especially if it takes the form of people like Dr. McCoy’s old flame. Eventually, the monster is revealed in all its horrors as a salt vampire, always hunting for its next meal.
These days, “The Man Trap” is considered a solid Star Trek episode. Over on IMDB, it has a rating of 7.2, which is perfectly fine: while this is a good sci-fi adventure, it’s nowhere near the height of sci-fi. The Original Series bangers like “Balance of Terror” and “City on the Edge of Forever.” However, Star Trek icon William Shatner really hated this episode. In his memory Star Trek Memorieshe noted how he and other co-stars had already shot several episodes (including “Mudd’s Women” and “Charlie X”) but that the network “picked the worst of us.” He went on to call it a “horrible show” and repeated “one of the worst ever.”
Still Bitter Over His Star Trek Premiere
It might sound shocking that a Star Trek superstar hates the episode that made him famous. However, Shatner may have been swayed by some of the negative reviews the episode received when it first aired. A Variety The reviewer called “The Man Trap” a “horrifying and confusing” episode, which proved that this new sci-fi series “won’t work.” TV Guide wasn’t as positive and included in their review that “the sky’s not the limit for this Trek.” Leonard Nimoy agreed with Shatner, admitting in the documentary (which, confusingly, again so called Star Trek Memories) that this was the least favorite episode of the cast and crew compared to the others that have been completed.
Fortunately, all is well that ends well for the brave actors: Star Trek: The Original Series it helped capture the public imagination in a big way. The show’s loyal audience has formed a modern fan club, and has led many write-in campaigns to keep the show on the air.
Heck, Star Trek even inspired original fanfiction and modern fanfiction, including slash (Kirk/Spock) legends. again the first is a Mary Sue. William Shatner, arguably became the most famous sci-fi actor in the world, so there is no need for him to be bitterly salty about “The Man Trap.”
Obviously, being salty is very dangerous. Is it search alien salt vampires, man? Because this is how you get salt vampires out there!
