The Making of Star Trek

Chris Comte (fan blogger for blog #18) recently submitted this excerpt from The Making Of Star Trek, which was published at the beginning of TOS's final season. This could have been written a couple of years ago when people were fighting to save Enterprise! Whitfield had it right in 1968, and his words ring true today…"We have [Star Trek’s] legacy . . . all we have to do is use it."

Blog #24 excerpted from The Making Of Star Trek
by Stephen E. Whitfield & Gene Roddenberry,
New York, Ballantine Books, 1968, pp. 400-402

Taken from the chapter
“Whither Star Trek?”

AN INTERESTING ASPECT OF THIS WHOLE THING, THOUGH IS…THIS CRAZY NEW GROUP THAT CAME IN…AND DID NOTHING BY THE RULES…WAS THE FIRST SUCCESSFUL SHOW THAT DESILU HAD HAD IN YEARS. THERE WAS STAGNATION, BUT WE CAME IN AND MADE IT WORK AGAIN…WE BROUGHT TURMOIL, EXCITEMENT…AND BEST OF ALL…CHALLENGE.

Gene Roddenberry

The victory that had been so exultantly proclaimed by NBC’s March first announcement (of Star Trek’s renewal for the 1968-1969 season) quickly paled before the news of a change in time slot. Originally scheduled for Monday night viewing, Star Trek would now open its third season on Friday nights at 10:00 p.m. Many were they who gloomily predicted the end was at hand for the Voyages of the Starship Enterprise. The late night spot was considered certain death for the series. NBC’s commitment was for sixteen episodes, and most studio personnel held little hope for a mid-season pickup.

By then I was living in Hollywood (my company had transferred my office from Phoenix at the end of January) and was spending a fair amount of time at Paramount, trying to complete the design of the new Klingon space ship. I knew Roddenberry, most of the staff, and many of the crew quite well by then, and I felt like a member of the family. When your family suffers hurt, you suffer also. I had grown to know and feel as they did, and the openly acknowledged “inevitable fate” saddened me at least as much as it did them.

I thought a great deal about the unique group of people who were the driving force that had made Star Trek what it was. Gene Roddenberry, pure creative genius, sometimes serous, often full of laughter, always with his mental motor in overdrive. Bob Justman, a sharp, creative technician with a critical eye for flaws in script or film, forever twisting and twirling his handlebar mustache. Gregg Peters, one great big, friendly, hulking smile. Eddie Milkis, always instigating a put on – and always protesting innocently in the process. Dorothy Fontana, a real doll – and one heck of a fine writer. “Uncle” Matt Jeffries, smiling behind those silver rimmed glasses even when the situation was grim. Bill Theiss, who was wearing mod clothes before the term was invented. Penny, Rick, Sylvia, Dale McRoberts, the friendly guard at Paramount’s Gower Street entrance – Jerry, George, Fabian, Don – quite a group, quite a group.

As this is written, mid-season pickup is a long way off in the future. But just as Star Trek projects an optimistic future, so, too, does the staff and crew as they enter production for the first half of the third season. Despite the unknown ahead, they are determined to be tigers all the way.

The new producer, Fred Freiberger, is a “pro” with impressive credits from “Ben Casey”, “Slattery’s People,” and other top shows. He’s backed by Bob Justman as co-producer and both Milkis and Peters as associate producers.

Should Gene have pulled back, to confine his duties to administration and policy? He put in over a year on pilots, plus two more years in production. Perhaps as grueling a three years as any man in the history of television. When you see a man work night after night, without sleep, until white with fatigue, it’s hard to insist that he owes more of what few others give at all.

It is impossible to predict at this point what will ultimately be the outcome. If Star Trek does, in fact, come to an end next January, millions of viewers will mourn its passing.

Even so, the starship launched by Roddenberry and manned by an extraordinary crew will not depart the scene without leaving some ripples in its wake.

Star Trek has proved that it really does matter to the viewer what he sees on television. Contrary to what the networks may believe, people do care about television programming. And they do not at all mind learning while being entertained. Learning implies believing. Learning also implies intelligence – the ability to see relationships, in a Vulcan, a Gorn, or a Horta. The response to Star Trek’s message is irrefutable proof of the totally inaccurate network concept of the viewer as a clod.

But Star Trek has done far more than that. It has given us a legacy – a message – man can create a future worth living for . . . a future that is full of optimism, hope, excitement, and challenge. A future that proudly proclaims man’s ability to survive in peace and reach for the stars as his reward.

Whither Star Trek?

It really doesn’t matter. We have its legacy . . . all we have to do is use it.