10 False Star Trek Facts You Probably Still Believe
1. Gene Roddenberry Was The Sole Genius Behind Star Trek
Gene Roddenberry was an interesting man. There are many positive aspects to the man - he was a decorated solider and pilot, responsible for saving lives during WW2 and the following years. He was a very forward thinking person when it came to civil and equal rights, actively pushing for depictions of white and black people working side by side on screen.
Eugene Lee Coon is a name that is not widely known, without specific searching at this stage. William Shatner named him The Unsung Hero. Leonard Nimoy, D.C. Fontana, Herbert Solow and Robert Justman all dedicated works to him. Battlestar Galactica creator Glen A. Larson referred to him as the spirit and soul of Star Trek. Coon is responsible for introducing the Klingons, Khan, Zefram Cochrane and the official naming of Starfleet Command. He was a credited writer on The Devil in the Dark and A Taste of Armageddon, along with helping to mentor David Gerrold, author of The Trouble With Tribbles.
Coon left the show in its second season, though contributed several more scripts to the third season under the pseudonym Lee Cronin. That he is largely forgotten outside of Trek circles today is due to the unfortunate fact that Roddenberry, while progressive and certainly a great writer, did not share power easily. He had a tendency to take credit for other peoples' work, as detailed most heavily in the Next Generation's first year.
There were two Gene's who created much of the Star Trek that we know today, not one. Both were important, though one is remembered far more widely than the other.