And I’ve read that what he wanted to make was something like a play on Darwin’s 5 year journey on the HMS Beagle, but TV executives wanted the “wagon train to the stars.”
Interesting. I’ve never heard this; do you have a cite?
“Wagon Train to the Stars” was the phrase used in the original 1964 series format. Wagon Train was a popular TV series at the time, and the concept behind it was an easy one to grasp.
While “Voyage of the Beagle” might be better in terms of science and discovery, I doubt it would have the same appeal to network executives.
That and a bit of “Hornblower in Space.” And if you look at the 1951 Gregory Peck film, that’s what they got. That movie is the second best Star Trek film. 
…Roddenberry was already developing an idea called Hawaii Passage that involved a multi-racial ship crew that explored the ocean. One of his influences for the series had been The Voyage of the Beagle , which referred to Charles Darwin’s five year journey around the world to discover strange, new species of animals. Roddenberry then decided to switch the concept from a sea-going ship to one in space, and Star Trek was born.
Roddenberry wrote up a script, but rather than calling it “Episode 1” it was called “Voyage 1”. He took it to Desilu Productions, the production company that made I Love Lucy . They loved the idea and went with him to pitch it to several networks. CBS already had a science fiction show in the works called Lost in Space , and had to pass. Desilu’s second stop was NBC, where producer Herb Solow had a connection. He emphasized Roddenberry’s past work on westerns, the most popular genre at the time, and pitched it as “Wagon Train to the stars.”
Again, interesting.
I don’t have my copy of Solow and Justman’s book handy, but I remember Herb’s version of the story differs substantially. He never mentions Hawaii Passage and was critical of using Wagon Train to pitch the series. He thought Gulliver’s Travels was a better description.
They did talk a lot about the series format before they went to the networks with it. Imagine that instead of Captain Kirk, we might have had Captain Gulliver…
I’ve read by the way, that the point of referring to Star Trek as “Wagon Train to the Stars” was to reflect the fact that Wagon Train had recurring lead characters who are put into a variety of situations that allow them to interact with guest stars going through dramatic events. And that’s pretty much what Star Trek turned out to be. Kirk, Spock and the gang encounter Frank Gorshin, or Ricardo Montalban, or Teri Garr, or William Campbell, and deal with the problems that those guests produce.
That’s basically the description given in the original series format.
Nonsense. The second-best Trek film was Forbidden Planet, narrowly edging past Galaxy Quest.
Nothing in the entire history of human drama edges past Galaxy Quest. 
Thanks. Just trying to make the point that “like Wagon Train” doesn’t necessarily mean “a space Western.”
NOW they tell us!
“Route 66 to the stars” would also have worked, and been less ambiguous.
Oh … that’s not right!
The best part has to be when Gwen says “fuck screw this!” It was almost like the dub was done for comedy.
Are you sure we’re not mind-melded? Those are my two favorite moments as well.
Might have to spend some time youtubing GQ clips this afternoon.
“This episode was badly written!”
We gotta get out of here before one of those things kills (LSL)Guy.
Someone (David Gerrold in Starlog?) called the Enterprise a “cosmic Mary Worth” for butting into other people’s personal problems. That, too, is a fair network pitch,
Arguably:
Wrath of Khan
Forbidden Planet
Captain Horatio Hornblower
Galaxy Quest, downgraded just a bit because of the parody elements.
2 and 3 are so equal. FP is true Sci Fi (mosters from the Id, John!) but CHH’s ship to ship battles are pure Star Trek. Kirk couldn’t have done a better job against the Natividad, beating a superior opponent by getting her guns nearly underwater. And sneaking into the French port is pure Kirk.
Allegedly, the hibernation units from Forbidden Planet were repurposed into the Star Trek transportation room. So… yeah, there’s a connection there…
“Oh, I know! You make a weapon out of the materials around you! Do you see anything that looks like a rudimentary lathe?”
Mind you, this might only be funny if you’ve seen “Arena” a million times like I have, but … 
