Eugene Wesley "Rod" Roddenberry Jr. (born 5 February 1974; age 50) is the only son of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry and his second wife, Majel Barrett-Roddenberry. He has two sisters, Darleen Roddenberry and Dawn Roddenberry, both from Gene Roddenberry's first marriage to Eileen Anita Rexroat. He has a wife, Heidi, and a son named Zale. [1] Roddenberry is the chief executive officer at Roddenberry Entertainment, a company through which he is producing the newest Star Trek series Star Trek: Discovery, Star Trek: Picard, and Star Trek: Lower Decks.
Interactions with Star Trek[]
Roddenberry acted as executive producer and narrator of Trek Nation, a Star Trek documentary released in late 2011. [2]
He discussed his father Gene during an appearance in The Captains of The Final Frontier, a 2010 Star Trek documentary made for American television.
Roddenberry acted as a consultant on, advocate for, and promoter of the fan-made Star Trek: New Voyages series.
He worked as an uncredited Art Department production assistant on either Star Trek: The Next Generation or Star Trek: Deep Space Nine for at least a year in the mid-1990s. [3](X) Reportedly the registry number for the USS Defiant (NX-74205) was taken from Roddenberry's birthday (02/05/74), much as the registry of the USS Bonchune was taken from Robert Bonchune's birthday. (Star Trek Encyclopedia, 4th ed., vol. 1, p. 196)
Roddenberry was interviewed in the second season episode of the Netflix series The Toys That Made Us that focused on Star Trek toys and models. In this interview he described how he made the model of the Constitution-class that was painted silver and then used as a set piece on various TNG episodes.
The "Trek Fish" variant of the "Jesus Fish" (Ichthys symbol) car bumper ornament was designed by Roddenberry.
Roddenberry was interviewed and introduced the Gene Roddenberry: Up Close And Personal video documentary release from 2006.
On 3 March 2016, it was announced that he would be one of the co-executive producers of Star Trek: Discovery, [4] but is now actually credited as an executive producer on the series as well as on After Trek. Roddenberry also serves as executive producer on the companion series, Star Trek: Short Treks, and on the series Star Trek: Picard, Star Trek: Lower Decks, Star Trek: Starfleet Academy, and Star Trek: Section 31.
Other activities[]
He wrote the story for "Infection", an episode of Earth: Final Conflict, which was a project conceived by Gene Roddenberry in the 1970s and produced by Majel Barrett Roddenberry in Toronto, starting in 1997. [5]
Roddenberry has also been involved with a large number of real-world science endeavors including The Ansari X-Prize, NASA, JPL, The Planetary Society, The Roddenberry Dive Team, and the Kennedy Space Center.
Interviews[]
- TOS Season 3 DVD special feature, "Collectible Trek", interviewed on 3 August 2002
- TNG Season 1 Blu-ray special feature "Energized! Taking The Next Generation to the Next Level", 2012
- Star Trek: The True Story, 2013
- The Toys That Made Us: "Star Trek", 2018
- TRR: "The Impossible Box", 2020
- "The One with Rod Roddenberry" at MissionLogPodcast.com
- "Another One with Rod Roddenberry" at MissionLogPodcast.com
- "Recapping TOS with Rod Roddenberry" at MissionLogPodcast.com
External links[]
- Roddenberry.com – official site
- Rod Roddenberry at Wikipedia
- Rod Roddenberry at the Internet Movie Database
- Eugene W. Roddenberry at Earth: Final Conflict Wiki