And then GR decided that he considered parts of ST V to be "apocryphal".
Star Trek VI, too.
Actually no. A wheelchair-bound GR saw the final print of ST VI at an advance screening in the Paramount theatrette, then was taken to the hospital a few hours later, from whence he didn't return. There was no time for the fan-rumoured ranting and raving and telephone calls about Klingon blood and conspiracies in Starfleet, demanding re-edits.
My friend Ernie Over, GR's fulltime carer after his two strokes, was with GR when he saw ST VI and GR's
only comment was a subdued, "I think the fans will like it".
GR had previously made negative comments about
the script, and had requested that Saavik not be made a conspirator, but he didn't have the time or inclination to declare ST VI "apocryphal" once the film was in the can.
When they made TAS, you're saying Paramount didn't have the rights to the material, so who did? NBC? I didn't know that. What actually transcribed back then? Why didn't PARAMOUNT retain the rights after the show ended (tos). And did that mean that Roddenberry had a payday when Paramount bought the rights back? Or did NBC?
Paramount bought Desilu at the end of Season Two of TOS, and with it got Desilu's share of ST. At some time in the 70s, Gene Roddenberry had the opportunity to buy out Paramount's share, but it would have been a very unwise investment for one man at the time, seeing ST was a dead series at the time, so he opted to sell
his share to Paramount. In return he had enough money to have his mansion in the Hollywood Hills and an investment to live on.
But before(?) Paramount owned ST outright, a deal was worked out to license an animated version to the successful tenderer, Filmation, who worked with the co-production of NBC's Children's TV arm and Norway Productions (which, incidentally, was GR's company). Filmation created the original characters of Arex and M'Ress, but when those characters appeared in the Power Records book/comic sets, Power wasn't allowed to use those likenesses. So the contracts for TAS were either very tight, or perhaps way too open to interpretation. Similarly, the license for the "ST Technical Manual" was contractually full of loopholes.
Paramount
did not own TAS itself, only TOS and the trademarked elements of that show. Paramount had only looked after the syndication distribution of TAS after its initial run. When TAS was being sold off (partly to Hallmark Greeting Cards, IIRC) in 1989, it's entire back catalog was frozen until the red tape of ownership of all their products could be split up, and given back to the rightful copyright holders. This is normal procedure when a TV production company is wound down. Every contract is different.
There was probably no doubt Paramount would end up owning TAS outright, but the contracts had to be checked to ensure some ex-Filmation artist or production person didn't have reason to make future claims upon Paramount. It was this state of flux that helped to oust Arex and M'Ress from the DC Comics storyline.
