What is documented is that she was present at the first *Star Trek* feature film’s premiere and was photographed at several Star Trek-related events over the years. She was not a stranger to the phenomenon she had helped create; she was simply no longer part of its ownership structure.
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## Gene Roddenberry’s Later Years
Gene Roddenberry’s relationship with *Star Trek* after the original series ended was complicated — a creator who had been both celebrated and marginalized in the franchise’s subsequent development, and who lived long enough to see the launch of the television revival that confirmed his creation’s permanent place in American culture.
The period between the original series’ cancellation in 1969 and the first feature film in 1979 was difficult for Roddenberry professionally. He developed numerous television pilots and series concepts that did not sell. His *Genesis II* post-apocalyptic science fiction concept, though it produced a pilot, was not picked up. His attempt to work in feature film development produced limited results. The decade was one in which the audience was demanding more *Star Trek* while the studio controlling the rights was uncertain how to respond, and Roddenberry had no ownership power to force a decision.
When Paramount committed to the Phase II television series and then converted it to a feature film, Roddenberry was brought in as the executive producer. His control over the production was real in terms of creative authority but limited in practice by the studio’s investment in the project and by his own difficulties in managing the specifics of film production on a scale that exceeded his television experience.