Assignment 117

Gene Roddenberry (image source)

Gene Roddenberry was born in the same era as were Jack Vance and Isaac Asimov. All three of these writers would eventually be famous for their science fiction creations, but each in a unique way with writing careers unlike anyone else. Each of these writers was influenced by World War II.

Asimov had his science fiction writing career interrupted by the war. He had begun publishing science fiction stories at a young age before the war and he had to slow his pace of story writing during the brief time that he was in the army.

Vance wrote several stories while serving in the merchant marines, submitted the stories for publication in pulp magazines and received rejections. It is easy to imagine how putting into distant ports of call influenced Vance and helped shape his ability to write stories about exotic planets that could be reached by spaceship.

television in the Ekcolir Reality (1950)

Roddenberry flew aircraft during the war and he continued flying for Pan Am after the war. It is easy to imagine how his time flying shaped Roddenberry's famous science fiction creation: the Star Trek fictional universe.

However, there was no direct line from flying aircraft during the war to Star Trek. In his youth, Roddenberry had read stories about adventures on distant worlds, but unlike Asimov and Vance, Roddenberry began writing for television, not pulp magazines. After the end of his time as a pilot, Roddenberry followed after his father and became a policeman in Los Angeles. It was not unusual for L.A. policemen to write stories for television shows about police and crime and Roddenberry wrote for shows like Mr. District Attorney.

The Secret Defense of 117
Apparently Roddenberry's first known science fiction sale for television was an alien invasion story. In the Ekcolir Reality, the pace of technology development was slightly faster, so in the 1950s there was a color television program called Planet 117 that had been created by Roddenberry's analogue in that Reality.

Planet 117 was the name given to Earth by a group of alien invaders. At first the aliens disguised themselves as humans, but as the show progressed, the invading aliens revealed their true physical features with increasing frequency.

The final season. (1973)

Also, by 1953, it was clear that the aliens were no longer invaders. They worked with a select group of humans to improve conditions on Earth. In 1955, it was revealed that the "aliens" on the T.V. show had long ago (about 200,000 years ago) originated when some early humans were taken away from Earth and "cultured" on a distant planet.

Planet 1 (1982)

Planet 117 ran for 14 years on television, ending after a genetic engineering project finally allowed for interbreeding between the "aliens" and humans on Earth. The true aliens who had visited Earth 200,000 years ago were never actually shown during the long run of Planet 117. Eventually there was a movie called Planet 1, filmed in 1982. Planet 1 finally revealed the home planet of the aliens, shown when visited by a group of Earthlings.

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