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These Are the Voyages: Gene Roddenberry and Star Trek in the 1970s, Volume 3
Volume 1 of These Are the Gene Roddenberry and Star Trek in the 1970s covered the first half of the 1970s, with Roddenberry’s pilot films from that time, the expansion of Trek fandom, the coming of the conventions, and the making of Star The Animated Series. Volume 2 continued with Roddenberry’s TV pilot Spectre, his other sci-fi projects from the mid-1970s, such as “The Nine” and “ Earth,” and the aborted “Star Trek Phase II” TV series. Now, in Volume 3, Cushman documents the resurrection of Star Trek and the beginning of its movie franchise. Using memos, letters, as well as excerpts from treatments and scripts from Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry, his colleagues, and the studio, plus production reports, vintage media coverage from the era, and new interviews, you will witness pop-culture history in the the writing, production, and release of 1979’s Star Trek – The Motion Picture. This is your boarding pass to go behind the scenes – as a TV series and its creator become a worldwide phenomenon and achieve legendary status.
- GenresStar TrekScience Fiction
460 pages, Hardcover
Published January 1, 2020
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February 12, 2021
Late last night I finished reading "These Are the Voyages: Gene Roddenberry and Star Trek in the 1970s: Volume 3 (1978-1980)" by Marc Cushman, the last in Cushman's three-volume series looking at the decade of the 1970s in Star Trek and, in this third volume, focusing entirely on the development, production, reaction, and after effects of "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" (1979).
After a so-so volume two in my opinion (due largely to the material in the second book covering a period when nearly everything Roddenberry was working on didn't actually end up getting produced, so it was mostly about various scripts in development which didn't interest me as much), Cushman's standard format of chronologically working through a Star Trek project (in this case "Star Trek: The Motion Picture"), day by day, from speculation in the fan press regarding a new Star Trek project to the deals being struck to the script being written and directors and producers being hired, and on through actors being resigned or cast, production design, sets being built, cameras rolling, post production (special visual effects, sound design, editting, musical score being composed and recorded), and post release box office returns and newspaper reviews from across the country, again makes for a very interesting read, for the most part.
For fans of Star Trek, a lot of this material has already been covered in other books (including the wonderful "Return to Tomorrow: The Filming of Star Trek: The Motion Picture: An Oral History of the Legendary Production Documented As It Happened" by Preston Neal Jones, which I'm also reading at the moment.) However, Cushman's writing style and rapid day-by-day pacing kept me from ever getting bored even it is was information that I was already familiar with.
My biggest interest is nearly always in the actual shooting of a television series or movie, so these are the most interesting chapters to me. I do like how Cushman also includes chapters on the peripheral tie-in merchandise that was being released alongside the movie, such as the Pocket Books tie-in novel written by Gene Roddenberry, the Marvel Comics comic book adaptation, and the various magazines and tie-in books such as "The Making of Star Trek: The Motion Picture", "Chekov's Enterprise: A Memoir of the Filming of Star Trek: The Motion Picture" by Walter Koenig, "Star Trek: The Motion Picture Official Blueprints" set, etc.
Cushman spends a huge amount of pages recording snippets from newspaper and magazine reviews that saw print immediately after the release of the movie. He even acknowledges how lengthy that chapter is but states he wanted to give as wide a sampling of all of the positive and negative critical reactions to the movie as he could. I did start to find a lot of the reviews to be basically the same thing over and over again, but those not interested can easily skip to the next chapter.
The other thing that kind of was off putting to me was Cushman's tendancy to, like the the previous two volumes of this 1970s trilogy, feel that he needs to keep defending Roddenberry against perceived slights caused him by the powers all around him, including the various studio heads pulling the strings and making the important decisions. If Cushman feels that Roddenberry was slighted he switches to his editorial type voice, rushing to Roddenberry's defense and at times being critical and derisive of others who didn't recognize Roddenberry's creative talents.
A big element of this particular period in Star Trek history, when the motion pictures were beginning after a decade of no new Star Trek material except for the animated series, is the slipping of Roddenberry's authority and ability to control his creation as the copyrights now belonged to Paramount Pictures, who would end up marginalizing Roddenberry from executive producer on the original 1960s television series to just "producer" on the first movie and then to merely a "consultant" starting with "Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan". From that point on, the powers creating the movies didn't have to do anything Roddenberry wanted them to anymore, which was something he became quite bitter about (and probably justifiably so). Eventually he would take a more active role again in the development and production of the first season of "Star Trek: The Next Generation", but then his failing health would again sideline Roddenberry.
All of this is important and legitimate material to cover during this period in Trek history. However, in this one area Cushman is not the least bit objective. If there is more than one "take" on a conflict, he nearly always supports and sympathizes with Roddenberry's position, which can be a bit off putting.
That said, I still found this third volume to be a very enjoyable read, right up there with his first three "These Are the Voyages: TOS" series where he chronicled the production of all three seasons of the original "Star Trek" television series.
I'm sure there will be more of these books to come. Next up is the 1980s, which would cover the release of "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan", "Star Trek III: The Search for Spock", "Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home", "Star Trek V: The Final Frontier", and "Star Trek: The Next Generation" (the television series). Cushman already goes into the early development of "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan" in the final chapter in this book, framing it as the "after effect" of "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" (how Roddenberry ended up being pushed aside for producer Harve Bennett and director Nicholas Meyer and also the big controversy of the leaking of Spock's death in the second movie well before they began shooting the movie).
I highly recommend this (although, again, there are numerous other books on the making of "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" that would probably be just as good).
After a so-so volume two in my opinion (due largely to the material in the second book covering a period when nearly everything Roddenberry was working on didn't actually end up getting produced, so it was mostly about various scripts in development which didn't interest me as much), Cushman's standard format of chronologically working through a Star Trek project (in this case "Star Trek: The Motion Picture"), day by day, from speculation in the fan press regarding a new Star Trek project to the deals being struck to the script being written and directors and producers being hired, and on through actors being resigned or cast, production design, sets being built, cameras rolling, post production (special visual effects, sound design, editting, musical score being composed and recorded), and post release box office returns and newspaper reviews from across the country, again makes for a very interesting read, for the most part.
For fans of Star Trek, a lot of this material has already been covered in other books (including the wonderful "Return to Tomorrow: The Filming of Star Trek: The Motion Picture: An Oral History of the Legendary Production Documented As It Happened" by Preston Neal Jones, which I'm also reading at the moment.) However, Cushman's writing style and rapid day-by-day pacing kept me from ever getting bored even it is was information that I was already familiar with.
My biggest interest is nearly always in the actual shooting of a television series or movie, so these are the most interesting chapters to me. I do like how Cushman also includes chapters on the peripheral tie-in merchandise that was being released alongside the movie, such as the Pocket Books tie-in novel written by Gene Roddenberry, the Marvel Comics comic book adaptation, and the various magazines and tie-in books such as "The Making of Star Trek: The Motion Picture", "Chekov's Enterprise: A Memoir of the Filming of Star Trek: The Motion Picture" by Walter Koenig, "Star Trek: The Motion Picture Official Blueprints" set, etc.
Cushman spends a huge amount of pages recording snippets from newspaper and magazine reviews that saw print immediately after the release of the movie. He even acknowledges how lengthy that chapter is but states he wanted to give as wide a sampling of all of the positive and negative critical reactions to the movie as he could. I did start to find a lot of the reviews to be basically the same thing over and over again, but those not interested can easily skip to the next chapter.
The other thing that kind of was off putting to me was Cushman's tendancy to, like the the previous two volumes of this 1970s trilogy, feel that he needs to keep defending Roddenberry against perceived slights caused him by the powers all around him, including the various studio heads pulling the strings and making the important decisions. If Cushman feels that Roddenberry was slighted he switches to his editorial type voice, rushing to Roddenberry's defense and at times being critical and derisive of others who didn't recognize Roddenberry's creative talents.
A big element of this particular period in Star Trek history, when the motion pictures were beginning after a decade of no new Star Trek material except for the animated series, is the slipping of Roddenberry's authority and ability to control his creation as the copyrights now belonged to Paramount Pictures, who would end up marginalizing Roddenberry from executive producer on the original 1960s television series to just "producer" on the first movie and then to merely a "consultant" starting with "Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan". From that point on, the powers creating the movies didn't have to do anything Roddenberry wanted them to anymore, which was something he became quite bitter about (and probably justifiably so). Eventually he would take a more active role again in the development and production of the first season of "Star Trek: The Next Generation", but then his failing health would again sideline Roddenberry.
All of this is important and legitimate material to cover during this period in Trek history. However, in this one area Cushman is not the least bit objective. If there is more than one "take" on a conflict, he nearly always supports and sympathizes with Roddenberry's position, which can be a bit off putting.
That said, I still found this third volume to be a very enjoyable read, right up there with his first three "These Are the Voyages: TOS" series where he chronicled the production of all three seasons of the original "Star Trek" television series.
I'm sure there will be more of these books to come. Next up is the 1980s, which would cover the release of "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan", "Star Trek III: The Search for Spock", "Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home", "Star Trek V: The Final Frontier", and "Star Trek: The Next Generation" (the television series). Cushman already goes into the early development of "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan" in the final chapter in this book, framing it as the "after effect" of "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" (how Roddenberry ended up being pushed aside for producer Harve Bennett and director Nicholas Meyer and also the big controversy of the leaking of Spock's death in the second movie well before they began shooting the movie).
I highly recommend this (although, again, there are numerous other books on the making of "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" that would probably be just as good).
Displaying 1 of 1 review