"It has become a crusade of mine to demonstrate that TV need not be violent to be exciting," he said. "I wanted to send a message to the television industry that excitement is not made of car chases. We stress humanity, and this is done at considerable cost. We can't have a lot of dramtics that other shows get away with -- promiscuity, greed, jealousy. None of those have a place in 'Star Trek.' " From a B-17 to Starships

Eugene Wesley Roddenberry was born in El Paso, Tex., on Aug. 19, 1921, and grew up in Los Angeles, where his father worked in law enforcement. He attended Los Angeles City College, the University of Miami and Columbia University, studying pre-law and aeronautical engineering.

He qualified for a pilot's license and flew a B-17 Flying Fortress in World War II on 89 missions, including Guadalcanal and Bougainville. He won the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Air Medal, among other decorations. While in the South Pacific, he began to write stories and poetry for magazines and newspapers.

After the war, he joined Pan Am as a pilot, and flew for four more years. From 1949 to 1953, he was a sergeant with the Los Angeles Police Department, working as a department spokesman and a speech writer for Chief William H. Parker. He also began writing for television, and from 1953 to 1962 wrote scripts for "The U.S. Steel Hour," "Goodyear Theater," "The Kaiser Aluminum Hour," "Four Star Theater," "Dragnet," "The Jane Wyman Theater" and "Naked City."

He won his first Emmy Award for "Have Gun, Will Travel," a western (starring Richard Boone as Paladin) that, according to some film and television critics, was a precursor of "Star Trek" in that its wit, characterizations and themes were only incidentally set in a particular time and place.

The original "Star Trek," Mr. Roddenberry told an interviewer a few years ago, was technically primitive but with high aims for adventure and in the way it portrayed people and their relationships.