by Edward Gross
DeFOREST KELLEY was an actor, screenwriter, and poet. He is best known for his roles in Gunfight at the O.K. Corral and as Dr. Leonard McCoy in TOS, TAS, and the spin-off films.
LUKAS KENDALL is a prolific producer of soundtrack albums as well as the editor of Film Score Monthly. He also cowrote and produced the film Lucky Bastard.
PERSIS KHAMBATTA was a model, actress, and author. She is best known for her role in Megaforce and as Lieutenant Ilia in TMP.
RICHARD H. KLINE is the Oscar-nominated director of photography whose films include The Andromeda Strain, Soylent Green, The Fury, Body Heat, and TMP.
CHRISTOPHER KNOPF is a longtime television writer and friend of Gene Roddenberry.
WALTER KOENIG is an actor, writer, and director. He is best known for his roles as Alfred Bester in Babylon 5 and Pavel Chekov in TOS and the six films based on it. He also wrote an episode of TAS, “The Infinite Vulcan.”
JAMES KOMACK was a television director, producer, actor, and writer. He worked on a variety of television shows including Get Smart, Chico and the Man, and TOS.
JOE KRAEMER is a composer who worked on such films and television series as Jack Reacher, Femme Fatales, The Way of the Gun, and Mission: Impossible—Rogue Nation.
PETER KRIKES is a screenwriter who contributed to the script for STIV.
DAVID LANGHAUS is a longtime Star Trek fan who attended many early conventions in New York City.
DEVRA LANGSAM is the former publisher of Spockanalia, the first Star Trek fanzine. She is also one of the first Star Trek convention organizers.
JONATHAN LARSEN is a former producer for such news outlets as ABC News, CNN, and MSNBC, where he was executive producer of Up with Chris Hayes and Up Late with Alec Baldwin.
GLEN A. LARSON was a prolific television writer and producer. He is best known as the creator of the original Battlestar Galactica; Magnum, P.I.; Quincy M.E., Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, and Knight Rider, among many others, and worked with Gene L. Coon on It Takes a Thief.
ANDREW LASZLO is a cinematographer who worked on such films as First Blood, The Warriors, and STV.
ROBERT LEWIN was a television writer and producer who worked on such shows as The Streets of San Francisco, Hawaii Five-O, The Man from Atlantis, The Paper Chase, and TNG.
JACQUELINE LICHTENBERG is an author who has written a variety of novels, short stories, and nonfiction material including the seminal Star Trek Lives!
HAROLD LIVINGSTON is a longtime writer, producer, and novelist and the sole credited screenwriter of TMP.
GARY LOCKWOOD is an actor who is known for his roles as Dr. Frank Poole in 2001: A Space Odyssey and as Commander Gary Mitchell in TOS.
DAVID LOUGHERY is a screenwriter and producer. He has written a variety of films including Lakeview Terrace, Dreamscape, and STV.
JOHN MEREDYTH LUCAS was a television writer, producer, and director who worked on such shows as Kojak, The Six Million Dollar Man, TOS, and Phase II.
ADAM MALIN is the cofounder of Creation Entertainment, which specializes in producing conventions for fans of comic books, television series, and films.
SCOTT MANTZ is a film critic and producer who has appeared on such programs as Access Hollywood and The Today Show.
VINCENT McEVEETY is a director and producer who has worked on a variety of programs including Gunsmoke; Murder, She Wrote; and TOS.
STEVE MEERSON is a screenwriter who contributed to the screenplay for STIV.
NICHOLAS MEYER is a screenwriter, producer, director, and author. He is the writer of the bestselling novel The Seven-Per-Cent Solution, which was adapted into a feature film. In addition to writing and directing Time After Time, STII, and STVI, he cowrote STIV with Harve Bennett.
HAROLD MICHELSON was a production designer who worked as the head of the art department on TMP.
MICHAEL MINOR was a conceptual and production illustrator who worked on Phase II, TMP, and STII.
LAWRENCE MONTAIGNE is an actor who appeared in such series as The Streets of San Francisco, Batman, and TOS.
RICARDO MONTALBAN was an actor whose career spanned seven decades during which he portrayed various roles including most famously Mr. Roarke on Fantasy Island and Khan Noonien Singh in TOS and STII.
RONALD D. MOORE is a television and film writer and producer, whose credits include TNG, DS9, Carnivale, Roswell, the critically acclaimed remake of Battlestar Galactica, Caprica, and Outlander. He is also the coscreenwriter for Generations and First Contact.
DIANA MULDAUR is a film and television actress whose credits include L.A. Law, Born Free, TOS, and TNG on which she played Dr. Katherine Pulaski during the show’s second season.
KATE MULGREW is a film and television actress. She is known for her Emmy-nominated role as Red on Orange Is the New Black and as Captain Kathryn Janeway on VOY.
EDDIE MURPHY is an actor, writer, comedian, and former cast member on Saturday Night Live. He is also known for his comedy film classics 48 Hrs., Beverly Hills Cop, and Shrek as well as his Oscar-nominated role in Dreamgirls.
KENNY MYERS has been a makeup artist and designer on myriad feature films, including STV and STVI.
ED NAHA is an author, journalist, screenwriter, and producer. He has written for the magazine Starlog, produced the spoken-word album Inside Star Trek, and wrote the popular film Honey, I Shrunk the Kids.
GARY NARDINO was president of production at Paramount Pictures and executive producer of STIII. He also produced the TV series Time Trax with Harve Bennett.
NICHELLE NICHOLS is an actress, singer, and performer. She is best known for her role as Lieutenant Uhura on TOS, TAS, and in the Star Trek feature films.
LEONARD NIMOY was a prominent actor, director, poet, and producer. While he is best known for his legendary portrayal of Mr. Spock in the Star Trek series, he also directed numerous films including Three Men and a Baby, The Good Mother, STIII, and STIV. In addition to appearing (and disappearing) as Paris in the Mission: Impossible TV series, Nimoy starred in the TV movies A Woman Called Golda and Never Forget as well as in Fiddler on the Roof and Equus on Broadway.
MIKE OKUDA is a scenic artist whose credits include STV, STVI, TNG, Generations, First Contact, Insurrection, DS9, VOY, Nemesis, and ENT.
KERRY O’QUINN is the creator and former publisher of Starlog, Fangoria, Cinemagic, and Future Life magazines.
GLEN C. OLIVER is a film and television critic for the popular Web site Ain’t It Cool News.
ROBERTO ORCI is a prolific film and television writer and producer. He is the cocreator of Fringe as well as the cowriter on Star Trek and Star Trek Into Darkness.
GEORGE PAPPY is director of the documentary The Green Girl, a film about the late Star Trek actress Susan Oliver.
SAMUEL A. PEEPLES was a television writer and author. He published several novels and wrote the second pilot episode of TOS.
JOYCE PERRY is a television writer whose credits include Land of the Lost, The Waltons, and TAS.
DON PETERMAN was a cinematographer whose credits include Flashdance, Men in Black, and STIV.
JOSEPH PEVNEY was a television and film director. He directed episodes of such shows as Bonanza, The Paper Chase, and TOS.
DAVID V. PICKER is the former president of three major film studios including Paramount, where he oversaw the development of Star Trek as a feature film property as well as shepherding such iconic films as Tom Jones, the James Bond series, A Hard Day’s Night, Midnight Cowboy, Last Tango in Paris, and The Jerk to the screen.
MICHAEL PILLER was a journalist, television writer, and producer who is best known for his work on TNG and for cocreating DS9 and VOY. He also developed and executive produced The Dead Zone TV series as well as Legend, starring John de Lancie. In addition, Piller wrote the screenplay for Insurrection.
JON POVILL is a screenwriter who was story editor for Phase II, his teleplay for which “The Child” was adapted as an episode of TNG. He served as associate producer of TMP.
CHRIS PRATT is a television and fi
lm actor. He is best known for his roles as Andy Dwyer in Parks and Recreation, Peter Quill in Guardians of the Galaxy, and Owen Grady in Jurassic World.
ANDREW PROBERT is a conceptual artist who helped design the Enterprise for TMP and the Enterprise-D for TNG.
KEN RALSTON is a visual-effects supervisor for Industrial Light & Magic who has worked on myriad films in both the Star Trek and Star Wars series.
ANDE RICHARDSON worked at Desilu and was secretary to Gene L. Coon on TOS.
HANK RIEGER was a publicist and journalist. He was the West Coast director of press and publicity for NBC from 1965 to 1979 and promoted such shows as Laugh-In, I Spy, and TOS.
GENE RODDENBERRY was a television and film writer, producer, and futurist. He is famous for being the creator and executive producer of the original Star Trek series that inspired the Star Trek franchise as well as the creator of TNG. He also executive produced TMP as well as numerous TV pilots including The Questor Tapes and Genesis II.
MAJEL BARRETT RODDENBERRY was an actress and producer. She is known for her roles as Nurse Christine Chapel on TOS and Lwaxana Troi on TNG and DS9. She was also the wife of Gene Roddenberry.
ROD RODDENBERRY is CEO of Roddenberry Entertainment and a respected philanthropist. He is the son of Gene and Majel Roddenberry.
MARK ROSENTHAL is a screenwriter who is the cowriter of the film STVI. His other credits include Mona Lisa Smile and Flicka.
ELYSE ROSENSTEIN is one of the earliest members of Star Trek fandom who helped organize the first Star Trek conventions.
STEVEN JAY RUBIN is a unit publicist, journalist, and author who has worked on such films as Pretty in Pink; Honey, I Blew Up the Kids; and Silent Night. He also wrote The James Bond Companion.
JIM RUGG was an Emmy Award–nominated special effects artist who was responsible for most of the on-set practical effects work for the original Star Trek.
SUSAN SACKETT is a former executive assistant to Gene Roddenberry, a position she held for more than seventeen years. She also cowrote two episodes of TNG.
ROBERT SALLIN is a television commercial director and producer. He was the producer of STII.
LOU SCHEIMER was a producer and one of the original founders of Filmation, creators of such cartoons as He-Man, The Secret of the Sword, and TAS.
PAUL SCHNEIDER was a television writer who worked on such programs as Bonanza, Ironside, TOS, and TAS.
BARRY SCHULMAN is the former vice president of programming at the Sci-Fi Channel. He was involved in the channel’s airing of remastered episodes of TOS as well as the creation of bonus material for their debut.
ALLAN SCOTT is a screenwriter for such films as Don’t Look Now, who was attached to cowrite the aborted film Star Trek: Planet of the Titans.
RALPH SENENSKY is a television director and writer who directed episodes of such series as The Waltons, The Partridge Family, Dynasty, and TOS.
NAREN SHANKAR is a television writer, producer, and director. In addition to being a science consultant for TNG, Shankar went on to executive produce CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. He also wrote for Farscape, Grimm, VOY, and DS9. He developed and executive produced The Expanse for SyFy.
WILLIAM SHATNER is the legendary actor, writer, singer, and director who portrayed the iconic Captain James T. Kirk in Star Trek. In addition, he won an Emmy for his work as Denny Crane in Boston Legal, also starred as the titular T.J. Hooker in the hit ABC series, and served as the host of Rescue 911. In addition to directing STV, Shatner has also starred in such films as Judgment at Nuremberg, The Intruder, and Kingdom of the Spiders, and played an unhinged version of himself in the comedy Free Enterprise.
FELIX SILLA is an actor whose credits include The Addams Family, Spaceballs, Star Wars, Buck Rogers in the 25th Century as Twiki, and a Talosian in the original pilot for Star Trek.
ROBERT SILVERBERG is a well-known science fiction novelist and editor. He contributed story ideas for the first Star Trek film.
JERRY SOHL was a screenwriter whose credits include The Twilight Zone, The Outer Limits, and TOS.
HERBERT F. SOLOW is a former executive in charge of production for Desilu and vice president of worldwide motion picture and television production for MGM. His credits include Mission: Impossible, Then Came Bronson, Mannix, The Man from Atlantis, and TOS.
JACK B. SOWARDS was a screenwriter who is known for being credited for writing STII as well as an episode of TNG.
ADRIAN SPIES was a writer who worked on a variety of television shows including Dr. Kildare, Hawaii Five-O, and TOS.
NORMAN SPINRAD is an author, essayist, and critic. He has written a variety of novels and wrote an episode for TOS and Phase II.
FRANK SPOTNITZ is a former journalist and television writer-producer who has worked on such series as The X-Files, Millennium, and Hunted. He is currently the executive producer of Amazon’s Man in the High Castle.
JOSEPH STEFANO was a screenwriter and producer known for writing the screenplay of the film Psycho as well as creating the original The Outer Limits for ABC. He wrote “Skin of Evil” for the first season of TNG.
DAVID STERN is a former editor for Pocket Books’ Star Trek book line as well as a writer for DC Comics.
PATRICK STEWART is a television, film, and stage actor. He is best known for his roles as Professor Charles Xavier in the X-Men film series and Captain Jean-Luc Picard in TNG and its subsequent films.
MIKE SUSSMAN is a former journalist and television writer and producer who has worked on such series as VOY and as a producer on ENT. He is cocreator of the series Perception, which starred Eric McCormack.
HAL SUTHERLAND was a painter and animator. He worked on a vast array of animated projects including Sleeping Beauty and Peter Pan. He was a director on TAS.
GEORGE TAKEI is an actor, author, and activist. He is best known for his role as Hikaru Sulu in TOS, TAS, and the subsequent films.
MICHAEL TAYLOR is a television writer and musician who has worked on both DS9 and VOY as well as on such series as The Dead Zone, Battlestar Galactica (2004), Defiance, and Turn: Washington’s Spies.
RICHARD WINN TAYLOR II is a director, graphic artist, and designer. While working for Robert Abel and Associates, he supervised the storyboarding of TMP and designed and supervised the building of the miniatures including the Enterprise. Taylor has received four Clio awards for his advertising efforts and has worked on such films as TRON and Looker.
TRACY TORME is a screenwriter and television producer. He is best known for his work on Saturday Night Live and TNG, for which he won a Peabody Award for “The Big Goodbye.” He also wrote the film Fire in the Sky and created the TV series Sliders.
JOSE TREVINO is a television director whose credits include Babylon 5, DS9, and VOY.
BJO & JOHN TRIMBLE are longtime fans as well as organizers of various Star Trek and sci-fi events. Bjo is credited with creating and popularizing the “Save Star Trek” campaign that convinced NBC to renew the series for a third season. Bjo is also the author of the beloved Star Trek Concordance, the original episode guide to the series, and On the Good Ship Enterprise.
JAMES VAN HISE is an author and editor who writes about film, television, and comic-book history. He created and edited the seminal Star Trek fan magazine Enterprise Incidents.
DAVID WEDDLE is a television writer and producer who has worked on such shows as Battlestar Galactica (2004), Falling Skies, The Strain, and DS9. He is also author of the biography of Wild Bunch director Sam Peckinpah, If They Move … Kill ’Em.
LEN WEIN is a prolific writer and editor for comic books and the creator of such iconic characters as Swamp Thing and Wolverine. He also contributed as a writer to Gold Key’s original Star Trek comics.
HOWARD WEINSTEIN is a television writer and author who is known for being the youngest person ever to write a script for Star Trek, having written the teleplay for “The Pirates of Orion,” an episode of TAS, at age nineteen.
GRACE LEE WHITNEY was an actress best known for her role as Janice
Rand on TOS and in the subsequent film series, as well as for appearing in Billy Wilder’s classic comedy Some Like It Hot.
RALPH WINTER is a producer whose credits include X-Men and STIII through STVI.
ROBERT WISE was a film director, producer, and editor. He is best known for his work as a director on The Day the Earth Stood Still, The Sound of Music, West Side Story, and TMP. He was also the editor of Orson Welles’s masterpiece, Citizen Kane.
MORT ZARCOFF is a producer and writer who worked on such shows as It Takes a Thief, The Lawbreakers, and The Misadventures of Sherriff Lobo and was a longtime friend of Gene L. Coon.
BIRTH OF A (TREK) NATION
“LET’S MAKE SURE THAT HISTORY NEVER FORGETS … THE NAME … ENTERPRISE.”
Star Trek is a unique pop-culture phenomena that is unlikely to ever be repeated. It represents the improbable story of a television series that—given the era in which it was birthed—should never have existed, let alone survived or ultimately flourished
The brainchild of World War II veteran and former police speechwriter Gene Roddenberry, the original incarnation of Star Trek was an expensive NBC television pilot called “The Cage.” Produced by Lucille Ball’s Desilu Studios, it was rejected by the network. However, intrigued enough by the show’s unique sci-fi premise that Roddenberry once dubbed “Wagon Train to the stars,” they took the unprecedented step of ordering a second pilot with an emphasis on action-adventure. This time NBC was interested, but the order was almost rejected by Desilu’s board of directors as being fiscally untenable. Then, giving us another reason why we love Lucy, Lucille Ball personally stepped in and greenlit the show. The resulting series, sold to the network as a sci-fi action-adventure drama, was also used by its creator as a soapbox to comment on the issues of the day by using metaphor and allegory … while selling, well, soap.
Battling network executives and censors whom he frequently antagonized, Gene Roddenberry had to deal with the fact that Star Trek was struggling in the ratings to the point where, in its second year, the show was on the verge of cancellation. Its voyage would have ended there if not for a massive letter-writing campaign initiated by the fans themselves. So impressive was this campaign that NBC changed its corporate mind and renewed Star Trek for a third—and ultimately final—year.