VIDEO EXCLUSIVE: Rod Roddenberry, Gene Roddenberry’s Son, Reflects On Meaning Of ‘Star Trek’

Rod Roddenberry, son of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry, discussed his father’s legacy on what would have been his 100th birthday in his new uInterview.

“My father was pretty humble, and he did fight I’d say most of his later years in life, trying to get his shows and especially trying to get and keep Star Trek on the air,” Rod told uInterview Founder Erik Meers.

“My father fought to get Star Trek out there,” he said, “and in reruns in the 70s he was so proud of all the young kids out there cause … we’re talking around Vietnam, and these kids believed in this better future and they want this better future. He finally got the opportunity to do it with Star Trek: The Next Generation.”

“He passed away Season 5 of Next Generation, I think they had been talking about Deep Space Nine, but of course he doesn’t know what came after that,” Rod said, “so I think he would be incredibly proud and blown away by what Star Trek has become today.”

Over half a century since the original series’ premiere in 1966, Star Trek has inspired millions of fans across the globe.

“For 25 years, I’ve had people coming up to me and telling me how Star Trek has in some way positively influenced their life,” Rod said, “whether it’s to be inspired to believe in themselves, or get out of an abusive relationship or to literally just be told there is a tomorrow and there is hope and they can be anything they want.”

“The backbone philosophy of Star Trek is I.D.I.C, you’ve probably heard of it, infinite diversity from infinity combinations,” he said. “It is the true appreciation for all things that are different both in form and in idea. In Star Trek there wasn’t a crew of people flying around the galaxy trying to find aliens that look different, they were trying to find intelligent creatures in our universe that looked at the universe in a different way than we do because we had learned at that point it was what makes things different, the things that are different are what make us special. They are how we can evolve intellectually. If we all thought the same things and never really chose to get out of our bubbles and see something different, we would never grow.”

Rod revealed how Star Trek plans to continue to grow into the future using this idea of “infinite diversity:”

“There is an entire universe of ideas out there,” he said, “and it just takes someone to get writers in a room together and start developing it.”

“Right now they’ve done such a good job of laying the groundwork at so many diverse kinds of Star Trek. We’ve got two animated shows, one for kids and one for sort of kids and adults, you’ve got Discovery which is a little bit more on the darker, although it’s getting lighter side of Star Trek, but that has now moved 800 years into the future so what does that look like? You have the new Pike series called Strange New World, which is going to take a little bit more of a traditional role and have those episodic sort of things, where there is true discovery of new life and new civilizations. And then you’ve got Picard, which is bringing it home a little bit, at least to the Next Generation sort of group of people. I know they’re kind of looking at the future of what that can be and what can go beyond Picard.”

“They’ve got tentacles out in all these areas,” Rod said, “and they’re so much room to move that as long as the quality’s there in writing and storytelling; and as long as, in my opinion, the stories are getting people to see things from different points of view, or at least getting them to think a little bit, I don’t see reason why Star Trek should ever go off the air.”