before "star trek", science fiction productions from "forbidden planet" to "rocky jones, space ranger" assumed that a long-range starship would land on planets. gene roddenberry's original premise stated that the starship "enterprise" rarely lands. given the special effects complexity of landing a giant starship each week, "rarely" was quickly changed to "never". dated march 1964, the premise mentions a "small shuttle rocket". the shuttle rocket was too expensive to build for the first episodes. for most of the series the transporter served to teleport characters on and off the ship.