Eugene Wesley Roddenberry (August 19, 1921 – October 24, 1991)
I was not intending to add a piece on Gene Roddenberry in this thread until later. However, a lively discussion on the
Real Direct 4D STO Contact? thread prompted me to post the narrative shown below, which I thought should be moved to this thread for further discussion (
N.B. I have expanded the original script to include more material):
Woodsman, I started this thread to try and draw out those influences on our popular culture today. I was going to ask the question on this thread when did the first reference to a
'Federation' come into the current zeitgeist but you beat me to it. I think one of the people who helped promote the concept of the Federation was Gene Roddenberry, the creator of the Star Trek franchise. I was in fact thinking of doing a piece on him. Although he is not renowned as a science fiction writer, he did write some of the screenplays to Star Trek episodes himself. He also helped to create other science fictions shows such as Andromeda (which had a commonwealth rather than a federation) the Questor Tapes and Genesis II.
Where did Roddenberry get the concept of the Federation from? Well we know he was involved in the channelling sessions of entities that described themselves as the
Council of Nine or the
'Ennead' in the 1950's. If you are interested, Ancient Aliens did a whole show on them in season 11: episode 8. The man at the centre of these channellings was
Andrija Puharich, US Army Captain and author of a government paper on the weaponisation of ESP. He was in fact a government scientist, who may have worked for the CIA and been involved in the
MK Ultra project. He certainly did expirements on psychedelic substances and may have been one of those involved in creating LSD, which was used with disastrous results in the Vietnam War (see the film Jacob's Ladder for a reference). Clive Prince and Lynn Picknett's book '
The Star Gate Conspiracy' contains a very detailed account of these channellings (N.B. I appreciate that Lynn Picknett comes with a health warning after her exchange of correspondence with Laura over the C's).
Gene Roddenberry was supposed to have incorporated many of the things he learned in these channelling sessions into his Star Trek series. For example, the idea of warp speed travel, teleportation, the 'Prime Directive' and, of course, the
Federation. One wonders if they ever discussed the
Borg? A chilling thought.
Back in 1960 NASA commissioned the Brookings Institute to do an analysis on the implications of peaceful space activities for human affairs, which when published became known as '
The Brookings Report'. One issue Brookings considered was what would be the effect on the population should NASA reveal news of the discovery of alien artifacts within our solar system. The view eventually taken by the Brookings Report was that such an announcement could lead to world wide chaos, which could seriously damage the world's economy. They were especially concerned for the impact on religious believers. Hence, they took the view that the public needed to be prepared by introducing science fiction related themes, aliens etc. into the social consciousness (mainly by way of movies and TV) to give people some foundation or point of reference when and if such discoveries were made. Please be aware that the science fiction films of the 1950's were mainly B Movies and considered pop corn fodder with a few notable exceptions such as 'The Day the World Stood Still' and 'Forbidden Planet'.
Hence, Gene Roddenberry, may have been one of those producers used to sew the seed for the possibility of advanced alien life existing beyond our planet. You should also know that he had a hard time selling Star Trek to the studios, so toxic was science fiction to TV chiefs at the time, and ended up pitching it as 'Wagon Train' in space (Wagon train being a popular cowboy TV series of the late 1950's early 1960's). Star Trek would, of course, be followed by Star Wars, Star Gate, Babylon 5 etc. and now science fiction is established as a popular genre on TV and in the movies but this certainly wasn't so before the 1960's. You could say mission accomplished because it is doubtful if people today would be so shocked by the revelation of advanced alien life in our galaxy as they would have been prior to the 1960's. Just think of the impact Orson Welles 'War of the Worlds' radio broadcast had on the 1930's American public to get some sense of the panic that might have ensued. Indeed, was Welles broadcast a planned psyop to guage the public reaction? Some ufologists think so.
Gene Roddenberry was an American television screenwriter, producer and creator of Star Trek, and its sequel spin-off series Star Trek: The Next Generation. Born in El Paso, Texas, Roddenberry grew up in Los Angeles, where his father was a police officer. Roddenberry flew 89 combat missions in the US Army Air Force during World War II, and worked as a commercial pilot after the war. Later, he followed in his father's footsteps and joined the Los Angeles Police Department, where he also began to write scripts for television.
As a frelance writer, Roddenberry wrote scripts for Highway Patrol, Have Gun - Will Travel, and other series, before creating and producing his own television series, The Lieutenant
. In 1964, Roddenberry created Star Trek, which premiered in 1966 and ran for three seasons before being canceled. He then worked on other projects, including a string of failed television pilots. The syndication of
Star Trek led to its growing popularity; this, in turn, resulted in the Star Trek feature films, on which Roddenberry continued to produce and consult. In 1987, the sequel series
Star Trek: The Next Generation began airing on television; Roddenberry was heavily involved in the initial development of the series, but took a less active role after the first season due to ill health. He continued to consult on the series until his death in 1991.
In 1985, he became the first TV writer with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and he was later inducted into both the Science Fiction Hall of Fame and the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Hall of Fame. Years after his death, Roddenberry was one of the first humans to have his ashes carried into earth orbit. The popularity of the
Star Trek universe and films has inspired films, books, comic books, video games, and fan films. [
N.B. Biographic details have been sourced from Wikipedia.]
Star Trek chronicled the 23rd-century adventures of a cast of characters headed by Capt. James T Kirk, the Vulcan First Officer Mr. Spock, and other officers of the starship Enterprise. The 79 episodes of the series presented an optimistic view of life in the future as it traced the crew’s mission “
to explore strange new worlds; to seek out new life and new civilizations; to boldly go where no man has gone before.” When you analyse the early Star Trek series you can see that many episodes were used to comment on issues and topics that were highly relevant and current to the late 1960's, for example, nuclear war, war in general (the Vietnam War was raging at that time), racial discrimination (the 'civil rights' movement in the USA was in full swing), birth control and feminism to name but a few. Indeed, some reviewers see the Federation as a thinly veiled reference to the USA and its allies (NATO) and the Klingon Empire as a reference to the Soviet Empire with both blocs both competing on the world stage at the time. You should note that Star Trek was also trail blazing in being one of the first US TV series to include a multiracial crew, something that Roddenberry had insisted on.
Many episodes dealt with super beings (
Charlie X and the
Squire of Gothos for example) who could be viewed as 6th Density beings perhaps and were generally noncorporeal. This would eventually culminate in the introduction of the
Q Continuum in Star Trek the Next Generation, where the mysterious figure of Q would emerge from time to time to set tests for Picard and his crew to pass in an ongoing examination of the human race. This ties in with the concept the C's have alluded to that we are an experiment and a work in progress as a species. There was also an episode called
'Johhny Seven', which dealt with a human who had been sent to 1967 America by benevolent aliens who had trained and equipped him on their world to stop the successful launch of a US nuclear weapons platform into space. The Enterprise crew intercepts the man as they fear he may be an agent from the future sent to change Earth's history and bring around a nuclear war. All works out well in the end but it is an interesting concept that may draw on inspiration from the 1950's Movie classic '
The Day the Earth Stood Still' starring Michael Rennie (which was remade in 2008 with Keanu Reeve in the lead). This film in turn may have drawn on the
Valiant Thor story, which I referred to in a posting on the 'Real Direct 4D STO Contact?' thread. Did Roddenberry know about this story as he did have links with the Pentagon through his filming of the 'Lieutenant'?
Then there is the alien race known as the
Vulcans who, although still clearly 3rd Density, are evidently more spiritually advanced than humans. They are hightly intelligent beings who have expunged all emotion from their lives (the ultimate stoics) and who strictly follow the path of logic in all things. They also closely follow the '
Prime Directive' not to interfer with the natural development of non-warp capable civilisations, which is a constant source of trial and tension for their more emotional human colleagues, who are more minded to get involved with primitive societies when they feel it is necessary. At times though, human emotions and instincts are seen to triumph over Vulcan logic. Vulcans also have a telepathic ability, sometimes demonstrated in the Vulcan mind meld, which is something 4th Density beings are said to possess.
It is interesting to note in light of what I said above that in 1974, Roddenberry was paid $25,000 by John Whitmore to write a script called
The Nine. Intended to be about
Andrija Puharich's parapsychological research. Apparently, it evolved into a frank exploration of his experiences attempting to earn a living attending science fiction conventions. I don't know if the script was ever completed and released.
By his own admission, Roddenberry was a humanist and he won the 1991
Humanist Arts Award from the American Humanist Association. Brannon Braga, a Star Trek franchise screenwriter and producer, said that Roddenberry made it known to the writers of
Star Trek and
Star Trek: The Next Generation that religion, superstition, and mystical thinking were not to be included (although there seemed to be plenty of mystical thinking where the Vulcans were concerned!). Even a mention of marriage in a script for an early episode of
The Next Generation resulted in Roddenberry's chastising the writers.
Some may wonder why I should include Roddenberry on this thread as he was renowned more as a TV producer than as a science fiction writer. However, he did write (and rewrite) several episodes of Star Trek himself and he would go ont to win two
Hugo Awards. One was a special award for the series itself, while another was for "
The Menagerie", the episode which used footage from the original unaired pilot for
Star Trek,
"The Cage". His influence as a science fiction writer was such that he was inducted into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame in 2007. Following his death in 1991, he was posthumously awarded the
Robert A Heinlein Memorial Award by the National Space Agency and
The George Pal Memorial Award at the Saturn Awards, as well as the
Exceptional Public Service Medal by NASA
. He was also long time friends with Isaac Asimov and Sir Arthur C Clarke, with whom he frequently corresponded. Roddenberry and
Star Trek have been cited as inspiration for other science fiction franchises, with George Lucas crediting the series for enabling
Star Wars to be produced. Michael Straczynski, creator of the Babylon
5 franchise, appreciated
Star Trek amongst other science fiction series and "
what they had to say about who we are, and where we are going."
Hence, although Roddenberry cannot be said to have been one of the great scince fiction writers such as Wells, Clarke, Heinlein and Asimov, his writing and TV shows have probably done more to influence our own present age than any of the aforesaid writers. After that, all I can say is "
Beam me up Scottie".
I've read the works of Isaac Asimov and I really liked the psychohistory concept. But there were no exploration per se. On the tv side, Battlestar Galactica was enjoyable but there was too much politics for my taste.
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