Created by Gene Roddenberry, the science fiction television series Star Trek (which eventually acquired the retronym Star Trek: The Original Series) starred William Shatner as Captain James T. Kirk, Leonard Nimoy as Mr. Spock, and DeForest Kelley as Dr. Leonard "Bones" McCoy aboard the fictional Federation starship USS Enterprise. The series originally aired from September 1966 through June 1969 on NBC. This is the first television series in the Star Trek franchise, and comprises 79 regular episodes over the series' three seasons, along with the series' original pilot episode, "The Cage". The episodes are listed in order by original air date, which match the episode order in each season's original, remastered, and Blu-ray DVD box sets. The original, single-disc DVD releases placed the episodes by production order, with "The Cage" on the final disc. After the series' cancellation, Paramount Television released Star Trek to television stations as a syndication package, where the series' popularity grew to become a "major phenomenon within popular culture". This popularity would eventually lead to the expansion of the Star Trek catalog, which as of 2020 includes nine more television series and thirteen Trek motion pictures. In 2006, CBS Paramount Domestic Television (now CBS Television Distribution) announced that each Original Series episode would be re-syndicated in high definition after undergoing digital remastering, including both new and enhanced visual effects. (To date, the remastered episodes have only been broadcast in standard definition, though all three seasons are now available on the high-definition Blu-ray Disc format.) The remastered episodes began with "Balance of Terror" (along with, in some markets, "Miri") during the weekend of September 16, 2006, and ended with "The Cage", which aired during the weekend of May 2, 2009. The remastered air dates listed below are based on the weekend each episode aired in syndication. Series overview Episodes Pilots (1964–65) Star Treks pilot episode, "The Cage", was completed between November 1964 and January 1965, and starred Jeffrey Hunter as Captain Christopher Pike, Majel Barrett as Number One, and Leonard Nimoy as Spock. The pilot was rejected by NBC as being "too cerebral" among other complaints. Jeffrey Hunter chose to withdraw from the role of Pike when creator Gene Roddenberry was asked to produce a second pilot episode "Where No Man Has Gone Before". A slightly edited version with the same title aired in 1966 as the third episode of the new series. "The Cage" never aired