It was an offer a struggling writer who just quit her day job could not refuse. Fontana said, “Okay.” What she was handed would become “This Side of Paradise.”
Episode 25: THIS SIDE OF PARADISE
Teleplay by D. C. Fontana Story by Nathan Butler (Jerry Sohl) and D. C.
Fontana
Directed by Ralph Senensky
NBC press release, March 2, 1967:
NBC publicity photo - Nimoy with Ireland
Jill Ireland guest-stars as Leila, the first woman with whom the normally unemotional Mr. Spock (Leonard Nimoy) falls in love following the discovery of a drug-like plant, in “This Side of Paradise” on NBC Television Network’s colorcast of Star Trek Thursday, March 2. Expecting to find no sign of life on the planet Omicron Ceti III, which has been bombarded by deadly space rays, Captain Kirk (William Shatner) is amazed when his landing party is greeted by botanist Leila (Miss Ireland) and colony ruler Sandoval (Frank Overton). Apparently unaware of the danger that surrounds them, the group rejects Kirk’s evacuation order. Before Kirk realizes the entire settlement is infected by a plant which induces a false sense of security and happiness, his own crew is similarly infected, including Spock, whose romance with the stunning Leila leads him to open defiance of his captain.
“This Side of Paradise” offers an examination of duty and responsibility, the dangers of repressed emotions, and a warning for the growing drug culture of the 1960s.
SOUND BITES
- Leila, to Spock: “There was always a place in your heart where no one could come. There was only a face you allow people to see -- only one side you would allow them to know.” Spock: “Emotions are alien to me.” Leila: “Someone else might believe that -- your shipmates, your captain -- but not me.”
- Kirk: “No wants or needs? We weren’t meant for that, any of us. Man stagnates if he has no ambition, no desire to be more than he is.”
- Kirk, after his crew abandons him: “I’m beginning to realize just how big this ship is ... and how quiet.”
- Kirk, goading Spock: “All right, you mutinous, disloyal, computerized half-breed, we’ll see about you deserting my ship.... What makes you think you’re a man? You’re an overgrown jack rabbit, an elf with a hyperactive thyroid.... You belong in a circus, Spock, not a starship! Right next to the dog-faced boy!”
- Kirk, after succeeding in provoking Spock to experience anger: “It’s not every first officer who gets to belt his captain ... several times.”
- Sandoval: “We don’t need you. Not as a doctor.” McCoy: “Oh, no? Would you like to see how fast I can put you in the hospital?”
- Spock: “I have little to say about it, Captain. Except that for the first time in my life, I was happy.”
ASSESSMENT
This is Star Trek at its best: science fiction blended with surprising humor and gut-wrenching drama, seamlessly interwoven through purposeful writing and inspired direction.
“This Side of Paradise,” at its core, is a heavily-disguised anti-drug statement. When made in 1967, a large segment of America’s youth were choosing to turn on and tune out -and this desertion of America’s young left the straight and sober feeling betrayed and abandoned, much like the lonely, brooding captain of the Enterprise.
In the earlier episode “The Naked Time,” Spock experienced emotion, but it was painful. Here he admits, for the first time in his life, he is happy. He grins from ear to pointed ear, hangs upside down in a tree, laughs and gazes at the sky, imagining dragons in the clouds. And he feels love. These are stirring and unforgettable images. Equally burned into the memory, Spock’s display of surprise, hurt, and then homicidal fury, as Kirk verbally attacks him. And, finally, the terrible sadness when he realizes that his ability to experience love and to laugh was merely temporary.
“This Side of Paradise” is a story about Spock. But it also rings strong for Leila Kalomi and Elias Sandoval. The audience is taken by her sadness, when Leila says to Spock: “I have lost you, haven’t I? Not just you, but all of it. The spores too... I’ve lost them too. And this is for my good?” And then Sandoval, with his somber realization: “We’ve done nothing here. No progress; no accomplishments. Three years wasted.... Three precious years!”
But “Paradise,” as with all Star Trek stories, is primarily about Kirk. The Captain spoke of his loneliness in “The Naked Time,” how his life was obsessively devoted to a “she” known as the Enterprise. Now we discover the depth to his inner torment. Without its heart and soul -- her crew -- Kirk’s beautiful ship is not whole. The Captain has never looked lonelier than when he steps onto the deserted bridge. Even when presented with a chance for paradise, the tormented Kirk is too driven and too tortured for the spores to take hold.
There is more. We see Dr. McCoy unburdened by duty and the determination to live his life for others. There was a hint of his Southern roots in “Shore Leave,” but no hinting around here.
It is rare, and certainly special, when a one-hour drama, restricted by the format of a continuing series, can service so many characters this effectively.
THE STORY BEHIND THE STORY
Script Timeline
Jerry Sohl’s treatment, ST-26, “Sandoval’s Planet”: June 15, 1966.
Sohl’s revised story outline, gratis, “Power Play”: July 15, 1966.
Sohl’s second revised outline, gratis: August 9, 1966.
Sohl’s 1st Draft script, “The Way of the Spores”: September 1, 1966.
Sohl’s 2nd Draft script: October 11, 1966.
Sohl’s script polish, gratis (Rev. 2nd Draft): October 16, 1966.
D. C. Fontana’s story outline, now “This Side of Paradise”: Nov. 16, 1966.
Fontana’s 1st Draft script: December 7, 1966.
Fontana’s 2nd Draft script (also Mimeo Department “Yellow Cover” 1st Draft):
December 11, 1966.
Gene Coon’s script polish (Final Draft): December 15, 1966.
Coon’s second script polish (Rev. Final Draft): December 28, 1966.
Additional page revisions by Coon: December 30, 1966 & January 4, 1967.
Jerry Sohl, having written “The Corbomite Maneuver,” returned for a second Star Trek, by invitation of Gene Roddenberry. Of his pitch to Roddenberry, Sohl said, “Spores, as you know, are inanimate up until the point when they are mixed with water or with anything else, then they come alive.... So I had the idea that these things could be consumed by someone and, as a result, the whole character chemistry of that person could change to a nice, peaceful and loving person.” (160-4)
“The Naked Time” showed us what could happen if everyone on the Enterprise were drunk. Sohl took it a step further. He said, “It was a psychedelic kind of thing. A lot of that was going on at the time. The premise of the thing was that everyone on the Enterprise takes LSD. What would happen?” (160-2)
Roddenberry put Sohl on assignment. His story, first called “Sandoval’s Planet,” then “Power Play,” then “The Way of the Spores,” had Sulu, not Spock, falling in love. And the spores were at the bottom of a well, described as “thousands of puffballs, varicolored and luminescent and moving about.”
Robert Justman was the first to react to the June 15, 1966 story outline for “Sandoval’s Planet.” He wrote Roddenberry:
I have just read Jerry Sohl’s treatment. I have to confess to you that I ended up very confused. I can’t seem to make any sense out of the story. And I think all the sub-stories only tend to confuse the issue. I don’t know which story is the main line of the treatment. (RJ25-1)
One element Justman did find of interest was the spores. Even while physically separated from one another, they were somehow connected and part of a larger organism -- a living, sensing, growing being. Presented in a very different manner, it was the idea he was most fond of in “The Return of the Archons,” that all of Landru’s people were a part of The Body. In his memo to Roddenberry, Justman wrote:
That to me, that idea, is the marvelous idea contained within Jer
ry’s treatment. There is the intriguing concept for us to play around with. (RJ25-1)
Sohl was asked to revise his outline for free, which he did, twice, turning in a second draft on July 15 and a third on August 9, the latter being the first to go to NBC. The title now was “Power Play.”
Stan Robertson, at the network, had mixed feelings. He wrote Roddenberry:
Again, Gene, we have another example of “something” infiltrating into the bodies of our crewmen or into our ship, threatening the lives of our heroes and the destruction of their ship. In “The Naked Time” we called it a “virus.” This time it is a “spore.” In other stories, we’ve given “it” various names and varying components and attributes. And the result is a “sameness.” (SR25)
As for those “other stories,” Robertson was remembering:
- “Miri,” in which the landing party is infected with, and dying from, a man-made disease;
- “The Return of the Archons,” in which Sulu has been absorbed by Landru and, in early drafts of the story and script, takes over the bridge and tries to pilot the ship into the planet’s atmosphere for a burn-up;
- The unproduced “Rites of Fertility,” in which the crew begin turning into plants.
On the same day Robertson wrote to Roddenberry, Justman wrote to Coon, who was setting up his office at Star Trek. He told the new producer:
Since this would no doubt be one of our shows that goes after a pickup from NBC, we shall have to be careful with regard to costs. It is Herb’s stated intention that we will bring in the next batch of shows for $185,000 or less. This show, on the surface of it, is greatly over budget. (RJ25-2)
With Roddenberry pulling back from his producer responsibilities, and Coon just starting to find his way at Star Trek, Sohl was advised to go to script with few notes other than, as always, to keep it cheap.
The First Draft script arrived on September 1. A collection of the staff notes, from Roddenberry, Justman and Carabatsos, told of many concerns. One wrote:
The dialogue is miserable -- and there is a lack of characterization. We keep losing sight of people, like Sandoval and Leila, then dragging them in by the heels when we need them. Recommend cutting and trimming, since the script is long now -- straight-line the action and have Kirk acting like the trained ship’s captain we know he is. (STAFF25-1)
Justman wrote:
Matt Jefferies is going to have to come up with some plants that we can have work and have them shoot spores when necessary. However, when we have the effect several times in the script of the spores actually floating around, I am a bit of a loss as to how to handle this effect. (RJ25-3)
Of Sohl’s Second Draft, now called “The Way of the Spores,” the notes from the staff included:
This is better than it was, certainly more straight-line and logical. The dialogue has also sharpened. One specific request: Change the title! (STAFF25-2)
Sohl did a free polish, dated October 16, but neglected to change the title. In fact, he neglected to change anything of consequence. So Roddenberry and Coon collectively decided to change the writer.
Dorothy Fontana recalled: “I looked at [the script] and thought about it, and there were two problems. One, the love interest was for Sulu. Nothing wrong with George Takei, and I really like George, but he wasn’t one of the heavy-weight stars of the show and, if you’re going to have a love story, you’re going to have to have it with one of them. And, with the spores, you could make it Spock, and you can make it a very emotional story, harking back a little to ‘The Naked Time.’ ‘What will happen when Spock is out of control?’ Only, this time, in terms of love.
“The other thing that was wrong with it was that the spores, which were the infection, were in a cave, and they kind of fumbled and bounced up and down like ping-pong balls. And the answer to that was, ‘Don’t go into the cave!’ So, by making them part of a plant that was all over the planet, anybody could be infected at any time. Everybody was at risk.” (64-1)
With Fontana’s rewrite, she had passed Roddenberry’s test and Star Trek found its new story editor. And, with her script, Fontana added elements to the Star Trek bible. We knew before that Spock’s mother was a human, his father Vulcan. Now it is established that his mother is a teacher, his father an ambassador. We will meet both in “Journey to Babel,” also written by Fontana.
Robert Justman was ecstatic. He wrote to Coon:
As usual, a shootable and well-constructed First Draft from the mysterious D.C. Fontana. (RJ25-4)
In fact, Justman’s memo lasted only three pages, unusually slight from him. He closed:
You will note that [this memo] is quite short. That means that I am quite happy. (RJ23-4)
Fontana, too, was happy, saying, “The fact that Spock not just disobeys an order from Kirk, but totally disregards it -- ‘Not interested’ -- that was a lot of fun.” (64-1)
Leonard Nimoy was less sure. Recalling a conversation with Fontana, he said, “I told her, ‘It makes me nervous to hear you even talk about such a thing. I feel I’ve finally gotten a good grip on the character and I don’t want to lose what we have.’ The Vulcan was firmly established in my mind -- and the audience’s -- as a cool, distant character, and the very phrase ‘Spock love story’ seemed oxymoronic.” (128-3)
Jerry Sohl would have objected too, if he had known of the changes. On December 12, 1966, a day or two after Fontana turned in her Second Draft script, Sohl wrote to Roddenberry:
And how’s “The Way of the Spores”? I hope you shoot it. Since I haven’t received any revised pages, I have the uneasy feeling it might have been put on a shelf somewhere. No -- sob! -- no. Say it isn’t so. (JS25-1)
Roddenberry delayed saying anything. He knew “Spores” was going to be made, but with a different title, different authorship, and an entirely different approach.
Meanwhile, Gene Coon was so pleased with Fontana’s Second Draft script that he declared it to be the official staff Yellow Cover First Draft and, without changing a word, distributed it to all Department Heads and sent a copy to de Forest Research.
Kellam de Forest had fewer peeves than usual, but did challenge the idea that a high degree of radiation bombarding the planet, as it had been described thus far, could accomplish what the story needed -- the destruction of living tissue, thereby, over a period of time, killing people and animals, but not killing insects and vegetation. He told Coon:
The general term “living tissue” would include all the plant life, as well as the animal life on the planet. Suggest dialogue indicate the radiation destroys the red blood cells and bone-marrow, which is more in line with the damage known that radiation causes and could conceivably not affect the vegetation. (KDF25)
Coon felt he had a better idea. For his December 15 Final Draft, the word “radiation” was stricken from the script and replaced by “Berthold rays.” Spock explains, “Berthold rays are such a recent discovery we do not yet have full knowledge of their nature. It is known that living animal tissue disintegrates under exposure after periods as brief as seventy-two hours.... A planet’s atmosphere would cut some of the effects, but any sustained exposure would mean death.” It was explanation enough to satisfy de Forest. NBC was also satisfied and approved the script on December 19.
Later that day, Roddenberry finally wrote to Jerry Sohl, trying to lay the blame on the network. His letter read, in part:
We did a rewrite on “The Way of the Spores.” You probably got a copy of it by now. Much of the reason had to do with Network pressure on this and that. I don’t think your script was hurt by the rewrite at all -- in fact, I wouldn’t let it be. But with the end of the year coming up and with a second year of Star Trek soon to be decided, it is important we bend with NBC when it doesn’t actually hurt the show. (GR25-1)
As Sohl read Fontana’s “This Side of Paradise,” he saw very little of his original material -- so little, in fact, that he not only lost the teleplay credit but had to share the “story by” credit. One of Star Trek’s firs
t writers and staunchest supporters was feeling deeply betrayed. He would respond and vent his anger, but not for several days, after “This Side of Paradise” had begun filming.
Pre-Production:
December 27-30, 1966 & January 3-4, 1967 (total 6 days prep).
Ralph Senensky, new to Star Trek, was hired to direct. Senensky began in television during the early 1960s. He proved his abilities on The Naked City, The Fugitive, Twelve O’clock High, and The Wild, Wild West, where he worked for Gene Coon.
It was Coon’s idea to bring Senensky to Star Trek, and had him screen several episodes, which did not include the recently produced and semi-comical “Tomorrow Is Yesterday.” Senensky saw nothing resembling comedy in the episodes he was shown. To the contrary, the series struck him as very dark, which is why he was pleased when, for his first Trek, he was offered “The Devil in the Dark.” Struck by the story, its theme, and its visual possibilities, Senensky immediately knew how to approach the somber material. And then the script was taken away and given to Joseph Pevney to direct. In its place, Senensky was assigned “This Side of Paradise.” Back then, before the experience of making it, seeing it, and witnessing its enduring popularity, Senensky admitted, “I have to say I was disappointed. ‘The Devil in the Dark’ was a strange, eerie script, where ‘This Side of Paradise’ seemed almost like a modern love story.” (155-5)
Jill Ireland on location with Star Trek (NBC publicity pix courtesy of Gerald Gurian)
Jill Ireland was 30 when she played Leila Kalomi, the girl from Spock’s past. She had been a regular for one year in the 1966 TV version of Shane, and had appeared in five episodes of The Man from U.N.C.L.E. with real-life husband David McCallum. After Star Trek, and after McCallum, Ireland’s acting career prospered through numerous big screen costarring roles with second hubby Charles Bronson in The Mechanic, The Valachi Papers, and Death Wish II.
Ireland had been watching Star Trek. She had recently seen “What Are Little Girls Made Of?” and came to the series a little worried. In 1968, Bill Theiss admitted, “When I first met Jill Ireland, she was a little uneasy about me. I didn’t find out until later it was because she had seen Sherry Jackson’s costume, and she was afraid I was going to do something as revealing on her. She could have carried it well, but the script would have been ill-served by anything as revealing.” (172-4)
These Are The Voyages, TOS, Season One Page 87
