Star Trek Articles/Interviews
           Gene Roddenberry/Creator of Star Trek

               Taken from the Public Domain

@~This article was written before the death of Gene Roddenberry
@~and in the early days of ST:TNG

Star Trek is the creation of Gene Roddenberry, an ex-fighter pilot
and policeman.  From the original pilot episode to the first
motion picture, Gene Roddenberry maintained his position as one of
the major guiding lights of the series.  With The Next Generation,
he's back at the helm.

Star Trek is unique in that it had its first pilot, The Cage,
rejected but then was given permission to make a second one, Where
No Man Has Gone Before.  Both of these reflect one of
Roddenberry's major themes; Man must face creatures with superior
mental ability - creatures akin to gods - and somehow prove Man's
worth.  This is particularly true in the second pilot, where Gary
Mitchell gains ESP abilities which raise him to godhood; but he is
a god with human frailties, leading Kirk to explain that above all
else a god must have compassion.  The issue of god like beings is
returned to again and again in the original series.  In Who Mourns
for Adonis the Greek god Apollo demands that the Enterprise crew
worship him, however Kirk says of gods, "We find the One quite
sufficient".  Humanity has apparently not matured enough to
control its own destiny.  Computer gods also raised their tired
heads several times in the series; for example, Vaal in The Apple
and Landru in The Return of the Archons.

Star Trek reached the end of the original series in 1969.  1974,
however, saw the first of 22 animated episodes reach the screen.
Finally, the success of Star Trek in syndication could no longer
be ignored, and plans were made for a new live action series, to
be called Star Trek II.  However, the success of big budget
Science Fiction movies (such as Star Wars) could also not be
ignored, and so Star Trek II became Star Trek: The Motion Picture.
Roddenberry had been the executive producer of the proposed
series, now he was the producer of a movie.

The Lost Generation (as Star Trek II has become know) had been
extensively planned, a bible (writer's guide) written, characters
cast and a number of scripts submitted.  The most controversial
aspect was the lack of Spock, forced by Leonard Nimoy's
unwillingness to commit to the rigours of another weekly series.
The reaction of the fans to this news was so heated that
Roddenberry had to issue a statement regarding Nimoy's absence.
The crew, then would have see the return of Kirk, McCoy, Scotty,
Uhura, Sulu, Chekov and Yeoman Janice Rand, but also the
introduction of three new characters.

Two of those characters ended up in The Motion Picture.  Commander
Will Decker, son of Commodore Matt Decker (killed off in the
original Star Trek episode, The Doomsday Machine) was described in
Star Trek II's bible as almost worshipping Kirk - he would
'literally rather die than fail him'.  In the movie, it often
looked as if Decker would have welcomed the chance to kill Admiral
Kirk.  This change in attitude is understandable as Decker would
have been first officer in the series, but was a usurped captain
of the Enterprise in the film.  Star Trek II's Decker was to have
been a 'young turk' version of Kirk, and a captain in training.
It might have been interesting to watch Kirk give advice to the
young Decker - advice that he himself would probably not have
followed.  It was also intended that Decker should lead the
landing parties, thus removing one of the flaws of the original
series; that a starship captain would continually beam down into
unknown, dangerous situations.

The second addition to the crew was Lt Ilia, the Deltan.  In The
Motion Picture, Decker and Ilia had shared a romantic interlude
before their posting to the Enterprise.  Deltans posses a
heightened sexuality, but "would never take advantage of a
sexually immature species".  To do so results in the enslavement
of the sexual partner.  As Roddenberry points out in his
novelisation of the film, Decker is quick to take advantage of
doing with the Ilia probe that which he could never allow himself
to do with the real Ilia!  Deltans are almost the inverse of
Vulcans; emotional and sexually active (not just once every seven
years!).  In the bible of Star Trek II, Deltans are described as
abnormally intelligent, and are gifted with ESP abilities; they
are able to sense only images, never words or emotions, in other
minds.  This ability was not used in The Motion Picture.

Star Trek II's third and final new crew member was Spock's
replacement at the Science station, Lt Xon, a young full Vulcan.
Xon was to be aware that he was trying to fill some pretty big
shoes, and the rest of the old crew (especially Captain Kirk) were
to be making comparisons between Spock and him.

Spock, half-human and half-Vulcan, had to be in touch with his
human half in order to function on a ship full of humans.  Xon was
to have no such human half and was to call upon his deeply
repressed Vulcan emotions.  Spock (as Selak) had once told
himself, in the animated episode Yesteryear, that all Vulcans
possess emotions, but they must control them.  Roddenberry wrote
that 'we'll get some humour out of Xon trying to simulate
[emotions]'.  Decker and Xon, as First and Science Officers,
replaced Spock's role.  Mr Chekov was to become a full Lieutenant
in charge of security.  The stage had been set for Star Trek II,
the series - Stephen Collins was cast as Decker, Persis Khambatta
as Ilia and David Gautreaux as Xon... production was set to begin.
Then Star Trek: The Motion Picture happened instead.

For all its flaws and its generally bad reception among the fans,
The Motion Picture was Gene Roddenberry's vision of how Star Trek
should have been treated on the big screen - Star Trek with a big
budget.  It was also his idea of an epic premise; the whole issue
of man and machine, machine intelligence, machines as a lifeform,
the next step in evolution to god-like existence.  A fusion of
Roddenberry's 'God Themes' from the original series.

Spock also faced a major crisis in his life; the realisation that
emotions are valuable, and should not be needlessly suppressed.
Spock was mirrored by V'ger, a machine-like intelligence which was
seeking something more, something different, something which was
missing.  Spock could find his missing half be accepting his human
half.  V'ger obtained its human half by having the Ilia probe
merge with Decker.  In this sense, The Motion Picture was the
culmination of Spock's character.

Roddenberry wanted to do his own 2001: a Star Trek.  There are
hints at this.  The promotional text for the film included the
phrase 'A 23rd Century Odyssey'.  In his novelisation of The
Motion Picture Roddenberry makes reference to the 'historical'
events of 2001, placing it within the Star Trek universe.

Perhaps some judicious cuts in The Motion Picture (mostly of
V'ger fly-bys) and some added characters scenes would have made a
world of difference to the film.  Some of the scenes have been
added since the initial release, but others may still exist (eg a
scene between Scotty and the Ilia probe in Engineering; Kirk's
interview with the Vulcan Nogura etc).  Of course, the characters
of Ilia and Decker survived the conversion from Star Trek II only
as far as The Motion Picture's conclusion.  However, with the
change from TV series to motion picture, Nimoy had expressed a
willingness to return as Spock, and the character of Xon was
dropped.  David Gautreaux had a small part in the movie as
Commander Branch of the ill-fated Epsilon 9 space station.

With the apparent failure of Star Trek: The Motion Picture, for
the subsequent Star Trek films Roddenberry was replaced as
producer by Harve Bennett - an established TV producer with
credits such as The Six Million Dollar Man under his belt.  This
was the beginning of a loss of involvement for Roddenberry in his
original Enterprise crew.  As for the fans, the Bennett movies
were initially well received as being closer in character to the
original TV series, but with Star Trek V: The Final Frontier it
would appear that the honeymoon was over.

While the movie series was on-going and Roddenberry's estrangement
continued, he decided to bring a new generation of Star Trek to
the TV screens.  In Star Trek: The Next Generation Roddenberry has
to some extent recycled both character traits and script ideas
from the original Star Trek, the Star Trek II series and Star
Trek: The Motion Picture.

In the tradition of Star Trek II's double replacement for Spock,
it seems Kirk has been split into two, in the shapes of Captain
Jean-Luc Picard and Commander Will Riker.  Part of Riker's
function is to protect his Captain and lead the 'away teams' (new
terminology for landing parties) - this follows the duties of
Decker in Star Trek II.  Also Riker is often referred to as
'Number One', a naval nomenclature harking back to a character of
only that name in the first pilot, The Cage. [for trivia
merchants! Note the similarity of the names Will Decker and Will
Riker.  Also, Riker is a partial anagram of Kirk, and Riker
introduces himself in Encounter at Farpoint as W T Riker, thereby
sharing a middle initial with Kirk!]

Councillor Troi, like Spock, is a halfbreed - her mother is
Betazoid.  Betazoids are empaths, able to sense the emotions of
others.  This idea was introduced to the Star Trek universe in the
original series episode, The Empath.  It was to be recycled in the
Star Trek II series in the form of Ilia's limited empathic
abilities.  Also, like Ilia and Decker, Troi and Riker share a
romantic past.  In The Motion Picture Ilia accuses Decker of not
saying goodbye; in the pilot episode of The Next Generation Troi
admits in her thoughts that she could never say goodbye.

Lt Commander Data, The Next Generation's android Science Officer,
bears some similarity to Star Trek II's intended replacement for
Mr Spock.  Data is another flipside of Spock, he possesses no
emotions, but he wants to be human - a parallel with the fairy
story of Pinocchio.  Following Roddenberry's intention for Star
Trek II's Vulcan Lt Xon, Lt Data's attempts to simulate human
emotions are a source of humour.

Data can also be seen to have roots in another Roddenberry
production, The Questor Tapes, the hero of which was an android.
Of course, androids are no strangers to the Star Trek universe.
From the world of androids in I, Mudd to the Ilia probe in The
Motion Picture, the only mystery is why we have never had any on
board before.

Lt Geordi La Forge was initially a navigator in The Next
Generation, but since the second season of the series he has
become chief engineer and therefore something of a replacement for
Scotty.  The artificially sighted La Forge is named after a
long-time Star Trek fan George La Forge, who was blind.

Another sign that The Next Generation is a return to Roddenberry's
Star Trek is the look of the costumes, which hark back to both the
original series and The Motion Picture.

The Next Generation's costumes began life as one-piece jump suits,
although they have since been changed to top and trousers
(although with same design lines) because of actor-discomfort
caused by the elasticated all-in-one garments.  The new costume
colours bear some resemblance to the colours in the original
series.  The jump-suit design had been previously adopted for The
Motion Picture, although grey-blue was used because the bright
reds and blues were thought not to translate well to the big
screen.

A further clue of The Next Generation's heritage can be found in
its theme tune, which is a pleasant amalgam of the original Star
Trek fanfare by Alexander Courage, and Jerry Goldsmith's main
title theme for The Motion Picture.

In the original series, The Naked Time and the symptoms of an
alien infection gave us a glimpse of the underlying motivations of
the crew.  It is no accident that the second episode of The Next
Generation was a 'remake' in the shape of The Naked Now.  It
allowed Roddenberry to give early and deep insights into the new
crew of the Enterprise.

A story called Robot's Return was written for another Roddenberry
series, Genesis II.  This was dusted off and passed over to Alan
Dean Foster as an idea for a script for the Star Trek II series.
In Thy Image told of a great god called N'sa which turns out to be
a NASA Pioneer Ten Space Probe.  Sound familiar?  The Child was
written for Star Trek II by Jaron Summers and Jon Povill.  It was
finally filmed as The Next Generation's second season opener.  In
the original version, Ilia mysteriously became pregnant; in the
version as filmed, Deanna Troi faced an identical predicament.
Roddenberry has also returned with a vengeance to his 'God Theme'.
Encounter at Farpoint introduces yet another super race, the Q, a
representative of which promptly places Humanity on trial.  The Q
has appeared in further episodes.

Gene Roddenberry's star Trek consisted of the original series, the
animated series, the first feature film and The Next Generation.
He has now rejected all but The Next Generation.  The four late
films bear Roddenberry's name only as executive consultant.
Recent rumours of Harve Bennett's Police Academy-type comedy plans
for Star Trek VI also included the willingness of Roddenberry to
take legal action to prevent such a film being made.  Perhaps
this shows just how far removed from the fate of the original Star
Trek Roddenberry now finds himself.









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