The Unauthorized History of Trek. James Hise van

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СКАЧАТЬ the beginning would approach Roddenberry with his comments about the script. Later, he presented Gene with a script he himself had written. Roddenberry was impressed—“I caught myself wishing I could write that well. …”—but not inspired to buy the script. Working with such an assertive actor at first seemed ominous, “but it wasn’t so bad. I have never had more intelligent suggestions, and we used all of them,” Roddenberry said.

      Shatner took to stardom like a natural from the very first, and in the years since that first season, he has even realized his early dream of writing and directing.

      “What Are Little Girls Made Of?” again features two Kirks (Shatner must have loved this!) when he is duplicated, in android form, by Nurse Chapel’s fiancé, Dr. Roger Korby. She’s been searching for him, but he seems to have gone just a little bit ’round the bend, and is intent on taking over the Enterprise and populating the universe with his androids, one of whom, Ruk, is portrayed by Ted Cassidy (Lurch on The Addams Family). This episode has a strange, eerie quality about it, and writer Robert Bloch, who wrote the novel on which the film Psycho was based, peppers it with arcane references to aspects of H. P. Lovecraft’s mythos. Kirk’s brother George is mentioned in this episode.

      “Miri” brings Kirk and crew to a planet remarkably like Earth, where ancient children live long lives until their long-delayed puberty causes them to sicken and die. Kirk is beaten up by children in this episode; McCoy finds a cure for the aging disease before almost succumbing to it himself.

      “Dagger of the Mind” involves Kirk’s discovery of the abuses of power at a supposedly humane penal colony. This introduces the Vulcan mind meld, which conveniently serves as a means to avoid a lengthy expository conversation with a mentally deranged character.

      “The Corbomite Maneuver” was actually the third episode filmed, as well as being the first one to include McCoy as a character. Here Kirk encounters a massive, threatening spaceship that is not what it seems to be.

      The next two broadcasts consisted of a two-parter, “The Menagerie,” which incorporated much of the footage from the first pilot, “The Cage.” Here Spock goes to great lengths to take Captain Pike, crippled in an accident, back to Talos IV so that he can live out his life in a happy illusion created by the Talosians. Through flashbacks, Spock explains his actions to Kirk and the others.

      By this point in the series, one thing was crystal clear: Mr. Spock, originally a supporting character, was becoming as popular as the lead, Captain Kirk. At times, Shatner even felt obliged to remind some series scriptwriters that he was the captain; he later acknowledged that there was sometimes friction between him and Leonard, but made certain to indicate that this was a thing of the past: “We went through that fire together and today we are fast friends. Leonard is an honest man and a fine craftsman.” Still, at the time Shatner was so concerned over the situation that he counted his lines in each new script to be certain that he had more than Nimoy. If he didn’t, either more were added for him at his insistence, or some of Nimoy’s lines were cut.

      Norman Spinrad once related the story of his visit to the set of the episode he had scripted, “The Doomsday Machine.” He witnessed the director trying to come up with an alternative way for Nimoy to react to Shatner in a scene because for Nimoy to utter a line would have given him one line too many, as far as Shatner was concerned.

      But by the end of 1966, Star Trek was already in trouble. NBC was dissatisfied with the Nielsen ratings, and was, as usual, uncertain of how to categorize the series. The show had already generated a highly positive response in the science fiction subculture, of course, and so Roddenberry turned to Harlan Ellison for help. Perhaps if the network knew just how large an audience science fiction fandom represented, it might very well see the show in a new light.

      And so, Ellison sent out five thousand letters urging science fiction fans to press NBC with a letter-writing campaign. Dated December 1, 1966, Ellison’s missive bore the letterhead of “The Committee,” an impressive listing of names: Paul Anderson, Robert Bloch, Lester Del Rey, Ellison, Philip Jose Farmer, Frank Herbert, Richard Matheson, Theodore Sturgeon, and A. E. Van Vogt. Thus Ellison, who would later be less than keen on his involvement with Star Trek (“The City on the Edge of Forever” had yet to be filmed), was in fact responsible for the very first letter campaign organized to benefit the series.

      This, of course, was in the days when the Nielsen ratings presupposed a bland, all-encompassing uniformity belonging to the “average” TV viewer. With this sort of a priori approach, it is hardly surprising that the appeal of Star Trek did not dovetail with the Nielsen company’s concepts, and hence eluded its comprehension. But in those pre-demographics days, before the variety of the American mind-set was taken into consideration, the Nielsen ratings were the voice of God as far as the networks were concerned. Those were the numbers that determined a show’s advertising value and marketability, as well as its popularity, despite whatever evidence reality had to offer to the contrary.

      And evidence there was. The stars of Star Trek had become wildly popular with the public … almost, if not quite, overnight. The ratings problem seems almost ironic when held up against this fact.

      In 1966, Leonard Nimoy and William Shatner were invited to appear in Hollywood’s annual Christmas parade. This newfound fame was no guarantee of respect, however, for while the parade announcer got Shatner’s name correct, he introduced the other Star Trek star as “Leonard Nimsy.” Despite this gaffe, Nimoy was, for the first time in his life, frequently recognized on the street, and constantly besieged for autographs.

      He took it all in good humor, although he soon became weary of smart-aleck fans asking him where he’d left his ears. Fan mail began to pour in, too, a great deal of it from younger viewers.

      All of this was uncharted territory for Nimoy. At first, he was determined to answer all his fan mail by himself. Thirty or so letters a week was no big deal, after all. Unfortunately for this plan, the numbers began to increase every week, until thousands of messages were pouring in. He had to hire an assistant, Teresa Victor, to help him cope with his popularity. The other Star Trek stars made similar arrangements.

      With the success of the show, the principal actors were better off financially than they had been in their entire careers. Nimoy used this money to upgrade his personal transportation, and replaced his battered old car with a new Buick luxury auto. Shatner went for something sportier, while DeForest Kelley bought a Thunderbird—which he managed to ram into Nimoy’s Buick one day at the end of shooting. Things proceeded amicably, but passersby were probably a bit nonplussed to see a normal-looking man exchanging insurance information with Leonard, who was still rigged up in full Spock regalia.

      There was also a downside to Nimoy’s newfound celebrity. Early in Star Trek’s run, NBC arranged for him to be the grand marshal of Medford, Oregon’s annual Pear Blossom Festival; this was to be his first real promotional trip, and he was quite unprepared for the chaos that would surround it. The parade went without a hitch—but it had also been announced that Nimoy would sign autographs in a small park at the end of the parade route. A crowd, with a large number of young people, actually followed Leonard’s itinerary. By the time he reached the park, it was swarming with immense numbers of people. The lone park employee was swamped by this madness; traffic was completely fouled up. In the end, Medford police had to make their way in and “rescue” Nimoy from the friendly mob.

      Eventually, it reached the point where people actually turned down the chance for a Spock/Nimoy appearance. Macy’s, the famous New York department store, declined to have Nimoy appear to promote one of his record albums. The stone honestly admitted that it could not handle the sort of crowds which would undoubtedly attend such an event.

      Nimoy himself turned down many requests for public appearances because they asked for СКАЧАТЬ