Trekkers of the world, unite. You have nothing to lose but your chains.
Last Friday, May seventh, Gene Roddenberry spoke before an enthusiastic audience at R.I.T.'s Clark Gym. Despite his cancellation due to illness last quarter, or perhaps because of it, the gym was packed with excited fans. They were not disappointed.
Gene Roddenberry has had a varied career. A B-17 pilot in the South Pacific during World War II, he later flew as a commercial pilot for Pan American World Airways. He was a police sergeant, and a recognized expert on narcotic addiction. He has written television scripts for "Dragnet", "Have Gun, Will Travel" and "Naked City," and created and produced "The Lieutenant." In his guise as "The Great Bird of The Galaxy," he has done more for the cause of intelligent science fiction than any other man in television.
Science fiction writer David Gerrold, author of the "Trouble With Tribbles" episode of Star Trek, described his first meeting with Roddenberry as follows: "He was a big man, a genial looking person with gray-brown hair. He had the kind of smile that wins elections and charms old ladies and reassures children who are being taken to the doctor for a slot. He was impressive. If you were casting the part of God and couldn't get Charlton Heston, this was the fellow.
"No - better than that - he looked like a TV producer. What a TV producer should look like... I stood there feeling like I'd had an audience with the Pope and forgotten to kiss the ring." (When I asked Gene about that, he said "I don't mind being described as God, as long as I don't start acting like God.")
Roddenberry first took his series idea to Metro Goldwyn Mayer, which turned it down. Desilu, which had tried eight or ten different pilots without success, decided to give it a try. The next problem was getting a network to accept the idea.
Gene took Star Trek to CBS, which rejected it. They had an idea of their own which they felt was much better. (Does anyone remember a thing called "Lost In Space?") He then tried NBC. Of three story ideas submitted, the network chose one called "The Cage." By the time the pilot was made, the name of the male lead had gone from Captain Robert April to Captain Winter, and finally to Captain Christopher Pike. Renamed "The Menagerie," it starred the late Jeffrey Hunter, and costarred Majel Barrett (now Roddenberry), Leonard Nimoy and John Hoyt.
The network, which had been led to expect a sort of "Wagon Train To The Stars", rejected it. The episode was, in their opinion, too involved and too literate for the slobs at home. They had wanted an action and adventure format, which was not what was delivered.
Breaking all precedent, NBC requested a second pilot. They felt that part of the blame was theirs. They had simply chosen the wrong script.
The new pilot, "Where No Man Has Gone Before," starred William Shatner as the renamed (yet again) Captain James T. Kirk. It is a strong action story. This time, NBC bought the show. On September 8, 1966 "The Man Trap" was the first episode of Star Trek to be televised.
Based upon the Neilson ratings, the program was not a great success. After the first season, NBC moved it to Friday night. This was disastrous for Star Trek, and would be so for any program with a relatively young following. Most of its high school and college age audience had better things to do with their Friday nights than watch television.
The network decided to cancel the show. Somehow the word of this decision leaked out (you wouldn't know anything about that, would you, Gene) and NBC suddenly found itself hip deep in letters. In the month of March alone, 52,151 pieces of mail on behalf of the show were received. NBC gave in. At the end of one episode, an announcement was made to the effect that the program would remain on the air.
Star Trek was produced for one more season, with ratings as poor as ever. Once again the letters began to flood in. This time it didn't help. NBC canceled Star Trek. That should have been the end of it. It most emphatically was not.
Gene explained why the show was canceled. It wasn't until Star Trek was of the air that demographic studies of a program's audience began. Star Trek may have had a small share of the audience, but the majority of those viewers were in the right age group for the show's advertisers. It was hitting the audience which was most beneficial to the sponsors. If somebody had only known sooner.
Star Trek has been responsible for the most phenomenal fan following in history. What is there about it which explains the millions of viewers, even though production stopped seven years ago? Or the two dozen Star Trek books on the market, most of which were written after it left the air? (The most unusual of these, the Star Fleet Technical Manual, has been on the N.Y. Times bestseller list, despite a cost of $6.95.) How can one explain the thousands of Trekkers and Trekkies (yours truly among them) who have attended one or more of the many dozens of Star Trek Conventions? (Note: according to an expert source, a Trekkie is a young and foolish Trekker, one who actually liked the cartoon version of the show. This is the sort of distinction which could only matter to another Trekker.)
One explanation for Star Trek's success may be the lack of any real competition. Star Trek at its worst, with episodes like "Specter Of The Gun," "The Enterprise Incident" and "Elaan Of Troyius," was pretty awful. Yet even these episodes are far better than anything produced in UFO or The Starlost. (After Harlan Ellison quit as producer of The Starlost, screaming about the idiocy around him, Gene Roddenberry was approached to take over production of the series. He told them, politely, to take a flying ---. Smart man.)
As for Space 1999, it resembles nothing so much as a collection of good special effects in search of a plot. Gene, when asked his opinion of that program, agreed with writer Isaac Asimov that many of their problems were the result of not having a science advisor. As Gene put it, "Moons do not go charging around galaxies." (Even The Starlost had a science advisor. They just ignored everything he said.)
With competition like that, a program like Star Trek is bound to look good. This is not to imply that its following is not deserved.
Gene explained Star Trek's success as being a combination of many factors. Unlike most other science fiction series, Star Trek worked hard toward showing the motivation of all its characters, even the monsters. Especially the monsters. Every one of its characters was made as real as possible. Uhura's love of music, Sulu's interest in botany and his expertise as a swordsman, Chekov's overbearing patriotism, Scotty's tinkering with his beloved engines. Each character was suffused with a distinct personality, making each much more real to the audience.
Another point is the attention to detail. With a few exceptions, everything on board the Enterprise worked the same way every time. The technology was consistent. Glaring errors had to be corrected before the show was aired, if the scene was to 'smell' right to the audience.
Star Trek, in an age of the antihero, was unusual. Its characters were all cut in a heroic mold. They were men and women we could admire, who treated friendship as a sacred bond, to whom discomfort was less important than their need to know and understand.
There is a special sort of optimism inherent in Star Trek. Man, rather than polluting himself into extinction, or blowing himself back to the Stone Age, has reached the stars. And he has done so without giving up his individuality or his sense of humor. It is a future which is filled with hope, a bright and shining view of what is to come.
Gene Roddenberry has not been idle since Star Trek left the air. His pilots include "Genesis II," which CBS bought, and then shelved in favor of "Planet Of The Apes." When he was asked to put apes into "Genesis II," or at least a dog man, he suggested, facetiously of course, that a turtle man would give them an additional underwater angle. When he realized that they were taking the idea seriously, Gene knew that "Genesis II" was in deep trouble.
He created a series called "Questor," writing the android part for Leonard Nimoy. The network, according to Gene, felt that Nimoy was "too right for the part." They also ordered deletion of a scene which had Questor seducing a beautiful woman. After all, they said, would you want your sister to sleep with one? Gene explained that this sort of thinking left him feeling pretty proud of himself. It isn't everyone who can create a whole new area of intolerance. Can you imagine if the machine had been gay?
Gene described some of his current projects. He is working on a four part television special on Atlantis. He is now talking with NBC about producing a pilot film for "Spectre," a supernatural series about a criminologist who investigates the occult.
Then there is the Star Trek movie, scheduled to begin production in October of this year, for release in late summer or early fall of 1977. There are seven story ideas currently in contention. This will be a real, full length, wide screen epic, and not just a two hour episode of a television series. According to Gene, the ship will be modernized, and will take into account changes in technology in the last five years. (Rumor had it that the starship would be a Dreadnought class vessel, as you see depicted on our cover. Gene said, "It will not be a dreadnought. I don't like the dreadnought." So much for rumors.) It appears that most, if not all, of the original stars will appear in the film. (Gene said that the studio wanted 'name' actors for the film. But can you imagine Robert Redford with those ridiculous ears?)
After the film is made, the sets will be kept, and a mini-series will once again appear on television. Gene said that two networks want to do the series, with or without the movie. He felt, however, that a large budget motion picture would allow the creation of much better, more detailed sets and equipment.
As if those activities were not enough, there are all his speeches at conventions and at college campuses. His appearance at RIT was taped by Columbia Records, and will be part of a forthcoming album, which will include speeches by Isaac Asimov, William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy.
Gene's appearance began with the showing of the blooper reels, collections of flubbed scenes and intentional screwups from all three seasons of the show. These are the high points of any convention, and are worth the price of admission by themselves. Where else can you see Dr. McCoy manhandling the chief nurse (who is also the producer's wife), or Spock striding into a door which refuses to open, or the Enterprise crew forming a Conga line in a corridor? And who can forget those immortal words from the gladiator scene in "Bread And Circuses," when the guard orders, "If they don't move out on cue, screw them!"
Gene spoke on several subjects. He read his version of a network memo which rejected a new series based on a book called "The Bible," because it contained too much sex and violence. He talked about the current crisis over the family viewing hour, calling it a "ridiculous concept. Television is a medium with enormous impact [and we can't] pretend the world doesn't exist."
He said that he felt that, far from there being too much violence on television, there are times when more violence is needed. He said that if we were shown the full horrors of war, in all its gory detail, perhaps we would not be so ready to jump into a war.
He attributed the low quality of television to its commercial nature. Instead of having television professionals making decisions, programming is being decided by lawyers and accountants, whose ideas are strictly limited. This is the sort of thinking which made "The Six Million Dollar Man" into "The Bionic Woman." Gene predicted that the next two spinoffs would be "Cyborg Teenager" and "The Mechanical Dog."
Science fiction has occasionally been done well in visual media. The large screen has given us such masterpieces as "Forbidden Planet," "2001, A Space Odyssey," "Silent Running," "Colossus, The Forbin Project," and "A Clockwork Orange." (It has also produced "The Thing," "The Blob" and "The Last Days of Man On Earth," but nobody's perfect.) The small screen has given us Star Trek. Like everything else, television follows Sturgeon's Law, which says that ninety percent of everything is crap. (Theodore Sturgeon, a well known science fiction writer, was the author of the "Shore Leave" episode of Star Trek.) At this rate, it will soon be time for our next good science fiction series.
Gene Roddenberry is most fascinating when he is speaking about the future. He conjures up images of vast data banks, which can supply the whole of man's knowledge to your door. He foresees man as reaching out into space, perhaps changing physically to better deal with the galaxy, but never losing his desire for understanding, or his appreciation of beauty. He speaks of man's wisdom growing with his technology, of a beautiful new world just beyond our reach, and of our work toward the attainment of that future.
If a view of the future is to have any chance on television, it will be as a result of patient, hard work and dedication on the part of men like Gene Roddenberry. It couldn't be in better hands.
In a recent survey, members of the Counterpoint team questioned 51 students at R.I.T. The results of this survey are as follows:
This Bicentennial minute has been brought to you by Counterpoint, a Rochester Institute of Technology student publication.
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