Gene Roddenberry, the creator of arguably the most famous sci-fi franchise, might not be the man you thought he was. For example, did you know that Gene was raised Southern Baptist, but later in life said his personal views could best be described as ‘humanist’ or ‘agnostic’.

Here of ten little know facts about Gene Roddenberry:

  1. He was a Texan, born in El Paso in 1921.
  2. According to his wife Magel Barrett, his last wife, Gene’s political leaning was communist. She said at a local convention that the Chinese model of communism was his ideal.
  3. He grew up in Los Angeles.
  4. Gene flew 89 combat missions while in the US Army Air Corps, 349th Bomber Squadron.
  5. After the war, he worked as a pilot for Pan American Airways.
  6. He was on the Los Angeles Police force from February 1, 1947 until June of 1956 when he resigned to concentrate on his writing.
  7. Gene wrote episodes for under the pseudonym "Robert Wesley" for episodes of ‘Highway Patrol’ and “Have Gun, Will Travel’.
  8. Lucile Ball loved his idea of ‘Star Trek’ as a ‘Wagon Train to the stars’ she picked up the series under Desilu Studios.
  9. Alexander Courage who composed the Star Trek theme music, rensented Roddenberry's attachment of lyrics to his musical composition. By union rules, this resulted in the two men splitting the music royalties payable whenever an episode of Star Trek aired, which otherwise would have gone to Courage in full.
  10. “On April 21, 1997, a Celestis spacecraft — carrying portions of the cremated remains of Roddenberry, of Timothy Leary and of 22 other individuals — was launched into Earth orbit aboard aPegasus XL rocket from near the Canary Islands.[30] On May 20, 2002, the spacecraft's orbit deteriorated and it disintegrated in the atmosphere. Another flight to launch more of his ashes into deep space along with those of Majel (Barrett) Roddenberry, his widow who died in 2008, is planned for launch in 2014.” - Wikipedia

What are you memories of Gene’s work?

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