All language subtitles for The Center Seat 55 Years of Star Trek S01E01 Lucy Loves Trek 1080p AMZN WEB-DL DD+5 1 H 264-playWEB_track3_[eng]

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 loveStar Trek.

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 ofStar Trek.

And you can see it all
from here inThe Center Seat.

Since theUSS 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...

To boldly go where
no man has gone before.

And that five-year mission

has turned into a 55-year one.

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

But before we lovedStar Trek,
we loved Lucy,

and we really
can't tell the story

ofStar Trek without her.

Lucy, absolutely is the
reason Star Trekexists.

She was the one
who put her studio

on the line for Star Trek.

But Lucille Ball
didn't inventStar Trek.

That honor goes to this guy.
No, not him.

This guy, Gene Roddenberry.

But long before
the stars aligned

for Roddenberry andStar Trek,

Lucy was busy becoming a star

in the golden age of Hollywood.

Lucy went out to Hollywood
to be a Goldwyn Girl,

Oh, cut it out, fellas.

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.

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

on-screen husband eventually.

They kind of didn't like
the idea

of a Cuban being
married to, you know,

a red-blooded American gal.

And red-headed of course, not that you could tell me.

Now, look, I'm serious.

And so was CBS,

because that pilot for a show
calledI Love Lucy,

was a legitimate hit.

I Love Lucybecame 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."

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.

The taste of success
was sweet.

Lucille and Desi,

and their aptly
named studio Desilu.

We're 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.

Unless, of course,
it'sI 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.

And they had to pay
Desi Arnaz a million dollars

to get the rerun rights
back for that summer.

And with that cool million,

Desi and Lucy...

...used that money to buy RKO.

Much more than
three little letters,

Lucy and Desi now owned...

It was 35 sound stages
in three locations. It was huge.

And ultimately
important toStar Trek.

But not quite yet.

Because before
theUSS Enterprise

could get its NCC
registration number,

Desilu needed
another kind of enterprise.

The money-making kind.

OnceI 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.

Either that or...

Everybody came to film
at Desilu.

- The Andy Griffith Show.
- My Three Sons.

Dick Van Dyke Show.

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.

People just
automatically assumed

that Lucy owned the world

because she had
all of these shows

on the air
with the Desilu logo,

but they weren't
necessarily owned by her.

But on the home front,

Lucy was feeling owned by Desi

and that arrangement
wasn't working.

'58, '59,
Lucy and Desi divorced.

So, uh, I'll see you later.

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 show.

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.

TheUSS 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 19th, 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.

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.

He flies in 89 combat missions

and wins numerous awards.

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.

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,

calledThe 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.

Gene Roddenberry,
he wants to do

hard-hitting, adult themes.

One of his episodes
is about racism.

But the world has got
to change first.

It's got to be made to change.

It brings him
head to head battle

with the network,
with the studio.

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.

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.

Deep questions like...

Was it you who spoke?

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.

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

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 well-mannered.

He came in with his
single piece of paper.

and his memo
about whatStar 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 Trainbeing
a very popular Western anthology series.

This was right on point.

It was a big wagon train,
slowly going west.

Headed to New Frontier...

You know, running into
different obstacles.

It's going to be a Western...

but it's gonna be
in outer space.

Zap guns
instead of six shooters,

Spaceships instead of horses.

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.

Hoping it would
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.

Suddenly, the future looked very bright.

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.

Lucy had
a development fund.

She gave the money
from the development fund

to develop Star Trek.

With Lucille's own money,

Gene began scripting
his wagon train to the stars,

starting with his lead character...

James Kirk.

No.

In the original drafts
forThe Cage,

the captain of the Enterprise

was going to be
called Robert April.

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.

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
is 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.

We've all seen the movies on American submarines,

half of the American men,
fought in that war.

Including Gene himself, who drew from experience

to design the costumes...

...and even the radio signals.

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 maneuver, 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.

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.

If you want facts, Jamison,
I'll give you the 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.

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.

Roddenberry always wanted Leonard Nimoy to play Spock.

That was the first person
he thought of,

as 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.

Nimoy had just
finished perfecting

his contemplative demeanor
onThe Lieutenant.

I did the job
a week or two later,

My agent called me
and said, Gene Roddenberry,

he's interested in you
for a science fiction pilot

that he's going to produce.

He said, "Character
with pointed ears."

And then 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.

I could get used to having
a woman on the bridge.

No offense, Lieutenant.

You're different, of course.

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
ofThe Lieutenant...

Aye, aye, sir.

...casting a woman
as second-in-command,

even in an imagined future,
was ahead of its time.

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.

Oh, don't worry,

if you think
that's unbelievable...

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 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 10 years working
as the heavy in Westerns.

So the only cure
for this ailment was

a stiff shot of veteran actor
John Hoyt.

Who wants a warm martini?

So, with the cast in place,

Desilu Studios
began filming the pilot

on November 27th, 1964.

But instead of delivering
a space Western,

the first episode
entitledThe Cage,

dealt with more
abstract themes.

The enormous power of imagination.

You 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 Trekwas
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.

We remember,

but one ofStar 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
6 million today.

Then NBC only put up
half the money.

Desilu put up the other half.

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.

But mainly...

They felt the plot
was too cerebral.

It appears that the
intelligence of the specimen

is shockingly limited.

Aliens using illusion
to do what they want to do.

It was simply too brainy,

too wacky and too much
for advertisers.

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

it's not reflective of what we
would want the series to be.

And that's it.

TheUSS Enterprise

was caught in
a negative force field.

For now.

Star Trek's first brave sortie

to the television cosmos
had failed.

The door was closed
onThe 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,
do a new one.

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."

And when push came to shove,

Gene gave into 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
toThe Lieutenant.

Because Gene said
that he wanted a woman

in a command center.

Meanwhile,
Gene suddenly found himself in need of a doctor

because John Hoyt
had gone off to do movies.

Ah, that 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.

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 D on the show.

You look just fine, Doctor.

Well, I don't doubt it.

That haircut was based on
John F. Kennedy.

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 doors slid open

for the guy
he wanted all along,

William Shatner.

Because We The People
had just been canceled.

But his new captain
would need a new name.

This is, uh,
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.

Evidently,
NBC wanted the "T" to stand for "Tough",

They wanted something
a little more action-oriented.

SoStar Trek
started to get physical like the Olympics.

And then NBC said, "We love it."

With boxing, karate,

wrestling and possibly
shot put.

And one of the lesser
known sports.

The Vulcan neck pinch,
was Leonard Nimoy's creation.

That's right.
One of the series' most beloved moves

came not from
the writer's room,

but from the mind
of Spock himself.

Spock was supposed
to give a karate chop

to the back of Kirk's
neck and knock him out.

So he went over to the director

of that episode, Leo Penn,

who was Sean Penn's father,

and said, "A Vulcan would not

"resort to this kind of violence

"unless he had to.

"Unless he was just being
attacked unprepared,

"he would find a more
civilized way to do it."

And Leo said,
"Well, what do you mean? What, like... What would he do?

And Leonard Nimoy just
making it up on the spot,

says, "Vulcans understand

"the electromagnetic
nervous system of humans.

"They would know that
there's a pressure point

"that you could
put your fingers to

"and cause a person
to go unconscious."

But director Leo Penn needed a little more convincing.

Nimoy looks over
at William Shatner

and says, "Bill, can I
borrow you for a minute?"

And Shatner comes over

and they're just waiting
to shoot the scene.

The lights are being tweaked,

Shatner comes over and he says,

"You know that thing I was
telling you about

"how Vulcans can
knock you out..."

Shatner never heard this before,

but... But he goes,
"Yeah, yeah, yeah.

"Yeah, it's really interesting."
He says,

"Leo doesn't think it will work,

"and I wanted
to demonstrate it on you." "Sure."

Nimoy, goes over
and presses Shatner's shoulder

at the base of his neck

and Shatner rolls his eyes
up into his head

and just collapses
to the floor.

And Leo Penn is just stunned.

"Bill, are you okay?
Are you okay?"

And he... "Oh, yeah,
I'm a little woozy.

"That's amazing.
We've got to do that."

So that's the first neck pinch
on Star Trek.

But thanks
to Gene Roddenberry,

nearly the last.

Gene Roddenberry sent a memo out

to Leonard Nimoy scolding him

for doing this and saying,

"Don't ever do
anything like this again.

"But by the way,
we're going to keep this,

"and we're going
to start writing this into the scripts."

So he got scolded

for coming up with
that brilliant idea.

So Nimoy had
given them the pinch,

but then came the twist.

They also wanted to see

if you can make it
a little cheaper.

The pilot costs 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 backStar Trek

to the tune of 100 grand
per episode.

So Desilu's going into the hole

85 grand with every episode
they're making.

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,

"You'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... 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
and central thing.

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
ofThe Lieutenant

never made it to air,

Star Trek would be her first
on-screen credit.

Thank you, God.

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 limit

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 inter-react

"in a natural, comfortable way."

WhenStar Trek
finally broadcast,

it confirmed that
America was ready

for a fresh vision
of the future

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.

It was an uphill battle.

They were under
the gun constantly.

It was taking a toll mentally.

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.

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 tree.

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 can see that.

And became an iconic
Spock scene.

But one
iconic episode, above all,

would come to embodyStar 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

The City on
the Edge of Forever.

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
thoughtStar Trek should be.

Harlan's original version of

The City on the
Edge of Forever,

involved a drug dealer on
the Enterprise named Beckwith.

And 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.

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 needed.

So Gene Coon made
a bold executive decision.

Producer Gene Coon
locked him in a room

So he couldn't get out.

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...

That 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 have 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.

and it was completely unshootable.

While Harlan Ellison's
magnum opus

created a headache
forStar 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.

When she was working
onStar Trek,

She's actually
the youngest story editor

in the history of television.

And she's one of the very few
female story editors.

Which made
her job even more intimidating

Because 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.

Killers!

- Assassins!
-Which is how DC feared Harlan would react

when he found out
that they changed the script.

Nah, 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.

But if that
wasn't horrifying enough,

I'm in love with Edith Keeler.

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

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 and love.

One day man is going
to be able to harness...

incredible energies.

If nothing else,
it was a speech about...

Hope.

But Gene's 2 cents
gave anything but hope

to Harlan Ellison.

It's the old, uh,

French joke about the chef
who has made

a 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.

And so by the time
they filmed it,

Harlan didn't want
his name on there.

Which Gene
couldn't afford to lose.

If he lost Dave 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 going to 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 ironically,
there came a point where

Harlan Ellison
was quite pleased

to have his name on the script.

Harlan won a Writer's Guild
Award for his original script.

That's right.
The way things worked back then,

it really paid to be a writer.

In those days,
the days ofStar Trek,

and in live in early television,

The writer kept the rights to a
script after the show was made.

They always reverted
to him or her.

Well, in this case,
definitely not for her.

Harlan, therefore,
was able to keep

the complete rights
to his full script

for The City on
the Edge of Forever,

Which was sweet for Harlan.

But for others,
it left quite a bad taste.

Harlan, when he won that award
at the Writers Guild...

Awards ceremony,

he held the script up over
his head and said,

"Don't let them rewrite you!"

And Herb Solow...

Then head
of TV production for Desilu...

He said, "I was looking down
at my plate, my knife

"and my fork and my spoon.

"And I was thinking, which of
these utensils should I use

"when I murder Harlan?"

"Which one will take longer
and hurt the most?"

Long before Herb contemplated knife and fork crime...

those on set
when shooting began

may have been
starting on the entree,

but they were already
worrying about the bill.

Harlan Ellison'sThe 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 Trekever.

That meant
season two ofStar Trek,

really needed to
turn those thrusters on.

William Shatner stars as Captain Kirk,

and Leonard Nimoy
as Science Officer Spock

on Star Trekin 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 want to lose
that time slot.

And so a comedy sketch show

sentStar 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 Monkeeswas the only show
that was getting more fan mail

than Star Trekat that point.

With one
clever difference... - This is vodka.

...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.

I know Gene's thinking
is that Star Trek,

you mixed all races,
erased all borders.

All nationalities
could get together.

We could all work together

and bring that sense
of humanity,

which was really what
Star Trekwas 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,

in the late...
Uh, mid to late '60s.

The civil rights situation,
the 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.

A 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 who'd
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 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 balloons.

WithStar 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.

-Star Trek
-Impossible

were so costly to produce

that they couldn't make up
the money

that it was costing
to produce them.

WithStar 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 industries.

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

than 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.

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 Enterprisestage.

Now,
why would people be laughing

during a serious thing

like aStar Trek taping?

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

The scene where Kirk
gets to the cargo bay

and all the tribbles
bury him up to his neck.

The crew couldn't help it.

The take 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 TrekI knew how to do.

And the episode did connect with a broader audience.

Trouble with Tribblesis
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 Trekbecome
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 on I'm... I'm walking."

However, Gene wasn't going to let one ofStar Trek's

most creative voices
just walk out the door.

The Original Serieswouldn'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 set planet.

Gene knew thatStar 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 couldn't
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 believe Star Trek
was in trouble.

That was
until NBC announced...

Star Trekis 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 pulled 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.

But undeterred,
Gene insisted the time was right

for the singular moment
in television.

While embracing a chance
to make history,

Gene Roddenberry
was facing some push back.

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 he says, "No,

"I want to meet
the Nichelle Nichols.

"She's one of my favorite actresses,

and I want to see her.

I want to meet her.

Surprising
even Nichelle herself.

He just adored Uhura.

And that settled that.

And soStar 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'm going to step back.

"I'm not going to 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.

If you didn't get a 30 share,
as big as that was,

you faced possible cancellation.

So withStar 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 want to cancel the show.

Thus, after
a lackluster third season...

Here'sStar Trek
being canceled, 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 Trekgained 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
the first-run network.

It would then
go into syndication

to 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.

Well, we kept running it
and rerunning it.

This shocked everyone.

Gene used to tell the story
of how the ratings people

come running in to the suits
of Paramount TV and say,

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

"Look at this.
It's hitting all the demos,

"everything we want to hit, it's
getting to the right audience."

And the name
of the show was...

- Star Trek!
- Oh, we canceled it last year.

As the number of stations that carriedStar Trek grew,

so did Paramount's profits.

Paramount was going,
"Oh, my God, we've got this money-maker here."

So much so that
secondhandStar Trek

was proving more valuable
than brand new TV shows.

The ratings are actually better

and it continued to grow.

And people are watching
this show now

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

Redefining how television worked for everyone.

...that if somebody
loves a show,

they're just going to keep
watching this thing.

But it wasn't just old fans who flocked toStar Trek.

Star Trek captures
a whole new audience.

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

Star Trekwas pulling in
ratings of 375,000 people,

beating 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.

Three thousand show up.

It's on the front pages ofVariety.

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 talked
to and 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.

This sounds funny
for saying this,

but it's never been canceled...

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 Trekthat 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.