Gene Roddenberry

Eugene Wesley Roddenberry Sr. (August 19, 1921 – October 24, 1991) was an American television screenwriter, producer, and creator of ''Star Trek: The Original Series'', its sequel spin-off series '' Star Trek: The Animated Series,'' and '' Star Trek: The Next Generation''. Born in El Paso, Texas, Roddenberry grew up in Los Angeles, where his father was a police officer. Roddenberry flew 89 combat missions in the Army Air Forces during World War II and worked as a commercial pilot after the war. Later, he followed in his father's footsteps and joined the Los Angeles Police Department, where he also began to write scripts for television.

As a freelance writer, Roddenberry wrote scripts for ''Highway Patrol'', ''Have Gun – Will Travel'', and other series, before creating and producing his own television series, ''The Lieutenant.'' In 1964, Roddenberry created '' Star Trek'', which premiered in 1966 and ran for three seasons before being canceled. He then worked on other projects, including a string of failed television pilots. The syndication of ''Star Trek'' led to its growing popularity; this, in turn, resulted in the ''Star Trek'' feature films, on which Roddenberry continued to produce and consult. In 1987, the sequel series ''Star Trek: The Next Generation'' began airing on television in first-run syndication; Roddenberry was intimately involved in the initial development of the series but took a less active role after the first season due to ill health. He continued to consult on the series until his death in 1991.

In 1985, he became the first TV writer with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and he was later inducted into both the Science Fiction Hall of Fame and the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Hall of Fame. Years after his death, Roddenberry was one of the first humans to have their ashes carried into earth orbit. The popularity of the ''Star Trek'' universe and films has inspired films, books, comic books, video games and fan films set in the ''Star Trek'' universe.

Early life and career

Gene Roddenberry was born on August 19, 1921, in his parents' rented home in El Paso, Texas, the first child of Eugene Edward Roddenberry and Caroline "Glen" (née Golemon) Roddenberry. The family moved to Los Angeles in 1923 after Gene's father passed the civil service test and was given a police commission there. During his childhood, Roddenberry was interested in reading, especially pulp magazines, Alexander (1995): p. 34 and was a fan of stories such as ''John Carter of Mars'', ''Tarzan'', and the ''Skylark'' series by E. E. Smith. Alexander (1995): p. 37

Roddenberry majored in police science at Los Angeles City College, Alexander (1995): p. 48 where he began dating Eileen-Anita Rexroat and became interested in aeronautical engineering. He obtained a pilot's license through the United States Army Air Corps-sponsored Civilian Pilot Training Program. Alexander (1995): p. 49 He enlisted with the USAAC on December 18, 1941 and married Eileen on June 13, 1942. He graduated from the USAAC on August 5, 1942, when he was commissioned as a second lieutenant. Alexander (1995): pp. 59–61

He was posted to Bellows Field, Oahu, to join the 394th Bomb Squadron, 5th Bombardment Group, of the Thirteenth Air Force, which flew the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress.

On August 2, 1943, while flying B-17E-BO, ''41-2463'', "Yankee Doodle", out of Espiritu Santo, the plane Roddenberry was piloting overshot the runway by and crashed into trees, crushing the nose and starting a fire as well as killing two men: bombardier Sgt. John P. Kruger and navigator Lt. Talbert H. Woolam. Alexander (1995): pp. 81–82 The official report absolved Roddenberry of any responsibility. Roddenberry spent the remainder of his military career in the United States Alexander (1995): p. 83 and flew all over the country as a plane crash investigator. He was involved in a second plane crash, this time as a passenger. He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Air Medal.

In 1945, Roddenberry began flying for Pan American World Airways, including routes from New York to Johannesburg or Calcutta, the two longest Pan Am routes at the time. Alexander (1995): p. 85 Listed as a resident of River Edge, New Jersey, he experienced his third crash while on the Clipper ''Eclipse'' on June 18, 1947. The plane came down in the Syrian Desert, and Roddenberry, who took control as the ranking flight officer, suffered two broken ribs but was able to drag injured passengers out of the burning plane and led the group to get help. Fourteen (or fifteen) people died in the crash; eleven passengers required hospital treatment (including Bishnu Charan Ghosh), and eight were unharmed. Roddenberry resigned from Pan Am on May 15, 1948, and decided to pursue his dream of writing, particularly for the new medium of television. Alexander (1995): pp. 103–104

Roddenberry applied for a position with the Los Angeles Police Department on January 10, 1949, and spent his first sixteen months in the traffic division before being transferred to the newspaper unit. This became the Public Information Division, and Roddenberry became the Chief of Police's speech writer. Alexander (1995): p. 115 In this position, he also became the LAPD liaison to the very popular '' Dragnet'' television series, providing technical advisors for specific episodes. He also did his first TV writing for the show, taking actual cases, and boiling them down to short screen treatments that would be fleshed out into full scripts by Jack Webb's staff of writers, and splitting the fee with the officers who actually investigated the real-life case. He became then technical advisor for a new television version of '' Mr. District Attorney'', which led to him writing for the show under his pseudonym "Robert Wesley". He began to collaborate with Ziv Television Programs and continued to sell scripts to ''Mr. District Attorney'', in addition to Ziv's ''Highway Patrol''. In early 1956, he sold two story ideas for '' I Led Three Lives'', and he found that it was becoming increasingly difficult to be a writer and a policeman. Alexander (1995): p. 148 On June 7, 1956, he resigned from the force to concentrate on his writing career. Alexander (1995): p. 151

Career as full-time writer and producer

Early career

Roddenberry was promoted to head writer for '' The West Point Story'' and wrote ten scripts for the first season, about a third of the total episodes. While working for Ziv, in 1956, he pitched a series to CBS set aboard a cruise ship, ''Hawaii Passage'', but they did not buy it, as he wanted to become a producer and have full creative control. He wrote another script for Ziv's series ''Harbourmaster'' titled "Coastal Security" and signed a contract with the company to develop a show called ''Junior Executive'' with Quinn Martin. Nothing came of the series.

He wrote scripts for a number of other series in his early years as a professional writer, including ''Bat Masterson'' and ''Jefferson Drum''. Roddenberry's episode of the series ''Have Gun – Will Travel'', "Helen of Abajinian", won the Writers Guild of America award for Best Teleplay in 1958. He also continued to create series of his own, including a series based on an agent for Lloyd's of London called ''The Man from Lloyds''. He pitched a police-based series called ''Footbeat'' to CBS, Hollis Productions, and Screen Gems. It nearly made it into ABC's Sunday-night lineup, but they opted to show only Western series that night. Alexander (1995): pp. 166–167

Roddenberry was asked to write a series called ''Riverboat'', set in 1860s Mississippi. When he discovered that the producers wanted no black people on the show, he argued so much with them that he lost the job. He also considered moving to England around this time, as Lew Grade wanted Roddenberry to develop series and set up his own production company. Though he did not move, he leveraged the deal to land a contract with Screen Gems that included a guaranteed $100,000, and became a producer for the first time on a summer replacement for '' The Tennessee Ernie Ford Show'' titled '' Wrangler''.

Screen Gems backed Roddenberry's first attempt at creating a pilot. His series, ''The Wild Blue'', went to pilot, but was not picked up. The three main characters had names that later appeared in the ''Star Trek'' franchise: Philip Pike, Edward Jellicoe, and James T. Irvine. While working at Screen Gems, an actress, new to Hollywood, wrote to him asking for a meeting. They quickly became friends and met every few months; the woman was Majel Leigh Hudec, later known as Majel Barrett. He created a second pilot called ''333 Montgomery'' about a lawyer, played by DeForest Kelley. Van Hise (1992): p. 15 It was not picked up by the network but was later rewritten as a new series called ''Defiance County''. His career with Screen Gems ended in late 1961, and shortly afterward, he had issues with his old friend Erle Stanley Gardner. The ''Perry Mason'' creator claimed that ''Defiance County'' had infringed his character Doug Selby. The two writers fell out via correspondence and stopped contacting one another, though ''Defiance County'' never proceeded past the pilot stage. The project finally wound up as the NBC series ''Sam Benedict'' with Edmond O'Brien in the title role, produced by MGM. E. Jack Neuman took the creator's credit; claiming the character was based on real-life San Francisco lawyer Jake Ehrlich.

In 1961, he agreed to appear in an advertisement for MONY (Mutual of New York) as long as he had final approval. With the money from Screen Gems and other works, he and Eileen moved to 539 South Beverly Glen, near Beverly Hills. He discussed an idea about a multi-ethnic crew on an airship traveling the world, based on the film '' Master of the World'' (1961), with fellow writer Christopher Knopf at MGM. As the time was not right for science fiction, he began work on ''The Lieutenant'' for Arena Productions. This made it to the NBC Saturday night lineup at 7:30 pm and premiered on September 14, 1963. The show set a new ratings record for the time slot. Roddenberry worked with several cast and crew who would later join him on ''Star Trek'', including Gene L. Coon, star Gary Lockwood, Joe D'Agosta, Leonard Nimoy, Nichelle Nichols, and Majel Barrett. Alexander (1995): pp. 201–202

''The Lieutenant'' was produced with the co-operation of the Pentagon, which allowed them to film at an actual Marine base. During the production of the series Roddenberry clashed regularly with the Department of Defense over potential plots. The department withdrew its support after Roddenberry pressed ahead with a plot titled "To Set It Right" in which a white and a black man find a common cause in their roles as Marines. "To Set It Right" was the first time he worked with Nichols, and it was her first television role. The episode has been preserved at the Museum of Television and Radio in New York City. Nichols (1994): p. 122 The show was not renewed after its first season. Roddenberry was already working on a new series idea. This included his ship location from ''Hawaii Passage'' and added a Horatio Hornblower character, plus the multiracial crew from his airship idea. He decided to write it as science fiction, and by March 11, 1964, he brought together a 16-page pitch. On April 24, he sent three copies and two dollars () to the Writers Guild of America to register his series. He called it ''Star Trek''. Alexander (1995): p. 204

''Star Trek''

When Roddenberry pitched ''Star Trek'' to MGM, it was warmly received, but no offer was made. He then went to Desilu Productions, but rather than being offered a one-script deal, he was hired as a producer and allowed to work on his own projects. His first was a half-hour pilot called ''Police Story'' (not to be confused with the anthology series created by Joseph Wambaugh), which was not picked up by the networks. Having not sold a pilot in five years, Desilu was having financial difficulties; its only success was ''The Lucy Show''. Van Hise (1992): p. 20 Roddenberry took the ''Star Trek'' idea to Oscar Katz, head of programming, and the duo immediately started work on a plan to sell the series to the networks. They took it to CBS, which ultimately passed on it. The duo later learned that CBS had been eager to find out about ''Star Trek'' because it had a science fiction series in development—''Lost in Space''. Roddenberry and Katz next took the idea to Mort Werner at NBC, this time downplaying the science fiction elements and highlighting the links to '' Gunsmoke'' and ''Wagon Train.'' Alexander (1995): pp. 211–212 The network funded three story ideas and selected "The Menagerie", which was later known as " The Cage", to be made into a pilot. (The other two later became episodes of the series.) While most of the money for the pilot came from NBC, the remaining costs were covered by Desilu. Alexander (1995): p. 213 Roddenberry hired Dorothy Fontana, better known as D. C. Fontana, as his assistant. They had worked together previously on ''The Lieutenant,'' and she had eight script credits to her name.

Roddenberry and Barrett had begun an affair by the early days of ''Star Trek'', and he specifically wrote the part of the character Number One in the pilot with her in mind; no other actresses were considered for the role. Barrett suggested Nimoy for the part of Spock. He had worked with both Roddenberry and Barrett on ''The Lieutenant'', and once Roddenberry remembered the thin features of the actor, he did not consider anyone else for the part. The remaining cast came together; filming began on November 27, 1964, and was completed on December 11. After post-production, the episode was shown to NBC executives, and it was rumored that ''Star Trek'' would be broadcast at 8:00 pm on Friday nights. The episode failed to impress test audiences, and after the executives became hesitant, Katz offered to make a second pilot. On March 26, 1965, NBC ordered a new episode.

Roddenberry developed several possible scripts, including "Mudd's Women", " The Omega Glory", and with the help of Samuel A. Peeples, "Where No Man Has Gone Before". NBC selected the last one, leading to later rumors that Peeples created ''Star Trek'', something he always denied. Roddenberry was determined to make the crew racially diverse, which impressed actor George Takei when he came for his audition. The episode went into production on July 15, 1965, and was completed at around half the cost of "The Cage", since the sets were already built. Roddenberry worked on several projects for the rest of the year. In December, he decided to write lyrics to the ''Star Trek'' theme; this angered the theme's composer, Alexander Courage, as it meant that royalties would be split between them. In February 1966, NBC informed Desilu that they were buying ''Star Trek'' and that it would be included in the fall 1966 television schedule.

On May 24, the first episode of the ''Star Trek'' series went into production; Desilu was contracted to deliver 13 episodes. Five days before the first broadcast, Roddenberry appeared at the 24th World Science Fiction Convention and previewed "Where No Man Has Gone Before". After the episode was shown, he received a standing ovation. The first episode to air on NBC was "The Man Trap", on September 8, 1966, at 8:00 pm. Roddenberry was immediately concerned about the series' low ratings and wrote to Harlan Ellison to ask if he could use his name in letters to the network to save the show. Not wanting to lose a potential source of income, Ellison agreed and also sought the help of other writers who also wanted to avoid losing potential income. Roddenberry corresponded with science fiction writer Isaac Asimov about how to address the issue of Spock's growing popularity and the possibility that his character would overshadow Kirk. Asimov suggested having Kirk and Spock work together as a team "to get people to think of Kirk when they think of Spock." The series was renewed by NBC, first for a full season's order, and then for a second season. An article in the ''Chicago Tribune'' quoted studio executives as stating that the letter-writing campaign had been wasted because they had already been planning to renew ''Star Trek''.

Roddenberry often rewrote submitted scripts, although he did not always take credit for these. Alexander (1995): p. 314 Roddenberry and Ellison fell out over "The City on the Edge of Forever" after Roddenberry rewrote Ellison's script to make it both financially feasible to film and usable for the series context. Even his close friend Don Ingalls had his script for " A Private Little War" altered drastically, and as a result, Ingalls declared that he would only be credited under the pseudonym "Jud Crucis" (a play on "Jesus Christ"), claiming he had been crucified by the process. Roddenberry's work rewriting " The Menagerie", based on footage originally shot for "The Cage", resulted in a Writers Guild arbitration board hearing. The Guild ruled in his favor over John D. F. Black, the complainant. The script won a Hugo Award, but the awards board neglected to inform Roddenberry, who found out through correspondence with Asimov.

As the second season was drawing to a close, Roddenberry once again faced the threat of cancellation. He enlisted the help of Asimov, and even encouraged a student-led protest march on NBC. On January 8, 1968, a thousand students from 20 schools marched on the studio. Roddenberry began to communicate with ''Star Trek'' fan Bjo Trimble, who led a fan writing campaign to save the series. Trimble later noted that this campaign of writing to fans who had written to Desilu about the show, urging them to write NBC, had created an organized ''Star Trek'' fandom. The network received around 6,000 letters a week from fans petitioning it to renew the series. On March 1, 1968, NBC announced on air, at the end of "The Omega Glory", that ''Star Trek'' would return for a third season.

The network had initially planned to place ''Star Trek'' in the 7:30 pm Monday-night time slot freed up by ''The Man from U.N.C.L.E.'' completing its run. That would have meant ''Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In'' had to start a half-hour later (moving from 9:00 to 9:30). Powerful ''Laugh-In'' producer George Schlatter objected to his highly-rated show yielding its slot to the poorly-rated ''Star Trek''. Instead, ''Laugh-In'' retained the slot, and ''Star Trek'' was moved to 10:00 pm on Fridays. Realizing the show could not survive in that time slot and burned out from arguments with the network, Roddenberry resigned from the day-to-day running of ''Star Trek'', although he continued to be credited as executive producer. Roddenberry cooperated with Stephen Edward Poe, writing as Stephen Whitfield, on the 1968 non-fiction book ''The Making of Star Trek'' for Ballantine Books, splitting the royalties evenly. Roddenberry explained to Whitfield: "I had to get some money somewhere. I'm sure not going to get it from the profits of ''Star Trek''." Solow & Justman (1996): p. 402 Herbert Solow and Robert H. Justman observed that Whitfield never regretted his 50–50 deal with Roddenberry, since it gave him "the opportunity to become the first chronicler of television's successful unsuccessful series." Whitfield had previously been the national advertising and promotion director for model makers Aluminum Model Toys, better known as "AMT", which then held the ''Star Trek'' license, and moved to run Lincoln Enterprises, Roddenberry's company set up to sell the series' merchandise.

Having stepped aside from the majority of his ''Star Trek'' duties, Roddenberry sought instead to create a film based on Asimov's " I, Robot" and also began work on a ''Tarzan'' script for National General Pictures. After initially requesting a budget of $2 million and being refused, Roddenberry made cuts to reduce costs to $1.2 million. When he learned they were being offered only $700,000 to shoot the film, which by now was being called a TV movie, he canceled the deal. NBC announced ''Star Trek'' cancellation in February 1969. A similar but much smaller letter-writing campaign followed news of the cancellation. Because of the manner in which the series was sold to NBC, it left the production company $4.7 million in debt. The last episode of ''Star Trek'' aired 47 days before Neil Armstrong stepped onto the moon as part of the Apollo 11 mission, and Roddenberry declared that he would never write for television again.

1970s projects

Following the cancellation of ''Star Trek,'' Roddenberry felt typecast as a producer of science fiction, despite his background in Westerns and police stories. He later described the period, saying, "My dreams were going downhill because I could not get work after the original series was cancelled." He felt that he was "perceived as the guy who made the show that was an expensive flop." Roddenberry had sold his interest in ''Star Trek'' to Paramount Studios in return for a third of the profits but this did not result in any quick financial gain; the studio was still claiming that the series was $500,000 in the red in 1982.

He wrote and produced '' Pretty Maids All in a Row'' (1971), a sexploitation film directed by Roger Vadim, for MGM. The cast included Rock Hudson, Angie Dickinson, Telly Savalas, and Roddy McDowall alongside ''Star Trek'' regular James Doohan, and William J. Campbell, who had appeared as a guest in the ''Star Trek'' episodes, "The Squire Of Gothos" and "The Trouble With Tribbles". ''Variety'' was unimpressed: "Whatever substance was in the original ovel by Francis Pollinior screen concept has been plowed under, leaving only superficial, one-joke results." Herbert Solow had given Roddenberry the work as a favor, paying him $100,000 for the script.

Faced with a mortgage and a $2,000-per-month alimony obligation as a result of his 1969 divorce, he retained a booking agent (with the assistance of his friend Arthur C. Clarke) and began to support himself largely by giving college lectures and appearances at science fiction conventions. Engel (1994): p. 140 These presentations included screenings of "The Cage" and blooper reels from the production of ''Star Trek.'' The conventions began to build the fan support to bring back ''Star Trek,'' leading ''TV Guide'' to describe it, in 1972, as "the show that won't die."

In 1972 and 1973, Roddenberry made a comeback to science fiction, selling ideas for four new series to a variety of networks. Roddenberry's '' Genesis II'' was set in a post-apocalyptic Earth. He had hoped to recreate the success of ''Star Trek'' without "doing another space-hopping show." He created a 45-page writing guide, and proposed several story ideas based on the concept that pockets of civilisation had regressed to past eras or changed altogether. The pilot aired as a TV movie in March 1973, setting new records for the ''Thursday Night Movie of the Week''. Roddenberry was asked to produce four more scripts for episodes, but before production could begin again, CBS aired the film ''Planet of the Apes.'' It was watched by an even greater audience than ''Genesis II.'' CBS scrapped ''Genesis II'' and replaced it with a television series based on the film; the results were disastrous from a ratings standpoint, and ''Planet of the Apes'' was canceled after 14 episodes.

'' The Questor Tapes'' project reunited him with his ''Star Trek'' collaborator, Gene L. Coon, who was in poor health. NBC ordered 16 episodes, and tentatively scheduled the series to follow ''The Rockford Files'' on Friday nights; the pilot launched on January 23, 1974, to positive critical response, but Roddenberry balked at the substantial changes requested by the network and left the project, leading to its immediate cancellation. During 1974, Roddenberry reworked the ''Genesis II'' concept as a second pilot, ''Planet Earth,'' for rival network ABC, with similar less-than-successful results. The pilot was aired on April 23, 1974. While Roddenberry wanted to create something that could feasibly exist in the future, the network wanted stereotypical science-fiction women and were unhappy when that was not delivered. Van Hise (1992): p. 65 Roddenberry was not involved in a third reworking of the material by ABC that produced '' Strange New World.'' He began developing ''MAGNA I,'' an underwater science-fiction series, for 20th Century Fox Television. By the time the work on the script was complete, though, those who had approved the project had left Fox and their replacements were not interested in the project. A similar fate was faced by ''Tribunes,'' a science-fiction police series, which Roddenberry attempted to get off the ground between 1973 and 1977. He gave up after four years; the series never even reached the pilot stage.

In 1974, Roddenberry was paid $25,000 by John Whitmore to write a script called ''The Nine''. Intended to be about Andrija Puharich's parapsychological research, it evolved into a frank exploration of his experiences attempting to earn a living attending science fiction conventions. Van Hise (1992): p. 59 At the time, he was again close to losing his house because of a lack of income. The pilot ''Spectre,'' Roddenberry's 1977 attempt to create an occult detective duo similar to Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, Van Hise (1992): p. 68 was released as a television movie within the United States and received a limited theatrical release in the United Kingdom.

''Star Trek'' revival

Lacking funds in the early 1970s, Roddenberry was unable to buy the full rights to ''Star Trek'' for $150,000 from Paramount. Lou Scheimer approached Paramount in 1973 about creating an animated ''Star Trek'' series. Credited as "executive consultant" and paid $2,500 per episode, Roddenberry was granted full creative control of '' Star Trek: The Animated Series''. Although he read all the scripts and "sometimes ddedtouches of his own", he relinquished most of his authority to ''de facto'' showrunner/associate producer D. C. Fontana.

Roddenberry had some difficulties with the cast. To save money, he sought not to hire George Takei and Nichelle Nichols. He neglected to inform Leonard Nimoy of this and instead, to get him to sign on, told him that he was the only member of the main cast not returning. After Nimoy discovered the deception, he demanded that Takei and Nichols play Sulu and Uhura when their characters appeared on screen; Roddenberry acquiesced. He had been promised five full seasons of the new show but ultimately, only one and a half were produced.

Vociferous fan support (6,000 attended the second New York ''Star Trek'' convention in 1973 and 15,000 attended in 1974, eclipsing the 4,500 attendees at the 32nd World Science Fiction Convention in 1974) led Paramount to hire Roddenberry to create and produce a feature film based on the franchise in May 1975. Reeves-Stevens & Reeves-Stevens (1997): p. 16 The studio was unimpressed with the ideas being put forward; John D. F. Black's opinion was that their ideas were never "big enough" for the studio, even when one scenario involved the end of the universe. Several ideas were partly developed including '' Star Trek: The God Thing'' and '' Star Trek: Planet of the Titans''. Following the commercial reception of '' Star Wars'', in June 1977, Paramount instead green-lit a new series set in the franchise titled ''Star Trek: Phase II'', with Roddenberry and most of the original cast, except Nimoy, set to reprise their respective roles.

It was to be the anchor show of a proposed Paramount-owned "fourth network", but plans for the network were scrapped and the project was reworked into a feature film. The result, '' Star Trek: The Motion Picture'', troubled the studio because of budgetary concerns, but was a box-office hit. Adjusted for inflation, it was the third-highest grossing ''Star Trek'' movie, with the 2009 film coming in first and the 2013 film second.

In 1980, Roddenberry submitted a treatment for a proposed sequel about the crew preventing the alien Klingons from thwarting the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Mindful of the tumult that suffused the production of ''Star Trek: The Motion Picture'', Paramount rejected the proposal. After he was replaced on the project by television producer Harve Bennett, Roddenberry was named " executive consultant" for the project, a position he retained for subsequent Star Trek franchise films produced during his lifetime. Under this arrangement, he was compensated with a producer's fee and a percentage of the net profits of the film in exchange for proffering non-binding story notes and corresponding with the fan community; much to his chagrin, these memos were largely disregarded by Bennett and other producers. An initial script for '' Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan'' was circulated to eight people; Bennett attributed the subsequent plot leak of the death of Spock to Roddenberry. About 20% of the plot was based on Roddenberry's ideas.

Roddenberry was involved in creating the television series '' Star Trek: The Next Generation'', which premiered with "Encounter at Farpoint" on September 28, 1987. He was given a bonus of $1 million in addition to a salary to produce the series, and celebrated by purchasing a new Rolls-Royce for $100,000. The arrangement did not entitle him to be executive producer of the series. Paramount was already concerned about the original cast not returning, and fearing fan reaction if Roddenberry was not involved, agreed to his demand for control of the show. Roddenberry rewrote the series bible from an original version by David Gerrold, who had previously written ''The Original Series'' episode "The Trouble with Tribbles", and ''The Animated Series'' follow-up, "More Tribbles, More Troubles".

According to producer Rick Berman, Roddenberry's involvement in ''The Next Generation'' "diminished greatly" after the first season, but the nature of his increasingly peripheral role was not disclosed because of the value of his name to fans. Tulock & Jenkins (1995): p. 186 While Berman said that Roddenberry had "all but stopped writing and rewriting" by the end of the third season, his final writing credit on the show (a co-teleplay credit) actually occurred considerably earlier, appearing on "Datalore", the 13th episode of the first season.

Although commercially successful from its inception, the series was initially marred by Writers Guild of America grievances from Fontana and Gerrold, both of whom left the series in acrimonious circumstances; frequent turnover among the writing staff (24 staff writers left the show during its first three seasons, triple the average attrition rate for such series); and allegations that Roddenberry attorney Leonard Maizlish had become the producer's "point man and proxy", ghostwriting memos, sitting in on meetings, and contributing to scripts despite not being on staff. Writer Tracy Tormé described the first few seasons of ''The Next Generation'' under Roddenberry as an "insane asylum".

In 1990, Nicholas Meyer was brought in to direct the sixth film in the series: '' Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country''. Creatively, Meyer clashed with Roddenberry, who felt that having the ''Enterprise'' crew hold prejudices against the Klingons did not fit with his view of the universe. Meyer described a meeting with Roddenberry he later regretted, saying

His guys were lined up on one side of the room, and my guys were lined up on the other side of the room, and this was not a meeting in which I felt I'd behaved very well, very diplomatically. I came out of it feeling not very good, and I've not felt good about it ever since. He was not well, and maybe there were more tactful ways of dealing with it, because at the end of the day, I was going to go out and make the movie. I didn't have to take him on. Not my finest hour.

In Joel Engel's biography, ''Gene Roddenberry: The Myth and the Man Behind Star Trek'', he states that Roddenberry watched ''The Undiscovered Country'' alongside the producers of the film at a private screening two days before his death, and told them they had done a "good job". In contrast, Nimoy and Shatner's memoirs report that after the screening, Roddenberry called his lawyer and demanded a quarter of the scenes be cut; the producers refused.

Roddenberry wrote the novelization of ''Star Trek: The Motion Picture''. Although it has been incorrectly attributed to several other authors (most notably Alan Dean Foster), it was the first in a series of hundreds of ''Star Trek''-based novels to be published by the Pocket Books imprint of Simon & Schuster, whose parent company also owned Paramount Pictures Corporation. Previously, Roddenberry worked intermittently on ''The God Thing'', a proposed novel based upon his rejected 1975 screenplay for a proposed low-budget ($3 to $5 million) ''Star Trek'' film preceding the development of ''Phase II'' throughout 1976. Attempts to complete the project by Walter Koenig, Susan Sackett, Fred Bronson, and Michael Jan Friedman have proven to be unfeasible for a variety of legal and structural reasons.

Personal life

While at Los Angeles City College, Roddenberry began dating Eileen-Anita Rexroat. They became engaged before Roddenberry left Los Angeles during his military service, and married in June 1942 at the chapel at Kelly Field. They had two children together, Darleen Anita and Dawn Allison. Alexander (1995): p. 163 During his time in the LAPD, Roddenberry was known to have had affairs with secretarial staff. Before his work on ''Star Trek'', he began relationships with both Nichelle Nichols and Majel Barrett