10 MORE Notorious Star Trek Urban Legends
8. NBC Didn't Want A Woman On The Bridge
The first pilot of Star Trek, The Cage, was rejected by NBC for being too cerebral. While this could have spelt death for the show before it got out of the gate, Gene Roddenberry was thrown a lifeline. He was allowed to rewrite the script, retool some of the characters and refilm the pilot. It was almost unheard of for this to occur, so Roddenberry jumped at the chance.
There were catches. For example, the characters of Spock and Number One, played by Leonard Nimoy and Majel Barrett respectively, were in the firing line. Spock was deemed Satanic in appearance, which made the network uneasy. Thankfully, Roddenberry elected not to change much about his character, bar stripping away some of the more overt emotion on display.
The myth then has it that he had to choose between the Vulcan or the female first officer. This is not entirely accurate. Herb Sollow, a producer on the series, revealed that it wasn't the character who was the problem - it was Majel Barrett herself. The studio felt that she simply lacked the skill to help carry a show in a leading role like this. Roddenberry picked his battles, kept the Vulcan and married the First Officer.