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The Star Trek movies that never got made

DaddlerTheDalek

Captain
Captain
There were several attempts at producing a Star Trek feature film that never saw the light of the day like Planet of the Titans, Bennett's Prequel, Hurley's alternate Generations or Jendresen's The Beginning. It would be interesting to find more informations about these cancelled theatrical productions. I think it would be cool if somebody could find stuff like scripts, treatments, concept art and more. What do you know? What do you think?
 
I've always wanted to know more about Hurley's Generations. After twenty years, I'm still none the wiser!
Agreed, I'd love to read that draft script for TNG: The Movie. I wonder if it was in any way close to what Generations became? Given that, as I understand it, Generations was plot-by-numbers to do a list of things the bosses wanted, I suspect it wouldn't be very close at all.
 
Rick Berman tweeted the front of the script, but gave no details. I'm still hoping he writes a book about his Trek years, it could be as good as the Solow/Justman book about TOS.
 
Amazingly enough, a bit of googling led me back here, 8 years ago. There was a thread specifically about the Hurley script, and @Allyn Gibson dug this up from an old Usenet group from the summer of '94, by which point at least some (if not all) the details of Generations had leaked out:

I don't know if this has been posted yet, but there's interesting news in the
premiere issue of SCI-FI UNIVERSE (the mag with the Millenium Falcon on the
cover).

We all know that there were two TNG movie scripts developed, and have heard
Berman and others say that both were equally viable and that whichever script
didn't go this year might be the next movie.

This magazine article, however, says that the second script won't be made,
and it must be true because the interviewer got its writer, Maurice Hurley,
to divulge the plot.

Apparently the idea was that a force from another universe enters ours through
an interphase between universes, and the only way it can get home is to
destroy our universe. The aliens go on seemingly random attacks, but Captain
Picard figures out their purpose.

In a search for answers, Picard goes to the holodeck, and uses Starfleet
records to recreate the only person known to have experience with being
interspatially trapped and finding a way home: Captain James T. Kirk,
survivor of "The Tholian Web". Searching for a fresh perspective, Picard
varies the program in several ways, producing a series of bizarre
confrontations between STAR TREK's two biggest egos.


Hmmm.... If I needed a holo-toy I think I'd rather recreate Leah Brahms again.

I think Paramount made the right call on this one; the movie they *are* making
sounds better than this.
 
Amazingly enough, a bit of googling led me back here, 8 years ago. There was a thread specifically about the Hurley script, and @Allyn Gibson dug this up from an old Usenet group from the summer of '94, by which point at least some (if not all) the details of Generations had leaked out:
Nice one Biggles! I'd heard the Holo-Kirk idea, which would have been awful, but the Tholian aspect doesn't ring a bell. I suspect the suggestion that they never really intended to produce the script rings true - it was there to satisfy Paramount's demand for two scripts.
 
While we're on the topic of unproduced Trek films, I know there was a document that surfaced online several years ago that was either Michael Piller's "Heart of Darkness"-inspired first draft of Insurrection, or else his reminiscences about it penned before his death in 2005. I remember downloading it, but seem to have lost it in a hard drive failure somewhere along the way. If anyone has this, I'd love to see a copy because I never got around to reading it.

edit: Nevermind. Found it here, in case anyone else is curious.
 
I started reading Fade In when it first came to light, but never finished it. Thanks for bringing it back!
 
I started reading Fade In when it first came to light, but never finished it. Thanks for bringing it back!

It's a good read. Piller is very honest about the process and the experience. That's who Piller was, a straight-shooter At the same time, I fully understand why Paramount wouldn't approve of its publication -- Piller tells his story honestly, and the story he tells doesn't paint the studio, Berman, Stewart, Spiner, even himself, always in the best of lights.
 
While we're on the topic of unproduced Trek films, I know there was a document that surfaced online several years ago that was either Michael Piller's "Heart of Darkness"-inspired first draft of Insurrection, or else his reminiscences about it penned before his death in 2005. I remember downloading it, but seem to have lost it in a hard drive failure somewhere along the way. If anyone has this, I'd love to see a copy because I never got around to reading it.

edit: Nevermind. Found it here, in case anyone else is curious.

I've read it. Very interesting to read and very honest.
 
Perfect summary, if you wajnt more information on some of these there's Memory Alpha. Some of the unused scripts should be adapted by IDW or published, I for one would be very interested in these

James Cawley and co of course brought Phase II to life to some degree -- costumes, Enterpise changes, Xon - and made The Child, Kitumba and the TNG script Blood and Fire (adapted for Kirk and co of course)
 
The Michael Piller book is fascinating and I do wonder how good the original idea for the film would have been if it had been made. Interesting concept with Picard going after his academy friend.
 
I don't like the plit idea, but I like the idea of Holo-Kirk. It would leave open the idea -- assuming it wasn't crushed in the un-read script -- of Kirk still being alive (which would make Scotty's comment in "Relics" line up properly). This would have also left the door open to maybe, though not necessarily, a future Trek project with the Shat. Rather than getting shot in the back by Mr. A Clockwork Orange.
 
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