 In Wilber 's first proposal for the story that became " Space Seed " , dated August 29 , 1966 — shortly before the first episode of Star Trek aired — the villain was Harold Erickson , an ordinary criminal exiled into space . He sought to free his gang from Botany Bay , seize Enterprise , and become a pirate . Parts of the story were inspired by the use of penal colonies in the 18th century , and characterizations were based on descriptions from the series ' writer 's bible . As a result , several elements of the draft proposal differed from how the characters behaved in the actual series — for example , the draft includes a scene where Spock defeats Kirk at chess by cheating . Producer Gene L. Coon told Wilber that his work was the best outline he had seen during his time on Star Trek . Fellow producer Bob Justman was less enthusiastic ; he compared it negatively to Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers , and felt the concept would be too expensive to film . There were also concerns that an unsolicited script submitted by science fiction author Philip José Farmer resembled the proposed plot which , as Roddenberry had corresponded with Farmer , might lead to litigation . 
