Robert H. Justman, one of the major creative geniuses behind the original “Star Trek” television series of the 1960s as well as the 1980s-era “Star Trek: The Next Generation,” has died. He was 81.
This past 30 days have been tough ones for Star Trek and its millions of fans. Also passing over the last month have been Star Trek director Joseph Pevney and musical conductor/composer Alexander Courage, the man responsible for the incredibly popular and memorable opening theme music now familiar to people across the globe.
Justman had been suffering with Parkinson’s Disease for many years and he finally succumbed to complications from that condition on Wednesday in his L.A. home with family by his side.
“There seems to be a big ‘Star Trek’ convention and everyone is going,” Jonathan Justman said, speaking of his father’s and so many other Trek veterans passing over the last several weeks. “Everyone is getting beamed up.”
The list of those getting “beamed up” will only grow larger over the next decade or so now that the TOS stars and behind-the-camera crews are entering their 80’s and 90’s. There to greet Justman, Pevney and Courage were Gene Roddenberry (Star Trek creator), DeForest Kelley (Dr. McCoy), James Doohan (Scotty), Robert Wise (director) and many more who have already climbed aboard that eternal Enterprise.
“It wasn’t just a science fiction show; it was a morality play,” Robert Justman once told the Christian Science Monitor in 2001. “It was, ‘Do the right thing and do right by your fellow man, and all will be well, hopefully.’ ”
Once the original series was canceled by NBC, it took another 20 years before a new live-action Trek show came to television and Robert Justman, acting as executive producer, was there to help his old friend and boss, Gene Roddenberry, kick-start the franchise once again with the introduction of “Star Trek: The Next Generation” (TNG). In fact, it was Justman who insisted, over the objection of Roddenberry and others, to cast Patrick Stewart as the new Enterprise Captain, and the rest, as they say, is history.
“Roddenberry was very against the idea of a bald British actor playing the next Captain Kirk,” Berman said. “But Bob was very persistent, and Patrick became Captain Picard.”
After Roddenberry died in 1991, Justman stayed on with the franchise working with new showrunner Rick Berman on TNG and all future spinoff series.
“I can’t tell you how nurturing this guy was to me,” Berman told The L.A. Times. “He was like a mentor and a father. He was extraordinary.”
“I perceived a chance to prove to the world and to myself that we could make a successful ‘Star Trek’ series from the get-go, that we didn’t have to get saved by fans wanting to keep the myth alive,” he told The L.A. Times in 1996. ” ‘Star Trek’ was an important part of my life.”
Although I did not know Robert personally, my family was dear friends with his aunt & uncle in Brooklyn. Unfortunately they have all passed away. His aunt would tell me many stories of what a wonderful man he was, and how proud everyone was with his career. More important, was their feeling towards him as a kind and giving human being which they felt was different than the usual Hollywood executive.
They wanted me to visit him the many times I went to CA. I guess I was too embarrased to attempt this. I now wish I had the honor of meeting him.
Obviously that is too late, but I wanted his family to know how wonderful he was thought of and loved by his east coast family, and how they were so proud until their end. Hopefully they are all together now, remembering fond times as they were growing up, and in their later years.