Trek Writers' Best and Worst, Part 1: Gene Roddenberry
- Thread starter Eddie Roth
- Start date
"The Cage" wins hands down! Roddenberry put his heart and soul into that script. All the dreams of man surviving today's world and living in equality in the future with all the life forms that we might encounter out there. Intellectual...yes. But you felt for Number One's decision to overload the laser to avoid living in slavery and the Keeper's desire to show Pike that Vina's decision to stay was an honest one. Roddenberry at his best by showing both sides of an argument and the compromise that each side makes as long as they don't force that decision on others unwillingly.
I still see that same grain of truth in "The Savage Curtain" with the "good" vs. "evil" premise. Unfortunately, it was third season. Roddenberry wasn't as hands-on with his involvement and the script never got the polishing that it needed to point that out without being "heavy-handed." I see the good side as "uniters" of their people. Trying to bring peace and unity and equality to their respective peoples without forcing or enslaving them. Lincoln and Surak definitely fit this description. (This also foreshadows Kirk and Spock's contributions in uniting with the Klingons in ST VI and Spock with the Romulans in "Unification." ) Kahless presents the enigma for the Klingon people. Worf speaks of him with great respect. But since this was taken from Kirk and Spock's minds, their perception of Kahless could have been distorted more to the conquering evil image. Lots of food for thought that Roddenberry couldn't have even imagined when he wrote it but he was a great "idea" man!!
If I had to pick a worst one, probably "Mudd's Women." It did seem a little sexist as "The Omega Glory" seemed a little corny and heavy-handed but my impression was that these story treatments were written at the same time as "The Cage" so maybe he was intending for them to come across as inferior so that the network execs would want to go with "The Cage" as the first pilot. Once the second pilot of "Where No Man Has Gone Before" got the series greenlighted, they could have just used those other scripts because of a need for material over the years and a lack of time to get things shot and delivered.
I still see that same grain of truth in "The Savage Curtain" with the "good" vs. "evil" premise. Unfortunately, it was third season. Roddenberry wasn't as hands-on with his involvement and the script never got the polishing that it needed to point that out without being "heavy-handed." I see the good side as "uniters" of their people. Trying to bring peace and unity and equality to their respective peoples without forcing or enslaving them. Lincoln and Surak definitely fit this description. (This also foreshadows Kirk and Spock's contributions in uniting with the Klingons in ST VI and Spock with the Romulans in "Unification." ) Kahless presents the enigma for the Klingon people. Worf speaks of him with great respect. But since this was taken from Kirk and Spock's minds, their perception of Kahless could have been distorted more to the conquering evil image. Lots of food for thought that Roddenberry couldn't have even imagined when he wrote it but he was a great "idea" man!!
If I had to pick a worst one, probably "Mudd's Women." It did seem a little sexist as "The Omega Glory" seemed a little corny and heavy-handed but my impression was that these story treatments were written at the same time as "The Cage" so maybe he was intending for them to come across as inferior so that the network execs would want to go with "The Cage" as the first pilot. Once the second pilot of "Where No Man Has Gone Before" got the series greenlighted, they could have just used those other scripts because of a need for material over the years and a lack of time to get things shot and delivered.
