All language subtitles for The.Center.Seat.55.Years.of.Star.Trek.S01E01.Lucy.Loves.Trek.720p.WEB.h264-KOMPOST_track3_[eng]

(narrator) For more than
half a century and counting,

"Star Trek" has beamed its way

into our living rooms,
and into our hearts.

- Warp one, Mr. Sulu.

- With a staggering quantity
of high quality science fiction,

a fact that's proven with
nine TV series,

13 movies, countless books,

comics and toys.

It's safe to say
as a human collective,

we love "Star Trek."

- (chuckling)
- And in this series,

we'll cover all 55 years worth.

We'll hear the stories of
the pioneers who blazed a trail

and upended television
as we know it.

♪♪

So beam aboard and hold on tight

as we boldly go into the depths
of "Star Trek."

♪♪

And you can see it
all from here...

in "The Center Seat."

Since the USS Enterprise blasted
to space in the '60s,

it's been on a five-year mission
exploring strange new worlds,

seeking out new life

and new civilizations,
and, of course...

(William Shatner) To boldly go
where no man has gone before.

(narrator)
And that five-year mission

has turned into a 55-year one,

which is, of course,
why we're here.

But before we loved "Star Trek,"

we loved Lucy.

And we really can't
tell the story

of "Star Trek" without her.

- Lucy absolutely is
the reason "Star Trek" exists.

- She was the one who put

her studio on the line
for "Star Trek."

- But Lucille Ball didn't
invent "Star Trek."

That honor goes to
this guy-- no, not him.

This guy, Gene Roddenberry.

But long before
the stars aligned

for Roddenberry and "Star Trek,"
Lucy was busy

becoming a star in
the Golden Age of Hollywood.

- Lucy went out to Hollywood
to be a Goldwyn girl.

- Aw, cut it out, fellas!
- (narrator) However,

Lucy was destined to be more
than just another leggy blonde.

After a stint at MGM,
someone had a bright idea.

- They dyed her hair red and
that became her trademark.

- And somehow a carrot top

made her perfect for
television comedy,

even in black and white.

- In the '50s, television
was still inventing itself.

- In fact, Lucille's
radio show at the time,

"My Favorite Husband,"

was pegged as a possible TV show
starring Lucille.

- Lucille, she said to CBS,
I will only do this TV show

if you cast Desi as my husband.

- Honey, I'm home.
- (narrator) Lucille Ball's

real husband was Cuban
bandleader Desi Arnaz,

and people were lining up
to work with him.

- Desi introduced
the conga line.

And so that became a craze.

- And Desi Arnaz became

Lucille's onscreen
husband, eventually.

- They kind of didn't like
the idea of a Cuban

being married to, you know,
a red-blooded American gal.

- And redheaded, of course,
not that you could tell.

- Now, look, I'm serious.
- (narrator) And so was CBS,

because that pilot for a show
called "I Love Lucy"

was a legitimate hit.

- "I Love Lucy"
became number one

six months after
it debuted in 1951.

- When I'm out in the street,
people point me out and say

"There he goes!"
- (Tom) And it was huge.

It was like, 67 million people
are watching this.

You know, at the time, not
everyone owned a television set.

I mean, people were watching
in appliance stores.

- She was a big star,
and she ran the show.

- It's so tasty too!

(narrator)
The taste of success was sweet.

Lucille and Desi and their
aptly named studio

Desilu were now producing
the biggest show in America.

But what Desi planned to do next
would be one of his greatest

contributions to television,

even more so than
the conga line.

Desi Arnaz wanted...

- The rerun rights.
- To which CBS said...

- "What's a rerun?"

- No one thought of reruns,

there was no such thing.
Something aired,

and it was disposable,
you never saw it again.

(narrator) Unless, of course,
it's "I Love Lucy."

And suddenly, reruns
were a very valuable commodity.

- CBS doesn't want to stop
airing it during the summer.

They say, can we have
those reruns back?

- Lucy!
- Yeah?

- Lucy, guess what?
- What?

- Look!
- (Marc) And they had to pay

Desi Arnaz a million dollars

to get the rerun rights
back for that summer.

(narrator) And with that
cool million, Desi and Lucy...

Used that money to buy RKO.

(narrator) Much more than
three little letters,

Lucy and Desi now owned...

(Tom)
It was 35 soundstages

in three locations, it was huge.

(narrator)
And ultimately important

to "Star Trek,"
but not quite yet.

Because before
the USS Enterprise could get

its NCC registration number,

Desilu needed another
kind of enterprise.

The moneymaking kind.

(Tom) Once "I Love Lucy"
was off and running,

they had all of this equipment
to shoot "I Love Lucy."

And money was to be made if they
could come up with another show.

(narrator)
Either that or...

- Everybody came
to film at Desilu.

"The Andy Griffith Show..."
- "My Three Sons."

- "Dick Van Dike Show."

(narrator)
Which generated a lot of money.

- I don't discuss money anymore.

You'll have to talk
to my business manager.

- Just not for Desi and Lucille.

(Tom) People just automatically
assumed that Lucy

owned the world because
she had all these shows

on the air with the Desilu logo,

but they weren't necessarily
owned by her.

(narrator)
But on the home front,

Lucy was feeling owned by Desi,

and that arrangement
wasn't working.

- '58-'59,
Lucy and Desi divorce.

- So I'll see you later.

(narrator)
And suddenly, Desi didn't want

to own much of anything.

- And he gave up
the presidency of Desilu

- And so Desi had to sell
his part to her.

- Keep the change.
- Lucille Ball,

divorced from Desi, but still
calling it Desilu.

Lucy's queen of TV.

- But Lucy wanted to be more
than television royalty.

- Their stages were very busy
filming everybody else's shows.

- She wanted to be
in charge of it

because Lucy knew...

- That the true way to have
success is to own it.

She said, bring me
a show that can rerun

as long as "I Love Lucy."

(narrator) The USS Enterprise
was about to take flight.

But before we get to that,
where did this obsession with

flying ships come from
in the first place?

To answer that, we need to touch
down in Texas, but only briefly.

- Eugene Wesley Roddenberry

was born on August 19, 1921,
in El Paso, Texas.

- Like any genius,
he's a complicated individual.

- Oh, we'll definitely
get to that.

But first, we have to
get him out of Texas.

- He would find his escape
inside of science fiction books,

adventure books, the stories
of Jules Verne and H.G. Wells.

(narrator) He dreamed of faraway
airborne adventures.

And a certain major conflict was
about to make that a reality.

- He was a bomber pilot
in World War II.

(John)
He flies in 89 combat missions

and wins numerous awards.

(narrator)
And when the war ended,

Gene continued
to spread his wings

as a pilot for Pan Am,

where his career was set to
change course dramatically.

(Marc)
He was on a Pan Am jetliner

that crashed in the Middle East.

He wasn't flying that one.

He was riding with
the passengers

and everybody in
the cockpit was killed.

- So Gene gravitated towards
a more grounded uniform.

- And then he became
a Los Angeles police officer.

But Gene was less interested
in arresting people

and more interested in
arresting stories.

So much so...
- Gene Roddenberry,

this budding writer-producer,

wrote a script for
"Have Gun - Will Travel."

♪♪

He's like every other
up-and-coming writer,

he's trying to get his own show,
that's where the money is.

He wrote a ton of scripts,
and he does land his own show

called "The Lieutenant."

It's about a Marine Corps
officer who's a lawyer.

- It's not fiction,
Mr. Sanders.

I mean, you just don't
rewrite history.

(Larry) Gene Roddenberry,
he wants to do

hard-hitting, adult themes.

One of his episodes
is about racism.

- But the world has
gotta change first!

It's got to be made to change.

- It brings him
a head-to-head battle

with the network,
with the studio.

(narrator)
This hard-hitting episode

was ahead of its time.

NBC wouldn't give it
the time of day,

or even a time of day
in its schedule.

- It winds up not
being even shown.

- You can't say, well, let's not
really talk about anything

serious on television.

That, that is
a criminal statement.

- He's in trouble for writing
this racism script.

So he's like, fine, guys,
fine, I love science fiction

and that's how we'll get it
out to people.

- Here was a chance
to do the kind of drama

I had always dreamed of doing.

(narrator) A sophisticated
sci-fi drama that could

ask the big questions
of the time.

- Questions about who we are

and what we're up to
in the world.

(narrator)
Deep questions like...

- Was it you who spoke?

(narrator)
What if vegetables could talk?

- He doesn't want
"Lost in Space."

- Sure, that's what
they all say!

- Gene had higher goals for
the fledgling TV sci-fi genre.

- Be able to talk about love,
war, nature, God, sex,

all those things that
go to make up

the excitement of
the human condition.

- Dazzling display of logic.

- And maybe the TV censors
would let it pass

because it all seems
so make-believe.

- He actually wanted to
address some social issues.

(narrator)
But he couldn't do it alone.

- 1965, he finally puts
the ideas to paper.

He's going around
to the networks.

- Which didn't take long
actually, because...

- In the early '60s,
there were only three networks.

(narrator)
And they all passed.

- He gets turned down
everywhere.

- But just when all
hope seemed lost,

Gene landed a meeting with
Desilu, remember them?

Lucy was still looking for
the next big thing to own.

- This frumpy guy,
very soft-spoken,

very mild-mannered, he came in
with his single piece of paper

and his memo about
what "Star Trek" is.

- And then he delivered
the killer blow.

- Gene's famous pitch line...

- A wagon train to the stars.

- Which he might not choose
today, but back then...

- Westerns were big.

- "Wagon Train" being
a very popular

Western Anthology series.

(narrator)
This was right on point.

- It was a big wagon train
slowly going west...

- Headed to the New Frontier...

(grunting)

And running into
different obstacles.

- It's gonna be a western.

(gunfire)

But it's gonna be
in outer space.

(zapping)
- (Gene) Zap guns

instead of six-shooters,
spaceships instead of horses.

(narrator)
Lucy liked what she heard,

and Desilu decided to board
this wagon train.

- So that put Desilu
back in business

as far as owning properties.

(narrator)
Hoping it lead not just

to the stars, but to riches.

- This wasn't just
for Gene Roddenberry.

This was something that could be
the salvation of Desilu.

(narrator)
In the fall of 1964, a pilot for

what would become "Star Trek"
was commissioned.

NBC finally agreed to back
Desilu's production,

because who could
say no to this face?

- They wanted to do business
with Lucille Ball

because Lucille Ball
was CBS's golden girl.

- Oh, and there
was one other little

sweetener for the network.

(Tom)
Lucy had a development fund.

She gave the money from
the development fund

to develop "Star Trek."

(narrator)
With Lucille's own money,

Gene began scripting his
wagon train to the stars,

starting with his
lead character...

- James Kirk.
- No... (laughs)

- In the original drafts
for "The Cage,"

the captain of the Enterprise
was going to be called

Robert April.
- (narrator) Robert April?

- That fact isn't in
the history texts.

- And it was just a matter
of finding the name

the network responded
the most to.

(narrator) For some reason,
they preferred the name...

- Christopher Pike.
- My name is Christopher Pike.

- Now, if Christopher Pike
looks like

a completely different captain,

that's because he's a completely
different captain.

But more on that later.
Whatever his name,

NBC thought this
captain needed more

than just the right name.

- NBC was saying you've got to
find a way to make Americans

feel comfortable in space.

Well, let's build
something around them

that all America's
familiar with.

- That was something the entire
nation had lived through.

- World War II was
less than 20 years earlier.

- And it was now a part
of the American story.

(Marc) We've all seen movies
on American submarines.

Half of the American men
fought in that war.

(narrator)
Including Gene himself,

who drew from experience
to design the costumes

and even the radio signals.
(radio beeping)

- Mr. Spock here.
- 'Cause that's what

you would hear on ships
and aircraft carriers

when they would signal
the captain.

- This is the captain.
- He wanted the terminology.

- Evasive maneuvers, sir?
- Steady as we go.

- And of course, a ship...
- Enterprise.

- Which is a whole story
unto itself.

But for now, Gene had to find
the right man to take the helm.

- He had his wish list
of who he wanted to play

the captain of the Enterprise.

And right at the top of that
list was William Shatner.

(narrator)
So cast as Captain Pike--

- No, they couldn't get
William Shatner

because William Shatner had
another series on at that time

that he was starring in on CBS.

- Do you want facts, Jamison?
I'll give you facts.

- Well, the fact was they
had to look elsewhere.

- And so they had
to look down the list,

and that's when they found
Jeffrey Hunter.

(narrator) Jeffrey Hunter
was a dreamboat leading man

for the matinee era.

- So they were happy to get him.

- But Captain Pike
could hardly make sense

of the universe without
a science officer.

- Spock here.
- (Marc) Roddenberry

always wanted Leonard Nimoy
to play Spock.

That was the first person
he thought of

'cause Nimoy had been in an
episode of "The Lieutenant"

which Gene Roddenberry produced.

- Not that Mr. Nimoy
cares to recall.

- There was stuff
before "Star Trek"?

- There sure was.
- (chuckles)

- Nimoy had just
finished perfecting

his contemplative demeanor
on "The Lieutenant."

(Leonard)
I did the job.

A week or two later,
my agent called me and said,

Gene Roddenberry is
interested in you

for a science fiction pilot
that he's going to produce.

He said, a character
with pointed ears,

and that that set me back a bit.

- If Spock's ears
raised an eyebrow,

what Gene had planned
for his first officer

was positively revolutionary.

- Can't get used to having
a woman on the bridge.

No offense, Lieutenant,
you're different, of course.

(Tom) Majel Barrett
was a student of Lucy's

at the Desilu workshop

where she would train them
and give them experience.

- And although she had little
experience taking orders,

featuring in an episode of
"The Lieutenant"...

- Aye-aye, sir.
- Casting a woman

as second in command,
even in an imagined future,

was ahead of its time.

(Sandra)
That was a position of authority

and women just didn't
have that position.

It's very much a man's world
in those days.

- Yes, it is, isn't it?

- It is remarkable that
a woman is the first officer

of the flagship of
the Federation in 1966.

That is unbelievable.

(narrator)
Oh, don't worry.

If you think that's
unbelievable...

- (laughs) I'm Sandy Gimpel,

or Sandra Gimpel,
I played a Talosian.

- That's Sandra on the left,

and Meg Wyllie on the right.

- I think they hired women
because they wanted

a sleeker line and they can
make us look tall and thin,

so we'd look more alien.
- And that they did.

Now, last but not least,
Gene sent for the doctor.

- Gene Roddenberry wanted
DeForest Kelley.

- "Bones," of course.
Oops, or not.

- That was because
DeForest Kelley

had over ten years working as
the heavy in westerns.

(narrator) So the only cure for
this ailment was a stiff shot

of veteran actor Jon Hoyt.

- Who wants a warm martini?

(narrator)
So with the cast in place,

Desilu Studios began
filming the pilot

on November 27, 1964.

But instead of delivering
a space western,

the first episode entitled,
"The Cage,"

dealt with more abstract things.

- The enormous power
of imagination.

- We didn't quite understand
how it was going to work

as a television show.
- But despite

the muddy plot, the special
effects were crystal clear.

- "Star Trek" was
the first TV series

to shoot against a blue screen.

- And although it seems
primitive now, back then?

- Nobody was doing moving stars.

- Providing a sense of
realism that was missing

from other sci-fi shows.

- He doesn't want
"Lost in Space."

(narrator)
We remember.

But one of "Star Trek" 's
signature special effects

was actually
a cost-saving measure.

- The reason we have
the transporter is because

they couldn't afford to land
the ship in every episode.

- But the pilot
didn't look cheap,

and that's because
it really wasn't.

- The pilot had cost
I think almost $600,000,

which would be like
six million today.

Then NBC only put up
half the money,

Desilu put up the other half.

(narrator)
An excellent investment.

Or maybe not, because NBC
rejected the pilot.

- Some of their executives
were outraged.

- They didn't like
the pointy-eared guy.

- What do you call those?
- I call them ears.

- They feared parts
of America might think

Spock's pointy ears pointed
to Satan somehow.

- Hello, 1964.
- (narrator) But mainly...

- They felt the plot
was too cerebral.

(Talosian) It appears that
the intelligence of the specimen

is shockingly limited.

- Aliens using illusion to do
what they want to do.

(narrator) It was simply
too brainy, too wacky,

and too much for advertisers.

- We can't use this
to sell it to advertisers

'cause it's not reflective
of what we would

want the series to be.
- And that's it.

(narrator) "Star Trek" 's
first brave sortie

to the television cosmos
had failed.

The door was closed
on "The Cage,"

but the network wasn't ready
to abandon the mission.

- It's very rare for there
to be a second pilot.

- But money talks.

- They actually funded
a second pilot.

- And once again,
Lucy was happy to put

her money where
her famous mouth was.

- Lucy reached into her pocket

to refinance the pilot
to a new one.

(narrator)
The network was only too happy

to split the bill,
with conditions.

- This one had
better be familiar

action adventure, or else.

- They didn't just take
issue with the plot.

They also had problems
with the personnel.

- Gene does famously say, "Well,
I had to give up the woman...

- No offense, Lieutenant.

- Or the guy with
the pointy ears."

(narrator)
And when push came to shove,

Gene gave in to his Vulcan side.

- Gene really liked
the character of Spock.

He would find something else
for Majel later on.

- The job of casting was
a matter of military precision.

- Steady as we go.
- Thanks to a military drama.

- That is real drama.
- Gene and I

really were in sync on
the casting because...

- Stealthy approach.
- The easiest place to go

was people that we were
both familiar with

that we had both used
in "The Lieutenant."

- And then... whammo!

- And if he couldn't have
a female first officer,

there had to be another way
to get a woman on the bridge.

- Nichelle Nichols was
a true discovery.

- Thanks again to
"The Lieutenant."

- Because Gene said
that he wanted

a woman in the command center.

- Meanwhile, Gene suddenly found
himself in need of a doctor,

because John Hoyt
had gone off to do movies.

- Ah, sounds exciting.

- Opening the door
for Gene's first choice,

DeForest Kelley, who finally
landed the role of "Bones"

by giving execs a look
beneath his hat.

- Fill me in.
- (Maria) Gene had the idea

that if he got a haircut that
would subliminally say

"good guy," that the studio
would come around

and warm up to having
Dee on the show.

- You look just fine, Doctor.

- Well, I don't doubt it.

- That haircut was based on
John F. Kennedy.

(narrator)
He nailed it.

Just like the good doctor's
hair, Jeffrey Hunter

would also be brushed aside.

- Jeff Hunter
was offered a movie.

- And so the door slid open for
the guy he wanted all along,

William Shatner.

- Because "We the People"
had just been canceled.

(narrator) But his new captain
would need a new name.

- This is Captain James T. Kirk.

- But we wouldn't find out

what the T stood for
until much later.

- There'll be no discussion
of this.

(narrator) Evidently, NBC wanted
the T to stand for tough.

- They wanted something
a little more action-orientated.

- So "Star Trek" started to get
physical like the Olympics.

- And then NBC said, we love it!

(narrator)
With boxing.

Karate, wrestling,

and possibly shot put.

Oh, and target shooting,

But then came the twist.

- They also wanted to see if you
can make it a little cheaper.

- The pilot cost
a whopping $450,000.

NBC felt the budget should be
more in the orbit of 185,000.

- Very low budget,
it was undersold.

- And even at that price,
the network wouldn't be

footing the entire bill.

- It's deficit financing.
The networks do not pony up

all the cost of a show.

- NBC would only back
"Star Trek" to the tune of

100 grand per episode.

- So Desilu's going into
the hole 85 grand

with every episode
they're making.

(narrator)
At such a heavy price,

the board of Desilu convened
to consider its options.

The old guard, so-called...

- Told Lucy,
"Don't do it."

It'll put the studio
out of business.

- But Lucille Ball still held
the deciding vote.

She said, "Let's go ahead
and produce the whole thing."

She's like, "I'm putting
the fate of the studio

in your hands, guys."
- With all that pressure,

Gene decided to recruit
a Gene 2.0,

coincidentally also called Gene.

- Here comes Gene Coon,
a great writer.

He'd written some scripts
on "Have Gun - Will Travel"

that Gene Roddenberry
had worked on.

Didn't have a big
science fiction background,

but he could tell a story.

- He was really in charge
of the writing room,

and he was very interested in
making sure that the characters

were the most important
essential thing.

(narrator) Evident from
the very first episode to air,

which placed its diversity
of characters at the forefront.

- Tell me how your
planet Vulcan looks on

a lazy evening when
the moon is full.

- Suddenly, network television
had a glamorous new look

and a breath of fresh air.

- I was born acting,
my father said.

- Nichelle had come from
the theater, and since

her episode of "The Lieutenant"
never made it to air,

"Star Trek" would be
her first on-screen credit.

- Thank you, God.
(chuckles)

- And as the communications
officer, she was sending

a clear message,
which had the execs screaming.

- "What are you doing?"

- Gene believed in diversity.

- He said, "I want
all ethnic choices

to be considered, period."

- And he was happy to test
the limits by casting

a Japanese American,
even as memories

of the Second World War
remained fresh.

- He says, "By the time
we're out in space,

"borders have disappeared,

people interact in a natural,
comfortable way."

(narrator) When "Star Trek"
finally broadcast,

it confirmed that America
was ready for a fresh vision

of the future...
(laser blasting)

And a bit of action, of course.

- The very first episode,
"The Man Trap,"

47% of the TVs
in America were tuned in.

- Nearly half of America
was seeing something

they'd never seen before.
- It was a pioneer show

that was creating things
every inch of the way.

- But delving into
whole new worlds every week

soon took a toll on
its cast and crew.

- Yeah, I'm here usually
about 6:30 in the morning.

We actually start
shooting at 8:00.

The crew arrives
around 7:30.

It takes me about an hour
and a half to get into the rig.

(Larry)
It was an uphill battle.

They were under the gun
constantly.

It was taking a toll mentally.

(Gene) Our schedule was
12 to 14 hours a day

and the production staff worked
six days a week.

During the first two years,
there was not a member

of our production staff
that was not in the hospital

at one time or another
from exhaustion.

- It was the hardest show
to make on television.

(narrator) Along with monsters,
the original series ranged

across monster themes...

- Pain!
- Colonization...

- Cry...

for the children.
- The ethics of war...

- We have the right--
- To wage war, Captain?

To kill millions of
innocent people?

- Hairdressing.

Along the way,
Spock fell in love...

- I love you.
- And almost fell out of a t.

- I told Leonard to
grab hold of the branch

and hang from it like a monkey
and play the scene that way.

The first line of Kirk's was--

- You were told to report
to me at once!

- And then Spock with this
glorious grin on his face said--

- I didn't want to, Jim.

- And it just worked
beautifully.

- Yes, I could see that.
- It became

an iconic Spock scene.

(narrator)
But one iconic episode above all

would come to embody "Star Trek"
as top-shelf science fiction.

And it came from one of sci-fi's
finest practitioners.

- Harlan Ellison.
- Who has written

some of history's most important
science fiction books.

- Harlan pitched an idea
for a time-traveling

"Star Trek" episode,
which he called...

- "City On the Edge
of Forever."

(deep voice)
I am the guardian of Forever.

- I wrote that script before

the show ever went on the air.

- But Harlan's
gritty story was not

what Gene Roddenberry thought
"Star Trek" should be.

- Harlan's original version of

"The City On the Edge
of Forever"

involved a drug dealer on
the Enterprise named Beckwith.

- He was trying to escape.
- And escapes through

a portal to the planet Earth.

- And I wrote what I thought
was a dynamite script.

- Which, by the way,
everybody said

was a great
science fiction story.

It just wasn't a "Star Trek."

(narrator) So Roddenberry
ordered rewrites.

- It needed to be hammered
into that formula, that box.

- Just like his
time-traveling script,

Harlan was on a different
timeline, too.

- It was hard to get Harlan
to discipline himself,

to turn out pages at
the rate that you need it.

(narrator) So Gene Coon made
a bold executive decision.

- Producer Gene Coon
locked him in a room...

- So he couldn't get out.
- (narrator) A defiant Ellison

began to blast music, as he was
known to do while he wrote.

- And at one point,
the record started skipping.

- They got suspicious.

- So they opened the door
only to find...

- The window was open and
Harlan had gone out the window.

And he was on the set, taking
pictures with Shatner and Nimoy.

- "The City on the Edge of
Forever" took forever.

But Harlan's long overdue script
was considered brilliant...

- It's a brilliant script.
- In more ways than one.

- It's brilliantly overwritten.
- His script would've cost

as much as
a major motion picture.

- Science fiction writers very
often are people who have

wonderful imaginations
and wonderful ideas

which cannot be expressed
in other forms.

- Gene Roddenberry finally
had the kind of serious

science fiction script
he always wanted to make,

(narrator) While Harlan
Ellison's magnum opus

created a headache
for "Star Trek" producers,

it created an opportunity for
the young story editor

tasked with fixing it.

- I worked on the show,
obviously, from the very

beginning as Gene Roddenberry's
production secretary.

- While also moonlighting
as one of the show's writers.

- I had written, at that point,

two scripts and had rewritten
"This Side of Paradise."

- But sensing potential

in his young writer,
he gave her a challenge.

- "If you rewrite "This Side of
Paradise" to my satisfaction

and NBC's satisfaction I will
hire you as my story editor."

And I did, and he did.

(John) When she's working
on "Star Trek," she's actually

the youngest story editor in
the history of television,

and she's one of the very few
female story editors

(narrator) Which made her job
even more intimidating.

- 'Cause Harlan
scared her to death.

She was just terrified.

She said, "I'll do a rewrite,
but don't tell him."

- She didn't tell him
for like, three decades

that she had done the rewrite on
it, she let him blame Gene.

- One of the things she did
was take each character

and do something special.

- That included doing a special

on the character of "Bones."

- Better risk a few drops
of Cordrazine.

- Dorothy Fontana came up
with the part about McCoy

accidentally injects himself.

♪♪

- Bones!
- And goes deranged.

- (shouting)
- Which is how D.C. feared

Harlan would react when
he found out

that they changed the script.

- No, he couldn't be mad at her,

nobody could be mad at Dorothy.

- But that didn't mean
he was happy about it.

- The core of it is that
the Joan Collins character...

- I'm Edith Keeler.
- Is going to prevent

the United States' entry
into World War II.

This would allow Hitler
to take over the world.

(narrator) And if that
wasn't horrifying enough...

- I'm in love with Edith Keeler.

(narrator)
This was history versus love.

- Harlan was probably one
of the greatest romantics

in science fiction.
- Although let's just say

it doesn't end well
for the lovebirds.

- Kirk has to let
the woman he loves die...

(tires screeching)
to save the world.

- Which might be why Gene felt
the need to soften the blow.

- Of course, he wrote
that speech for Edith.

- Now, I don't pretend
to tell you

how to find happiness in love.

One day, man is going to be able

to harness incredible energies.

(narrator) If nothing else,
it was a speech about...

- Hope.
- But Gene's two cents

gave anything but hope
to Harlan Ellison.

- It's the old, uh, French joke
about the chef who has made

the great soup, and all the
other chefs come in, they say,

"Well, we must make it just
a little bit better."

And they all piss in it.
Everybody pissed in my script.

- Which naturally...
- Pissed Harlan off.

- So Harlan washed
his hands of it.

- So by the time they filmed it,

Harlan didn't
want his name on there.

- Which Gene couldn't
afford to lose.

- If you lost
the name Harlan Ellison,

he would have lost all
legitimacy.

- So Gene gave Harlan
an ultimatum.

- If you don't let us
put your name on this,

I'm gonna do everything
I can to see that

you never work
in this industry again.

- And surprisingly,
that line worked.

- They ended up putting
Harlan's name on the screen

with Harlan's permission,
but it took a lot of fighting.

- But Harlan Ellison's "The City
on the Edge of Forever"

would come with
a hell of a price tag,

putting the whole series
on the edge of forever.

- It was the most expensive
episode of "Star Trek" ever.

- That meant season two
of "Star Trek"

really needed to turn
those thrusters on.

(TV announcer)
William Shatner stars as

Captain Kirk and Leonard Nimoy
as Science Officer Spock

on "Star Trek" in color.

- Luckily, it was not only in
color, but in a prime slot.

- NBC had promised Gene
the 8:00 time slot on Monday.

And then they gave
it to "Laugh-In."

- Hey, you got
anything on tonight?

- I certainly hope so.

- Because "Laugh-In" had gotten
such strong ratings,

they didn't wanna
lose the time slot.

- And so a comedy sketch show
sent "Star Trek"

to a distant galaxy.
- 10:00 on Friday nights.

- That was a bad time slot
for "Star Trek."

- Gene knew, nobody stays home
and watches television

on Friday night, that's movie
night, that's date night.

- But it was still their
top-rated show of the night.

- Partly because
Gene Roddenberry's

characters had started to click.

- You have something
very magical with

Kirk, Spock and McCoy.
Kirk is the decider.

He's the action, but over here
you have the logic.

The rationality, and over here
you have the emotions.

- And although the cast
was shaping up nicely,

NBC wanted to add
one more piece.

- Navigator?

- We should be there in seconds.

- The network wanted
a young character

to appeal
to the younger audience.

- You know this man, Captain?

- So they brought
in Walter Koenig apparently

due to his passing
resemblance to a monkey.

- Yeah.
- Or more precisely,

Davy Jones of the Monkees.

- "The Monkees" was the only
show that was getting

more fan mail than "Star Trek"
at that point.

- With one clever difference.
- This is "wodka."

- Thanks to a classic
Roddenberry twist.

- Let's make him a Russian.
- Just like Russia.

- And this was huge...
for 1967.

- It was the Cold War going on.

- The Garden of Eden
was just outside Moscow.

A very nice place.

- Right now,
the thinking is that

"Star Trek," you mixed

all races, erased all borders.

- If all nationalities could
get together, we could all

work together and bring
that sense of humanity

which was really
what "Star Trek" was about.

- And so Walter Koenig became an
unwitting ambassador for peace,

right from the first
episode of season two.

- I do not understand.

- Gene felt
if we're gonna survive,

we have to learn to work
with our enemies.

- There was some social
commentary going on,

particularly on issues that
were current at that time.

The late-- the mid
to the late '60s.

The Civil Rights situation,
uh, Vietnam War.

- But Gene's appetite
for the big issues

was causing big issues with NBC.

- Let's put it this way.
The network did

not love Roddenberry.
He was difficult to deal with.

- He had no concept in his mind

of why it shouldn't be the way
he saw it.

- If there is a truism in
television, it is that, uh...

no successful show
ever gave a network

exactly what it wanted.

- In fact, Roddenberry
was giving NBC

exactly what it didn't want.

- "Private Little War"
is all about

the hopelessness of Vietnam.

- If this planet is to develop
in the way it should,

we must equalize
both sides again.

- Jim, that means you're
condemning this whole planet

to a war that may never end.
It could go on for year after

year, massacre after massacre!
- All right, Doctor!

- Obviously about Vietnam.

- We were the only show that
ever talked against Vietnam.

- NBC didn't like it.
- But a much bigger fight

was in the cards.
- There was some concern

that the show might
not be renewed.

- Fans were aghast,
none more so than...

- Bjo Trimble and John Trimble.

- And they had a question
for the creator

of their favorite TV show.
- Is there something we can do?

Perhaps we could organize
a letter campaign.

- Gene saw an opportunity to
marshal his troops against NBC.

- He was girding for a fight,
and he wanted to have as much

public support behind him
and the show as possible.

- And so the letters
started coming in,

and then this thing ballooned.

- With "Star Trek"
seemingly on life support,

thousands of fans picketed NBC

demanding they not
pull the plug.

- We got a million letters.

- A million letters
was one thing.

But with production costs

approaching a similar number,

fan fury wasn't enough.

- It was much more expensive
than the average show.

- They were trying to shoot half

a science fiction movie
every week.

- The financial pain was
unbearable for Desilu.

They were now making the two
most expensive shows on TV.

- It was actually a tie between

"Star Trek"
and "Mission: Impossible."

- With "Star Trek" now one
of the most expensive shows

on the air,
Desilu had a mountain

to climb with every episode.

- Lucy's big gamble,
Lucy's big risk

did break the studio.
It did break Desilu.

- But here to help
was a studio that knew

a thing or two about mountains.

- Paramount didn't
have a real presence

in the television industry.

- But they really wanted to.

- Because now, that old wall
between movie and TV

has come down,
and all the big movie studios

are getting
into content creation.

- So Paramount decided to shop
around for a studio.

And they didn't
have to look far.

Right next door, here is Desilu.
- Physically next door.

- And Desilu was ripe
for the picking.

- Paramount makes
them a plum offer.

- Even though
it was a sweet offer,

Lucille Ball was reluctant
to take it.

- The day she was supposed to
sign the contract, she ran away

And they found her
in Miami Beach.

That's how torn she was.
Because this was the studio

that she and her husband built,

and it's all she had left
of her marriage.

- But ultimately, this was
an offer she couldn't refuse.

- Tears in her eyes,
she signed the contracts.

And she flew back and cut the
ribbon merging the two studios.

- But no sooner had Lucy
cut the ribbon,

then Paramount began
cutting something else.

- And then the first thing

Paramount did
was cut the budgets.

They slashed everything
across the board.

- On top of increasing
budget constraints,

Gene Roddenberry found himself

falling out of love
with his own show.

(laughing)

- What is it?

- What is it?
Why, lovely lady,

it's a tribble.

- There was trouble, and it had
something to do with tribbles.

- Roddenberry had been
away for a few weeks.

And he came back,
and he heard laughter coming

from stage nine which
is the Enterprise stage.

- Now why would people
be laughing during

a serious thing
like a "Star Trek" taping?

- He went in there, and again,
a big burst of laughter.

The scene where Kirk
gets to cargo bay

and all the tribbles
bury him up to his neck.

The crew couldn't help it.
The tape was so funny

and Shatner was so funny.
- But to Gene,

this was no laughing matter.

- Gene never wanted
"Star Trek" to become silly.

- This is my chicken
sandwich and coffee.

- Fascinating.
- He didn't want it

to feel like
they were acting camp.

- This project is ruined.

- But not everyone
saw it that way.

Just ask the writer.
- I thought it was pretty good.

I set out to write the very best
"Star Trek" I knew how to do.

- And the episode did connect
with a broader audience.

- "The Trouble with Tribbles"
is a very different episode.

Very carefully contrived.
Instead of saving the galaxy

this week, Kirk's problems
are the minutiae

of everyday life which is how
most of us live life.

- Now if you'll excuse me,

I have a ship to tend to.
Au revoir.

- "Star Trek" was exploring
new directions, and Gene wasn't

happy to find his writers
dancing to a different tune.

- And Roddenberry said
I can't let "Star Trek"

become like "Lost in Space."

- Moisture!
I need moisture!

- So he called in his showrunner
to course correct,

but Gene Coon
wasn't exactly receptive.

- Gene Coon said if I can't
run the show, I'm walking.

- However, Gene wasn't going
to let one of "Star Trek" 's

most creative voices
just walk out the door.

- The original series
wouldn't have been

what it was without Gene Coon.

Everything from Klingons...
- Ridiculous.

- To General Order Number One.

- The prime directive
is in full force, Captain.

- No identification
of self or mission.

No interference with the social
development of said planet.

- Gene knew that "Star Trek" was
on thin ice with the network.

So he struck a deal
with his other Gene.

- So Roddenberry said I'll let
you out of your contract.

- But if we get renewed
for a third season,

you have to come back
and write four episodes.

- And Gene Coon agreed to that.

- Given the problems with NBC
and Gene Coon's departure,

many of the writers
weren't optimistic

about keeping their jobs.

- We believed "Star Trek"
was in trouble.

- That was until
NBC announced...

- "Star Trek" is coming
back next year.

- And no one was happier
than the fans

who had written
in to save the show.

- Really, the point of that
announcement was to get people

to stop writing letters.
You know what?

More letters came
in saying "thank you."

- Having survived the kiss
of death from the network,

Gene pull out all the stops
for season three

with a kiss of his own.

- I'm so very frightened.

- This is the first interracial
kiss on television.

- That's the way
they want you to feel.

- And everybody was nervous
about it.

- That included the studio
heads in New York.

- They were worried
about the South.

- While embracing a chance
to make history,

Gene Roddenberry
was facing some pushback.

- The head of the studio came
out from New York.

Big deal.

I wish I could stop trembling.

When he came out, they said are
you coming out because of--

He says, "No, I wanna meet
Nichelle Nichols.

"She's one of my favorite
actresses and I wanna see her.

I wanna meet her."

- Surprising even Nichelle
herself.

- He just adored Uhura.

And that settled that.

- And so "Star Trek" made
history with a simple

if slightly awkward
meeting of the lips.

- Where I come from,

size, shape or color
makes no difference.

- However, there was still
no meeting of the minds

between Gene Roddenberry
and the network.

And when NBC decided to move
"Star Trek" to Friday night,

Gene drew a line in the sand.

- If you put it at this time
slot, I am gonna step back.

I'm not gonna be
as involved as I was.

- He drew a line in the sand
like Picard would do later on.

- This far, no further!

- But they still did it.
- And said, well,

okay, they called my bluff.
I'm out of here.

- NBC had drawn its own line
in the sand around ratings.

- And if you didn't get
a 30 share as big as that was

you faced possible cancellation.

- So with "Star Trek" stuck in

the gallows of Friday night...

- That's date night.

- "Star Trek"'s ratings
suffered.

- And so that made it
more inviting

for NBC to wanna
cancel the show.

- Thus, after a lackluster
third season...

- Here's "Star Trek"
being cancelled, 1969.

The last episode airs 47 days

before Apollo 11
lands on the moon.

- But as they say in the
business, timing is everything.

"Star Trek" the original series

comprised just 79 episodes.

And although no longer on NBC,

its television run
was just beginning.

"Star Trek" gained momentum
after it went off the air.

It's a really unique situation.

- And it was all thanks to Desi
and Lucy's revolutionary idea.

- The rerun rights.
- Which by now

had become standard practice.

- The model for television
in the '60s was syndication.

And that is once your program
had come off of the first-run

network, it would then
go into syndication

and be sold to local stations.

- Freed from
the clutches of NBC,

"Star Trek" went
forth to seek out

new civilizations... of viewers.

- It was immediately
picked up by about

50 stations across America.

A few years later,
it was on 100.

A couple years later,
it's on 150, then up to 200

by the end of the 1970s.

- But as program manager,
Lucie Salhany

wouldn't just play it
once a week.

- We ran it Monday through
Friday, and sometimes

Monday through Friday
and Saturday.

- It was as if
it was on all the time.

- And we kept running it
and rerunning it.

- This shocked everyone.

- Gene used to tell a story
of how the ratings people

come running into the suits
at Paramount TV and say

"My God, you've got
the perfect show!"

And look at this, it's hitting
all the demos.

Everything we wanna hit, it's
getting to the right audience.

- And the name
of the show was...

- "Star Trek."
Oh, we cancelled it last year.

- As the number of stations that
carried "Star Trek" grew,

so did Paramount's profits.

- Paramount was going, oh my God
we've got this moneymaker here.

- So much so that secondhand
"Star Trek" was proving

more valuable than
brand-new TV shows.

- The ratings
were actually better,

and it continued to grow.

And people were watching
the show now

for the third, fourth, fifth,
sixth, seventh time.

- Redefining how television
worked for everyone.

- And if somebody loves a show,

they're just gonna keep
watching this thing.

- But it wasn't just old fans
who flocked to "Star Trek."

- "Star Trek" captures
a whole new audience.

Even when they were up to their
fifth and sixth reruns,

"Star Trek" was pulling in
ratings of 375,000 people.

Beating the first-run network
television shows.

- "Star Trek" became one of the
first entertainment properties

to transform from a show
to a show of force.

- The very first "Star Trek"
convention in New York,

3,000 show up.
It's on the front pages

of "Variety."
It's in "TV Guide."

- It's in the New York papers.

It makes the term Trekkie
a household word.

- And its stars began
a legacy that would

define their careers
and their lives.

- When I look at all the fans
and the people that I talk to

in signing autographs,
it's just amazing to me

what an impact it's made
on so many people.

I'm just so proud of that,
I can't tell you.

- It sounds funny
for saying this.

But it's never been cancelled.

We were just off longer
than we wanted to be.

- "Star Trek"'s popularity
stems from Roddenberry's

revolutionary take on a genre
leading to an epic franchise

that's showing no signs
of slowing down.

But without the bravery
and determination

of Lucille Ball who defied
Hollywood and expectations,

well, "Star Trek" probably
wouldn't exist at all.

- So she's the hero
behind "Star Trek."

She deserves that credit.

- Lucy took a risk
on two TV pilots--

"Mission: Impossible"
and "Star Trek."

They wind up being
the two huge franchises

in Paramount's back pocket,
that in some years

were the two franchises,
especially "Star Trek"

that kept the whole damn
studio afloat.

- But back in 1969, the studio
was in a bit of a quandary.

Having killed its golden goose,
Paramount was left wondering

how it could be resurrected.
- What do you do with that?

Do you pull all those
actors back?

What would that take?
Do we do a movie?

Do we do a TV movie?
Do we launch a season

with a TV movie?
- The answer to that

was destined to be drawn out.