Scott Atwell Star Trek Discussion thread (Series and Films) (2 Viewers)

[andySu]

Sad to read the departing of fellow member and liker of Star Trek.

 

[FanCollector]

I watched one of Scott's favorite episodes last night (perhaps his very favorite, although he would never officially name one): A Taste of Armageddon. He talked about watching it frequently and it certainly has a lot to offer with each viewing. One of the things that struck me anew this time is how Spock trusts Kirk so much throughout the episode. Kirk isn't particularly forthcoming about his strategy or rationale until the end of the episode, and yet Spock remains fully committed to following his orders without the usual degree of questioning. At the end of the show, it turns out that Spock had plenty of doubts, but he trusted Kirk enough to suppress them. Do you guys think he was less morally invested in this situation than in the many episodes where he questions Kirk openly? Or was this one of the cases where he himself lacked a logical alternative and so rode along more comfortably with what Kirk was doing?

 

[Nelson Au]

Lee, I was thinking of doing the exact same thing. I think A Taste of Armageddon is Scott's favorite, though as you said, he never identified it as such.I'll do a viewing and look for your observations regarding Spock as it's not something that occurred to me before.

 

[Nelson Au]

I watched Armageddon tonight. To me, Spock seems to be doing his job and following Kirks orders. Perhaps Kirk's declaration to Spock that they will take it easy, but if necessary, they do what it takes to get out of there, was accepted by Spock as acknowledgment that he knew Spock would feel it was against his beliefs on taking life as well as violation of the Prime Directive. However Spock does seem to be acting more like he does in Dagger of the Mind or What Are Little Girls Made Of where comes breaking into the room to help Kirk, and Kirk has everything in hand. I had a totally different discovery tonight though, or interpretation. When Anan 7 speaks of being on time with meeting the rules of the war game and having the citizens all go to the disintegration machines, it felt like he was showing such pride that his people always met the call as if it was a competition with Vendikar that his people were better at it, or faster at it. It was like he felt they had this whole process down and now Kirk is messing things up for him and couldn't stand to look bad in front of Vendikar.

 

[FanCollector]

I think that Anan is definitely proud of his people. He thinks that they have found a great solution to a problem, and that the people are courageous and selfless in their sacrifice for the survival of their society. I didn't necessarily see a rivalry with Vendikar on that level, as they also must be good about reporting for disintegration, but certainly felt Anan's pride in the Eminians.As for Spock, he does do his job, as he ultimately always does. But in numerous episodes, he does his job in a way that includes direct questioning of Kirk's decisions and strategies when he disagrees. Where No Man Has Gone Before, The Enemy Within, Arena, The Return of the Archons, The Devil in the Dark, The Apple, Spock's Brain, and several others show Spock addressing his concerns in the midst of the action. Armageddon is more along the lines of A Piece of the Action and Errand of Mercy, wherein Spock has issues with Kirk's actions but he does what he is told and waits until the end to question or object. I don't feel like either one is out of character; I guess I just wonder what it is in any given situation that pushes Spock in one direction or the other.Do you think Kirk violated the Prime Directive on Eminiar VII? I thought that was the reason they made such a big point of discussing their space flight capabilities. Started the Return to Tomorrow book, by the way. Interesting stuff. You will love the discussions of the evolution of the models!

 

[Nelson Au]

I'm not sure what to say about Spock's actions in this episode. Perhaps the writers or Gene Roddenberry in his rewrite just felt they needed to focus on the concepts in the story and get the action going and hold the arguments till the end of the episode. I don't recall if this was discussed in Cushman's book. I'll try to look that up. I imagine Spock could have had that discussion with Kirk right before Spock does the mind control to get the guard to open the door. There is also Arena to add to your list. There is a very strong disagreement there as Kirk isn't going to let the Gorns get away with the attack on Cestus. And of course Devil in the Dark. Perhaps those are not good examples because in the end, Kirk's point of view changes as he literally sees the other point of view. About the Prime Directive, you and Scott and I had this argument/discussion in the past. I always thought this was a pretty blatant violation, but you had argued it wasn't technically a violation. I felt Kirk got involved in the two planet's culture. However, perhaps Kirk's only recourse was to do that since the Enterprise was considered a legitimate target and crew would be killed. And Kirk wasn't going to let that happen. So he had to intervene. But he didn't have to force them into the idea of talking piece. I guess that was my take, it felt like Kirk was forcing his personal beliefs on the Eminians. Not that I didn't like the resolution. I really liked the ending. (There are other episodes that state the captain of a starship would sacrifice his ship and crew in order to not violate the Directive.) Speaking of Cushman, I'm reading the third book incredibly slowly! I just read the first two sections last night. I always knew of Roddenberry's ultimatum to NBC about the Friday night time slot. But not to the detail that Cushman lays out. And he continues with his argument that Star Trek is a very popular series and the only reason it gets the death slot is because NBC likes the producer of Laugh-In better then Roddenberry because Roddenberry is a trouble maker verse George Schlatter who was a good boy to the network. It was good to be reminded that Roddenberry put so much effort in the rewrites and making each story as good as they could and that without Roddenberry on the staff in the last half of the second year and the third year, it totally sucked the soul out of the series. I don't recall ever the comments by DC Fontana and Justman that when Roddenberry left, the series really suffered as a result of that. I had forgotten that up to that point Roddenberry had already been toiling for 4 years to make Star Trek as good as he could and he just had had enough. The 10:00 pm time slot was going to ensure the series end, so he wasn't going to put that kind of effort on a series that's no longer going to have a chance to become popular or even succeed.As I read that, I kept thinking, boy if he only knew what would happen. It must have been incredibly satisfying to him that after the series was canceled the fans and series popularity continued to grow. And the short segment about John Meredith Lucas was a surprise. I never knew before that Roddenberry wasn't totally satisfied with his writing and lack of action. Just talk talk, and no action! It is true during his tenure the episodes weren't all as good. But I hadn't realized there was a discussion that he could take over as the line producer and Roddenberry nixed it. I feel really bad for Justman too who seemed to be of the notion he was in line for the job and was misled to a degree to that idea. Next up is the Freiberger chapter.And thanks Lee for the foretaste of the Return to Tomorrow book! I look forward to reading that too. I hope it's safe and sound and sitting on my desk at work! Glad to hear your book was well packed!

 

[FanCollector]

I think you are probably right in that I am looking to character issues when the real concern in those cases are plot and theme. Part of the suspense of A Taste of Armageddon is that for quite a while we don't understand what Kirk is doing and why he is doing it. If Spock objected earlier in the story, then Kirk would explain himself and then there goes the suspense of the story. Looking at my two lists, you seem even more right. Whenever Kirk's strategy is part of the mystery of the story, Spock keeps quiet until the end.

I forgot that we had already had the Prime Directive argument about this episode, but now that you mention it, I recall. I can't dispute that Kirk gets involved in the planets' cultures; he sure does! My defense for him is just that the directive doesn't apply to space-faring cultures. Their whole mission to the system in the first place seems to support the idea that technologically advanced cultures do not receive Prime Directive protection. But of course, the directive was always kept purposely vague and therefore is open to interpretation.

I still feel that Cushman is making a valid point about Star Trek being less of a ratings disaster than generally remembered, while also feeling that he continues to oversell the point by overemphasizing some aspects of the data. For nearly every week of the third season, Star Trek finished in second place for its time slot, slightly ahead of Judd for the Defense and way behind the CBS Friday Night Movie. In fairness, Friday has always been a relatively low-rated TV night and 10:00 shows generally have lower ratings than other shows. To add to that, the CBS Friday Night Movie was tough competition, made more so by the demographics of the timeslot. (Star Trek fans were likely to be out and about, while the movies' target audiences were likely to be at home watching TV.) So NBC would not be reasonable to expect blockbuster ratings from Star Trek in that time slot. However, when a show is being assessed for renewal or cancellation, the competition is not really the shows opposite it on other networks; the competition is the shows on one's own network. Star Trek was beating Judd for the Defense, but Judd for the Defense was getting poor ratings also and was cancelled by ABC that same year. NBC had lots of strongly-rated shows (a point Cushman acknowledges later), and Star Trek was one of its lowest. He did make the fair point in the second volume that at 8:30 on Friday, it was usually NBC's best-rated show of the night. That may have had some value, but in the third year, it was no longer the case. The one time that The Name of the Game was pre-empted as Star Trek's lead-in, Star Trek plummeted to record lows.

I don't really believe that NBC was going to cancel a show it saw as a really successful money-maker because they didn't like the producer/creator. Shows like The Virginian, Ironside, and The Wild Wild West had the same problem and the creator/producers were just fired. (Granted, it was the studio that had the final decision in those cases, but the network could apply pressure in that direction.) Where I think Cushman's catalogue of Roddenberry's anti-network sins is very relevant and important is in determining why it got the time slots it did. He satisfied me with the first season ratings data that the show was at least borderline in the ratings and could have gone either way moving forward. If NBC had a lot of faith in the series or in Roddenberry, they could have nurtured it and given it a time slot that would really have allowed it to succeed (or fail). By sending it to Friday, they made it very hard for the show to thrive. After the second year, and even more tenuous ratings, they had the same stark choice. And it's there that Cushman sells me on the Roddenberry persecution thing. Schlatter was a guy they liked and understood and so they trusted him and his show more. There was one good time slot and they had two iffy shows. If Star Trek had really been a serious hit, I think they would have looked past their distaste for Roddenberry. As it was, they had a choice and they were probably very happy to choose Schlatter instead. For a counterexample, look at Mission:Impossible on CBS. Not a success in its first season on the network, the show was treated well and given good time slots and it developed into a long-running hit, in spite of its difficult producer/creator (who was also ultimately fired from his own show).

No spoilers about the script assignments and rewrites, but Roddenberry did have more to do with getting the third season rolling than I had ever known before reading the book. Very interesting to me was his evolving view of Freiberger as the years went on, partly I think in response to the Star Trek phenomenon you mentioned. I was so glad that we got some insight into why Lucas did not return as producer, as I have always been puzzled by it. His own memoir gives no hints. I did know about Justman being passed over for the job he wanted so badly, although I did not realize quite how long Roddenberry made him wait to find out the news. That made me feel worse for him. The other major ongoing revelation for me in the book was Arthur H. Singer. I knew who he was and what he did, but beyond that, he was always pretty much a mystery. There is a lot about him as the book goes on, though.

 

[Neil S. Bulk]

Speaking of Cushman, I'm reading the third book incredibly slowly! I just read the first two sections last night. I always knew of Roddenberry's ultimatum to NBC about the Friday night time slot. But not to the detail that Cushman lays out. And he continues with his argument that Star Trek is a very popular series and the only reason it gets the death slot is because NBC likes the producer of Laugh-In better then Roddenberry because Roddenberry is a trouble maker verse George Schlatter who was a good boy to the network.

That is total nonsense. If NBC didn't like the show, they could have cancelled it at any time. The entire theory that it was a hit but the network didn't like it is nonsense, too. Cushman's ratings information is suspect at best as is his knowledge of how television ratings work and how to interpret them and he certainly does not provide a complete picture.

For instance in season 2, Star Trek was put in the time slot after Tarzan. The previous year, Tarzan did well and was a top 30 show. It should have been a good lead-in for Star Trek. For whatever reason, Tarzan plummeted in the ratings and was cancelled at the end of the season. Cushman doesn't provide those numbers though or any numbers for the rest of the nights of the week to compare Star Trek. The truth is, it was getting pummeled by Gomer Pyle in season 2. But NBC didn't cancel it, and they could have. The network must have liked the show.

And in my own latest issue with Cushman, did you know that there is now a revised, revised edition of the season one book after getting information from me? It's true! And the results display his contempt for his audience and for the truth he seems to care so much about. Photos here: https://plus.google.com/+NeilBulk/posts/FLww8gijKcwNeil

 

[Jason_V]

Their whole mission to the system in the first place seems to support the idea that technologically advanced cultures do not receive Prime Directive protection. But of course, the directive was always kept purposely vague and therefore is open to interpretation.

Eminiar was already contacted and aware of space flight, etc. so this could have been an exception to the Prime Directive.

Then again, this is almost blatantly interfering in another society, which is verboten regardless of what they know and don't know...

 

[Nelson Au]

Okay, Lee, Jason, and Scott too, are right that this mission to Eminiar to set-up a treaty strongly supports that parts of the Prime Directive doesn't apply as they are a space faring race. I keep forgetting that. The Eminians are aware of other worlds and have been visited in the past by another Federation ship. But that part that raised the flag for me is that Kirk does interfere with the affairs of the Eminians. In the end it worked out. Fox looks like he got what he wanted and lives are saved on both Eminiar and Vendikar. It was always fun to see Fox go from the arrogant guy he is to the more agreeable diplomat at the end. Kirk seemed to have the same effect on Mr. Barris. Neil, I hadn't taken the time to go over the revised edition of the first Cushman book, I got it way back when it was made available but I didn't have the heart to read it yet having just read the first edition and I was more eager to read the second book. I found that faux Arena novelette cover image in that chapter. That's interesting to see that there. What more interesting is that today, someone can have such direct access to another who wrote a book and influence the book whose never met before. Assuming you never met Cushman in person Neil. As I mentioned a few pages ago, I did go to one of his events that was held up here in the Bay Area and also saw Nichelle Nichols and Sean Kenney. I was thinking of Sean Kenney as I was watching A Taste of Armageddon! He did tell the audience that he was just a kid getting started back then. I just remembered that he told us the story that before George Takei left, he warned him to not hold his fingers on the buttons on the console too long. Those buttons are lit from very bright lights underneath and they get very hot! So he didn't listen and burned his fingers! How much this is embellishment on Sean Kennedy's part, I'll leave to you. . Maybe I can get my CG Enterprise render to show up as canon somewhere?

 

[Jason_V]

Okay, Lee, Jason, and Scott too, are right that this mission to Eminiar to set-up a treaty strongly supports that parts of the Prime Directive doesn't apply as they are a space faring race. I keep forgetting that. The Eminians are aware of other worlds and have been visited in the past by another Federation ship. But that part that raised the flag for me is that Kirk does interfere with the affairs of the Eminians. In the end it worked out. Fox looks like he got what he wanted and lives are saved on both Eminiar and Vendikar.

Without a doubt, Nelson. He does interfere in the society, regardless of the reasons and good intentions. He should have been willing to sacrifice the ship and crew to maintain the Prime Directive. I think Kirk actually says that at some point in TOS.

I guess we can also bring Picard's argument from "Justice" into play that rules/laws without exceptions can not be just. Now, springing back to TOS...we know there is only one law with the death penalty: General Order 7, going to Talos IV. Therefore, we might have to conclude that breaking the Prime Directive is only a court martial-level offense and by not breaking the PD with the Eminians, Kirk saved his ship from "execution." And he was willing to take that risk...ie. court martial himself (punishment) to save the lives of his crew.

 

[FanCollector]

I fully agree that Kirk interfered with the society in Eminiar VII, and indirectly with Vendikar. I guess my difference of opinion is about whether the Prime Directive prohibits that interference. When Nancy Hedford is tasked with preventing a war on Epsilon Canaris, she would be interfering on the same scale as Kirk interferes on Eminiar. Not only is she not charged with violating the Prime Directive, her mission is given top priority by the Federation. In The Mark of Gideon, Kirk is happily offering the Gideon council scientific and medical assistance that is surely society-changing interference and there is no hint of a problem. Same with his offer to the Scalosians. It seems as though interference per se is not a violation; only interference with a culture that has not reached a certain comparable level of understanding. (Ambassador Petri may have a personal grudge with this interpretation, but Elaan of Troyius would be another example of Federation-encouraged interference with a non-Federation culture.)

 

[Nelson Au]

Well, I have one other thing to add; Anan never asked for the help. Kirk just came in and did it. Hodin didn't ask either, in that case Hodin force their problem onto Kirk. I'm not sure if Miss Hedford was assigned to her mission because someone at Epsilon Canaris asked.

But the main thing I'm okay with now in the episode is that the Prime Directive wasn't violated. The existence of other worlds or more advanced civilizations wasn't anything new to the Eminians.

Here's some thing completely different. I was never aware of an exhibit at Disneyland in 1956 called Tomorrowland. In the exhibit was a 80 foot space ship called the TWA Moonliner. I was only aware of this recently because of a model kit that was made of it recently. In looking into it, I can see it must have been the basis of the Outer Limits episode Second Chance.

This website has some fascinating photos from the era: http://davelandweb.com/moonliner/

I rather like the retro nature of this as there is the old TWA building in Kansas City which was the old headquarters of the now defunct airline. At the time, TWA had a replica of the Moonliner on the roof. The building was recently restored and a replica of the Moonliner was built and placed back on the building. This is terrific stuff coming from a time right before we went into space.

http://www.yesterland.com/moonliners.html

I know this isn't related to Star Trek. But Scott loved The Outer Limits too.

I think I will watch Charlie X tonight because I know Scott liked the music that's used as Charlie explores the ship. I just listened to that disc on the soundtrack album today too!

 

[FanCollector]

Great photo sites!Another thing Scott liked about Charlie X was how populated and busy the ship looked in that one. (Another running theme in TATV 3 is the constant back-and-forth between Roddenberry and Freiberger about the absence of extras on the ship and the planets in the third season.) In some ways, it seems a strange choice for the second episode to air, but in that respect, it serves as a great introduction to the ship and crew.

 

[Lou Sytsma]

Fascinating discussions about the Prime Directive.

Cool pics about the Moonliner Nelson. Thanks for bringing it to our attention.

I agree Lee, earlier episodes like ManTrap, Charlie X and Balance of Terror as examples did a great job of making the ship feel populated and very alive. Unfortunately over the series's run that feeling went away.

Hoping to hear some thoughts about the TMP book from you guys!

 

[Jason_V]

DS9's "Trials and Tribble-ations" did a good job of recreating that atmosphere, too. There were lots of extras walking around the Enterprise, as far as I remember, during the all of the corridor scenes.

 

[Nelson Au]

In watching Charlie X last night, I always get a little distracted by the editing done when Captain Ramart and Tom Nellis beam aboard. Maybe they were trying to be careful to not give away too much but I know they were trying to show how scared they are of Charlie. There that over compensation by them to praise and compliment Charlie. So it's amusing to see how scared Ramart is when Kirk tells Charlie it's wrong to interrupt. The ship is definitely crowded in this episode! The corridors of frozen and faceless crew members, the Jefferies Tube and especially the rec room.About the character traits Lee, it's interesting to look for that now. I never really tried to find that before. So Spock was subtly doing that here with his warnings about Charlie. There's no pushback in this case. And I liked how Kirk at first didn't want to be a father figure to Charlie, but soon decided to try to help Charlie after his crush on Rand is made known to him and he sees how much Charlie is hurting. Then there's that crowded gymnasium! This episode mixed well the initial harmless tricks Charlie did to make friends, then the terror as his anger is released, and then we feel sorry for him when the Thasian's take him away. I read the next chapter of the Cushman book about Freiberger's introduction and background. I never knew his background before he joined Star Trek. He was well experienced and knew what he was doing. I recently bought the Wild Wild West DVD set and I hadn't realized he produced it and shaped the series to become what it is. I liked that series. And Robert Conrad liked him. I also didn't know anything about Arthur Singer, Lee. So it was really interesting how Gene Roddenberry was so involved in the selection of the new producing team and narrowing down the options for the rewrite man job. Funny how Singer was described as a really nice man who worked with the new writers and someone who didn't fight with you and tried to work with you and nurture you. Sounds like the total opposite of the past teams. One person even didn't think much of him because he just sat down and did the job. I also was surprised to read that William Shatner was one of the few people who support Freiberger when he first came aboard while most everyone hated him. But the biggest surprise is that he came in and felt beholden to Roddenberry and did what Roddenberry felt was needed to get the series back on track. So less humor and more straight forward sci-fi and action adventure. So from what I'm reading so far, Freiberger wasn't such a monster after all so far. And he really didn't know what he was getting himself into with the slashing of the budget, Justman not wanting to be there at all and wanting out so badly before the season even starts and watching Roddenberry openly and fiercely fighting NBC and giving them a hard time. So Cushman's research here reads and sounds like it's straight from the interviews he had with Freiberger's family and their recollections of his experience of joining the series. As well as Justman's own recollections. It's been many years since I read the Solow Justman book but I don't recall this sense in their book about the third year. Just the slashing of the budget and the difficulty of doing the series with so little means. Plus the other bombshell in my eyes, the feeling at the studio and from Cramer that Star Trek is a lame duck for the third season and everyone knowing it's a dead series and not going to last past the third year. I'm curious now to read what happens after the 13th episode! This really sounds like a pretty bad working environment for the production staff, crew and cast. Yet they still put out some great episodes. I do appreciate how Freiberger's war time experiences in the POW camp shaped his later way of dealing with people. Next chapter: Spectre of the Gun. I'll be interested to see how that was developed and if there was a clash between Freiberger and Coon.

 

[Neil S. Bulk]

Neil, I hadn't taken the time to go over the revised edition of the first Cushman book, I got it way back when it was made available but I didn't have the heart to read it yet having just read the first edition and I was more eager to read the second book. I found that faux Arena novelette cover image in that chapter. That's interesting to see that there. What more interesting is that today, someone can have such direct access to another who wrote a book and influence the book whose never met before. Assuming you never met Cushman in person Neil.

I have not met Mr. Cushman. A mutual friend wanted to set up a meeting so that I could discuss the numerous music mistakes in the books (which continue into season 3), but in light of this recent event I have decided against that.

Do you not see what he did? First he put in the fan art. Then when confronted on it (I showed him the source, the reason it was created and sent him the artists page) he never admitted any wrong doing and thought it was a "hoax". And then on top of that, he writes a new caption that inadvertently forces the reader to not only decide if the image is fake, but the entire contents of the book! He also hasn't bothered to credit the original artist, despite having all of the information.

And to further discuss his ratings theory, here's his page on The Trouble With Tribbles. His argument is that Star Trek was second in it's time slot. The numbers are about even with Hondo, with them trading positions. Why is this significant? Hondo was a show that only lasted 17 episodes and was cancelled. This was the last night of the series and Star Trek was about even with it. Star Trek was not a success and the fact that it lasted three seasons demonstrates that maybe the network did like it after all.

Neil

 

[FanCollector]

Hoping to hear some thoughts about the TMP book from you guys!

Still early in my reading of it (finished the first of the three sections), but thus far it seems like a unique piece of research. Jones has fashioned an oral history from what must have been very extensive interviews with 60 of the participants in the movie, given during the making of the film. Most of the actors are still in their publicity mode (except for the always-hilarious James Doohan who says exactly what he thinks at all times and Stephen Collins who has some engaging inights about why he thinks he may have gotten the part) at least in this first section, but many of the other participants are quite candid. Fred Phillips's interviews are among the highlights in that regard. One of the fascinating aspects of the first section for me was seeing how and why most of the work done in advance of the proposed Star Trek II TV series was rejected once the project was converted to a feature and, particularly, once Robert Wise came and saw the stuff. Also of major interest was the story contribution of Jon Povill. Jones seems to have had a lot of access to people for interviews, but almost no access to any documentation. The exception to that fact appears to be script drafts; he quotes from several and describes the changes in some detail. I'll leave the specifics to your own reading, but Jon Povill made some very important suggestions regarding the ending of the story and, to my mind, elevated the script a lot in doing so.

As an oral history, it is of course, subject to the pitfalls of that genre. Truth is left entirely in the eye of the beholder and consequently, repetition is the only tool available for verification. After the umpteenth member of the production design team was quoted about how the buttons on the bridge were actually functional, I almost said out loud that I swear I believe them. Conversely, there are controversial subjects that arise and are simply never resolved. The process of getting Leonard Nimoy involved in the project is told several different ways and they are just mutually exclusive. It's one of several instances where it's a shame that there was no access to non-interview sources. (Lukas Kendall wrote the foreword and he says that, with very few exceptions, the manuscript hasn't been revised since it was written over 30 years ago. He observes that it took this long to get it published without taking time to revise it, which is a fair point. But the Nimoy issue reflects the downside to that decision; Nimoy's own version of events in the book is not only at odds with the other interviewees, but it is a totally different story from the one he tells in his own 1994 memoir. Yes, we have access to Nimoy's book and we can ultimately make the determination for ourselves, but it's a major part of the story and it is ignored here.)

The one vaguely unsatisfying element of the book so far is not Jones's fault. Special effects producer Robert Abel is constantly referenced in ominous tones, and his participation is an even bigger part of the story in retrospect. In spite of his hovering, bogeyman quality in many of the interviews, Abel never spoke to Jones, and so he does not say anything in the book. Again, not Jones's fault that the man didn't want to talk to him, but it's kind of like watching ST:TMP and never getting to see V'Ger.

It's easy to see why it was hard to find a publisher for the book; the level of detail that makes it so special and so historically significant can also be offputting and reduce its general audience interest. (The thing that makes the sparks in the glass tubes in Engineering? Pages and pages on it.) But like all good history, the story is fascinating even when some of the details may only appeal to a few devotees. The best review I can give the book is that I am looking forward to finishing it so that I can watch the movie again armed with the knowledge of the thousands of details and decisions that led to everything on the screen. Part Two covers principal photography and I will write more when I finish that section.

 

[FanCollector]

Remember when we discussed that Roddenberry memo written after the second season wrapped production? The one published by Mission Log on their website? It showed Roddenberry's desire to return to some of the harsher formality and stronger disagreements among the regular characters. (At the time we discussed it, I remember wondering whether, as he says in the memo, the viewers were clamoring for that change, or whether it was just his personal choice.) Cushman quotes the same memo, and it does exonerate Freiberger to some extent regarding some of the relationship stuff for which he has taken heat all these years. And yes, I think his Wild Wild West stuff is among the best of that series. He wasn't a bad producer and certainly doesn't seem to have been a bad guy; quite the opposite. But that being said, I still don't think he was the right guy for Star Trek. He was trying to do what Roddenberry wanted and the network wanted and Paramount wanted, but he doesn't seem to have had much vision for the series himself. There are stories he liked doing, and he seems to have liked the general idea of addressing current issues in a science fiction setting, but beyond that he didn't show much facility for making Star Trek feel different from other drama series. He surely was not a monster, but he wasn't someone who particularly saw Star Trek as special, and that eventually became a self-fulfilling prophecy. In a way, some of his comments about the show sound similar to Stephen Carabatsos's; it was a show and you do your best and try to give the bosses what they want.