Comments on: Roddenberry

By: Niklaus Pfirsig

Niklaus Pfirsig — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 16:00:40 +0000

The best thing about the original Star Trek was, that since they were essentially a B-grade show, they focused less on special effects, and more on presenting a thought-provoking story. The futuristic framework of the program allowed them to adapt stories which tackled contraversial topics of racism. drug abuse, government by religion, war, and civil rights. This focus prevented the original series from becoming a space opera of the Flash Gordon genre.
The original Star Trek series inspire many of the technolocial advances of the last five decades, including cell phones, personal computers, and the space shuttle.
Majel Barret Roddenberry, help to guide the future that has now become our past. Now more than ever, we need something that is forward looking, optimistic, and challenges us to think.

By: Mark Tiedemann

Mark Tiedemann — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 00:16:27 +0000

Niklaus,

That was David Gerrold’s book, I read and reread that thing till it fell apart. Gerrold wrote one of the most famous scripts—”The Trouble With Tribbles.”

By: Mark Tiedemann

Mark Tiedemann — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 23:12:51 +0000

They also told him to get rid of the “guy with the ears.” According to Roddenberry, he cut Number One, but gave Spock her emotionless character. If you watch The Cage carefully you see Spock grinning, getting angry, even panicked.

By: Niklaus Pfirsig

Niklaus Pfirsig — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 23:08:30 +0000

Mark, Sorry ’bout that, I do tend to get names mixed up. Anyways, back around 1975, a friend of mine who was a true Trekkie, insisted I read “The Making of Star Trek”. (He happened to have a copy handy)
It was a very interesting look at the behind the scenes part of the show. including how the sets were made largely of cardboard, the “Jelly bean” buttons on the control panels, the involvement of the cast and crew in making the setting believable and even the origin of the “Transporter” mainly as a plot device.
From that point on, I found it fun to see how many salt shakers I recognized (many of the one-off gizmos were actually futuristic looking salt shakers often with added lights to complete the effect), along with other items such as the often appearing George Dickel powderhorn whiskey bottle.

By: Brian

Brian — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 21:54:49 +0000

The actual truth about not including Majel in the second pilot is far more prosaic than any notion of the role of a woman in command: the suits at NBC simply *hated* Majel Barrett’s performance and told Gene not to include her the second time around if he wanted the show to get picked up.

Lots of elements of the “creation myth” about the television series were embellished by Gene Roddenberry over the years, and this is one of them.

By: Mark Tiedemann

Mark Tiedemann — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 20:27:55 +0000

Niklaus,

Not to quibble, but it was the other way around—-The Cage was renamed The Menagerie when they split it into a two-parter for the regular series.

Karl,

It became profitable by the time the first movie was filmed, but the original show never came in on budget. It was always more expensive to make than Roddenberry said it would be. But—and this will give us all some perspective in these days of mega-million dollar films and television shows—each episode of the original Star Trek cost on average $300,000.

By: Karl

Karl — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 17:12:49 +0000

Mark,

Thanks for the memories.

I will never understand Main Stream Media - except for this one thing. Dollar signs and contracts.

By: Niklaus Pfirsig

Niklaus Pfirsig — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 17:12:45 +0000

“The Menagery” was the original pilot that was later edited to include the new cast members. Ny the time Desilu decided to produce “Ster Trek”, Many of the cast of “The Menagery” had contractual obligations that prevented them from working on the show. The updated version, “The Cage” worked quite well for the time, and introduced the world to some characters that were distinctly different form the regular TV drama personna of the day.
I remember that the character of Number One was supposed to be emotionless. I believe the objection was that the public would not buy into the idea of an emotionless woman.