Today In STAR TREK History: August 17th

Look! It's Admiral Bob...

Welcome to our round-up of the Star Trek episodes which received their premiere broadcast on this day throughout the show's long history, along with anything else of note that may have taken place. All viewing figures quoted are for U.S. premiere broadcast (unless noted).

August 17th
On this day in 1930 Harve Bennett was born. Most famously known for playing the Starfleet Admiral who ordered the USS Enterprise-A to planet Nimbus III to rescue three ambassadors who had been taken hostage by the Vulcan renegade, Sybok, during Star Trek V: The Final Frontier.

Of course not! Although that was Harve in a cameo. Bennett's forte was off-screen where he guided the motion picture series to several highs. Back in 1980, Bennett was called to a meeting with then top executives of Paramount Barry Diller and Michael Eisner, along with Charles Bluhdorn who was then head of Paramount's parent Gulf+Western. Bluhdorn, dissatisfied with the results of Star Trek: The Motion Picture, was looking for someone new to take over the next film in the series. According to Bennett, Bluhdorn asked him what he thought of the first Star Trek film and, after Bennett said he found it boring, Bluhdorn asked him if he could make a better picture and if he could do it for less than $45 million (the eventual budget of the first film). When Bennett said that he could, Bluhdorn said "do it" and he was hired.

A superb decision as it was Bennett's guidance that resulted in The Wrath of Khan (and a meager $12 million spent on it). After binging all 79 episodes of The Original Series, Bennett identified Khan as a worthy antagonist, developed the original story premise, and then worked with screenwriter Jack B. Sowards on the early drafts of the screenplay. Nicholas Meyer was later introduced to Bennett and completed the final drafts of the script, in addition to directing the film with Bennett as executive producer.

Harve Bennett then served as producer on the next three Star Trek films: The Search for Spock, The Voyage Home - which for a long time stood as one of the most successful of the Star Trek films — and The Final Frontier - which did not (a-hem). In addition to serving as producer, Bennett also wrote Star Trek III, co-wrote the story and screenplay for Star Trek IV, and co-wrote the story for Star Trek V - we all have our off-days.

As well as his on-screen cameo in Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, Bennett can also be heard in Star Trek III as the voice of the flight recorder.

Join us again next time for another round-up of the episodes broadcast, the movie's released, the special events, the birthday's celebrated and anything else of note that went down on this day in Star Trek history.