David Gerrold - The World of Star Trek

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REVISED EDITION

Written by

David Gerrold

in association with Starlog magazine

BenBella Books, Inc.

Dallas, Texas

Copyright 1973, 1984, 2014 by David Gerrold

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.

BenBella Books, Inc.
10300 N. Central Expressway
Suite #530
Dallas, TX 75231
www.benbellabooks.com
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First e-book edition: January 2014

ISBN 978-1-939529-57-2

The Library of Congress has cataloged the printed edition as follows:

Gerrold, David, 1944- The World of Star Trek.
1. Star trek (Television program) 2. Star trek (Motion picture) 3. Star trek II, the wrath of Khan (Motion picture) I. Title.
PN1992.77.S73G47 1984 791.45'72 84-9205
ISBN 0-312-94463-2

Cover art and design by Scott Osborne
STAR TREK is a Trademark of Paramount Pictures Corporation Registered in the U. S. Patent and Trademark Office.
Designed by Rhea Braunstein

Distributed by Perseus Distribution
perseusdistribution.com

To place orders through Perseus Distribution:
Tel: 800-343-4499
Fax: 800-351-5073
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Significant discounts for bulk sales are available. Please contact Glenn Yeffeth at or 214-750-3628.

For Henry and Gail Morrison, with love

THANK YOU

Dennis Ahrens

Betty Ballantine

Harve Bennett

Stan Bums

William Campbell

Gene L. Coon

James Doohan

Diane Duane

John Dwyer

Irving Feinberg

Dorothy Fontana

Matt Jefferies

DeForest Kelley

Walter Koenig

David McDonnell Nichelle Nichols

Leonard Nimoy

Fred Phillips

Rita Ratcliffe

Ruth Rigel

Susan Sackett

Tony Sauber

William Shatner

George Takei

Bjo Trimble

Teresa Victor

Linda Wright

Howard Zimmerman

and of course,

Gene Roddenberry

The opinions expressed in this book are the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the universe.

The first edition of this book was published in May 1973. Eleven years and ten printings later, I have finally gotten the chance to finish this book.

Let me explain that.

The original STAR TREK television series premiered at 8:30, Thursday evening, September 8, 1966, on NBC television.

At the end of its first two years on NBC, the show was in danger of being cancelled. Its followersalready a growing phenomenoninitiated a letter campaign to the network to persuade them to continue the series. Eventually over a million letters were sent in to NBC, and the series was saved for another year.

Unfortunately the network stuck it into what was probably the worst possible time slot for it: ten P.M., Friday night. At the end of its third year, in spring 1969, STAR TREK was finally cancelled. The network said the ratings were weak. A total of seventy-nine episodes had been produced.

A few months later, in the fall of that same year, those same seventy-nine hours of STAR TREK were made available by Paramount Studiosthrough the process of syndicationfor rerun on local TV stations across the country. Over a hundred and fifty separate markets purchased the show and scheduled it for airing between the hours of four and seven P.M.

where it was discovered by a whole new audience.

In fall 1969, the original seventy-nine episodes of the STAR TREK TV-series demonstrated a power to pull ratings that was amazing thenand continues to amaze even today. The show has become one of those perpetual TV showslike Twilight Zone and I Love Lucy. You can always find it somewhere in the TV Guide.

That was when the STAR TREK Phenomenon truly began. Like Topsy, it wasnt created, it just grewoften wildly and out of control. It was all the separate piecesthe letter campaigns, the fanzines, the film clips, the conventionsall coming together at once to become something more. It was one of the most unusual occurrences in American television history. Never before had a TV series become even more popular after its cancellation. And its popularity has continued to grow ever since!

STAR TREKS fans have created a vast network of communication. There are countless clubs, newsletters, fanzineseven computer bulletin boards. STAR TREK conventions continue to be held every yearnot only in the United States, but in England and Japan and Australia as well.

The first edition of this book was an (admittedly) incomplete attempt to chronicle the birth of the STAR TREK Phenomenon. Not surprisingly, the book became a part of that phenomenon itself, even helping to fuel its growth. Many hundreds of thousands of copies of The World of Star Trek have been sold over the past eleven years, because STAR TREKS fans want to get as close to the show as they can.

Even more than that, they want to be a part of STAR TREK.

A history of STAR TREKS fans would be a list of enterprising (pun intended) individuals who have built bridge sets, designed blueprints, sewn their own uniforms, written songs and plays, put on conventions, made STAR TREK home-movies or written their own STAR TREK novels. Theyve published STAR TREK fanzines, drawn cartoons, painted pictures (sometimes wall-size murals), built models, designed new costumes and makeup for convention masquerades, collected filmclips and videotapes and props from the original TV seriesnot to mention all those who have studied STAR TREK and analyzed it from this position or that.

This then is the essence of the STAR TREK Phenomenon: the fans have claimed the show as their own. They are its caretakers. They are the keepers of the dream.

And that was as much as I had to write about in 1973. The first edition of The World of Star Trek was annoyingly incomplete because we still didnt know how it was all going to turn out.

Throughout the seventies, STAR TREKS fans kept the dream alive. They kept asking, Please, Paramount, can we have some more STAR TREK? A new TV series perhaps? Or even a movie? The mail sent to the studio was unceasing. Fans circulated the names and addresses of the studio heads and wrote hundreds of letters a month