Star Trek was an answer to West Side Story (1961).
The Jets & Sharks became the Enterprise crew. Russ Tamblyn’s Riff was the prototype Kirk. And the entire series exists to answer the question, “What if they could just get along?”
And the answer is they’d reach the stars.
Seriously, I could go on and on about all the connections between West Side Story (1961) and Star Trek that just snapped into place in my mind… but it’s really late… and maybe I’ll write an essay later…
I will say that given the timing of the two — West Side Story (1961) and Star Trek (1966) — it’s extremely possible that the one really was actually direct inspiration for the other. And that’s definitely what I’m gonna believe from now on.