50 Years of Star Trek

1

["Star Trek" theme]

Male narrator:
On September 8th, 1966,

America tunes in to

catch a glimpse of the future

and launches a global phenomenon.

A television series like no other

that unites us in its vision

of a better world to come.

Here's a group of people

who are solving problems together,

and they're all

different, diverse people.

Narrator:
This is the

secret history of "Star Trek."

It's epic 50-year mission.

That was what was so

brilliant about "Star Trek"

was that it was human

nature and human instinct

and the drive to want to know more

combined with adventure.

Narrator:
The mastermind of

the "Star Trek" universe.

And Gene says, "Do you

want to be on Star Trek?"

I said, "Yes. Yes!"

Narrator:
The cast and

crew reveal the stories

you've never heard.

Roddenberry looked

at the beard and goes,

"I love the beard. It's nautical."

Narrator:
Plus Leonard

Nimoy's final full interview.

If I were given the

choice of any character

ever portrayed on

television, I would choose Spock.

Happy anniversary, "Star Trek."

Happy 50th. Wow, way to go.

Before anybody else were

touching on subjects,

racism, segregation, discrimination,

before any other TV shows did.

"Star Trek:
Voyager" is

probably my first acting job.

There's an optimism to it

that I think we've never

needed more than now.

Seven of Nine's one of my favorite

"Star Trek" characters

because she was so hot.

Narrator:
Featuring an intimate

conversation with cast members,

comedians, scientists, and academics

covering all things "Star Trek."

That was one of my big

fears in accepting the role.

Happy 50th anniversary, "Star Trek."

You know how old that makes me?

We're here on the 50th

anniversary of "Star Trek"

at the Griffith Observatory

outside the Leonard Nimoy theater

to discuss "Star Trek" with

a lot of great people

and a lot of fine

minds and Kevin Pollak.

[laughter]

Let's just jump right into it.

Let's talk about the

general impact of "Star Trek."

The great sense of

discovery and curiosity

on this five-year

mission to seek out new worlds.

You know, those... those...

That phraseology was kind of impactful.

"The Measure of

Man" where Data's on trial,

that's the episode that

led me to create my class.

- Oh, wow.

- Because it has references

to slavery in it, and I thought about,

"Gee, this is very interesting."

You know, there's a

whole pro-slavery argument.

It's really the Dred

Scott decision worked out there.

- Yeah.

- Is Data property or not?

I saw a couple episodes

of the original series when I was a kid

because you can't not

have seen some things.

I saw the Tribble episode, I think,

and I saw the planet of kids, "grups."

And they were saying, "Grups,

grups," that one.

- Whatever.

- Yeah.

But I was never a sci-fi fan,

so I wasn't into it.

And I never watched any

of the other incarnations

until I was on the show.

I saw "Star Trek" as this, you know,

amazing way of bringing

humanity together, right?

You had the height of the Cold War.

You had Russian and

American people working together.

You had black people and

white people working together.

That's an incredible

thing to see as a kid

when, you know, you're from two worlds

that really also don't get along.

I first started on the original series,

my mother was a big

fan, and those were reruns

that were happening at the time.

It was right before "Next

Generation" started

and it was... I just

always was fascinated

by Dr. McCoy's grumpiness.

That relationship with

Spock I thought was amazing.

He just was, like, "I can't stand you,

- but I love you."

- Yeah.

And I was like, "Oh, that's my family."

[laughter]

I understand

everything from "Star Trek."

- Yes.

- You know, it's funny

because I wasn't allowed to watch TV

when "Star Trek" was on the air.

My parents wouldn't let me watch it.

So I snuck downstairs

and I turned on the TV.

And, uh, that was my first...

The first time I saw the show.

I think it was, um, "This

Side of Paradise"

- was the episode.

- Oh.

And you could tell that

whoever was doing the show

was a science fiction fan.

Narrator:
"Star Trek" begins

as the brainchild of one man,

Gene Roddenberry, a

former World War II pilot

and policeman turned screenwriter.

His first television

series premieres in 1963,

and features a few faces that

will soon become familiar

to "Trek" fans.

He was a big man, enthusiastic.

He really, really

loved producing a show,

which he had never done before.

He created "The Lieutenant."

[patriotic music]

It was "The Lieutenant." It

was his first big TV show.

And he cast me.

I had acted in an episode of

a series called "The Lieutenant"

that was produced by Gene Roddenberry.

My agent called me and

said, "He's interested in you

for a science fiction

pilot that he's gonna produce.

Narrator:
"The Lieutenant"

runs for just one season,

but Roddenberry's

already working on a bigger idea.

In 1964, he begins

pitching a series about a starship

with a multi-ethnic crew.

I had worked for him

directly when his secretary was ill.

And he knew that I had sold some things

that I wanted to be a

writer, a full-time writer.

And he called me into

his office and said,

"What do you think of

this?" And he showed me

about a 10-12 page piece that

was called "Star Trek."

- Well, he had done...

- both:
"The Lieutenant."

I went in to do a pitch on a story.

Somehow or another, he

asked if I was interested

in doing "Star Trek."

I said, "Yeah, I would

be interested in that."

And I went home, and I read it,

and I came back the

next day, and I said,

"Who plays Mr. Spock."

The script was very good, very good.

I didn't quite

understand how it was gonna work

as a television show because

it was so unique.

It was really quite special.

But it was a very intelligent script.

It had layers of ideas in it

that you didn't often get in television.

Roddenberry was very inspired

by Jonathan Swift's

"Gulliver's Travels."

And wanted to tell stories

that you couldn't normally

tell on television

through the prism of science fiction.

He was such a complex

and interesting man.

Very bright, very bright.

Hard-working.

Tough job, tough job.

Particularly getting "Star Trek" right

the first couple of seasons.

To get it... to get it what

he wanted it to be.

They didn't think there was a

big enough audience out there.

They thought it was gonna

be sci-fi kooks and kids.

And they didn't think they

could make enough money

from their sponsors to

put these on in prime-time.

Well, they had put on

"Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea"

in fall of '64, winning

its timeslot for ABC.

Fall of '65, he puts

on "Lost In Space" on CBS.

It's winning its timeslot for CBS.

That was when they made

the decision to put it on

for the fall of '66. NBC wants one.

They felt they were missing the boat.

Narrator:
President John F. Kennedy

issues a challenge,

to put a man on the moon before

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