With the help of none other than Lucille Ball and her company Desilu, he got financing and a pilot green light for his “ Wagon Train to the Stars” series. (This also worked to a significant effect on Rod Serling’s The Twilight Zone). So he got creative, using a sci-fi angle and allegories to get around network concerns over touchy subject matter. Roddenberry was endlessly frustrated by the limitations he faced while pitching anything remotely challenging to executives. And Roddenberry had approximately four creative options: cop drama, western, soap opera, or sitcom. During this era, there were only three networks.

Gene Roddenberry was a WWII veteran and a working TV writer in the early ’60s. Star Trek is 55 years in and shows no signs of slowing down. (No shade towards Gene Roddenberry’s Andromeda or anything of his other original works.) The venerable franchise will always be his greatest contribution to pop culture. He produced much content before and after Trek, but make no mistake. One can argue there wasn’t even a nerd culture before the series. Gene Roddenberry, born August 19, 1921, changed everything in nerd culture with Star Trek. And by the 23rd century, we will have put all our differences aside to explore the final frontier.

In Roddenberry’s worldview, there was only one race in the future: the human race. But it’s exactly what writer/producer Gene Roddenberry envisioned when he created Star Trek in 1964. It was perhaps just as difficult (or even harder) to conceptualize this during the turbulent 1960s. Between racial unrest, climate change, and the fear of democracies falling, it’s hard to imagine a future where humanity unites under a utopian ideal. With everything going on in the world, it’s very difficult to have a positive outlook on our upcoming days.

Star trek creator roddenberry