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Gene Roddenberry



Beginning in 1975, the go-ahead was given by Paramount for Roddenberry to develop a sequel Star Trek television series including as many of the original cast as could be recruited, which was to be called Phase II. This series was to be the anchor show of a new network (the ancestor of UPN, which is now part of The CW Television Network), but plans by Paramount for this network were scrapped and the project was reworked into a Star Trek feature film.

The resulting Star Trek: The Motion Picture received a lukewarm critical response, but it performed well at the box office and saved Norway Corporation. As a result, several motion pictures and a new television series, Star Trek: The Next Generation, were created in the 1980s.

When it came time to produce the obligatory theatrical sequel, Roddenberry's story submission, in which a time-traveling Enterprise crew got involved in the John F. Kennedy assassination, was rejected, and he was removed from direct involvement – effectively hobbling the power of Norway Corporation – and replaced by Harve Bennett.[7] He continued as executive consultant on the next four motion pictures: Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, and Star Trek V: The Final Frontier. In this position Roddenberry was allowed to view and comment upon all scripts and dailies emanating from the production, although the creative team was free to disregard Roddenberry's advice as Bennett almost always elected to do.

Roddenberry was deeply involved with creating and producing Star Trek: The Next Generation, although he ultimately only had full control over the show's first season. The WGA strike of 1988 prevented him from taking an active role in production of the second season, forcing him to hand control of the series to producer Maurice Hurley. While Roddenberry was free to resume work on the third season of the show, his health was in serious decline by this point, and over the course of the season he gradually ceded control to Rick Berman and Michael Piller. Star Trek also spawned the television series Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Star Trek: Voyager, and Star Trek: Enterprise.

The last film based on the original Star Trek series, Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, was dedicated to Roddenberry's memory; he reportedly viewed a version of the film a few days before his death at the age of 70.[7][8]

In addition to his film and TV work, Roddenberry also wrote the novelization for Star Trek: The Motion Picture, which was published in 1979 and was the first of hundreds of Star Trek-based novels to be published by the Pocket Books unit of Simon & Schuster, whose parent company also owned Paramount Pictures Corporation. It has been claimed by some that Alan Dean Foster was the ghostwriter of the book, but this has been debunked by Foster on his personal website and is a classic instance of the broken telephone game, as Foster did ghostwrite the novelization of George W. Lucas Jr.'s Star Wars and wrote the original treatment of the Star Trek film. Roddenberry talked of writing a second Trek novel based upon his original rejected 1975 script for the motion picture, but he died before he was able to do so.

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Controversy concerning Roddenberry

Writers who worked for Star Trek have charged that ideas they developed were later passed off by Roddenberry as his own, or that he lied about their contributions to the show and/or their involvement with Norway Corporation at Star Trek conventions. Roddenberry was confronted by these writers, and apologized to them, but according to his critics, he would continue the behavior.[9]

Roddenberry is occasionally criticised for his treatment of movie and script royalties related to Star Trek: He alienated composer Alexander Courage by demanding 50 percent of the royalties which Courage received for the show's theme song whenever an episode of Star Trek was aired.[10] Later, while cooperating with Stephen Whitfield for the latter's book The Making of Star Trek, Roddenberry demanded – and received – Whitfield's acquiescence for 50 percent of the book's royalties. As Roddenberry explained to Whitfield in 1968: "I had to get some money somewhere. I'm sure not going to get it from the profits of Star Trek."[11]

Solow and Justman observe that Whitfield never regretted his fifty-fifty deal with Roddenberry since it gave him "the opportunity to become the first chronicler of television's most successful unsuccessful series."[12]

In her autobiography, actress Nichelle Nichols, who played Uhura in the first Star Trek series, reported having had a love affair with Roddenberry. She felt that his strong and controversial effort to get her on the show had a lot to do with their relationship.

Roddenberry's life and work has been chronicled in several works. Star Trek Creator: The Authorized Biography of Gene Roddenberry, written by friend David Alexander, is a flattering portrayal of Roddenberry's life that was received favorably by most readers, obscuring many of the troubles Roddenberry encountered in his later years. Much more controversial was Inside Trek: My Secret Life with Star Trek Creator Gene Roddenberry, written by Susan Sackett, his close associate for 17 years. While she displays unwavering affection, respect, and admiration for her employer and apparent lover, Sackett's account is hardly a hagiographic account. Recounted in brutal detail are his elongated dry spells throughout the 1970s, his addiction to cocaine, impotence, inability to finish creative projects, and mental and physical decline from roughly 1989 on.[7]

Despite his reduced management of Star Trek and the hobbled power of Norway Corporation near the end of his life, Roddenberry was still respected enough that Paramount Pictures, owners of the various Star Trek series, agreed to his request that Star Trek: The Animated Series be stripped of its official recognition as canon by the studio. According to the reference work The Star Trek Chronology, Roddenberry reportedly considered elements of the fifth and sixth Trek films to be apocryphal, though there is no indication that he wanted them removed from Trek canon.

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Legacy

Roddenberry's star at 6683 Hollywood Blvd on Hollywood's Walk of Fame, presented in 1986.
Roddenberry's star at 6683 Hollywood Blvd on Hollywood's Walk of Fame, presented in 1986.

After his death in 1991 in Santa Monica, California, Roddenberry's estate allowed for the creation of two long-running television series based upon some of his previously unfilmed story ideas and concepts. Earth: Final Conflict and Andromeda were produced under the guidance of Majel Barrett-Roddenberry. A third Roddenberry storyline was adapted in 1995 as the short-lived comic book Gene Roddenberry's Lost Universe (later titled Gene Roddenberry's Xander in Lost Universe). Other projects were developed under the Roddenberry name but never made it to production stage, such as Gene Roddenberry's Starship, which was being developed by Majel Barrett and John Semper for Mainframe Entertainment as a computer-animated series.[13]

The asteroid 4659 Roddenberry and an Impact crater on Mars are both named in his honor.

On October 4, 2002, the El Paso Independent School District Planetarium was renamed the Gene Roddenberry Planetarium. Eugene W. Roddenberry Jr. cut the ribbon at the dedication ceremony.

Roddenberry's home at birth is at 1907 E. Yandell Street in El Paso where he and his family lived for nearly two years. Now a flower shop in a strip mall, there is a wooden plaque marking the site.

One of the buildings on the Paramount studio lot on Melrose Boulevard is the Gene Roddenberry building, housing production and administrative offices.

On June 16, 2007, the Science Fiction Museum in Seattle, Washington inducted Gene Roddenberry into their Science Fiction Hall of Fame, along with director Ridley Scott, artist Ed Emshwiller, and author Gene Wolfe. The presentation was made by actor Wil Wheaton and accepted on behalf of the Roddenberry Family by his son, Eugene W. Roddenberry Jr.

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Notes

  1. ^ Gene Roddenberry Biography. startrek.com. Retrieved on 2007-12-18.
  2. ^ David Alexander.(1994) "Star Trek Creator: The Authorized Biography of Gene Roddenberry," Roc, p.104
  3. ^ a b Alexander, op. cit., p.141
  4. ^ David Alexander (1994). Star Trek Creator: The Authorized Biography of Gene Roddenberry. Roc. ISBN 0-451-45440-5. 
  5. ^ "Roddenberry Interview" (March/April 1991). The Humanist 51 (2). 
  6. ^ CNN - Space final frontier for Timothy Leary - Apr. 20, 1997. cnn.com. Retrieved on 2008-05-10.
  7. ^ a b c Susan Sackett (2002). Inside Trek: My Secret Life With Star Trek Creator Gene Roddenberry. HAWK Publishing Group. ISBN 1-930709-42-0. 
  8. ^ In Star Trek Movie Memories, which William Shatner dictated and which Chris Kreski transcribed, the chapter in which Shatner told Kreski about the sixth Star Trek motion picture ended with Roddenberry viewing the version in a private screening and promptly drafting a list of changes he wanted made. But by the time his attorney submitted that list, Shatner informed Kreski, Roddenberry himself was dead.
  9. ^ Engel, Joel (1994). Gene Roddenberry: The Myth and the Man Behind Star Trek. Hyperion Books. ISBN 0786860049.  Inside Star Trek: The Real Story (1996) commentary by Star Trek Producer Herb Solow, science-fiction convention talks by Star Trek writer Dorothy C. Fontana, and books and articles by Harlan Ellison.
  10. ^ Unthemely Behavior. Urban Legends Reference Pages (2007-08-08). Retrieved on 2007-05-20.
  11. ^ Herbert Solow & Robert H. Justman, Inside Star Trek: the Real Story, Pocket Books, 1996, p.402
  12. ^ Solow & Justman, op. cit., p.402
  13. ^ Mainframe Entertainment Lands Gene Roddenberry's 'Starship' for Computer Animated Television Series. BNet Research Center (1998-10-20). Retrieved on 2007-12-18.

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References

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External links

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