LAS VEGAS, Nevada – The son of Gene Roddenberry is continuing the Star Trek legacy that his father created with new comic books, videogames and potential movie and television projects. Roddenberry was at the annual Star Trek Convention at the Las Vegas Hilton to talk about his latest project, the comic book series Days Missing, his new theatrical documentary film, Trek Nation, and the Star Trek reboot from J.J. Abrams in this exclusive interview.

Can you explain what Days Missing is and where this fits into the Roddenberry universe?

Days Missing is really the first Roddenberry property that has been created on its own away from Star Trek or any other franchise. It was actually created by Trevor Roth. He has been a long time friend and business partner and he is just someone that gets the Roddenberry name. You just can’t just come in and slap sci-fi onto something and call it Roddenberry.  Trevor really understands this and when he showed me the initial concept for Days Missing, I was blown away.

So what’s the story in this comic?

Days Missing comic

Essentially the lead character, the Steward, has been around since the beginning of time.  Each comic book refers to a 24-hour period based on our real history. And this character is able to take a 24-hour period where it went horrifically wrong, and almost erase it or fold time back and start over. The Steward nudges humanity or points them in the right direction. He doesn’t solve our problems for us, but points us in the right direction and still lets humanity takes those next steps to do the right thing, essentially.  All Roddenberry shows have had a character like that.  With Star Trek you had Spock and with Star Trek: The Next Generation you had Data.  These are all characters that are not human, but end up being windows into humanity.  And in some ways they become more human than the characters surrounding them.

Can you explain that Roddenberry concept is?

A lot of the shows focus around hope for the future, faith in humanity. One thing that my father really believed in is humanity. We are in our infancy, we have a lot to learn, and we are going to make a lot of mistakes, but we should never give up. He believed that we can overcome all of these obstacles. There are so many shows right now that show a future that is so dismal.  People don’t know even know what our future is going to be like today. Back in the ‘60s, Star Trek was perfect because -- I was not there back then, but I heard a lot of stories – people were dealing with with the Vietnam War, with racism and sex and everything.  Star Trek talked about this future where we got past all of these things. In fact, something I love thinking about is, it wasn’t about tolerance, and it wasn’t about tolerating the person next to you. People say that tolerance is the key, absolutely not, acceptance is the key.  You want to be able to accept different ideas. That doesn’t means that you have to believe them.  But sit in that room with a person with a different idea and be able to have a level-headed rational conversation with them.  That is how you grow as a person and that is how our species will grow.  And that is one of core ideas my father believed in for the future. We will thirst in the quests for different ideas and new ideas. That is one of the fundamental concepts of Roddenberry. When you infuse that into science fiction, because science fiction is just the backdrop, all of these stories are about people. Whether they are aliens or not, they are all metaphors for humanity what we are going through. And everything that we do will have that in it.

Can you talk about how you’re designing worlds like Days Missing now to cross mediums, something your father wasn’t doing with the original Star Trek?

The key is to come up with a good story. Television wasn’t what it was and movies aren’t what they were. Today, with the current state of the economy, you want to create something solid. You want to create something simple. Something you can keep creative control over. Comics are perfect because they require minimal investment and you can get it out there quickly and to a large audience. The comic book is fantastic and we hope it continues to grow. But beyond that, we do want to put in front of more people through television, films and videogames. In fact, we have been fortunate enough to have a few people come to us and express interest in Days Missing, but nothing beyond that. It’s fantastic to have that creative control, because people don’t get that in Hollywood. I don’t know how much of that we will be able to retain as it grows beyond the comic book, but I am looking forward to it.

How have you constructed Days Missing to reach other mediums?

We start with a comic book with the vision of going way past the comic book to potentially a theatrical release. I would never keep my expectation that high, but I would always plan in that direction. I think because each episode of this comic book is a self-contained episode, but there is a story running through all of them, this is right for a TV series. I won’t lie to you, I think we are all hoping that it will get on TV somewhere.

TREK NATION

Can you talk about the Trek Nation documentary that you’ve been working on?

Rod is a bigtime scuba diver

We started on Trek Nation back in 2001. I met Scott Colthorp, who was producing and directing TNN spots for the Star Trek: The Next Generation TV show. It wasn’t just about come watch Star Trek, it was about the positive effect Star Trek has had on people. I was blown away because I was so enamored with the fans and the stories I heard about how their lives changed. I met with him and we talked about doing a documentary on my father and fandom. He took the ball and ran with it. It was a great experience because I got to really learn a great deal about my farther. It was a real journey of discovery. So there is a real element to the documentary. It wasn’t just a film that we went out and choreographed and made. It was a real journey and that was part of the process. I have had a one hell of an education putting this thing together. I made a lot of mistakes and I now know what not to do next time hopefully. I’m really proud of the film and we’re at a spot where we think we are going to be able to show it soon. 

What was your personal journey through Trek Nation?

Essentially, Trek Nation is learning about Gene Roddenberry through his son’s eyes. There have been many biographies done on Gene Roddenberry, so it was very important for me not to just go out there and do another biography. This film is not about me, but my perspective of my father. People come along and I’m the vehicle and they go on this ride and we meet friend, fans, and family. We meet everyone from top people in the industry to janitors who come to conventions and wear costumes. And it was really important to get a full spectrum of people. One of the most amazing things is the diversity of the people that we meet that all have this commonalty that is Star Trek. You have people from different socio-economic backgrounds, religions, and all of these very contrasting sorts of personalities. All of them still want to believe in this future. And that’s the glue of Star Trek. It really brings everyone together. I truly believe in Star Trek as a good direction to go. I’m not saying that we have to have Star Fleet, but if you can show me something better now, great. If not, then just head in that direction and we will figure it out along the way. Trek Nation is a bit of that journey.

Didn’t you essentially learn about Star Trek through this documentary, since you didn’t watch the show as a kid?

To be honest, this documentary started in my mind a long time ago. I grew up a kid who liked Knight Rider and Starsky & Hutch. I really didn’t watch Star Trek.  It wasn’t until my father actually passed away that I started to open my eyes and ears to what Star Trek was. It was at his memorial services and someone went on stage and told a very moving story of a handicapped individual who was able to be inspired and see beyond their limitation and have this hope for the future. It ends with this individual saying they are 48 years old and married with kids. That really kind of struck a chord with me.  I was shocked at that point; I knew my father was the producer of Star Trek, but I didn’t know what that meant. It was just a TV show in my mind and I really never watched it. But this was a show that touched lives and influenced people for the better. It was a positive change in people lives. I was so blown away that I started to go to out to conventions and talk to people. And I found out that this was a common story. The initial thrust of this documentary was for me to go out and meet these Star Trek Fans. I was kind of reluctant to do the Gene Roddenberry side of it. It just felt a little weird. I still didn’t 100 percent make a connection to what he did. But as the documentary evolved, it kept coming back to Gene Roddenberry.

STAR TREK REBOOT

What impact might the success of J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek reboot have on this film? Will that be in the documentary?

JJ Abrams' film take

No. One of the difficulties of finishing this documentary was there was always another great idea. There was always another awesome interview that we could get. You’d hear a story from someone in their interview and you would go, “Oh, now we have to go interview this guy.” If we kept on with that, we would never finish. I mean, we almost never finished it. I’m glad we stopped when we did. We definitely could be doing Part 2 right now, but we will see about that.

Are you one of those that think that everything happens for a reason? Your documentary has taken a while to come out, but it’s going to come out after this second coming of Star Trek with the success of the film.

There were a number of wonderful windows that we had along the way that unfortunately we missed. I’m sure it will still come out at an appropriate time, when we will be able to package it the right way. But you know we would have loved to have gotten it out with the 40th Anniversary. We would have loved to have gotten it out somehow connected to the new movie. I’m glad it’s coming out after the new movie because there is a new whole set of eyes out there who are watching Star Trek. My hope is that they will be curious to want know where it came from. And they will be curious and wanting to know who this Gene Roddenberry guy was. That will be nice to have that whole new audience to give this to.

What are your thoughts about the Star Trek reboot and how it has made people excited about the franchise again?

Star Trek: DAC

I love it. I’m a Next Generation fan first, but a very close, close second almost right next to it is the original series. What JJ and the writers Kurtzman and Orci did was they kept it true to the original Star Trek cannon. They were able to make the changes they needed by shifting the timeline and go in a new direction. I was very impressed that they didn’t do what Hollywood sometimes does, which is they reinvent or rewrite something and they piss off all over the original fans. They had enough smart people on their team to know that we can’t do this. We are going to dig a hole too deep for ourselves if we do this. So they shifted the timeline. For the diehard fans, they still have the original Trek and that timeline. And now new fans can explore this new timeline. One of the things they’ve brought into this new one is that it’s cool. I mean, you can be a football fan and watch Star Trek now, because it’s not for geeks anymore. I never thought it was, but the common misconception and stereotype was there. I’m happy that they did that.

What impact do you think the reboot’s success will have on things going forward like television or movie sequels, or videogames?

Oh, it’s going to be huge. With this new movie, with the new opportunities, with the new properties, it has been exploding. And now it’s going to be exploding to a larger market, to a larger demographic.