"David Gerrold - The Trouble with Tribbles - The birth, sale, and final production of one episode" - читать интересную книгу автора (Gerrold David)

And it’s a book about STAR TREK.
The episode was “The Trouble With Tribbles,” and from
the very beginning it was an atypical example of television
production.
But then again—STAR TREK was an atypical TV series.
For example, STAR TREK was the hardest series on the air to
write for. Too many professional TV writers didn’t understand
science fiction—they couldn’t handle the format. They didn’t
realize that science fiction is more than just a western with ray
guns.
And the science fiction writers were almost defeated by the
show too. They knew their science fiction, but they had to learn
the exigencies of television production. Some of them couldn’t
handle a medium that kept interrupting itself for commercials,
insisted on exactly—no more, no less—fifty-six minutes worth of
story, and needed three minor climaxes and a major one, no
departures from form please.
These were the voyages of the good ship Enterprise and her
crew: Captain Kirk, the interstellar womanizer; Mr. Spock,
the pointy-eared logician; Dr. McCoy, specialist in sarcasm;
Lieutenant Uhura, a really gorgeous communications officer;
and Ensign Chekov, a Russian hotshot at the helm. Each week
this band of intrepids (and four hundred and thirty other
odd crew members) set out to spread truth, justice, and the
American way to the lesser corners of the galaxy. Usually, they
succeeded—once in a while, they deserved to.
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22 The Trouble With Tribbles

STAR TREK was never a big hit in numbers—at least not in
the numbers that meant anything to NBC: Nielsen, Arbitron,
etc.—but it has undeniably carved itself a place in American
folklore of the twentieth century.
STAR TREK has become a new mythology, and STAR TREK
fandom has become a Phenomenon, almost a cult. The worldwide
devotion of the show’s followers sometimes borders on the
fanatical.
There must be a reason for it.
I like to think that it’s because STAR TREK was—despite
its faults, and there were many—an imagination-stretcher. It
tickled people’s minds, it made them think—and most of all, it
looked toward the future with a hopeful and optimistic eye.
STAR TREK’S very existence said, “There will be a future! And we
must learn how to make it the best of all possible futures!”
And because of that, STAR TREK was for the young and for
the young-at-heart—the people who would live in the future
and the people who looked forward to it with anticipation and
hope. STAR TREK provided a dream, and the viewers responded
with intensity and enthusiasm.
One of the ways they responded was with story ideas and