From Sawdust to Stardust by Terry Lee Rioux

Author:Terry Lee Rioux
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Publisher: Pocket Books

6 By January 1969, everyone realized that they were at the end of the trail. Roddenberry encouraged one more fan-based campaign to save Star Trek, even “if all it accomplishes is annoying the hell out of NBC.” Kelley had fan clubs once again, in San Francisco, Chicago, and the Midwest. “Star Trek has been my best break. I sometimes wish it happened ten years earlier,” he told reporters. Nimoy recalls that “he was not without ambition; although he appeared to be, he was not without ambition.” Kelley’s rising star and his growing popularity were tied to a show that had already been written off. 20

Finally, after years of impending doom, the last show went into production. A pall descended on the cast and crew. Shatner would have none of it. There were visitors on the set, and for them, for the crew, and for himself, he put on a performance of nonstop jokes and clowning meant to distract one and all from the end of the show.

A free-lance writer and fan, Joan Winston, was a visitor on the set during the last of it. Kelley took a liking to her. He talked, as he was inclined to, about Cheers and Carolyn and home. He took her to lunch at the Paramount commissary. She commented on Shatner’s visible physical distress. Kelley explained: “Bill, being the star of the series, feels a certain responsibility for the well-being of the cast and crew…. The tension comes from burying his own problems, so he can joke and keep things light on the set. This takes a great deal out of him, and his performances take the rest. He is not a man to do things by half measures.” 21

On the last day, Winston witnessed Nimoy’s last transition from Vulcan to Terran. There was complete silence as the ear tips came off for the last time. “Then everyone dived for them.” Kelley told her that Shatner had collapsed that morning. She wrote, “De had been in the makeup room, and in the mirror he had seen Bill crossing the set with his Doberman, Morgan. He saw Bill suddenly go white and sit down on the floor. De ran over to see what was wrong. He helped Bill into a chair and asked what was the matter. He had hold of Bill’s arm and could feel great heat radiating from him.” The Asian flu of 1969 took Shatner down. Kelley called the medical office, and a nurse came. She gave him medication so he could finish the last day. Winston wrote: “I don’t know what his temperature was, but they had to apply new makeup after every scene because it was melting right off his face.” Nevertheless, Shatner’s clowning continued to the bitter end. Finally, with the last scene, he let himself be carried off by the crew on a sofa used in the last shot—waved on his way by Winston. “With your shield or on it,” she whispered. 22

Winston recalled a half-hearted attempt at a farewell, but it was too sad, and no one stayed.

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