Star Trek: The Original Series

Characters

Regular

• Captain James T. Kirk (William Shatner), commanding officer
• Commander Mr. Spock (Leonard Nimoy), science officer and second-in-command
• Lt. Commander Leonard McCoy (DeForest Kelley), ship's doctor
• Lt. Commander Montgomery Scott (James Doohan), chief engineer
• Lieutenant Nyota Uhura (Nichelle Nichols), communications officer
• Lieutenant Hikaru Sulu (George Takei), helmsman
• Ensign Pavel Chekov (Walter Koenig), navigator (season 2-3)

Sulu and Uhura were not given first names in this series. In the documentary "William Shatner's Trek Memories" http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0221709/, Nichelle Nichols says, in an interview, that she and Roddenberry agreed upon Uhura's first name being Nyota, which means "star" in Swahili, when they got together to brainstorm the character's background. Sulu's first name, Hikaru, is official, and was revealed in '.

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The relatively young, mop-topped Russian navigator Chekov was added in the second season. A popular urban legend has it that this was in response to an indignant editorial in the Russian newspaper Pravda - an editorial pointing out that the Soviet Union had launched the first man into space. There is, however, no direct evidence that this was the case.(although creator Gene Roddenberry did suggest that this was the case in a television interview.) Studio documentation suggests that the intention was to introduce a character with more appeal to a teenage market, especially the female sector. http://www.snopes.com/radiotv/tv/chekov.asp

Related Topics:
Mop-topped - Urban legend - Pravda - Soviet Union

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Each of the regulars had one or more catchphrases heard on several episodes. These include:

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• Kirk: ?Captain?s log: Stardate ??
• Spock: ?Fascinating?, ?Highly illogical?
• McCoy: ?He?s dead, Jim?, ?In a pig?s eye!?, ?Dammit, Jim, I?m a doctor, not a ??
• Scott: ?Ma engines canna take any more!?
• Uhura: ?Hailing frequencies open, sir?
• Sulu: ?Warp factor one, sir?
• Chekov: ?It vas invented in Russia?

Semi-regular

• Nurse Christine Chapel (Majel Barrett); Barrett also provided the voice of the computer in TOS and '. She also played (as a brunette) the part of Captain Pike's First Officer in the pilot episode "The Cage". Barrett married Roddenberry in 1969.
• Janice Rand (Grace Lee Whitney)
• Transporter Chief Kyle (John Winston)
• Lieutenant Galloway (David L. Ross), the only recurring character to be killed off during the original series
• Mr. Leslie (Eddie Paskey)

Pilot episode

• Christopher Pike (Jeffrey Hunter)
• Number One (Majel Barrett)
• Spock (Leonard Nimoy)
• José Tyler (Peter Duryea)
• Vina (Susan Oliver)
• Yeoman Colt (Laurel Goodwin)
• Phillip Boyce (John Hoyt)

Notable guest roles

• Lt. Cmdr. Gary Mitchell (Gary Lockwood)
• Dr. Elizabeth Dehner (Sally Kellerman)
• Balok (voice) / Metron (voice) / Nomad (voice) / Tharn (Vic Perrin)
• Balok (Clint Howard)
• Harcourt Fenton Mudd (Roger C. Carmel)
• Romulan Commander / Sarek (Mark Lenard)
• Ruk / Balok's Double (voice) (Ted Cassidy)
• Andrea (Sherry Jackson)
• Dr. Tristan Adams (James Gregory)
• Simon Van Gelder / Capt. Ron Tracy (Morgan Woodward)
• Miri (Kim Darby)
• Samuel T. Cogley (Elisha Cook Jr.)
• Trelane / Captain Koloth (William Campbell)
• Mea 3 / Philana / Trelane's Mother (Barbara Babcock)
• Khan Noonien Singh (Ricardo Montalban)
• Leila Kalomi (Jill Ireland)
• Edith Keeler (Joan Collins)
• Guardian of Forever / Imperial Announcer / Nazi Spokesman / Yarnek (Bartell LaRue)
• Zefram Cochrane (Glenn Corbett)
• Nancy Hedford (Elinor Donahue)
• Eleen (Julie Newmar)
• Kras (Tige Andrews)
• Lt. Carolyn Palamas (Leslie Parrish)
• T'Pau (Celia Lovsky)
• Commodore Decker (William Windom)
• Akuta (Keith Andes)
• Child of Vaal (David Soul)
• Septimus / Atoz (Ian Wolfe)
• Amanda Grayson (Jane Wyatt)
• Jojo Krako (Vic Tayback)
• Rojan (Warren Stevens)
• Dr. Ann Mulhall / Miranda Jones (Diana Muldaur)
• Dr. Richard Daystrom (William Marshall)
• Roberta Lincoln (Teri Garr)
• Elaan (France Nuyen)
• Commodore Mendez / The Keeper (voice) (Malachi Throne)
• Miramanee (Sabrina Scharf)
• Salish (Rudy Solari)
• Gorgon, the "Friendly Angel" (Melvin Belli)
• Gem (Kathryn Hays)
• Losira (Lee Meriwether)
• Bele (Frank Gorshin)
• Donald Cory (Keye Luke)
• Marta (Yvonne Craig)
• Anka (Fred Williamson)
• Adam (Charles Napier)
• Flint / Methuselah / Leonardo da Vinci / Johannes Brahms (James Daly)
• Rayna Kapec (Louise Sorel)
• Zarabeth (Mariette Hartley)
• Kara (Marj Dusay)

In addition, the series is notorious for repeatedly including characters (usually security personnel wearing red uniforms) that are killed or injured soon after their introduction. So prevalent was this plot device that it inspired the term redshirt to denote a stock character whose sole purpose is to indicate the dangerous circumstances for the main characters.

Related Topics:
Plot device - Redshirt - Stock character

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