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1. Life
1921 born in El Paso, Texas on August 19th
1941 graduated from LA City College
volunteered for the U.S. Army Air Corps
Second Lieutenant, took part in 89 missions and sorties
Distinguished flying Cross and the Air Medal
1945 Commercial pilot for Pan Am Airlines
Los Angeles police officer
1953 Free lance author, Western \"Have Gun Will Travel\"
1963 Roddenberry sold his first own series \"The Lieutenant\"
1964 Making of \"The Cage\", first TOS pilot
1965 Making of \"Where No Man Has Gone Before\", 2nd pilot
1966 StarTrek, The Original Series, was launched
1968 Uproar in the US: During the episode \"Plato\'s Stepchildren\": A white man kisses a black woman
1969 married Majel Barrett (\"The Computer\", \"Nurse Chapel\" from TOS and \"Lwaxana Troi\" in TNG and DS9)
1977 Doctor of Humane Letters from Emerson College in Boston, Mass., Doctor of Literature from Union College in Los Angeles
1981 Doctor of Science from Clarkson College in Potsdam, New York
1986 A star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
1987 Making of \"Encounter at Farpoint\", TNG pilot
TNG was launched
Peabody Award for the \"Best of the Best.\" (TNG)
1990 Jack Benny Memorial Award for lifetime achievement
1991 On Thursday, October 24th \"Gene Roddenberry passed away and a world not so far away mourned the loss of one of television\'s foremost pioneers.\"
Rick Berman and Micheal Piller continued the StarTrek Saga
2. StarTrek Series:
TOS - The Original Series (1966 - 1969)
TNG - The Next Generation (1987 - 1994)
DS9 - Deep Space Nine (1993 - )
VOY - Voyager (1994 - )
3. StarTrek Movies
I. Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979)
II. The Wrath of Khan (1982)
III. The Search for Spock (1984)
IV. The Voyage Home (1986)
V. The Final Frontier (1989)
VI. The Undiscovered Country (1991)
VII. Generations (1994)
VIII. First Contact (1996)
4. The Message
· While making Star Trek, Roddenberry\'s reputation as a futurist began to grow. His papers and lectures earned him high professional regard in that field. He spoke on the subject at NASA meetings, the Smithsonian Institution, Library of Congress gatherings and top universities.
· Some of the Science Fiction of StarTrek TOS is the science fact of today, some examples include: compact voice-activated computers, mobile hand-held communicators, computerized medical beds which help diagnose illness, and laser weapons. The famous scientist Stephen Hawking is working on the Warp drive theory for years, since he considers it to be possible.
· StarTrek is seen in more than 100 countries and has been translated into dozens of languages.
· \"Trekkies,\" now called \"Trekkers,\" are the only fans listed by name in the Oxford English Dictionary.
· The first U.S. Space Shuttle, the \"Enterprise,\" was given its name after NASA received 400,000 requests from StarTrek fans.
· A 1993 study from Purdue University found that children learn more about science from StarTrek than from any other source.
· StarTrek conventions are held every weekend of every year in at least four different U.S. cities, annually attracting more than 300,000 U.S. fans and an estimated one million fans worldwide.
\"I will forever be in his debt, for showing us the way of life that could be ours if the rest of the world would try to live together as one. The ideals of StarTrek are not out of reach if we all try to emulate the model brought to us by Mr. Roddenberry. We are still a long way from that, but we have started down that path and I hope we continue, far into the future.\"
Gene Roddenberry:
On StarTrek:
\"Star Trek is my political philosophy, my social philosophy, my racial philosophy, my overview on life and the human condition\"
On Women:
\"I tried to get a woman as second in command, but that failed. I also tried to have a fifty-fifty split of men and women abroad the Enterprise. However, NBC turned the idea down because they thought there would be too much hanky panky between the sexes. We argued, and we eventually agreed on one-third women and two-thirds men. I thought to myself that a one-third crew complement of healthy women could handle the two-thirds men any day.
However, I did make a statement about women by having them run around in little skirts. (...) Although they were wearing these ridiculous little skirts, you have to
remember at the time that was a real badge of freedom. That was women saying \'I don\'t have to be a little mousy house wife. I can wear something attractive\' (...)
Back then, I always thought that in the future it won\'t seem all that strange women are treated as equals.\"
On Religion:
\"I once paid attention to a sermon when I was 14 years old, and that was about the only time I did. I found the things being talked about ridiculous. We should eat the body of Christ, and drink his blood? I would still like to know how Jesus became someone to be eaten. I remember my first impression was \"This is a bunch of cannibals they\'ve put me down among.\" So for the rest of my teen life I let religion slide. I saw no point in adopting it when it was so obviously phony.\"
On God:
\"I believe we are all God, and God is the equation of the universe. (...) I basically believe God equals thought.\"
On the Human Race:
\"I think of the human race as an eight or ten year old child. They are lovable at their best, and despicable at their worst-just like humans.(...) We are a young species. I think if we allow ourselves a little development, understanding what we\'ve done already, we\'ll be surprised what a cherishable, lovely group that humans can evolve into.\"
On drugs:
\"I believe the solution to the drug problem is legalization. If not legalization, then decriminalization. In other words, I believe we should make drugs a public health problem. I originally had this idea back in the 1950\'s when I was a cop, but I believe in it even more strongly now.\"
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