---
name: "Gene Roddenberry"
canonical: "https://film.one/person/gene-roddenberry"
roles: ["Creator","Writer"]
born: "19 August 1921"
died: "24 October 1991"
reviewed_on_fi1m: 1
updated: "2026-09-16T15:53:20.443453+00:00"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# Gene Roddenberry

Creator and writer. Born 19 August 1921 in El Paso, Texas, USA. Died 24 October 1991.

## Details

- **Work:** Creator, Writer
- **Born:** 19 August 1921, El Paso, Texas, USA
- **Died:** 24 October 1991

## Fi1m on Gene Roddenberry

> Gene Roddenberry’s hopeful future works because the people in it can disagree and still want to work together. We recommend *Star Trek* warmly, though its actors are often more persuasive than its moral lessons.

In *Star Trek* (1966), William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy and DeForest Kelley make an argument between colleagues something to look forward to. We enjoyed their disagreements because none of the three makes us wish the others would leave. That makes Gene Roddenberry’s optimism convincing. The adventures raise questions about responsibility and other people’s rights, and working together does not spare these people the difficulty of answering them. The series is worth watching for their company, even when a story requires patience.

Roddenberry had already dealt with military life and social questions in *The Lieutenant* (1963), his first series as creator. *Star Trek* gave him a future in which prejudice had largely been overcome and exploration gave a multinational crew shared work to do. Exploration is a sound basis for a series because it gives the characters a reason to encounter people whose lives differ from their own. That premise later supported *Star Trek: The Motion Picture* (1979) and *Star Trek: The Next Generation* (1987), with Roddenberry involved in developing the latter.

It would be a mistake to give the creator all the credit for that pleasure. Gene L. Coon was a writer and producer on the original series, and its pleasures depend heavily on Shatner, Nimoy and Kelley. Yet the writing sometimes states the lesson so firmly that there is little left for an actor to complicate. We can forgive the dated effects more readily than a moral question whose answer has effectively been announced. It is frustrating precisely because the cast has made discussion such a pleasure.

The difficulty becomes clearer in the idealised future associated with *Star Trek: The Next Generation*: later writers sometimes found Roddenberry’s preference for avoiding conflict restrictive. We need not ask for a nastier future to see the problem. People can respect one another and still be wrong, or fail to agree about what they owe somebody else. The original *Star Trek* works best when it allows that uncertainty to last long enough to matter. Start there for Shatner, Nimoy and Kelley, and be prepared for the occasional lecture.

## Biography

Gene Roddenberry was an American television writer and producer. He created and wrote for the science fiction series *Star Trek* (1966), which ran for three seasons on NBC.

Born in El Paso, Texas, Roddenberry grew up in Los Angeles. He served in the US Army Air Forces during the Second World War, later working as a commercial pilot and a police officer. He began writing scripts for series including *Highway Patrol* and *Have Gun – Will Travel*, and created the series *The Lieutenant*.

Roddenberry produced the first *Star Trek* feature film in 1979 and consulted on subsequent films and the series *Star Trek: The Next Generation* (1987). He received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and was inducted into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame.

*Sources: en.wikipedia.org, imdb.com.*

## On Fi1m (1)

- *Star Trek* (1966), Fi1m 83, Creator, Writer — [page](https://film.one/tv/star-trek-1966.md)

## Also known for

- *Star Trek* (2009), Original Series Creator — [page](https://film.one/film/star-trek.md)
- *Star Trek Into Darkness* (2013), Original Series Creator
- *Star Trek Beyond* (2016), Original Series Creator
- *Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan* (1982), Original Series Creator
- *Star Trek: First Contact* (1996), Original Series Creator — [page](https://film.one/film/star-trek-first-contact.md)
- *Star Trek: The Motion Picture* (1979), Original Series Creator
- *Star Trek: Picard* (2020), Original Series Creator
- *Star Trek: The Next Generation* (1987), Writer, Teleplay

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© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/gene-roddenberry