The Five-Year Mission

[Herbert1]

I was wondering why Gene Roddenberry and the creators of Star Trek decided that the Enterprise was on a five-year mission? Did they intend that the television program wasn't going to last longer than five seasons? Anyone versed in the history of the creation of Star Trek know why they decided on this period of time? Or even why they felt it necessary to specify a duration for the mission?

 

[c0rnedfr0g]

I was wondering why Gene Roddenberry and the creators of Star Trek decided that the Enterprise was on a five-year mission? Did they intend that the television program wasn't going to last longer than five seasons? Anyone versed in the history of the creation of Star Trek know why they decided on this period of time? Or even why they felt it necessary to specify a duration for the mission?

i don't think he wanted to be married to trek for life originally. he had other ideas in the works

 

[Michael]

I don't think the Five-Year thing was too crucial to the whole series. If the series really had gone longer than five years ... hell, they'd just done another five years!

 

[Herbert1]

I don't think the Five-Year thing was too crucial to the whole series. If the series really had gone longer than five years ... hell, they'd just done another five years!

True, but I was wondering if any creative thinking occurred to come up with the five-year mission or if they just came up with the number out of a hat.

 

[The_Beef]

I was actually thinking about the same thing just the other day. I suspect that it was less of an effort to keep the show from dominating his life as it was an effort to ensure it would stay on the air. Five years would have been a fairly decent run and I imagine he figured that if it proved ridiculously successful, he could always just say they were sent out on a second mission. I seriously doubt he had any idea he'd be involved with Trek for the rest of his life.

 

[Therin of Andor]

True, but I was wondering if any creative thinking occurred to come up with the five-year mission or if they just came up with the number out of a hat.

If I recall "The Making of ST" by Whitfield & Roddenberry correctly, specifying five years had the dual purpose of setting up a premise for studio execs how long the show might go on, if successful, and so that a fully-stocked starship wouldn't have to keep going back to Earth. Like the wagon trains of the old West, you stocked your supplies and journeyed off into the unknown, with no turning back, hoping not to meet with too many hostiles on the way, not to run out of medicine or food, and not to lose too many men.

 

[Anticitizen]

and so that a fully-stocked starship wouldn't have to keep going back to Earth.

This is what I saw in it as well, only instead of wagons, I was reminded of nuclear submarines. IIRC, they can be deployed for around five years before having to be 'refueled', so to speak.

 

[Praetor]

If you think about it, dramatically it also adds a sense of what I like to call 'unlimited urgency' to the show's premise - they're out there patrolling and exploring and whatnot and have a whole five years to do it, but then they ONLY have five years to do it, ya know?

 

[Hartzilla2007]

If you think about it, dramatically it also adds a sense of what I like to call 'unlimited urgency' to the show's premise - they're out there patrolling and exploring and whatnot and have a whole five years to do it, but then they ONLY have five years to do it, ya know?

unless Starfleet just lets Kirk restock the Enterprise and head out for another five-year mission.