Ask a random "Star Trek" fan who their favorite captain is, and there's a good chance they'll answer "Captain Kirk." He's the OG captain of the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701), after all, though that almost wasn't the case. Technically, William Shatner's Captain Kirk is actually the second person to command of the iconic starship, as the original "Star Trek" pilot featured a different captain, Jeffrey Hunter's Captain Pike.

The first "Star Trek" pilot, titled "The Cage," bombed hard with network executives at NBC , but they gave creator Gene Roddenberry another chance. He retooled his script, altered some characters, redid much of the narrative, and brought in Shatner to take command. The actor revealed that he was shown the original pilot when he was brought on board, and he quickly figured ou

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