Pilot
For a long time, the pilot was someone who worked in a harbour who'd come onto your ship and steer it safely to moorings within the docks. He'd know the waters a lot better than your helmsman would, in the days before detailed marine charts, anyway. He leads your ship, but isn't part of the crew.

For bigger ships he (it usually was a he) might be on a tugboat towing you, rather than on your ship. He literally leads your ship into port. This sense of "pilot" is why pilot whales are so called - they swim in front of ships at sea and look like they are leading them somewhere or other.

So a pilot for a TV show is something that leads the series itself, temporally-speaking (i.e. it comes before the main series), but is not part of it, and may not ever really come to anything.

From that sense, I've now heard pilot used in IT circles to refer to a prelaunch trial that may or may not lead to a later roll-out.

Isn't the English language brilliant?
( shinyshinyscalp less a man, more a way of life, Mon 22 Mar 2010, 18:21, Reply)