"Inside Trek"

Lord Poe · Post by **Lord Poe** » 2003-10-15 02:13pm

I recommend everyone go out and get this book. It's a fucking LAUGH riot!! It's written by Susan Sackett, who was Roddenberry's "secretary" and whom he was banging behind Lwaxana Troi's back.

I laughed out loud when I read her description of Roddenberry asking her to blow him:

pg.26:

Although I felt somewhat used and left out, I was convinced that I was really a very lucky girl, to be here in this time and place. It was almost as if I felt a responsibility to the fans, to keep our hero happy.

And so, to paraphrase Queen Victoria's suggestion to young English brides, I closed my eyes and thought of Star Trek.

Stravo · Post by **Stravo** » 2003-10-15 02:25pm

Wait a minute, you mean the man who created Star Trek was not highly evolved enough to keep it in his pants??

Score another one for the humans will never change crowd. BTW anyone else sickened by the near beatification that GR has garnered from his fans and his former business associates?

Uraniun235 · Post by **Uraniun235** » 2003-10-15 02:26pm

LOL. I knew he on at least one occasion hired an actress purely because he wanted to fuck her, but that's still funny.

Is this from back in the TOS days or in the TNG days? And what was Queen Victoria's original advice, anyway?

Spanky The Dolphin · Post by **Spanky The Dolphin** » 2003-10-15 02:28pm

Victorian women were told to close their eyes and think of the duty they were performing for the British Empire during the vulger but required act of intercourse. I don't belive HRH actually said it directly, but more that it was how the saying went.

Post by **Ghost Rider** » 2003-10-15 02:33pm

LMAO...guess he wasn't quite living up to the ideals of his Next Gen stuff.

This should go along well with Ellison's book.

Lord Poe · Post by **Lord Poe** » 2003-10-15 02:34pm

Oh, there's a TON of skeletons in Roddenberry's closet. Maybe I should take some notes on this book for later dissemination!

BTW, how many know there are WORDS to the TOS theme? Roddenberry wrote them so he could split royalties with Alexander Courage. Can anyone say...snake?

Spanky The Dolphin · Post by **Spanky The Dolphin** » 2003-10-15 02:36pm

I thought it was also because at that time, TV theme songs coudn't be copyrighted unless they had lyrics?

Stravo · Post by **Stravo** » 2003-10-15 02:39pm

Lord Poe wrote:Oh, there's a TON of skeletons in Roddenberry's closet. Maybe I should take some notes on this book for later dissemination!

BTW, how many know there are WORDS to the TOS theme? Roddenberry wrote them so he could split royalties with Alexander Courage. Can anyone say...snake?

Roddenberry was a pretty nasty cut throat business man during the TOS era, he would rewrite scripts so he could get a script mention and credit, he would do just about anything to score a buck from the show. He drove one of the writers off the show because of stress related to having to deal with Roddenberry.

He also accused CBS (or one of the networks) of stealing his Star Trek concept to make Lost in Space. The claim goes that he made a presentation to CBS executives for Trek. They seemed to be very interested, taking copious notes and were interested on how he intended to keep costs low, etc.

Next thing you know, Lost in Space debuts and Roddenberry claimed that they used many of his ideas at that meeting to run Lost in Space. To us B-5 and DS9 fans that sounds REAL familiar don't it?

Lord Poe · Post by **Lord Poe** » 2003-10-15 02:39pm

Spanky The Dolphin wrote:I thought it was also because at that time, TV theme songs coudn't be copyrighted unless they had lyrics?

Where did you hear that? Mission Impossible was filmed at the same time, and had no lyrics!

Uraniun235 · Post by **Uraniun235** » 2003-10-15 03:51pm

Lord Poe wrote:Oh, there's a TON of skeletons in Roddenberry's closet. Maybe I should take some notes on this book for later dissemination!

BTW, how many know there are WORDS to the TOS theme? Roddenberry wrote them so he could split royalties with Alexander Courage. Can anyone say...snake?

I knew. Didn't one of the old Trek producers (Robert Justman?) write a similar book? I remember reading a book much like the one you described.

I remember reading a story about Nichelle Nichols coming out of Gene's office wearing only a sweater, or something like that.

EDIT: Yup. Here's the book I read. Amazon.com listing[/url]

Publius · Post by **Publius** » 2003-10-15 03:57pm

Despite his obvious collectivist beliefs and haughty disdain for capitalism, Mr. Roddenberry certainly never displayed any scruples in his pursuit of profit, showing a distinctly Vespasianian bent (pecunia non olet, eh?). "The Great Bird of the Galaxy" was a greedy libertine, far from being the New Federation Man. Springing from this man's pen, Picard's upturned nose at the Ferengi capitalists positively stinks of hypocrisy.

Uraniun235 wrote:And what was Queen Victoria's original advice, anyway?

Queen-Empress Victoria was reputed to have advised her daughter "Close your eyes and think of England". Although a popular story, few historians believe she actually said it.

Incidentally, Spanky The Dolphin, this is a meaningless nitpick, but she ceased to be "HRH" in 1837, when she acceded to the Throne and became "HM".

PUBLIUS

Spanky The Dolphin · Post by **Spanky The Dolphin** » 2003-10-15 05:33pm

Lord Poe wrote:
Spanky The Dolphin wrote:I thought it was also because at that time, TV theme songs coudn't be copyrighted unless they had lyrics?
Where did you hear that? Mission Impossible was filmed at the same time, and had no lyrics!

But was the M:I theme copyrighted when the show first aired?

The IMDB says that you're right. But I swear that during the Sci-Fi Channel airing of the TOS SE, they mentioned during "Charlie X" that the theme song had lyrics so that it could be copyrighted.

It's possible that I'm thinking of something else, though...

Lord Poe · Post by **Lord Poe** » 2003-10-16 02:28am

Spanky The Dolphin wrote:But was the M:I theme copyrighted when the show first aired?

All content on aired shows are copyrighted.

The IMDB says that you're right. But I swear that during the Sci-Fi Channel airing of the TOS SE, they mentioned during "Charlie X" that the theme song had lyrics so that it could be copyrighted.

It's possible that I'm thinking of something else, though...

From "Inside Star Trek" by Herbert F. Solow and Robert H. Justman

pg. 178:

Courage would receive 100 percent of the BMI music royalties-or so he thought. Roddenberry, who had never written a music lyric, chose to write one for the Star Trek theme, a lyric that would never be sung or used in any manner other than being printed on the published orchestral and band arrangements. Its purpose was not an expression of creativity; it was purely financial. Roddenberry, the lyricist, would now receive fifty percent of all music royalties; and Coyrage, the composer, would receive the remaining fifty percent.

Darth Fanboy · Post by **Darth Fanboy** » 2003-10-16 04:26am

Poe's threads are the best...

how much did you shell out for this literature?

Peregrin Toker · Post by **Peregrin Toker** » 2003-10-16 04:54am

Stravo wrote:Next thing you know, Lost in Space debuts and Roddenberry claimed that they used many of his ideas at that meeting to run Lost in Space.

This is rather ironic, considering how much "Lost In Space" influenced 1990s-era ST...

And there's always the old adage: "When you steal one idea, you're ripping off. When you steal several ideas, you're doing research."

Lord Poe · Post by **Lord Poe** » 2003-10-16 10:39am

Darth Fanboy wrote:Poe's threads are the best...

how much did you shell out for this literature?

Sometimes I spend too much at Borders. But I also save a lot of money by visiting used book stores. They have plenty of Star Wars and Star Trek books in these places.

kojikun · Post by **kojikun** » 2003-10-16 02:37pm

Eugene was a nutjob. He's reported (by Majel, I believe) to have said he wished he had gotten the chance to try homosexuality out.

Poe: I can't blame you for being a book lover. I bought 100 dollars of books at Borders two weeks ago and I'm still getting more. NEED. BOOKS. NGRHH.

Lord Poe · Post by **Lord Poe** » 2003-10-16 04:54pm

kojikun wrote:Eugene was a nutjob. He's reported (by Majel, I believe) to have said he wished he had gotten the chance to try homosexuality out.

And even THAT is a load of horseshit. Roddenberry was a very careful "politician"; out to please everyone and live up to the heroification bestowed on him. In reality, he kept promising a gay character on TNG (where he had complete control, unlike TOS and the movies) but never did it. I have an article I need to dig out where David Gerrold witnessed Roddenberry tell a writer to go tell the producers that a gay themed episode would be greenlighted.

When the writer left, Roddenberry allegedly got on the phone and told the producers under no circumstances will they greenlight that episode. The language may have been harsher, but I am going by foggy recollection here until I refer to the 10 + year old magazine (Cinefantastique) again.

http://www.webpan.com/dsinclair/trek.html

Lord Poe · Post by **Lord Poe** » 2003-10-16 06:03pm

This is Susan Sackett's website:

http://www.insidetrek.com/

Also Plubius, in her book is final proof that Roddenberry did indeed write the novelization to ST:TMP.

Patrick Degan · Post by **Patrick Degan** » 2003-10-16 06:16pm

Lord Poe wrote:From "Inside Star Trek" by Herbert F. Solow and Robert H. Justman

pg. 178:

Courage would receive 100 percent of the BMI music royalties-or so he thought. Roddenberry, who had never written a music lyric, chose to write one for the Star Trek theme, a lyric that would never be sung or used in any manner other than being printed on the published orchestral and band arrangements. Its purpose was not an expression of creativity; it was purely financial. Roddenberry, the lyricist, would now receive fifty percent of all music royalties; and Coyrage, the composer, would receive the remaining fifty percent.

The "lyrics" were printed on the frontpage of The Making Of Star Trek by Stephen Whitfield and Gene Roddenberry, the original insider book on the production of the series. And believe me, they are putrid.

Harlan Ellison wrote:That's Gene. Couldn't write for sour owl poop.

kojikun · Post by **kojikun** » 2003-10-16 06:28pm

I just lost all respect for reddenberry. and the people who make Trek (not like i had much respect as it was).

I like Bakula's quote on the subject:

...in fact, the first I ever heard of it was at our first junket when somebody asked if there was going to be an opportunity for a gay or lesbian character on the show. I was surprised at the question, because I had just assumed that over the course of the years that it had been addressed.

The Kernel · Post by **The Kernel** » 2003-10-16 06:32pm

Lord Poe wrote:Oh, there's a TON of skeletons in Roddenberry's closet. Maybe I should take some notes on this book for later dissemination!

BTW, how many know there are WORDS to the TOS theme? Roddenberry wrote them so he could split royalties with Alexander Courage. Can anyone say...snake?

Wasn't he also banging Nichelle Nicholes (I believe Shatner talked about this in his book)?

Post by **NecronLord** » 2003-10-16 06:32pm

Patrick Degan wrote:The "lyrics" were printed on the frontpage of The Making Of Star Trek by Stephen Whitfield and Gene Roddenberry, the original insider book on the production of the series. And believe me, they are putrid.

Please transcribe them.

Spanky The Dolphin · Post by **Spanky The Dolphin** » 2003-10-16 06:55pm

NecronLord wrote:
Patrick Degan wrote:The "lyrics" were printed on the frontpage of The Making Of Star Trek by Stephen Whitfield and Gene Roddenberry, the original insider book on the production of the series. And believe me, they are putrid.
Please transcribe them.

Here they are. Patrick's right, though. They're pretty lousy:

Gene Roddenberry wrote:Beyond
The rim of the star-light
My love
Is wand'ring in star-flight
I know
He'll find in star-clustered reaches
Love,
Strange love a star woman teaches.
I know
His journey ends never
His star trek
Will go on forever.
But tell him
While he wanders his starry sea
Remember, remember me.

Patrick Degan · Post by **Patrick Degan** » 2003-10-16 07:25pm

Great. I merely suggested where the curious could find that awful composition. Now half the people reading this threrad are going to want to claw their eyes out.