Roddenberry Jnr On Living With The Legacy

Eugene W. Roddenberry recently spoke about the implications of being the son of Star Trek creator, Gene Roddenberry.

"What the name does, is it opens many, many, many doors," Roddenberry told SyFy Portal. "What it does after that is it puts an immense level of expectation on me. There are people who just want the name to piggy back on the projects they are working on, and they don't give a s*** what I do on it.

"People who want to make it know that the minute the Roddenberry name becomes involved in sci-fi, it becomes the top of the pyramid," he continued. "If a ton of people suddenly tune into watch it, I would get all the credit where I did nothing for it."

He offered a perspective on why some people might not remember his father too fondly. "My father was a human being, and if he's the executive producer and you're the writer and you come in with your story and think it's fantastic, when you watch him put red lines through it, you'd probably be pretty pissed," Roddenberry explained. "It was his job to write it to fit the budget, and write it to fit his vision. If you're not right for the show, and if (they) pissed him off, he would tell them to get the f*** out of his office

Roddenberry is currently planning to make a documentary focusing on the way Star Trek can change lives. "When I saw 'Trekkies,' I was proud of the fans, but I knew how the general public took it," he said. "I think the problem for us is going to be selling the idea. We want a theatrical release, something to make enough money to pay for itself, and not everyone is going to want to see a warm, fuzzy story about how Star Trek changed people's lives for the better."

More from Eugene W. Roddenberry including his thoughts about recent incarnations of Star Trek and more on his proposed documentary, can be found in the original article at SyFy Portal.

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