The Naked Time, Part I
written by John D.F. Black
FINAL DRAFT, dated June 28, 1966
(with Revised Pages, dated July 1, July 5, and a NEW ENDING, dated August 11, 1966)
report & analysis by David Eversole

Those wanting more info on the early versions/details of this story will find very little in this script. It is chockfull of revised pages of only a line or two, and thus it is pretty much what was aired, with only an interesting exception or two.

Legend has long held that this was to be Part I of a two-part story The second part was to be D. C. Fontana's "Tomorrow Is Yesterday."

This is borne out by the title, and by a line that got chopped off in the aired episode, before the new ending begins.

Lieutenant Brent, filling in for the Kathleening Kevin Riley, asks Kirk for a direction after Kirk orders a hyperbolic course. In the aired episode, Kirk's line is: "Doesn't matter... the way we came."

In the script, the line is: "Doesn't matter... the way we came... toward Earth."

So, they were intending to use this ending to lead in to "Tomorrow Is Yesterday." The NEW ENDING begins after the helm begins answering and the power reverses, and it is what we saw on screen.

In the June 28 pages, the nurse is Christine BAKER. In the July revisions, she is Christine DUCHEAUX. I wonder why the final change to Chapel.

JOHN D.F. BLACK (1932 - 2018): A legendary television writer, story editor, director and producer whose work spanned 1957 - 1987. During those years he wrote for programs as diverse as Laredo, Mission: Impossible, Mannix, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, and Charlie's Angels (for which he also made his directing debut). He developed and wrote Wonder Woman, a 1974 telefilm starring Cathy Lee Crosby and Ricardo Montalban. His vision of the popular comic book character drew low ratings, and the more famous version with Lynda Carter was produced a year later. He wrote under several pseudonyms, including John Black, Geoffrey Dennis and Ralph Wills. On Star Trek, Black served as the first Story Editor and as an associate producer. He wrote "The Naked Time." Two decades later he was credited as writer when the story was remade as "The Naked Now" on Star Trek: The Next Generation. He was credited with the story for "Justice" (using his pseudonym Ralph Wills), another episode from that series. Harlan Ellison once described Black's beard as being of "truly Moses-like proportions."

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