Sneaky Gene Roddenberry went behind composer Alexander Courage’s back and took hold of the copy of the master sheet music. Courage wrote the theme as just a melodic theme, with voices singing behind the main theme. Roddenberry hap-dashed a bunch of random words together and wrote a bunch of lyrics into the sheet music below the notes. Given that Gene was never a poet or a lyricist, the words and syllables don’t fit with the theme. Lyricists have to work with the composer and musicians for it all to make sense. Gene wasn’t interested in that, though.
Gene wanted to make money on the sideways. With him typing his name on the sheet music, legally, he helped “compose” the theme song to Star Trek The Original Series. Despite doing nothing to help write the music, Gene now shared the royalty rights with Courage. When Courage learned of this betrayal, he was upset about the manner Roddenberry stole some of his money from him. It is a slap in the face of every composer and lyricist. Courage didn’t take legal action against Gene, and some said he couldn’t because his contract allowed Gene to “add something”. That second part I can’t confirm.
Courage did confront Gene. Thanks to this site and Snopes, we have this famous answer back to the irate Courage. ((“Hey, I have to get some money somewhere. I’m sure not going to get it out of the profits of Star Trek.”)) Yeah, by taking away money on something you had no business stealing from, Gene. He would do these horrible things when confronted, sheepishly attempting to do it after the fact.
Courage would compose a few more tracks for the first season, which they would reuse throughout the rest of the season. However, he was upset with Gene’s behavior. He left Trek for the second season. He would return for the third season, which by that point wasn’t under Gene’s command. Getting bored and tired of the struggles of day-to-day work, Roddenberry checked out by the end of the second season.
Because this post is extremely long, I will probably do an epilogue.
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