Now that you mention it, it does look vaguely like Cattlecar Gigantica.
What's the fastest a novel has been contradicted?
- Thread starter JonnyQuest037
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Not vaguely. Just turn the book upside down
The Romulan Way had Colonial Vipers on the cover to go with it.
Fun fact (one I just discovered): The parody title "Cattlecar Gigantica" doesn't just appear in my posts here; it also appeared in a board game called "War of the Networks."
(As it happens, I misremembered Mad Magazine's parody title: theirs was "Cattle Car Galaxica." Cracked had "Battlestar Garlictica.")
(As it happens, I misremembered Mad Magazine's parody title: theirs was "Cattle Car Galaxica." Cracked had "Battlestar Garlictica.")
Possible it was another Blish adaption. I checked "Private Little War" and "Friday's Child" since they featured stories I though might have the reference, but not there either.
It's weird Blish decided to change Decker's fate, I wonder if there was something about it being essentially a suicide/kamikaze attack?
You sure? You sure there haven’t been drafts that were junked that no longer exist? Trek wasn’t exactly a priority for Paramount in the late-60’s/early-70’s and the three out a lot of stuff during that time. Since in Trek 12 he also mentions that he only made changes if something worked for TV but it didn’t work in prose. A name wouldn’t be something that would work in TV but not work in prose. And in the 1991 25th Anniversary Season 2 collection of the Blish stories, David Gerold even mentions that Blish was using different scripts (I.e. first draft for one episode, final draft for the next episode) but he would stick to the script and he had talked with Blish in the 70’s and that is what Blish had told him.
I remember people trying to find/debunk/discuss this line when "Enterprise" first started. Don't recall the result.
Aha! Memory Alpha has this in the "Talk" page:
"The First Draft script for 'Day of the Dove' by Jerome Bixby (dated August 9, 1968) has the relevant dialogue from Dr. McCoy.
"After Kang and Mara and the rest of the Klingons are taken from the transporter room, Kirk, Spock, McCoy, and Chekov also leave the transporter room, chatting while walking down the corridor and then continuing their conversation in the turbo-lift.
SCENE 26 INT. LIFT - FOUR
Doors close -- lift starts motion.
McCOY (sour) Fifty years -- eyeball to eyeball with the Klingon Empire. They've spied -- raided our outposts -- pirated merchant lanes. A thousand provocations, and the Federation has always managed to avoid war. Now, this crazy business could pull the trigger!
SPOCK Our log-tapes will indicate our innocence in the matter. Unfortunately, there is no guarantee they will be believed.
KIRK One party -- with violent ideas -- and the willingness to defend them to someone else's death. (pointed) The essence of war, Mister Chekov ...and of prejudice.
Chekov's expression is stubbornly unrelenting.
"The line doesn't survive in the final episode--and McCoy's dialogue in Scene 26 in the turbo-lift as ultimately shot doesn't have any cutaways. So it's not like the line was filmed but then trimmed out somehow at some point.
"I think it's this line that survives in James Blish's adaptation of the episode in the Star Trek 11 book that people "heard" in their imaginations while reading.
"I don't know how canon to consider early drafts of scripts. But it's not like the '50 years of conflict with the Klingons' notion is purely mythical. GSchnitzer 04:34, May 22, 2010 (UTC)"
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The fanboys remained in a tizzy even after being proven wrong.
Supposedly Blish didn't even have a TV, though by 1970 he'd gone to the BBC to view a few prints.
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The Roddenberry papers at UCLA were donated by Gene from his personal collection. They're not from Paramount, and wouldn't reflect what the studio may have purged after the series ended. However, there are some things missing from the collection (there was some theft early on and on top of that, the Roddenberry estate still has many of his papers). Some story and script material is definitely missing from the collection. For example, Harlan Ellison's last draft of "The City on the Edge of Forever" is not found at UCLA, although I've seen a copy elsewhere.
Regarding "The Doomsday Machine," however, there's some more evidence I didn't cover before.
- On May 23, 1967, Gene Roddenberry sent Gene Coon a memo about Spinrad's May 8, 1967 draft with notes for Spinrad's script polish.
- On May 29, 1967, Gene Roddenberry sent Gene Coon a follow-up memo recommending that Spinrad be sent some of Bob Justman's notes on the May 8, 1967 draft before his script polish.
The next (and final) draft in the collection is the 2nd revised final draft dated June 15, 1967 (with some revised pages dated later than that). That was the script Marc Daniels shot. There may have been an intermediate polish by Spinrad done after May 29 and before June 15, but I suspect the change from "Curt" to "Matt" was not done until the June 15 draft, because on the cast list for the shooting draft, the character is still listed as "Curt Decker" (in the script proper, though, he's "Matt Decker").
The one thing I definitely don't have is the de Forest Research memo for the script, which I'm guessing explains why the character's name was changed (there was probably a clearance issue with "Curt Decker"). But I can't know that for sure unless that document turns up somewhere.
Yup. That's where I was quoting from.
It's not in the Blish adaption, McCoy's line when they enter the turbolift is "Chekov may be right. The Klingons claim to have honored the truce - but there have been incidents! ... raids on our outposts..." Kirk responds with "We've never proved the Klingons committed them, Bones." To which McCoy says, "What proof do we need? We know what a Klingon is!" McCoy then leaves the elevator and we get Spock's line about the log tapes.
So the fifty years line may only be in that 9 August 1968 draft.
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