James Hise - The Unauthorized History of Trek

Voyager

THE UNAUTHORIZED

HISTORY OF

TREK

JAMES VAN HISE

COPYRIGHT

Star Trek, Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek Deep Space Nine are registered trademarks of Paramount Pictures Corporation. This book was not prepared, approved, licensed or endorsed by any entity involved in creating or producing the Star Trek television series or films.

Harper Voyager

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Copyright © 1991, 1995 Pioneer Books, Inc.

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

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Source ISBN: 9780006482925

Ebook Edition © December 2016 ISBN: 9780008240257

Version: 2017-01-05

A TREK THROUGH HISTORY

This unauthorized history of Star Trek is the complete and inspirational chronicle of a legend from its original conception to its phenomenal effect on millions of viewers across the world. America’s leading science fiction television historian JAMES VAN HISEtakes you where no Trek fan has ever gone before—from the meeting in which Gene Roddenberry first pitched his idea for the Star Trek series to the lean years when die-hard fans kept the show alive to the continuing sequence of successful feature films and new television series which have secured Star Trek ’s enduring importance in popular culture, and in our lives. The origins of the series are revealed through in-depth interviews with the original cast and creative staff, offering not only a wealth of Trek trivia but speculations as to what the future may hold.

Here are the facts behind the science fiction, the historical journey that goes beyond what you can see on the screen and covers three decades of voyage and on-going discover.

CONTENTS

COVER

TITLE PAGE

COPYRIGHT

FOREWORD

GENE RODDENBERRY (1921–1991)

INTRODUCTION

A PHENOMENON UNEXCELLED

CHAPTER ONE

A DREAM IN THE MAKING:

A brush with death alters Gene Roddenberry’s career choices and leads him to Hollywood, where he creates Star Trek.

CHAPTER TWO

A NEAR MISS AND A SOLID HIT:

NBC loves “The Cage” but wants Roddenberry to produce a second pilot.

CHAPTER THREE

ONWARD TO THE STARS, WITH HOPE (THE FIRST SEASON):

Star Trek makes stars of William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy as the series is launched successfully, albeit with some trepidation.

CHAPTER FOUR

STEADY AS SHE GOES (THE SECOND SEASON):

The strong scripts in the second season aren’t enough to satisfy the mysterious Nielsen ratings, but Star Trek is brought back from the brink of cancellation, only to suffer a bitter loss.

CHAPTER FIVE

AN AREA OF TURBULENCE (THE THIRD AND FINAL SEASON):

A lackluster third season, marked by numerous indifferent scripts and few bright lights, marks the inevitable end to the first voyage of the starship Enterprise.

CHAPTER SIX

MOVING THROUGH LIMBO AND BEYOND (THE LOST YEARS … TO STAR TREK: THE MOTION PICTURE):

The seventies prove that Star Trek is anything but dead, as rumors of a revival become a reality by decade’s end.

CHAPTER SEVEN

SAILING THE SILVER SCREEN (THE MOVIE TRILOGY):

One successful motion picture leads to another.

CHAPTER EIGHT

A NEW GENERATION EMBARKS:

The seemingly impossible task of creating a new version of Star Trek is accomplished.

CHAPTER NINE

THE OLD GUARD STUMBLES; THE NEW WAVE TRIUMPHS:

Star Trek V goes down for the count while The Next Generation gets better and better.

CHAPTER TEN

THE TORCH IS CARRIED ON:

The fourth season of The Next Generation produces some of the finest episodes yet and further demonstrates how different the new Star Trek really is.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

THE END OF A GENERATION:

After seven outstanding years, The Next Generation ends its successful run on television—but still the voyage continues.

CHAPTER TWELVE

THE FUTURE BECKONS, BRIGHT AND BOLD:

Whither Star Trek ?

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

CHECKLISTS:

Star Trek : The Classic Years, The Animated Voyages; The Next Generation.

KEEP READING

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

ALSO BY

ABOUT THE PUBLISHER

FOREWORD

GENE RODDENBERRY (1921–1991)

It came as a surprise to many when Gene Roddenberry died of a heart attack on October 24, 1991. While the news that he had suffered a series of strokes during the year had leaked out, the full extent of his illness was not known.

There had been rumors, though, when a gala twenty-fifth anniversary celebration for Star Trek at Paramount was scaled down in September because he was too ill to attend. A couple of actors from the original series had long been rumored to be in frail health, but no one ever thought Roddenberry would be the first to depart.

While some fear that with Roddenberry’s passing the light of Star Trek will die, it has been known for some time that he was all but retired, having stepped down from his on-line duties on The Next Generation more and more as each year passed, until for the last two years he had been little more than a consultant. His involvement with the motion pictures has been minimal since the first one, the only one on which he worked full-time.

Star Trek was a synthesis of many talents. While it was created by Roddenberry years ago, it was developed by such people as Gene Coon, Dorothy Fontana, and others whose contributions added much to the legend. While Roddenberry had the original vision and steered the ship on a true course, he was not the only one to dream the dream, and his biggest gift was to inspire others. The many forms of Star Trek over the years serve as living testimonial.

When people die there is the danger of their being elevated to a role they never had in life or never aspired to. One should not suddenly elevate Roddenberry to godhood. Gene was a man, with the foibles of a man, but he should never be forgotten for his many abilities, and most of all for his dream, a dream he shared with so many of us. This dream will insure that Gene Roddenberry will never be forgotten.

JAMES VAN HISE

INTRODUCTION

A PHENO MENON UNEXCELLED

Star Trek. These two simple words bring forth a vast web of mental associations to millions of people. For more than twenty-five years, a remarkable and widely varied group of characters has seemingly taken over a sizable portion of our collective consciousness and made it its own. Perhaps the late science fiction visionary Philip K. Dick saw this when he had a character in his novel A Scanner Darkly refer to the latest entertainment extravaganza as a “captainkirk.”