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Science Fiction & UFOs

Science Fiction

Do I enjoy science fiction? I’m not a real, real addict with science fiction. I like certain things, you know, I’m kind of choosy, I guess, about it. I like the subtle type more than the... like I wanted to... When we did Star Trek I, we were asked what we thought would go, thinking that what we said would be -- that some attention would be paid to it. It was not. And I said that I would like to see a hell of a story, with just a minimum of special effects, you know, where they just pop in very surprisingly, something kind of out of the ordinary for that time. Four had a lot of that kind of thing in it. That’s the type of science fiction that I enjoy most.
[Convention: Vulkon, Ft. Lauderdale, FL 1/17/88]

UFOs

Do I believe in UFO's? All right. I'm going to tell you a story. I saw one. Years ago, we were driving to New York from California... Carolyn and a friend of mine, an executive with a finance company, a very reputable human being... just to let you know that we were all people of good sensibilities. We were in Loui­siana, corning through the swampland type of country, and it was evening. It was sunset and I was in the back seat while Carolyn was driving. We had been switching off on the driving. This object passed in front of us at a height of about 600 feet at the most -- very low. A long... the usual thing you hear... a long, cigar-shaped ob­ject with green and blue flames flicking off to the side. And as it went by, I got the best look at it because I saw it first, I guess, and I was in the back seat and I could just watch it. But it happened so fast. It had a red identification-light flicking on the back as it went away and laid down a jet stream. And I thought, my God, nobody will ever believe what I thought I saw, anyhow. So we came into Montgomery, Ala­bama and I regret to this day I didn't buy the paper because the headline said, "Mysterious object sighted over southland". That's all. And that's all I'm going to tell you. That's what I saw and it was not an illusion in my mind. You didn't know that did you?
[Convention: Midcon, England, September 1986, transcribed in Guyer, 1993.]