A few people have sought to correct my assertion in the CRB that Star Trek was modeled on Gulliver's Travels. They've cited the (commonplace) proposition (that all Star Trek fans have heard a million times) that Roddenberry was imitating Wagon Train and Horatio Hornblower. Yes, he did do the latter. But as Marc Cushman explains in These Are The Voyages, the definitive history of the series, Roddenberry used these examples to explain the show. His inspiration for the show was "to be a modern-day Jonathan Swift," and he aimed the show in precisely that direction. "I always enjoyed Jonathan Swift," Roddenberry said. "It always seemed to me the type of writing I was doing was like what Swift did." (Vol. 1, page 1). The comparison to Wagon Train was actually devised by producer Sam Peeples, in an effort to sell the show to the networks. It was not Roddenberry's idea. (pp. 24-25.)
Update: My friend Scott (whose middle name is Kirk, so he knows what he's talking about) points out that in Inside Star Trek: The Real Story, Herb Solow and Bob Justman report that Roddenberry was so influenced by Swift that they briefly considered naming the starship captain "Gulliver" and even titling the show Gulliver's Travels.
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