Book review.

Book review. Blazing through the galaxy of Star Trek reference books comes the new gold standard. These Are the Voyages: TOS Season One by Marc Cushman is massive tome that looks like a textbook. Here it is by the numbers: 541 oversize pages of text, original interviews with 65 people important to the first season of Star Trek, including Gene Rodenberry, Robert Justman, Dorothy Fontana, James Doohan, and Grace Lee Whitney,  an 11-page bibliography of books, newspaper & magazine articles, and a 15-page index of quotations. All this, and it only covers Season One!

All the secondary research is supplementary to the real heart of this book: Cushman gained access to the original series archives, safeguarded through the years by Justman and Roddenberry, and now in the custody of the UCLA Performing Arts Library. These include endless production memos and letters between writers, producers, and technical craftspeople and consultants which reveal the real story of Star Trek as it evolved on the fly from early 1964 to mid 1967. This is the kind of book that’s only possible as a labor of love, 26 years in the making (Cushman wrote the treatment for the third-season Next Generation episode “Sarek,” and his interviews with Rodenberry in contemplation of this writing date back to 1982 and 1990).

A work this dense may sound intimidating. Amazingly, it’s compulsively readable. The 100 pages or so describing Roddenberry’s background, the development of Star Trek, and the struggles to cast the show, film two pilots, and achieve a first season order read like a page-turning potboiler, informed on every page by Cushman’s deep knowledge of and infectious enthusiasm for television history. 

Nor does the book lose pace when it dives, one at a time, into the making of Star Trek’s 29 first-season episodes. Here Cushman spices things up by placing the episodes in historical context with cultural tidbits about other shows on television, songs on the radio, and moments in history. He does not forbear to offer his own careful, informative critical appraisal of each episode. The value these comments bring do not depend on the unassailability of his judgment—I disagree that episode 1.17, “Shore Leave,” belongs in “the stratosphere of TOS’s very best” (I think it’s the worst first season episode)—but Cushman’s description of its theme still caused me to reevaluate and increase my appreciation: “Dreams and nightmares sleep side by side, so be careful what you think about while on a world where wishes do come true.” (Page 366.)

To read this book is to constantly learn new tidbits about and explode myths regarding favorite episodes. His interviews about the filming with guest stars both prominent and obscure add color. Did you know that episode 1.13, “The Conscience of the King,” started out as a Holocaust story, with Kodos as a “Hitlerian” figure who “almost conquered the Earth?” Or that the writing staff, who hated the name Klingon, asked Gene Coon, producer and writer of episode 1.27, “Errand of Mercy,” what planet Klingons came from, and he laughed and said “Kling?” Cushman also publishes for the first time the Neilson ratings for each episode, showing that Star Trek was much more popular coming out of the gate than we have always been led to believe.

While the tidbits are fun, the greatest value of These Are the Voyages is in peeling back the curtain on the creative process. How does a show as original as Star Trek get made? What makes it so difficult? What were the real contributions of the people behind the scenes? Why did the staff have so much trouble with storied science fiction writers? (Cushman also includes a list of storylines that underwent development, but were never completed or produced.) 

What I found most fascinating of all was to watch the hand of Roddenberry himself, whose reputation has suffered somewhat following questions about the quality of his contributions to The Next Generation. Cushman gives us the letters, memos and facts necessary to fully appraise his contribution as Star Trek’s creator, best friend and undeniable animating spirit, but also its worst enemy at times when his combative personality strained ties with network executives, outside writers, and even his own staff. Yet when you see his mark on especially the first ten episodes, you see him repeatedly acting to make the show better, often dramatically so, no matter the personal cost. Even after Roddenberry took a step back midseason, the staff couldn’t help but continue to follow his example. In Cushman’s words: “As proven again and again by the documents preserved in the series’ files stored at UCLA, the Star Trek creative staff was obsessively driven to make every script – every episode – as good as they could possibly be, within the limits, of time, budget and censorship.” (Page 254.)

Regarding the production of These Are the Voyages itself, there are flaws in the copy editing, which only makes me want to volunteer my time to help make volumes two and three the best they can be. With a book this good, the only serious criticism I can make is that it is too short. I want more of everything. More production memos! More interviews! More, bigger photographs, and in color! Hundreds more pages! This is work that could just keep going. If the universe is kind, Cushman’s achievement will provide an inspiration to others.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0989238113/ref=cm_cr_mts_prod_img