1964: Gene Roddenberry: father of Star Trek

Star Trek was first conceived by Gene Roddenberry in 1960. At the time, Mr.Roddenberry have just retired from the Los Angeles Police Department after several years of service and some writing for Hollywood on the side. Due to his police experience, he was consider one of the premier police drama writers at the time and has written for just about every other show on TV at the time. He was working on the show called "The Lieutenant" for MGM, and when MGM asked for another show, Gene turned to science fiction.

The following paragraph was from his 16-page proposal to MGM in 1964:

The time is "somewhere in the future." It could be 1995 or maybe even 2995. In other words, close enough to our own time for our continuing characters to be fully identifiable as people like us, but far enough into the future for galaxy travel to be thoroughly established (happily eliminating the need to encumber our stories with tiresome scientific explanation) ... The "parallel worlds" concept is the key to the Star Trek format ... It makes production practical by permitting action- adventure science fiction at a practical budget figure via the use of available Earth casting, sets, locations, costuming, and so on...

Gene then proceeds to describe the primary characters of the show, including Captain Robert T. April, The Executive Officer (a.k.a. Number One), Jose Ortega, navigator, Philip "Bones" Boyce, ship's doctor, Lieutenant Spock from planet Vulcan, and J.M. Colt, Captain's Yeoman. Gene also described the purpose of the starship S.S. Yorktown as Earth Security... Scientific investigation... [render] any required assistance. Attached to the proposal were 25 episode synopses, many of which later became actual Star Trek Episodes. The hints of our beloved characters are almost there...

The entire 16-page proposal is reprinted in _The Making of Star Trek_ by Stephen E. Whitfield and Gene Roddenberry, published by Ballantine Books

Star Trek will feature continuing characters, which made it very different, since other science fiction shows at the time are anthologies. For this reason, a lot of people are nervous taking on the show. MGM (link) was somewhat interested in this format, but nothing came of it. Gene then tried CBS, and after listening for several hours they thanked Gene for his time, but they liked their show (Lost in Space) better. Gene was NOT pleased.

Gene went to Desilu (Desi Arnez and Lucille Ball) Studios, which was on a down period, having only "I Love Lucy" to offer to networks. They are desperate for a new show, and Gene offered them that, and in turn they offered Gene their support. The show was offered to NBC, and Mort Werner, NBC's programming VP, was interested that he paid $20,000 for three story treatments. One of them, "The Cage" was selected by NBC for the series pilot.

 

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