Up Till Now: The Autobiography

whom I’ve liked and admired, but almost no one beyond my wives with whom I felt comfortable talking about the things that mattered. So the fact that I hadn’t maintained friendships with any other members of the cast seemed very normal to me. That’s why I was shocked many years later to learn about the deep animosity several members of the cast had toward me.
    In the early 1990s I had just finished interviewing Nichelle Nichols for a book I was writing, Star Trek Memories, when she told me, “I’m not finished yet. I have to tell you why I despise you.” As this wasn’t Saturday Night Live I knew she was serious. Despise me? I didn’t understand that at all. That possibility had never even occurred to me. She began explaining, telling me that while we were making the series I had been completely self-absorbed; not only hadn’t I been supportive of the other actors, at times I’d even been responsible for them losing time on screen and even took lines away from them.
    When I considered this, I realized she probably was right. I was the star, Leonard Nimoy and I were in the middle of almost every scene, Dee Kelley was also in the majority of the scenes, so it hadn’t even occurred to me that Nichelle and Walter Koenig, George Takei, and Jimmy Doohan had to fight for every minute on camera. Their careers depended on it. I was so intent on telling the story that I never focused on their needs or desires. The only thing I could say in my defense was that I never intentionally tried to hurt another actor. Perhaps I was ignorant, but I was never mean.
    I discovered that the rest of the supporting cast felt very muchthe same way, but only Jimmy Doohan refused to speak to me. Doohan was particularly critical of me, both as an actor and a person. Obviously there wasn’t anything I could do but take it. While I thought his comments were extreme and truly unjustified—and maybe even petty—I certainly wasn’t going to get into an argument with him. The fact is that Leonard and Dee Kelley and I worked full days five days a week, while the other members of the cast came in as they were needed. When the show ended, as far as I knew, everybody was satisfied. Then the conventions started and the actors would go to the conventions and get standing ovations. Slowly, I think, the supporting players began to consider themselves lead actors and no longer wanted to take a backseat. In some ways their perception of reality changed. But even after being criticized I do think of the cast with affection on some level.
    And at least they didn’t call me wooden!
    What I would rather remember is that working together—all of us—we had made entertainment history; we’d created a multibillion-dollar franchise with beloved characters that has been seen, and reseen, and rereseen, and... and in doing so we’d made an indelible impression on American culture and changed countless lives. The Smithsonian Institution has held a major Star Trek exhibit and the Las Vegas Hilton is the site of Star Trek:The Experience , a themed attraction featuring rides and a show. Dee Kelley, Dr. McCoy, used to say that his greatest thrill was the number of people who told him that they had entered the medical profession because of him. Similarly, both Leonard and I have often been told by people that they had become an engineer because of Star Trek , or a physicist, or an astronomer, or a pilot. Astronauts have told me they first started dreaming of going into space when they watched the show.
    Just imagine what the world would be like if the other series pilots I’d done had made the same impact on society as Star Trek . If Alexander had been successful tens of thousands of people would have become soldiers and armies would have swept through the Middle East and then...Well, if For the People had achieved the same level of success as Star Trek we would have become a nation ofcountless lawyers and I’m certain you can imagine what the result of that would be!
    Fortunately, it was Star Trek . Naturally, we had a very special relationship with the American space program. As it turned out, a NASA executive discovered that every time they launched a manned rocket our ratings went up, meaning people were very interested in space; and when our ratings went up Congress voted more money for the space program. In fact, the prototype space shuttle, which was used primarily to perform tests in the atmosphere, was named the Enterprise . NASA officials often