Posted on 09/10/2016 11:38:51 AM PDT by Borges
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Roddenberry never stopped rewriting. “The problem,” says his biographer Joel Engel, “was that he basically couldn’t write well enough to carry it off.”
For 25 years, a script never left Roddenberry’s hands without becoming worse. For all of the control Roddenberry exercised over Star Trek, the franchise prospered only when it was under the aegis of others. As early as one month before the show’s premiere, an exhausted and embattled Roddenberry took a vacation. Television veteran Gene L. Coon, a Marine veteran of the Pacific, was hired as producer. “To a large degree,” write Gross and Altman, “it would be Coon who would ultimately define the show creatively in the coming months.”
The Star Trek that has imprinted itself on fans for decades is Gene L. Coon’s. His shows deepened the relationships between Captain Kirk, Mr. Spock, and Dr. McCoy. He created the Klingons. There was more humor. Says writer David Gerrold, “Gene L. Coon created the noble image that everyone gives Roddenberry the most credit for.” Shatner puts it this way: “Gene Coon had more to do with the infusion of life into Star Trek than any other single person.”
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(Excerpt) Read more at nationalreview.com ...
All I know is that “The Next Generation” was deplorable.
And not in the good way.
I remember regularly seeing his name on the credits and wondering if it was pronounced the same as the animal.
Thanks for posting this.
From what I’ve read before, Roddenberry seems to have been quite the piece of work.
He had a black secretary.
Once someone visiting the offices said something disparaging about her; instead of getting upset, she introduced herself.
“Hi. I’m Gene L.’s Coon.”
I like Star Trek, but the biggest problem is that its rooted in the myth of Enlightenment left-wing Utopianism. Which of course only was doubled down on after the original series.
He should have read Joseph Campbell like George Lucas did.
And not in the good way.
It did improve somewhat after Gene croaked.
Star Trek falling under the “it wasn’t absolutely perfect” Critical Theory Political Correctness Axe by who? The same National Review that’s so honest about Trump.
Star Trek was America In Space and it enhanced the minds of billions of kids. But hey, Hillary needs to trash America to get her psychotic @ss into the White House, so all of a sudden, millions of Trekkies are DEPLORABLE.
CONNECT THE DOTS.
TOS had a recurring plot device that showed how the efforts to create perfection (in government, society, even personal life) were destined to end in grief. Roddenberry's original vision may have included a lot of utopian desire, but the writers clearly kept that ideal far out of reach.
IMO, the franchise (at least up through the early movies), was neither utopian nor dystopian. The Federation was largely just the world outside your own window. The show was mostly social satire and commentary, after all, and you can't really poke fun at your own culture without a proxy for your culture front and center dealing the abuse out. So, in the first few episodes, while it's not emphasized, there's prostitution and human trafficking (Mudd's Women), prison abuse (Dagger of the Mind), genocide (The Conscience of the King), and at least a fair number of drug metaphors (not to mention somewhat frequent drinking), and the pilot even strongly implies that the captain is burned out and looking to escape into any fantasy that comes along. Things cost money and that money seems to be fairly relevant. On balance, the original three seasons (and several movies) came off as dystopian in spite of Roddenberry's high ideals. Makes sense, a lot of real sci-fi writers authored those scripts. Dystopia runs deep in that genre.
In the shift to the Next Generation, Roddenberry seems to have had a significant change of heart, and that show is clearly intended to be a utopia, complete with flowery monologues about how wonderful and happy everybody is because life is so perfect. There are wars, but they're with people who haven't learned the one, true way, and most slowly change their way of thinking, even the soulless monsters. And there are allegedly pockets of malcontents and conspirators looking to overthrow the Federation, but they're invariably straw men to be knocked down or mysterious aliens never to be seen again.
Hence, I lost interest in TNG pretty quickly. I think DS9 deliberately backed away from the utopian nonsense - or at least they concealed it better.
And the author is a twerp married to Bill Kristol’s daughter. Google that piece of work and you know he sleeps with his Star Wars pillow.
Interesting article, though nothing much new here. Curious how Roddenberry’s first draft for The Motion Picture had Kirk as James Bond frolicking naked with some lady, right down to the excuse for not reporting promptly to M, er, HQ. Usually they leave that for the end of the movie, not the start.
Personally, I preferred the novelization beginning, which was never filmed, with Kirk on vacation in Spain looking at the spectacular massive dam across the Straits of Gibraltar which lowered the Mediterranean by some 100 meters, providing much more land for the surrounding countries.
They did keep in part of Roddenberry’s bit on Ilia’s “sex stuff”, since Deltan women were supposed to be so lethal sexually that human males couldn’t handle them (”too sexually immature”) and as a throw-away line she uttered to Kirk that her “oath of celibacy” was on record (a bizarre thing to say in the context of a G-rated movie, especially in front of all of the bridge crew*.)
*(As an aside, with the decision to completely disregard Sulu’s being a straight man for the latest Faux Trek abortion (Sorry, Stu), the producers should’ve watched TMP when Sulu nearly snapped his neck when Ilia got on the bridge, trying to get a gander at his new navigator seatmate)
For a progressive liberal utopia, the characters carried/used weapons a lot.
Didn’t watch much of it. Could never get past the fact that every last one of them was a pompous asshole.
Everybody works for the government, so it's OK.
Good excerpt. I’m “borrowing” it. :)
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