A Brief Guide to Star Trek

and in torn clothing, yet both events are depicted as being a result of their own wishes or desires.
    Through the years
Star Trek
has often shown women as the equal of men, from the quickly axed Number One of ‘The Cage’ to Captain Janeway in
Voyager
. In
The Original Series
even the strongest female characters were often reduced to mere romantic interests to service the story of the week: Nurse Chapel would occasionally be seen to moon over the unobtainable Mr Spock, while Yeoman Janice Rand seemed to have a thing for the heroic captain. Even Edith Keeler, a woman who gives Kirk more than a run for his money in ‘The City on the Edge of Forever’, must perform the role of a tragic, lost love interest. Kirk has a string of ex-lovers littered around the galaxy (including Areel Shaw in ‘Court Martial’, Ruth in ‘Shore Leave’, Janice Lester in ‘Turnabout Intruder’ and Dr Carol Marcus in
The Wrath of Khan
), but he always puts his career in space ahead of any lasting relationships. The temptation of casual liaisons was seemingly ever-present for the captain of the
Enterprise
, as evidenced by the number of women Kirk would seduce – and be seduced by – during the three years the show aired.
    Sex between aliens and humans was never explicitly tackled by the show, although it was implied in many of Kirk’s relationships. Perhaps the most explicit case was that of Zefram Cochrane and the amorphous, alien companion who loved him (in ‘Metamorphosis’): he rejects the creature, until it adopts the formof a shapely female. While science was shown to have made great steps forward on
Star Trek
, the role of women still more often fell into stereotype occupations, especially among the regular characters such as Nurse Chapel and Communications Officer Uhura – a failing highlighted in the
Star Trek
movie satire
Galaxy Quest
.
    Seth McFarlane, inducting Roddenberry into the TV Hall of Fame in 2010, summed up much of Roddenberry’s success in making
Star Trek
’s stories mean something: ‘[
Star Trek
] made you think. Roddenberry was the closest thing you could get in television to an actual philosopher. He had a point-of-view and he was not afraid to express it. He believed that making a statement with regard to political or social issues in the form of televised narrative was not being “preachy” but rather the responsibility of a thoughtful writer. Gene did not offer us the murder of the week or the disease of the week, he offered us the idea of the week. The messages Roddenberry was sending were timely and important.’
    However, these added layers of social and political comment were not enough to save
Star Trek
. Within weeks of the series concluding on television, a real-life space opera reached its climax in July 1969 as Neil Armstrong walked on the moon. It appeared that real-life space adventure had finally outstripped television science fiction.

Chapter 5

Timeless: The Birth of a
Franchise and Fandom

‘
It turns out that the Trekkies have been right all along, on nearly everything they have tried to tell us
.’ Gene Roddenberry

    By the middle of 1969
Star Trek
was dead. Yet the show that had battled for survival for each of its three years on air was about to sow the seeds that would allow it to, in the immortal words of Mr Spock, ‘live long and prosper’. The show’s fans were about to become
Star Trek
’s newest storytellers.
    After the cancellation of his TV show, Gene Roddenberry finally achieved what he’d hoped for all along: a transition into motion pictures. While
Star Trek
continued for its final year without his regular input, he’d been scripting a film version of Edgar Rice Burroughs’
Tarzan
. In keeping with the ethos of the 1960s (and his personal interests), Roddenberry had created a more sexualised Tarzan than had been seen before, while attempting to stay true to Burroughs’ original. However, the budget was slashed, the theatrical film downgraded to a TV movie, and Roddenberry’s script rejected, as its sexual content was now unsuitable for TV.
    Roddenberry’s first completed post-
Star Trek
project was the script for an adaptation of Francis Pollini’s novel
Pretty Maids All in a Row
, about the dalliances of a schoolteacher with his female students. The film was produced by Roger Vadim (
Barbarella
) and Roddenberry, but was not considered to be a success uponits release in 1971. The job had been a favour to Roddenberry from
Star Trek
producer Herb Solow,