Wesley Eugene Roddenberry (1921-1991)

When I was working in Los Angeles radio in the early 1970s, I produced a documentary series about the original Star Trek on the occasion of the debut of the Saturday morning animated spinoff on NBC-TV.

I first met Gene Roddenberry in 1973.  I somehow persuaded him to agree to an interview for the radio documentary that I was producing.

At first, he did not want to talk with me. He told me that he had been “burned” by the media previously. So, I came up with the idea of using two tape recorders simultaneously while interviewing him at his office in Burbank.  I assured him that if I used those two tape recorders, I could then hand him his own copy of the taped interview before I even left his office. And so he agreed to talk with me! 

Only small portions of the recordings I made of Roddenberry’s comments in his own words were ever broadcast.  Trekology.com presents all of Roddenberry’s answers to my interview questions for you to hear as MP3 files.

Roddenberry wrote to me in response to my radio documentary, telling me how pleased he was with it. You can read his comments in the letter (pdf) he sent me.

Into The Next Decade

In 1982, when Roddenberry was on the college lecture circuit, he came to New Haven, Connecticut, where I was a college professor. That night I was honored to introduce him to the crowded auditorium. He gave a speech in which he explained the power of Star Trek, and showed the original pilot, “The Cage,” which was rare in those days since it was not yet available to the public as it is today.

A New Haven newspaper covered Roddenberry’s appearance and my research interest in him and Star Trek:

Professor studies ‘Star Trek’ impact
By Randall Beach, Staff Reporter
New Haven Register, March 19, 1982

“If anyone has a hero, Gene Roddenberry is mine. I really respect what hes done.” Woody Goulart (pictured above) was honored and a little frightened to be introducing his idol, the creator and producer of “Star Trek,” Thursday night (March 18, 1982) at the University of New Haven. Goulart, an assistant professor of communications at UNH, has practically made a life study of the TV series and the man behind it. He even did his doctoral dissertation on the subject.

“But I’m not a ‘Trekkie,’ he emphasized. “I’d be the last one to wear Spock ears, even in private. I’m more of a Star Trek researcher. I’ve read all the Star Trek books, and I really believe that no one has come up with a complete explanation of why the formula worked.”

Goulart hopes to be the one to do this, by writing a book on Roddenberry. Last year, aided by a $1,440 grant from the UNH faculty research fund, Goulart bought video equipment and studied the show’s episodes (he has seen all 78 of them.) While engaged in this, he expanded his theory of “disguised mass persuasion.”

“Roddenberry admits there are hidden covert messages in the show. There’s an anti-war message, with the United Federation of Planets as an ideal United Nations. The series was made from 1966-69, during the Vietnam War. But you couldn’t just come out on TV and say we shouldn’t be imperialistic. He did it in an allegorical way with science fiction. This is the legacy that Roddenberry made possible: TV is a producer’s medium, and you don’t have to resort to explicit violence and sexuality.” Goulart conceded “Star Trek” did have its share of warfare.

“But they (the starship Enterprise crew) dealt with the enemy from the standpoint of protecting society: defensive, not offensive. “The show was basically optimistic service to one’s society, learning to get along with all different kinds of people and not have constant prejudice. It was also pro-feminist.”

Goulart said Leonard Nimoy’s character of Spock embodies “all those values worth emulating.” He is calm, peaceful, decidedly non-violent. But he’s always in a struggle to fight his alien nature. He’s like all of us, fighting our animal instincts.That’s why he was the most popular character.” Indeed, Goulart considers Spock “the most unique character in television. Who did you have before? Ben Cartwright (Lorne Greene of ‘Bonanza’)? TV producers think the audience would rather watch characters who are shallow. The people on ‘Dukes of Hazzard’ are talented, but John Schneider’s acting is just secondary. That credibility is missing. You know these people don’t really exist, but you knew Captain Kirk could exist.”

“Roddenberry knew his audience. He decided to appeal to that audience, and he assumed people were intelligent. Other TV producers thought people would not sit still for messages, ideas. So they made ‘The Beverly Hillbillies’ and ‘Gilligan’s Island.’ ‘Dukes’ proves that this hasn’t changed.” Goulart, now 31, came by his obsession gradually. He was 16 when the show was first aired, and he only watched it then because his teacher assigned it as a project. His interest really took hold when he pursued his Ph.D. at Indiana University. It was then that he first developed his theory on disguised mass persuasion. But the faculty there didn’t consider a TV science fiction show fit material for a doctoral dissertation. “They thought I was absolutely bonkers. But when I got to them on the level of disguised mass persuasion, they were more receptive.”

Goulart went on to write and produce a 22-part documentary series on “Star Trek” for a Los Angeles radio station in 1973. That was when he first met Roddenberry. “He believed the United Federation of Planets was a model of what we could become. He told me, ‘We’re not very advanced. We’re not like the characters in “Star Trek,” who are 200 years in the future. That’s a model of how things could be in the future. We’re only in our adolescence now.’”

Goulart said if he goes forward with the book, “I’ll try to show that television is not mere entertainment. Even accidentally, you can persuade people.” Meanwhile, Goulart is anxiously awaiting the second “Star Trek” movie (due for release this summer) though he was disappointed by the first. “It wasn’t as well-conceived as the TV show. But I have HBO, and whenever that film is on, it’s irresistible. I want to spend time with the characters. But that’s absurd. I’m a grown person and I’m spending time with TV characters. I guess I shouldn’t be embarrassed. A lot of people feel that way about characters.”

Despite this affection, Goulart is not concerned about the rumors that Spock will be killed off in the second movie. “I’m sure it’s a promotional thing. It’s hype, like ‘Who shot J.R.?’ If you thought there was a furor when they cancelled the TV show, this would be incredible. Trekkies with Speck ears storming Paramount Studios. That’s the formula–don’t do something the audience would reject.”

Also in 1982, I interviewed Roddenberry once again.

In the 1982 interview he said, “I think the three things that made Star Trek different from other things that have been done are, first, it said we have a future, and an optimistic future. Secondly, we had very much old-fashioned heroes, who believed it’s not necessarily the coolest thing in the world to rip other people off. And, third, were the comments Star Trek made on humans in society.”

Roddenberry noted that he wasn’t convinced that 1980’s Western civilization would necessarily survive for hundreds of years into the future. He told me that he fully expected very tough times for humanity in the coming decades, but explained, “I think the human creature will survive.”

Roddenberry also explained that he believed humanity’s values systems and attitudes and ways will so change in the future that it would “frighten today’s audiences probably no less than twentieth-century humanity would frighten an eighth or ninth-century audience.”

Roddenberry told me that he believed although the 1960s were over, many of the aspects of American society that the original Star Trek television series had commented on were still evident in the 1980s. “Our public life is full of thieves,” he said, and added, “Religion is full of con men. We have enormous problems with crime.”

Roddenberry gave me his perspective on how he thought aliens who visited Earth would view humans: “I suspect if aliens visited us they would see us as infants, who do a lot of destruction as infants will. They would see us as infants who are sometimes cruel, but with a sort of ‘divine spark’ too, very precocious infants that are really going to be something when they grow up!”

Later that night in 1982, Roddenberry and I shared a quiet steak dinner together–just the two of us–where we talked about his work and plans for the future. At the time, I was a 31 year-old college professor. Even though I was a professional and not “merely” a fan of Star Trek, I certainly was blown away by the fact that Roddenberry (who didn’t know me well, personally) would offer to take me to dinner and spend time talking with me. I knew that Roddenberry could have as easily opted for some quiet time on his own, away from everyone, where he didn’t have to think or talk about Star Trek. 

I shared with Roddenberry my dream of writing a book about him and his creation. He made it clear that he was very disinterested in having anyone write a book about him.  He said he would help me get the necessary approvals.  That could have been a polite way of telling me that this book would never happen.  But, Roddenberry eventually gave his full cooperation to David Alexander, who wrote Star Trek Creator, the essential biography. Other books about Roddenberry have subsequently been published, though not all remain in print.

Although my interest in studying Roddenberry and his creation remained strong through the years, I ultimately set aside my dream of writing a book about him.  Gene Roddenberry died in 1991. I produced this site to share with you what I learned over the years. Writing a book about Roddenberry and Star Trek is no longer a professional interest of mine, and besides, the Internet now makes it possible for writers to reach a far wider audience than most books can.

His son, Wesley Eugene Roddenberry, Jr., writes and produces Roddenberry.com, which contains material that any Star Trek fan will want to see.