I've read a lot about Roddenberry and I've come to these conclusions:
1) Roddenberry was a sex obsessed jerk in some ways. The opposite sex was a big weakness of his most of his life. It wasn't helped by the fact that his first wife cheated on him while he was in the military.
In this regard, except for his coarseness in dealing with women at times, GR wasn't any better or worse than a number of people.
I would tend to think Mr. Roddenberry is no better or worse than most people, regardless of their gender, nationality, or beliefs.
2) The people in GRs life in his later years were classic enablers. Majel Barrett loved him so much that she basically allowed him to satisfy every range of his appetites without consequence.
I do not claim to know the total inside story of the life of Mr. Roddenberry. At times, things I've read about him (even while he was alive) seemed to put forth an image of an ego as big as the Sun.
Having said that, I would like to remind everyone here that Mr. Roddenberry was a military veteran. That doesn't absolve him from any of his failings, but his sacrifice in the Pacific does put him a cut above many of us. In that respect, he was possibly the quintessential example of a successful member of the Greatest Generation.
Richard Arnold basically made a career out of puffing up GRs ego and telling him how great he was compared to everyone else working on the Trek franchise.
I have heard more bad things about this man than I care to acknowledge. I encountered a couple of people over the years who met Mr. Arnold (I have never been to any of the conventions, nor have I ever met him.) One person from Canada (apparently either Canada was Arnold's homeland or he spent part of his life there) shared a letter from Arnold with me in the early 1990's, in which Arnold denounced DEEP SPACE NINE (he called it "Deep Throat Sixty-Nine"), making it clear in no uncertain terms that Roddenberry either never knew of or never approved of the series.
The impression I got from Arnold's public statements on canon items and the second-hand stuff from my contacts who met him was that he was an obnoxious charlatan, someone who only enjoyed his position in the spotlight because of his personal association with Roddenberry. He talked like he was Mr. Big, but he really had
no relevant accomplishments to his name.
This does reflect on Mr. Roddenbery, who enabled him.
3) Roddenberry was truly desperate after the end of the original series to have some success, ANY success outside of Star Trek. When this didn't happen, he clung to Trek like a drowning man clinging to the only lifeboat left afloat.
People can make this inference if they want, but anyone who knows anything about the entertainment industry should be aware that Hollywood is no meritocracy. This not only means that success is not necessarily related to merit, but also that failure is not necessarily related to a lack of merit, either. For example:
Aaron Spelling had many very popular TV shows to his credit. (THE MOD SQUAD, THE ROOKIES, THE LOVE BOAT, CHARLIE'S ANGELS, HART TO HART, DYNASTY, BEVERLY HILLS 90210, 7TH HEAVEN, CHARMED, etc.) This may have made Spelling worth alot more than Roddenberry in a material sense, but it does not make Roddenberry any less memorable. Look at it this way: it seems clear that TOS will be remembered well over 50 years after it made its debut on NBC. How many of Spelling's shows do you think will be similarly appreciated on their respective Golden anniversaries?
The truth is,
everyone in the film and TV industries is desperate, some more than others.
4) What irritates alot of people (including me) is hearing about "Gene's vision".
Gene's "vision" was to make money, eat, drink and get laid (not necessarily in that order).
All the stuff about "an optimistic future" is fluff that fans have glommed on to the Trek franchise to make them feel like the time they waste with it has some high noble purpose.
Now, this I don't see as entirely fair.
It is true that fans (encouraged by Paramount's propaganda, no doubt) have put Mr. Roddenberry on a pedestal. Mr. Roddenberry has been given waaay too much credit for having a vision of humankind's future.
That having been said, Mr. Roddenberry was the creator of the original STAR TREK. He deserves credit for envisioning a dramatic franchise in which humans from across the Earth will bravely explore the Galaxy in super-high-tech starships and work with other species. I'd say "The Cage" alone was quite a step up from FORBIDDEN PLANET.
So yes, this notion of trying to inflate the man as if he were on the same level as Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. or that he was "the Great Bird of the Galaxy" is ridiculous. But for all his self-seeking misadventures, Roddenberry came up with a fresh idea for a groundbreaking TV show that should never have made it on the air, particularly in that era. That's a remarkable accomplishment.
