Turnabout Intruder...then what?

So Turnabout Intruder ended up being Star Trek's final episode when NBC decided not to pick up an option it had for two extra episodes, mercifully shortening a vastly inferior season three.

Turnabout was filmed from December 31, 1968 till January 9th 1969. The final draft script was dated 20th December, with a revised version made on the 30th, right before filming.

Unfortunately it wasn't enough to save Star Trek going out with a contoversial, campy, and silly episode that doesn't come close to Star Trek at its best. Rumours are rife that the star actor was irritated and sick, and argued non stop with a jaded director. Sadly, it was a terrible way to go out.

But what if it hadn't been the final episode, and that option was picked up for the last two shows?

Preparations must have been quite advanced on Episode 25, and probably Episode 26. Given the Christmas break as well, things must have been well advanced with scripts and maybe casting and set designs.

Sure, it was more than likely NBC were not going to order those final two, but Freiberger and whoever was left at that point could not be so negligent to just assume that, and have nothing ready to go.

Does anyone know what was planned for those final two?

 

I'll wager 5 quatloos that Harvey knows.

 

No bet there. Oh, and Heil the Fuhrer!

 

Alas, I have no idea, although I have been searching the archives for the answer to this question.

At the beginning of pre-production on season three (March 29, 1968; two months before 'Spectre of the Gun' went before the cameras) Star Trek had three final draft teleplays on hand that were never filmed. At the time, they were marked as "rewrite needed." They were:

There were also a number of story assignments at that time that were never filmed. Those were:

You can read about most of these at the Orion Press Unseen Elements of the Original Series page.

There were also a few Roddenberry "springboards" written at the end of season two (Gene Coon may have also had a hand in these; I'll save them for another discussion). Any of these might have been slated as potential episodes 25 & 26; then again, once Star Trek was scheduled in the Friday, 10pm "death slot," just about everyone saw cancellation as a forgone conclusion.

 

What, no Reason I and Reason II?

 

Thanks for looking those up Harvey. Your reputation as the go to guy for this stuff is secure

I'd say you're probably right, it was likely a done deal that it wasn't going to happen (the pickup of the last two), and someone had communicated this to Freiberger, who decided to keep the news of the cancellation away from the cast so they could get the best product out of them as possible in the circumstances.

You'd *think* that by now production sketches of an aborted episode 25, or a "I was set to appear in Star Trek, then they cancelled it" story from an actor would have cropped up by now if any serious work was done, but who knows.

One thing I have learned about TOS is never count anything in or out till you see it in a memo!

Sometimes you hear Shatner was set to direct 25 or 26 - myth or fact?

 

Of all sad words
In tongue or pen
The saddest are these:
It might have been

-John Greenleaf Whittier

 

In the book Star Trek Lives! which was published during the 70s-ish age of conventions, one of the book's authors had been on set that day. Apparently Shatner was suffering a bout of flu or something, as he had a fever the day he carried guest star Sandra Smith to a waiting gurney in the transporter room, making a wisecrack about her weight, and was sweating between takes. Besides everyone knowing the show was ending, probably the biggest weight on his mind was his marriage was rapidly falling apart and divorce proceedings were beginning, so he wasn't seeing his kids as much as he wanted.

I briefly checked his book Star Trek Movie Memories, but he doesn't give any indication of what the next episode was to be, but apparently he was penciled in to direct it once it was chosen.

 

For anyone interested in might-have-beens, The Joy Machine was novelized in 1996 by James Gunn.

 

Let's not forget the the last words spoken in the original series were "if only....If only"

 

I loved it when Dr. Lester returned to her own body, crying and as a complete lunatic, demanding that her boyfriend kill Kirk. Then, upon realizing he was in no rush to do so, started wimpering softly, "... now I'll never get to be the Captain." Then her boyfriend answers her, kind of half to himself, really, "you are ... as I've loved you." ... HA!! This line never fails to crack me up. I don't know what it is. She was always a whackadoo and it always turned him on, apparently. He must enjoy it ...

 

Probably so he could keep her sedated all the time and not have to listen to her.

 

Really? It made me sad to see Sturgeon in the might-have-been list. He's just one of the best writers ever, imho.

 

Interesting that "BEM" was conceived that far back. Of course one wonders how that would have played out in live-action. Live-action in the '60s would never have been able to pull off a colony being (maybe a good thing considering how ludicrously it was done on TAS) and a tribe of bipedal lizards would have been beyond them. One (like a Gorn) you could do, but more than that forget it.

Some years ago I read The Joy Machine. Uh, no joy in it. It really read like a story idea rather than a genuine TOS adventure/drama. That said it could have been worked into something passable, but as is it reminded me too much of "Return Of The Archons."

 

I thought that as well...when BEM detaches from his lower torso.

Was Shore Leave II what turned out as "Once Upon a Planet?"

 

I believe "Once Upon a Planet" and "Shore Leave II" are separate stories, albeit ones that revisit the same planet (from "Shore Leave").

Not 100% sure on that. At some point, though, I'll copy the "Shore Leave II" outline and we'll all know.

 

Does "Japan Triumphant" (I can't find anything via Google on it) sound like it might have been reworked into the Phase II story, "Tomorrow and the Stars"?

As a side note: I'd trade all the Berman-era series and the Abramsverse for those 13 Phase II episodes. Does that make me sick?

 

Hard to say.

I'm not sure an outline for that story ("Japan Triumphant") was even submitted, and I'm not that familiar with Star Trek: Phase II. I believe I have an outline indicating some post-season two story ideas which describes the episode idea further, but I'll have to wait until later in the week to find it.

--

And, a Spock-less, Kirk-lite, TMP aesthetic (but with a lower budget) series run by a Roddenberry who had already begun to lose perspective? Nah, I'll take the Berman series and the Abrams films over that any day of the week.

 

Thanks for the info and the hard work researching and answering these questions, Harvey!

Honestly, I think it would have only been a matter of time before Nimoy showed up and him and Shatner became the center of the show.

 

I don't know about Nimoy. It took a major motion picture and Robert Wise's input (if I remember correctly) to get Paramount to settle the suit and bring Nimoy back into the fold.

I imagine that, without him, the series would probably have been lowly rated and quickly cancelled. But, of course, it's all speculation.