So You Think You Know Star Trek?

LOS ANGELES, May 5, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- 2016 is Star Trek's 50^th anniversary, but the real story began 50 years ago this year with the show's two pilots!  Considering the success and spin-offs that followed, it's hard to believe the studio was trying to kill the series from the beginning.

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Author Marc Cushman's third and final book about the making of Star Trek, These Are the Voyages – The Original Series, completes the set, documenting the making and breaking of the iconic series, including facts even die-hard Trekkies may not know.

Apparently the greatest conflicts on Star Trek were not between Starfleet and the Klingons, but in the back offices between writers, producers, network and studio executives. 

During the first season many famous sci-fi writers were severely rewritten by producer Gene Roddenberry, some to the point of wanting their names removed, including Harlan Ellison.  Roddenberry also challenged the censors with stories about sex, racial discrimination, religion, and war. 

Season One's episode "Dagger of the Mind," as written, had Spock obtaining information from an escaped asylum inmate through hypnosis.  Fearing viewers would be hypnotized, the NBC censors instructed Roddenberry to change it, forcing him to invent another way; alas, the Vulcan-mind-meld was created.

Interestingly, Lucille Ball gave birth to Star Trek.  Lucy felt Star Trek could sustain reruns for at least ten years; so, against adamant advice of her Desilu Studios board members, she green-lit the series. Star Trek quickly became the most expensive television show to be produced at that time, and Lucy lost her studio to Paramount. Not wanting to follow Lucy's footsteps to bankruptcy, Paramount slashed Star Trek's budget. During this time, Leonard Nimoy, who made $1,125 per episode, demanded an increase to $9,000 per episode and very nearly didn't come back. Another actor was put under contract. Without NBC's intervention, Spock would be, well, not Nimoy. Also revealed in Cushman's books is why producer Gene Coon left the series. You may be surprised to learn the Tribbles had something to do with it.

But the most interesting stories occurred during the series third and final season. Many viewers wondered who thought "Spock's Brain" was a good idea. It was actually inspired by the first heart transplant which took place weeks before the episode was written. And, "Spock's Brain" won its timeslot in the Neilson ratings.

Paramount had already decided this was Star Trek's final season, and cut the budget again, prompting associate producer Robert Justman to quit.  His replacement, Fred Frieberger, boarded this sinking ship with no lifejacket.  He was handed the aforementioned obstacles along with many pre-chosen Roddenberry scripts, new censorship rules which included no violence. Studio and network executives were so upset with Roddenberry by this point they wouldn't return Frieberger's calls, and now, even Roddenberry distanced himself, leaving Frieberger to keep the battered ship afloat while taking blame for its demise.

If you've not read the Saturn award winning trilogy, These Are the Voyages: TOS, and think you know Star Trek…you probably don't.

Learn more at www.thesearethevoyagesbooks.com 

For additional information contact:
Susan Templeton
(818) 634-5835
Email

SOURCE Marc Cushman