John D.F. Black is a name fans of Original Series Star Trek know very well. As the writer of "The Naked Time," Black made his mark early; this was only the seventh episode produced. Black was also show's first Associate Producer and Story Consultant hired, so he had a bird's-eye view of the genesis of the show. In this 2001 video interview, Black — along with his wife Mary, who also worked for the show — reflects back on those early days.

This is the transcript of the video interview.

STARTREK.COM: Who are you and where are you from?

John D.F. Black: I grew up in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania My name is John D.F. Black and I don't think I have anything else to say on the subject.

Mary Black: I'm Mary Black. When I was at Star Trek I was Mary Stowell. I met John at City College where he was directing while he was also breaking into writing for film and television.

Q: What did you do before working on Star Trek?

JB: Went to School. Was in the Army during the Korean War. Worked at the LA Times where I got my first job. I mean I got my first job through an ad in the LA Times and went to sell the man a redo of his ad. He was looking for a screenwriter. I said you don't have to run the ad again. Save yourself $6. I'll do it and I can. And he accepted me. His name was Boris Petroff — Brook L. Peters professionally, in the United States. Mary got me an agent. She had a friend working in the ad agency with her who was connected with an agent and the agent was very nice. I wrote a story a day every day and a script a week until I could break in — still didn't — it took some years. I broke in the night before a writer's strike. Delivered the script (with the Writer's Guild's permission). That was for a show called Johnny Staccato which is an old old old series. My favorite show I wrote before I got on the Trek was Mr. Novak which was about a Polish kid from Pittsburgh, which I happen to be, who went to Pitt, which I happened to have done ... so I understood the character rather well.

Q: How did you get the job working on Star Trek?

JB: Well I won the Writer's Guild award for a Mr. Novak that was called ... um ...

MB: "With a Hammer In His Hand, Lord Lord"

JB: "With a Hammer in his Hand, Lord Lord" from the John Henry — which was about working people, which was one of my favorite topics at the time. When the awards ceremony was over G.R, Gene Roddenberry, came over to our table and said I'd really like you and your party to come over to the house. A couple of days later ... I didn't realize at that point that I was being auditioned. Gene and I had talked for a couple minutes — alone — and I got a call from my agent and she said Gene Roddenberry wants you to work on Star Trek. I really was not a science fiction expert at all. I knew about writing. But not science fiction. My first association with science fiction was when I was 17 or 18, living in New York, trying to break in as an actor. I wanted to be an actor before I could write because I didn't know what it was like to have someone else's words in my mouth, and before you write you should really know that. And so I got a job working on a show called Tom Corbett: Space Cadet. The star was Frankie Thomas. I was a Venusian. I was a captain. And the reason I got the job was because I was tall. I stand about six three. Mary came with me.

Q: What was your job on Star Trek?

MB: John was the Executive Story

JB: ...Consultant and Co-Producer

MB: And Associate Producer... balancing with Bob Justman. And I was John's secretary. That was my title. As Dorothy Fontana was Gene Roddenberry's "Secretary." That was her title at that time. Dorothy was actually working as a writer on one script, but both of us functioned as executive assistants to the person who we were tied to. And as secretary, I typed and, just as Dorothy did, I analyzed material as it came in. To give an extra voice to the bosses. It's a very living thing in a production office and how it is that secretary's function is often as a kind of part grunt at the typewriter and part social secretary trying to keep everybody happy and, "This would be a good time to have a party, what do ya say?" And that was a lot of what I would do. I loved it. It was wonderful.

Q: Would was your favorite part of the job?

MB: The personalities were very strong and very interesting.

JB: My favorite part of the job was also the toughest part of the Job, which was dealing with the writers. We were dealing with some giants and we were also dealing with some people who were not giants. The intimidation of sitting down with Theodore Sturgeon who was, at that time, the most anthologized writer in the English language ... at least as far as I was told. I didn't know from science fiction so I couldn't verify it one way or the other. But I believed it. The man was an adorable human being but his mind was absolutely incredible. We wrote a thing in the Star Trek magazine and came to the conclusion that he was somebody from outer space. He was just visiting here. He could talk, he could speak the language, he could do everything like any other human being. But he wasn't. So that was wonderful and at the same time it was terrifying.

Q: What was the hardest part of the Job?

JB: When you like somebody and you respect somebody or if you disrespect somebody because you don't think they're that good you can't treat them any different. You can't lie. You can't lie but you have to treat them all with respect and that respect is something that is difficult sometimes. When somebody delivered a piece of material that was not up to their standards or ours I had to talk to them about that piece of material without saying "What the hell do you think you were doing?" You just can't do that. So that's tough.

Q: What is your favorite episode from the Original Series?

JB: Mine. "Naked Time." There was no villain. That was what we called in that time frame a bottle show. A bottle show meaning: it only involved people who were going to be there every week. Or probably every week. We had Tormolen and Riley. They were both being considered very seriously to be on the show more regularly. So those two crewmen were important to the show and we decided to go that way. But it was a bottle show so that there was no villain. Nobody got on to the ship. It was a disease. And what it came down to, if you look at it, it was drunkenness without the slurs and staggering. That's really what I did. We did. I did.

MB: You did.

JB: I did.

MB: That's really not one I contributed to I just said "Wow!"

JB: That was my pet show because I loved seeing the performances. You know there was a calendar once and they asked people for their favorite segment. And Majel said that she liked "The Naked Time" best. I don't know if she still does but she did then.

Q: Who is your favorite Star Trek captain?

JB: The only one I know. Billy Shatner. But Billy was there at the beginning, there was no precedent. It's all well to say that Jeff was a precedent but I don't think he was. But Billy was really the inventor of Captain Kirk. The way he used ... well in the opening, "Civilizations". The way he put that emphasis on the I the second "I". And he did that to a greater or lesser degree every time they redid that afterwards. He liked the uniform. He really did. And it suited him and he knew it. It was like meeting Macarthur or meeting ... pick a General. You meet him and there he is and he likes himself in a suit. And he really did. And he had every reason to. I think Bill Theiss thought more about the uniform as they applied to Kirk than about everybody else on the show. It just worked very well that everybody else looked good in the uniform. But it was Bill.

Q: What piece of Star Trek technology were you most impressed by?

JB: The two guys who never missed getting those two doors to open onto the bridge. Those two guys were wonderful. But those two guys never missed! I mean, there were the doors and somebody would walk up to the doors and it was "shooop, shhhooop" and it was never an inch off this way or that way. It was like Ethel Merman on stage. You could go to the theater 50 nights in a row and watch her in "Call Me Madam," which I did — which sounds stupid. But I was waiting for her to miss her spot. There was a spot that she would come down to right downstage and stop in exactly in the same spot at center stage. Dead center. And she would do it and she would do it and she never missed. Her right foot would hit that same spot. And then one night she missed it by about that much. And then I could quit watching "Call Me Madam." That's how those two guys were with those doors. "Shooop, shooop." "Shoop, shhhooop." The effect was great but they never missed — at least as far as I knew.

Q: What do you watch on TV at home?

MB: What's your pet? Sopranos?

JB: Yeah. Probably The Sopranos.

MB: After John has gone to bed I watch "Sex and the City."

Q: Will you watch the new Star Trek show, Enterprise?

MB: Oh I think we definitely will! The publicity has been that Scott Bakula is going to take it back to, closer, to the original because his character is closer to that of Captain Kirk and Bakula is such a classic big-guy actor. I can't help but be curious about whether or not he can carry it off. He's got the equipment to do it. It should be interesting.

JB: One thing that bothers me in advance about the show, right now in advance, is that there is no Star Trek. It's not Star Trek. Whatever, it's just whatever. And Star Trek seems to have gone and I really don't like that. I mean, personally, I don't like that. But we never had any prejudice against any of the other captains or show structures or anything else. I liked ours best. I liked the first series best. Primarily, because it was really tough to do that. We saw as we came over, part of the bridge. Well that part of the bridge cost more than a segment when we were doing the show. Everything had to be reused. You really have to think back to that time frame and what the show was up against. The crew, the cast. They really had a hell of a time. We really had a hell of a time. It was tough.