The Making Of Star Trek....

[Warped9]

Page 100

Chapter 7: Voyage One

It's been a long time since I read this book last. With this reread I'm reminded of some things.

Firstly many people might have long assumed Matt Jefferies was responsible for the look of pretty much everything on Star Trek. That isn't too far off the mark when we talk about the series proper. But in the beginning MJ was not the art director but merely the assistant to first Pato Guzman and then Franz Bachelin. It is after Bachelin left prior to the series proper that Jefferies was promoted to Art Director.

I mention this distinction because Jefferies is rightly credited with the design of the Enterprise and the main bridge, Guzman and Bachelin apparently had a hand in the rest of the ship interior sets as well as those of Talos IV.

Jefferies is quoted as not being particularly fond of the split level design for the bridge. It seems he was thinking in practical terms regarding camera and lighting and sound. The upper levels of the bridge meant there had to be consideration given to sound coming from under the floor and complicated by the set being built in "wild" sections that could be moved. One has to remember that there were no handicams in those days like today. In the 1960s studio cameras were large and heavy and required more than one man to move. Lighting could also be heavy. Set sections that were "wild" and could be moved (and thus lossen up with use) creates a lot of challenges when filming an expensive series on a tight budget.

We all love the TOS bridge design and it's recognized as one of the best sets ever designed for television, but for the production staff it wasn't an easy thing to work with given the cumbersome equipment they had to work with. Today it would be a snap with the lightweight equipment available.


Reference is made in this chapter regarding a multi-racial crew (seen mostly in the background in "The Cage"). There is reference made to resistance to this idea and with Roddenberry defending it. We have long since learned that NBC was not the one to resist the idea of a multi-racial crew given their policy of promoting better roles for women and minorities.

It's possible that GR was hedging his bets early on with this idea and the multi-racial crew idea was given less prominence in "The Cage" than it could have been and was later in the series proper. It's possible that rather than NBC it was Desilu suits who were resistant to this idea. But no names or specifics are given on this subject.


After NBC turns down "The Cage" (and accepting responsibility for perhaps choosing the wrong story) we again get a word of caution about an integrated crew. Again this isn't cited specifically as coming from NBC, but the wording could be interpreted as alluding to that. However there are two specific refrences made that have long since been challenged and debunked.

The first is that a second pilot had never before been asked for. That might not be strictly true and that fact has been discussed elsewhere. But the more damning refrence (on Page 128) is the one citing that NBC and test audiences didn't like the character of Number One and wanted her dropped. Of course, we now know that NBC liked the character of Number One only they didn't like Majel Barrett in the role and they resented Roddenberry's obvious display of nepotism. Roddenberry is then quoted as having seen this resistance to a female in command it would probably be a very long time before he tried that again.

So with what we know now the truth is probably like this. NBC told GR to get rid of Majel and recast the role. But GR couldn't bring himself to tell his girlfriend that so he cooked up the story the network rejected the character and didn't like the idea of a female second-in-command even though their policy on roles for women was contrary to that. So now Roddenberry had to stick to his story and subsequently we never got to see a woman in command in TOS (except for the Romulan Commander in "The Enterprise Incident"). All this because GR couldn't bring himself to hurt his girlfriend's feelings.

It wouldn't surprise to learn someday that Majel Barrett learned the truth even while TOS was in production only things simply continued as they had from the beginning.

 

[Christopher]

Reference is made in this chapter regarding a multi-racial crew (seen mostly in the background in "The Cage"). There is reference made to resistance to this idea and with Roddenberry defending it. We have long since learned that NBC was not the one to resist the idea of a multi-racial crew given their policy of promoting better roles for women and minorities.

It's possible that GR was hedging his bets early on with this idea and the multi-racial crew idea was given less prominence in "The Cage" than it could have been and was later in the series proper. It's possible that rather than NBC it was Desilu suits who were resistant to this idea. But no names or specifics are given on this subject.

Well, Roddenberry's original '64 proposal doesn't suggest much ethnic diversity in the crew. The only overtly "ethnic" character is Jose Ortegas (who became Tyler), although Number One is described as "slim and dark in a Nile Valley way," suggesting that Roddenberry might not have originally conceived the role for Majel Barrett -- although by '60s casting standards, "dark in a Nile Valley way" could've meant any vaguely exotic-looking brunette, not necessarily a black or Middle Eastern actress. So I don't see any clear indication that Desilu may have pushed GR to back off on inclusion. On the contrary, his main contact at Desilu was Solow, who would've presumably been aware of the network memos pushing for more diversity and thus would've probably recognize that inclusive casting would improve a show's chances of selling. And Solow's other two Desilu shows, Mission: Impossible and Mannix, both featured prominent African-American regulars (Greg Morris in the former, Gail Fisher in the latter starting with season 2), something TOS itself never achieved (since Uhura was strictly a recurring background player).

 

[Warped9]

Now wouldn't that have been something back then if Number One had indeed been a black women as the ship's First Officer? I think that definitely would have raised a few eyebrows.


I can't specifically state that I read TMoST before seeing "The Menageie" two-parter although I certainly did read it about fifteen years or so before seeing "The Cage" proper. But TMoST is definitely where I first read about the issue surrounding the role of Number One and like many people (especially reading that at such a young age) I accepted it as the truth.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Well, Roddenberry's original '64 proposal doesn't suggest much ethnic diversity in the crew. The only overtly "ethnic" character is Jose Ortegas (who became Tyler), although Number One is described as "slim and dark in a Nile Valley way," suggesting that Roddenberry might not have originally conceived the role for Majel Barrett -- although by '60s casting standards, "dark in a Nile Valley way" could've meant any vaguely exotic-looking brunette,

Yeah, it probably meant a Liz Taylor type.

 

[Christopher]

Now wouldn't that have been something back then if Number One had indeed been a black women as the ship's First Officer? I think that definitely would have raised a few eyebrows.

Missed opportunities. Roddenberry sabotaged so much of his career with his own actions -- casting his mistress in a role that could've been been groundbreaking with a different actress, being difficult to work with, alienating colleagues and executives, etc. I used to wonder why he never had a successful series outside of Star Trek. Now I'm kind of amazed he didn't blow that too. (Although I do think he made the right choice to abandon the Questor series altogether rather than revamp it into a Fugitive knockoff like the network wanted.)

 

[Harvey]

I haven't seen any evidence that anyone other than white actresses were considered for the role of Number One, nor any evidence that anyone other than Barrett was seriously considered. The Liz Taylor type reading is probably right.

 

[Warped9]

I haven't seen any evidence that anyone other than white actresses were considered for the role of Number One, nor any evidence that anyone other than Barrett was seriously considered. The Liz Taylor type reading is probably right.

I'm not suggesting anyone other than white actresses would have been considered, but a black, asian or some other type would have been noteworthy in the mid '60s.

 

[BeatleJWOL]

Is there any validity to the story that it was in fact the women in test audiences that reacted most strongly (and negatively!) to the presence of and role of Number One? I seem to remember that anecdote from the book but can't recall whether it was the WORD OF GENE or something else.

 

[Warped9]

The test audiences are not referenced in a GR quote. It's something mentioned by Gene Whitfield (who might have gotten it from GR), but there are no further specifics given.

I can say that this business of test audiences isn't something I recall reading about anywhere else but here in TMoST. For all we know it could simply be further fabrication by GR to bolster the story he cooked up to spare Majel Barrett's feelings. And we know he repeated this story for many, many years afterward.

 

[Harvey]

I haven't seen any evidence that anyone other than white actresses were considered for the role of Number One, nor any evidence that anyone other than Barrett was seriously considered. The Liz Taylor type reading is probably right.

I'm not suggesting anyone other than white actresses would have been considered, but a black, asian or some other type would have been noteworthy in the mid '60s.

My post was in reply to Christopher specifically, regarding the "tall and dark in a Nile Valley sort of way" description.

Sorry for being a bit slapdash. I'm replying on my phone.

 

[Christopher]

Is there any validity to the story that it was in fact the women in test audiences that reacted most strongly (and negatively!) to the presence of and role of Number One? I seem to remember that anecdote from the book but can't recall whether it was the WORD OF GENE or something else.

TMoST mentions "audience tests" in which women responded poorly to the character (but liked the actress, allegedly), but Inside Star Trek gives no indication that anyone other than a few executives ever saw the pilot before the decision was made to drop Barrett. In Solow's account, it was his and GR's decision to drop her in response to executive concerns that Barrett wasn't a strong enough actress to carry a lead role.

 

[Warped9]

After I'm done reading TMoST I think I'll re-read Inside Star Trek. it's been a few years since I read that one.


Jeffrey Hunter's unavailability is simply glossed over in recounting the making of "Where No Man Has Gone Before." This is far from being a blow-by-blow account of the making of the second pilot. The reason for Hunter not returning is cited simply as him tied up in filming a movie and thus unavaible. The section does go on to explain how the production phase is structured as well as how scenes are filmed and explaining the purpuse and use of a call sheet. There are generalized references to having to deal with the large number of optical f/x, but no specifics as to what the problems actually are.

A neat reference to Robert Justman coming onboard practically straight from working on The Outer Limits.

 

[Destructor]

(I was going to mention Probe, a short-lived science-detective series co-created by Isaac Asimov, but that was from 1988, a year after TNG began.)

I have such fond memories of 'Probe'. The episode about subliminal advertising was creepy as hell, and I loved that the main character built castles in his mind - one brick at a time- and that he'd been working on one for years. That's pretty much all I remember about Probe, other than that it was awesome.

 

[Christopher]

Somehow the only Probe plot I remember was the one about ball lightning, since I'd read in a science magazine about how that might actually be real and I found the topic rather interesting. Mainly I remember the lead characters. As a kid, I'd known Parker Stevenson as Frank from The Hardy Boys Mysteries (opposite Shaun Cassidy as Joe and Pamela Sue Martin as Nancy Drew), so he was a familiar face to me. And when Ashley Crow showed up much later on Heroes, I remembered her from Probe (I don't think I've seen her in anything but those two shows).

 

[Nebusj]

Somehow the only Probe plot I remember was the one about ball lightning, since I'd read in a science magazine about how that might actually be real and I found the topic rather interesting. Mainly I remember the lead characters.

The Probe scene I remember is one in which whatsisname is the only one not to duck when the villain of that piece tosses a homemade bomb allegedly containing anthrax, and he even walks --- calmly --- toward it. He points out that if it is anthrax, then he's already doomed; and whether it is or isn't anthrax, his time is best spent studying the problem rationally. I admire that coolness and resolve in crisis.

 

[Destructor]

Somehow the only Probe plot I remember was the one about ball lightning, since I'd read in a science magazine about how that might actually be real and I found the topic rather interesting. Mainly I remember the lead characters.

The Probe scene I remember is one in which whatsisname is the only one not to duck when the villain of that piece tosses a homemade bomb allegedly containing anthrax, and he even walks --- calmly --- toward it. He points out that if it is anthrax, then he's already doomed; and whether it is or isn't anthrax, his time is best spent studying the problem rationally. I admire that coolness and resolve in crisis.

I think about the subliminal advertising one all the time. They go to this creepy town where the kids have put subliminal advertising into the (I think?) local radio station (might have been PA system), so the adults are all suggestible to doing what the kids tell them to do. So when a kid tells his grandmother to 'go suck an egg', she literally goes and sucks an egg. It was like an X-Files episode, but had a (semi)rational explanation at the end. I liked the 'hero' so much that when he showed up on Baywatch I was like: "That guy is awesome!" and watched Baywatch purely because I liked him in Probe so much. As it turns out... Baywatch didn't have much in common with probe.

 

[Irishman]

The Making Of Star Trek (by Stephen E. Whitfield) was once akin to a "holy bible" for fans. This was perhaps the first behind-the-scenes look at the making of a popular television, but it was also a well of information for the characters, hardware and tech and setting of the series.

Back in the day it was gold and could often be considered authoritative.

But time has marched on and now decades later many other reference and behind-the-scenes books have come along--some of them debunking myths once accepted as fact as printed in TMoST.

Nonetheless TMoST still has value in showing much of the thinking that went into the show back in the day. And it has an advantage in being written while TOS was still in production. And I'm reasonably sure that many fans, like me, still have a soft spot for this book. I still have my paperback copy on my bookshelf (alongside my other Trek books).


But has anyone recently read or reread this book?

I'm thinking of doing so since although I do refer to it once in awhile it's been many years since I've actually read it cover-to-cover.

Sadly, I've never even seen a copy face to face. This is one of those references that I'd love to read but can't seem to find.

Is it still available?

 

[Christopher]

^TMoST is apparently not currently in print, but used copies can be easily found on Amazon or elsewhere.

 

[Warped9]

Pages 161-256

AN OFFICIAL BIOGRAPHY OF A SHIP AND ITS CREW

It goes without saying this has always been and remains my favourite part of this book. This where they lay out so much of the thinking that went into the Enterprise, its mission, the characters and the fictional universe. It becomes quicly obvious--beyond what one has already read on the preceding pages--that a great deal of thought went into the background of Star Trek even if little of it is actually refrenced on the screen. Most of that thinking is reflected in how things were done on the show rather than specific things vocalized on the screen.

The Enterprise and its mission is laid out in a fair amount of detail. The general deck arrangements are described as is much of the technology and science we merely see depicted onscreen. I stress that this isn't in exacting detail because some room was left for future creativity. This is also true of the character biographies.

Interesting tidbits do appear. The thinking seems to be that Spock was not the only alien among the crew but only the only one seen so far. The idea seems to be that down the road other alien crew members might be seen. Of course we know this didn't happen during TOS, but it did happen in TAS which was an instance of acting on an idea that existed during TOS' production. The same applies to the holographic recreation room.

In extension while the Enterprise was obviously a predominantly human crew they had the idea that other starships could be crewed by predominantly other races. Hence we heard of the all Vulcan crew of the Intrepid referenced in "The Immunity Syndrome" and it would have been perfectly in keeping with this thinking if we had heard of another Starfleet ship with a crew of mostly Andorians or something else entirely.

It's clearly laid out that the Enterprise and the others of the Starship Class were meant to be the biggest and most powerful of Federation vessels. It's also clearly laid out that there were indeed other lesser classes of ships in the Starfleet even if we never got to see them. The setting does help rationalize why we saw so little of the rest of Starfleet and the Federation given that the Enterprise was to spend most of its time far from more established territory.

This dovetails into a reference to Kirk's first and previous command of a destroyer equivalent class vessel before the Enterprise. This reference appears to be supported in "Where No Man Has Gone Before" with a spoken line by Elizabeth Dehner referring to Kirk's "first command."

There is a description of how the ship's phasers work and how they can be fired. Included here is a reference to the phasers being able to fire as squirts or bolts of energy as well as beams. Note this is how the phasers were depicted in "Balance Of Terror."

One interesting (and apparent) inconsistency appears in the section covering the Romulans. It's stated the Romulans have complete equality between sexes and that women can command as easily as men. A Sub-Commander is the Romulan equivalent of a Starfleet starship captain while a Romulan Commander commands a squadron of ships. There is also a reference to Romulans using Klingon ships and technology due to a recent alliance.

What's interesting about this reference is that TMoST was published in September of 1968 (just when Season 3 began) while the third season episode "The Enterprise Incident" wasn't aired until Sep. 27th, 1968. Additionally TMoST only has a list of the first two seasons of the show's episodes. It only follows that Stephen Whitfield must have been privy to information that wouldn't be aired and established onscreen until after TMoST was published.


I've long felt a bit of confusion in regard to the idea of there being "only twelve like it" referring to how many ships exist that are like the Enterprise. The confusion stems from a list of fourteen names established to be ships of the same class as the Enterprise. There is a list of fourteen names while onscreen the figure twelve is referenced.

One could interpret the line spoken in "Tomorrow Is Yesterday" as meaning there were "only twelve like it" at that specific time. And later Starfleet had bolstered the number of active ships to fourteen. Or perhaps the list simply meant that for the twelve ships in existence one referred to this pool of fourteen names if other ships needed to be referenced onscreen.

Further confusion arises later during the third season when we see the starship Defiant and it's exactly like the Enterprise only the Defiant isn't on that original list of names. One could think that Frieberger or Arthur Singer didn't think of referring back to the Writer's Guide or other series notes on this issue and neither D.C. Fontana nor Robert Justman were around anymore to catch this oversight. Or perhaps because the name Defiance was on an earlier suggested list of names that they chose to simply go with that and change it to Defiant.

 

[Christopher]

^Err, it was Stephen E. Whitfield (actually Stephen Edward Poe). The other guy was named Gene.

The first draft outline for "The Enterprise Incident" was written in March '68, and the first draft script in June. That's cutting it close, but there could've been time to incorporate the idea of Romulan gender equality into revisions in the TMoST manuscript. Or maybe it was an idea that was bandied about by Fontana and the production crew before she actually wrote the episode.

And you're probably right that the Defiant was just a case of the new staffers not referencing the old memos. The memos weren't anything more than suggestions in any case. It's not like screenwriters were forbidden to coin their own ship names; the memos were just there as a resource if the writers wanted to draw on them.