STAR TREK DISCOVERY - TERRY SERPICO - Personally Signed Autograph Card - 2018

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STAR TREK DISCOVERY - TERRY SERPICO - Personally Signed Autograph Card issued by Rittenhouse in 2018

Terry Serpico (born June 27, 1964) is an American film and television actor.

Background

Serpico was born in Fort Sill in Lawton, Oklahoma. He was the youngest of three children. He became interested in acting after graduating from high school. He attended Boston University before transferring to and graduating from the State University of New York at Purchase in 1989. He has lived in Texas, Colorado, Germany, Georgia and Pennsylvania. He now lives in Charleston, South Carolina. He enjoys surfing and golf, and is an active Crossfitter.

Serpico began his career as a stunt performer. In 1997, he was cast in his first major acting role in Donnie Brasco . In television, Serpico has guest-starred on such shows as Law & Order , CSI: Miami , Law & Order: Criminal Intent , and Person of Interest .

He played Mickey Mantle in the ESPN miniseries The Bronx Is Burning . He has enjoyed a recurring role in Rescue Me , and a starring role as Col. Frank Sherwood in Army Wives .

Filmography

Film
  • Cop Land (1997), as Tony

  • Donnie Brasco (1997), as Strip Club Owner

  • The Peacemaker (1997), as Sniper #1

  • Random Hearts (1999), as Evidence Technician

  • Bringing Out the Dead (1999), as Cop #1

  • Frequency (2000), as Con Ed Worker

  • Hannibal (2001), as Officer Bolton

  • Company K (2004), as Sgt. Dunning

  • The Interpreter (2005), as FBI Agent Lewis

  • The Departed (2006), as Detective Tailing Queenan

  • Find Me Guilty (2006), as Michael Kerry

  • Michael Clayton (2007), as Mr. Iker

  • Righteous Kill (2008), as Jon Van Luytens

  • The Men Who Stare at Goats (2009), as Phil Driver

  • Angel Camouflaged (2010), as Mr. Belial

  • Man on a Ledge (2012), as Lutz

  • The Purge: Election Year (2016), as Earl Danzinger

  • Mine 9 (2019), as Zeke

  • I Still Believe (2020), as Mark Henning, Melissa’s Dad

  • Light Wounds , as Donnie (Post-production )

  • Faceless , as Dr. Klein (Post-production )

Television
  • Oz (1997–1998) – 2 episodes, one as an unnamed murder victim, and one as Freakie

  • Third Watch (2000) – "This Band of Brothers", as Lofton

  • 100 Centre Street (2001–2002) – 9 episodes

  • Law & Order (2000, 2002) – "Dissonance" (2000), as Jay Brannigan; "Patriot" (2002), as Frank Miller

  • Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (2000–2013) – "Closure" (2000), as Ron Johnson; "Rotten" (2003), as Les Cooper; "Quarry" (2005), as Deacon Brinn; "Military Justice" (2013)

  • Law & Order: Criminal Intent (2001, 2003) – "The Extra Man" (2001), as Leslie Roche; "But Not Forgotten" (2003), as Earl Carnicki

  • Rescue Me (2005–2010) – as recurring character Eddie Gavin

  • Jonny Zero (2005) – pilot episode, as Leo

  • The Path to 9/11 (2006) – two-part miniseries, as Pulaski

  • Army Wives (2007–2013) – as Colonel Frank Sherwood; recurring character (season 1); main role (season 3–7)

  • CSI: Miami (2007) – "Guerillas in the Mist", as Steve Lancaster

  • Kidnapped (2007) – "Gone Fishing", as Virgil's Boss

  • The Bronx Is Burning (2007), as Mickey Mantle

  • Person of Interest (2012–2013) – 2 episodes, as Byron

  • Unforgettable (2013), as Tucker Griffin aka Arnold

  • The Carrie Diaries (2013–2014) – 4 episodes, as Sebastian's father; Mr. Kydd

  • Blue Bloods (2014) – "Unfinished Business", as Major Harrison

  • Criminal Minds (2014) – Wick Griffith

  • Drop Dead Diva (2014) – 2 episodes, as Max Toblin

  • Elementary (2015) – as Wallace Turk

  • The Inspectors (2015–present) – as Mitch Ohlmeyer; main role

  • Limitless (TV series) (2016) - 1 episode

  • Designated Survivor (2017) – as Patrick Lloyd

  • Star Trek: Discovery (2017) – as Admiral Brett Anderson

  • Yellowstone (2019) – as Teal Beck

  • Homeland (TV series) (2020) – 3 episodes, as General Owens

Star Trek: Discovery is an American web television series created for CBS All Access by Bryan Fuller and Alex Kurtzman. Launched in 2017, it is the first scripted series developed specifically for that service. The seventh series in the Star Trek franchise, it was the first series in the franchise since Star Trek: Enterprise concluded in 2005. Star Trek: Discovery begins roughly a decade before the events of the original Star Trek series, and follows the crew of the USS Discovery on various adventures.

Sonequa Martin-Green stars as Michael Burnham, a female science specialist on the Discovery . Doug Jones, Shazad Latif, Anthony Rapp, Mary Wiseman, and Wilson Cruz also star, along with Jason Isaacs for the first season, Anson Mount for the second, and David Ajala for the third. The series was announced in November 2015, with Fuller acting as showrunner from February to October 2016 but leaving due to creative differences with CBS. He was replaced by Gretchen J. Berg and Aaron Harberts, who received producing support from Akiva Goldsman. Goldsman did not return after the first season, while Berg and Harberts were fired by CBS during production on the second; Kurtzman took over as showrunner, and was joined by Michelle Paradise for the third season.

Star Trek: Discovery premiered on September 19, 2017, at ArcLight Hollywood, before debuting on CBS and CBS All Access on September 24. The rest of the 15-episode first season was streamed weekly on All Access, ending in February 2018. The season's release led to record subscriptions for All Access, and positive reviews from critics who highlighted Martin-Green's performance. The 14-episode second season was released from January to April 2019, and the 13-episode third season is expected to debut in 2020.

The series was the beginning of a wider expansion of the Star Trek franchise by CBS and Kurtzman, leading to multiple other series being produced, including the direct spin-off companion series Star Trek: Short Treks .

Premise

Beginning roughly ten years before the events of Star Trek: The Original Series , the show sees the Klingon houses become united in a war with the United Federation of Planets that heavily involves the crew of the USS Discovery (NCC-1031). In the second season, after the war has ended, Discovery investigates seven mysterious signals and a strange figure known as the "Red Angel". This conflict ends with the Discovery travelling to the 32nd century, more than 900 years into their future.

Cast and characters
  • Sonequa Martin-Green as Michael Burnham: A science specialist on USS Discovery . Burnham is a human who was raised following Vulcan culture and traditions by Sarek. A protagonist who is not a starship captain was chosen for the series to give it a different perspective from previous installments in the franchise, with a "richer context" due to her relationships with her captain and her subordinates. Co-creator Bryan Fuller gave her a traditionally male name, which he had done with the female leads on three of his previous series.

  • Doug Jones as Saru: First officer of the USS Discovery . Saru is the first Kelpien to enter Starfleet. Kelpiens, a new species created for Discovery , were hunted as prey on their home planet and thus evolved the ability to sense the coming of danger, giving them a reputation for cowardice. Jones based Saru's walk on that of a supermodel, out of necessity due to the boots he had to wear to portray the character's hooved feet. The producers compared Saru to the characters Spock and Data from previous series.

  • Shazad Latif as Voq / Ash Tyler: Voq, an albino Klingon, undergoes extensive surgery to pose as the human Ash Tyler, who becomes chief of security for Discovery . Voq was credited as being portrayed by "Javid Iqbal", an invented actor named for Latif's father, to hide the connection between the characters. Latif described his character as "complex and painful", and noted that he has a relationship with Burnham. Voq's accent is Arabic-inspired, and Latif tried to maintain "a kind of pharyngealness" to Tyler's American accent. For the second season, Latif felt that he was playing a third character that melded Voq and Tyler, comparing this relationship to that of Bruce Banner and the Hulk in Marvel Comics.

  • Anthony Rapp as Paul Stamets: Chief engineer aboard Discovery and a science officer specializing in astromycology (the study of fungi in space) whose research led to the development of Discovery 's experimental organic propulsion system. The character is inspired by a real-life mycologist of the same name. He is the first openly gay character in a Star Trek series. Rapp acknowledged that Hikaru Sulu was portrayed as gay in the film Star Trek Beyond (2016), calling that "a nice nod", but said the series would actually explore Stamets and his partner "in conversation, in our living quarters; you get to see our relationship over time, treated as any other relationship would be treated".

  • Mary Wiseman as Sylvia Tilly: A cadet assigned to Discovery . She works under Stamets and is Burnham's roommate. The character represents people at the bottom of the Starfleet hierarchy. Season one showrunner Aaron Harberts described her as optimistic and "sort of the soul of our show."

  • Jason Isaacs as Gabriel Lorca: Captain of the Discovery , a "brilliant military tactician". Isaacs described the character as probably more messed up than any of the previously seen Star Trek captains. He plays the character with a slight southern U.S. accent, and had initially wanted to ad-lib a catchphrase for the character, feeling that all Star Trek captains should have one, coming up with "git'r done" which the writers turned down due to it being widely used and trademarked by Larry the Cable Guy.

  • Wilson Cruz as Hugh Culber: Medical officer aboard Discovery and Stamets's husband. Cruz said portraying the first openly gay couple in Star Trek was "a long time coming" and praised the way the series did not go out of its way to focus on their relationship. The character is killed in the first season, but Culber returns from the dead in the second season in a larger role.

  • Anson Mount as Christopher Pike: Captain of the Enterprise who takes temporary command of the Discovery . The character was first portrayed by Jeffrey Hunter in "The Cage". Mount described Pike as "very by-the-book, usually, and a good person", while executive producers Heather Kadin and Alex Kurtzman described him as being the opposite of Lorca with a "very captain-like" presence and "enough confidence and authority to apologize when he is wrong". Mount did not try to imitate Hunter's performance.

  • David Ajala as Cleveland "Book" Booker

Development

On November 2, 2015, CBS announced a new Star Trek television series to premiere in January 2017, "on the heels" of the 50th anniversary of Star Trek: The Original Series in 2016. This was the first Star Trek series since Star Trek: Enterprise concluded in 2005, and the first show to be developed specifically for the CBS All Access streaming service. Alex Kurtzman, co-writer of the films Star Trek (2009) and Star Trek Into Darkness (2013), and Heather Kadin were set as executive producers on the series, which would not be related to the 2016 film Star Trek Beyond . The January 2017 date was the earliest that CBS could release a new Star Trek series after an agreement the company made when it split from Viacom in 2005. Showtime, Netflix, and Amazon Video all offered "a lot of money" for the rights to release the series, but after heavily investing in the new All Access service, CBS believed that a returning Star Trek could be "the franchise that really puts All Access on the map". In January, CBS president Glenn Geller said the CBS network were not creatively involved in the series, despite plans for the network to broadcast the pilot episode, saying, "It really is for All Access."

Bryan Fuller

After beginning his career writing for the series Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Star Trek: Voyager , Bryan Fuller was announced as the new series' showrunner and co-creator alongside Kurtzman in February 2016. Nicholas Meyer, writer and director of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982) and Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991), also joined the series as a consulting producer. In March, Rod Roddenberry (the son of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry) and Trevor Roth of Roddenberry Entertainment also joined the series as executive producers. Fuller said that working with people previously involved with Star Trek was "really about making sure that we maintain authenticity", and said that Meyer—who is widely considered to have made the best Star Trek film in The Wrath of Khan —brings "a clarity and a cleanliness to the storytelling."

Fuller had publicly called for Star Trek to return to television for years, particularly because of its impact on minority groups, as he explained, "I couldn't stop thinking about how many black people were inspired by seeing Nichelle Nichols on the bridge of a ship. I couldn't stop thinking about how many Asian people were inspired by seeing George Takei and feeling that gave them hope for their place in the future. I wanted to be part of that representation for a new era." When Fuller first met with CBS about the series, the company did not have a plan for what the new show would be. He proposed an anthology series, with each season being a standalone, serialized story set in a different era. This would begin with a prequel to The Original Series , followed by stories set during The Original Series , during Star Trek: The Next Generation , and then "beyond to a time in Trek that's never been seen before". Fuller compared this to what American Horror Story did for horror, and described the proposal as a platform for "a universe of Trek shows". CBS instead suggested he create a single serialized show to see how that performed first, and Fuller began further developing the concept of a prequel to The Original Series .

Fuller announced in June 2016 that the first season would consist of 13 episodes, though he would prefer to produce 10 episodes a season moving forward. A month later, Fuller announced the series' title to be Star Trek: Discovery , and revealed that it would be set in the "Prime Timeline" (which includes the previous Star Trek series, but not the modern reboot films) to keep the concurrent series and films separate, so "we don't have to track anything [happening in the films] and they don't have to track what we're doing". Also in July, CBS Studios International licensed the series to Netflix for release outside the United States and Canada, a "blockbuster" deal that paid for the show's entire budget (around US$6–7 million per episode). During pre-production on the series, Fuller and CBS had further disagreements on the direction of the show. The production was starting to overrun its per-episode budget, and was falling behind schedule due to Fuller supervising all aspects of the series while also serving as showrunner on another new show, American Gods . This caused frustration among CBS executives who felt Fuller should be focused on having Discovery ready for release by the January 2017 premiere date.

By August 2016, Fuller had hired Gretchen J. Berg and Aaron Harberts, whom he had worked with on Pushing Daisies , to serve as co-showrunners with him. A month later, he and Kurtzman asked CBS to delay the series' release so they could meet the high expectations for it, and the studio pushed the series premiere back to May 2017." At the end of October, CBS asked Fuller to step down as showrunner, and announced a restructuring of the production: Berg and Harberts were made sole showrunners, working from a broad story arc and overall mythology established by Fuller; Kurtzman and Fuller would continue as executive producers, but with Fuller moving his attention fully to American Gods ; and Akiva Goldsman would join the series in a supporting producer role, similar to the role he held on Fringe alongside Kurtzman. CBS reiterated that they were "extremely happy with [Fuller's] creative direction" for the series, though some elements of the series that came directly from Fuller were dropped, including some designs and "more heavily allegorical and complex story" points. Fuller later confirmed that he was no longer involved with the series, but expressed interest in returning for future seasons if he was asked.

Gretchen J. Berg and Aaron Harberts

With production set to finally begin on the series in January 2017, "a lot of careful deliberation [was] continuing to go into making Discovery special, from the choice of directors, to set design, to the special effects." Ted Sullivan joined the series to serve as supervising writing producer. At CBS's 2017 upfront presentation, CBS Interactive president Marc DeBevoise confirmed a "fall" release date for the series, and announced that the episode order had been expanded to 15 episodes. In June, CBS announced a new premiere date of September 24, 2017, with the season airing through November 2017, and then beginning again in January 2018. This break gave more time to complete post-production on the second half of the season. Also that month, Kurtzman said that he and Fuller had discussed future seasons before the latter's departure, and promised that "what's there in terms of story and certainly in terms of set-up, character, big ideas, the big movement of the season, that's all stuff that Bryan and I talked about" and would not be altered. Goldsman said in August that future seasons would have "a hybridized [anthology] approach" with "arcs which will have characters that we know and characters that we don't know." Kurtzman added that the success of Discovery could lead to other new Star Trek series that could potentially use the anthology format.

By the end of August, Berg and Harberts had developed a "road map" for a second season, and "the beginnings of one" for a third. It was also revealed that an average episode of the first season had ultimately cost US$8–8.5 million each, making it one of the most expensive television series ever created. This exceeded the original Netflix deal, but CBS still considered the series paid for due to the number of new All Access subscribers that it was expected to draw. After the series' premiere, Kurtzman said the producers wanted to avoid announcing release dates for any future seasons, due to the external pressure that having to delay them caused with the first season. Despite this, he hoped a second season would be available in early 2019. The second season was officially ordered in October 2017, consisting of 13 episodes. Goldsman did not return for the season after clashing with the series' writing staff during production on the first, while Meyer was not asked to return for the second season. In June 2018, when production on the second season was underway, CBS fired Berg and Harberts. This was due to the first episode of the season going significantly over budget, and alleged abusive behavior by the pair directed at the series' writing staff. Kurtzman was made sole showrunner, and was set to "regroup" the writers without causing any delay to the season's production timeline.

Alex Kurtzman and Michelle Paradise

After Kurtzman took over, the second season was confirmed to be on track for a January 2019 premiere, though there ultimately was enough of a delay in production that CBS extended the season's episode count to 14 as a way to amortize the cost of the delays. Shortly after the season premiere, in February, the series was renewed for a third season with writer Michelle Paradise promoted to co-showrunner alongside Kurtzman. In October, Kurtzman said the season would consist of 13 episodes.

Writing

"The defining factor of Roddenberry's vision is the optimistic view of the future ... Once you lose that, you lose the essence of what Star Trek is. That being said... Star Trek has always [reflected the time it was made, and now the question] is how do you preserve and protect what Starfleet is in the weight of a challenge like war and the things that have to be done in war."

Executive producer Alex Kurtzman on the balance between classic Star Trek and new elements in Discovery

The series' writers room is based at Kurtzman's Secret Hideout offices in Santa Monica, and includes "fans who all have very different relationships to Trek ," which Kurtzman said is "a healthy thing". Fuller wanted to differentiate the series from the previous 700+ episodes of Star Trek by taking advantage of the streaming format of All Access and telling a single story arc across the entire first season. He and Kurtzman developed this story from the "DNA" of certain The Original Series episodes to find "the spirit of what Star Trek offers, both in terms of high-concept science fiction storytelling and really wonderful metaphors for the human condition". Berg said that the series' writers "are so in love with" The Original Series , The Next Generation , and the family aspect of those series, while Harberts added that Meyer's Star Trek films were an especial influence on Discovery because "his storytelling is complex and intellectual and yet there's a lot of room for character voices".

The titular ship was named after Discovery One from 2001: A Space Odyssey , NASA's Space Shuttle Discovery , and "the sense of discovery ... what [that] means to Star Trek audiences who have been promised a future by Gene Roddenberry where we come together as a planet and seek new worlds and new alien races to explore and understand and collaborate with". Fuller saw the series as a bridge between Enterprise and The Original Series —which are set around 150 years apart—but set much closer to the latter to allow the series to "play with all the iconography of those ships and those uniforms". In May 2017, Sullivan described the series as "a genuine prequel" to The Original Series , with Goldsman later adding that there were many classic Star Trek elements that fans among the writers wished to include in the series, but couldn't because they were included in The Original Series as something being discovered by Starfleet for the first time then. The choice to feature a single serialized story throughout the first season was inspired by the general change in television to tell more realistic and serialized stories rather than the "new destination-based adventure each week" format mostly used in previous Star Trek series. Fuller had been one of several writers during the 1990s pushing for Deep Space Nine and Voyager to move towards this style. Also inspired by modern, "peak television" series such as Game of Thrones was a willingness to kill off major characters for dramatic reasons, though the writers wanted to avoid doing so gratuitously or for "shock value".

Fuller said the series could "push the content envelope since it won't be constrained by broadcast standards", but "it's still Star Trek . It will probably be slightly more graphic content ... I imagine we're going to shoot scenes a couple of ways and see what feels more authentic in the editing room." Harberts ultimately described the series as a "hard PG-13", saying the series could include "some violent things or [a] tiny bit of language" but they still wanted the show to be for families and to "honor what the franchise is." On using time travel in the series, a plot device used in at least two episodes of every previous live-action Star Trek season, Fuller said that it had not yet been used for any episode by the end of August 2016, and, "You never know when you want to pull out that device but I am not anticipating an over-reliance on time travel to tell this season's stories." The series' writers also chose to ignore Gene Roddenberry's longstanding rule that Starfleet crew members not have any significant conflict with one another or be depicted negatively (a rule that Roddenberry himself did not always strictly follow). Harberts explained, "We're trying to do stories that are complicated, with characters with strong points of view and strong passions. People have to make mistakes—mistakes are still going to be made in the future. We're still going to argue in the future ... the thing we're taking from Roddenberry is how we solve those conflicts." Because of the show's position as a prequel to The Original Series , the producers felt it was more important for Discovery to build towards Roddenberry's ideals, and to show that "you can't simply be accepting and tolerant without working for it, and so this show is about that struggle."

Casting

By June 2016, Fuller had met with several actors, and said that "we want to carry on what Star Trek does best, which is being progressive. So it's fascinating to look at all of these roles through a colorblind prism and a gender-blind prism". A month later, Kadin clarified that the series would feature minority, female, and LGBTQ characters. In August, Fuller said the series would feature "about seven" lead characters, and unlike previous Star Trek series would star a lieutenant commander to be played by a non-white actress. He said the series would also include more alien characters than other Star Trek series, and would feature at least one openly gay character. Fuller, who is gay himself, had been determined to see this happen since receiving hate mail while working on Voyager when a character on that show was rumored to be coming out as gay.

By August, Fuller had discussed the series' casting with Mae Jemison, the first black woman in space who made a cameo appearance in an episode of The Next Generation . He anticipated casting announcements in October, but none had been made by the end of that month. The majority of the series main characters were believed to have been cast by then, but no actress had been cast for the series' lead role. This was a source of "some internal stress" at CBS. Several African American and Latina actresses were being looked at for the role, with CBS "not seeking a huge star and [preferring] a fresh face for the part." In October, the cast was believed to include "a female admiral, a male Klingon captain, a male admiral, a male adviser and a British male doctor", with one of those male leads played by an openly gay actor.

In November 2016, Doug Jones and Anthony Rapp were revealed to be cast, as science officers Saru and Stamets, respectively. The former is a Kelpien, an alien race created for the series, while the latter is the first Star Trek character to be conceived and announced as gay. Sonequa Martin-Green was cast in the lead role in December, which was officially confirmed in April 2017, with the character's name revealed to be Michael Burnham. Also in December, Shazad Latif was cast as the Klingon Kol. In March 2017, Jason Isaacs was cast as Captain Lorca of the USS Discovery , and Mary Wiseman joined as Tilly, a cadet. At the end of April, Latif was revealed to have been recast in the role of Starfleet Lieutenant Tyler. In the series, this role is shown to be an undercover persona used by the Klingon Voq, who was initially credited as being portrayed by the invented actor Javid Iqbal to hide the fact that Latif was portraying both Voq and Tyler.

Rapp revealed in July 2017 that Wilson Cruz, whom Rapp had previously worked with on the musical Rent , would portray Stamets's love interest Hugh Culber. The character is killed off during the first season, which was criticized by some as following the "bury your gays" trope. However, the executive producers of the series, Cruz, and GLAAD immediately released a statement saying "death is not always final in the Star Trek universe" and that the relationship between Culber and Stamets would continue to be explored. Harberts described it as one of the most important relationships in the series. Cruz was subsequently promoted from his recurring guest role to the series' main cast for the second season. After the first season concluded with the Discovery receiving a distress call from the USS Enterprise , specifically from Captain Christopher Pike, Harberts expressed interest in exploring that character; Anson Mount was cast in the role in April 2018, also joining the main cast, but only for the second season. In July 2019, David Ajala joined the cast as new series regular Cleveland "Book" Booker for the third season.

Design

Mark Worthington and Todd Cherniawsky served as initial production designers for the series, with Tamara Deverell taking over during production on the first season; Gersha Phillips and Suttirat Anne Larlarb designed the costumes for the series; veteran Star Trek designer John Eaves designed starships with Scott Schneider; Glenn Hetrick and Neville Page of Alchemy Studios provided prosthetics and armor, with Page having previously designed for the "Kelvin Timeline" Star Trek films; and Mario Moreira served as prop master for the series. The series also employed seven art directors, over nine illustrators, more than thirty-five set designers, and over four hundred and fifty painters, carpenters, sculptors, model makers, welders, set dressers, and prop builders. The designers consult with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory for scientific accuracy.

Fuller said on the general approach to design on the show, "we're producing the show in 2016. We have to update the style of the effects, the style of the sets, the style of the makeup ... all of the other series have been produced [at a time that] isn't as sophisticated as we are now with what we can do production-wise, we're going to be reestablishing an entire look for the series" and for Star Trek moving forward. Fuller had wanted the series' uniforms to reflect the primary colors of The Original Series , but this was discarded after his departure. However, Fuller's designs for the Klingons, which he "really, really wanted" to redesign, were retained. 3D Systems' "cutting edge" 3D printing techniques were widely used in the making of the series. For the prosthetics, Page and Hetrick took detailed laser scans of the actors so they could simulate make-up and prosthetics in a virtual environment before creating the practical version. Fabric for the Starfleet uniforms seen in the series was custom-dyed in Switzerland; the costumes were cut and assembled in Toronto by Phillips and her department. The main uniforms seen in the series are a navy blue specifically mixed for the show, with gold or silver embellishments depending on the division of the officer. Medical officers wear a "hospital white" variant, also custom-dyed in Switzerland, while the captain's uniform is the standard navy blue but with additional gold piping on the shoulders. Starfleet insignia badges were molded from silicon bronze, and then polished and plated by a jeweler to create custom colors for the series, based on the division of the officer wearing the uniform: gold for command, silver for sciences and medical, and copper for operations. Props such as tricorders and hand scanners, communicators, and phasers were produced with 3D printing and heavily inspired by their designs in The Original Series .

The design of the USS Discovery is based on an unused Ralph McQuarrie design for the USS Enterprise from the unproduced film Star Trek: Planet of the Titans , which Fuller had noted in July 2016 was "to a point that we can't legally comment on it until [our legal team] figures out some things". McQuarrie's designs were based on the concepts created by Ken Adam to feature a vessel with a flattened secondary hull. Fuller wanted "something distinct about what our Star Trek was going to look like", and after seeing McQuarrie's design "saw sort of harder lines of a ship and started talking about race cars and Lamborghinis in the '70s and James Bond cars and started working on the designs, taking those inspirations and coming up with something completely unique to us." The design for the Discovery went through several revisions and refinements before the final version was approved in December 2016. The sickbay on the Discovery was inspired by that of the Enterprise from The Original Series . Other Federation starships created for the show include the USS Shenzhou and the USS Europa . Sets for the Discovery 's interiors were described as a "tangle of corridors and rooms", and were designed to match with the exterior design of the ship, so "the rooms [could believably] fit inside the house", but there was some artistic license taken in places. The graphics used for the Starfleet computer systems were designed to be believably more advanced than modern technology, but to also "honor the look and feel" of the designs used in previous series. The initial colors allowed for the graphics were mostly restricted to blues, with the intention of these becoming more colorful the closer the series gets to the time period of The Original Series .

The opening title sequence for the show was created by Prologue using 2D motion graphics. The sequence, which uses a "vivid, sepia-soaked palette", depicts elements from throughout the history of Star Trek —such as phasers, communicators, and the Vulcan salute—and deconstructs them. Prologue creative director Ana Criado "wasn't all that versed" in Star Trek before beginning work on the sequence, which proved to be an advantage when the series' producers asked for the sequence to be unlike any previous Star Trek titles sequence. A theme of "blueprints" was decided for the sequence to acknowledge that it is a prequel, "literally deconstructing Trek iconography". Criado explained that original plans were for the sequence to be in black and white, but this was found to be too "cold" and was replaced with a Renaissance-inspired sepia look "to make it look like we are designing everything from scratch". The sequence was completed before the theme music for the series was finalized. When updating the sequence for the second season to deconstruct new elements specific to that story—including the Captain's chair and the "Red Angel"—Prologue was able to match the rhythm of the music more closely than they were for the first season. The sequence was updated again for the third season.

Star Trek is an American science fiction television series created by Gene Roddenberry that follows the adventures of the starship USS Enterprise (NCC-1701) and its crew. It later acquired the retronym of Star Trek: The Original Series (Star Trek: TOS or simply TOS ) to distinguish the show within the media franchise that it began.

The show is set in the Milky Way galaxy, roughly during the 2260s. The ship and crew are led by Captain James T. Kirk (William Shatner), first officer and science officer Spock (Leonard Nimoy), and chief medical officer Leonard McCoy (DeForest Kelley). Shatner's voice-over introduction during each episode's opening credits stated the starship's purpose:

Space: the final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise . Its five-year mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before.

The series was produced from September 1966 to December 1967 by Norway Productions and Desilu Productions, and by Paramount Television from January 1968 to June 1969. Star Trek aired on NBC from September 8, 1966, to June 3, 1969, and was actually seen first on September 6, 1966, on Canada's CTV network. Star Trek 's Nielsen ratings while on NBC were low, and the network canceled it after three seasons and 79 episodes. Several years later, the series became a bona fide hit in broadcast syndication, remaining so throughout the 1970s, achieving cult classic status and a developing influence on popular culture. Star Trek eventually spawned a franchise, consisting of six additional television series, thirteen feature films, numerous books, games, and toys, and is now widely considered one of the most popular and influential television series of all time.

The series contains significant elements of Space Western, as described by Gene Roddenberry and the general audience.

Creation

On March 11, 1964, Gene Roddenberry, a long-time fan of science fiction, drafted a short treatment for a science-fiction television series that he called Star Trek. This was to be set on board a large interstellar spaceship named S.S. Yorktown in the 23rd century bearing a crew dedicated to exploring a relatively small portion of the Milky Way Galaxy.

Roddenberry noted a number of influences on his idea, some of which includes A. E. van Vogt's tales of the spaceship Space Beagle , Eric Frank Russell's Marathon series of stories, and the film Forbidden Planet (1956). Some have also drawn parallels with the television series Rocky Jones, Space Ranger (1954), a space opera which included many of the elements that were integral to Star Trek —the organization, crew relationships, missions, part of the bridge layout, and even some technology. Roddenberry also drew heavily from C. S. Forester's Horatio Hornblower novels that depict a daring sea captain who exercises broad discretionary authority on distant sea missions of noble purpose. He often humorously referred to Captain Kirk as "Horatio Hornblower in Space".

Roddenberry had extensive experience in writing for series about the Old West that had been popular television fare in the 1950s and 1960s. Armed with this background, the first draft characterized the new show as "Wagon Train to the stars." Like the familiar Wagon Train , each episode was to be a self-contained adventure story, set within the structure of a continuing voyage through space. All future television and movie realizations of the franchise adhered to the "Wagon Train" paradigm of the continuing journey, with the notable exception of the serialized Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and the third season of Star Trek: Enterprise .

In Roddenberry's original concept, the protagonist was Captain Robert April of the starship S.S. Yorktown . This character was developed into Captain Christopher Pike, first portrayed by Jeffrey Hunter.

Development

In April 1964, Roddenberry presented the Star Trek draft to Desilu Productions, a leading independent television production company. He met with Herb Solow, Desilu's Director of Production. Solow saw promise in the idea and signed a three-year program-development contract with Roddenberry. Lucille Ball, head of Desilu, was not familiar with the nature of the project, but she was instrumental in getting the pilot produced.

The idea was extensively revised and fleshed out during this time – "The Cage" pilot filmed in late 1964 differs in many respects from the March 1964 treatment. Solow, for example, added the stardate concept.

Desilu Productions had a first-look deal with CBS. Oscar Katz, Desilu's Vice President of Production, went with Roddenberry to pitch the series to the network. They refused to purchase the show, as they already had a similar show in development, the 1965 Irwin Allen series Lost in Space.

In May 1964, Solow, who previously worked at NBC, met with Grant Tinker, then head of the network's West Coast programming department. Tinker commissioned the first pilot – which became "The Cage". NBC turned down the resulting pilot, stating that it was "too cerebral". However, the NBC executives were still impressed with the concept, and they understood that its perceived faults had been partly because of the script that they had selected themselves

NBC made the unusual decision to pay for a second pilot, using the script called "Where No Man Has Gone Before". Only the character of Spock, played by Leonard Nimoy, was retained from the first pilot, and only two cast members, Majel Barrett and Nimoy, were carried forward into the series. This second pilot proved to be satisfactory to NBC, and the network selected Star Trek to be in its upcoming television schedule for the fall of 1966.

The second pilot introduced most of the other main characters: Captain Kirk (William Shatner), chief engineer Lt. Commander Scott (James Doohan) and Lt. Sulu (George Takei), who served as a physicist on the ship in the second pilot but subsequently became a helmsman throughout the rest of the series. Paul Fix played Dr. Mark Piper in the second pilot; ship's doctor Leonard McCoy (DeForest Kelley) joined the cast when filming began for the first season, and he remained for the rest of the series, achieving billing as the third star of the series. Also joining the ship's permanent crew during the first season were the communications officer, Lt. Nyota Uhura (Nichelle Nichols), the first African-American woman to hold such an important role in an American television series; the captain's yeoman, Janice Rand (Grace Lee Whitney), who departed midway through the first season; and Christine Chapel (Majel Barrett), head nurse and assistant to McCoy. Walter Koenig joined the cast as Ensign Pavel Chekov in the series' second season.

In February 1966, Star Trek was nearly killed by Desilu Productions, before airing the first episode. Desilu had gone from making just one half-hour show (The Lucy Show ), to deficit financing a portion of two expensive hour-long shows, Mission: Impossible and Star Trek. Solow was able to convince Lucille Ball that both shows should continue.

Production

Once the series was picked up by NBC the production moved to what was then Desilu Productions Gower street location. It was previously the main studio complex used by RKO Pictures and is now part of the Paramount Pictures lot. The series used what are now stages 31 and 32. The show's production staff included art director Matt Jefferies. Jefferies designed the starship Enterprise and most of its interiors. His contributions to the series were honored in the name of the "Jefferies tube", an equipment shaft depicted in various Star Trek series. In addition to working with his brother, John Jefferies, to create the hand-held phaser weapons of Star Trek , Jefferies also developed the set design for the bridge of the Enterprise (which was based on an earlier design by Pato Guzman). Jefferies used his practical experience as an airman during World War II and his knowledge of aircraft design to devise a sleek, functional and ergonomic bridge layout.

The costume designer for Star Trek , Bill Theiss, created the striking look of the Starfleet uniforms for the Enterprise , the costumes for female guest stars, and for various aliens, including the Klingons, Vulcans, Romulans, Tellarites, Andorians, and Gideonites among others.

Artist and sculptor Wah Chang, who had worked for Walt Disney Productions, was hired to design and manufacture props: he created the flip-open communicator, often credited as having influenced the configuration of the portable version of the cellular telephone. Chang also designed the portable sensing-recording-computing "tricorder" device, and various fictitious devices for the starship's engineering crew and its sick bay. As the series progressed, he helped to create various memorable aliens, such as the Gorn and the Horta.

Season 1 (1966–67)

NBC ordered 16 episodes of Star Trek , besides "Where No Man Has Gone Before ". The first regular episode of Star Trek, The Man Trap , aired on Thursday, September 8, 1966 from 8:30–9:30 as part of an NBC "sneak preview" block. Reviews were mixed; while The Philadelphia Inquirer and San Francisco Chronicle liked the new show, The New York Times and The Boston Globe were less favorable, and Variety predicted that it "won't work", calling it "an incredible and dreary mess of confusion and complexities". Debuting against mostly reruns, Star Trek easily won its time slot with a 40.6 share. The following week against all-new programming, however, the show fell to second (29.4 share) behind CBS. It ranked 33rd (out of 94 programs) over the next two weeks, then the following two episodes ranked 51st in the ratings.

I am an avid fan of Star Trek , and would simply die if it was taken off the air. In my opinion it is the best show on television.

M.P., Oswego, New York, February 20, 1967

Star Trek 's first-season ratings would in earlier years likely have caused NBC to cancel the show. The network had pioneered research into viewers' demographic profiles in the early 1960s, however, and, by 1967, it and other networks increasingly considered such data when making decisions; for example, CBS temporarily cancelled Gunsmoke that year because it had too many older and too few younger viewers. Although Roddenberry later claimed that NBC was unaware of Star Trek 's favorable demographics, awareness of Star Trek 's "quality" audience is what likely caused the network to retain the show after the first and second seasons. NBC instead decided to order 10 more new episodes for the first season, and order a second season in March 1967. The network originally announced that the show would air at 7:30–8:30 pm Tuesday, but it was instead given an 8:30–9:30 pm Friday slot when the 1967–68 NBC schedule was released making watching it difficult for the young viewers that the show most attracted.

Season 2 (1967–68)

Star Trek 's ratings continued to decline during the second season. Although Shatner expected the show to end after two seasons and began to prepare for other projects, NBC nonetheless may have never seriously considered cancelling the show. As early as January 1968, the Associated Press reported that Star Trek 's chances for renewal for a third season were "excellent". The show had better ratings for NBC than ABC's competing Hondo , and the competing CBS programs (#3 Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. and the first half-hour of the #12 CBS Friday Night Movie ) were in the top 15 in the Nielsen ratings. Again, demographics helped Star Trek survive. Contrary to popular belief among its fans, the show did not have a larger audience of young viewers than its competition while on NBC. The network's research did, however, indicate that Star Trek had a "quality audience" including "upper-income, better-educated males", and other NBC shows had lower overall ratings. The show was unusual at the time in its serious discussion of contemporary societal issues in a futuristic context, unlike Lost in Space which was more "campy" in nature.

Look! Look! It doesn't stop! They're lined up all the way down the street!

Norman Lunenfeld, NBC executive, on the mail trucks delivering Star Trek fans' letters

The enthusiasm of Star Trek 's viewers surprised NBC. The network had already received 29,000 fan letters for the show during its first season, more than for any other except The Monkees . When rumors spread in late 1967 that Star Trek was at risk of cancellation, Roddenberry secretly began and funded an effort by Bjo Trimble, her husband John and other fans to persuade tens of thousands of viewers to write letters of support to save the program. Using the 4,000 names on a mailing list for a science-fiction convention, the Trimbles asked fans to write to NBC and ask ten others to also do so. NBC received almost 116,000 letters for the show between December 1967 and March 1968, including more than 52,000 in February alone; according to an NBC executive, the network received more than one million pieces of mail but only disclosed the 116,000 figure. Newspaper columnists encouraged readers to write letters to help save what one called "the best science fiction show on the air". More than 200 Caltech students marched to NBC's Burbank, California studio to support Star Trek in January 1968, carrying signs such as "Draft Spock" and "Vulcan Power". Berkeley and MIT students organized similar protests in San Francisco and New York.

The letters supporting Star Trek, whose authors included New York State Governor Nelson Rockefeller, were different in both quantity and quality from most mail that television networks receive:

The show, according to the 6,000 letters it draws a week (more than any other in television), is watched by scientists, museum curators, psychiatrists, doctors, university professors and other highbrows. The Smithsonian Institution asked for a print of the show for its archives, the only show so honored.

In addition:

Much of the mail came from doctors, scientists, teachers, and other professional people, and was for the most part literate–and written on good stationery. And if there is anything a network wants almost as much as a high Nielsen ratings it is the prestige of a show that appeals to the upper middle class and high brow audiences.

And now an announcement of interest to all viewers of Star Trek . We are pleased to tell you that Star Trek will continue to be seen on NBC Television. We know you will be looking forward to seeing the weekly adventure in space on Star Trek .

NBC announcer, March 1, 1968

NBC—which used such anecdotes in much of its publicity for the show—made the unusual decision to announce on television, after the episode "The Omega Glory" on March 1, 1968, that the series had been renewed. The announcement implied a request to stop writing, but instead caused fans to send letters of thanks in similar numbers.

Season 3 (1968–69)

NBC at first planned to move Star Trek to Mondays for the show's third season, likely in hopes of increasing its audience after the enormous letter campaign surprised the network. But in March 1968, NBC instead moved the show to 10:00 pm Friday night, an hour undesirable for its younger audience, so as not to conflict with the highly successful Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In on Monday evenings, from whose time slot Laugh-In producer George Schlatter had angrily demanded it not be rescheduled. In addition to the undesirable time slot, Star Trek was now being seen on only 181 of NBC's 210 affiliates.

Roddenberry was frustrated, and complained, "If the network wants to kill us, it couldn't make a better move." He attempted to persuade NBC to give Star Trek a better day and hour, but was not successful. As a result of this and his own growing exhaustion, he chose to withdraw from the stress of the daily production of Star Trek , though he remained nominally in charge as its "executive producer". Roddenberry reduced his direct involvement in Star Trek before the start of the 1968–69 television season, and was replaced by Fred Freiberger as the producer of the television series. NBC next reduced Star Trek's budget by a significant amount per episode, as the per-minute commercial price had dropped from $39,000 to $36,000 compared to the Season 2 time slot. This caused a significant decline in the quality of many episodes for the 1968–69 season, which emphasized "monster of the week" stories. Nichols described these budget cuts as an intentional effort to kill off Star Trek :

While NBC paid lip service to expanding Star Trek's audience, it now slashed our production budget until it was actually ten percent lower than it had been in our first season ... This is why in the third season you saw fewer outdoor location shots, for example. Top writers, top guest stars, top anything you needed was harder to come by. Thus, Star Trek's demise became a self-fulfilling prophecy. And I can assure you, that is exactly as it was meant to be.

The last day of filming for Star Trek was January 9, 1969, and after 79 episodes NBC cancelled the show in February despite fans' attempt at another letter-writing campaign. One newspaper columnist advised a protesting viewer:

You Star Trek fans have fought the "good fight," but the show has been cancelled and there's nothing to be done now.

In 2011, the decision to cancel Star Trek by NBC was ranked #4 on the TV Guide Network special, 25 Biggest TV Blunders 2 .

  • Condition: Ungraded
  • Card Size: Standard
  • Autographed: Yes
  • Set: Star Trek: Discovery - Season One
  • Autograph Format: Hard Signed
  • Custom Bundle: No
  • Year Manufactured: 2018
  • Approximate Size of Card: 3.5 inches x 2.5 inches
  • TV Show: Star Trek: Discovery
  • Graded: No
  • Language: English
  • Manufacturer: Rittenhouse
  • Features: Personally Signed Autograph Card
  • Featured Person/Artist: Terry Serpico
  • Subject Type: TV & Movies
  • Genre// Theme: TV
  • Character: Admiral Brett Anderson
  • Card Condition: Near Mint
  • Material: Card Stock
  • Franchise: Star Trek
  • Original/Licensed Reprint: Original
  • Modified Item: No
  • Sub-Type: Cards: Individual
  • Type: Non-Sport Trading Card
  • Genre: Gene Roddenberry, Star Trek Discovery, Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
  • Country/Region of Manufacture: United States

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