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Dorothy, Gilligan, and Captain Marvel Walk into a Bar…
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know we just talked about Star Trek, and you’re eager to learn more about our other projects in 1974, but I want to talk about how the series progressed once it got going. “Yesteryear,” the second episode, was written by Dorothy Fontana. Not only was this exceptionally well written, but I understand that it established elements of the Star Trek mythos that were later used in the movies and the TV shows and books. Dorothy also wrote a scene that had NBC concerned, where Spock’s pet animal died, but we had creative control, so they had to allow it. Dorothy handled it touchingly and provocatively. As it turns out, not only did the network not get any complaints, but when we submitted that episode to the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences for the First Annual Emmy Awards for Daytime Programming, it scored a nomination in the category of “Outstanding Entertainment Childrens Series”! “Yesteryear” was also probably my favorite episode. It sent a message to kids to be positive in the face of death. I also think it was the first Saturday morning show that dealt meaningfully with the subject of death. One of the most popular Star Trek episodes we did was “More Tribbles, More Troubles,” written by David Gerrold, who had originally done the “Trouble with Tribbles” episode of the live show. It was a funny story, and Trek fans loved the Tribbles and the Klingons. Gerrold had originally written the script to be a third-season episode of the live show, but it never happened. The episode after that, “The Survivor,” introduced M’Ress, a feline woman who sometimes replaced Uhura as the communications officer. Majel Barrett did M’Ress’ voice with a purr. After that was “The Infinite Vulcan,” written by Walter Koenig, who had played Chekov. “The Magicks of Megas-tu” was another one that scared NBC. Originally the writer, Larry Brody, wanted the crew to encounter God, but, when they balked at that, it got changed to a satanic character named Lucien! There’s also a scene where Sulu almost embraces a woman before she transforms into Lucien, who was a shirtless male demon; this was a long time before actor George Takei came out as gay, but in retrospect it’s kind of funny. And speaking of taboos, one episode almost had a joke by the animators in it that I was reminded of by one of the writers at my 2005 appearance at Comic-Con International; in one scene Doctor McCoy had his back to the audience and urinated. The studio publicist and the network censor, Ted Cordes—who were watching footage on our Moviola—caught it, and it was thankfully cut. Other episodes we did the first season brought back the shyster Harry Mudd, written by his creator, Stephen Kandel, while another one had that
Opposite: Jackson Bostwick was the first Captain Marvel in Shazam! Above: Spock’s pet sehlat dies and the pesky Tribbles return in Star Trek
CHAPTER 13: DOROTHY, GILLIGAN, AND CAPTAIN MARVEL WALK INTO A BAR... 105