No one but the network wanted The Man Trap to be the premiere of the Star Trek series

Robert Justman and Herb Solow, who served as producers on “Star Trek,” shed light on the selection of series premieres when they wrote a behind-the-scenes book “Inside Star Trek: The Real Story” together in 1966.

In August 1966, NBC held a screening of available “Star Trek” episodes to decide which should premiere the series. Despite being the pilot, “Where No Man Has Gone Before” was cut because it had too much exposition. The episode was “necessary for sale, not necessarily for television,” Solow said. (“Where No Man Has Gone Before” aired as the show’s third episode on September 22, 1966.)

Solow describes why each of the episodes considered was excluded: Neither “The Corbomite Maneuver” nor “The Enemy Within” had the scope needed for a series premiere. “Mudd’s Women” was too scandalous. “Charlie X,” about a psychic teenager, was “too kind a tale.”

So, the selection for the premiere fell on “The Man Trap” and “The Naked Time”, where the Enterprise crew is exposed to a virus that removes their inhibitions. Justman pushed for “The Naked Time” (feeling that its focus on the character would quickly introduce audiences to the main cast of “Star Trek”), but NBC opted for “The Man Trap” even though the crew felt it one of the weaker efforts. Why? Because “The Man Trap” was essentially a creature feature film on a TV budget.