Spoiler Alert.

Rod Roddenberry celebrated a birthday as a child with a “Star Wars” cake, ordered by his dad, Gene Roddenberry, the creator of “Star Trek,” and his mother, Majel Barrett, an iconic “Star Trek” character and voice of the computer.

“If you are talking about the ages of 5, 6, 7, 8, ‘Star Trek’ was probably just too intellectual for me,” Roddenberry said Wednesday before Nani Azman’s “Psychology of ‘Star Trek’ ” class at UH-Maui College. ” ‘Star Wars’ was fun, was action, was story, was good guys-bad guys, something for a small kid, easier for a small kid to understand and grasp.”

That might be sacrilege for Trekkies, but his dad wasn’t offended by his son’s affinity for the rival “Star Wars.”

“I have a couple of photos of me blowing out a ‘Star Wars’ birthday cake, and I know my father, he knew the difference between the shows, and he knew what a kid would be drawn to,” said Roddenberry, a part-time resident of Lahaina.

“And perhaps, he wanted a Wesley Crusher kid, who was a genius at birth, but that certainly wasn’t me,” he said, referencing the child prodigy in “Star Trek: The Next Generation,” played by Wil Wheaton. “I wanted the action. Good guy-bad guy.

“I wasn’t that intellectual as a kid, and I’m probably not even that intellectual as an adult.”

Roddenberry, 46, who is executive producer of current CBS All Access “Star Trek” shows “Discovery” and “Picard,” said he rebelled against the Trek universe as a child. But after his father died in 1991, he came to understand the power of “Star Trek.”

At his father’s memorial, he recalled a speaker referencing a letter his dad received from a person who was a quadriplegic. The person had lost hope and was feeling life was not worth living.

“But ‘Star Trek’ came on the air and gave him hope for the future.” Roddenberry said. “Not that necessarily he could be cured of his handicap, his condition, but that he would not be looked as an outcast to society.”

That man turned his life around, got married and had two children.

“That was sort of like a big moment. I was like ‘Oh my God I didn’t know “Star Trek” had that kind of power,’ ” said Roddenberry. “So that was sort of the kickoff point for me to really kind of diving into it, to becoming more engaged, more involved, and very proud of it.”

Every day he sees the power of “Star Trek,” which debuted on TV in 1966 and spawned an ever-growing universe in syndication and with TV series like “Next Generation” and “Deep Space Nine” and a slew of movies like “Wrath of Khan,” “Nemesis” and the reboot “Star Trek Beyond.”

“I struggle with it on a daily basis,” Roddenberry said. “I struggle with it because I have spent a lot of my life, more than half of my life, of people coming up to me and saying ‘ “Star Trek” inspired me.’ ”

Stories range from being inspired to do better in school to getting out of an abusive relationship, “believing in themselves and achieving something that they maybe were told that they couldn’t when they were younger,” he said.

“And that is incredibly powerful, and in my opinion if ‘Star Trek’ is not doing that, it is not ‘Star Trek.’ ” said Roddenberry. “It can still be amazing storytelling, and it could be amazing characters, amazing acting. But if ‘Star Trek’ is not inspiring people or showing people a different point of view, then I would say it is not ‘Star Trek.’ And I would say most ‘Star Trek’ does do that on some level.”

In 2001, Roddenberry became chief executive officer of Roddenberry Entertainment, which builds on Gene Roddenberry’s work and focuses on multimedia science fiction, including books, comics, TV and movies, according to an IMDb.com profile.

He also founded the Roddenberry Foundation in 2010 to support innovative solutions to critical global issues in science and technology, the environment, education and humanitarian advances, according to IMDb.

‘Star Trek’ and Maui

Roddenberry’s Maui connection began in childhood, when the family would vacation “somewhat regularly” and stay at the Sheraton in the late 1970s and early 1980s. In his college years, he came to Maui for scuba diving and stayed on the south side.

Then in 2013, before the birth of his son, Roddenberry “realized it would be nice to slow down.” So, he purchased a home in Lahaina and renovated it.

He spends a week or two here every two months. He would like to make the stays longer, but he has a 6-year-old son, and he doesn’t want to be away from him. (Roddenberry and his wife are separated.)

Father and son come during spring and winter break. When he is older, Roddenberry hopes the boy will be able to hop on a plane and spend weeks and months at a time on Maui.

“I don’t want to say it’s just a slower life. It’s not slower because I’m still crazy here,” Roddenberry said about Maui. “I love being here. I feel good being here. My heart rate goes down being here. . . . I stop and look around — whether it is at the ocean or at the sky or the plants, and I appreciate the moment.

“I feel more centered here. I’m not very spiritual, but that’s the closest thing I can say to it.”

Taking advantage of having Roddenberry on island, Azman, who began offering her for-credit “Star Trek” psychology class last year, found a connection. Her friend and colleague at UH-Maui College, Liana Horovitz, was planning to audit the class with her daughter, Kalena, she said.

She got a text from Horovitz before the semester started, saying that Roddenberry was a client of her husband, lawyer Peter Horovitz, and asking if she wanted her husband to reach out to see if Roddenberry could come to class.

“I eventually was put in touch with Rod, and I now have the best guest speaker ever,” Azman said.

At the class Wednesday, with about a dozen students, professors and administrators and fans of “Star Trek” in the room and over videoconferencing, Roddenberry answered questions about himself, his dad and the universe.

Some topics and answers:

• His top series/movie: “Next Generation” because it was what he was raised with and was his first “Star Trek.” He likes Capt. Jean-Luc Picard’s collaborative approach to command. “I prefer to see the characters that choose the ethical approach, and there is no ego, there’s no fear. We are listening to someone. Someone new comes into the room, let’s hear their point of view,” he said.

• His favorite captain: Picard with Capt. Christopher Pike, played by Anson Mount in the recent “Discovery” series, “a close runner-up.”

• His favorite ship: Enterprise D in “Next Generation” because it is comfortable, classy and functional with cafeterias and arboretums, and homey with carpet. The newest ships are being made “aerodynamic, cool and hip.” “Don’t design a ship because it looks cool. ‘Star Wars’ sure. ‘Star Trek,’ it’s not just supposed to look cool,” he said. It is supposed to be for crews on five-year missions with families.

• Episodic vs. multishow story arcs: In older series, each show was a complete package; episodes in the newer shows are just pieces of the story. “I struggle with that too. I enjoy the moral theme of the story, the resolution, and you are not getting a resolution, you are not going to get a resolution until episode 10,” he said. He notes that he has difficulty remembering what happened in previous episodes in the longer story arc and prefers to binge watch “so I can get it the way it was intended.” He conceded that the “landscape of television has changed.”

• Swearing: Roddenberry said he gets emails complaining about the swearing in the new series. “I see them as words. Frankly, I swear plenty and the argument that’s been made, and I agree with, if you are not smart enough to come up with a word that better describes, you swear,” he said. “I’m enjoying the fact that they are doing something different. I’m enjoying the fact that they are making something new enough that people can come watch it again but still call back to characters and story points that classic fans can still grab on to. But it’s a tricky one right now.”

His ‘Star Trek’ family

“Star Trek” is in the family. His mom played Number One, first officer in the original “Star Trek” pilot show; nurse Christine Chapel in the original series; Lwaxana Troi, the Betazoid mother of Enterprise counselor Deanna Troi, in “Next Generation”; and the voice of the computer on the Enterprise.

Rebecca Romijn reprised the role of Number One on “Discovery” in season two, and while he was not on set, Roddenberry said he “loved the fact they honored her character and honored my mom and brought her in. And she did a great job.”

But Lwaxana Troi was “more my mom than any other character,” Roddenberry said.

“My mother wasn’t as outlandish as Lwaxana but that was her personality,” he said. “She was a bit of a sailor.”

He recalled her mother barging into the men-only grill at the golf club in the 1980s.

“My mother said f– that,” Roddenberry said. “She went in every time, and there was not a single man who told her to leave. She would sit down with the old farts smoking their cigars, talking about stupid stuff, and she would tell the dirty jokes right along with them.

“That is kinda Lwaxana. She was boisterous, never listened to anyone. She went for it and then you see those episodes . . . where the tender side comes out because you can tell that is just a facade on some level.”

“That was really my mother,” Roddenberry said. “And I only every now and then saw through the facade.”

When asked if he wants his son to enter the “Star Trek” universe and carry the family torch, Roddenberry said he wants him to do whatever he has an interest in. “I just want him to do something he loves but do it the best he can,” he said.

“I was encouraged many times but, no, I was not forced into it either,” Roddenberry said. “I rebelled against it the whole time, and I finally came over to it when I realized that ‘Star Trek’ was more than just entertainment, that it was positively impacting people’s lives. I became very proud of my father and ‘Star Trek,’ and I realized, ‘Oh I want to do something . . . I want to be involved in that.’ And in my own small way I am trying to do that.

“But what I had to figure out early on is that I am not trying to be Gene Roddenberry. I will not be Gene Roddenberry. There will never be another Gene Roddenberry. I’ll be me and whatever that is, I’m good with.”

* Lee Imada can be reached at leeimada@mauinews.com.