Star Trek’s Original Enterprise Captain Before Pike & Kirk Explained

The Star Trek franchise has had many memorable captains over the years, but the USS Enterprise’s very first, Robert April, is often forgotten. The Enterprise was first introduced in Star Trek: The Original Series, which premiered in 1966 and ran for three seasons before being canceled. TOS depicted the adventures of Captain James T. Kirk and his crew, a cast of characters that would go on to become an iconic part of the Star Trek universe, but Kirk was not the first captain of the Enterprise.

Before TOS officially premiered, Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry produced a pilot that featured an almost entirely different cast of characters. This first pilot, later dubbed “The Cage,” featured Captain Christopher Pike and a crew that included Frist Officer Number One, Chief Medical Officer Doctor Boyce, and Science Officer Spock, who became the only character to also appear in the rest of the series. Ultimately, “The Cage” was rejected, and Roddenberry ended up creating Kirk and the rest of the Original Series crew. What some viewers may not know, however, is that like Kirk, Captain Pike was not Roddenberry’s first choice for the main character. That distinction goes to Captain Robert April.

The name Robert April appeared in Roddenberry’s first-ever pitch for Star Trek. April’s character description in the pitch matched many of the characteristics that were later given to both Pike and Kirk, such as his headstrong personality and penchant for taking risks. This makes sense, as Roddenberry’s idea for how he wanted to portray Star Trek’s Captain essentially stayed the same throughout the many changes to both the pitch and pilot, with only the Captain’s name being changed multiple times. In this way, for a period of time, April was only an early version of the character who would become Kirk. However, April was later introduced as his own character in Star Trek: The Animated Series, the short-lived cartoon that only ran for two seasons from 1973 to 1974.

April appeared in the series finale of The Animated Series, an episode entitled “The Counter-Clock Incident.” This was the only episode of Star Trek to feature an appearance by April and established some of his backstory, such as his career as a Federation Ambassador-at-large after leaving command of the Enterprise, and his marriage to his wife, Sarah. For the episode, April was voiced by James Doohan, the actor who also played Scotty on TOS. The Animated Series is one of the less well-known or well-liked Star Trek shows, which likely contributes to the reason April is often forgotten or not referenced in the wider universe.

This changed recently however when April’s name appeared in two separate episodes of Star Trek: Discovery. April was mentioned as one of the most decorated officers in Starfleet history in the Discovery season 1 episode “Chose Your Pain” and also came up in connection with Captain Pike’s appearance in Discovery season 2, since Pike was April’s first officer when April was captain. This seems to suggest that despite The Animated Series’ questionable place in canon, Robert April can be considered an established part of in-universe Star Trek history. With Pike and his Enterprise crew set to be featured on the upcoming Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, it is even possible fans might even see another actual appearance by Robert April in the near future.

About The Author

Dana Hanson
(110 Articles Published)

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Dana Hanson is a trainer and freelance writer for Screen Rant, covering stories about Star Trek for the Movie/TV feature writing team. She attended Emerson College in Boston, Massachusetts, graduating in 2019 with a degree in Media Arts production and a concentration in Writing for TV and film. She has previous experience working with an online and print publication as a freelance editor and has been passionate about both writing and Star Trek for years. She currently lives in Pennsylvania.

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