61 Years Ago, Star Trek's Greatest Failure Changed the Franchise Forever

Before Captain Kirk ever sat in the Enterprise’s center seat, Gene Roddenberry tried to launch his strange new science-fiction series with “The Cage,” a pilot starring Jeffrey Hunter as Captain Christopher Pike. NBC rejected it in 1965. Among the network’s concerns was that the episode was “too cerebral,” which is a pretty funny criticism considering Star Trek would eventually build an entire franchise around making people think.