Pevney’s first directorial assignment, Shakedown, starring Howard Duff, was released in August 1950. Daily Variety took note of “the fine direction of Joe Pevney.” Two months later, the same trade stated that Undercover Girl, his second film, was “directed at a fast and suspenseful pace.” Pevney had passed the test.
Universal-International put out four more of Pevney’s movies in 1951, a pace that taught the director to shoot film fast enough for TV. Air Cadets, with Rock Hudson came in February. In the cast was Charles Drake, whom Pevney hired 16 years later for “The Deadly Years” on Star Trek. After that was Iron Man, with up-and-comer Jeff Chandler, whom the director would work with on six different movie projects. Daily Variety graded the fight picture as “realistic and carefully worked out” and stated that “Joseph Pevney in his direction [is] achieving a ringing note of authenticity.” Weeks later, Pevney had a western on the big screens with The Lady from Texas. Variety said, “Joseph Pevney directed most capably to bring warmth and plenty of humor.”
The studio, now trusting its young contract director with higher-priced properties, promoted him to handling movies designed to top a double bill. Pevney’s sixth picture, The Strange Door, with Charles Laughton and Boris Karloff, introduced him to the horror genre. Variety wrote, “Direction of Joseph Pevney helps sustain the yarn’s somber mood and suspense.” Universal squeezed five movies out of Pevney for release in 1952. The first, and a clear step up, was Meet Danny Wilson, starring Frank Sinatra. Daily Variety called it “bright drama, with comedy and songs... aided by slick and fast direction supplied by Joseph Pevney.”
For 1953, Universal served up three movies by Pevney, including Desert Legion, an Alan Ladd “swashbuckler.” Pevney had three more movies out in 1954. Of Yankee Pasha, already his 14th feature, Daily Variety wrote, “Joseph Pevney’s direction guides it along.” Only a month later, Universal and Pevney had Shelley Winters, at a slender 32, in the exploitation piece Playgirl. By year’s end, the director was on loan to Paramount for the Dean Martin/Jerry Lewis comedy Three Ring Circus. Daily Variety cited:
Production values... through locationing with the Clyde Beatty Circus are given lush definition by the VV [VistaVision] cameras, which director Joseph Pevney uses to fine advantage in effectively catching the antics of the stars.
Back at Universal-International for a January 1955 release, Pevney took on Six Bridges to Cross, a cops-and-robbers melodrama with Tony Curtis, followed by a pair of Jeff Chandler movies. Celia Lovsky was in the cast of one. Pevney would later put her in Star Trek’s “Amok Time.”
In 1956, Universal released Away All Boats. This marked Pevney’s fifth turn with Chandler, and introduced the director to Keith Andres, whom he would later cast for Star Trek in “The Apple.” Cargo Crossing, with Peter Lorre in the cast, came next. It was Pevney’s 21st feature in just seven years.
With 1957 came Istanbul, starring Errol Flynn, followed by Pevney’s biggest hit to date -- Tammy and the Bachelor. Daily Variety raved:
Director Joseph Pevney shrewdly underlines Miss [Debbie] Reynolds’ indomitable artlessness, without falling into the pitfall of over-sentimentality.
Less than a month later, Pevney had Tony Curtis for the third time in The Midnight Story. Daily Variety said:
Pevney makes excellent use of San Francisco locations... which adds atmospherically to the overall scene, and [the] feel of the Italian quarter and its people are particularly caught in his helming.
In July, Universal put out Pevney’s 25th directorial assignment -- James Cagney as Lon Chaney in The Man of a Thousand Faces. Daily Variety raved:
Director Joseph Pevney gets the most out of the heart-tugging scenes, and this is undoubtedly his best directorial credit to date.
In 1958, Rock Hudson starred in Twilight for the Gods, followed by another loan-out, this time from Universal to MGM for Torpedo Run, starring Glenn Ford. Daily Variety said, “Director Joseph Pevney unfolds the screenplay at a suspenseful pace.”
At this point in his career, there seemed little reason for Pevney to go into television. But the studio system of keeping actors and directors under contract was coming to an end, as had his 10-year contract with Universal. While waiting for a worthy film offer to come along, he dabbled in television by shooting two pilot films. One -- a science fiction for CBS, Destination Space -- didn’t sell. The other -- a jazzy P.I. show designed to top Peter Gunn -did. Staccato presented John Cassavetes as a former jazz musician turned private eye who makes his home base in New York’s Greenwich Village.
Pevney got back to the big screen for December 1959 with a big hit -- Warner Bros.’ Cash McCall, starring James Garner and Natalie Wood. The studio, delighted over the box office returns, assigned its director to a second project, for 1960. The Crowded Sky was crowded with WB contract players, such as Dana Andrews, Rhonda Fleming, Efrem Zimbalist, Jr., Anne Francis, and Troy Donahue. Also in 1960, Pevney made time to helm several episodes of Wagon Train. One featured William Schallert, whom he would hire for Star Trek’s “The Trouble with Tribbles.”
In 1961, Warner Bros. had Pevney back for a third turn -- the director’s 31st feature film. Portrait of a Mobster starred Vic Morrow and Leslie Parrish, the latter destined for a plumb Star Trek role (“Who Mourns for Adonais?”). Also in the cast was Ken Lynch; Pevney would put him in the Star Trek episode “The Devil in the Dark.”
1962 and 1963 were prolific years for Pevney in television. He directed numerous episodes of The New Breed, starring Leslie Nielsen, with three guest players destined for Star Trek: James Doohan, Joanne Linville, and Bobby Clark. He reunited with Loretta Young for episodes of her new series -- The New Loretta Young Show -- where he met series regular Beverly Washburn, whom he would cast in “The Deadly Years” for Star Trek. He also directed for Ben Casey, Alfred Hitchcock Presents (including one featuring a guest player named Walter Koenig, whom Pevney was responsible for casting in Star Trek as Ensign Chekov), and the pilot and first 13 episodes for Going My Way, starring Gene Kelly.
In 1964, Pevney took on nine more episodes of Wagon Train and eleven episodes of the kooky TV version of Universal’s Frankenstein franchise, The Munsters. This was where Pevney met Gene Coon, who had a hand in developing that series.
In 1965, Pevney directed future Star Trek guest Kathryn Hays (“The Empath”) in an Alfred Hitchcock Presents, and, for Kraft Suspense Theatre, Stanley Adams, whom he cast for Star Trek’s “The Trouble with Tribbles.”
Just prior to Coon’s invitation to join Star Trek, Pevney directed a slew of TV shows, including episodes of Gunsmoke, The Big Valley, Bewitched, Twelve O’clock High, Pistols ‘n’ Petticoats, and The Legend of Jesse James (with an episode featuring Jeffrey Hunter, the former Captain of the Enterprise). Pevney also stopped off at The Fugitive, with guest player Arlene Martel, whom he would put into the Star Trek episode “Amok Time”; and T.H.E. Cat, where he met a visiting Theodore Marcuse, and would remember him for a standout role in Trek’s “Catspaw.”
During his career, Pevney directed countless movie stars, including Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis, Errol Flynn, Alan Ladd, James Cagney, Gene Kelly, Frank Sinatra, Charles Laughton, Boris Karloff, Jeff Chandler, Tony Curtis, Rock Hudson, Glenn Ford, James Garner, Rod Steiger, George Seagal, Ryan O’Neal, Jeffrey Hunter, Peter Fonda, Natalie Wood, Debbie Reynolds, Loretta Young, Barbara Stanwyck, Fay Wray, Joan Crawford, and Jane Russell.
He also directed many of the biggest stars in TV, including James Arness, Ward Bond, Robert Horton, Robert Fuller, Raymond Burr, John Forsythe, Lee J. Cobb, Lee Majors, John Cassavetes, Lorne Green, Michael Landon, Vic Morrow, Lloyd Bridges, David Janssen, Vince Edwards, Peter Falk, Paul Burke, William Windom, Leslie Nielsen, Walter Brennan, Brian Keith, Ernest Borgnine, Efram Zimbalist, Jr., Richard Basehart, Don Rickles, Anne Francis, Katherine Ross, Elizabeth Montgomery, Agnes Moorehead, and Linda Evans.
And now he was about to give direction to a man in a rubber lizard costume out at Vasquez Rocks.
Episode 19: ARENA
Teleplay by Gene L. Coon
Story by Fredric Brown
Directed by Joseph Pevney
From TV Guide, July 1, 1967:
Famous battle between the Gorn and Kirk (Unaired film trim courtesy of Gerald Gurian)
The fate of the Enterprise hinges on the outcome of a personal duel between Captain Kirk and the lizard-like commander of an alien spaceship. On a barren asteroid, the unarmed Kirk must rely on his ingenuity to defeat his powerful adversary.
The enemy is the Gorn. A space chase leads both the alien vessel and the pursuing Enterprise into an uncharted solar system, the home of the Metrons. There is a penalty for bringing a mission of violence to the doorstep of the superior Metrons: the captain of each ship must face off, pitted in hand-to-hand mortal combat. The prize for the winner: the destruction of his enemy’s ship.
“Arena” offers an examination of prejudice and mercy. And Star Trek tricks us again. What appears on the surface to be a Man versus Beast tale is really Man versus Himself. Humankind, represented by James Kirk, is being tested.
SOUND BITES
- The Metron: “We have analyzed you, and have learned that your violent tendencies are inherent. So be it. We will control them. We will resolve your conflict in the way most suited to your limited mentalities.”
- McCoy: “We appeal to you in the name of civilization! Put an end to this!” The Metron: “Your violent intent and actions demonstrate that you are not civilized.”
- Kirk, to the Metrons: “No, I won’t kill him -- do you hear?! You’ll have to get your entertainment someplace else!”
- The Metron, to Kirk: “By sparing your helpless enemy, who would surely have killed you, you demonstrated the advanced trait of mercy ... something we hardly expected. We feel there may be hope for your kind. You will not be destroyed. It would not be ... civilized.... Perhaps, in several thousand years, your people and mine shall meet to reach an agreement. You are still half savage ... but there is hope.”
- Kirk: “We’re a most promising species, Mr. Spock ... as predators go. Did you know that?” Spock: “I have frequently had my doubts.” Kirk: “I don’t. Not anymore. Maybe in a thousand years we’ll be able to prove it.”
ASSESSMENT
NBC got what they most wanted: a planet show ... with a monster. Gene Coon’s brisk and colorful script pleased the network and delighted the fans. And Coon proved himself a writer who could both entertain and educate. Here, Kirk is taught an important lesson regarding his own prejudice. And, as Kirk learns, so do we. Watch for the change, as the Captain bent on revenge, having admitted to a “natural revulsion to reptiles,” learns empathy and comes away from the battle certain of one thing, that he is not qualified to judge the actions of these creatures, nor dispense justice.
“Arena” has not aged as well as other Star Trek episodes. The Gorn mask, so startling in 1966, will conjure up very little fear today. And the ominous voice of the Gorn commander (provided by Ted Cassidy, the seven-foot-two-inch actor who played Lurch on The Addams Family) will ring more melodramatic than menacing in the ears of today’s somewhat jaded and desensitized television audience. But, if you can watch this episode from within the context of the 1960s, “Arena” remains exciting, stirring, memorable, and poignant.
THE STORY BEHIND THE STORY
Script Timeline
Gene Coon’s story outline, ST #39: October 10, 1966.
Coon’s 1st Draft teleplay: October 13, 1966.
Coon’s 2nd Draft teleplay (Mimeo Department “Yellow Cover 1st Draft”):
October 18, 1966.
Coon’s Final Draft teleplay: October 28, 1966.
Coon’s Revised Final Draft teleplay: November 3, 1966.
Additional page revisions by Coon: November 4, 7, 8, 10 & 15.
Gene Coon, for his first two months at Star Trek, had been far too busy rewriting scripts started by others to contribute original material of his own. By October, he had good reason to believe it would be less work to write something new rather than continue to fuss over inherently problematic stories purchased before the series was even on the air.
Coon’s story outline for “Arena” was dashed off and sent to NBC in one day -October 10, 1966 -- which was also the day Coon, with Roddenberry out of the office, did his script polish on “The Menagerie.” Coon always dazzled his colleagues with his speed as a writer and, very nearly as often, by the quality of what came from his typewriter.
NBC’s Stan Robertson was among those dazzled. He wrote back, “I think this is one of the really superior Star Trek story outlines we have received to date. This is action-adventure at its exciting best.” (SR19)
In this early telling of the story, once Kirk vanishes from the Enterprise at the end of Act II, the Enterprise itself seems to vanish ... from the story, at least. Robertson told Coon:
My only concern is that in Acts III and IV, Kirk and the Gorn are on camera most of the time. Even though the action is very thrilling, I’m of the belief that this could become repetitious to the viewer and result in a large tune-out. (SR19)
Robertson suggested Coon find a way to “cross-cut” from the action on the planet to the inherent action on The Enterprise. It was a good idea, but came too late to be incorporated into the First Draft script. Coon was so sure of his story that he wrote the First Draft faster than Robertson could read and respond to the outline.
Robert Justman remembered and often spoke of how Gene Coon wrote the script in a single weekend. Actually, he did it during the work week. The story outline popped into existence on a Monday; the First Draft teleplay was finished three days later, on Thursday. As Coon typed “FADE OUT,” however, the feedback on the outline began flooding in. Stan Robertson’s high praise came first, but, later that same day, the clearance notes from Kellam de Forest landed on Coon’s desk. And then all hell broke lose.
Gene Coon’s first original story for Star Trek was anything but original. The new producer had apparently forgotten that he once read a short story by science fiction author Fredric Brown, also called “Arena,” first published in Astounding magazine in 1944. Pete Sloman at Kellam de Forest Research spotted the resemblance immediately, beginning with the title, and then followed by:
1) Aliens attacking earth colonies; 2) Imminent battle between Earth and aliens; 3) Intervention of third, highly advanced intelligence; 4) Instant transportation of Earthman and Alien, unarmed, to “arena” on an asteroid; 5) Single combat to determine which race survives; 6) The quality of mercy being the decisive factor in the outcome…. It is our opinion that Coon’s “Arena” is substantively similar to the copyrighted story “Arena” by Fredric Brown, and the airing of a screenplay from this outline without purchase of the Brown story could be actionable. (KDF19)
Sloman said, “There were occasional rip-offs. I remember that ‘Arena’ was a rip off down to the title. And anybody who knows science fiction knows Fredric Brown’s work. It’s possible they didn’t. It seemed to me that so few people on that show knew about classic American science fiction, but it would be hard to imagine that case was coincidental. Even so, we had virtually no idea what was going on over at the production office because our job was so specialized and we were so insulated from NBC or the production company or anybody else. So we just got the results of what everybody was freaking out over.” (158a)
And there was a great deal of “freaking out.” The disclosing of this particular “ripoff” caused great embarrassment for Coon, with his first Star Trek story, which had not only been accepted by NBC but trumpeted by Stan Robertson.
Desilu Legal switched into high gear and contacted Fredric Brown’s agent, who then took the matter up with his celebrated client.
Bjo Trimble, who Gene Roddenberry had befriended at Tricon in September 1966, said, “Fred Brown was very surprised to be contacted by Desilu. He talked to me about it at a science fiction convention. They asked him, ‘How would you like to write something for Star Trek.’ And he said, ‘Well, maybe, but I’
ve never written anything for TV before.’ And they said, ‘Well, actually, you have.’” (177-8)
Brown was open to the idea but wanted to see the script before agreeing to sell the film rights to his story.
Coon got busy rewriting.
Other elements in the script did not happen as a result of subconscious plagiarism. A more deliberate design was at play here. The Metrons were named after “Metatron,” an angel in Judaism. In Greek, the word translates to “instrument of change.” Cestus III, the name of the outpost, was taken from the Latin word Cestus, meaning a form of boxing glove worn by gladiators in the arena.
Coon’s revised script -- his second draft -- was sent off to be reformatted by the Mimeo Department and designated as the Yellow Cover 1st Draft, dated October 18. It was cleaner, but Coon still hadn’t figured out a satisfactory way to address Stan Robertson’s earlier criticism -- that the last half of the story, limited to the action on the planetoid as Kirk fights the Gorn captain, could become redundant for a TV audience. Coon tried to stimulate the action by adding a voiceover -- a sort of extended Captain’s Log, clueing the audience in on Kirk’s thinking, his concerns, and how he figures out a way to perhaps win the battle.
It was Gene Roddenberry who finally found the means to alternate between Kirk’s story and the ones of those left behind on the Enterprise. Roddenberry’s memo to Coon opened and ended on very positive notes:
Like it very much; it certainly is very exciting.... Excellent ending. I think it is an excellent draft, very much what the series needs. (GR19)
In between the praise were many concerns, including:
Bob will no doubt have some comments on the cost of providing a ruined colony. We may have to be inventive here. (GR19)
As for the structure problems, including the one noted by Stan Robertson, Roddenberry wrote:
These Are The Voyages, TOS, Season One Page 74
