thirty-year-old secrets that astonished me. (But it was not she who altered the interesting, sensible way in which McCoy is infected—see one of the revisions that follows the script—and had him make an asshole of himself by injecting himself with his own hypodermic. Caramba!)
I wrote to order. If I’d written it too expensive, just sit down with me and explain why. There were set and cast and budget considerations of which I (as well as most other writers) was unaware. One would have had to be on staff to know such things.
But if Justman, on page 277 of his book relates how professionally I behaved, turning my own script inside out without a murmur, then why could not such a situation have reprised itself on Star Trek ? Or is it possible the show was a maelstrom of petty politics, with Roddenberry constantly having to create a “boogieman” threatening us—Paramount or NBC or censors or some Nameless Menace—with petty bickering and egos even larger than mine having to be succored? Is it possible the real reason that script “needed” to be overhauled has yet to be revealed in this essay? Yeah, fer sure, it’s possible.
[5] It was “Knife in the Darkness” for the 90-minute CBS western series, Cimarron Strip , created by that same Christopher Knopf I mentioned a minute ago, starring Stuart Whitman. (Aired on Thursday 25 January 1968.)
[6] That was the state of the art in 1975. These days, with the new computer technology and the universal use of Steadicam TM and its other refinements, the term HAND-HELD is used. I’ve made that change from the original script. But I’ve retained the name “Arriflex” in the body-copy of the stage directions, just for old times’ sake.
[7] Which was the ultimate irony. When Gene insisted that I “put the ship in jeopardy,” a perennial pain-in-the-plot that Roddenberry adored, and one he shoehorned into almost every script (and then blamed on NBC, which was bullshit), I resisted like a man in chains. But I did it, finally, because Roddenberry said if I didn’t do it, he would. So I wrote the space pirate element—and when you read the script, notice that Mr. Spendthrift Ellison, who wrote too expensive a script, did it in a way that cost nothing , shot as it would have been in one already-standing set—and it was the first thing NBC demanded be dropped.
[8] When I wrote those lines in August of 1995, INSIDE STAR TREK: The Real Story by Solow and Justman (studio executive on Trek and co-producer, respectively) had not yet been published by Pocket Books. But now it has, and my assertions are verified that Roddenberry was a pathological credit-grabber, a man who made up his past and his credits to aggrandize himself, a guy who could not bear to admit that no matter how he and others fiddled with it, that “City” was the best of the original series, and that it was I, not he, who conceived the story that made it so memorable.
Throughout the Solow-Justman book—filled with authentication that is irrefutable—those two men who worked closest with Gene during the years of the original pilot and then the series state again and again that Roddenberry was a glory-hog, taking credit for everyone else’s contributions to the show. Not once or twice, do they state that position, in clear and forceful language, but again and again.
And that is why the evidence of Roddenberry’s need to claim “City” credit is so blatant. As, for instance, the following:
In a letter to me from Roddenberry dated June 20, 1967, Gene wrote: “Next, never outside this office and particularly nowhere in S.F. or television circles have I ever mentioned that the script was anything but entirely yours.”
In the March 1987 issue of Video Review magazine, in a candid interview with Gene, we find the following, referring to “City”:
VR : That was a great episode.
RODDENBERRY : It was a fun episode to do.
VR : Who wrote that one?
RODDENBERRY : Well, it was a strange
I wrote to order. If I’d written it too expensive, just sit down with me and explain why. There were set and cast and budget considerations of which I (as well as most other writers) was unaware. One would have had to be on staff to know such things.
But if Justman, on page 277 of his book relates how professionally I behaved, turning my own script inside out without a murmur, then why could not such a situation have reprised itself on Star Trek ? Or is it possible the show was a maelstrom of petty politics, with Roddenberry constantly having to create a “boogieman” threatening us—Paramount or NBC or censors or some Nameless Menace—with petty bickering and egos even larger than mine having to be succored? Is it possible the real reason that script “needed” to be overhauled has yet to be revealed in this essay? Yeah, fer sure, it’s possible.
[5] It was “Knife in the Darkness” for the 90-minute CBS western series, Cimarron Strip , created by that same Christopher Knopf I mentioned a minute ago, starring Stuart Whitman. (Aired on Thursday 25 January 1968.)
[6] That was the state of the art in 1975. These days, with the new computer technology and the universal use of Steadicam TM and its other refinements, the term HAND-HELD is used. I’ve made that change from the original script. But I’ve retained the name “Arriflex” in the body-copy of the stage directions, just for old times’ sake.
[7] Which was the ultimate irony. When Gene insisted that I “put the ship in jeopardy,” a perennial pain-in-the-plot that Roddenberry adored, and one he shoehorned into almost every script (and then blamed on NBC, which was bullshit), I resisted like a man in chains. But I did it, finally, because Roddenberry said if I didn’t do it, he would. So I wrote the space pirate element—and when you read the script, notice that Mr. Spendthrift Ellison, who wrote too expensive a script, did it in a way that cost nothing , shot as it would have been in one already-standing set—and it was the first thing NBC demanded be dropped.
[8] When I wrote those lines in August of 1995, INSIDE STAR TREK: The Real Story by Solow and Justman (studio executive on Trek and co-producer, respectively) had not yet been published by Pocket Books. But now it has, and my assertions are verified that Roddenberry was a pathological credit-grabber, a man who made up his past and his credits to aggrandize himself, a guy who could not bear to admit that no matter how he and others fiddled with it, that “City” was the best of the original series, and that it was I, not he, who conceived the story that made it so memorable.
Throughout the Solow-Justman book—filled with authentication that is irrefutable—those two men who worked closest with Gene during the years of the original pilot and then the series state again and again that Roddenberry was a glory-hog, taking credit for everyone else’s contributions to the show. Not once or twice, do they state that position, in clear and forceful language, but again and again.
And that is why the evidence of Roddenberry’s need to claim “City” credit is so blatant. As, for instance, the following:
In a letter to me from Roddenberry dated June 20, 1967, Gene wrote: “Next, never outside this office and particularly nowhere in S.F. or television circles have I ever mentioned that the script was anything but entirely yours.”
In the March 1987 issue of Video Review magazine, in a candid interview with Gene, we find the following, referring to “City”:
VR : That was a great episode.
RODDENBERRY : It was a fun episode to do.
VR : Who wrote that one?
RODDENBERRY : Well, it was a strange
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