A Brief Guide to Star Trek

tuned to that programme). The second show (‘Charlie X’) dropped dramatically as it was broadcast opposite new programming on rival channels, scoring a 29.4 per cent share, putting NBC in second place behind CBS. For the next two episodes (second pilot ‘Where No Man Has Gone Before’ was aired third, followed by ‘The Naked Time’),
Star Trek
ranked 33rd out of the top 100 US TV shows. The next two episodes (‘The Enemy Within’ and ‘Mudd’s Women’) saw viewership collapse and the show languish at 51st place. After just six weeks on air, the first season of
Star Trek
was heading towards an average 52nd place in the top 100, a position that would not lead to automatic renewal for a second season.
    Roddenberry turned to the science fiction fan community for support. He had already built a relationship with fans Bjo (a shortened version of Betty Joanne) and John Trimble at the 24th World Science Fiction Convention in Cleveland, and they volunteered to spearhead a fan letter-writing campaign. However, worried that NBC might respond to
Star Trek
’s falling ratings by pulling the show off air before completion of the first season, Roddenberry set about coordinating a ‘Save
Star Trek
’ campaign directly from within the show’s production office. Roddenberry himself drafted a series of letters making key points about the show, which were then offered to leading authors to use as the basis of their own campaigning efforts in support of the programme.
    In November 1966 Roddenberry co-opted fantasy author Harlan Ellison to spearhead the campaign. Aimed at recruitingmore science fiction professionals, the Roddenberry-drafted letter highlighted the positive effect the existence of ‘adult’ science fiction television could have on the field as a whole. Encouraging authors and fans to write letters to their local TV stations and newspapers in support of
Star Trek
, Roddenberry’s campaign was a dry run for those that would come at the end of each of the show’s three troubled seasons on air. Among those writers who signed up to the campaign alongside Ellison were Theodore Sturgeon, Richard Matheson, A. E. van Vogt, Robert Bloch, Lester del Ray, Philip José Farmer, Frank Herbert and Poul Anderson.
    Despite the low ratings, and almost in spite of the limited letter-writing campaign of 1966, NBC decided it would extend
Star Trek
’s first season by another thirteen episodes for 1966–7 and then pick up the show for a second season of episodes for 1967– 8. Recognising the series’ appeal among younger viewers, especially teenagers who were otherwise hard to reach through television drama, NBC announced
Star Trek
would return in the 7.30 p.m. slot on Tuesdays, before changing its mind and moving the show to the difficult 8.30 p.m. Friday night slot – a time when the target audience of teenagers and college students would most likely not be bothering to watch broadcast television.
    It was the beginning of the long, slow death of
Star Trek
.

Chapter 4

Too Short a Season:
Consolidating
Star Trek

‘Star Trek
– despite the wild enthusiasm of science fiction aficionados – had a rough go its first year, due mainly to that purblind arrogance of the nameless decision-makers on their skyscraper mountaintops
.’ Harlan Ellison

    Series creator Gene Roddenberry took a step back from the day-to-day running of
Star Trek
halfway through its first season on air. His credit changed from producer on those first sixteen episodes to executive producer for the remainder of the series. Into the second season, he continued to rewrite scripts to ensure they fitted with the
Star Trek
universe he’d created, but producer Gene Coon took a stronger hand on the script-editing front, with associate producer Robert Justman continuing to handle the physical production process. This team, along with screen-writer Harlan Ellison, were to be behind the creation of the episode cited as
Star Trek
’s all-time best instalment.
    Despite his wholehearted involvement in the campaign to raise the profile of
Star Trek
with science fiction fans and professionals, Ellison would prove to be a thorn in Gene Roddenberry’s side when he came to script an episode for the series. The making of ‘The City on the Edge of Forever’ – an episode from towards the end of
Star Trek
’s debut season – was extremely troubled from the beginning.
    Ellison was primarily a short story writer, essayist and columnist who’d scripted various TV