A Brief Guide to Star Trek

vessel carrying still-deadly nuclear weapons, a radioactive ‘dark star’ that threatens the ship and the mental dissolution of a crewmember. Similar storylines would crop up in some very early
Star Trek
episodes.
    All these preceding examples of science fiction, especially those in film and TV, undoubtedly had an influence on the development of Gene Roddenberry’s
Star Trek
. Indeed, specific elements that made up
Star Trek
can be traced back to individual films and shows, mainly
Forbidden Planet
, as discussed, but also – for example – the ‘United Federation of Planets’ organisation featured in
Space Patrol
. However, the creation of
Star Trek
was not just a case of cherry-picking elements from the sciencefiction that came before it. Everything had to be filtered through one creative intelligence, a unique storyteller who was a TV writer and producer, and who’d paid his dues in detective and Western shows before winning the chance to explore the final frontier of unknown space: Gene Roddenberry.

    Prior to creating
Star Trek
, Gene Roddenberry had filled many professional roles, including bomber pilot in the Second World War, commercial pilot for Pan-Am, police officer (following family tradition) and jobbing TV writer, who drew on his real-life experiences to create episodic television. However, when he died in October 1991 at the age of seventy, there was only one thing that obituary writers concentrated on:
Star Trek
.
    Eugene Wesley Roddenberry was born in El Paso in Texas on 19 August 1921, the son of a police officer, who would eventually become a cop himself. Before he was two years old the Roddenberry family relocated to Southern California, where this born storyteller would find his natural environment.
    Los Angeles in the mid-1920s had become the centre of the growing movie industry. The famous Hollywoodland (later just Hollywood) sign was erected in 1923. Both the city and the movies were growing and changing, and Roddenberry became ideally placed to take advantage of the opportunities offered. His father secured a job with the Los Angeles Police Department: they were desperate for beat cops and his Army service made the senior Roddenberry an ideal candidate.
    Young Gene did well enough at school, attending to his studies as the lively 1920s gave way to the great depression of the 1930s. By then the Roddenberry family had grown, with Gene joined by a brother and a sister. Gene and his brother were encouraged by their father to take on odd jobs (delivering newspapers, working in a petrol station) in order to earn money and discover the meaning of independence. He took them both fishing and hunting – pastimes that Roddenberry senior enjoyed, but neither of his sons did.
    Gene Roddenberry attended Los Angeles City College(LACC) from early 1939, studying the police curriculum. Through the LACC Police Club he met several figures he’d later work with after the war. Various stints of further education followed, but Roddenberry never formally graduated.
    Aged eighteen in 1940, Roddenberry signed up to the Civilian Pilot Training programme, a scheme designed to increase the number of trained American pilots in the run-up to the country’s likely entry into the conflict in Europe. Having long been interested in flying and aeroplanes, he was awarded his pilot’s licence and in 1941 joined the US Army Air Corps, just before it became the US Air Force. Combat missions followed in the wake of the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, including action with the 394th Bomber Squadron. In August 1943 Roddenberry’s B-17E Flying Fortress crashed on take-off due to a mechanical failure, with the loss of two lives. Despite that setback, Roddenberry claimed to have chalked up eighty-nine missions (his natural storytelling abilities would lead him to often embellish his personal achievements) and was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross and Air Medal prior to leaving the Air Force in 1945.
    Roddenberry married his college girlfriend Eileen Rexroat in 1942 and they had two daughters, Darlene and Dawn. Using the knowledge and skill accumulated during the war years, he became a commercial pilot for Pan American World Airways (Pan-Am). Following a June 1947 crash in the Syrian desert, the second of his flying career, Roddenberry was awarded a Civil Aeronautics commendation for his involvement in the rescue efforts (another account embellished in the telling). During his time as a commercial pilot,