Kitumba Script

[JonnyQuest037]

I dunno, it would be a bit strange to have Kirk save they planet and end slavery/racism by the end of the episode...

Kirk beaming down to a planet, spending a few hours there at best, and then changing the entire way their society works is probably half of TOS' planetside episodes.

Off the top of my head, Kirk does this in "Return of the Archons," "Miri," "A Taste of Armageddon," "This Side of Paradise," "Friday's Child," "The Apple," "Mirror, Mirror," "A Private Little War," "The Gamesters of Triskelion," "A Piece of the Action," "Patterns of Force," "The Omega Glory," "For The World Is Hollow...," "The Cloudminders," and probably some others I'm forgetting. Kirk remaking an entire planet's society is one of the basic tropes of the show.

Kirk ending slavery on a planet wouldn't be strange, it'd be Tuesday.

 

[Arpy]

Kirk beaming down to a planet, spending a few hours there at best, and then changing the entire way their society works is probably half of TOS' planetside episodes.

Off the top of my head, Kirk does this in "Return of the Archons," "Miri," "A Taste of Armageddon," "This Side of Paradise," "Friday's Child," "The Apple," "Mirror, Mirror," "A Private Little War," "The Gamesters of Triskelion," "A Piece of the Action," "Patterns of Force," "The Omega Glory," "For The World Is Hollow...," "The Cloudminders," and probably some others I'm forgetting. Kirk remaking an entire planet's society is one of the basic tropes of the show.

Kirk ending slavery on a planet wouldn't be strange, it'd be Tuesday.

Oh I’m aware, but that’s fiction. This is the very conflict raging around them at the time. It’s one thing to do an alien of the week as metaphor, but another to do it when it’s that close to home. The gay TOS episode never happened either, and Jadzia’s gay kiss wasn’t shown in various stations in the 90’s.

 

[Maurice]

I would love to read this script despite the critiques, I still believe any story could be rewritten to have substance. These works shouldn't be kept in a vault so no one can see, there's a rich history where I feel inspired writers and fans should be able to have access to these materials. What a shame?

That's a nice pipe dream.

Here's the problem.

1. If a researcher spends time and money to go an an archive to photograph/scan these documents (many of which fall under Copyright), should they then just put them out in public for other people to enjoy or, worse, for use to write articles or books which might compete with their own? Who wants to donate free labor to help a Cash Markman write another shitty book?

2. Some people spend a lot of money to get their hands on these things. Sometimes these things cost hundreds of or even thousands of dollars. They spent money to get scripts. Copyrights aside, should they just say, "here, have it" to the world? Why should they have paid for anyone else to read it?

Thats the reality of it.

 

[Maurice]

Why is it an empty metaphor?

As a point of comparison, I'm going to actually defend "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield" here because—for all its ham-fisted messaging—it had a point: using superficial distinctions like who is a star-bellied sneech in order to other people is a road that leads nowhere except to ruin. Bigotry is self destructive. Making the "difference" between the two men from Charon which side what color was on served to hang a lantern on the absurdity of othering people over skin color in a way making them actually distinctly (to our eyes) different would not. If anything, painting their halves different colors like yellow and red would have been better because the message could sneak up the audience more.

OTOH what's the message being sent in a story that merely inverts the races in southern slavery?

1. "Slavery is bad". Well, not many people are going to argue against that, even in 1966.
2. "People of all colors can be racist"? Um, okay, which to the white majority audience absolves them of their own racism because "see, they would be just like us?"

There's a reason Roddenberry once briefly called the Enterprise commander Captain Gulliver, because he understood that sometimes you have to be Swiftian to attack a subject. He forgot that when he championed this on-the-nose shitpile.

 

[Harvey]

The truly appalling and repellent “Portrait In Black and White” by Barry Trivers. NBC rightly turned it down flat and it should be burned with fire.

@Harvey will back me on this.

Agree about the script being a travesty. Disagree about the fire. @Maurice needs this pain.

 

[Maurice]

Agree about the script being a travesty. Disagree about the fire. @Maurice needs this pain.

"I need my pain!"




...but not this pain.

 

[Arpy]

As a point of comparison, I'm going to actually defend "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield" here because—for all its ham-fisted messaging—it had a point: using superficial distinctions like who is a star-bellied sneech in order to other people is a road that leads nowhere except to ruin. Bigotry is self destructive. Making the "difference" between the two men from Charon which side what color was on served to hang a lantern on the absurdity of othering people over skin color in a way making them actually distinctly (to our eyes) different would not. If anything, painting their halves different colors like yellow and red would have been better because the message could sneak up the audience more.

OTOH what's the message being sent in a story that merely inverts the races in southern slavery?

1. "Slavery is bad". Well, not many people are going to argue against that, even in 1966.
2. "People of all colors can be racist"? Um, okay, which to the white majority audience absolves them of their own racism because "see, they would be just like us?"

There's a reason Roddenberry once briefly called the Enterprise commander Captain Gulliver, because he understood that sometimes you have to be Swiftian to attack a subject. He forgot that when he championed this on-the-nose shitpile.

Thing is, racism is also bad, yet people still engage in that too. We didn’t lose the slavery gene; given the opportunity, there’d be those who’d want that too.

The problem with racists isn’t that they’re that way because the other people would do the same to them given the chance, it’s that they think that they’re the only ones who get to be that way because they’re actually better than the other people. I’m which case, a view of racism showing that circumstances, not intrinsic superiority, lead to the world we have today would be a very big deal for a lot of them.

 

[Maurice]

Thing is, racism is also bad, yet people still engage in that too. We didn’t lose the slavery gene; given the opportunity, there’d be those who’d want that too.

The problem with racists isn’t that they’re that way because the other people would do the same to them given the chance, it’s that they think that they’re the only ones who get to be that way because they’re actually better than the other people. I’m which case, a view of racism showing that circumstances, not intrinsic superiority, lead to the world we have today would be a very big deal for a lot of them.

That's not this script. That's an entirely different script.

 

[TREK_GOD_1]

Kirk beaming down to a planet, spending a few hours there at best, and then changing the entire way their society works is probably half of TOS' planetside episodes.

Off the top of my head, Kirk does this in

"Miri,"

He did not change that society; it was close to extinction, and he merely helped to preserve what was left. His mentioning truant officers is a stabilization process, but it does not change the inherent nature of whatever kind of society which spawned the children.

"Mirror, Mirror,"

Actually, he does not change the mirror Starfleet or its culture. He made an appeal to mirror-Spock to change the empire, but the episode ended with mirror-Spock saying he'd consider it. One has to imagine when his mirror landing party returned, it was business as usual.

"A Private Little War,"

This is more of a case of Kirk responding to the effect of external forces already there (Klingons); in fact, he wanted the planet to remain as he last saw it before the Klingons upended that.

"Bread and Circuses" is another planetside episode where there were slaves of the Romans, but he did not free even one, or change the controlling society; it was that world's version of Christ who had a society-changing impact. Kirk left that world as he found it.

 

[Maurice]

Whether or not Kirk would have overthrown the civilization is missing the point that the story of "Portrait" gives Kirk nothing to do. He's just trapped being a slave, gets loose at the end, and decides, "let's go."

 

[Arpy]

Whether or not Kirk would have overthrown the civilization is missing the point that the story of "Portrait" gives Kirk nothing to do. He's just trapped being a slave, gets loose at the end, and decides, "let's go."

It’s a draft. Who knows what the aired version would have been like? I’d have loved a firecracker of an episode, but… Plus, some episodes, of whatever era on whatever sensitive subject, it’s just getting the conversation going that’s enough. Again, TOS said not a word about anything gay related. Sign of the times.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

It’s a draft. Who knows what the aired version would have been like?

You can't have it both ways. If you say, as you do, "It’s a draft. Who knows what the aired version would have been like?", then you are acknowledging what @Maurice says:

That's not this script. That's an entirely different script.

---

Plus, some episodes, of whatever era on whatever sensitive subject, it’s just getting the conversation going that’s enough.

But they did do an episode on racism: "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield." That often talked-about episode didn't get the conversation going?

I’d have loved a firecracker of an episode

I'm sure we all would have.

 

[Arpy]

You can't have it both ways. If you say, as you do, "It’s a draft. Who knows what the aired version would have been like?", then you are acknowledging what @Maurice says:

I’m not trying to “win” anything. Im wondering about the script, the story, and the episode that might have been.

But they did do an episode on racism: "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield." That often talked-about episode didn't get the conversation going?

And that had to be the only one? The switcheroo is an interesting idea. Might have been fun is all I’m saying.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

Anyhoo, Kitumba? I can't say that the fan film was especially memorable.

 

[Michael]

The premise of “A Portrait in Black and White” might at best be an interesting topic for a philosophical debate, as an actual episode it would have been in rather poor taste.

You don't take the plight of an entire part of the population that has been marginalised, oppressed, enslaved, discriminated against and killed throughout history here in the real world and make a mockery of it as an over-simplified thought experiment for your action adventure sci-fi show. I'm glad Trek dodged that particular bullet.

 

[Firebird]

That's a nice pipe dream.

Here's the problem.

1. If a researcher spends time and money to go an an archive to photograph/scan these documents (many of which fall under Copyright), should they then just put them out in public for other people to enjoy or, worse, for use to write articles or books which might compete with their own? Who wants to donate free labor to help a Cash Markman write another shitty book?

2. Some people spend a lot of money to get their hands on these things. Sometimes these things cost hundreds of or even thousands of dollars. They spent money to get scripts. Copyrights aside, should they just say, "here, have it" to the world? Why should they have paid for anyone else to read it?

Thats the reality of it.

And further to point 1, if said material were to get leaked out online to everyone, the archives making these materials available to researchers would pull access and lock them away. Places like UCLA and the Wisconsin Historical Society have strict rules about this. You are allowed to take photos for your reference and private use; public exhibition, especially when you don't have the rights to the material is a big no-no. These archives are kind enough to make these collections available to researchers, sometimes to the extent of allowing photographs, it naturally follows that one respects the rules and don't act like you're entitled to do whatever you want with the material.

 

[Maurice]

Yeah. That's in part why were generally only show fragments of documents or single pages.

 

[Maurice]

It’s a draft. Who knows what the aired version would have been like? I’d have loved a firecracker of an episode, but… Plus, some episodes, of whatever era on whatever sensitive subject, it’s just getting the conversation going that’s enough. Again, TOS said not a word about anything gay related. Sign of the times.

It was never going to happen save throwing out Trivers' mess and starting over with the basic premise with another (staff) writer. This particular story had gone through two very different outlines and gone to script based on the second. With a page one staff rewrite looking necessary, serious concerns on NBC's part, and concern amongst some of the staff, plus the cost of doing more work on it, this script was going nowhere.

 

[Maurice]

Anyhoo, Kitumba? I can't say that the fan film was especially memorable.

The fan film was a mess. They smashed the two-parter down to one hour and tried to play connect-the-dots with the later shows. As such it was neither fish nor foul and no reflection on what a Star Trek II version in 1978 would have been like.

 

[Arpy]

The fan film was a mess. They smashed the two-parter down to one hour and tried to play connect-the-dots with the later shows. As such it was neither fish nor foul and no reflection on what a Star Trek II version in 1978 would have been like.

That’s nice to hear. I wondered momentarily before watching it if doing so would ruin the experience of reading the script but then thought, nah, the ‘book’s’ always better. It’s easier to like both when you watch the movie first. Can’t wait to read the script.