Did everyone already know this except me? That Nichelle Nichols (Uhura) orginally read for the role of Spock?! Did you see the Science channel documentary Trek Nation by Rod Roddenberry (Gene's son)?!

From TheMarySue.com:

…Spock was originally intended to be a female character. That is, there was a vulcan on the crew, the head science officer. There was also a female character known as Number One, a cold, efficient and logical woman to play against the hot headed, libidinous Kirk. She was intended to by played by Majel Roddenberry, then Majel Barrett. Gene Roddenberry was dating her at the time, but hadn’t yet divorced his estranged wife. The studio producing Star Trek was uncomfortable A) with a woman as such a central character and B) with the scandalous nepotism of the whole thing. They also didn’t particularly like Spock as a character, and so as a compromise Roddenberry eliminated Number One, made a Spock the emotionless one, and promoted him to First Officer. Majel got the more secondary role of Nurse Chapel.

I would love to see the original version. I mean I love Leonard Nimoy and what he did with Spock, but I find this… fascinating.

(More about the documentary at HuffPo. It premeired this past Wednesday, but repeats several times including tomorrow evening at 9pm.)