- There were two pilots made. The original starred Majel Barrett as Second in command and Jeffrey Hunter as the Captain. This pilot was rejected and NBC ordered a second one. The only character that was the same between the two pilots was Spock who was played by Leonard Nimoy in both
pilots
- Doohan ("Scotty") lost his right middle finger during WWII (c.f. Saving Private Ryan (1998)). Most of his scenes are shot to hide it. However, it is very noticeable in the episode "Catspaw." Scotty is hypnotized and holding a phaser pistol on Kirk & Spock in Korob & Sylvia's dining hall. When Scotty is in the shot, only two fingers are holding the butt of the
phaser.
- Martin Landau was originally offered the role of Spock, but declined. Later, Leonard Nimoy, who did accept the part, took over the role of disguise-expert on Mission: Impossible when Landau left that show. Landau later headed his own sci-fi series, "Space: 1999" (1975).
- The transporter was a plot device intended to eliminate the pacing and production problems involved in depicting the ship landing and taking off all the time.
- Shortly after the cancelation of the series, the staff of the marketing department of the NBC TV network confronted the network executives and berated them for cancelling Star Trek, the most profitable show on the network in terms of demographic profiling of the ratings. They explained that although the show was never higher than #52 in the general ratings, its audience profile had the largest concentration of viewers of ages 16 to 39, the most sought after television audience for advertisers to reach. In other words, the show, despite the low ratings, had the precise audience advertisors hungered for, which was more than ample justification to consider the show a big success.
- Now (2000) listed in the Guinness Book of Records as having the largest number of spin-off productions, including the feature film series and the numerous TV series.
- Many elements of the Spock character were improvised by Leonard Nimoy during production. For instance, the "Vulcan neck pinch" was his suggestion during filming of "The Enemy Within" for how Spock could subdue an opponent. The "Vulcan salute" was created during the production of "Amok Time" using a version of a traditional Jewish religious hand gesture as a distinctive Vulcan greeting.
- Sulu and Uhura didn't have first names in this series. Sulu did get a first name (Hikaru) but not until Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991). Uhura never did, although most fans agree that her first name is
Nyota.
- Lloyd Bridges and Jeffrey Hunter (who had played Captain Pike in the original pilot) both turned down the role of Captain Kirk.
- The episode "Assignment: Earth" was written to introduce a hoped-for spinoff series that never materialized. It would have featured Robert Lansing as Gary Seven, Barbara Babcock as Isis, and Teri Garr as Roberta Lincoln. In the new series, the intrepid three would have worked to make sure humanity achieved the destiny glimpsed via the Trek characters and Seven's mysterious extraterrestrial information.
- The first interracial kiss on American network television was in the episode "Plato's Stepchildren," which aired on 22 Nov 1968, when Captain Kirk (William Shatner) kissed Lieutenant Uhura (Nichelle Nichols). The script originally called for Uhura to kiss Spock (Leonard Nimoy), but Shatner, knowing history was about to be made, insisted the script be rewritten.
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