The Impossible Has Happened: The Life and Work of Gene Roddenberry, Creator of Star Trek

by Lance Parkin

September 8, 2016 will mark the fiftieth anniversary of the debut of the world's most successful science fiction television series: Star Trek. In this new biography Lance Parkin, author of Aurum's acclaimed Magic Words: The Extraordinary Life of Alan Moore, will go in search of the show's creator, Gene Roddenberry.

This book reveals how an undistinguished writer of cop shows set out to produce 'Hornblower in space' and ended up with an optimistic, almost utopian view of humanity's future that has been watched and loved by hundreds of millions of people around the world.

Along the way Lance will examine some of the great myths and turning points in the franchise's history, and Roddenberry's particular contribution to them. He will look at the truth in the view that the early Star Trek advanced a liberal, egalitarian and multi-racial agenda, chart the various attempts to resuscitate the show during it's wilderness years in the 1970s, explore Roddenberry's initial early involvement in the movies and spin-off Star Trek: The Next Generation (as well as his later estrangement from both), and shed light on the colourful personal life, self-mythologising and strange beliefs of a man who nonetheless gifted popular culture one if its most enduring narratives.

Genres: Biography, Nonfiction, Star Trek, Tv

400 pages, Hardcover

First published December 1, 2015

About the author

Lance Parkin is an author who has written professional Doctor Who fiction since the 1990s. He is one of the few authors to write for both the 1963 and 2005 version of the programme — though much of his fiction has actually been based on the 1996 iteration. Indeed, he was notably the first author to write original prose for the Eighth Doctor in The Dying Days. He was also the author chosen to deliver the nominal 35th anniversary story, The Infinity Doctors, and the final volume in the Eighth Doctor Adventures range, The Gallifrey Chronicles. More recently, he has written for the Tenth Doctor in The Eyeless.

He is further notable for his work with Big Finish Productions, where he is arguably most known for writing the Sixth Doctor adventure, Davros.

Outside of Doctor Who, he has written things like Warlords of Utopia and (with Mark Jones) Dark Matter, a guide to the author Philip Pullman.

Reviews

[Scott · Rating 5 out of 5]

"The subvocal message of 'Star Trek' was optimistic - there will be a future. And it will be a good one. We will all live in it together. We will all accept each other as equals." -- sci-fi screenwriter / author David Gerrold, on page 205

Full disclosure: I'm no Trekker. I'm not even a Trekkie. Sure, I'd sometimes catch an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation (which originally aired when I was in junior high) back in the day, and I enjoyed the 2009 and 2013 movies that rebooted the series. But that's about where it ends for me.

However, the pop culture phenomenon that is Star Trek has been of interest to me for several years. How did it come about? Who is responsible for it? What has given this franchise a long shelf life? I've also superficially admired Gene Roddenberry - a WWII veteran of the Pacific Theater (who survived two years overseas), he worked as a Pan-Am commercial pilot and a Los Angeles police officer before turning to screenwriting, penning episodes from many 50's and 60's era TV shows.

Parkin's The Impossible Has Happened was a wonderfully entertaining AND informative look at the 'creator' of the original TV series and, roughly, the first twenty-five years (1966-1991) of the storied franchise. To the author's credit he does not whitewash the few unpleasant parts of Roddenberry's personality or life, and just as fairly does not poke fun at some of the usual targets (like the devout fan base), but at times still uses some effective humor. Without seeming as if he has an axe to grind, Parkin does a great job of properly giving plaudits - including screenwriter Dorothy 'D.C.' Fontana, costumer William Ware Theiss, and producer Gene Coon - to a true team effort atmosphere which created this fictional universe. He also includes lots of behind-the-scenes details about both the original and Next Generation series, plus the 1979 and 1982 movies. On top of that, Parkin has an appropriate and involving narrative style that even a reader with only a passing knowledge of 'Trek' (or even sci-fi genre) will not feel completely out of the loop. The author makes it look almost too easy - he remains admirably fair and balanced, yet has also crafted a very fun book to read.

[Andrew Hickey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Before I start this review proper, a couple of notes. Firstly, to apologise to my Goodreads friends, who will see this both on my blog feed and in the reviews — an unfortunate problem with having one’s blog syndicated to a review site.
Secondly to say that Lance Parkin is a Facebook friend of mine, and that I received this as a review copy from his publishers (unrequested — I was actually on their list for an earlier book of his, which I rather shamefully didn’t review because it coincided with a period of illness — but gratefully received). While I don’t think that either of those things have affected my review — as with many of my writer friends, I got to know him because I admired his work, rather than the other way around — you might want to bear them in mind.

The Impossible Has Happened is subtitled The Life and Work of Gene Roddenberry, Creator of Star Trek, but in truth the work takes centre stage. This is not a book like Parkin’s previous biography (Magic Words, which will remain the definitive biography of Alan Moore for many years to come) which goes into every detail of the subject’s upbringing and social status; rather the first forty-plus years of Roddenberry’s life are summed up in the first forty or so pages of the book — and most of that is spent looking at which actors he worked with would later appear in Star Trek, or what ideas from his earlier series The Lieutenant would be reused for his more famous show.

But this is not in any way a demerit of the book. Put simply, Roddenberry was clearly just not a very interesting person for anything other than his one famous creation. The picture one gets of him from this book, no matter how sympathetic Parkin is towards him (and he is) is of a repellent individual, physically and emotionally abusive towards his first wife and a serial sexual harasser of women who worked for him, horribly insecure about his own work, and even more insecure about the people who arguably did far more of the work than Roddenberry himself. Basically, move the life of Bob Kane forward in time thirty years, and stick him in the middle of the “sexual revolution”, with all the ambiguously unpleasant attitudes towards women that entails, and you have Roddenberry.

Parkin really does try his best to see Roddenberry’s good points, as well as his bad ones — this is a scrupulously fair-minded book — but the story becomes very clear, and rather depressing. Roddenberry was a mediocre writer of TV melodrama who came up with a reliable formula for a space adventure show, which other, more talented, people (mostly Gene Coon, DC Fontana, Leonard Nimoy and William Shatner) turned into a mildly successful TV series Roddenberry was slowly edged away from. Thanks largely to an actor (Leonard Nimoy) Roddenberry disliked and who loathed Roddenberry so much he would barely mention his name, the show developed the kind of female fanbase that sustains TV shows after they’ve been cancelled, and as with so much genre TV fandom, those fans reinvented the show in their own image, taking a handful of odd bits of background detail here and there and extrapolating them until the show became, in their minds, a vision of a utopian future.

And Roddenberry was unsuccessful enough in everything else he did, while also being a massive egotist and claimer of credit for others’ work, that he eventually seems to have convinced himself that he had created that future, and the man who couldn’t write a description of a female character without talking about how much like a stripper she was found himself playing the role of a frustrated utopian visionary whose great work had been watered down by those philistine executives.

But he became a genuine advocate for this fan-created vision of the show, and genuinely seemed to believe that the progressive, liberal, future the fans saw in his work was one worth creating, worth fighting for, and worth turning into TV and films.

He got the chance to do just that when the opportunity arose to make Star Trek: The Motion Picture, which went woefully over budget due in large part to Roddenberry’s constant tweaking of the script to make it fit his conflict-free utopian vision. While I have a lot more time for that film than most, and while it was a massive hit, Paramount decided once again to ease Roddenberry out of his creation — he hated the subsequent films, for which he basically got paid to shut up and go away — because it was regarded as being dull and lacking drama, and because no-one liked working with him.

He then had the chance again to put “his” vision of Star Trek on the screen, with The Next Generation. And once again, it was a success, but regarded as lacking in drama, and no-one liked working with him, and he was slowly eased out of the show.

In many ways it’s a horribly sad story — the story of a very flawed man discovering the possibility of a better person within him, but then also discovering that that better person is, if anything, less likeable and successful than he was to start with. On the other hand, Roddenberry was probably comforted at least somewhat by the multi-million dollar annual income and the adoration of hundreds of thousands of fans, and all the people telling him he’d changed their lives. Would that we could all be such failures.

Parkin’s book is extremely well-written, with a very light touch that belies the amount of research it must have taken. While it doesn’t give Roddenberry the man the same amount of attention his earlier book gave Moore, that’s more to do with the relative statures of the two figures — Moore is, whatever one thinks of him as a person, a very serious artist, while Roddenberry simply wasn’t. At times it seems as if he was only the stone in the stone soup that was Star Trek, responsible for nothing of what made it work. That’s probably an exaggeration, but scarcely less of one than the official Trek history version where the show sprang fully-formed from Roddenberry’s brow. The fact that Parkin manages to make Roddenberry, despite all his flaws, into someone with whom it’s impossible not to sympathise, shows what a skilled writer Parkin is, as well as what a fascinating show Roddenberry created.

This blog post has been brought to you by the generosity of my backers on Patreon (http://patreon.com/andrewhickey). Why not join them?

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

"When the legend becomes the fact, print the legend."
-- The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance

This famous quote from the iconic John Ford Western could easily apply to Star Trek creator, Gene Roddenberry. Roddenberry was a good storyteller, who rarely (at least according to this book) shied away from an opportunity to present himself as the hero of any particular story -- whether it was behind-the-scenes battles to maintain the integrity of his vision of the future or being one to take credit for the successes of Star Trek while finding a scapegoat in others for its shortcomings.

In the thirty years since Roddenberry's death, fandom has been given the opportunity to examine the Roddenberry legacy and to wonder just how much of the success of Star Trek could or should be laid at his feet. Lance Parkin's The Impossible Has Happened attempts to distill multiple narratives into a single cohesive portrait of the man who created Star Trek and his legacy. Parkin's assessment is an honest one -- probably somewhere in middle between the official Roddenberry biography and the unauthorized one. Parkin throws in details from various other cast and crew members behind-the-scenes looks at the Trek phenomenon to give us his assessment and view of the man and his franchise.

What you come away with most is that while Roddenberry had a distinct vision for humanity's future, he wasn't necessarily a saint himself. Whether it's writing never-used lyrics to the distinctive theme song for the original series so he could get a cut of the royalties each time it's played or the various ways in which he tried to profit off Star Trek while cutting others associated with its creation off from the same potential piece of the pie (it's interesting how often the "value" of Star Trek comes up in the course of Parkin's analysis).

What becomes clear over the course of this book is that, like all of us, Roddenberry is a flawed human being with foibles -- just like every other person. And he was enabled by not only his ability to spin a story to flatter himself but also by ensuring that information on the behind-the-scenes creation of Star Trek flowed only from him during the '70s and '80s. Parkin points out that the myriad of kiss-and-tell books only started to hit the market after Roddenberry's death in 1991.

Parkin points out that while we know a lot about Roddenberry and his role in things, the exact nature of the role played by Majel Barrett-Roddenberry isn't quite as clear. There has been no official biography of the actress and it appears that we may never fully know what role she played in helping Gene establish and maintain his role as the Great Bird of the Galaxy. (I have to admit I would find such a book or examination fascinating).

And while Parkin starts out strong, examining Roddenberry's early life and work, I feel like his central thesis begins to lose steam in the second half of the book. Parkin seems to hit the same two or three points over and over again in the final chapters, which all end up feeling a bit rushed. I feel like this is a book that doesn't scratch the surface on Roddenberry's increasingly negative relationship with Paramount following Star Trek: The Motion Picture and during the first season of The Next Generation. I feel as though the cast and crew from TNG are a wealth of information waiting to be unleashed once Rick Berman ceases to be active in Hollywood.

All in all, Parkin's examination of Star Trek isn't nearly as scathing as it can be for another favorite franchise of mine, Doctor Who. But I still can't help but come away from this one feeling that the early microscope that Parkin puts Roddenberry under isn't quite as fine-tuned and as focused in the final chapters of this examination of Roddenberry's life and legacy. Parkin wants this to be a definitive look at the subject, but I still can't help but feel it's come up a bit short of that.

[Jean-françois Porlier · Rating 5 out of 5]

To read avidly to celebrate Star Trek's the 50th anniversary, a book about the life of the creator of the series, Gene Roddenberry. This unauthorized biography is the result of a detailed research that reads like a novel. Lovers of the films and the two original series, this book is for you.

[Mutant Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

For someone who envisioned a future in which people are no longer driven by financial gain, Gene sure wasn't averse to reaching into the pockets of his collaborators. Leonard Nimoy famously clashed with him over many financial matters, such as the unauthorized use of his likeness, writing new prop trinkets into the script with the sole intention of selling them to fans, and unreasonably demanding a share of Nimoy's convention speaking fees. He also famously exploited a clause in composer Sandy Courage's contract, which allowed him to write lyrics to the Star Trek theme song, largely unknown to fans of the era but apparently warranted 50% of the royalties whenever the iconic instrumental song was performed. It's evident that his desire to bolster his own wealth clearly outweighed his appreciation or respect for the creative talent that helped bring his ideas to life.

He wished for his name to be as closely tied to Star Trek as Rod Serling's was to The Twilight Zone. The difference, however, is that Serling personally wrote the vast majority of episodes and appeared in all of them, making him the clear centerpiece of that show. In contrast, fans of Star Trek likely found its appeal in the interesting recurring cast.

Gene believed that the best way to maintain control of his invention was to be a stubborn, incendiary tyrant regarding every creative decision, stifling creativity in the writers' room and making absurd mandates about how characters should interact. For example, he held the notion that characters in the future had "evolved" past interpersonal conflict, despite the clear precedent that Spock, Bones, and Kirk frequently jeered each other on screen. I am most familiar with Gene's heavy-handed involvement in the first couple of seasons of The Next Generation, and one thing is clear; the show quickly course-corrected after his death and became a smash success.

This biography is a very disillusioning yet gripping account of a man whose actions starkly contradicted the societal change he apparently advocated. Marital issues aside, he comes across as a nightmare to work with, and Parkin accurately portrays him as a destructive egomaniac. I wonder, had Gene not died precisely when he did, would we still have seen the renaissance of spin-offs, sequel series, and motion pictures that followed?

[Joe Crowe · Rating 4 out of 5]

This biography of Gene Roddenberry takes a path I did not expect: Brutal honesty.

The opening chapter mentions how Roddenberry was locked out of Star Trek: The Next Generation, and quotes William Shatner as saying Roddenberry “prohibited poor Nimoy from using a company pencil.” The writer also mentions his affairs and drug abuse.

The book is as current as it could possibly be at Star Trek’s 50-year mark. The author points out that more Trek movies have now been made after Roddenberry’s death than when he was alive.

The book is one big collated report about Roddenberry’s career, including bunches of behind the scenes details about Trek and other parts of Roddenberry’s career, including a story I had never heard about him revamping Tarzan to make him more like James Bond.

He also, according to the book, announced he was divorcing his wife while at his daughter’s wedding. It’s tough to reconcile the neat things he came up with vs. the slapnuttery of his personal life. So in that vein, this book may be a tough sell for those who consider Roddenberry’s life immune from criticism.

The book doesn’t criticize, just reports, with extensive footnotes. It’s good for both its sci-fi history, and good for warts-and-all biography fans.

At the same time, to the book’s credit, it doesn’t talk down to or reject the effect Trek has on fans and pop culture.

This book does a fine job with a crazy task of documenting everything about Star Trek’s creator and Star Trek’s influence and legacy.

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sci-fi writer and TV show chronicler Lance Parkin released this biography of Gene Roddenberry, the creator of Star Trek, to coincide with the show’s fiftieth anniversary in 2016. I didn’t know much about him before I read it, and I found the book to be a fascinating, well-written portrait of a man both highly imaginative and highly flawed. It’s hard to establish an emotional connection to Roddenberry because the author takes a rather detached, Spockian approach to the subject matter, and is not sympathetic to his many faults. However, the main problem with the book is that there are no pictures, which is ironic considering that it discusses television and film at length, and Roddenberry was a colourful, larger-than-life character. Most likely the publishers, Aurum Press, were not able to get copyright permission to use anything, as it is an “unauthorised” story. Nevertheless, I assume it’s reasonably factual, since Parkin cites his sources comprehensively, and even provides a helpful reading list at the end. Fans probably know all this already, but it's quite interesting to the casual viewer like myself, who likes to read biographies.

[Suzanne Brayton · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was pretty well written, not great prose but an interesting read. I only downgraded it to 4 stars, as the author is pretty woke, and the subject is dissappointing.

Let me say, Roddenberry is not a good guy. He has some great story ideas, but his character is weak. I was likewise dissapointed in his wife, Majel Barrett's character, she was a self-professed diz-brain.

I guess from the first five series of Trek, I expected the inventer of Star Trek to be more idealistic about life, and at least try, to live up to those standards. But, (spoiler alert), he was a cad and a womanizer, not in the usual fun sense, but in the dark, user. sense.

Somewhere, deep inside this flawed individual, he must have hoped for an ideal future, but he sure did not work hard to bring it about. He just became part of the Hollywood problem.

[Edward Champion · Rating 3 out of 5]

Christ, I've read a lot of STAR TREK tell-alls this month. Ha! This one isn't really a biography. It's more of a 400 page blog post synthesizing what's already out there. It's better than the terribly obsequious David Alexander biography, but not as pithy and refined as the unauthorized Engel bio. Every now and then, Parkin will have an interesting insight or morsel. (And just who in the hell is Reinelda Estupinian, who Majel Barrett left $1 million to in her will?) But there's honestly not much in here that's covered in the Engel biography, which is the best of the three in my opinion.

[Will G · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating, as Mr. Spock would say. It's hard to separate Star Trek from Gene Roddenberry and this biography explains why. A brilliant concept with flawed executions and personal flaws litter this story of his life. Still, he did come up with the concept for the biggest TV/movie franchise ever. Fascinating reading indeed.

[Stephen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this in part to gather information on television writer, DC Fontana, who was born in my town. Though it was sparse, there is some great info on her involvement with the evolution of the series. Very interesting insight on Roddenberry and his multiple sides and how his creative process worked.

[Victoria Schreiber · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good and balanced biography of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry. It touches briefly on his early life and then immediately jumps to Star Trek and its development during and after the show. The author also offers a bibliography of further reading material such as other biographies about Star Trek, which I thought was really nice!

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not a very flattering biography, but it corroborates other accounts of Roddenberry's personal and professional failings. It is also a history of everything Star Trek up till 2016 (the more enjoyable part of the book to this fan). Well written, too.