The 52nd episode of Gene Roddenberry’s science fiction series Star Trek premieres on NBC. A tale of patriotism perverted into a belief system, The Omega Glory is one of three Roddenberry scripts originally pitched to NBC as potential pilot episodes before the start of filming on season one.
Stardate not given: The missing starship Exeter is spotted in orbit of an inhabited planet. Kirk, Spock and McCoy board the Exeter, finding only the remains of the crew, wiped out by a disease which likely affects the boarding party now. Transporting to the planet, Kirk finds that Captain Tracey of the Exeter escaped his crew’s fate, and the atmosphere on the planet is capable of eliminating the disease from the Enterprise landing party’s bloodstreams. But more problems arise as Tracey discards his loyalty to the prime directive in an attempt to gain power in the planet’s government.
written by Gene Roddenberry
directed by Vincent McEveety
music not creditedCast: William Shatner (Captain James T. Kirk), Leonard Nimoy (Mr. Spock), DeForest Kelley (Dr. Leonard McCoy), James Doohan (Mr. Scott), George Takei (Lt. Sulu), Nichelle Nichols (Lt. Uhura), Morgan Woodward (Captain Tracey), Roy Jenson (Cloud William), Irene Kelly (Sirah), Morgan Farley (Yang Scholar), David L. Ross (Lt. Galloway), Lloyd Kino (Wu), Ed McCready (Dr. Carter), Frank Atienza (Kohm Villager)
Notes: This was one of three pilot scripts originally proposed to launch Star Trek, and was generally considered the weakest of the three; in their book “Inside Star Trek”, original Trek producers Herb Solow and Bob Justman admit to having stroked Gene Roddenberry’s ego by telling him that NBC executives liked The Omega Glory more than the other pilot scripts that was presented.
LogBook entry by Earl Green

