Gene Roddenberry was a genius. Not only did he create one of the most enduring franchises in the history of science fiction, but he was smart enough to both court and invite sci-fi aficionados to be part of the original Star Trek television show before it even aired.
Various science fiction writers, for instance, were approached to craft scripts for Star Trek right from the start. The first episode, meanwhile, did not make its premier on NBC but at a special screening during the 1966 World Science Fiction Convention in Cleveland. Science fiction fandom was strong in the United States during the mid-1960s and offered an immediate audience for a sci-fi television drama that was both intellectual and respectful of its roots.
As a result, many of Star Trek’s initial fans of were members of science fiction fandom, including Bjo Trimble. The California native was an “actifan” in the community, having joined the world of sci-fi in 1952 and later organizing a “Worldcon Futuristic Fashion Show” in 1958, as well as the first Worldcon Art Show at the 1960 Pittcon in Pittsburgh.
Trimble was again in charge of the Worldcon fashion show in 1966. When she arrived in Cleveland for the convention, however, she was met with unexpected news – the convention committee had promised the executive producer of some new television show that he could feature costumes from the series as part of the event.
Bjo Trimble wasn’t happy about the arrangement but consented after meeting with Gene Roddenberry to discuss the matter. Although Trimble did not realize it at the time, the next fifteen years of her life would be indelible tied to Roddenberry and Star Trek as she became one of the most important and influential fans of the original series.
When Star Trek premiered on September 8, 1966, no one knew what to expect, and both the network and production company believed it wouldn’t stay on the air for very long. After only three episodes, however, Bjo Trimble was hooked and wrote a thirty-foot long fan letter praising the series. As she relates in her 1983 memoirs, On the Good Ship Enterprise: My 15 Years with Star Trek, Gene Roddenberry was ecstatic that fans were expressing their fondness for the show – especially considering the uncertainty surrounding it – and the initial group of letter-writers were sent invitations to visit the set during filming.
Bjo Trimble and her husband John were among them. While other fans were more of a nuisance during their visits, the Trimbles were always courteous and respectful. Thus when Roddenberry was told to cut back on the number of fans visiting the studio, Bjo and John Trimble continued to be invited.
Star Trek faced its first threat of cancellation during its initial season, causing science fiction author Harlan Ellison – who wrote the original draft for the classic episode “The City on the Edge of Forever” – to spring into action, convincing his fellow science fiction authors, many of whom were also penning Star Trek scripts, to write letters in support of the show.
NBC renewed Star Trek for a second season but it soon found itself in the same predicament. This time, however, it was the Trimbles who decided to act. Using their personal contact list of science fiction fans, they mailed letters to each of them, encouraging everyone to write to NBC and help spread the word about the “Save Star Trek” campaign. They were soon overwhelmed with an additional 10,000 addresses of fans from across the country. Dinner invites to the Trimble home that December were actually ploys to help with the stuffing of envelopes.
Gene Roddenberry secretly offered his own assistance, donating scripts that could be sold to pay for postage and printing bumper stickers with “Star Trek Lives” and “I Grok Spock” on them. California Institute of Technology students were then enlisted to distribute the items at NBC Studios in Burbank. One particular Caltech student even volunteered to fly to New York – the airfare was paid for by Roddenberry – sneak onto the parking lot at NBC’s headquarters in Manhattan and put the bumper stickers on all the cars.
In the end, the “Save Star Trek” campaign succeeded. Although they later denied and downplayed the number of letters received, it is conventional wisdom nonetheless that over one million letters found their way to NBC. It was a short-lived victory, however, as the network slashed the show’s budget and replaced Roddenberry as executive producer, reducing the quality of episodes during the third season and leading to yet another cancellation threat.
By then Bjo and John Trimble were working for Gene Roddenberry full-time, answering fan mail sent to both the show in general and the actors in particular. Bjo Trimble remained active in Star Trek fandom afterwards, attending conventions across the country and even organizing her own annual Equicon in Los Angeles.
In 1976, Bjo and John Trimble were again enlisted to spearhead a letter-writing campaign, this time to have the first Space Shuttle named Enterprise in honor of Star Trek. The idea originated with two fans in Washington, D.C. When they realized they could not make the necessary time commitment, however, they phoned the Trimbles and asked for help. Believing that the campaign would show public support for the space program – a cause both near and dear to Bjo and John Trimble – the couple consented.
The Trimbles were later invited to a cocktail party in honor of the first Space Shuttle, as well as its unveiling. Although NASA attendees were dumbfounded over the name Enterprise being chosen, many of the employees from engineering firm Rockwell International secretly wore “Closet Trekkie” buttons under their lapels.
During the filming of Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Gene Roddenberry arranged for 150 Star Trek fans to serve as extras during a scene in which Admiral James T. Kirk addresses the crew of the Enterprise. Not only was Bjo Trimble personally offered one of those slots, she was likewise recruited to spread the word within the Star Trek fanbase.
Trimble’s involvement in the follow-up film, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, was even more influential. Because the box office revenue for the first movie was below expectations, Roddenberry was removed as producer. His replacement, Harve Bennett, believed that the first film failed because it did not invoke the same spirit as the 1960s television show and used Bjo Trimble’s book, The Star Trek Concordance, as a reference guide for the sequel.
More significantly, Bennett asked Trimble to read the script for The Wrath of Khan and provide feedback – which she did, writing eighteen pages worth of notes on how it could be improved. Bjo Trimble continued as a consultant on the film, acquiring prop replicas of both blasters and communicators for the special effects department to duplicate and assisting in the creation of various sets.
Bjo Trimble was literally there from the beginning, having been in attendance at the 1966 Worldcon in Cleveland when Star Trek was first unveiled, becoming a regular visitor to the television sound stage during production, and leading a “Save Star Trek” campaign that kept the show from cancellation after only two seasons.
That last effort was significant, as a third season of Star Trek meant that the series had enough episodes to go into syndication, enabling its popularity to grow during the 1970s. Star Trek may have originated from the creative mind of Gene Roddenberry, but if it wasn’t for the efforts of Bjo Trimble and her husband John, Star Trek would have become a distant memory rather than the phenomenon that it is today.
Anthony Letizia