One-offs – theLogBook.com

Stage 7: The Secret Weapon Of 117

The TV anthology series Stage 7 presents the first produced science fiction television script written by future Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry, The Secret Weapon Of 117. Ricardo Montalban stars as one of a pair of aliens trying to assess whether or not Earth has the technology to retaliate against infiltration and invasion by their species. Drawing from his past police work, Roddenberry has already sold scripts to Ziv Television Programs for Mr. District Attorney and Highway Patrol, and pitched an ultimately unsold script to Ziv’s Science Fiction Theatre series; this is his first genre work to make it to the screen. Sadly, no recordings still seem to exist of this self-contained story.

Warrior: The Life of Sam Houston

Destiny and the Raven, the pilot script for an unproduced series, Warrior: The Life Of Sam Houston, is completed by future Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry for Screen Gems, the television production arm of Columbia Pictures. This will become the first Roddenberry pilot committed to film, starring Gregg Palmer and George Keymas, though it will not result in a series; a second pilot script, titled Exile, will remain unfilmed. The series concept, under the working title The Man From Texas, has been in development since at least September 1957.

The Detectives: Karate

The 13th episode of the NBC police drama The Detectives is broadcast in the United States, starring Robert Taylor. This episode is written by future Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry.

Genesis II

CBS premieres the made-for-TV movie Genesis II, starring Alex Cord, Mariette Hartley, Ted Cassidy, and Percy Rodrigues. Created and written by Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry, Genesis II is clearly a series pilot, the first of several attempts by Roddenberry to chart a career beyond Star Trek. The story concerns an astronaut named Dylan Hunt who is frozen in suspended animation, only reawakening after the fall of human civilization; the pilot does not result in a series pickup, though the story of Dylan Hunt will form the basis of Gene Roddenberry’s Andromeda, a syndicated series produced in the early 2000s after Roddenberry’s death.

The Questor Tapes

ABC premieres the made-for-TV movie The Questor Tapes, starring Robert Foxworth, Mike Farrell, John Vernon and Majel Barrett. Created and co-written by Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry, The Questor Tapes is a promising series pilot, though no series based on it is ordered. (Years later, many observers will notice that Roddenberry transfers Questor’s personality and even some of his backstory to a new Star Trek character named Data.)

Planet Earth

ABC premieres the made-for-TV movie Planet Earth, starring John Saxon, Ted Cassidy, Diana Muldaur and Majel Barrett. Created and co-written by Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry, Planet Earth is the second attempt to build a series pilot around the story of astronaut Dylan Hunt, frozen in suspended animation and reawakened only after the fall of human civilization by an organization called PAX. For the second time, this does not result in a series pickup, though the story of Dylan Hunt will form the basis of Gene Roddenberry’s Andromeda, a syndicated series produced in the early 2000s after Roddenberry’s death.

Strange New World

ABC premieres the made-for-TV movie Strange New World, starring John Saxon, Keene Curtis, and Catherine Bach. Created by Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry (but heavily rewritten by writers hired by Warner Bros.), Strange New World is the third attempt to build a series pilot around the story of an astronaut frozen in suspended animation and reawakened only after the fall of human civilization. Again, there is no series pickup, though the concept will eventually form the basis of Gene Roddenberry’s Andromeda, a syndicated series produced in the early 2000s after Roddenberry’s death.

Spectre

Spectre NBC premieres the made-for-TV movie Spectre, starring Robert Culp, Gig Young, John Hurt and Majel Barrett. Created and co-written by Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry, Spectre is an atypical Roddenberry project, dealing in magic and the occult rather than science fiction. It is intended to serve as a series pilot, though no series is ordered.