[“Study on Liberals (Complicated Graphic).”]
By Grand Rapids Anonymous Chekov: Captain, sensors indicate a liberal on board the Enterprise.
Kirk: Damn! A starship is no place to have a liberal on board. They never work—and all they try to do is organize protests and complain about me on Starfleet.com.
(Kirk walks toward Spock)
Kirk: Spock—opinion.
Spock: Liberals are usually quite easy to visually identify, Captain. Often they’re black, Asian, or from another planet.
Kirk: That’s just about our whole CREW! Security to the bridge.
(Bridge doors open)
Kirk: Get Spock, Uhura, and Sulu out of here—that damn Roddenberry has me surrounded—Bones, thank God you’re here—and Scotty.
Roddenberry: Wait a minute, Jim, you mean all three of you are conservatives?
Kirk: Yes...we..are. Any problem with that, Gene?
Roddenberry: I don’t know how you got past Starfleet’s—and NBC's screening procedure, but all of you will have to be sent back in time—to Earth, 1941.
Kirk: With Joan Collins again?
Roddenberry: Yes.
Kirk: Not a bad punishment, but...my..SHIP!
Roddenberry: Sorry, Kirk—report to the transporter room and take your White conservative friends with you. Roddenberry out.
(Earth—1941)
Kirk: Former captain’s log, 1225.34. Scotty, Bones, and I are here on Earth just prior to World War II. We’ve noticed very few blacks and hardly any liberals. It’s a much better world than where we were, in the 23rd century. Maybe we can change the future somehow, now that we know how liberals have ruined it. Kirk out.
--GRA
N.S.: Gene Roddenberry wrote a series of brilliant scripts for Richard Boone’s show, Have Gun—Will Travel, in the late 1950s, but with Star Trek, he created one of the earliest PC TV shows.
Wednesday, July 21, 2021 at 2:13:00 P.M. EDT
As I remember now,"Star Trek" was originally on NBC--not CBS.
ReplyDeleteMust be as accurate as possible.
--GRA
INTERVIEW WITH JOAN COLLINS ABOUT HER "STAR TREK" EPISODE FROM 1967
ReplyDeleteGRA:She was absolutely ravishing in that episode--it was great television too.I don't know if this is worth posting,but either way,I found the brief interview interesting.
(Startrek.com)
Let's talk about Star Trek. By the time you shot "The City on the Edge of Forever" in February 1967, you'd already established yourself in America. You'd done The Bravados, Rally Round the Flag, The Road to Hong Kong and other feature films. So what led you to a one-off guest appearance on Star Trek?
JC: My children. When I was asked to do Star Trek, I remember saying to my agent, "Well, what is Star Trek?" I'd never heard of it. When I told my children — who were then about two and four — that I'd been asked to do Star Trek, my daughter [who was the older child] jumped up and down and said, "Oh, mum, you must do it. It's a great show." So that's why I did it.
What intrigued you most about Keeler and about the episode's concept that this well-meaning woman had to die for millions of other people to live?
JC: I really didn't think about it very much. I just read the script and I thought the script was very good. And I thought it was an interesting premise that this woman could have prevented a world war. So I just went ahead and did it.
What do you remember of the shoot itself? Of working with Shatner and Nimoy and Kelley?
J: It was fun. I did get to know Bill a little bit.(GRA:I'll bet.)We cross paths once in a while still. Years ago, at my first [Star Trek] convention, he introduced me [to the audience]. I actually think that was the only convention I've ever done.
There's a shot of Keeler and Kirk walking in front of a barbershop. That was actually the Floyd's Barbershop storefront from The Andy Griffith Show, which filmed on the famous 40 Acres backlot, where you shot portions of "City on the Edge of Forever." Were you aware of that at the time? Has anyone ever pointed that out to you? Or is that too arcane a piece of Trek trivia?
JC: I had no clue! [Laughs]. As far as I was concerned, I was starting to do lots of television at that time. I did The Man from U.N.C.L.E. I did The Virginian. So I was doing quite a few shows and, as far as I was concerned, [Star Trek] really was just another gig.
At the end of the day, though, "The City on the Edge of Forever" ranks as one of Star Trek's best episodes ever.
JC: I know.
How pleased are you to have been a part of that episode and, as a result, of the whole Star Trek phenomenon?
JC: I am pleased. It's nice. But I didn't even have a clue at the time that we'd made a memorable episode. It was not until several years later.
--GRA
"Kirk: Former captain’s log, 1225.34. Scotty, Bones, and I are here on Earth just prior to World War II."
ReplyDeleteJust in time too to fight WW2. Who else could have done it better. No one.
Funny, YouTube algorithms just today recommended a new YouTube documentary by William Shatner about Gene Roddenberry, called “William Shatner Presents: Chaos on the Bridge”, published on May 26, 2021. Roddenberry’s one-world vision is commented on by all the players in the Star Trek franchise. You should enjoy it, Nick. Cheers.
ReplyDelete