Gene Roddenberry | |
|---|---|
 Roddenberry withSpace ShuttleEnterprise inPalmdale, California, 1976 | |
| Born | Eugene Wesley Roddenberry (1921-08-19)August 19, 1921 El Paso, Texas, U.S. |
| Died | October 24, 1991(1991-10-24) (aged 70) Santa Monica, California, U.S. |
| Other names | Robert Wesley |
| Alma mater | Los Angeles City College |
| Occupations |
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| Spouses | |
| Partner | Susan Sackett (1975–1991; his death) |
| Children | 3, includingRod |
| Awards | Hollywood Walk of Fame |
Eugene Wesley Roddenberry Sr. (August 19, 1921 – October 24, 1991) was an American television screenwriter and producer who created the science fiction series and fictional universeStar Trek. Born inEl Paso, Texas, Roddenberry grew up in Los Angeles, where his father was a police officer. Roddenberry flew 89 combat missions in theArmy Air Forces duringWorld War II and worked as a commercial pilot after the war. Later, he joined theLos Angeles Police Department and began to write for television.
As afreelance writer, Roddenberry wrote scripts forHighway Patrol,Have Gun – Will Travel, and other series, before creating and producing his own television series,The Lieutenant. In 1964, Roddenberry created the originalStar Trek series, which premiered in 1966 and ran for three seasons. He then worked on projects including a string of failed television pilots. The syndication ofStar Trek led to its growing popularity, resulting in theStar Trek feature films, which Roddenberry continued to produce and consult on. In 1987, the sequel seriesStar Trek: The Next Generation began airing on television infirst-run syndication; Roddenberry was involved in the initial development but took a less active role after the first season due to ill health. He consulted on the series until his death in 1991.
In 1985, Roddenberry became the first TV writer with a star on theHollywood Walk of Fame. He was later inducted into theScience Fiction Hall of Fame and theAcademy of Television Arts & Sciences Hall of Fame. Years after his death, Roddenberry was one of the first humans to have their ashes carried into earth orbit, whereupon reentry, was lost into the Pacific Ocean.Star Trek has inspired films, books, comic books, video games andfan films set in theStar Trek universe.
Gene Roddenberry was born on August 19, 1921, in his parents' rented home in El Paso, Texas, the first child of Eugene Edward Roddenberry and Caroline "Glen" (née Golemon) Roddenberry.[1] The family moved to Los Angeles in 1923 after Gene's father passed the civil service test and was given a police commission there.[2] During his childhood, Roddenberry was interested in reading, especiallypulp magazines,[3] and was a fan of stories such asJohn Carter of Mars,Tarzan, and theSkylark series byE. E. Smith.[4]
After completing high school in 1939 atFranklin High School inHighland Park, Los Angeles , Roddenberry majored inpolice science atLos Angeles City College,[5][n 1] where he began dating Eileen-Anita Rexroat and became interested inaeronautical engineering.[5] He obtained apilot's license through theUnited States Army Air Corps-sponsoredCivilian Pilot Training Program.[7] He enlisted with the USAAC on December 18, 1941[8] and married Eileen on June 13, 1942.[9] He graduated from the USAAC on August 5, 1942, when he was commissioned as asecond lieutenant.[10]
He was posted toBellows Field, Oahu, to join the394th Bomb Squadron,5th Bombardment Group, of theThirteenth Air Force, which flew theBoeing B-17 Flying Fortress.[11]
On August 2, 1943, while flying B-17E-BO,41-2463, "Yankee Doodle", out ofEspiritu Santo, the plane Roddenberry was piloting overran the runway by 500 feet (150 m) and crashed into trees, crushing the nose and starting a fire as well as killing two men: bombardier Sgt. John P. Kruger and navigator Lt. Talbert H. Woolam.[12] The official report absolved Roddenberry of any responsibility.[12] Roddenberry spent the remainder of his military career in the United States[13] and flew all over the country as a plane crash investigator. He was involved in a second plane crash, this time as a passenger.[13] He was awarded theDistinguished Flying Cross and theAir Medal.[14]
In 1945, Roddenberry began flying forPan American World Airways,[15] including routes from New York to Johannesburg or Calcutta, the two longest Pan Am routes at the time.[15] Listed as a resident ofRiver Edge, New Jersey, he experienced his third crash while on theClipperEclipse on June 18, 1947.[16] The plane came down in theSyrian Desert, and Roddenberry, who took control as the ranking flight officer, suffered twobroken ribs but was able to drag injured passengers out of the burning plane and led the group to get help.[17] Fourteen (or fifteen)[18] people died in the crash; eleven passengers required hospital treatment (includingBishnu Charan Ghosh), and eight were unharmed.[19] Roddenberry resigned from Pan Am on May 15, 1948, and decided to pursue his dream of writing, particularly for the new medium of television.[20]
Roddenberry applied for a position with theLos Angeles Police Department on January 10, 1949,[21] and spent his first sixteen months in the traffic division before being transferred to the newspaper unit.[22] That became the Public Information Division, and Roddenberry became the Chief of Police's speechwriter.[23] In this position, he also became the LAPD liaison to the very popularDragnet television series, providing technical advisors for specific episodes. He did his first TV writing for the show, boiling actual cases down to short screen treatments that would be fleshed out into full scripts byJack Webb's staff of writers; he split the fee with the officers who investigated the real-life case. He became then technical advisor for a new television version ofMr. District Attorney, which led to him writing for the show under his pseudonym "Robert Wesley".[24] He began to collaborate withZiv Television Programs[25] and continued to sell scripts toMr. District Attorney, in addition to Ziv'sHighway Patrol. In early 1956, he sold two story ideas forI Led Three Lives, and he found that it was becoming increasingly difficult to be a writer and a policeman.[26] On June 7, 1956, he resigned from the force to concentrate on his writing career.[27]
Roddenberry was promoted to head writer forThe West Point Story and wrote ten scripts for the first season, about a third of the total episodes.[28] While working for Ziv, in 1956, he pitched a series toCBS set aboard acruise ship,Hawaii Passage,[29] but they did not buy it, as he wanted to become aproducer and have full creative control. He wrote another script for Ziv's seriesHarbourmaster titled "Coastal Security" and signed a contract with the company to develop a show calledJunior Executive withQuinn Martin. Nothing came of the series.[30]
He wrote scripts for a number of other series in his early years as a professional writer, includingThe Jane Wyman Show,Bat Masterson andJefferson Drum.[31] Roddenberry's episode of the seriesHave Gun – Will Travel, "Helen of Abajinian", won theWriters Guild of America award for Best Teleplay in 1958.[32] He also continued to create series of his own, including a series based on an agent forLloyd's of London calledThe Man from Lloyds. He pitched a police-based series calledFootbeat to CBS, Hollis Productions, andScreen Gems. It nearly made it intoABC's Sunday-night lineup, but they opted to show onlyWestern series that night.[31]
Roddenberry was asked to write a series calledRiverboat, set in 1860s Mississippi. When he discovered that the producers wanted no black people on the show, he argued so much with them that he lost the job.[33] He also considered moving to England around this time, asLew Grade wanted Roddenberry to develop series and set up his own production company.[34] Though he did not move, he leveraged the deal to land a contract with Screen Gems that included a guaranteed $100,000, and became a producer for the first time on a summer replacement forThe Tennessee Ernie Ford Show titledWrangler.[35]
Screen Gems backed Roddenberry's first attempt at creating a pilot. His series,The Wild Blue, went to pilot, but was not picked up. The three main characters had names that later appeared in theStar Trek series: Philip Pike, Edward Jellicoe, and James T. Irvine.[36] While working at Screen Gems, an actress, new to Hollywood, wrote to him asking for a meeting. They quickly became friends and met every few months; the woman wasMajel Leigh Hudec, later known as Majel Barrett.[37] He created a second pilot called333 Montgomery about a lawyer, played byDeForest Kelley.[38] It was not picked up by the network but was later rewritten as a new series calledDefiance County. His career with Screen Gems ended in late 1961,[39] and shortly afterward, he had issues with his old friendErle Stanley Gardner. ThePerry Mason creator claimed thatDefiance County had infringed his characterDoug Selby.[40] The two writers fell out via correspondence and stopped contacting one another, thoughDefiance County never proceeded past the pilot stage.[41] The project finally wound up as the NBC seriesSam Benedict withEdmond O'Brien in the title role, produced by MGM. E. Jack Neuman took the creator's credit, claiming the character was based on real-life San Francisco lawyerJake Ehrlich.[42][43]
In 1961, he agreed to appear in an advertisement forMONY (Mutual of New York) as long as he had final approval.[44] With the money from Screen Gems and other works, he and Eileen moved to 539 South Beverly Glen, nearBeverly Hills.[45] He discussed an idea about a multi-ethnic crew on anairship traveling the world, based on the filmMaster of the World (1961), with fellow writerChristopher Knopf atMGM. As the time was not right for science fiction, he began work onThe Lieutenant for Arena Productions. This made it to theNBC Saturday night lineup at 7:30 pm[46] and premiered on September 14, 1963. The show set a new ratings record for the time slot.[47] Roddenberry worked with several cast and crew who would later join him onStar Trek, includingGene L. Coon, starGary Lockwood, Joe D'Agosta,Leonard Nimoy,Nichelle Nichols, and Majel Barrett.[46]
The Lieutenant was produced with the co-operation ofthe Pentagon, which allowed them to film at an actual Marine base. During the production of the series Roddenberry clashed regularly with theDepartment of Defense over potential plots.[48] The department withdrew its support after Roddenberry pressed ahead with a plot titled "To Set It Right" in which a white and a black man find a common cause in their roles as Marines.[49][50] "To Set It Right" was the first time he worked with Nichols, and it was her first television role. The episode has been preserved at theMuseum of Television and Radio in New York City.[50] The show was not renewed after its first season. Roddenberry was already working on a new series idea. This included his ship location fromHawaii Passage and added aHoratio Hornblower character, plus the multiracial crew from his airship idea. He decided to write it as science fiction, and by March 11, 1964, he brought together a 16-page pitch. On April 24, he sent three copies and two dollars to theWriters Guild of America to register his series. He called itStar Trek.[51]
When Roddenberry pitchedStar Trek to MGM, it was warmly received, but no offer was made.[52] He then went toDesilu Productions, but rather than being offered a one-script deal, he was hired as a producer and allowed to work on his own projects. His first was a half-hour pilot calledPolice Story (not to be confused withthe anthology series created byJoseph Wambaugh), which was not picked up by the networks.[53] Having not sold a pilot in five years, Desilu was having financial difficulties; its only success wasThe Lucy Show.[54] Roddenberry took theStar Trek idea to Oscar Katz, head of programming, and the duo immediately started work on a plan to sell the series to the networks. They took it to CBS, which ultimately passed on it. The duo later learned that CBS had been eager to find out aboutStar Trek because it had a science fiction series in development—Lost in Space. Roddenberry and Katz next took the idea to Mort Werner at NBC,[54] this time downplaying the science fiction elements and highlighting the links toGunsmoke andWagon Train.[53] The network funded three story ideas and selected "The Menagerie", which was later known as "The Cage", to be made into a pilot. (The other two later became episodes of the series.) While most of the money for the pilot came from NBC, the remaining costs were covered by Desilu.[55][56] Roddenberry hired Dorothy Fontana, better known asD. C. Fontana, as his assistant. They had worked together previously onThe Lieutenant, and she had eight script credits to her name.[54]
Roddenberry and Barrett had begun an affair by the early days ofStar Trek,[55] and he specifically wrote the part of the characterNumber One in the pilot with her in mind; no other actresses were considered for the role. Barrett suggestedNimoy for the part ofSpock. He had worked with both Roddenberry and Barrett onThe Lieutenant, and once Roddenberry remembered the thin features of the actor, he did not consider anyone else for the part.[57] The remaining cast came together; filming began on November 27, 1964, and was completed on December 11.[58] After post-production, the episode was shown to NBC executives, and it was rumored thatStar Trek would be broadcast at 8:00 pm on Friday nights. The episode failed to impress test audiences,[59] and after the executives became hesitant, Katz offered to make a second pilot. On March 26, 1965, NBC ordered a new episode.[60]
Roddenberry developed several possible scripts, including "Mudd's Women", "The Omega Glory", and with the help ofSamuel A. Peeples, "Where No Man Has Gone Before". NBC selected the last one, leading to later rumors that Peeples createdStar Trek, something he always denied.[61] Roddenberry was determined to make the crew racially diverse, which impressed actorGeorge Takei when he came for his audition.[62] The episode went into production on July 15, 1965, and was completed at around half the cost of "The Cage", since the sets were already built.[63] Roddenberry worked on several projects for the rest of the year. In December, he decided to write lyrics to theStar Trek theme; this angered the theme's composer,Alexander Courage, as it meant that royalties would be split between them. In February 1966, NBC informed Desilu that they were buyingStar Trek and that it would be included in the fall 1966 television schedule.[64]
On May 24, the first episode of theStar Trek series went into production;[65] Desilu was contracted to deliver 13 episodes.[66] Five days before the first broadcast, Roddenberry appeared at the 24thWorld Science Fiction Convention and previewed "Where No Man Has Gone Before". After the episode was shown, he received a standing ovation. The first episode to air on NBC was "The Man Trap", on September 8, 1966, at 8:00 pm.[67] Roddenberry was immediately concerned about the series' low ratings and wrote toHarlan Ellison to ask if he could use his name in letters to the network to save the show. Not wanting to lose a potential source of income, Ellison agreed and also sought the help of other writers who also wanted to avoid losing potential income.[68] Roddenberry corresponded with science fiction writerIsaac Asimov about how to address the issue of Spock's growing popularity and the possibility that his character would overshadow Kirk.[69] Asimov suggested having Kirk and Spock work together as a team "to get people to think of Kirk when they think of Spock."[70] The series was renewed by NBC, first for a full season's order, and then for a second season. An article in theChicago Tribune quoted studio executives as stating that the letter-writing campaign had been wasted because they had already been planning to renewStar Trek.[71]
Roddenberry often rewrote submitted scripts, although he did not always take credit for these.[72] Roddenberry and Ellison fell out over "The City on the Edge of Forever" after Roddenberry rewrote Ellison's script to make it both financially feasible to film and usable for the series context.[73] Even his close friendDon Ingalls had his script for "A Private Little War" altered drastically,[72] and as a result, Ingalls declared that he would only be credited under the pseudonym "Jud Crucis" (a play on "Jesus Christ"), claiming he had been crucified by the process.[74] Roddenberry's work rewriting "The Menagerie", based on footage originally shot for "The Cage", resulted in a Writers Guild arbitration board hearing. The Guild ruled in his favor overJohn D. F. Black, the complainant.[75] The script won aHugo Award, but the awards board neglected to inform Roddenberry, who found out through correspondence with Asimov.[76]
As the second season was drawing to a close, Roddenberry once again faced the threat of cancellation. He enlisted the help of Asimov,[77] and even encouraged a student-led protest march on NBC. On January 8, 1968, a thousand students from 20 schools marched on the studio.[78] Roddenberry began to communicate withStar Trek fanBjo Trimble, who led a fan-writing campaign to save the series. Trimble later noted that this campaign of writing to fans who had written to Desilu about the show, urging them to write NBC, had created an organizedStar Trek fandom.[79] The network received around 6,000 letters a week from fans petitioning it to renew the series.[80] On March 1, 1968, NBC announced on air, at the end of "The Omega Glory", thatStar Trek would return for a third season.[81]
The network had initially planned to placeStar Trek in the 7:30 pm Monday-night time slot freed up byThe Man from U.N.C.L.E. completing its run. That would have meantRowan & Martin's Laugh-In had to start a half-hour later (moving from 9:00 to 9:30). PowerfulLaugh-In producerGeorge Schlatter objected to his highly rated show yielding its slot to the poorly-ratedStar Trek.[82] Instead,Laugh-In retained the slot, andStar Trek was moved to 10:00 pm on Fridays. Realizing the show could not survive in that time slot and burned out from arguments with the network, Roddenberry resigned from the day-to-day running ofStar Trek, although he continued to be credited as executive producer.[83] Roddenberry cooperated with Stephen Edward Poe, writing as Stephen Whitfield, on the 1968 non-fiction bookThe Making of Star Trek for Ballantine Books, splitting the royalties evenly. Roddenberry explained to Whitfield: "I had to get some money somewhere. I'm sure not going to get it from the profits ofStar Trek."[84] Herbert Solow andRobert H. Justman observed that Whitfield never regretted his 50–50 deal with Roddenberry, since it gave him "the opportunity to become the first chronicler of television's successful unsuccessful series."[84] Whitfield had previously been the national advertising and promotion director for model makersAluminum Model Toys, better known as "AMT", which then held theStar Trek license, and moved to runLincoln Enterprises, Roddenberry's company set up to sell the series' merchandise.[85]
Having stepped aside from the majority of hisStar Trek duties, Roddenberry sought instead to create a film based on Asimov's "I, Robot" and also began work on aTarzan script forNational General Pictures.[86] After initially requesting a budget of $2 million and being refused, Roddenberry made cuts to reduce costs to $1.2 million. When he learned they were being offered only $700,000 to shoot the film, which by now was being called a TV movie, he canceled the deal.[87] NBC announcedStar Trek's cancellation in February 1969. A similar but much smaller letter-writing campaign followed news of the cancellation.[88] Because of the manner in which the series was sold to NBC, it left the production company $4.7 million in debt.[89] The last episode ofStar Trek aired 47 days beforeNeil Armstrong stepped onto the moon as part of theApollo 11 mission,[90] and Roddenberry declared that he would never write for television again.[91]
After the cancellation ofStar Trek, Roddenberry felttypecast as a producer of science fiction, despite his background in Westerns and police stories.[92] He later described the period, saying, "My dreams were going downhill because I could not get work after the original series was cancelled."[93] He felt that he was "perceived as the guy who made the show that was an expensive flop."[94] Roddenberry had sold his interest inStar Trek toParamount Studios in return for a third of the profits but this did not result in any quick financial gain; the studio was still claiming that the series was $500,000 in the red in 1982.[95]
He wrote and producedPretty Maids All in a Row (1971), asexploitation film directed byRoger Vadim, for MGM. The cast includedRock Hudson,Angie Dickinson,Telly Savalas, andRoddy McDowall alongsideStar Trek regularJames Doohan and notable guest starWilliam Campbell, who had appeared in "The Squire Of Gothos" and "The Trouble with Tribbles".Variety was unimpressed: "Whatever substance was in the original [novel by Francis Pollini] or screen concept has been plowed under, leaving only superficial, one-joke results."[96] Herbert Solow had given Roddenberry the work as a favor, paying him $100,000 for the script.[97]
Faced with a mortgage and a $2,000-per-month alimony obligation as a result of his 1969 divorce, he retained a booking agent (with the assistance of his friendArthur C. Clarke) and began to support himself largely by scheduling appearances at colleges and science fiction conventions.[98][99] These presentations typically included screenings of "The Cage" and blooper reels from the production ofStar Trek.[100] The conventions began to build the fan support to bring backStar Trek, leadingTV Guide to describe it, in 1972, as "the show that won't die."[101]
In 1972 and 1973, Roddenberry made a comeback to science fiction, selling ideas for four new series to a variety of networks.[102] Roddenberry'sGenesis II was set in a post-apocalyptic Earth. He had hoped to recreate the success ofStar Trek without "doing another space-hopping show." He created a 45-page writing guide, and proposed several story ideas based on the concept that pockets of civilisation had regressed to past eras or changed altogether.[103] The pilot aired as a TV movie in March 1973, setting new records for theThursday Night Movie of the Week. Roddenberry was asked to produce four more scripts for episodes, but before production could begin again, CBS aired the filmPlanet of the Apes. It was watched by an even greater audience thanGenesis II. CBS scrappedGenesis II and replaced it with atelevision series based on the film; the results were disastrous from a ratings standpoint, andPlanet of the Apes was canceled after 14 episodes.[104]
The Questor Tapes project reunited him with hisStar Trek collaborator, Gene L. Coon, who was in poor health. NBC ordered 16 episodes, and tentatively scheduled the series to followThe Rockford Files on Friday nights;[105] the pilot launched on January 23, 1974,[106] to positive critical response, but Roddenberry balked at the substantial changes requested by the network and left the project, leading to its immediate cancellation. During 1974, Roddenberry reworked theGenesis II concept as a second pilot,Planet Earth, for rival network ABC, with similar less-than-successful results. The pilot was aired on April 23, 1974. While Roddenberry wanted to create something that could feasibly exist in the future, the network wanted stereotypical science-fiction women and were unhappy when that was not delivered.[105] Roddenberry was not involved in a third reworking of the material by ABC that producedStrange New World.[107] He began developingMAGNA I, an underwater science-fiction series, for20th Century Fox Television. By the time the work on the script was complete, though, those who had approved the project had left Fox and their replacements were not interested in the project. A similar fate was faced byTribunes, a science-fiction police series, which Roddenberry attempted to get off the ground between 1973 and 1977. He gave up after four years;[108] the series never even reached the pilot stage.[citation needed]
In 1974, Roddenberry was paid $25,000 byJohn Whitmore to write a script calledThe Nine.[109] Intended to be aboutAndrija Puharich's parapsychological research, it evolved into a frank exploration of his experiences attempting to earn a living attending science fiction conventions.[102] At the time, he was again close to losing his house because of a lack of income.[109] The pilotSpectre, Roddenberry's 1977 attempt to create anoccult detective duo similar toSherlock Holmes andDr. Watson,[110] was released as a television movie within the United States and received a limited theatrical release in the United Kingdom.[111]
Lacking funds in the early 1970s, Roddenberry was unable to buy the full rights toStar Trek for $150,000 ($1.21 million in 2024) from Paramount.Lou Scheimer approached Paramount in 1973 about creating an animatedStar Trek series.[112] Credited as "executive consultant" and paid $2,500 per episode, Roddenberry was granted full creative control ofStar Trek: The Animated Series. Although he read all the scripts and "sometimes [added] touches of his own", he relinquished most of his authority tode facto showrunner/associate producer D. C. Fontana.[113]
Roddenberry had some difficulties with the cast. To save money, he sought not to hire George Takei and Nichelle Nichols. He neglected to inform Leonard Nimoy of this and instead, to get him to sign on, told him that he was the only member of the main cast not returning. After Nimoy discovered the deception, he demanded that Takei and Nichols play Sulu and Uhura when their characters appeared on screen; Roddenberry acquiesced. He had been promised five full seasons of the new show but ultimately, only one and a half were produced.[114]
Vociferous fan support (6,000 attended the second New YorkStar Trek convention in 1973 and 15,000 attended in 1974, eclipsing the more established array of approximately 3,600 fans and industry professionals who attended the32nd World Science Fiction Convention inWashington, D.C. in 1974) led Paramount to hire Roddenberry to create and produce a feature film based on the franchise in May 1975.[115][116] The studio was unimpressed with the ideas being put forward; John D. F. Black's opinion was that their ideas were never "big enough" for the studio, even when one scenario involved the end of the universe.[117] Several ideas were partly developed includingStar Trek: The God Thing andStar Trek: Planet of the Titans.[118][119] Following the commercial reception ofStar Wars, in June 1977, Paramount instead green-lit a new series set in the franchise titledStar Trek: Phase II,[120] with Roddenberry and most of the original cast, except Nimoy, set to reprise their respective roles.[121]
It was to be the anchor show of a proposed Paramount-owned "fourth network",[120] but plans for the network were scrapped and the project was reworked into a feature film.[122] The result,Star Trek: The Motion Picture, troubled the studio because of budgetary concerns,[123] but it was a box-office hit. Adjusted for inflation, it was the third-highest-grossingStar Trek movie, with the2009 film coming in first and the2013 film second.[124]
In 1980, Roddenberry submitted a treatment for a proposed sequel about the crew preventing the alienKlingons from thwarting theassassination of John F. Kennedy. Mindful of the tumult that suffused the production ofStar Trek: The Motion Picture, Paramount rejected the proposal. After he was replaced on the project by television producerHarve Bennett, Roddenberry was named "executive consultant" for the project, a position he retained for subsequent Star Trek franchise films produced during his lifetime. Under this arrangement, he was compensated with a producer's fee and a percentage of the net profits of the film in exchange for proffering non-binding story notes and corresponding with the fan community; much to his chagrin, these memos were largely disregarded by Bennett and other producers.[125] An initial script forStar Trek II: The Wrath of Khan was circulated to eight people; Bennett attributed the subsequent plot leak of the death of Spock to Roddenberry. About 20% of the plot was based on Roddenberry's ideas.[126]
Roddenberry was involved in creating the television seriesStar Trek: The Next Generation, which premiered with "Encounter at Farpoint" on September 28, 1987.[127] He was given a bonus of $1 million (equivalent to $3.3 million in 2024) in addition to a salary to produce the series, and celebrated by purchasing a newRolls-Royce for $100,000.[128] The arrangement did not entitle him to be executive producer of the series. Paramount was already concerned about the original cast not returning, and fearing fan reaction if Roddenberry was not involved, agreed to his demand for control of the show.[129] Roddenberry rewrote theseries bible from an original version byDavid Gerrold, who had previously writtenThe Original Series episode "The Trouble with Tribbles", andThe Animated Series follow-up, "More Tribbles, More Troubles".[130]
According to producerRick Berman, Roddenberry's involvement inThe Next Generation "diminished greatly" after the first season,[131] but the nature of his increasingly peripheral role was not disclosed because of the value of his name to fans.[131] While Berman said that Roddenberry had "all but stopped writing and rewriting" by the end of the third season, his final writing credit on the show (a co-teleplay credit) actually occurred considerably earlier, appearing on "Datalore", the 13th episode of the first season.[132]
Although commercially successful from its inception, the series was initially marred byWriters Guild of America grievances from Fontana and Gerrold, both of whom left the series in acrimonious circumstances;[133] frequent turnover among the writing staff (24 staff writers left the show during its first three seasons, triple the average attrition rate for such series);[134] and allegations that Roddenberry attorney Leonard Maizlish had become the producer's "point man and proxy",[133] ghostwriting memos, sitting in on meetings, and contributing to scripts despite not being on staff.[135] WriterTracy Tormé described the first few seasons ofThe Next Generation under Roddenberry as an "insane asylum".[136]
In 1990,Nicholas Meyer was brought in to direct the sixth film in the series:Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. Creatively, Meyer clashed with Roddenberry, who felt that having theEnterprise crew hold prejudices against the Klingons did not fit with his view of the universe. Meyer described a meeting with Roddenberry he later regretted, saying
His guys were lined up on one side of the room, and my guys were lined up on the other side of the room, and this was not a meeting in which I felt I'd behaved very well, very diplomatically. I came out of it feeling not very good, and I've not felt good about it ever since. He was not well, and maybe there were more tactful ways of dealing with it, because at the end of the day, I was going to go out and make the movie. I didn't have to take him on. Not my finest hour.[137]
In Joel Engel's biography,Gene Roddenberry: The Myth and the Man Behind Star Trek, he states that Roddenberry watchedThe Undiscovered Country alongside the producers of the film at a private screening two days before his death, and told them they had done a "good job".[138] In contrast, Nimoy and Shatner's memoirs report that after the screening, Roddenberry called his lawyer and demanded a quarter of the scenes be cut; the producers refused.[139]
Roddenberry wrote the novelization ofStar Trek: The Motion Picture. Although it has been incorrectly attributed to several other authors (most notablyAlan Dean Foster), it was the first in a series of hundreds ofStar Trek-based novels to be published by the Pocket Booksimprint ofSimon & Schuster, whose parent company also ownedParamount Pictures Corporation.[140] Previously, Roddenberry worked intermittently onThe God Thing, a proposed novel based upon his rejected 1975 screenplay for a proposed low-budget ($3 to $5 million)Star Trek film preceding the development ofPhase II throughout 1976. Attempts to complete the project byWalter Koenig,[141]Susan Sackett, Fred Bronson,[142] andMichael Jan Friedman have proven to be unfeasible for a variety of legal and structural reasons.[143][144]
While atLos Angeles City College, Roddenberry began dating Eileen-Anita Rexroat.[5] They became engaged before Roddenberry left Los Angeles during his military service,[145] and they married on June 20, 1942, at the chapel at Kelly Field.[10] They had two daughters, Darleen Anita[20] and Dawn Allison.[146] During his time in the LAPD, Roddenberry was known to have had affairs with secretarial staff.[147] Before his work onStar Trek, he began relationships withNichelle Nichols andMajel Barrett.[148] Nichols wrote about their relationship in her autobiographyBeyond Uhura only after Roddenberry's death.[149] At the time, Roddenberry wanted to remain in anopen relationship with both women,[150] but Nichols, recognizing Barrett's devotion to him, ended the affair as she did not want to be "the other woman to the other woman".[151]
Barrett and Roddenberry had an apartment together by the opening weeks ofStar Trek.[152] He had planned to divorce Eileen after the first season of the show, but when the show was renewed, he delayed doing so, fearing that he would not have enough time to deal with both the divorce andStar Trek. He moved out of the family home on August 9, 1968, two weeks after the marriage of his daughter Darleen.[153][154] In 1969, while scouting locations in Japan for MGM forPretty Maids All in a Row,[97] he proposed to Barrett by telephone.[155] They were married in aShinto ceremony, as Roddenberry had considered it "sacrilegious" to have an American minister in Japan perform the ceremony.[155] Roddenberry and Barrett had a son together, Eugene Jr., commonly and professionally known asRod Roddenberry, in February 1974.[155]
From 1975 until his death, Roddenberry maintained an extramarital relationship with his executive assistant,Susan Sackett.[156]
Roddenberry grew up aSouthern Baptist;[157] however, as an adult, he rejected religion, and considered himself ahumanist.[31] He began questioning religion around the age of 14, and came to the conclusion that it was "nonsense".[157] As a child, he served in thechoir at his local church, but often substituted lyrics as he sang hymns.[157] Early in his writing career, he received an award from theAmerican Baptist Convention for "skillfully writing Christian truth and the application of Christian principles into commercial, dramatic TV scripts".[31] For several years, he corresponded with John M. Gunn of theNational Council of Churches regarding the application of Christian teachings in television series. However, Gunn stopped replying after Roddenberry wrote in a letter: "But you must understand that I am a complete pagan, and consume enormous amounts of bread, having found the Word more spice than nourishment, so I am interested in a statement couched in dollars and cents of what this means to the Roddenberry treasury."[158]
Roddenberry said of Christianity, "How can I take seriously a God-image that requires that I prostrate myself every seven days and praise it? That sounds to me like a very insecure personality."[157] At one point, he worked a similar opinion, which was to have been stated by a Vulcan, into the plot forStar Trek: The God Thing.[118] He had a similar disdain forJudaism. Despite working closely withJewish writers and stars such as Shatner, Nimoy, and Koenig for the series, Nimoy said of Roddenberry, "Gene wasantisemitic, clearly," qualifying that Roddenberry was anti-religious, seeing Jews as a religious group, adding "but I saw examples not only of [Roddenberry] practicing antisemitism, but of him being callous about other peoples' differences as well.” As with Christianity, Roddenberry similarly dismissed that there were any deliberately Jewish principles or allusions included inStar Trek, telling a journalist, "You Jews have a lamentable habit of identifying those characteristics in a society that you deem positive and then taking credit for inventing them.”[159]
Before his death, Roddenberry became close friends with philosopherCharles Musès, who said that Roddenberry's views were "a far cry fromatheism".[160] Roddenberry explained his position thus: "It's not true that I don't believe in God. I believe in a kind of God. It's just not other people's God. I reject religion. I accept the notion of God."[161] He had an ongoing interest in other people's experiences with religion,[162] and calledCatholicism "a very beautiful religion. An art form."[163] However, he said that he dismissed allorganized religions, saying that for the most part, they acted like a "substitute brain... and a very malfunctioning one".[164] Roddenberry was also critical of how the public looked at certain religions, noting that when theKing David Hotel bombing took place in 1946, the American public accepted it as the action of freedom fighters, whereas a car bombing by aMuslim inBeirut is condemned as aterrorist act. While he agreed that both parties were wrong in their use of violence, he said that the actions of both were undertaken because of their strong religious beliefs.[165]
According toRonald D. Moore, Roddenberry "felt very strongly that contemporary Earth religions would be gone by the 23rd century".[166]Brannon Braga said that Roddenberry made it known to the writers ofStar Trek andStar Trek: The Next Generation that religion, superstition, and mystical thinking were not to be included.[167] Even a mention of marriage in a script for an early episode ofThe Next Generation resulted in Roddenberry's chastising the writers.[136] Nicholas Meyer said thatStar Trek had evolved "into sort of a secular parallel to theCatholic Mass".[168] Roddenberry compared the franchise to his own philosophy by saying: "Understand thatStar Trek is more than just my political philosophy, my racial philosophy, my overview on life and the human condition."[169] He was awarded the 1991 Humanist Arts Award from theAmerican Humanist Association.[170]
In the late 1980s, it was likely that Roddenberry was afflicted by the first manifestations ofcerebrovascular disease andencephalopathy as a result of his longstanding recreational use of legal and illicit drugs, includingalcohol,methaqualone,[171]methylphenidate,Dexamyl, andcocaine (which he had used regularly since the production ofStar Trek: The Motion Picture).[133] Roddenberry also usedcannabis for many years, although its cumulative impact on his health remains unclear.[172] Throughout much of his career, he had routinely used stimulants to work through the night on scripts, especiallyamphetamines.[173] The effects of these substances were compounded by deleterious interactions withdiabetes,[174]high blood pressure, andantidepressant prescriptions.[133]
Roddenberry had a stroke at a family reunion inTallahassee, Florida, in September 1989,[175] His health declined further, ultimately requiring him to use a wheelchair.[138] His right arm was paralyzed after another stroke in early October 1991, causing him ongoing pain as the muscles began to atrophy. It also caused problems with the sight in his right eye, and he found communicating in full sentences difficult.[176] At 2:00 pm, on October 24, he attended an appointment with his doctor, Dr. Ronald Rich, inSanta Monica, California.[177] He arrived in the building with his staff and began to travel up to the ninth floor in the elevator. As they reached the fifth floor, he began struggling to breathe and was wheeled into the doctor's office, where he was reclined, and a nurse administeredoxygen. Barrett was sent for. Upon her arrival, she held Roddenberry while encouraging him to breathe. He sufferedcardiopulmonary arrest in the doctor's office shortly afterwards.[178]CPR was attempted with no effect, and paramedics arrived to take him across the road to theSanta Monica Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead. He was 70 years old.[179]
The funeral was arranged for November 1, with the public invited to the memorial service at the Hall of Liberty, within theForest Lawn Memorial Park, inHollywood Hills.[180] It was a secular service; Roddenberry had beencremated before the event. More than 300Star Trek fans attended and stood in the balcony section of the hall, while the invited guests were on the floor level.Nichelle Nichols sang twice during the ceremony, first "Yesterday", and then a song she wrote herself titled "Gene".[181] Both songs had been requested by Barrett.[182] Several people spoke at the memorial, includingRay Bradbury,Whoopi Goldberg,E. Jack Neuman,[181] andPatrick Stewart. The ceremony was closed by two kilted pipers playing "Amazing Grace" as a recorded message by Roddenberry was broadcast. A four-planeflypast, in themissing man formation, followed some 30 minutes later.[183] After his death,Star Trek: The Next Generation aired a two-part episode of season five, called "Unification", which featured a dedication to Roddenberry.[184]
Roddenberry's will left the majority of his $30 million estate to Barrett in a trust. He also left money to his children and his first wife, Eileen. However, his daughter Dawn contested the will, on the grounds that Barrett had undue influence on her father.[185] In a hearing held in 1993, the Los Angeles Superior Court ruled that improprieties existed in the management of the trust and removed Barrett as executor. In another decision, the court found that Roddenberry had hidden assets fromStar Trek in theNorway Corporation to keep funds away from his first wife, and ordered the payment of 50% of those assets to Eileen, as well as punitive damages.[186] In 1996, theCalifornia Court of Appeals ruled that the original will, which stated that anyone who contested it would be disinherited, would stand. As a result, Dawn lost $500,000 from the estate, as well as a share of the trust upon Barrett's death.[185] The appellate court also overturned the earlier decision to award Roddenberry's first wife, Eileen, 50% of his assets. The judge called that decision one "that should never have been".[187][188]
In 1992, some of Roddenberry's ashes were flown into space, and returned to Earth, on theSpace ShuttleColumbia missionSTS-52.[189][190] On April 21, 1997,[191] a Celestis spacecraft with 7 grams (1⁄4 oz) of the cremated remains of Roddenberry,[192] along with those ofTimothy Leary,Gerard K. O'Neill and 21 other people, was launched into Earth orbit as part of theMinisat 01 mission aboard aPegasus XL rocket from a location near theCanary Islands.[191][193]
On May 20, 2002, the spacecraft's orbit deteriorated and it disintegrated in the atmosphere. Another flight to launch more of his ashes into deep space, along with those of Barrett, who died in 2008, was initially planned to take place in 2009. Unlike previous flights, the intention was that the flight would not return burning up in the Earth's atmosphere.[194] The payload would include the ashes ofJames Doohan in addition to the Roddenberrys' and several others and was scheduled to fly in 2016 on theSunjammer solar sail experiment,[195] but the project was canceled in 2014.[196] Celestis rescheduled their launch for 2020, then later rescheduled for June 2022, the next available commercial mission to deep space.[197] A sample of the couple's cremated remains will be sealed into a specially made capsule designed to withstand space travel. A spacecraft will carry the capsule, along with digitized tributes from fans, on Celestis' "Enterprise Flight".[197] The flight will also contain the ashes ofNichelle Nichols andDouglas Trumbull.[198] The Celestis "Enterprise Flight" was successfully launched fromCape Canaveral, Florida on January 8, 2024, very fittingly on a rocket namedVulcan.[199]
In 1985, Gene Roddenberry was the first television writer to receive a star on theHollywood Walk of Fame.[200] When theSci-Fi Channel was launched, the first broadcast was a dedication to two "science fiction pioneers":[201]Isaac Asimov and Roddenberry.[201] TheRoddenberry crater on Mars is named after him,[202] as is the asteroid4659 Roddenberry.[203] Roddenberry andStar Trek have been cited as inspiration for other science fiction franchises, withGeorge Lucas crediting the series for enablingStar Wars to be produced.[204]J. Michael Straczynski, creator of theBabylon 5 franchise, appreciatedStar Trek amongst other science fiction series and "what they had to say about who we are, and where we are going."[205]
David Alexander collaborated with Roddenberry on a biography over two decades.[206] TitledStar Trek Creator, it was published in 1995.[207] Yvonne Fern's bookGene Roddenberry: The Last Conversation detailed a series of conversations she had with Roddenberry over the last months of his life.[208] In October 2002, a plaque was placed at Roddenberry's birthplace in El Paso, Texas.[209] The El Paso Independent School District named the 40-foot, 120-seat Roddenberry Planetarium in his honor. The planetarium was recently upgraded and relocated to northeast El Paso. TheScience Fiction Hall of Fame inducted Roddenberry in 2007,[210] and theTelevision Academy Hall of Fame in January 2010.[211]
Commemorating Roddenberry's 100th birthday in August 2021, NASA used itsDeep Space Network to transmit a 1976 recording of Roddenberry towards the direction of the star system40 Eridani (the host of the fictional planet Vulcan). The signal will reach the star in early 2038.[212][213][214]
In September 2023, a genus of spiders,Roddenberryus, was named after him. The two researchers stated thet he "inspired generations of kids to pursue scientific careers".[215]
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine was already in development when Roddenberry died. Berman said that while he never discussed the ideas for the series, he was given a blessing by Roddenberry to pursue it.[216] Berman later said, "I don't believe the 24th century is going to be like Gene Roddenberry believed it to be, that people will be free from poverty and greed. But if you're going to write and produce forStar Trek, you've got to buy into that."[217] In early 1996, Majel Barret-Roddenberry uncovered scripts for a series calledBattleground Earth. The project was sent to distributors by theCreative Artists Agency, and it was picked up byTribune Entertainment, which set the budget at over $1 million per episode.[218] The series was renamedEarth: Final Conflict before launch, and premiered in 1997, six years after Gene's death; it ran for five seasons and 110 episodes until 2002.[219]
Two further series ideas were developed from Roddenberry's notes,Genesis II andAndromeda.[220] After an initial order for two seasons,110 episodes ofAndromeda were aired over five seasons from 2000 to 2005.[221][222] Tribune also worked on another Roddenberry series. TitledStarship; the production company aimed to launch it via the network route rather than into syndication.[223] Rod Roddenberry, president of Roddenberry Productions, announced in 2010, at his father's posthumous induction into theAcademy of Television Arts and Sciences Hall of Fame, that he was aiming to takeThe Questor Tapes to television.[224] Rod was developing the series alongsideImagine Television.[224] Rod would go on to create the two-hour television movieTrek Nation regarding the impact of his father's work.[225]
The majority of the awards and nominations received by Roddenberry throughout his career were related toStar Trek. He was credited forStar Trek during the nominations for twoEmmy Awards,[226][227] and won two Hugo Awards.[228][229] One Hugo was a special award for the series, while another was for "The Menagerie", the episode that used footage from the original unaired pilot forStar Trek, "The Cage".[230] In addition, he was awarded the Brotherhood Award by theNational Association for the Advancement of Colored People for his work in the advancement of African American characters on television.[32]Star Trek, ended in 1969; he was nominated for Hugo Awards forGenesis II andThe Questor Tapes. in 1974 and 1975, respectively.[231][232] After his death in 1991,[178] he was posthumously awarded theRobert A. Heinlein Memorial Award by theNational Space Society andThe George Pal Memorial Award at theSaturn Awards, as well as theExceptional Public Service Medal byNASA.[233][234][235]
Citing: "'Laugh-In' staying put."Broadcasting. 18 Mar. 1968: 9.
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