"The Man Trap" was the first episode to be broadcast in the American
science fiction television series Star Trek, but the sixth to be filmed.
It aired on NBC on September 8, 1966. The story was assigned to George
Clayton Johnson; his first draft was entitled "Damsel With a Dulcimer",
incorporating elements from his Twilight Zone episode "The Four of Us
Are Dying". Series creator Gene Roddenberry, producer Robert H. Justman
and story editor John D. F. Black all tweaked elements of the episode.
The story, part of Roddenberry's original Star Trek pitch to the studio,
was chosen for the first broadcast episode because the studio liked its
horror-based plot. "The Man Trap" placed first in the timeslot with a
Nielsen rating of 25.2 percent for the first half-hour and 24.2 for the
remainder. After broadcast, reviewers criticized the violent scenes but
praised the acting. More recent appraisals have been mixed; praise has
been given to the plot and diverse cast, but
Hollywood.com listed it
among the worst episodes of the series. The creature, created by Wah
Chang and William Ware Theiss, has been dubbed the "salt vampire" by
fans.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Man_Trap>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
617:
Li Yuan defeated a Sui dynasty army in the Battle of Huoyi,
opening the path to his capture of the imperial capital Chang'an and the
eventual establishment of the Tang dynasty.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Huoyi>
1755:
French and Indian War: British and French forces and their
respective Indian allies fought to a draw in the Battle of Lake George.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Lake_George>
1941:
World War II: German forces severed the last land connection to
Leningrad, beginning a 28-month siege that would result in the deaths of
over 1 million of the city's civilians from starvation, making it one of
the most lethal battles in world history.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Leningrad>
1966:
Queen Elizabeth II opened the Severn Bridge, hailing it as the
dawn of a new economic era for South Wales.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Severn_Bridge>
1978:
Iranian Revolution: After the government of the Shah of Iran
declared martial law in response to protests, the Iranian Army shot and
killed at least 88 demonstrators in Tehran on Black Friday.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Friday_(1978)>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
folio:
1. A leaf of a book or manuscript.
2. A page of a book, that is, one side of a leaf of a book.
3. (printing) A page number. The even folios are on the left-hand pages and
the odd folios on the right-hand pages.
4. (paper) A sheet of paper folded in half.
5. (books) A book made of sheets of paper each folded in half (two leaves
or four pages to the sheet); hence, a book of the largest kind,
exceeding 30 cm in height.
6. (accounting) A page in an account book; sometimes, two opposite pages
bearing the same serial number.
7. (law, dated, 19th to early 20th century) A leaf containing a certain
number of words; hence, a certain number of words in a writing, as in
England, in law proceedings 72, and in chancery, 90; in New York, 100
words.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/folio>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
When you’re a charmer the world applauds they don’t know that
secretly charmers feel like they’re frauds When you’re a charmer you
hate yourself a victim of sideshow hypnosis like everyone else.
--Aimee Mann
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Aimee_Mann>