Why so little Uhura in ST3?

Discussion in 'Star Trek Movies I-X' started by wonderstoat, Nov 28, 2008.

  1. Therin of Andor

    Therin of Andor Admiral Moderator

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    Yep. As detailed in the novelization, but not compelling enough to add scenes to a movie.
     
  2. Johnny

    Johnny Commander Red Shirt

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    Damn Right! And they can run it with Chimpanzees!
     
  3. RyanKCR

    RyanKCR Vice Admiral Admiral

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    You forgot the trainiee.
     
  4. Shatmandu

    Shatmandu Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Plus Koenig has to wear that Little Lord Fauntleroy outfit.

    Jeepers.

    Joe, corny
     
  5. Iamnotspock

    Iamnotspock Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    Had him eating...

    out of her hand. ;)
     
  6. Harvey

    Harvey Admiral Admiral

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    This story is also told on the DVD special features, IIRC.
     
  7. Peach Wookiee

    Peach Wookiee Cuddly Mod of Doom Moderator

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    Nice save. :D
     
  8. JoeD80

    JoeD80 Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    Uh...it got destroyed for a very good reason in Trek III though -- because Kirk was trying to save his f'n life. One of my favorite scenes of all Trek when the Klingons walk on to the bridge and find the computer counting down to 0. And Kirk is obviously upset at having to have destroyed it. Very dramatic.
     
  9. DataRules

    DataRules Lieutenant Commander Red Shirt

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    I wish the producers had given us one scene - even one in passing - of her messing things up for Starfleet. Her absence from the rest of the film would have made so much more sense. It would have been cool watching her outfox Starfleet.
     
  10. Peach Wookiee

    Peach Wookiee Cuddly Mod of Doom Moderator

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    That really would've been fun.
     
  11. LeadHead

    LeadHead Director of Comedy Premium Member

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    I always gave her some of the credit of the space doors opening. For some reason I always thought that it would take Scotty and Uhura to get that open after Starfleet would have secured it. Not to minimize Scotty's contribution, it just seemed reasonable.
     
  12. darkwing_duck1

    darkwing_duck1 Vice Admiral

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    The novelizations of both II AND III had a lot in them that was cut from the final films. The whole Saavik/David subplot being the biggest chunk. Uhura's expanded part in the breakout of McCoy and the theft of the Enterprise was the other one.(Not only did she provide covert transport to the ship, but she hacked Starfleet Communications and scrambled them up so badly that only the Excelsior even knew about the attempt for some time. THEN she made a run for the Vulcan embassy.)
     
  13. darkwing_duck1

    darkwing_duck1 Vice Admiral

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    And it was better than having the old girl scrapped, which was what Morrow wanted to do to her.

    I remember there being talk going about back at the time (early 80s) that got picked up on by some novel writers and the writers for DC comics that the Federation and Starfleet were undergoing a severe internal crisis, centered around it's becoming less and less of a "frontier" organization and starting the process of becoming a "mature" one.

    Advances in communications meant that the local Captain on the scene had no excuse NOT to radio back to Headquarters for instructions on a regular basis, even duing crisis situations. "Cowboy diplomacy" (as Picard would later referr to it while speaking to Spock) was on it's way out the door. In essence, we were witnessing the beginning of the death of the TOS Federation and the birth of the TNG Federation.

    In that contex, Kirk and his crew were seen as something in the nature of throwbacks to a way of doing things that was no longer in vogue with the Federation Powers that Be. Prior to the Genesis Incident, their record of success sheilded them from too much criticism.

    Kirk comes out of the Genesis Incident looking weak and vulnerable, so the elements that were working towards his ouster seized the moment. That was why Kirk couldn't get an answer to the question of getting another ship. That's why Mr Adventure referred to Uhura's carrer as "winding down".

    Kirk and company were to be basically swept under the rug and KEPT there. Only the "Whalesong Incident" saved their collective bacon.
     
  14. Therin of Andor

    Therin of Andor Admiral Moderator

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    Fairer to say that Vonda McIntyre did lots of extrapolation as she wrote the novelizations. There was never any scripts that had actual romance between Saavik and David, just suggestive cut-away shots, posed publicity stills, etc, in much the same way as Meyer shot the alternative version of the ST II elevator scene, to suggest (in some takes) that Saavik and Kirk were attracted.

    Again, this wasn't scripted.
     
  15. darkwing_duck1

    darkwing_duck1 Vice Admiral

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    My understanding is that novelization writers work from at least a semi-final version of the script. Sometimes a major rewrite strikes portions of it or substantially alters them.

    I know that at least one late version of the script of WoK (for example) has Saavik teasing David on the bridge in the final scene about "indeed being a bastard", which was part of the David/Saavik subplot.

    Obviously THAT didn't make it into the final cut either.

    *EDIT* FOUND IT! Link to the semi-final script...read the David/Saavik interactions, esp in the final scene:

    http://st-minutiae.com/academy/literature329/twok.txt

    They also have the script for TSFS, which doesn't have the Uhura material, but has more matieral continuing the David/Saavik arc.

    It's also interesting that the TSFS script has the original plot configuration, OPENING with the discovery of Spock's torpedo, etc, which closes a LOT of the plotholes that developed in the final version>

    http://st-minutiae.com/academy/literature329/tsfs.txt

    It also has a reference to the "Hall of Ancient Thought" :bolian:
     
    Last edited: Dec 28, 2008
  16. Therin of Andor

    Therin of Andor Admiral Moderator

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    Yes, of course, but Vonda McIntyre also did lots of extrapolation of her own as she wrote the novelizations.

    Exactly, but the "subplot" was never actually there in the script. The teasing lines were the barest suggestion of an attraction, which McIntyre then had to develop into something more. It was more improvisation on set, and a hope (by Harve Bennett?) for what might come about if Saavik and David ever became the new Decker and Ilia of a series of telemovies, to carry the legacy after the departures of Nimoy and (eventually) Shatner.

    Of course, at the time of writing "II", she didn't know that Saavik would end up have to do pon farr with young Spock in ST III, which further complicated the David scenes. IIRC, the novelization of ST II even had Saavik tinkering with the instructions for launching Spock's burial tube, not knowing if any of that would even be followed up in the writing of the third movie, if there was to be one.

    Yep, and from that one line, McIntyre had to develop the whole katra-needs-to-reunite-with-body-one-more-time stuff, which is why Sarek was asking Kirk why Spock's body wasn't brought home.
     
  17. DonIago

    DonIago Vice Admiral Admiral

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    I think my favorite scenes from the novelizations both involve the Project Genesis scientists- Khan's attack upon them in TWoK, and Carol's eulogies for them in TSFS. They're classic "wrong place at the wrong time" characters, and the novels elevate them beyond the brief cameos they get in the movies.

    Kind of makes me wonder whether any books dealt with any of them besides Carol and David prior to the events of TWoK.
     
  18. Alidar Jarok

    Alidar Jarok Everything in moderation but moderation Moderator

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    Which leads to one of my favorite lines:

    My God, Bones, what have I done?

    You did what you had to do... you did what you always do... turn death into a fighting chance to survive
     
  19. Therin of Andor

    Therin of Andor Admiral Moderator

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  20. Mr. Laser Beam

    Mr. Laser Beam Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    Why did she lock him in there anyway? He obviously couldn't do anything to actually stop her, since 1) she outranked him, and 2) she could probably kick his ass if he tried anything.

    Was she just pissed off about that remark he made about her career (which was not entirely untrue, mind you)?

    Guess that proves a point: Never piss off Uhura. :evil: