I'm curious if anyone knows why the contributions of Robert Sallin to TWOK are almost always ignored and never discussed. Contrary to popular belief, Harve Bennett was not the producer on TWOK -- he didn't assume that role until TSFS. He was the executive producer on TWOK which, oddly enough, despite the word "executive" is "outranked" by the producer. Robert Sallin was the producer. Yet we hear all about Harve Bennett and Nicholas Meyer, but virtually nothing about Robert Sallin. So... who is Robert Sallin? What was his role with TWOK? Why was he not connected with any other Trek film? And why is he never discussed at all, in any of the many books or documentaries that have been made about the behind-the-scenes aspect of the film? Help satisfy my curiosity! Thanks!
IIRC, Allan Asherman's "The Making of ST II" discusses his involvement, and I think either Sallin or Bennett discussed Sallin's work on ST II in Starlog. From memory, he was the one who watched TMP to work out what stock footage, models and wardrobe items could be reused for ST II to save maximum money. Memory Alpha says, "Robert Sallin was the producer of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. He was given the job of making this production with a much smaller budget than was used to make Star Trek: The Motion Picture. Among his achievements was changing the Starfleet costumes from the one-piece jumpsuits of The Motion Picture to the more comfortable uniforms seen in Star Trek II and subsequent films. He also ensured that James T. Kirk received his famous dramatic entrance. Star Trek II is the only film Sallin has produced. "During the 1958-59 television season, Sallin served as a production assistant on NBC's adventure series Steve Canyon. He went on to direct the 1969 Warner Bros/Seven Arts drama The Picasso Summer, which was TOS guest star Theo Marcuse's last film. He later directed episodes of the CBS shows The American Girls and The Mississippi, and two episodes of the NBC series Riptide, including one with Miriam Flynn. "Most recently, Sallin was a Second Unit Director on the 1995 Warner Bros. action film Assassins. Stephen Liska was a cast member in this film, which featured art direction by Nathan Crowley." http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Robert_Sallin
The asherman book and the CFQ double issue go into Sallin's involvement extensively, including how he made Meyer's dream of a dolly down the torpedo trench for thirty bucks.
There's a five-page long article about / interview with Sallin about his work on The Wrath of Khan in Star Trek: The Magazine, volume 3, issue 5 (September 2002).
I can never hear the name Bob Sallin without cringing. The first time I ever heard that name was on the TWOK Merv griffin epidode from May 1982. First Shatner came out and they showed a clip and talked then Nimoy---the same, and finally out came Dee Keley. He was nervous as hell and was basically retired and not used to the spotlight---other than conventions i guess and somehow Bob sallin's name came up and Kelley pointed to him in the audience (where i suppose he was overseeing the proceedings) and Kelley blurted out, "Bob Sallin--handsome." WTF?? There was an awkward silnce and then kelley pointed out how nervous he was and Nimoy said something like, "you're doing fine." Worst part when the camera cut over to Sallin--he wasn't handsome. Kindof old and bald.
That was mighty good reading there, Ottens. Collaborative Effort: It is a lesson which Rick Berman taught to Gene Roddenberry, but an important advice which Berman did not give to himself.
Most of Sallin's work for TWOK seems to have been pretty good, but I just don't get his thinking when it comes to turning around the TMP space office and supposing nobody would notice...
That is what he was forced to do, or else they would have lost something else in the tight budget as it was.
Funny how someone on a board devoted to Star Trek would think it odd that the exec would be outranked.
That's a little misleading. As producer, Sallin had a more hands-on job and was reponsible for a lot of the decisions made for the movie, but as Executive Producer, Harve Bennett was his boss. I would guess that Bennett got more involved in Star Trek III because he wrote it too.
That's true for TWOK. But, in general, the top dog on a movie production -- save for the studio execs, of course -- is the producer and not the executive producer. Which is why I thought it odd that Bennett was the latter and not the former. Heck, executive producer titles are routinely handed out to people who had nothing to do with the actual production of the film at all, like people who just put up financing.