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60 free Star Trek: the Original Series trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Before the films, the spin-offs and the reboots there were 79 episodes of Star Trek on NBC between 1966 and 1969, cancelled after three seasons and then turned into a phenomenon by syndication. This Star Trek original series trivia quiz stays inside those episodes and their making: the rejected pilot with Captain Pike, how Spock survived the network's objections, why Chekov arrived in season two, the tribbles, Khan, the Gorn, the salt vampire, the interracial kiss in Plato's Stepchildren, the fan letter campaign that saved season three, and the composers, designers and guest stars behind the show. The 60 questions run from easy (who plays Dr. McCoy?) to expert (which prop artist designed the communicator?), so it works for casual fans and for people who can quote stardates. Every answer has been checked against documented production and broadcast records rather than fan wikis, so the answer key is one you can trust at a pub quiz.
30 of 60 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Who created Star Trek, drafting the first treatment for it in March 1964?
Gene Roddenberry
His original protagonist was a Captain Robert April of the S.S. Yorktown.
Q 02How many episodes of the original series were made before it was cancelled?
79
Most shows needed four seasons to be syndicated; three seasons proved just enough to make it a rerun juggernaut.
Q 03Which television production company, run by Lucille Ball, made the first two seasons?
Desilu Productions
Ball was instrumental in getting the pilot made even though she did not really understand the project.
Q 04What was the title of the rejected first pilot, filmed in late 1964?
The Cage
The network called it too cerebral but took the rare step of ordering a second pilot.
Q 05Which actor played Captain Christopher Pike in the first pilot?
Jeffrey Hunter
His footage was later recycled into the two-part episode The Menagerie when his contract was not renewed.
Q 06Which actress played Number One in the rejected pilot and later voiced the ship's computer?
Majel Barrett
She returned to the series as Nurse Christine Chapel and later married the show's creator.
Q 07Which actor turned down a starring role in Star Trek, saying he had no desire to work in science fiction?
Lloyd Bridges
He liked Roddenberry personally; his sons Beau and Jeff went on to bigger screens.
Q 08Which show did CBS cite as the reason it passed on Star Trek in 1964?
Lost in Space
Desilu had a first-look deal with CBS, so they had to pitch there before going elsewhere.
Q 09What was the first regular episode broadcast, on September 8, 1966?
The Man Trap
It was chosen to go first because of its horror plot about a shapeshifting creature.
Q 10The creature in the first broadcast episode drains what from its victims' bodies?
Salt
Fans nicknamed it the 'salt vampire'; the suit was redesigned for the 2009 film but went unused.
Q 11Who plays Dr. Leonard 'Bones' McCoy?
DeForest Kelley
He was not in either pilot; Paul Fix played a Dr. Mark Piper in the second one.
Q 12Which NBC West Coast programming head commissioned the first pilot in May 1964?
Grant Tinker
Tinker later co-founded MTM Enterprises with Mary Tyler Moore and ran NBC in the 1980s.
Q 13Which Desilu executive is credited with adding the 'stardate' concept to the show?
Herbert F. Solow
He also talked Lucille Ball out of dropping the show in early 1966.
Q 21Which costume designer created the Starfleet uniforms and the Klingon and Vulcan looks?
Bill Theiss
He later reunited with Roddenberry to design the first season of The Next Generation.
Q 22Roughly how many letters did the network admit receiving in the 1967-68 fan campaign to save the show?
116,000
One executive said the real total topped a million pieces of mail; the network only disclosed the smaller figure.
Q 23Which fan, secretly funded by Roddenberry, organised the 1967-68 letter-writing campaign?
Bjo Trimble
She and her husband John used a 4,000-name convention mailing list and asked each fan to recruit ten more.
Q 14Which character was added in season two, partly to appeal to teenage girls, and played by Walter Koenig?
Pavel Chekov
A story that Pravda complained about the lack of Russians is doubted, since the show never aired in the USSR.
Q 15George Takei missed half of season two because he was filming which John Wayne movie?
The Green Berets
When he came back, he and Koenig had to share a dressing room.
Q 16Which former Monkee has been claimed as the visual model for the mop-topped Ensign Chekov?
Davy Jones
Desilu paperwork suggests the real aim was a character with more sex appeal for teenage viewers.
Q 17Nichelle Nichols' Lt. Uhura held which post aboard the ship?
Communications officer
Her first name, Nyota, was never spoken on screen in the series or the original-cast films.
Q 18Which crew member, played by Grace Lee Whitney, left partway through the first season?
Yeoman Janice Rand
She returned decades later in the films and in Voyager's Flashback.
Q 19Which art director designed the starship's bridge and lends his name to its equipment shafts?
Matt Jefferies
A WWII airman, he used his knowledge of aircraft cockpits to make the bridge layout ergonomic.
Q 20Which former Disney sculptor designed the flip-open communicator and the tricorder?
Wah Chang
The flip-open design is often credited with influencing the shape of the flip phone.
Q 24Students from which university marched on the network's Burbank studio with 'Draft Spock' signs?
Caltech
More than 200 of them turned out; Berkeley and MIT students staged similar protests.
Q 25For its third season the show was moved to what unpopular time slot?
10 pm Friday
Roddenberry said 'If the network wants to kill us, it couldn't make a better move,' and stepped back from daily production.
Q 26Which hit comedy show's producer refused to let Star Trek take a Monday slot for season three?
Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In
Producer George Schlatter angrily demanded his show not be rescheduled.
Q 27Who replaced Roddenberry as day-to-day producer for the third season?
Fred Freiberger
The per-episode budget was cut to $175,000 that year, down from $190,000 in season one.
Q 28Which episode is the season three premiere and is widely regarded as the worst of the series?
Spock's Brain
Gene L. Coon wrote it under the pseudonym Lee Cronin.
Q 29Which was the last original episode to air, on June 3, 1969, in which a woman swaps bodies with Kirk?
Turnabout Intruder
It was pre-empted in March by coverage of Eisenhower's death and finally aired on a Tuesday night.
Q 30In The Trouble with Tribbles, which interstellar trader brings the furry creatures aboard station K7?
Cyrano Jones
He gives the first one to Uhura; they coo at humans but screech around Klingons.