It's an interesting path to trace; how Leonard Nimoy, Star Trek (1966-69), Rod Serling and The Twilight Zone (1959-1964) are connected. But without one, the other wouldn't come to be.

Binghamton's Rod Serling's scifi series broke molds and gave network censor headaches. He chose to address touchy subjects using other-worldly plots and characters.

Star Trek later did the same. 6 episodes are markedly similar to Twilight Zone episodes.

So where is the connection between Binghamton and Nimoy? First off, Serling was the narrator of the first three In Search of... episodes. After his untimely death, Leonard Nimoy was tapped to take the position.

Well before that, Serling saw something special in Nimoy and chose him to star in an episode called "A Quality of Mercy."  Nimoy also starred in an episode of Night Gallery.

Early on, Serling was quoted in an interview as saying this about Star Trek, "Star Trek, I thought, was a very inconsistent show, which at times sparkled with true ingenuity and pure science fiction approaches, and other times was more carnival-like, and very much more the creature of television than the creature of a legitimate literary form."

Later, when Star Trek was canceled, he said he wanted to cut the heads off the people that axed the show and he liked it.

Let's delve into the serious connection between the two shows. Gene Roddenberry hired several writers and staffers that had worked on The Twilight Zone. See for yourself.

Actors David Opatoshu, Bill Mumy, William Shatner, George Takei, James Doohan, Frank Overton, Leonard Nimoy, John De Lancie, and Robert Duncan McNeill.

Writers Alan Brennert, Brent V. Friedman, David Carren, David Gerrold, george Clayton Johnson, Harlan Ellison, Hans Beimler, Ira Steven Behr, James Crocker, Jerome Bixby, Lan O'Kun, Marc Scott Zlcree, Michael Reaves, Ricahrd Matheson, Robert Hewitt Wolfe, and Sam Rolfe.

Music Composer/Arranger: Jerry Goldsmith.

Binghamton can be proud of it's native son for many things, but today we salute Rod Serling AND all that The Twilight Zone and Star Trek gave us!

 

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