August 22 to 29, 1968
48 years ago this week, they were getting ready to take this shot while filming “Day of the Dove.” It soon became a fan favorite. More rare pictures from the production and hear what Gene Roddenberry, director Marvin Chomsky, producers Fred Freiberger and Robert Justman, William Shatner, and guest star Michael Ansara had to say about this classic Trek.
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Billy Blackburn, a member of the Enterprise crew, told author Marc Cushman, “Marvin was funny, comedic, wise. He was always tongue-in-cheek. And everything worked like clockwork with Marvin. I can’t remember any big delays.”
Chomsky told Cushman, “I didn’t bring the productions in on time because I was trying to prove anything. It took as long to do as it took to do. But, for that one, I remember Greg Peters -- the associate producer -- saying to me, ‘If you finish the show in five-and-a-half days, I’ll get you a television set. A BIG television set. A color one!’ And I got the TV.”
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Pictured: Director Marvin Chomsky brings a playfulness to the set while filming “Day of the Dove.”
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Co-producer Bob Justman sent a memo to Producer Fred Freiberger right before production began, saying: “I just had a call from Bill Shatner on the stage in Culver City [filming ‘For the World is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky’] and he is absolutely ecstatic about ‘Day of the Dove.’ He says that this is the kind of show that contains everything that is important. He is so pleased with the script that he just couldn’t wait to call up and tell us.”
Immediately following the filming, Gene Roddenberry wrote to Fred Freiberger, saying: “Just viewed the final cut of [‘Day of the Dove’] and wanted you to know I think it an excellent job. Good action-adventure excitement. Should make one of our most popular episodes.”
Fred Freiberger said, “Considering our restrictions, I thought it came out well. It was more of a derring-do kind of show. And Michael Ansara was wonderful.”
Ansara said, “Star Trek was so good, so lasting, because it was both fun and serious. It never played down to the audience. Roddenberry and the others responsible for the format never allowed any junk on the show. The episodes measured up to the viewer’s fascination with the galaxy and beyond.”
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Think you know Star Trek? You don’t yet … unless you’ve read Marc Cushman’s Saturn Award winning three-volume series, These Are the Voyages, TOS [Star Trek: The Original Series]. Each book is 600 or more pages in length, with one book devoted to each of the original Star Trek’s broadcast seasons. Included are thousands of never-before unpublished memos from Gene Roddenberry, Robert Justman, Gene Coon, Dorothy Fontana, Fred Freiberger, John D.F. Black, and NBC, the Nielsen ratings for all the episodes, plus each episode’s filming schedule, budget, and fan letters (from the 1960s), as well as over 1000 rare pictures in the three books. These Are the Voyages is a “biography of a television series” -- a time machine that will take you back to the 1960s to witness the writing, filming and first broadcasts of all the episodes of TOS. Get your copies at the best price anywhere, and autographed by the author.
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(Images in this book series – and there are over 1,000 -- are printed in black and white).
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