TOS: Crisis of Consciousness by D. Galanter Review Thread (Spoilers!)

Re: TOS: Crisis of Consciousness by D. Galanter Review Thread (Spoiler

Agreed.

 

Re: TOS: Crisis of Consciousness by D. Galanter Review Thread (Spoiler

It's not so specific as to say who invented kolinahr. But it is pretty clear from reading that whatever the credits, Livingston and Roddenberry co-wrote the script, so Roddenberry is as blamable as Livingston.

 

Re: TOS: Crisis of Consciousness by D. Galanter Review Thread (Spoiler

One of the things I liked about this book was how thoroughly in character Spock was. Spock is an unusually ethical person — that's foremost of the many things I love about him — but he's also an unusually dutiful person. "Journey to Babel" and TWOK both showed us that Spock is always willing to pay any price to do what he thinks is right.

In this case, saving seventeen star systems -- including four planets inhabited by millions of people -- meant that Spock had to stop the deployment of that weapon. Kirk told Spock to use "any means necessary," but that message was only really necessary to tell Spock that it was up to him, that he couldn't expect help from the Enterprise.

It's a moral dilemma — which is worse: doing some harm to people who plan to cause overwhelming harm, or refraining from doing that harm and allowing them to slaughter millions of innocents? Spock chose to prevent the slaughter by doing harm, even though it cost him a lot to do so, and I believe that this is a thoroughly Spockian thing to do.

Spock is the man who was willing to let his father die, rather than jeopardize the safety of the hundred ambassadors and 430 crew of the Enterprise. Leonard Nimoy is so good that you could tell it was breaking Spock's heart to make that decision in "Journey to Babel," but he made it, anyway, because he thought it was the right thing to do.

I thought it was part of the brilliance of Galanter's book that he once again gave Spock a situation where Spock would have to pay a huge price to do what he thought was right. And Spock did it and suffered the consequences afterwards. Spock has always been willing to be the one to suffer, if the alternatives are to shirk his duty or to do something he believes is wrong.

In the situation Galanter set up, there IS no course of action that will prevent great harm while keeping Spock's hands clean. It's BECAUSE Spock is such an ethical person that he's willing to do what had to be done to prevent even greater harm.

 

Re: TOS: Crisis of Consciousness by D. Galanter Review Thread (Spoiler

Well, official Hollywood screenplay credits are rarely an accurate reflection of the authorship of a script. There are generally multiple hands involved beyond the ones who get credit. So it would be necessary to dig deeper to get any real answers.

According to The Making of Star Trek: The Motion Picture (Wallaby Books, 1980, pp. 63-66), the scripting process once Nimoy came onboard (and kolinahr had to be created) was headed up by Harold Livingston, with input from many people including associate producer Jon Povill, Robert Wise, Shatner, and Nimoy, being constantly rewritten throughout production to incorporate all their suggestions. Roddenberry still had input and oversight and was offering conceptual guidance over the story, but it was far from a two-person effort.

On pp. 99-100 of TMoSTTMP, there is a Roddenberry memo that sets forth the basic idea of Spock's arc in the film -- having gone home to "recharge his Vulcanness" without success -- but it doesn't say anything specific about what the "recharge" process is. The preceding paragraph in the book suggests that it was Nimoy himself who fleshed out the specifics of Spock's role in the film. So kolinahr may, in fact, have been Nimoy's idea.

 

Re: TOS: Crisis of Consciousness by D. Galanter Review Thread (Spoiler

I know Vic and a lot of people on STC. I wish them well, but wouldn't be interested in penning a script for them. I've helped out Star Trek New Voyages: Phase II because they're friends of mine. And they have gotten people like D.C. Fontana and David Gerrold to write for them as well.

 

Re: TOS: Crisis of Consciousness by D. Galanter Review Thread (Spoiler

Is it too late to ask the surviving TMP writers and producers what they recall?