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158-578: 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 universe Star Trek . Born in El Paso, Texas , Roddenberry grew up in Los Angeles, where his father was a police officer. Roddenberry flew 89 combat missions in the Army Air Forces during World War II and worked as

316-523: A Southern Baptist ; however, as an adult, he rejected religion, and considered himself a humanist . He began questioning religion around the age of 14, and came to the conclusion that it was "nonsense". As a child, he served in the choir at his local church, but often substituted lyrics as he sang hymns. Early in his writing career, he received an award from the American Baptist Convention for "skillfully writing Christian truth and

474-560: A cult following among Trekkies greater than during its original run; by 1976, the cast described Star Trek as "the most popular series in the world". One sign of the series' growing popularity was the first Star Trek convention , which occurred on January 21–23, 1972 in New York City. Although the original expectation was that a few hundred fans would attend, several thousand turned up. Fans continue to attend similar conventions worldwide. The series' newfound success led to

632-456: A producer and have full creative control. He wrote another script for Ziv's series Harbourmaster titled "Coastal Security" and signed a contract with the company to develop a show called Junior Executive with Quinn Martin . Nothing came of the series. He wrote scripts for a number of other series in his early years as a professional writer, including The Jane Wyman Show , Bat Masterson and Jefferson Drum . Roddenberry's episode of

790-540: A tent pole for the studio when other projects failed. The Next Generation had the highest ratings of any Star Trek series and became the most syndicated show during the last years of its original seven-season run. In response to the Next Generation 's success, Paramount released a spin-off series, Deep Space Nine , in 1993. While never as popular as the Next Generation , the series had sufficient ratings for it to last seven seasons. In January 1995,

948-695: A Vulcan, into the plot for Star Trek: The God Thing . He had a similar disdain for Judaism . Despite working closely with Jewish writers and stars such as Shatner, Nimoy, and Koenig for the series, Nimoy said of Roddenberry, "Gene was antisemitic, 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 in Star Trek , telling

1106-557: A big fan wanted to meet her while attending an NAACP dinner party: I thought it was a Trekkie, and so I said, 'Sure.' I looked across the room, and there was Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. walking towards me with this big grin on his face. He reached out to me and said, 'Yes, Ms. Nichols, I am your greatest fan.' He said that Star Trek was the only show that he, and his wife Coretta, would allow their three little children to stay up and watch. [She told King about her plans to leave

1264-561: A campaign reminiscent of the one that saved the third season of the Original Series . Paramount renewed Enterprise for a fourth season, but moved it to the Friday night death slot . Like the Original Series , Enterprise ' s ratings dropped during this time slot, and UPN canceled Enterprise at the end of its fourth season. Enterprise aired its final episode on May 13, 2005. A fan group, "Save Enterprise ", attempted to save

1422-411: A censor down to the set to measure a woman's cleavage to make sure too much of her breast wasn't showing." Roddenberry intended the show to have a progressive political agenda reflective of the emerging counter-culture of the youth movement, though he was not fully forthcoming to the networks about this. He wanted Star Trek to show what humanity might develop into, if it would learn from the lessons of

1580-442: A close, Roddenberry once again faced the threat of cancellation. He enlisted the help of Asimov, and even encouraged a student-led protest march on NBC. On January 8, 1968, a thousand students from 20 schools marched on the studio. Roddenberry began to communicate with Star Trek fan Bjo 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

1738-556: A commercial pilot after the war. Later, he joined the Los Angeles Police Department and began to write for television. As a freelance writer , Roddenberry wrote scripts for Highway Patrol , Have Gun – Will Travel , and other series, before creating and producing his own television series, The Lieutenant . In 1964, Roddenberry created the original Star Trek series, which premiered in 1966 and ran for three seasons. He then worked on projects including

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1896-490: A contest to build a medical tricorder device was announced in 2012. Ten finalists were selected in 2014, and the winner was to be selected in January 2016. However, no team managed to reach the required criteria. Star Trek also brought teleportation to popular attention with its depiction of "matter-energy transport", with the famously misquoted phrase " Beam me up, Scotty " entering the vernacular. The Star Trek replicator

2054-416: A few months after the Next Generation ended, Paramount released a fourth television series, Voyager . Star Trek production reached a peak in the mid-1990s with Deep Space Nine and Voyager airing concurrently and three of the four Next Generation -based feature films released in 1994, 1996, and 1998. By 1998, Star Trek was Paramount's most important property and the profits of "the franchise" funded

2212-561: A film based on Asimov's " I, Robot " and also began work on a Tarzan script for National General Pictures . 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. NBC announced Star Trek 's cancellation in February 1969. A similar but much smaller letter-writing campaign followed news of

2370-590: A fourth is scheduled for July 2020. The first publisher of Star Trek fiction aimed at adult readers was Bantam Books . James Blish wrote adaptations of episodes of the original series in twelve volumes from 1967 to 1977; in 1970, he wrote the first original Star Trek novel published by Bantam, Spock Must Die! . Pocket Books published subsequent Star Trek novels. Prolific Star Trek novelists include Peter David , Diane Carey , Keith DeCandido , J.M. Dillard , Diane Duane , Michael Jan Friedman , and Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens . Several actors from

2528-501: A guaranteed $ 100,000, and became a producer for the first time on a summer replacement for The Tennessee Ernie Ford Show titled Wrangler . 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 the Star Trek series: Philip Pike, Edward Jellicoe, and James T. Irvine. While working at Screen Gems, an actress, new to Hollywood, wrote to him asking for

2686-401: A half-hour later (moving from 9:00 to 9:30). Powerful Laugh-In producer George Schlatter objected to his highly rated show yielding its slot to the poorly-rated Star Trek . Instead, Laugh-In retained the slot, and Star 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

2844-465: 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.” Before his death, Roddenberry became close friends with philosopher Charles Musès , who said that Roddenberry's views were "a far cry from atheism ". Roddenberry explained his position thus: "It's not true that I don't believe in God. I believe in

3002-411: A kind of God. It's just not other people's God. I reject religion. I accept the notion of God." He had an ongoing interest in other people's experiences with religion, and called Catholicism "a very beautiful religion. An art form." However, he said that he dismissed all organized religions , saying that for the most part, they acted like a "substitute brain... and a very malfunctioning one". Roddenberry

3160-682: A meeting. They quickly became friends and met every few months; the woman was Majel Leigh Hudec , later known as Majel Barrett. He created a second pilot called 333 Montgomery about a lawyer, played by DeForest Kelley . It was not picked up by the network but was later rewritten as a new series called Defiance County . His career with Screen Gems ended in late 1961, and shortly afterward, he had issues with his old friend Erle Stanley Gardner . The Perry Mason creator claimed that Defiance County had infringed his character Doug Selby . The two writers fell out via correspondence and stopped contacting one another, though Defiance County never proceeded past

3318-512: A multi-ethnic crew on an airship traveling the world, based on the film Master of the World (1961), with fellow writer Christopher Knopf at MGM . As the time was not right for science fiction, he began work on The Lieutenant for Arena Productions. This made it to the NBC Saturday night lineup at 7:30 pm and premiered on September 14, 1963. The show set a new ratings record for

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3476-423: A narrative adventure video game set in the Next Generation era, was released by Dramatic Labs. Star Trek has led directly or indirectly to the creation of a number of magazines which focus either on science fiction or specifically on Star Trek . Starlog was a magazine which was founded in the 1970s. Initially, its focus was on Star Trek actors, but then it expanded its scope. Star Trek: The Magazine

3634-498: A new cast portraying the crew of the original show. Star Trek was a prequel of the original series set in an alternate timeline , later named the Kelvin Timeline. This gave the film and sequels freedom from the need to conform to the franchise's canonical timeline and minimized the impact these films would have on CBS's portion of the franchise. The eleventh Star Trek film's marketing campaign targeted non-fans, stating in

3792-549: A new set of fans to the franchise. CBS eventually sought to capitalize on this trend, and brought the franchise back to the small screen with the series Star Trek: Discovery to help launch and draw subscribers to its streaming service CBS All Access . Discovery's first season premiered on September 24, 2017. While Discovery is shown in the United States exclusively on Paramount+ (formerly CBS All Access), for its first three seasons, Netflix, in exchange for funding

3950-558: A new starship Enterprise with a new crew. Following Star Trek: The Motion Picture , Roddenberry's role was changed from producer to creative consultant, with minimal input to the films, while being heavily involved with the creation of The Next Generation . Roddenberry died on October 24, 1991, giving executive producer Rick Berman control of the franchise. Star Trek had become known to those within Paramount as "the franchise", because of its great success and recurring role as

4108-497: A pilot, " The Cage ", starring Jeffrey Hunter as Enterprise Captain Christopher Pike . NBC rejected "The Cage", but the executives were still impressed with the concept, and made the unusual decision to commission a second pilot: " Where No Man Has Gone Before ". While the show initially enjoyed high ratings, the average rating of the show at the end of its first season dropped to 52nd out of 94 programs. Unhappy with

4266-561: A plane crash investigator. He was involved in a second plane crash, this time as a passenger. He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Air Medal . In 1945, Roddenberry began flying for Pan American World Airways , including routes from New York to Johannesburg or Calcutta, the two longest Pan Am routes at the time. Listed as a resident of River Edge, New Jersey , he experienced his third crash while on

4424-486: A prequel to the 2009 film, Star Trek: Countdown . In 2012, IDW published the first volume of Star Trek – The Newspaper Strip , featuring the work of Thomas Warkentin. As of 2020, IDW continues to produce new titles. The Star Trek franchise has numerous games in many formats. Beginning in 1967 with a board game based on the original series and continuing through today with online and DVD games, Star Trek games continue to be popular among fans. Video games based on

4582-457: A producer of science fiction, despite his background in Westerns and police stories. He later described the period, saying, "My dreams were going downhill because I could not get work after the original series was cancelled." He felt that he was "perceived as the guy who made the show that was an expensive flop." Roddenberry had sold his interest in Star Trek to Paramount Studios in return for

4740-571: A proposed novel based upon his rejected 1975 screenplay for a proposed low-budget ($ 3 to $ 5 million) Star Trek film preceding the development of Phase II throughout 1976. Attempts to complete the project by Walter Koenig , Susan Sackett , Fred Bronson, and Michael Jan Friedman have proven to be unfeasible for a variety of legal and structural reasons. While at Los Angeles City College , Roddenberry began dating Eileen-Anita Rexroat. They became engaged before Roddenberry left Los Angeles during his military service, and they married on June 20, 1942, at

4898-400: A racially diverse crew. In early 1964, Roddenberry presented a brief treatment for a television series to Desilu Productions , calling it "a Wagon Train to the stars". Desilu studio head Lucille Ball was instrumental in approving production of the series. The studio worked with Roddenberry to develop the treatment into a script , which was then pitched to NBC. NBC paid to make

Gene Roddenberry - Misplaced Pages Continue

5056-775: A salary to produce the series, and celebrated by purchasing a new Rolls-Royce for $ 100,000. 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. Roddenberry rewrote the series bible from an original version by David Gerrold , who had previously written The Original Series episode " The Trouble with Tribbles ", and The Animated Series follow-up, " More Tribbles, More Troubles ". According to producer Rick Berman , Roddenberry's involvement in The Next Generation "diminished greatly" after

5214-551: A secular parallel to the Catholic Mass ". Roddenberry compared the franchise to his own philosophy by saying: "Understand that Star Trek is more than just my political philosophy, my racial philosophy, my overview on life and the human condition." He was awarded the 1991 Humanist Arts Award from the American Humanist Association . In the late 1980s, it was likely that Roddenberry was afflicted by

5372-411: A sequel. The studio forced Roddenberry to relinquish creative control of future sequels. The success of the sequel, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan , reversed the fortunes of the franchise. While the sequel grossed less than the first movie, The Wrath of Khan ' s lower production costs made it net more profit. Paramount produced six Star Trek feature films between 1979 and 1991, each featuring

5530-420: A series of standalone mini-episodes which air between Discovery and Picard seasons. A new live-action series, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds , a spinoff of the second season of Discovery and prequel to the original series, premiered on May 5, 2022. Lower Decks , an animated adult comedy series, was released on August 6, 2020, on CBS All Access. Another animated series, Star Trek: Prodigy , premiered on

5688-416: A significant portion of the studio's operations. Voyager became the flagship show of the new United Paramount Network (UPN) and thus the first major network Star Trek series since the original. After Voyager ended, UPN produced Enterprise , a prequel series. Enterprise did not enjoy the high ratings of its predecessors and UPN threatened to cancel it after the series' third season. Fans launched

5846-459: A string of failed television pilots. The syndication of Star Trek led to its growing popularity, resulting in the Star Trek feature films , which Roddenberry continued to produce and consult on. In 1987, the sequel series Star Trek: The Next Generation began airing on television in first-run syndication ; Roddenberry was involved in the initial development but took a less active role after

6004-590: A television film every two years starting with Section 31 . Many licensed products are based on the Star Trek franchise. Merchandising is very lucrative for both studio and actors; by 1986 Nimoy had earned more than $ 500,000 from royalties. Products include novels, comic books, video games, and other materials, which are generally considered non-canon . Star Trek merchandise generated $ 4 billion for Paramount by 2002. Since 1967, hundreds of original novels, short stories, and television and movie adaptations have been published. The first original Star Trek novel

6162-543: 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. He wrote and produced Pretty Maids All in a Row (1971), a sexploitation film directed by Roger Vadim , for MGM. The cast included Rock Hudson , Angie Dickinson , Telly Savalas , and Roddy McDowall alongside Star Trek regular James Doohan and notable guest star William Campbell , who had appeared in " The Squire Of Gothos " and " The Trouble with Tribbles ". Variety

6320-642: Is a multibillion-dollar industry, owned by Paramount Global. Gene Roddenberry sold Star Trek to NBC as a classic adventure drama; he pitched the show as " Wagon Train to the Stars" and as Horatio Hornblower in Space . The opening line, "to boldly go where no man has gone before", was taken almost verbatim from a U.S. White House booklet on space produced after the Sputnik flight in 1957. Star Trek and its spin-offs have proven highly popular in syndication and

6478-410: Is credited in the scientific literature with inspiring the field of diatom nanotechnology . In 1976, following a letter-writing campaign, NASA named its prototype Space Shuttle Enterprise , after the fictional starship . Later, the introductory sequence to Star Trek: Enterprise included footage of this shuttle which, along with images of a naval sailing vessel called Enterprise , depicted

Gene Roddenberry - Misplaced Pages Continue

6636-529: Is in pre-production to take the place of one of these series. Star Trek: Prodigy was removed from Paramount+ in June 2023. The series was picked up by Netflix, and season 1 was made available on December 25, 2023. A second season aired later in 2024. Paramount is also planning to create television films for Paramount+ every two years. The first of these movies, Section 31 , will star Michelle Yeoh , reprising her role as Empress Georgiou from Discovery . It

6794-448: Is noted for its cultural influence beyond works of science fiction. The franchise is also notable for its progressive stances on civil rights . The Original Series included one of the first multiracial casts on US television. As early as 1964, Gene Roddenberry drafted a proposal for the science fiction series that would become Star Trek . Although he publicly marketed it as a Western in outer space —a so-called " Wagon Train to

6952-491: Is scheduled to be released in early 2025. Twelve television series make up the Star Trek franchise: The Original Series , The Animated Series , The Next Generation , Deep Space Nine , Voyager , Enterprise , Discovery , Short Treks , Picard , Lower Decks , Prodigy , and Strange New Worlds . All series in total amount to 936 episodes across 49 seasons of television. Paramount Pictures has produced thirteen Star Trek feature films. The first six films continue

7110-517: The Star Wars franchise being rivals in the science fiction genre with many fans and scholars. The Star Trek franchise inspired some designers of technologies, the Palm PDA and the handheld mobile phone. Michael Jones, Chief technologist of Google Earth , has cited the tricorder 's mapping capability as one inspiration in the development of Keyhole/Google Earth. The Tricorder X Prize ,

7268-401: The 2013 film second. In 1980, Roddenberry submitted a treatment for a proposed sequel about the crew preventing the alien Klingons from thwarting the assassination of John F. Kennedy . Mindful of the tumult that suffused the production of Star Trek: The Motion Picture , Paramount rejected the proposal. After he was replaced on the project by television producer Harve Bennett , Roddenberry

7426-664: The Clipper Eclipse on June 18, 1947. The plane came down in the Syrian Desert , and Roddenberry, who took control as the ranking flight officer, suffered two broken ribs but was able to drag injured passengers out of the burning plane and led the group to get help. Fourteen (or fifteen) people died in the crash; eleven passengers required hospital treatment (including Bishnu Charan Ghosh ), and eight were unharmed. Roddenberry resigned from Pan Am on May 15, 1948, and decided to pursue his dream of writing, particularly for

7584-543: The Department of Defense over potential plots. 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. "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 the Museum of Television and Radio in New York City. The show

7742-404: The Original Series cast in their original roles. In 1987, Paramount responded to the popularity of Star Trek feature films by bringing the franchise back to television with Star Trek: The Next Generation . Paramount chose to distribute the new series as a first-run syndication show rather than a network program. The series was set a century after the original, following the adventures of

7900-554: The Star Trek franchise beyond Discovery to several new series, miniseries, and animated series. Kurtzman wanted to "open this world up" and create multiple series set in the same universe but with their own "unique storytelling and distinct cinematic feel", an approach that he compared to the Marvel Cinematic Universe . However, the franchise would not tell a single story across multiple series, allowing audiences to watch each series without having to see all of

8058-501: The Star 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. The family moved to Los Angeles in 1923 after Gene's father passed the civil service test and was given a police commission there. During his childhood, Roddenberry was interested in reading, especially pulp magazines , and

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8216-854: The "C" Device for meritorious service or achievement under combat conditions. In July 2014, the United States Senate passed the Distinguished Flying Cross National Memorial Act . The act was sponsored by Senator Barbara Boxer , to designate the Distinguished Flying Cross Memorial at March Field Air Museum adjacent to March Air Reserve Base in Riverside, California , as a national memorial to recognize members of United States Armed Forces who have distinguished themselves by heroism in aerial flight. The act

8374-475: The "V" device. On January 7, 2016, a Secretary of Defense memorandum standardized the use of the "V" device as a valor-only device across the services. The Department of Defense published "DOD Manuals 1348.33, Volumes 1-4, DOD Military Decorations and Awards" which unified the criteria for awards. DOD 1348.33. "Army Regulation 600-8-22, Military Awards" authorizes use of the "V" Device with the DFC for combat valor and

8532-448: The 1956 film Forbidden Planet , and television westerns such as Wagon Train . The Star Trek canon includes the Original Series , 11 spin-off television series, and a film franchise ; further adaptations also exist in several media. After the conclusion of the Original Series , the adventures of its characters continued in the 22-episode Star Trek: The Animated Series and six feature films. A television revival beginning in

8690-436: The 1980s saw four spinoff series: The Next Generation , following the crew of a new starship Enterprise a century after the original series; Deep Space Nine and Voyager , set in the same era as the Next Generation ; and Enterprise , set a century before the original series in the early days of human interstellar travel. The adventures of the Next Generation crew continued in four additional feature films. In 2009,

8848-471: The 23rd century". Brannon Braga said that Roddenberry made it known to the writers of Star Trek and Star Trek: The Next Generation that religion, superstition, and mystical thinking were not to be included. Even a mention of marriage in a script for an early episode of The Next Generation resulted in Roddenberry's chastising the writers. Nicholas Meyer said that Star Trek had evolved "into sort of

9006-562: The Atlantic Ocean earlier that year. The only Distinguished Flying Cross for World War I service was posthumously awarded on June 14, 2017, when 95th Aero Squadron Commander and Army Captain James Ely Miller was recognized for his actions on March 9, 1918, which made him the first American aviator serving with an American unit to die in that war. During World War II, the medal's award criteria varied widely depending on

9164-612: The Distinguished Flying Cross are shown with bronze or silver Oak Leaf Clusters for the Army, Air Force, and Space Force, and gold and silver 5 ⁄ 16 Inch Stars for the Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard. The Army, Air Force, Space Force, Navy, and Marine Corps may authorize the "V" device for wear on the DFC to denote valor in combat. The services can also award the DFC for extraordinary achievement without

9322-558: The Distinguished Flying Cross was made by President Calvin Coolidge on May 2, 1927, to ten aviators of the U.S. Army Air Corps who had participated in the Army Pan American Flight which took place from December 21, 1926, to May 2, 1927. Two of the airmen died in a mid-air collision trying to land at Buenos Aires on February 26, 1927, and received their awards posthumously. The award had only been authorized by Congress

9480-456: The Edge of Forever " after Roddenberry rewrote Ellison's script to make it both financially feasible to film and usable for the series context. Even his close friend Don Ingalls had his script for " A Private Little War " altered drastically, 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

9638-480: The Man Behind Star Trek , he states that Roddenberry watched The 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". 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. Roddenberry wrote

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9796-682: The Medal of Honor for their historic flight to the North Pole on May 9, 1926. Numerous recipients of the medal earned greater fame in other occupations; a number of astronauts, actors, and politicians have been Distinguished Flying Cross recipients, including President George H. W. Bush . The DFC may be retroactively awarded to recognize notable accomplishments made at any time after the beginning of American participation in World War I . On February 23, 1929, Congress passed special legislation to allow

9954-534: The US space program , working in this quality for NASA from the late 1970s until the late 1980s. In 2020, the US effort to develop a vaccine to protect against COVID-19 was named Operation Warp Speed , which was suggested by a Star Trek fan, Peter Marks. Marks leads the unit at the Food and Drug Administration which approves vaccines and therapies. Distinguished Flying Cross (United States) The first award of

10112-644: The USAAC on December 18, 1941 and married Eileen on June 13, 1942. He graduated from the USAAC on August 5, 1942, when he was commissioned as a second lieutenant . He was posted to Bellows Field , Oahu, to join the 394th Bomb Squadron , 5th Bombardment Group , of the Thirteenth Air Force , which flew the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress . On August 2, 1943, while flying B-17E-BO, 41-2463 , "Yankee Doodle", out of Espiritu Santo ,

10270-473: 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." 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." At one point, he worked a similar opinion, which was to have been stated by

10428-487: The actualization of Star Trek's holodeck in the future by making extensive use of artificial intelligence and cyborgs. Star Trek -based comics have been issued almost continuously since 1967, published by Marvel , DC , Malibu , Wildstorm , and Gold Key , among others. In 2009, Tokyopop produced an anthology of Next Generation -based stories presented in the style of Japanese manga . In 2006, IDW Publishing secured publishing rights to Star Trek comics and issued

10586-485: The advancement of human transportation technology. Beyond Star Trek 's fictional innovations, its contributions to television history included a multicultural and multiracial cast. While more common in subsequent years, in the 1960s it was controversial to feature an Enterprise crew that included a Japanese helmsman, a Russian navigator, and a black female communications officer. Captain Kirk's and Lt. Uhura's kiss, in

10744-528: The adventures of the cast of the Original Series ; the seventh film, Generations , was intended as a transition from original cast to the cast of the Next Generation ; the next three films focused completely on the Next Generation cast. The eleventh film was widely considered to be a reboot of the franchise, despite being a continuation set in an alternate timeline known as the "Kelvin Timeline". Additionally, streaming service Paramount+ intends to release

10902-446: The affair as she did not want to be "the other woman to the other woman". Barrett and Roddenberry had an apartment together by the opening weeks of Star Trek . 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 and Star Trek . He moved out of the family home on August 9, 1968, two weeks after

11060-479: The application of Christian principles into commercial, dramatic TV scripts". For several years, he corresponded with John M. Gunn of the National 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

11218-547: The award of the DFC to the Wright brothers for their December 17, 1903, flight. Other civilians who have received the award include Wiley Post , Jacqueline Cochran , Roscoe Turner , Amelia Earhart , Glenn H. Curtiss , and Eugene Ely . Eventually, it was limited to military personnel by an Executive Order. Amelia Earhart became the first woman to receive the DFC on July 29, 1932, when it was presented to her by Vice President Charles Curtis in Los Angeles for her solo flight across

11376-488: The award to be given to any person who distinguishes themselves "by heroism or extraordinary achievement while participating in an aerial flight" while serving in any capacity with the Air Corps. The Distinguished Flying Cross was designed by Elizabeth Will and Arthur E. DuBois. The medal is a bronze cross pattee , on whose obverse is superimposed a four-bladed propeller , 1 11/16 inches in width. Five rays extend from

11534-475: The box office. CBS turned down several proposals in the mid-2000s to restart the franchise on the small screen. Proposals included pitches from film director Bryan Singer , Babylon 5 creator J. Michael Straczynski , and Trek actors Jonathan Frakes and William Shatner. While CBS was not creating new Star Trek for network television, the ease of access to Star Trek content on new streaming services such as Netflix and Amazon Prime Video introduced

11692-454: The cancellation. Because of the manner in which the series was sold to NBC, it left the production company $ 4.7 million in debt. The last episode of Star Trek aired 47 days before Neil Armstrong stepped onto the moon as part of the Apollo 11 mission, and Roddenberry declared that he would never write for television again. After the cancellation of Star Trek, Roddenberry felt typecast as

11850-578: The chapel at Kelly Field. They had two daughters, Darleen Anita and Dawn Allison. During his time in the LAPD, Roddenberry was known to have had affairs with secretarial staff. Before his work on Star Trek , he began relationships with Nichelle Nichols and Majel Barrett . Nichols wrote about their relationship in her autobiography Beyond Uhura only after Roddenberry's death. At the time, Roddenberry wanted to remain in an open relationship with both women, but Nichols, recognizing Barrett's devotion to him, ended

12008-442: The conflicts and political dimensions of Star Trek are allegories of contemporary cultural realities. The Original Series addressed issues of the 1960s, just as later spin-offs have tackled issues of their respective decades. Issues depicted in the various series include war and peace, the value of personal loyalty, authoritarianism , imperialism , class warfare, economics, racism, religion, human rights, sexism , feminism, and

12166-576: The day-to-day running of Star Trek , although he continued to be credited as executive producer. Roddenberry cooperated with Stephen Edward Poe, writing as Stephen Whitfield, on the 1968 non-fiction book The 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 of Star Trek ." Herbert Solow and Robert H. Justman observed that Whitfield never regretted his 50–50 deal with Roddenberry, since it gave him "the opportunity to become

12324-479: The early days of Star Trek , and he specifically wrote the part of the character Number One in the pilot with her in mind; no other actresses were considered for the role. Barrett suggested Nimoy for the part of Spock . He had worked with both Roddenberry and Barrett on The Lieutenant , and once Roddenberry remembered the thin features of the actor, he did not consider anyone else for the part. The remaining cast came together; filming began on November 27, 1964, and

12482-405: The episode " Plato's Stepchildren ", was also daring, and is often mis-cited as being American television's first scripted, interracial kiss, even though several other interracial kisses ( e.g. on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour ) predated this one. Nichelle Nichols, who played the communications officer, said that the day after she told Roddenberry of her plan to leave the series, she was told

12640-514: The film Planet of the Apes . It was watched by an even greater audience than Genesis II. CBS scrapped Genesis II and replaced it with a television series based on the film; the results were disastrous from a ratings standpoint, and Planet of the Apes was canceled after 14 episodes. The Questor Tapes project reunited him with his Star Trek collaborator, Gene L. Coon, who was in poor health. NBC ordered 16 episodes, and tentatively scheduled

12798-486: The film did not earn as much in the North American box office as its predecessor, internationally, in terms of box office receipts, Into Darkness is the most successful of the franchise. The thirteenth film, Star Trek Beyond , was released on July 22, 2016. The film had many pre-production problems and its script went through several rewrites. While receiving positive reviews, Star Trek Beyond disappointed in

12956-486: The film franchise underwent a reboot , creating an alternate continuity known as the Kelvin timeline; three films have been set in this continuity. The newest Star Trek television revival, beginning in 2017, includes the series Discovery , Picard , Short Treks , Lower Decks , Prodigy , and Strange New Worlds , streaming on digital platforms. Star Trek has been a cult phenomenon for decades. Fans of

13114-425: The film's advertisements that "this is not your father's Star Trek ". The film earned considerable critical and financial success, grossing (in inflation-adjusted dollars) more box office sales than any previous Star Trek film. The plaudits include the franchise's first Academy Award (for makeup ). Two sequels were released. The first sequel, Star Trek Into Darkness , premiered in the spring of 2013. While

13272-458: The first chronicler of television's successful unsuccessful series." Whitfield had previously been the national advertising and promotion director for model makers Aluminum Model Toys , better known as "AMT", which then held the Star Trek license, and moved to run Lincoln Enterprises , Roddenberry's company set up to sell the series' merchandise. Having stepped aside from the majority of his Star Trek duties, Roddenberry sought instead to create

13430-429: The first episode of the Star Trek series went into production; Desilu was contracted to deliver 13 episodes. Five days before the first broadcast, Roddenberry appeared at the 24th World 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. Roddenberry

13588-605: The first few seasons of The Next Generation under Roddenberry as an "insane asylum". 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 the Enterprise 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

13746-510: The first manifestations of cerebrovascular disease and encephalopathy as a result of his longstanding recreational use of legal and illicit drugs, including alcohol , methaqualone , methylphenidate , Dexamyl , and cocaine (which he had used regularly since the production of Star Trek: The Motion Picture ). Roddenberry also used cannabis for many years, although its cumulative impact on his health remains unclear. Throughout much of his career, he had routinely used stimulants to work through

13904-694: 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 the Hollywood Walk of Fame . He was later inducted into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame and the Academy 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. Star Trek has inspired films, books, comic books, video games and fan films set in

14062-459: The first season, but the nature of his increasingly peripheral role was not disclosed because of the value of his name to fans. 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. Although commercially successful from its inception,

14220-530: The franchise are called " Trekkies " or "Trekkers". The franchise spans a wide range of spin-offs including games , figurines, novels , toys, and comics . From 1998 to 2008, there was a Star Trek –themed attraction in Las Vegas . At least two museum exhibits of props travel the world. The constructed language Klingon was created for the franchise. Several Star Trek parodies have been made, and viewers have produced several fan productions . Star Trek

14378-419: The franchise has expanded into various films , television series , video games , novels , and comic books , and it has become one of the most recognizable and highest-grossing media franchises of all time . The franchise began with Star Trek: The Original Series , which premiered on September 6, 1966, on Canada's CTV network. In the US it debuted on September 8, 1966, on NBC . The series followed

14536-484: The future of the franchise. Paramount relieved Berman, the franchise producer, of control of Star Trek . In 2007, Paramount hired a new creative team to reinvigorate the franchise on the big screen. Writers Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman and producer J. J. Abrams had the freedom to reinvent the feel of the franchise. The team created the franchise's eleventh film, Star Trek , releasing it in May 2009. The film featured

14694-423: The help of Samuel A. Peeples , " Where No Man Has Gone Before ". NBC selected the last one, leading to later rumors that Peeples created Star Trek , something he always denied. Roddenberry was determined to make the crew racially diverse, which impressed actor George Takei when he came for his audition. The episode went into production on July 15, 1965, and was completed at around half the cost of "The Cage", since

14852-415: The idea of reviving the franchise. Filmation with Paramount Television produced the first post–original series show, Star Trek: The Animated Series , featuring the cast of the original series reprising their roles. It ran on NBC for 22 half-hour episodes over two seasons on Saturday mornings from 1973 to 1974. Although short-lived, typical for animated productions in that time slot during that period,

15010-665: The idea to Mort Werner at NBC, this time downplaying the science fiction elements and highlighting the links to Gunsmoke and Wagon Train . 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. Roddenberry hired Dorothy Fontana, better known as D. C. Fontana , as his assistant. They had worked together previously on The Lieutenant, and she had eight script credits to her name. Roddenberry and Barrett had begun an affair by

15168-713: The issue of Spock's growing popularity and the possibility that his character would overshadow Kirk. Asimov suggested having Kirk and Spock work together as a team "to get people to think of Kirk when they think of Spock." The series was renewed by NBC, first for a full season's order, and then for a second season. An article in the Chicago Tribune quoted studio executives as stating that the letter-writing campaign had been wasted because they had already been planning to renew Star Trek . Roddenberry often rewrote submitted scripts, although he did not always take credit for these. Roddenberry and Ellison fell out over " The City on

15326-640: The marriage of his daughter Darleen. In 1969, while scouting locations in Japan for MGM for Pretty Maids All in a Row , he proposed to Barrett by telephone. They were married in a Shinto ceremony, as Roddenberry had considered it "sacrilegious" to have an American minister in Japan perform the ceremony. Roddenberry and Barrett had a son together, Eugene Jr., commonly and professionally known as Rod Roddenberry , in February 1974. From 1975 until his death, Roddenberry maintained an extramarital relationship with his executive assistant, Susan Sackett . Roddenberry grew up

15484-630: The medal being awarded. For example, George McGovern received one for the successful completion of a bombing mission in which his aircraft lost an engine and then was landed safely. On December 28, 1944, Aleda Lutz became the first military woman to receive the DFC, which she received posthumously. The Distinguished Flying Cross was authorized by Section 12 of the United States Army Air Corps Act enacted by Congress on July 2, 1926, as amended by Executive Order 7786 on January 8, 1938 and USC 10, 9279. This act provided for

15642-471: The more established array of approximately 3,600 fans and industry professionals who attended the 32nd World Science Fiction Convention in Washington, D.C. in 1974) led Paramount to hire Roddenberry to create and produce a feature film based on the franchise in May 1975. 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

15800-664: The new medium of television. Roddenberry applied for a position with the Los Angeles Police Department on January 10, 1949, and spent his first sixteen months in the traffic division before being transferred to the newspaper unit. That became the Public Information Division, and Roddenberry became the Chief of Police's speech writer. In this position, he also became the LAPD liaison to the very popular Dragnet television series, providing technical advisors for specific episodes. He also did his first TV writing for

15958-436: The night on scripts, especially amphetamines . The effects of these substances were compounded by deleterious interactions with diabetes , high blood pressure , and antidepressant prescriptions. Star Trek Star Trek is an American science fiction media franchise created by Gene Roddenberry , which began with the series of the same name and became a worldwide pop-culture phenomenon . Since its creation,

16116-491: The novelization of Star Trek: The Motion Picture . Although it has been incorrectly attributed to several other authors (most notably Alan Dean Foster ), it was the first in a series of hundreds of Star Trek -based novels to be published by the Pocket Books imprint of Simon & Schuster , whose parent company also owned Paramount Pictures Corporation . Previously, Roddenberry worked intermittently on The God Thing ,

16274-612: The others. CBS and Kurtzman refer to this expanded franchise as the Star Trek Universe . The second series of the expansion of the Star Trek Universe, Star Trek: Picard , features Patrick Stewart reprising the character Jean-Luc Picard from The Next Generation . Picard premiered on CBS All Access on January 23, 2020. Unlike Discovery , Amazon Prime Video streams Picard internationally. CBS has also released two seasons of Star Trek: Short Treks ,

16432-662: The past, most specifically by ending violence. An extreme example is the alien species known as the Vulcans , who had a violent past but learned to control their emotions. Roddenberry also gave Star Trek an anti-war message and depicted the United Federation of Planets as an ideal, optimistic version of the United Nations. His efforts were opposed by the network because of concerns over marketability, e.g., they opposed Roddenberry's insistence that Enterprise have

16590-574: The pilot stage. The project finally wound up as the NBC series Sam Benedict with Edmond 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 lawyer Jake Ehrlich . In 1961, he agreed to appear in an advertisement for MONY (Mutual of New York) as long as he had final approval. With the money from Screen Gems and other works, he and Eileen moved to 539 South Beverly Glen, near Beverly Hills . He discussed an idea about

16748-409: 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. The official report absolved Roddenberry of any responsibility. Roddenberry spent the remainder of his military career in the United States and flew all over the country as

16906-750: The previous year and no medals had yet been struck, so the Pan American airmen initially received only certificates. Among the ten airmen were Major Herbert Dargue , Captains Ira C. Eaker and Muir S. Fairchild , and First Lieutenant Ennis C. Whitehead . Charles Lindbergh received the first presentation of the actual medal about a month later from Coolidge during the Washington, D.C., homecoming reception on June 11, 1927, from his trans-Atlantic flight. The medal had hurriedly been struck and readied just for that occasion. The 1927 War Department General Order (G.O. 8) authorizing Lindbergh's DFC states that it

17064-408: The process. 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 over John D. F. Black , the complainant. The script won a Hugo Award , but the awards board neglected to inform Roddenberry, who found out through correspondence with Asimov. As the second season was drawing to

17222-487: The production costs of the show, owned the international screening rights for the show. This Netflix distribution and production deal ended right before the fourth season premiere of Discovery in November 2021. Discovery has since been exclusive to Paramount Global owned platforms. In June 2018, after becoming sole showrunner of Discovery , Kurtzman signed a five-year overall deal with CBS Television Studios to expand

17380-399: The production of Star Trek. The conventions began to build the fan support to bring back Star Trek, leading TV Guide to describe it, in 1972, as "the show that won't die." In 1972 and 1973, Roddenberry made a comeback to science fiction, selling ideas for four new series to a variety of networks. Roddenberry's Genesis II was set in a post-apocalyptic Earth. He had hoped to recreate

17538-557: The rebranded service Paramount+ first on October 28, 2021, and on December 17, 2021, on Nickelodeon . Prodigy is the first Star Trek series to specifically target younger audiences, and is the franchise's first fully computer animated series. Star Trek saturation would hit a new peak in 2022, with five Star Trek series airing in the same year. The Star Trek: Picard series finale aired in April 2023. Discovery's series finale aired in May 2024. A Star Trek: Starfleet Academy series

17696-589: The reentrant angles, forming a one-inch square. The reverse is blank; it is suitable for engraving the recipient's name and rank. The cross is suspended from a rectangular bar. The suspension and service ribbon of the medal is 1 3/8 inches wide and consists of the following stripes: 3/32 inch Ultramarine Blue 67118; 9/64 inch White 67101; 11/32 inch Ultramarine Blue 67118; 3/64 inch White 67101; center stripe 3/32 inch Old Glory Red 67156; 3/64 inch White 67101; 11/32 inch Ultramarine Blue 67118; 9/64 inch White 67101; 3/32 inch Ultramarine Blue 67118. Additional awards of

17854-473: The role of technology. Roddenberry stated: "[By creating] a new world with new rules, I could make statements about sex, religion, Vietnam , politics, and intercontinental missiles. Indeed, we did make them on Star Trek : we were sending messages and fortunately they all got by the network. If you talked about purple people on a far off planet, they (the television network) never really caught on. They were more concerned about cleavage. They actually would send

18012-496: 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. In Joel Engel's biography, Gene Roddenberry: The Myth and

18170-549: The series Have Gun – Will Travel , "Helen of Abajinian", won the Writers Guild of America award for Best Teleplay in 1958. He also continued to create series of his own, including a series based on an agent for Lloyd's of London called The Man from Lloyds . He pitched a police-based series called Footbeat to CBS, Hollis Productions, and Screen Gems . It nearly made it into ABC 's Sunday-night lineup, but they opted to show only Western series that night. Roddenberry

18328-405: The series and tried to raise $ 30 million to privately finance a fifth season of Enterprise . Though the effort garnered considerable press, the fan drive failed to save the series. The cancellation of Enterprise ended an eighteen-year continuous production run of Star Trek programming on television. The poor box office performance in 2002 of the film Nemesis cast an uncertain light upon

18486-463: The series garnered the franchise's only Emmy Award in a "Best Series" category—specifically Outstanding Entertainment Children's Series ; later Emmy awards for the franchise would be in technical categories. Paramount Pictures and Roddenberry began developing a new series, Star Trek: Phase II , in May 1975 in response to the franchise's newfound popularity. Work on the series ended when the proposed Paramount Television Service folded. Following

18644-435: The series include Star Trek: Legacy and Star Trek: Conquest . An MMORPG based on Star Trek called Star Trek Online was developed by Cryptic Studios and published by Perfect World . It is set during the Next Generation era, about 30 years after the events of Star Trek: Nemesis . The most recent video game was set in the alternate timeline from Abrams's Star Trek . On April 23, 2023, Star Trek: Resurgence ,

18802-498: The series to follow The Rockford Files on Friday nights; the pilot launched on January 23, 1974, 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 the Genesis II concept as a second pilot, Planet Earth , for rival network ABC, with similar less-than-successful results. The pilot

18960-554: The series was initially marred by Writers Guild of America grievances from Fontana and Gerrold, both of whom left the series in acrimonious circumstances; 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); and allegations that Roddenberry attorney Leonard Maizlish had become the producer's "point man and proxy", ghostwriting memos, sitting in on meetings, and contributing to scripts despite not being on staff. Writer Tracy Tormé described

19118-414: The series.] I never got to tell him why, because he said, 'You can't. You're part of history.' After the show, Nichols used this public standing to speak for women and people of color and against their exclusion from the US human space program; NASA reacted by asking her to find people for its future Space Shuttle program. Nichols proceeded and successfully brought the first non-white people and women into

19276-424: The sets were already built. Roddenberry worked on several projects for the rest of the year. In December, he decided to write lyrics to the Star 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 buying Star Trek and that it would be included in the fall 1966 television schedule. On May 24,

19434-506: The show's ratings, NBC threatened to cancel the show during its second season. The show's fan base , led by Bjo Trimble , conducted an unprecedented letter-writing campaign, petitioning the network to keep the show on the air. NBC renewed the show, but moved it from primetime to the " Friday night death slot ", and substantially reduced its budget. In protest, Roddenberry resigned as producer and reduced his direct involvement in Star Trek , which led to Fred Freiberger becoming producer for

19592-475: The show's third and final season. Despite another letter-writing campaign, NBC canceled the series after three seasons and 79 episodes. After the original series was canceled, Desilu, which by then had been renamed Paramount Television , licensed the broadcast syndication rights to help recoup the production losses. Reruns began in late 1969, and by the late 1970s the series aired in over 150 domestic and 60 international markets. This helped Star Trek develop

19750-652: The show, taking actual cases, and boiling them down to short screen treatments that would be fleshed out into full scripts by Jack Webb's staff of writers, and splitting the fee with the officers who actually investigated the real-life case. He became then technical advisor for a new television version of Mr. District Attorney , which led to him writing for the show under his pseudonym "Robert Wesley". He began to collaborate with Ziv Television Programs and continued to sell scripts to Mr. District Attorney , in addition to Ziv's Highway Patrol . In early 1956, he sold two story ideas for I Led Three Lives , and he found that it

19908-529: The show, urging them to write NBC, had created an organized Star Trek fandom . The network received around 6,000 letters a week from fans petitioning it to renew the series. On March 1, 1968, NBC announced on air, at the end of "The Omega Glory", that Star Trek would return for a third season. The network had initially planned to place Star Trek in the 7:30 pm Monday-night time slot freed up by The Man from U.N.C.L.E. completing its run. That would have meant Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In had to start

20066-627: The stars"—he privately told friends that he was modeling it on Jonathan Swift 's Gulliver's Travels , intending each episode to act on two levels: as a suspenseful adventure story and as a morality tale. Most Star Trek stories depict the adventures of humans and aliens who serve in Starfleet , the space-borne humanitarian and peacekeeping armada of the United Federation of Planets . The protagonists have altruistic values, and must apply these ideals to difficult dilemmas. Many of

20224-504: The studio, even when one scenario involved the end of the universe. Several ideas were partly developed including Star Trek: The God Thing and Star Trek: Planet of the Titans . Following the commercial reception of Star Wars , in June 1977, Paramount instead green-lit a new series set in the franchise titled Star Trek: Phase II , with Roddenberry and most of the original cast, except Nimoy, set to reprise their respective roles. It

20382-638: The success of Star 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. The pilot aired as a TV movie in March 1973, setting new records for the Thursday Night Movie of the Week . Roddenberry was asked to produce four more scripts for episodes, but before production could begin again, CBS aired

20540-522: The success of the science fiction movies Star Wars and Close Encounters of the Third Kind , Paramount adapted the planned pilot episode of Phase II into the feature film Star Trek: The Motion Picture . The film opened in North America on December 7, 1979, with mixed reviews from critics. The film earned $ 139 million worldwide, below expectations but enough for Paramount to create

20698-512: The television series have also written or co-written books featuring their respective characters: William Shatner , John de Lancie , Andrew J. Robinson , J. G. Hertzler and Armin Shimerman . Voyager producer Jeri Taylor wrote two novels detailing the personal histories of Voyager characters. Screenplay writers David Gerrold , D. C. Fontana , and Melinda Snodgrass have also penned books. A 2014 scholarly work Newton Lee discussed

20856-480: The theater of operations, aerial combat that was engaged in, and the missions that were accomplished. In the Pacific, commissioned officers were often awarded the DFC, while enlisted men were given the Air Medal . In Europe, some crews received it for their overall performance through a tour of duty. The criteria used were however not consistent between commands or over time. Individual achievement could also result in

21014-472: The time slot. Roddenberry worked with several cast and crew who would later join him on Star Trek , including Gene L. Coon , star Gary Lockwood , Joe D'Agosta, Leonard Nimoy , Nichelle Nichols , and Majel Barrett. The Lieutenant was produced with the co-operation of the Pentagon , which allowed them to film at an actual Marine base. During the production of the series Roddenberry clashed regularly with

21172-405: 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 by Tribunes, a science-fiction police series, which Roddenberry attempted to get off the ground between 1973 and 1977. He gave up after four years; the series never even reached the pilot stage. In 1974, Roddenberry

21330-457: The voyages of the crew of the starship USS Enterprise , a space exploration vessel built by the United Federation of Planets in the 23rd century, on a mission "to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before ". In creating Star Trek , Roddenberry was inspired by C. S. Forester 's Horatio Hornblower series of novels, Jonathan Swift 's 1726 novel Gulliver's Travels ,

21488-480: Was Mission to Horatius by Mack Reynolds , which was published in hardcover by Whitman Books in 1968. In 1968, Gene Roddenberry cooperated with Stephen Edward Poe, writing as Stephen Whitfield, on the nonfiction book The Making of Star Trek for Ballantine Books . Among the most recent is the Star Trek Collection of Little Golden Books . Three titles were published by Random House in 2019,

21646-551: Was a fan of stories such as John Carter of Mars , Tarzan , and the Skylark series by E. E. Smith . Roddenberry majored in police science at Los Angeles City College , where he began dating Eileen-Anita Rexroat and became interested in aeronautical engineering . He obtained a pilot's license through the United States Army Air Corps -sponsored Civilian Pilot Training Program . He enlisted with

21804-522: Was a magazine published in the U.S. that ceased publication in 2003. Star Trek Magazine , originally published as Star Trek Monthly by Titan Magazines for the United Kingdom market, began in February 1995. The magazine has since expanded to worldwide distribution under the name Star Trek Explorer . Other magazines through the years included professional, as well as magazines published by fans, or fanzines . The Star Trek media franchise

21962-432: 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. Roddenberry was not involved in a third reworking of the material by ABC that produced Strange New World . He began developing MAGNA I, an underwater science-fiction series, for 20th Century Fox Television . By

22120-736: Was also critical of how the public looked at certain religions, noting that when the King David Hotel bombing took place in 1946, the American public accepted it as the action of freedom fighters, whereas a car bombing by a Muslim in Beirut is condemned as a terrorist 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. According to Ronald D. Moore , Roddenberry "felt very strongly that contemporary Earth religions would be gone by

22278-439: Was asked to write a series called Riverboat , 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. He also considered moving to England around this time, as Lew Grade wanted Roddenberry to develop series and set up his own production company. Though he did not move, he leveraged the deal to land a contract with Screen Gems that included

22436-721: Was awarded by the president, while the General Order (G.O. 6) for the Pan American Flyers' DFC citation notes that the War Department awarded it "by direction of the President." The first Distinguished Flying Cross to be awarded to a Naval aviator was received by Commander Richard E. Byrd , USN for his trans-Atlantic flight from June 29 to July 1, 1927, from New York City to the coast of France. Byrd and his pilot Machinist Floyd Bennett had already received

22594-456: Was becoming increasingly difficult to be a writer and a policeman. On June 7, 1956, he resigned from the force to concentrate on his writing career. Roddenberry was promoted to head writer for The West Point Story and wrote ten scripts for the first season, about a third of the total episodes. While working for Ziv, in 1956, he pitched a series to CBS set aboard a cruise ship , Hawaii Passage , but they did not buy it, as he wanted to become

22752-433: Was broadcast worldwide. The show's cultural impact goes far beyond its longevity and profitability. Star Trek conventions have become popular among its fans, who call themselves " trekkies " or "trekkers". An entire subculture has grown up around the franchise, which was documented in the film Trekkies . Star Trek was ranked most popular cult show by TV Guide . The franchise has also garnered many comparisons of

22910-428: 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. Roddenberry was involved in creating the television series Star Trek: The Next Generation , which premiered with " Encounter at Farpoint " on September 28, 1987. He was given a bonus of $ 1 million (equivalent to $ 3.2 million in 2023) in addition to

23068-461: Was completed on December 11. After post-production, the episode was shown to NBC executives, and it was rumored that Star Trek would be broadcast at 8:00 pm on Friday nights. The episode failed to impress test audiences, and after the executives became hesitant, Katz offered to make a second pilot. On March 26, 1965, NBC ordered a new episode. Roddenberry developed several possible scripts, including " Mudd's Women ", " The Omega Glory ", and with

23226-467: Was granted full creative control of Star Trek: The Animated Series . Although he read all the scripts and "sometimes [added] touches of his own", he relinquished most of his authority to de facto showrunner/associate producer D. C. Fontana. 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

23384-464: Was having financial difficulties; its only success was The Lucy Show . Roddenberry took the Star 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 about Star Trek because it had a science fiction series in development— Lost in Space . Roddenberry and Katz next took

23542-407: Was immediately concerned about the series' low ratings and wrote to Harlan 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. Roddenberry corresponded with science fiction writer Isaac Asimov about how to address

23700-497: 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. An initial script for Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan

23858-527: Was not renewed after its first season. Roddenberry was already working on a new series idea. This included his ship location from Hawaii Passage and added a Horatio 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 the Writers Guild of America to register his series. He called it Star Trek . When Roddenberry pitched Star Trek to MGM, it

24016-478: Was paid $ 25,000 by John Whitmore to write a script called The Nine . Intended to be about Andrija Puharich 's parapsychological research, it evolved into a frank exploration of his experiences attempting to earn a living attending science fiction conventions. At the time, he was again close to losing his house because of a lack of income. The pilot Spectre , Roddenberry's 1977 attempt to create an occult detective duo similar to Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson ,

24174-446: Was released as a television movie within the United States and received a limited theatrical release in the United Kingdom. Lacking funds in the early 1970s, Roddenberry was unable to buy the full rights to Star Trek for $ 150,000 ($ 1.18 million in 2023) from Paramount. Lou Scheimer approached Paramount in 1973 about creating an animated Star Trek series. Credited as "executive consultant" and paid $ 2,500 per episode, Roddenberry

24332-470: Was signed into law by President Barack Obama on July 25, 2014. This is not a complete list, as it does not include individuals who are known only for receiving the DFC. Note: the rank indicated is the highest ever held by the person. Note: Although astronaut Neil Armstrong 's achievements as an aviator and an astronaut more than exceeded the requirements for the DFC, he was a civilian for his entire career with NASA, requiring an act of Congress to award

24490-447: 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. Vociferous fan support (6,000 attended the second New York Star Trek convention in 1973 and 15,000 attended in 1974, eclipsing

24648-410: Was to be the anchor show of a proposed Paramount-owned " fourth network ", but plans for the network were scrapped and the project was reworked into a feature film. The result, Star Trek: The Motion Picture , troubled the studio because of budgetary concerns, but it was a box-office hit. Adjusted for inflation, it was the third-highest-grossing Star Trek movie, with the 2009 film coming in first and

24806-639: 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." Herbert Solow had given Roddenberry the work as a favor, paying him $ 100,000 for the script. 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 friend Arthur C. Clarke ) and began to support himself largely by scheduling appearances at colleges and science fiction conventions. These presentations typically included screenings of "The Cage" and blooper reels from

24964-418: Was warmly received, but no offer was made. He then went to Desilu 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 called Police Story (not to be confused with the anthology series created by Joseph Wambaugh ), which was not picked up by the networks. Having not sold a pilot in five years, Desilu

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