The Great Bird of the Galaxy would’ve been 90 today. It is too bad he died rather suddenly and right before Star Trek VI was released, the last great movie starring the original cast.
I thank him for laying down the ground work on what has become an enduring franchise, not financially, but the concept. However, much of Star Trek‘s legacy is similar to D&D’s via Gary Gygax, it owes more to a dozen other participants who fleshed out important details, made the storyline coherent and/or provided better ideas. For example, the Klingons were Gene L. Coon’s creation and the Borg came from Rick Berman’s camp. All too often, Roddenberry’s defenders overlook the man’s rather mercenary tendencies to recycle things:
- “Assignment Earth” was a failed pilot he had integrated into the Sixties show.
- The two characters from the boring Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Commander William Decker and Lt. Illia, get reincarnated into Commander William Riker and Counselor Troi for Star Trek: The Next Generation.
It shouldn’t take away anybody’s enjoyment though. Decker, Illia and Xon were originally slated to be the new crewmen for Star Trek Phase II, the show which got scrapped by Star Wars and Paramount getting cold feet on launching what could’ve been the fourth commercial network in the Seventies.
It’s his birthday and I would rather praise and thank the man for creating a shared universe millions of people love (some, too much). As far as I’m concerned, they’re Trekkies, not Trekkers.
Lastly, Roddenberry redeemed himself indirectly through his widow Majel Barrett. She defended Babylon 5 from Trekkie zealots by appearing as a Centauri prophetess and said that Gene would’ve felt there was always room for more Sci-Fi programs.