The Unauthorized History of Trek. James Hise van

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ Star Trek is anything but dead, as rumors of a revival become a reality by decade’s end.

       CHAPTER SEVEN

       SAILING THE SILVER SCREEN (THE MOVIE TRILOGY):

      One successful motion picture leads to another.

       CHAPTER EIGHT

       A NEW GENERATION EMBARKS:

      The seemingly impossible task of creating a new version of Star Trek is accomplished.

       CHAPTER NINE

       THE OLD GUARD STUMBLES; THE NEW WAVE TRIUMPHS:

      Star Trek V goes down for the count while The Next Generation gets better and better.

       CHAPTER TEN

       THE TORCH IS CARRIED ON:

      The fourth season of The Next Generation produces some of the finest episodes yet and further demonstrates how different the new Star Trek really is.

       CHAPTER ELEVEN

       THE END OF A GENERATION:

      After seven outstanding years, The Next Generation ends its successful run on television—but still the voyage continues.

       CHAPTER TWELVE

       THE FUTURE BECKONS, BRIGHT AND BOLD:

      Whither Star Trek?

       CHAPTER THIRTEEN

       CHECKLISTS:

      Star Trek: The Classic Years, The Animated Voyages; The Next Generation.

       KEEP READING

       ABOUT THE AUTHOR

       ALSO BY

       ABOUT THE PUBLISHER

FOREWORD

       GENE RODDENBERRY (1921–1991)

      It came as a surprise to many when Gene Roddenberry died of a heart attack on October 24, 1991. While the news that he had suffered a series of strokes during the year had leaked out, the full extent of his illness was not known.

      There had been rumors, though, when a gala twenty-fifth anniversary celebration for Star Trek at Paramount was scaled down in September because he was too ill to attend. A couple of actors from the original series had long been rumored to be in frail health, but no one ever thought Roddenberry would be the first to depart.

      While some fear that with Roddenberry’s passing the light of Star Trek will die, it has been known for some time that he was all but retired, having stepped down from his on-line duties on The Next Generation more and more as each year passed, until for the last two years he had been little more than a consultant. His involvement with the motion pictures has been minimal since the first one, the only one on which he worked full-time.

      Star Trek was a synthesis of many talents. While it was created by Roddenberry years ago, it was developed by such people as Gene Coon, Dorothy Fontana, and others whose contributions added much to the legend. While Roddenberry had the original vision and steered the ship on a true course, he was not the only one to dream the dream, and his biggest gift was to inspire others. The many forms of Star Trek over the years serve as living testimonial.

      When people die there is the danger of their being elevated to a role they never had in life or never aspired to. One should not suddenly elevate Roddenberry to godhood. Gene was a man, with the foibles of a man, but he should never be forgotten for his many abilities, and most of all for his dream, a dream he shared with so many of us. This dream will insure that Gene Roddenberry will never be forgotten.

      JAMES VAN HISE

INTRODUCTION

       A PHENO MENON UNEXCELLED

      Star Trek. These two simple words bring forth a vast web of mental associations to millions of people. For more than twenty-five years, a remarkable and widely varied group of characters has seemingly taken over a sizable portion of our collective consciousness and made it its own. Perhaps the late science fiction visionary Philip K. Dick saw this when he had a character in his novel A Scanner Darkly refer to the latest entertainment extravaganza as a “captainkirk.”

      More than thirty years after Gene Roddenberry first envisioned the world of the starship Enterprise, the traces of the original series are everywhere. Kirk and crew have become icons in American popular culture, representing the best of our dreams: adventure, exploration, the triumph of the human spirit over all kinds of adversity. Current films and television series continue to refer to Star Trek, and in the 1991 feature film Bill and Ted’s Bogus Journey William Shatner is honored as a guest star when the movie’s heroes are seen watching “The Arena.”

      Clearly, Star Trek has risen above the fate of other past television programs. This is a show to which some people have dedicated more than twenty-five years of their lives, often making Star Trek a centerpiece of their own personal philosophies and mythologies. This is a show that has refused to die. Battling network muddleheadedness in the sixties, creator Gene Roddenberry thought that his dream had died after its third season.

      Fortunately, nothing could undermine or destroy Star Trek’s unique appeal. Rather than fade gracefully away into the dusty attic of quaint and anachronistic conceits, Star Trek continued to live and breathe. With only seventy-nine episodes aired, the myth of Star Trek built around the dedication of its fans as well as an undying fascination with a television show that had shown viewers such strange new worlds. Even Roddenberry was somewhat taken aback by the support his creation gathered as the years went by; it began to seem inevitable that Star Trek СКАЧАТЬ