As I rewatch the series I’ve wanted to incorporate lore and documentaries and interviews I find along the way. But I don’t want to absorb content and information beyond what I’m watching.
Recently, I came across The Center Seat while looking for something to watch on Amazon Prime. I know I should be watching the next episode of Star Trek whenever I’m in a search like this. But there’s a reason why tv shows, I believe, should be spaced out one a week. Dropping an entire season is still something I can’t wrap my head around. Whether or not I was brought up that way and the concept is just ingrained in me, I feel I need to give myself space in between my consumption of Star Trek. Silly me for thinking I could watch one a day and be okay!
The Center Seat was done not too long ago, back in 2021 so I don’t feel like I’m too late to that party. It’s narrated by Gates McFadden, Dr. Beverly Crusher, on-again-off-again love interest for Captain Jean Luc Picard, and mother to Will Crusher (Will Weaton) from TNG.
I will stay I love the “set-up” of the way it’s done so far. And the backstory drama of getting the show off the ground is great. So much so I wanted to bring it here to you so if you don’t have Amazon Prime or access to watch this 11-episode series you’ll at least get a brief overview of what it’s all about.
Series Description: The Center Seat: 55 Years Of Star Trek is a multi-episode documentary series that takes viewers on the definitive in-depth journey behind the scenes of one of the greatest landmark franchises of all time: Star Trek. Chronicles rare and fascinating details of how “Star Trek” began, where it’s been, and how it’s going where no television series has gone before.
S1 E1 – Lucy Loves Trek (November 5, 2021)
It all began when Gene Roddenberry convinced Desilu to foot the bill for not one, but two Star Trek pilots. Thanks to Desilu’s boss – America’s darling Lucille Ball – the world met Kirk, Spock, and McCoy.
This was something I knew coming into watching the series all over again. I did some rudimentary research and was not at all surprised to find that Lucille Ball is responsible for why we have Star Trek today. She basically put Desilu and her reputation (as well as her wallet) on the line to put Star Trek on the map because she knew it would be a rerun goldmine. If you don’t know the fascinating story of Lucille Ball, I recommend watching any of her interviews from the past or the many documentaries created about her. They mostly get it right. I really enjoyed the TCM Podcast hosted by Ben Mankiewicz on her life. It doesn’t touch on her connection to Star Trek though so let’s get into it now.
Her husband, Desi, knew that reruns were going to make them millionaires. It was a concept not quite understood by television studio executives and so when Desi insisted on getting exclusive rerun rights, he got it. I won’t go into the sordid details of the separation between Lucy and Desi, but when they divorced he no longer wanted the production studio they built together and Lucy owned Desilu entirely. When I Love Lucy began to run in syndication everywhere Lucy wanted move. Along came Paramount who cut a deal to own Desilu and give Lucille Ball the opportunity to now seek out a new show that would be the same, if not longer lasting, than I Love Lucy. In came Gene Roddenberry with his idea of putting a western in space! That is how he pitched it and that sold her on the idea right away. One thing he always said he didn’t want Star Trek to be or become was another Lost in Space. Have you seen it? Man, that was terrible television!
Okay, so now with the backing of Paramount money (half of the cost, anyway) they proceeded to work on a pilot. I don’t need to tell you that The Cage just didn’t go over well with the executives and they canned it. Not willing to be dissuaded, Lucy went ahead and commissioned a SECOND pilot for Star Trek! It’s the second one, highly unusual and honestly I can’t think of another time it was done and worked to this day, that propelled Star Trek forward. Yes, there were hiccups along the way, the biggest one being Gene as we’ll discover in future episodes.
But let us all give thanks to Lucille Ball and her genius in seeing something in Star Trek and it’s lasting influence on society over decades and generations that no one else saw. I always loved Lucy but when I found this out it only made me admire her more. She is my hero!
S1 E2 – Saturday Morning Pinks (November 12, 2021)
Didn’t realize there was a cartoon version of Star Trek in the early 1970s? Not only was it great, but with original series creator Gene Roddenberry, writer D.C. Fontana, and the series’ original stars on board, it is the fourth season of the original show.
Fast forward past how difficult getting the three seasons of Star Trek done, it resulted on NBC deciding to cancel the show after that run. But it wasn’t until it was gone and started to go into reruns that they realized it was outperforming brand new shows on television by a mile! The network executives just couldn’t understand it. The first ever cult following of a show that they have all but decided to give up on. Do they call the cast back? And if so, could they even afford them at this point? Also, the first ever Star Trek conventions were started up by the fans and they were massive (at least, by 1970s standards). The love for Star Trek just could not be ignored.
So, NBC got together with Gene to concoct a way to bring back Star Trek but not have each episode cost as much as filming a movie! The idea of animation came to be. However, turns out the fans were not having it. Huge petitions were started and producers lives were threatened if they went ahead with the animated version of Star Trek. Fans felt it would take away from it being science fiction and make it hokey. I find this laughable as it was science fiction! But I digress.
The fans did not win out and the showrunner and head-writer (basically Gene’s right hand man…err…woman) went ahead with seeing this ship got off the ground as intended. DC Fontana (Dorothy Catherine Fontana) tried as best she could to steer the ship in a way that kept true to the lore and cannon of Star Trek. Only problem was, because it was animated the network decided to put it on Saturday mornings. Not realizing the content of the episodes would be far too adult for children to be watching!
I look forward to watching Star Trek The Animated Series as I confess I have never seen it. This episode gave me some background to how it came to be and some of the mishaps that took place along the way. Such as the legend that the colors came about because the head editor in charge was colorblind! His being colorblind is true but he was not responsible for making the decisions about what colors the aliens they encountered were to be. That fell to someone else who apparently had a love of pink and its many shades.
S1 E3 – Trekking through the ‘70s – Phase II and The Motion Picture
Paramount wanted to launch a fourth network with the new Star Trek series Phase II as its flagship. When the network proved unworkable, Phase II appeared doomed – until Star Wars and Close Encounters Of The Third Kind proved box office hits. Phase II became the 1979 blockbuster Star Trek: The Motion Picture.
Now that the animated series was out for a full 22 episodes the Network decided it was time to end that run and perhaps bring back Star Trek for real. But they were not about to pay Kirk and Spock prices for those actors. Phase II was born but unfortunately it went nowhere.
People say it was because of the popularity of a little known movie called Star Wars that made the network decide they needed to pivot from Phase II as a television show and turn it into a movie. But it was actually another movie, Close Encounter of the Third Kind and how well it did that made the networks stop and realize Star Trek was better suited to be a major motion picture.
I love how they called the first movie Star Trek The Motion Picture because they wanted the fans to know it was going to be a movie and not a television series. How clever these studio execs are!
They brought in a professional to write the movie, someone who knew how. Because, while Gene was the master creator of Star Trek he had no skill in writing for the big screen. His scripts were constantly turned away and turned down. He became really difficult to work with. Not just for the director, Robert Wise, who is quoted as saying he hated working on this film, but the writer, Harold Livingston opening hated the man as well. The movie was filmed under extreme duress as the studio promised movie theaters and fans the film would be ready in 18 months time! They said this even though they knew they had no script, an incomplete cast, and no concept of how to make the special effects needed for it to be a success. Not to mention the budget! When the dust settled it cost upwards of $40m dollars to make and the film was famously “still wet” when it was brought to the movie theater to play for the first time.
There is so much to absorb from this episode I feel overwhelmed just thinking about what to mention and worried about what I may forget and leave out. I will say The Motion Picture, while everyone around it, even Leanard Nimoy, felt it made absolutely no sense, the audiences LOVED IT! It grossed three times what it cost to make and that, as they say in the business, is good enough to do it again!
