Dee interview transcript, Jan. 24, 2018 (Part 2)
[How did your science fiction club evolve to the point that you were actually meeting the cast and crew?]
Well, I wrote the club newsletter. I didn’t know any better, so from the operator I just got the number of Desilu Studios, called up and said: ‘We’re X science fiction club, and we’re wondering if we can speak to one of the writers for an article about Star Trek.’
And, gosh, a few days later I get a call back: ‘Please hold for Mister Roddenberry.’ So I grabbed a pen and sat and we chatted for, I don’t know, 15-20 minutes. And he was so excited that we were so excited. That’s what I remember about that conversation. It’s like a fanfiction writer now. You create these OCs, and then somebody else sees what you’re trying to do, shares your excitement, and of course you’re going to want to sit and talk to them about your creation!
We were interrupting each other and talking a mile a minute, and that’s my first memory of Gene. I’m pretty sure in that conversation — if it wasn’t that one, it was one very soon after — he said to me: ‘Oh my god, come down to the studio, you can come down to the set. Write about what we’re doing here.’ Because he just wanted people to be excited about Star Trek. He wanted people to know about it. He wanted us to write about it. So it was all very accessible in those earliest days.
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