How 'Star Trek' Creator Gene Roddenberry Got 'Kicked Upstairs'...

And Off ‘Wrath Of Khan’

http://uproxx.com/movies/star-trek-gene-roddenberry-falling-out/

1979’s Star Trek: The Motion Picture is many things to many people — the first time these beloved characters ever appeared on the big screen, the beginning of the Star Trek movie universe, and the anti-Star Wars. However, it also marks the last significant contribution to the Star Trek movies by Gene Roddenberry, the man who first brought the idea of Star Trek to life in 1966. That’s because Paramount removed him from his supervisory role after the film’s box office numbers came back.

“Wait a minute,” you’re probably thinking. “Why would Paramount ditch the guy who created the property in the first place?” Money, for one thing, was definitely a major factor in the studio’s decision to oust the man much-beloved by science fiction fans at the time. Yet to truly understand the division between Roddenberry and studio executives, we have to dig a little deeper into the complex muck that was and will always be attached to Star Trek.