Robert H. "Bob" Justman, a producer who was one of the creative forces behind the original Star Trek television series as well as Star Trek: The Next Generation, has died Wednesday at his Los Angeles home of complications from Parkinson's disease. He was 81.
In 1964, Justman was hired by Gene Roddenberry as Associate Producer and Assistant Director for "The Cage", the first pilot episode of Roddenberry's Star Trek. When NBC rejected "The Cage" but allowed Roddenberry to make a second attempt at a pilot, Justman was brought back as Associate Producer and Assistant Director for "Where No Man Has Gone Before". NBC accepted this pilot and picked up the series, and Justman was brought aboard as an Associate Producer on the show.
Justman was creator Gene Roddenberry's right-hand man on Star Trek, managing the series along with Gene L. Coon and Herbert F. Solow.
As associate producer, technical consultant and eventually co-producer, Bob Justman wielded considerable influence on Star Trek from its beginning in 1966 until 1969, when NBC canceled the series after its third season. He was involved in all facets of production and had a hand in casting, set design and props, as well as story lines and scripts.
Justman was a supervising producer on Star Trek: The Next Generation, along with Rick Berman, who later became executive producer of the show as well as subsequent spinoffs.
"I can't tell you how nurturing this guy was to me," Berman told the Los Angeles Times. "He was like a mentor and a father. He was extraordinary."
It was Justman who discovered and pushed for the casting of Patrick Stewart for the role of Captain Jean-Luc Picard.
"Roddenberry was very against the idea of a bald British actor playing the next Capt. Kirk," Berman said. "But Bob was very persistent, and Patrick became Capt. Picard."
As the TNG first season was winding down, however, Justman decided to retire. For the last eight episodes of the season, he was credited as a Consulting Producer. |
