‘Star Trek’ Origins and Genre Confusion

In “Overload of the ‘Rings’?” (Dec. 13) you write that without J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy, “most likely there would be no Capt. Kirk, no Luke Skywalker--and definitely no Harry Potter.”

With regard to Gene Roddenberry’s creation: “Star Trek’s” Capt. Kirk is a direct descendant of one of Roddenberry’s favorite fictional characters, C.S. Forester’s Capt. Horatio Hornblower. Roddenberry was also influenced by the Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon serials he saw as a teen in the 1930s and the many pulp novels he read. Tolkien’s work was not involved in the creation of “Star Trek.”

Your story confuses the genres. Tolkien’s story is fantasy and “Star Trek” is science fiction. Roddenberry was keenly aware of the differences and always sought to keep them separate. (I am the author of “Star Trek Creator: The Authorized biography of Gene Roddenberry,” 1994).

David Alexander

Garden Grove