Gene Roddenberry spent his boyhood in Los Angeles and was educated at L.A. City College and U.C.L.A. During World War II he served in the Army Air Corps as a second lieutenant, flying B-17 bombers out of Guadalcanal. During this time he began selling stories to flying magazines. As a civilian he flew for Pan Am, and briefly ran an import-export business before his stint with the L.A. Police Department.

Throughout the years, he wrote and produced several television programs and motion pictures. "I think that the purpose of all writing is to reach people and say something you believe in and think is important. You may do it as a scientific or philosophical tract, but with fiction and drama and a certain amount of adventure you reach them easier and you reach more of them and you can infiltrate your messages into...