Before becoming Captain James T Kirk, William Shatner struggled to turn early film, theatre and television work into lasting stardom. His decision to reject long-running television roles to avoid typecasting meant opportunities went to other actors, while his 1965 lead role in CBS legal drama For the People was cancelled after only 13 weeks. The failure mattered because it left his career close to the stagnation he had tried to avoid, shortly before Star Trek transformed his prospects.

Shatner had appeared in programmes including The Twilight Zone and Alfred Hitchcock Presents, but turned down Dr Kildare, later played by Richard Chamberlain, and saw Robert Reed gain prominence in a role Shatner had created in The Defenders. In For the People, he played assistant district attorney David Koster, but CBS scheduled the programme against NBC’s hugely popular Bonanza on Sunday evenings. Shatner later said the series “never had a chance”; in 1966, his casting in Star Trek made him famous, though it also brought the typecasting he had long resisted.