Born to a
Jewish family in New York City, Justman was one of the pioneers behind
Star Trek, working both as an associate and supervising producer on
Star Trek: The Original Series and
Star Trek: The Next Generation. He was also the assistant director of the first two
Star Trek episodes: "
The Cage" and "
Where No Man Has Gone Before." During
Star Trek: The Original Series, he served as
Gene Roddenberry's right-hand man, who managed the show along with
John D. F. Black,
Herbert F. Solow,
D.C. Fontana, and
Gene L. Coon. Justman was reportedly the first to call
Gene Roddenberry "The Great Bird of the Galaxy," drawn from a
throwaway line from the
original series episode "
The Man Trap". Justman served as associate producer of
Star Trek during its first two seasons, and was promoted to co-producer at the start of the third before resigning, partly due to exhaustion, and partly due to his displeasure with the decline in quality of the series, as well as what he considered its poor treatment by Paramount, the new owner of the studio. Paramount radically reduced the production budget during its third season. Justman's
motion picture credits as an assistant director included
The Big Combo (1955),
Kiss Me Deadly (1955),
The Big Knife (1955),
Attack (1956), and
Mutiny on the Bounty (1962). Justman also appeared in front of the camera once as an actor, playing the "Elder of Luminos" in "
A Feasibility Study", a 1964 episode of
The Outer Limits. His name also became the name of a
shuttlecraft in
Star Trek: The Next Generation. Along with
Herbert F. Solow, Justman wrote the book
Inside Star Trek: The Real Story, published by
Pocket Books in 1996. According to
Publishers Weekly, "As told by Solow, ''Star Trek's
co-producer , and Justman, the executive in charge of production , this is arguably the definitive history of the TV show...With plenty of behind-the-scenes material that will be of interest to Trek'' fans, this book puts a good deal of emphasis on the show's business side, elucidating production difficulties, cost overruns, and the seemingly constant debate with NBC over the show's future." (
Publishers Weekly inadvertently gave Solow's title to Justman and vice versa.) ==Death==