I'm going to take over on the Techno Comics so I'm going to be dealing in the children's merchandising type department. But that's just setting it up and having somebody run it.
You put funny people in funny costumes and paint them green and we could talk about anything we wanted to, because that was the only thing that fascinated Gene about this particular genre.
Man must be in space - that is what we are destined for. There is nothing else that we can do.
I don't think we're wasting people in space.
We're having the first computer-generated comic strip in the United States.
When we started out in '64, um, I was playing Number One, which was a woman second in command of a star ship.
But he knew people and he was head writer for Have Gun Will Travel, and if you took those early Star Treks that we did and put us in a western wardrobe and put us on wagon train going west, we can say the same lines.
So we all got basically what we wanted, and as far as the women are concerned, he figured that 30 good women could handle a crew of 300 anyway. So that's how we ended up with our crew.
The best way in the world to advertise is to get somebody else to run around with the name of your product on their person or showing it around somewhere and not only that but they're paying for it.
Then, all of a sudden, here I am in the Press Room in the White House and walking in with the guards, who handed me three little pieces of paper asking me to send pictures to the guards at the White House.
You can take any one of our stories that we use right now, put western clothes on us, stick us out in the west and they'll work just as well - any single one of them - because they're stories about people, they're stories about things.
You go through at least the first two years of Star Trek and you find some amazing stuff. Everything that was going on Gene put into the series. He just put strange costumes on the actors and painted them funny colours and left the same situation in.
On Gene Roddenberry: Well, he was a very tall and imposing-looking man, first off. He was a very adamant man. He was also very kind and sweet. He had a lot of sides to him. Our life together was wonderful. It just didn't go on long enough.
On how Gene Roddenberry would have felt about digitally remastering all the "Star Trek" episodes: You know what? He wouldn't have been bothered by it at all. Gene did the best work he could at the time, but he was also all about the future. I think he'd have thought it was terrific that the show was being made to look better because of new technology.
What's nice is you know a Star Trek movie is still one that everybody wants. It remains Paramount's cash cow, so there's no danger of it going away anytime soon.
On what inspired Gene Roddenberry to create a television series set in space: It was the studio (Desilu) mainly. They wanted a show set in space. Gene wanted to do one that was more science fiction. So he decided to combine them both and see what happens.
They [NBC] wanted a television show that had to do with science fiction and Gene Roddenberry didn't know anything about science fiction. He absolutely knew nothing. But he knew people and he was head writer for "Have Gun - Will Travel", and if you took those early Star Treks that we did and put us in a Western wardrobe and put us on wagon train going west, we can say the same lines. So he didn't bother to do science fiction, because he didn't know anything about it. Everybody accepted it. You put funny people in funny costumes and paint them green and we could talk about anything we wanted to, because that was the only thing that fascinated Gene about this particular genre. Censorship was so bad in those days, you couldn't talk about war, black-white situation, you couldn't even talk about mother love. We took Frank Gorshin and painted him half-black and half-white and his adversary [Lou Antonio] was half-white and half-black and put the two of them at each other and it got through the censors. They never realised that that was what was going on. Once it's up on the screen, it's too late and Gene got to talk about some of the problems that we had today that way. You go through at least the first two years of "Star Trek" and you find some amazing stuff. Everything that was going on Gene put into the series. He just put strange costumes on the actors and painted them funny colours and left the same situation in.
Gene's idea was how mankind is going to react to aliens once they get here. Almost certainly they are either here or they will get here, whether they announce themselves or not. Who knows?
Man must be in space -- that is what we are destined for. There is nothing else that we can do.
I have absolutely nothing to do with the Star Trek franchise. I haven't had for many, many years. Gene sold out all of his rights to Star Trek way back fifteen, almost twenty years ago. So, they ask nothing. I volunteer nothing. They invite me to a few of their shindigs. I'll bet you I haven't been on that lot in two years.
Why should we put 24 robotic missions up on Mars somewhere? That's silly. We could put people up on Mars. Why not let them do it because when something goes wrong only men can evaluate it. They can say what went wrong. One little dial isn't working correctly. Well, what's wrong with that dial? Somebody who is up there can take a look at it probably and come back and say maybe I don't know what it is but there it is and then we can fix it.
When you think of the age of the universe and the size of the universe, of course there is other intelligent life out there. Where we can find some that we can understand, that we can communicate with, that may be the problem.
See, Gene was a fantastic storyteller, probably the best in the business. What he did was tell stories. He didn't lay plots and ideas and things like that — he told stories. You can take any one of our stories that we use right now, put western clothes on us, stick us out in the west and they'll work just as well — any single one of them — because they're stories about people.
You put people in funny costumes and paint them green and we could talk about anything we wanted to ... that was the only thing that fascinated Gene about this particular genre.
This is a new land, this is a new place, this is a new world, this is unknown. This is uncharted, this is all there is. We don't have any other place to go. I always quote Gene as saying "Why are we now going into space? Well, why did we trouble to look past the next mountain? Our prime obligation to ourselves is to make the unknown known. We are on a journey to keep an appointment with whatever we are." And that was his whole philosophy of Star Trek, of life, of everything else.
We still hear your voice.
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