TOS Reference Book Question
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But it's not as if members of the production team were slipping things in under GR's nose. Every element would have been thrashed until until he was satisfied that it fitted with his TNG vision.
According to Sackett, Over, Arnold, Trimble, etc., and numerous of my friends who visited with him, Roddenberry was not in that "poor health" in the time spent actually setting up TNG. He started to fade towards the end of Season One. Then he suffered of series of minor strokes.
Boy, have you been missing staff meetings.
You don't know about the "Save Spock" campaign that led much of the free publicity for ST II? Any article of the day will clearly show you that Roddenberry was reduced to powerless, less-than-figurehead status between TMP and TNG.
Wow, really informative thread. I knew some of this stuff in very broad details, but this really helped fill in the blanks and iron out some of the lumps. Thanks
Yes, well I've always held that the worse thing for Star Trek was Gene Rodenberry. Seems contradictory, considering he "created" *cough* Star Trek.
KRAD said:
^ In fact, Roddenberry spent most of 1982 telling anybody who'd listen, and plenty of people who wouldn't, that The Wrath of Khan wasn't real Star Trek, and true Trek fans would boycott the film.
Luckily, nobody listened....
Yes, well I've always held that the worse thing for Star Trek was Gene Rodenberry. Seems contradictory, considering he "created" *cough* Star Trek.
If there's anything or anyone a whole lot of fans think they know but don't, it's Gene Roddenberry's role in Star Trek. So, in addition to the books already mentioned above, let me point out a few other books that anyone who writes a post with the name "Roddenberry" in it should know:
Star Trek Creator by David Alexander. This is the official biography, so it whitewashes some incidents. The author is so unwilling to see anything wrong in any of GR's behaviour that at one point when describing how an already married GR was trying to pick up a friend's wife at a party, Alexander describes it as a wonderfully cute example of Roddenberry's great love of life.
Gene Roddenberry: The Man and the Myth Behind Star Trek by Joel Engel. That's the unofficial version, and though Engel says he had no particular bias, his sources apparently included DC Fontana and David Gerrold, who probably did. Nonetheless, you can't read Alexander without reading Engel for balance. Roddenberry really was unethical at times, he really did take credit for other people's work, and he really did say and do some stupid things.
Inside Trek: My Secret Life With Star Trek Creator Gene Roddenberry by Susan Sackett. This is very definitely not an objective source, but it does give a unique insider perspective on Roddenberry.
I'm not sure I'd recommend Gene Roddenberry: The Last Conversation by Yvonne Fern. The first Pocket edition was revised somewhat from a previous edition, after Fern was told that there was a lot of incorrect information in it (as I recall, she had GR taking credit for Matt Jefferies' design work on the Enterprise, among other things). Also significant is the fact that someone who knew Roddenberry and had seen him around the time Fern's conversations were happening reported that Roddenberry was by that time nowhere near lucid enough to have the conversations described. Another problem is that at times the book seems to be as much about Fern as it does about Roddenberry, through her dogged insistence on tying so much of every discussion to her blend of New Age Christianity. If, however, it is accurate, it's interesting to see how little GR knew about science fiction.
Star Trek Creator by David Alexander. This is the official biography, so it whitewashes some incidents. The author is so unwilling to see anything wrong in any of GR's behaviour that at one point when describing how an already married GR was trying to pick up a friend's wife at a party, Alexander describes it as a wonderfully cute example of Roddenberry's great love of life.
Gene Roddenberry: The Man and the Myth Behind Star Trek by Joel Engel. That's the unofficial version, and though Engel says he had no particular bias, his sources apparently included DC Fontana and David Gerrold, who probably did. Nonetheless, you can't read Alexander without reading Engel for balance. Roddenberry really was unethical at times, he really did take credit for other people's work, and he really did say and do some stupid things.
Inside Trek: My Secret Life With Star Trek Creator Gene Roddenberry by Susan Sackett. This is very definitely not an objective source, but it does give a unique insider perspective on Roddenberry.
I'm not sure I'd recommend Gene Roddenberry: The Last Conversation by Yvonne Fern. The first Pocket edition was revised somewhat from a previous edition, after Fern was told that there was a lot of incorrect information in it (as I recall, she had GR taking credit for Matt Jefferies' design work on the Enterprise, among other things). Also significant is the fact that someone who knew Roddenberry and had seen him around the time Fern's conversations were happening reported that Roddenberry was by that time nowhere near lucid enough to have the conversations described. Another problem is that at times the book seems to be as much about Fern as it does about Roddenberry, through her dogged insistence on tying so much of every discussion to her blend of New Age Christianity. If, however, it is accurate, it's interesting to see how little GR knew about science fiction.
Bennett was in charge of Wrath of Khan through Final Frontier. He was going to do the sixth film as well, but it would have been a prequel film about Kirk and Spock at Starfleet Academy. (I learned recently the casting Bennett had in mind -- Ethan Hawke as Kirk, John Cusack as Spock. I can see Hawke, but I cannot see Cusack.)
Nimoy was the driving force behind The Undiscovered Country.
Roddenberry's pet Star Trek idea during the movie-era was a time travel story involving the JFK assassination. Whatever story ideas Bennett would send Roddenberry, Roddenberry would come back with twenty reasons why Bennett's ideas were unworkable, and then suggest his time travel story as the ideal replacement.
Roddenberry continuously suggesting that JFK movie (complete with Spock on the grassy knoll, if I remember right) was my favorite part of Shatner's Movie Memories.
Roddenberry's planned sequel to Star Trek: The Motion Picture involved Klingons, time travel, Einstein, and JFK. Kirk got to pal around with JFK, Scotty got to hang with Einstein, Klingons were trying to muck up history, and rumor has it that Spock was the one that was going to have to assassinate JFK to put history right.
Perhaps GR's lack of involvement with the movies was actually a good thing then.
