INTERVIEW: New screenplay imagines the founding of ‘Star Trek’

Photo: The Creator depicts the events that led to one of the most successful sci-fi franchises of all time. Gene Roddenberry and Lucille Ball’s working relationship are explored in the new play. Photo courtesy of artist / Provided by DTLA Film Festival press rep with permission.

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The Creator, the new screeplay by Ben Everhart, is inspired by the fateful meeting in the 1960s between Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry and TV superstar Lucille Ball. The father of all things Trek had a concept to sell and a pilot to film, and Ball had Desliu, a studio with the necessary resources. Although on paper it doesn’t seem like the two would fit well together, they made TV history when Star Trek: The Original Series premiered more than 50 years ago.

Everhart’s script recently won the 2020 International Screenplay Competition by the DTLA Film Festival in Los Angeles. To help raise funds for the nonprofit fest, the screenplay will have a public table read Wednesday, Oct. 21 at 7 p.m. PST (10 p.m. EST) with a cast of more than 30 actors. The taped-to-live read will be available on the film festival’s Facebook and YouTube pages. Tickets are available now.

Michael Bakkensen, of The Americans, will play Roddenberry, while Risa Benson will play Ball. Trek actors who will also be portrayed during the table read by other performers: William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, Nichelle Nichols and Desi Arnaz.

Recently Hollywood Soapbox exchanged emails with Everhart about The Creator. Questions and answers have been slightly edited for style.

How much research went into creating this script?

The research process for this one was intense and time consuming because I had to get it right. It wasn’t worth doing otherwise. Even though the events depicted are from 50 years ago, Star Trek is still a living, breathing thing for millions of fans. If I don’t stick to the spirit of the truth, I’ll let them down, and that wasn’t something I could accept. That definitely made my job a lot harder though because reality is complicated, and there’s a lot of pressure to write scripts that are clean and simple. At the beginning, that contradiction was extremely frustrating, and I was worried it was going to be impossible. But when I started to embrace the complexity, things came together. I ran with the complicated, messy truth because that’s what Gene Roddenberry would’ve done.

What do you find the most interesting about this relationship between Gene Roddenberry and Lucile Ball?

By the mid-1960s, Lucy was a famous comedic actress, one of the biggest stars in the world at that time. When she divorced Desi Arnaz, she assumed control of their joint ventures and became the first female head of a major Hollywood production company. She suddenly had to wear two hats: comedy superstar and company president. She needed to get new shows on the air quickly in order to keep her business afloat. Except none of the big TV writers and producers wanted to work for her because they were reluctant to have a female boss.

At that same time, Gene Roddenberry was in his mid-40s and struggling. He started his career as an LAPD officer but transitioned to TV writer. He’d written for a few shows — but it wasn’t going well. That’s when he started pitching a complicated sci-fi space adventure for adults, which was a completely insane idea. Keep in mind that this was the era of Lassie and Leave it to Beaver. Gilligan’s Island was about to debut. That’s as complex as things were back then. So he was pushing Star Trek, but no one thought it would work. Lucy gambled on it because she saw potential in Gene Roddenberry that the rest of the world didn’t recognize, just as the world didn’t fully recognize the potential in her.

They were two people that didn’t neatly fit inside the boxes society wanted to put them in. If you were betting on who would create the greatest science-fiction franchise of all time, you wouldn’t have picked Gene Roddenberry. You would’ve picked Isaac Asimov or Arthur C. Clarke or something. Gene didn’t fit the profile. He wouldn’t have made your Top 100, probably. And you definitely wouldn’t have ever believed Lucille Ball would’ve been anywhere close to it. But they did it. And we’re still watching, 50 years on. And that, to me, is an incredible story.

Are you a fan of Star Trek? What series was your first love?

I’m a huge Star Trek fan. I grew up watching the original show with my dad, even when I was nursery school age. As I got older, I started going to conventions. 

When I started writing The Creator, I wanted to make sure my love for the show was an asset without pulling me too far in the wrong direction. You don’t have to be a baseball fan to love a movie like Moneyball. You don’t have to care about race car driving to enjoy Ford v Ferrari. Yes, I was writing this one for Star Trek fans, but it was more complicated than that: when non-fans ask them why they love this show so much, I want them to be able to point to my movie as part of their answer. I want non-fans to see that people care about this show because it’s not just entertaining as hell, it’s also important. And its place in history is cemented, several times over. I had to keep that perspective in mind. 

What can audience members expect from this table read?

We have a fantastic director, Colleen Davie Janes, and she’s assembled an amazing cast. We have around 30 actors involved, I think, which is a huge undertaking. The team of people pulling all this together have been incredible, and I feel confident that my script is in good hands. Colleen has a lot of passion for the story, and I’m impressed with her dedication. It’s a really exciting way for my script to debut, and I can’t wait for people to see it.

What do you hope the future looks like for The Creator?

Right now I’m focused on doing everything I can to make sure the table read is a great experience for the audience. Beyond that, I hope that someday we’re able to see the script produced and distributed on a big screen, in theaters. Not only do I think it’s a perfect big screen story, but how amazing would it be to see the original ’60s-era Star Trek bridge projected in a theater?

I told people when I started writing this one that it should be a ‘Star Trek movie you can take your mom to.’ I sincerely believe there’s a big audience for this. Lots of folks who never watched a single episode of Star Trek will be intrigued by the Lucille Ball connection, I think. Hopefully, there are some producers out there who agree. It’s my hope that when theaters are open again everywhere, The Creator is one of the movies we’ll be able to look forward to seeing.

By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com

The Creator table read will take place Wednesday, Oct. 21 at 7 p.m. PST (10 p.m. EST). Proceeds benefit the DTLA Film Festival. Click here for more information and tickets.