The Legacy of Gene Roddenberry: The Life of Star Trek's Creator

Gene Roddenberry is best known as the man who gave us Star Trek. In September 1966 Gene's creation was put on the air but met with low ratings and criticism. After only three short seasons Star Trek was canceled, but gained a true fan base in it's third and final season. Re-runs were shown in the mid seventies and Star Trek was reborn in its popularity, getting a movie deal in 1978 reuniting the original cast. Since this time Star Trek has been reincarnated in a total of five separate series, Star Trek, Star Trek the Next Generation, Star Trek Voyager, Star Trek deep Space Nine and Star Trek: Enterprise. But Gene Roddenberry was more then the Sci Fi visionary that we all know, his life was just as adventures as the story and characters he created.

Eugene Edward Robbenberry was born August 19, 1921in El Paso Texas. His childhood was spent in California where his father joined the Las Angles Police Department (LAPD) and so Gene followed in his fathers footsteps, taking classes in police studies at Los Angles City College. Gene then attended colleges around the nation including Columbia University, The University of Miami, and the University of Southern California.

Later on in life Gene transferred his academic interest into aeronautic engineering and qualified for a pilots license. He then joined the United States Army Air Corps in 1941 and became an aviator. He flew many combat missions in the Pacific flying the ever popular B-17 Flying Fortress in World War II. He was awarded the distinguished Flying Cross and Air Medal for his services. After leaving the service Gene obtained a commercial pilots license and flew for Pan American Air Lines. Following a crash in the Syrian Dessert on a flight to Calcutta Gene received a Civil Aeronautics commendation for his efforts.

Gene left Pan Air to follow a dream of becoming a television writer and moved back to Las Angles. While writing he fell back on his earlier training as a police officer and joined up with the LAPD in 1949 and served until 1956. Gene married twice, Eileen Rexroat and together they had two children Dawn and the late Darleen. In the 1960's Gene began to have an affair with actress Mejel Barret, whom he cast in various roll on his show Star Trek. Gene left his first wife for his new love and in 1969 they were married in Japan, during a traditional Buddhist-Shinto ceremony. Together they had one child, Eugene Wesley Jr.

In 1964 Gene came up for the idea of Star Trek and pitched it to producers who rejected the pilot known as "Caged Bird" but finally NBC picked up the series which lasted for three seasons. After Star Treks failure Gene went on to work for MGM, but soon had a falling out with the company and went back to television. He pitched four new sci fi series all of which were rejected. Soon Gene was faced with the prospect of having a family and no way to support them. Heading the advice from a friend Gene went onto the lecture circuit, a place where William Shatner and Timothy Leary had found success while out of work.

There He would speak about his brief time with Star Trek and recap on his experience. He would show his black and white pilot episode from Star Trek "Caged Bird" and also and out takes reals from the original series. The fan base of Star Trek amazed Gene, and he was giving the nickname "The Great Bird of the Galaxy" after the mythical creature referenced in the fist Star Trek episode "Man Trap".

In 1975 the go ahead was giving by Paramount Pictures to produce a new Star Trek series for the ancestor network of UPN, but this project was scrapped because Paramount decided to make a movie based on the original cast of Star Trek. And thus in 1978 fans were introduced to Star Trek the Motion Picture. The movie received an ok response from critics but the fans of the show loved the movie. The success of the first movie spawned the second, Star Trek II the Wrath of Kahn, which did extremely well at the box office.

In all Gene Roddenberry produced five of the ten Star Trek movies and helped with the first and third seasons of the second television installment of the show Star Trek the Next Generation. In this show plots and story were used that had originally been intended for the failed launch of the second Star Trek series that was scrapped for the first movie. In all there have been ten Star Trek movies, and five television series, the latest being Star Trek: Enterprise based 150 years before the time of Kirk and Spock.

Gene Roddenberry died at the age of 70 in 1991. Reports indicate that he was shown a preview of the sixth movie Star Trek the Undiscovered Country days before he died. This movie was dedicated to the creator of this legendary sci fi series and was the last movie to feature all of the original, 25 years after they first appeared together in 1966 during the first airing of Star Trek. Gene Roddenberry left us with an amazing legacy, his vision for the future was one of peace and prosperity. Star Trek may be his biggest creation, but Gene Roddenberry the man may have actually been bigger then what he created, and his legacy still lives on to this day.