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become one of the longest running television series. After the three-season run of the original Star Trek series, Gene also produced the film Pretty Maids in a Row, as well as worked on the production of several television pilots. Then, in 1975, Paramount Pictures went ahead with producing a Star Trek feature film entitled Star Trek: The Motion Picture. Although it did fairly well at the box office, it didn't do so well in the eyes of the critics. Even so, Star Trek continued to find favor in the eyes of it's fans and followers, and a few other Star Trek films, such as Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan; Star Trek III: The Search for Spock; Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home; Star Trek V: Final Frontier, and Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, enjoyed some success. A spin-off series, Star Trek: the Next Generation went into production in 1987. Later, two more series, Deep Space Nine and Voyager, were produced stemming from the Roddenberry-inspired concepts of space exploration of strange new worlds'. Roddenberry desired to put positive messages about beings of all kinds working together to resolve personal and intergalactic political debates. He started aboard the Starship Enterprise- by having people of different races and ethnic backgrounds work together. For it's time, this was a progressive kind of

Roddenberry wrote the novelization of Star Trek the Motion Picture in 1979, after which hundreds of novels based upon the Star Trek films and television show also appeared throughout the 1980's.

Gene's philosophy as a futurist was woven throughout the Star Trek series. He envisioned a better world where divergent ideologies and races would be brought together in unison rather than in conflict. Though raised as a Baptist, Gene would later reject the faith he was raised in to embrace a form of humanism. He believed in human potential and the progressive evolution of mankind.

In 1986 he was the first writer/producer to be awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame given to him by his fans. In 1990 he received the Jack Benny award for lifetime achievement. At Paramount studios, there is a building named after Gene Roddenberry in his honor.

In Santa Monica, California, at the age of 70, Mr. Roddenberry passed away on October 24, 1991, from cardiac arrest. After his passing, two more series were produced from Mr. Roddenberry's unfilled story concepts. These were Earth: Final Conflict and Andromeda, which were produced with the assistance of Majel Barrett-Roddenberry, his widow. For his passing out of this world, the ashes of cremation launched up into space where they burned up into the reaches of outer space and as such was the first man to have been buried in space. His contributions to the world of science fiction through his films and books will be long remembered. He was known to his fans as "The Great Bird of the Galaxy", a bird who longed to fly where no man had flown before.

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