ugene Wesley Roddenberry Jr., better known as Rod to his friends, likes the Enterprise theme song and isn't afraid to admit it. The song reminds him of his father and his father's philosophy and vision.
The son of Gene Roddenberry and Majel Barrett Roddenberry has found himself following in his famous parents' footsteps into the world of sci-fi entertainment. Roddenberry was brought into the family business by his dad at the age of 13 to work summers as a production assistant on Star Trek: The Next Generation and later on Deep Space 9. His father passed away when he was 17.
Roddenberry went to Hampshire College in Amherst, Mass. However, just before completing his final semester, he was lured back to Hollywood to work on another project based on one of his father's ideas, and he took a job as a technical advisor on Gene Roddenberry's Earth: Final Conflict. After leaving Earth, Roddenberry flirted with the idea of getting involved with Andromeda, another series that carries his father's name.
However, he decided it was time to take a break from the entertainment industry, and he presently runs a company that sells Star Trek collectibles. Still, he hasn't taken a break from his continuing mission to protect his father's name and to promote the Roddenberry philosophy.
Science Fiction Weekly spoke with Roddenberry about Earth: Final Conflict, his father and the Enterprise theme song.
You left college to go work on Earth: Final Conflict. What made you want to get involved in that project?
Roddenberry: It was really quite a dilemma at the time. I really wanted to graduate college, and had a semester left. At college, I'd been studying astronomy, physics and photography. It makes me sound intelligent. I'm really not that intelligent. My math skills are horrible. So the opportunity came up to work on the show, and I was really torn. I talked to my advisers. If I stayed one more semester, basically a whole season of Earth, and then came in second season, I would have come in definitely as the producer's [Majel Barrett Roddenberry] son. Because they were talking about getting me an associate producer title, which clearly was going to be given to me not because of any sort of skills I had in the industry, but because I was the producer's son. I felt I'd really be frowned upon. I really wanted to work with people and I didn't want to come as the producer's son. So the other choice was to go in the first season and leave college and start with everyone else. I felt that if I was going to work on the show, I should do it right. If I'm going to learn anything, I should learn from the beginning. What a huge opportunity to learn. If I come in half way, well, then all the preproduction of the series would have been done and I really wouldn't have been a part of what got it there.
So the idea was that I went to a really cool college where I could basically take a couple years off and finish later. Which I should say I haven't done. I knew that there was good chance I wouldn't finish. Anyway, long story short, I packed up my things and I moved out to Los Angeles to work on Earth: Final Conflict.
How did your mom feel about that?
Roddenberry: Strangely enough, my entire life, she pushed for school, school, school, school. But like any parent wanting their child to get into their business, she really pushed for me to be on the show. I mean, I could have given up becoming president to work on the show and she would have been thrilled.
What was your experience like on Earth: Final Conflict?
Roddenberry: Oh, where do I begin? Let me start by saying working on Earth: Final Conflict was probably one of the best and worst experiences I've ever had in life and in the entertainment industry.
Earth's crew and the cast—I worked with some of the best people, and I'm not just saying that. We would get our daily people who would come in and work on Earth and just fall in love with the mood on the set, the people there, and would beg their agents to send them back. It was just a great, great family environment.
Now everyone above the line, the executives, powers that be, distributors, they were probably some of the worst people I've ever met as human beings. There were some good ones. I'm just saying there were some really bad ones there. But that's typical of the industry. Everyone hears the stories, and you know what? I heard them. I just learned firsthand that they are true. It's a business. The bottom line is the dollar. I came aboard. I wanted to do something special. I wanted to continue my father's name. I wanted to give
the fans what they wanted. I wanted to give back to them essentially, which sounds corny, but is absolutely true. And not only that—of the cast and crew that came to work on the show, many of them turned down higher-paying jobs because they wanted to be part of the next Roddenberry project. They came to work every day, not for a paycheck, but to do the best damn job they could. And you can see it. That's why people were always so happy. That's why it was such a good feeling.
The first season of the show, I was very excited to be there. In fact, I was the only one who moved up to Toronto. I was in L.A. and found out that they were going to shoot in Toronto. So I said, "Well, OK, if I'm going to be a part in this, I guess we're all going to move to Toronto." And no one else moved. All the producers and writers stayed in LA. So I moved up there and I was going to give it my all and just do whatever I could to learn. In the job I was given, they ended up putting me in a post-production house clear across town. I actually had no involvement in the show, with any actors. I wasn't on the set. I had nothing to do with it. I was like, "Jesus, is that a hint?" Anyhow, I spent the first season there, which was fine.
The second season, I said, "Look, I definitely want to be on the set. I don't care what my title is, I just want to be more involved." And they said, "Well, you can't have a producer's title." And I said, "That's fine." And I ended up being a technical advisor. So I'm technical advisor, and they said, "OK,
what are you going to do with this job?" I said, "I don't know, what's available?" And no one ever gave me a job and the season began. So I gave myself a job. As technical advisor, I attempted to make sure there was Gene Roddenberry content in every show and tried to make sure that there was some sort of continuity in the backbone story of the series. Meaning, if we said our aliens couldn't do something, they couldn't fly and then later on we had a script where they are flying around like little butterflies, I'd write a
note saying, "Look, this can't be done." And sometimes it was that easy, but other times it wasn't. So every script revision that came through, I sent notes. Well, you know everyone was sending notes, and that's the writer's worst thing is notes. In my opinion, very few were looked at. I was always willing to sacrifice our lead guy diving through the door with a gun, and saying, "Look, why doesn't he just knock?" I was trying to make sure that the show didn't have senseless violence, [that it had] intelligent characters, that it represented my father's name, and that it gave the fans what they wanted. The second season was all about violence. The third season was a little bit less, but it still went downhill. And the crew, the cast, stopped reading the scripts and just learned their own lines and starting coming to collect paychecks.
Now after the first season, everything changed. We got rid of our lead, got rid of our writers, got rid of producers. It was decided that the first season wasn't a huge hit, so we needed to make a change. Well, the first season is never a huge hit. It's always the beginning of something you need to build. So they started to change everything, and it really went downhill from there. And every season after they started to change things.
As far as my ideas go, you know what, I had zero writing experience, zero entertainment experience, really. I [knew] more than someone in Oklahoma, but I still didn't have hands-on experience. So I was well aware of that. My intention was not to come aboard as the producer's son and say I want this, I want that, I want to do my story. That's the last thing I ever wanted. But I wanted to work with a writer, maybe to learn how to write a story. And I talked to the executives and they said, "Yeah, sure." They were very
encouraging about it. Of course, I learned that that's just lip service, in my opinion. I started writing story ideas. The first one I wrote was this huge 50-page novel that was just free association really, and they said, "We'll hammer it out and do something." And I was thrilled. They said, "We need a smaller summary." So I wrote something like 10 or 15 pages, I think. And they said, "OK, we need to develop it basically into [one or two pages]." And that's what I did. So, they said, "Yes. We'll put you together with a writer and we'll hammer this into a story." They thought it was a very Roddenberry story. You know, it wasn't gratuitous action. So, long story short, after six months total I got a call from our executive producer saying, "We've developed a story similar to what yours was." And I said, "Was? What do you mean was?" And they did a story that really had just a small resemblance to mine. That ended up being my first writing credit, which I was very disappointed in.
As far as my writing, I met a friend and we started writing stories and pitching ideas and they never got anywhere. Nothing ever happened. And I really kind of gave up, which is my own fault. Unfortunately, that's what a spoiled kid does and that's what I ended up doing. I just gave up pitching ideas. Because I really felt that they were good ideas, maybe not producible the way they were, but I thought out of all the ideas I gave we could have worked together and turned one into something else. So anyhow, that was it in
a nutshell.
I'm emotionally attached to the show. I'm emotionally attached to my father's name, obviously. So I spent four years very angry. Let me just say if it was V.I.P. I was working on and treated that way, you know what? I don't think I would have had a problem. I think I would have done my job as best I could and they could have not listened and they could have said, "Screw you." They could have done anything the wanted. I may have been disappointed that they didn't like me. But you know what, I wouldn't have been
emotionally bothered by it. However, if it were Gene Roddenberry's V.I.P. I'd have something else to say [laughs].
And now in the fifth season they've completely changed the premise of the series. Have you seen it lately?
Roddenberry: No, I stopped reading the scripts probably in the middle of season three. And I stopped watching episodes at that time, too. I've talked to people about the premise. I remember at the beginning of season five, they said, "Well, we need to make it more Buffy." I thought, "Oh, s--t."
They actually said they wanted to make it more Buffy?
Roddenberry: Oh, they don't hide any of that stuff. Season three or season four, I don't know what it was, they wanted to make it more Matrix. So our lead guy got a leather trench coat. And then the next week they said, "You know what, it needs to be a bit more Blair Witch." So all the sudden we brought out the shaky cam, the handheld camera. They really were [just grasping at a fad]. By the time the fad comes to screen, it's gone.
I talked to the executive producer Paul Gertz and he believes that your father would be very pleased with the way the series will end. He believes the series finale is very Roddenbery-esque.
Roddenberry: You know what, I'm not saying everything's bad about it. I've got to be careful what I say, because I'm still close to it and I simply focus on the negative. I'm overcritical. There are a lot of good things about it. Paul Gertz is a good guy. A good writer. I believe it could have a nice Roddenberry ending. There are aspects of the show that have Roddenberry aspects. The whole series just doesn't fit the bill as far as I'm concerned. In my opinion, the first season of Earth: Final Conflict was the only season of Gene Roddenberry's Earth: Final Conflict.
Like I said, in my opinion, the first season, if we'd left it alone, [we could have] built upon what we learned and not fired our lead. I love Robert Leeshock, he's the second lead we had. But in my opinion, Kevin Kilner was better. First of all, I shouldn't even use the word lead, because it should be an ensemble. And I think a Roddenberry main character should be wise and experienced. And when you put a 25-year-old in the lead and try and play him as this wise and experienced, I don't buy it. I think Picard is intelligent. I think he should be in command of a ship. I think he should be the leader of a crew. And I think Kevin Kilner did that. I think he really was able to pause in a situation and think about it and then react or enter. Whereas our lead afterward had the answer right away, pulled out the guy right away, dove
through the window right away, which is just pure action.
It's more like that now. It's more black and white this season.
Roddenberry: Which, don't get me wrong, is good action. It's good sci-fi. That's good whatever you want to call it. It's just not Roddenberry.
Tell me about your dad.
Roddenberry: I knew my dad as more of a father. When I was eight and nine years old he did the typical father things. We used to go out to the Santa Monica pier and I could barely see over the dash. He'd shift the car into second gear and I'd think we're going mach speed. We were probably going 55, 60. So that was pretty cool. Then we'd go play our games. He'd win me dolls or whatever by knocking over the milk bottles. And then we'd come home and that would be our day. We called it bumming. We would go out bumming on the weekends.
Then I got older and became a little bit more rebellious. He was busy and we had a fairly typical spoiled teenage years, where I was rebellious and he worked. We got along sometimes and we didn't get along other times. He passed away when I was 17. We both knew we loved each other. We weren't chumming and
hanging out all the time like we probably would be today, but that's what I knew. What I really learned about him was after he passed away. That's when I learned about Star Trek. [I thought] Star Trek was just a show that people loved. What I learned afterward was that it was far beyond just some evening entertainment. It was something that had touched people's lives, something that had given people hope for the future. It had done more than probably any politician had. I read letters, I heard stories.
One that they read at my father's memorial service was a letter a quadriplegic sent in, I believe. He said something like this. "I was born a quadriplegic. My parents did the best they could to take care of me, but they didn't have money and they couldn't do it, so they put me in a home. I grew up most of my childhood years there and life was pretty much unbearable. I tried to commit suicide many, many times. But obviously I couldn't. And in 1966, the show Star Trek came on and gave me a new future where even if I'm not cured, I could be accepted as a member of society. I'll be 'normal.' I'll be accepted and perhaps even cured. And it just gave me hope." And he goes on to credit my father and the show, and basically ends by saying, "I'm 48 years old. I have a wife and two kids." So that one person, if I could carry on my
father's vision and help give people hope, and help one person in that way, then that's so much better than any other career I could think of. It really is. I'm not that much of a humanitarian, but that always just makes me feel so good.
Star Trek has been going on for 35 years and has made a huge impact on television and science fiction. It's a legacy that's going to go on for a long time to come.
Roddenberry: I think it will go on forever in some ways. As far as Paramount goes, I think it will go on for quite a while because there will always be fans watching the show no matter what. I should also let you know that my family officially has nothing to do with Star Trek. That's not
saying that we don't want to. When I say we have nothing to do with Earth: Final Conflict, now that's something I'm proud to say [laughs]. Star Trek, unfortunately, in something like '82 or '84, I'm sure for very good reasons, my father sold all the rights to Star Trek to Paramount. I don't know why. I don't know what happened at the time. Perhaps at the time it was still considered a failure. It was right after the picture. I don't know.
How do you feel about that?
Roddenberry: I'd love to have something to do with Star Trek. Of course, I would. However, I do have to give [Rick] Berman and [Brannon] Braga and all of them credit for Enterprise, and for the other shows, because they still deal with humanity. They may have gratuitous violence, and all that. They may not fit the exact bill of Star Trek, but it hasn't become Buffy. Let's put it that way. Buffy's a good show, it's just not Roddenberry. So it could have been a lot worse. I think they're doing a good job. Maybe not great, but good. And I enjoy Enterprise. It's a bit slow, but I think it's a good beginning. I think the mistake that would be made by a lot of people right now because it is a bit slow, is to change the format entirely and bring in a blonde with big breasts and a bigger gun and
a faster ship. If certain powers that be were in charge of it like they were on Earth: Final Conflict, it certainly would be going downhill right now.
Some of the fans can't accept the theme song.
Roddenberry: Yeah, I know. But I have to say, I'm actually one of the few who really likes that theme song, because I think of my father. And as it goes, "It's been a long time." The way the lyrics go, I think of the struggles my father had. I think of him and Star Trek. Even today it almost makes me teary-eyed, you know.
What do you think about Andromeda?
Roddenberry: I think it has had potential. I was going to be involved with it. Robert Hewitt Wolfe—I met him. I really liked him. I thought he was extremely creative. I thought he really wanted to give it the Roddenberry values, as well as incorporate his own, which is fine. I really, not that I had any right to, but I approved of him. Not that anyone asked for that, but who cares. I approved of him. And I used to say this to everyone, that as long as he's running the show, I think it's got potential and it will be a good show. Unfortunately, they just fired him.
One of the things about Andromeda, I was going to be a part of it. I walked into the head of Tribune's office. He invited me in. He said, "We'd like you to be a part of it." He was going to be the boss of the discussion, and you know what? I wasn't going to argue with him. It's his show, his money.
But I said, if there's anything, I prefer not to be in the post-production office clear across town. He said, "That's no problem, don't worry about it." So months went by and I flew to Vancouver and met with a couple people, and sat down for a few meetings. The show was going to start and I said, "OK, so where am I going to be?" I was in the post-production department clear across town. And pardon my language, but if that wasn't a "f--k you," that's what it felt like. I called them up and I said, "You know what? I don't think I'm the right person for this show. Good luck. Have fun." I've just divorced myself from it. It's the powers that be that I really don't like. What makes it different is that it's my father's name. I could get screwed over on any other show. You know what? I'd be pissed, but I'd be happy to move on. So I've decided to take some time off the industry and I'm currently running a company formerly known as Lincoln Enterprises, now at www.roddenberry.com. We've been around for almost 35 years and it's all Star Trek merchandise, with a little bit of Andromeda thrown in. We exclusively have the right to sell every script, and we have every script. And we have mugs, T-shirts and all sorts of little things like that.
What do you think would surprise your father most about the way things have happened with the Star Trek shows today?
Roddenberry: I'm sure he would have his issues with Deep Space 9 and Voyager. I mean, he was a stubborn man. It was his idea. It was his concept for the most part. So I'm sure he'd have issues with them. With him not here and no one else at the helm as far as Roddenberry goes, I have to give them credit. I'm sure he wouldn't be totally disappointed. I know that he did Next Generation because people said he couldn't do it again. He did it again. I think at that point he was vindicated. At that point, he'd proven whatever he'd needed to prove to himself, or the world, or the studios. He was alive for the concept of Deep Space 9. I think at that point, he wasn't going to fight it. He'd done his shows. People knew what Roddenberry was and people knew what Star Trek was. They could have
been crap for all he cared and he still would have been Gene Roddenberry of Star Trek. That's a lot of presumption on my part, 'cause I didn't really speak to him about this. But from what I know of him, I have to feel that way.
The success of Star Trek: The Next Generation has a lot to do with the wealth of science fiction television that's on the air right now.
Roddenberry: It's my favorite science fiction ever. Roddenberry sci-fi's not really sci-fi. I mean, it's stories about humanity in the shell of sci-fi. Sci-fi is really only the paper it's written on. It gave my father limitless bounds to explore humanity. To take a step out and look at us. It's possible to do with any kind of show, but I think it was almost the easiest way. I'm not saying it was easy, but I mean, you go out into space and make an alien that's green and an alien that's blue and then have a racial dispute between them. It's a great way of hiding the truth and still expressing a point of view.
What do you think your dad would think about today's world?
Roddenberry: He would have hope for the future. It's in his writing. And in the future we're not talking 10 or 20 years. We're maybe talking maybe a hundred or two hundred thousand years. Humanity will prevail, not prevail over anything, but will become a better species. Better within. It's just part of the path getting there. It's the steps taken, including the disasters of today. My father fought in wars. My father was a police officer. There's going to be a lot of hard things. I'm not sure if it's going to get
worse before it gets better. It's just simple steps. Humanity's got to learn. Not that just America's got to learn. Not that any country has to learn. But humanity in general has to learn.
Do you think we can have that future your father imagined for us?
Roddenberry: I think so. I think it's an excellent blueprint. I'm not saying the future should be exactly that. Frankly, I wouldn't mind. But there's no other real blueprint out there.
What's ahead for Eugene Roddenberry Jr.?
Roddenberry: Simply getting back into the industry and dealing with the people I don't like [laughs].
Do you see yourself bringing any of your dad's ideas to the screen?
Roddenberry: I probably won't do my dad's ideas. But I'm going to do his philosophy. I think there's enough out there, Gene Roddenberry this and Gene Roddenberry that. I wouldn't mind taking a break for a while. It's going to get over-saturated with bad Gene Roddenberry and I'm just concerned about that. What I'll do will most likely be sci-fi. I've got some ideas, just like everyone in the business. And I'll just see if I can get them out there. But I don't want to do it half-assed, pardon my language. Right now I'm running this company. I want to get this thing going and succeed or fail here and move on.
Back to the top.
