If I had to make a list of the 100 people who most contributed to my boyhood reading, imagination, and fantasy life, Ray Bradbury would probably be at the top, with Arthur C. Clarke and Issac Asimov a bit lower. Ridley Scott would be in there, too, as would a couple of women, including Ursula K. Leguin and D. C. Fontana. But somewhere in the top five would be Gene Roddenberry. Roddenberry was, of course, the creative genius behind the original Star Trek, which began the most successful entertainment franchise in history. Note that I did not qualify this by calling it the most successful science fiction entertainment franchise; Star Trek’s influence goes far beyond that. With Star Trek, Roddenberry changed the character of his culture at the time. And after reading Lance Parkin’s biographical work, The Impossible Has Happened: The Life and Work of Gene Roddenberry, I was even more convinced of this assessment.
Roddenberry was a World War II bomber pilot who later worked as a cop in the L.A.P.D. His post-war America was one of anti-communist paranoia, racism, social upheaval, and nuclear nihilism. And yet he was somehow able to transcend his own history, becoming a liberal and forward thinking writer. He also had a fertile imagination and a tremendous work ethic. It was largely due to his tireless dedication to the writing process (he churned out screenplays with the regularity of a sausage maker) that he was able to break into the burgeoning TV industry, finally becoming a producer of entertaining, mildly liberal, but in no way revolutionary shows like The Lieutenant starring Gary Lockwood (later of 2001: A Space Odyssey fame).
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Ash Clifton, Writer 