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Richard Arnold, Who Started as Gene Roddenberry’s Assistant and Later Became Star Trek’s Archivist, Has Died

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Richard Arnold, the man who began his career as Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry’s assistant and and became Star Trek’s archivist has died.

Arnold was 66.

Mike Okada first announced Arnold’s death on Twitter: We have just learned the sad news that Richard Arnold has passed away. Richard loved Star Trek and was president of Grace Lee Whitney’s fan club before becoming an assistant to Gene Roddenberry at Paramount, where he served as Star Trek archivist for many years. He was 66.

“I read all the scripts, read all the books,” Arnold said in a 2017 interview at The Continuing Voyage convention. “Just to keep it to what was established, because there was so much already, just from the original series. The books didn’t count, the comics didn’t count, the games didn’t count. It was only what we’d seen on screen, and even Gene was sort of [ambivalent] about the third season of the original series, which he didn’t personally produce, and the animated series — he did that at the time because, he said, he needed the money, but once things started happening again with the live action he kind of regretted it, so he said that didn’t exist.”

The official Star Trek Twitter account posted: We are saddened to report the passing of Richard Arnold. Arnold made his mark on the #StarTrekUniverse as Gene Roddenberry’s assistant and the Star Trek archivist. He will be greatly missed. 

Arnold earned a reputation among the writers working on Star Trek tie-ins for revoking stories or demanding changes for seemingly arbitrary reasons. Arnold disputed those claims, maintaining that he never had sole control over what licensed Star Trek stories did or did not see the light of day, but that he worked with Roddenberry in going through the stories. He believed that the writers were not used to answering to an editor and blamed him publicly because he was a safer target than the beloved Roddenberry.

In total, Arnold was credited as a research consultant on 66 episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation. For years, he wrote a column in Star Trek: Communicator, the old Star Trek fan club magazine. He also had cameo appearances in two Star Trek movies. He was an Enterprise crew member in Star Trek: The Motion Picture and a Romulan science tech in 2009’s Star Trek. He also appears in the documentaries Trekkies and Trekkies 2, helmed by Star Trek: The Next Generation alum Denise Crosby.

More recently, Arnold appeared as a background performer, a Romulan crewmember aboard the Narada in 2009‘s Star Trek.

May he live long and prosper.

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