This year, the Star Trek franchise turns sixty years old. The iconic sci-fi series aired its first episode on September 8, 1966, on NBC. But also turning sixty this year is Hollywood’s Writers Guild Foundation. So as as part of a joint birthday celebration, the organization hosted a live reading of “The Man Trap,” Star Trek’s very first aired episode, with the cast of the HBO Max hit series The Pitt. Cue all of your “Damn it Jim, I’m a doctor!” memes now. The event took place on August 30 at the Lodge Room in Highland Park, California. You can watch a video of some of The Pitt cast giving their best old school melodramatic Star Trek performances below:
The Pitt cast that participated included Noah Wyle as Captain James T. Kirk himself, because of course. Katherine LaNasa, Fiona Dourif, Taylor Dearden, Shabana Azeez, and Ayesha Harris each played a role too. Each of them portrayed a member of the Starship Enterprise crew.
The WGF took the Star Trek script from the shelves of its Shavelson-Webb Library and performed as part of its “Retro Reads” strand. The WGF library is home to more than 50,000 scripts, which are open to everyone. Interestingly enough, Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry served on the WGF board in those early years.
Proceeds from this special event support the foundation and its public programs. These include the library, Writers Access programs, Veterans Writing Project, and public education events. For more information on the Writers Guild Foundation, click here.
Originally published August 6, 2026