The story of it's creation is well-known; creator Gene Roddenberry, a WWII vet who had drifted through a variety of jobs before settling into writing scripts for television, envisioned a weekly Science Fiction-themed series about the intergalactic adventures of a starship and it's multi-racial crew. Promoted as "Wagon Train to the Stars", the concept was rejected by both ABC and CBS (although CBS would steal many of Roddenberry's FX ideas for a series they were developing, "Lost in Space"), but NBC was willing to gamble, and approved the making of a pilot. Roddenberry needed another visionary to help 'flesh out' his vision, and Gene Coon, "Star Trek's" unsung hero, came aboard. The two men hammered out the 'look' and 'feel' of the 23rd Century, and the maiden voyage of the Starship 'Enterprise'. The pilot, a unique blend of action and intellect, entitled "The Cage", was aired for NBC executives...and was rejected, as TOO intellectual! NBC, to it's credit, saw promise in the concept, however, and approved the filming of a second pilot, something normally unheard of, for a perspective series. With the network-suggested changes in place, "Where No Man Had Gone Before" got "Star Trek" a 'green light' from the network executives, and the series joined NBC's 1966 fall line up.