Star Man

(Article reproduced with kind permission of The LIST - the Glasgow and Edinburgh Events Guide Magazine.)

'Taking a giant step for man, woman and Trekkie, Star Trek is about to bridge the generation gap. Thom Dibdin speaks to HERMAN ZIMMERMAN, the man who has visualised the transition to television and cinema screens, and designed the forthcoming exhibition.

(12k) Herman Zimmerman (second from left) directs the construction of Start Trek: The Exhibition on the Paramount back-lot.

In 1961, President Kennedy promised America a rocket to the moon by the end of the decade. At the same time airline pilot Gene Roddenberry was in the process of devising a television series for NBC, to be described by him as: 'a bit like Wagon Train to the stars.' On Thursday 8 September 1966, three years before a man stepped onto the moon, Star Trek was born.

Twenty-eight years, seven feature films, almost 280 episodes and five television series later, Star Trek is a truly worldwide phenomenon. We all know about beaming up, warp factors and Vulcan death grips. 'To boldly go' is not only a cliché: it is a trade mark.

It is typical of Star Trek’s enduring, universal appeal that its production designer Herman Zimmerman talks about joining the Star Trek family - not its team. He started work on the series in the mid-80s, but the designer of the last three movies and the Star Trek: The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine and Voyager television series could be said to have joined this family in the 60s. It was then that Zimmerman, like so many others, became entranced by Trekkiedom.

'I rushed home every Thursday night to turn Star Trek on, just like millions of other people,' he says. Little did he realise he would one day be responsible for the programme's look, from the shape of Vulcans' ears to the architecture of the alien space station in Deep Space Nine.

The family of fans have always been important to Star Trek. Disappointed with its ratings, NBC threatened to pull the programme at the end of its first season, but recanted due to a massive write-in campaign by fans. Similar threats were withdrawn during the second season but the third season was consigned to the 10pm on Fridays slot, practically guaranteeing low ratings. The final episode was aired in June 1969.

Although there were only 79 episodes in the three seasons of the first series, most people recall these when they think of Star Trek. Kirk and Spock occupied the bridge of the Enterprise, the miniskirt was revolutionising fashion, the Black Panthers were openly demonstrating their arms and the Vietnam war rumbled on.

'The 60s was a very dynamic time in American and world history,' says Zimmerman. 'We had a lot of violent things happen and, of course, the Space Race and Cold War were in everybody's mind on a daily basis. Star Trek examined those things without having to have the censors say: "No, no, no, no, you can't talk about that, we won't be able to sell our soap or our beer or our automobiles." Gene didn't care about offending people, he wanted to tell a good story.'

The stories Roddenberry told were so culturally significant they have been documented by the Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC. There was the first ever interracial kiss on American television between Kirk and Uhura and the Cold War was reflected in the fictional conflict between the Federation, the Klingons and the Romulans.

Star Trek was the only dramatic series to deal explicitly with the Vietnam war. In a 1968 episode The Omega Glory, the Enterprise visited Omega IV where the Yangs and the Kohms the Yanks and Communists were locked in an unthinking, suicidal conflict.

In the 90s, the series has continued to boldly go where no other series has gone before. 'We just did a two-hour story on homelessness which is a worldwide problem,' says Zimmerman. 'I believe it is entirely due to the world economic situation. We have said if you can't produce in this culture, you can't be a part of it. It's very sad we have arrived at that. Drama holds a mirror up to life. It always has, from the Greeks onwards, and Star Trek is no different.'

The most ardent, nit-picking Trekkies should remember this when criticising Zimmerman's vision of space as it might be in some 300 years. When challenged with the rather improbable notion that two starships would always meet head on after warping halfway across the galaxy, he admits: 'We have not seen ships upside down to each other, which of course they could be in space, but that is strictly a matter of keeping the audience following the story without imposing unnecessary demands on their scientific knowledge.

'We don't use seat belts either and yet you know damn well that you have to have a seat belt if you are going to be buffeted about during a battle. We never do that, because it is just too much trouble for the actors to get in and out of them. There are conventions: we have to remember it is entertainment, not the real future. Star Trek's value is in its examination of the present by couching it in the future.'

If Zimmerman has to remind himself he is dealing with fact rather than fiction, a vast, international army of Trekkies is happy to let him blur the division into the next generation.

Star Trek: The Exhibition is at the City Art Centre, Edinburgh from Saturday 4 February-7 May, 1995. Star Trek: Generations is on general release from 10 February. Star Trek: The Next Generation is on BBC2 on Wednesdays at 6pm.

---