Trimble: Saving Star Trek

[Vic 17]

In a new interview, Bjo Trimble reveals who really was responsible for the “Save Star Trek” campaign.

 

A grassroots letter-writing campaign saved Star Trek after the show was due to be cancelled due to low ratings, and to those who knew Trimble, it should have been no surprise that she would fight for something important to her.

 

When Trimble first met her husband John, the pair discovered that they shared several things in common, including the desire to go after what they felt was important. “We knew right away that we both liked the same kind of science fiction, but discovered our willingness to fight for things as we went along,” she said. “At first it was little things: city block zoning that was unfair to less wealthy home-owners, schools that needed voter support, things like that. By the time we devised the Save Star Trek letter-writing campaign, we were both in sync about what we wanted to do.

 

“The whole Save Star Trek campaign was John’s fault,” she said. “We had visited the Trek set, about when word sifted down that the show would be canceled at the end of this, the second season. So we watched actors do their stuff beautifully in front of the camera, then slump off looking depressed.

 

“On our way home, John said, ‘There ought to be something we could do about this!’ Now, he’d been married to me long enough to know better. By the time we got back home, we’d mapped out a basic plan of action. So we called Gene Roddenberry to see if he was OK with this idea. Gene had just told his staff that it would be wonderful if there was just some way to reach to fans and get their support. So things began to happen.

 

“But all the news at that time was about Women’s Lib and ‘the little housewife speaking up,’ so the news media had little interest in a businessman. Reporters focused on me instead of John. To my sorrow, John has seldom gotten even the fan credit he so well deserves for his part in making the Star Trek we know now a reality for all of fandom.”

 

 

 

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[oldfan1 0]

This is the first interview with Bjo I have seen where she credits John this much for the letter writing campaign. I have seen her at conventions and she didn't mention his contributions much then either.